Month: July 2009
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More Maddow follies on MSNBC
Back in April, I flagged Bob Somerby’s work on how Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show was recapitulating the flaws of cable news (ideologically-motivated dissembling and ratings-driven sensationalism) in a liberal format. Somerby is back on the Maddow beat this week and his conclusions are just as depressing. Like Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, Maddow has been
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The collapse of Sarah Palin
The Washington Post is reporting that a new ABC/WP poll shows a major decline in Sarah Palin’s favorability ratings. Her favorables have dropped from a peak of 58% after the GOP convention in September to 40% now, while her unfavorables have surged from a low of 28% to 53% now. Her 40/53 favorable-unfavorable ratio puts
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Misperception interview coming up
I’ll be talking misperceptions on KTRS 550 AM in St. Louis at 11:15 AM EST for those who are interested.
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Amateur drama critics on Obama presser
The short-attention-span press corps was bored by the policy details during the President’s “snoozer” press conference and, not surprisingly, devoted much of its coverage to amateur theater criticism instead. His hair looked more gray! He was more passionate about the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.! (Etc.) Much of the coverage of health
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Disturbing growth in “birther” movement
It’s pretty shocking to see Rep. Mike Castle, a moderate Republican from Delaware, being berated by people who think President Obama isn’t a citizen of this country: Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse. CNN’s Lou Dobbs recently treated the controversy as a legitimate issue on his radio show (audio), country singer Pat Boone
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Leonhardt on health care reform landscape
David Leonhardt of the New York Times has written the single best overview of the political and policy challenges facing the Obama administration in its efforts to reform health care — it’s well worth a read.
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Obama’s approval drop not surprising
If you follow politics for long enough, you may notice that coverage of presidential approval suffers from a bizarre ahistoricism. Reporters typically have almost no understanding of the forces that drive presidential approval or the patterns it tends to follow during the course of a president’s time in office. That’s why it’s amusing to see
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Post & WSJ repeat bogus “hiring tax” claim
Just like in 1993-1994, the prospect of health care reform has unleashed a wave of misleading claims and bad reporting. The latest example is the suggestion that a proposal to levy a tax on employers who don’t provide health care for their employeees would hinder the economic recovery, which was recently made by GMU’s Brian
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Goldblum corrects Goldblum death rumor
Here’s one strategy that is likely to be effective at correcting a misperception about current events: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Jeff Goldblum Will Be Missed www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum
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Politico reporters can read minds!
Politico has made quite a splash since it was founded in 2007, in part because of a relentless focus on creating buzzworthy stories. Its pursuit of that goal has often resulted in coverage that pushes various pathologies of the political media to a new level. At this point, no publication can match Politico’s hyper-focused coverage