Month: April 2007
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Jon Chait on Ari Fleischer’s latest
Do not miss Jon Chait’s latest takedown of Ari Fleischer, “the world’s most dishonest flack.” It opens beautifully: Ari Fleischer has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal. That’s right: It’s the perfect storm of dishonesty–the world’s most dishonest flack meets the world’s most dishonest forum. How long will I have to read through the
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Blog dystopia: Matt Stoller v. Power Line
Here’s an exchange between liberal netroots guru Matt Stoller and Power Line’s Paul Mirengoff that will make reasonable people fear for the future of democracy. In a post on the MyDD blog, Stoller asserts that “if you hate democracy, as the right-wing does, then taxes are the price for paying for something you really don’t
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Ezra Klein gives Fox News a bum rap
Ezra Klein is too smart to be writing posts like this: The new Pew Poll on public knowledge of current affairs includes the sadly routine finding that Fox News is doing a remarkable amount of nothing for its viewing audience. Subjected to 35 questions about the news, regular viewers of Fox scored directly in the
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Imus firing not about “free speech”
The claim that the firing of Don Imus has something to do with “free speech” is making me crazy. Let’s review what the First Amendment actually says: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
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Tucker Carlson’s new game show
What’s going on with Tucker Carlson? The conservative pundit, who was nice enough to blurb All the President’s Spin, is following up his appearance on “Dancing with the Stars” by hosting a game show: Conservative pundit-turned-MSNBC anchor Tucker Carlson is launching yet another new career: gameshow host. Carlson has been tapped to host “Do You
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Travel day
Just got in to Chicago for the annual conference of the Midwest Political Science Association…
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Another Dateline Hollywood story reported as fact
How bad is the media at fact-checking? For the third time, an obviously false story from the satirical entertainment news website Dateline Hollywood, which my friend Ben Fritz co-edits, was picked up in the mainstream press. First, a Los Angeles Times op-ed claimed the Reverend Jerry Falwell had blamed Ellen DeGeneres hosting the Emmy Awards
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Charges to be dropped in Duke lacrosse case
ABC News is reporting that the Duke lacrosse case is finally going to be put out of its misery: The office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper will announce that he is dismissing all charges against three Duke Lacrosse players, ABC News has learned from sources close to the case. The three players, Reade
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Reporting on “largest tax increase”
The Hill, an insider Capitol Hill newspaper, published a story Friday that reprinted the misleading talking point that the Democratic budget represents “the largest tax increase in American history” without any additional context: GOP leaders Friday used new employment figures showing a job growth in March of 180,000 to attack the Democrats’ budget, which Republicans
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The Thompson surge
Shockingly, the Intrade futures market for 2008 GOP presidential contenders was putting higher odds on Fred Thompson than John McCain a couple of days ago. Here are the current odds, which still have Thompson in a strong third place: -Giuliani – 30.1% -McCain – 19.8% -Thompson – 18.7% -Romney – 17.4% -Gingrich – 4.0% I’ve