Brendan Nyhan

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  • Another wiretap poll question

    A Washington Post poll released Wednesday shows slightly more positive results than the AP poll I mentioned earlier: 11. Would you consider this wiretapping of telephone calls and e-mails without court approval as an acceptable or unacceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat? ——Acceptable—— ——Unacceptable——

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  • Ted Koppel as a Times columnist: why?

    This announcement is annoying: Ted Koppel, the former anchor of “Nightline” on ABC, has been named a contributing columnist for The New York Times. His column will appear on the Op-Ed page periodically. Mr. Koppel’s appointment, which is effective Jan. 29, was announced by Gail Collins, editor of the editorial page. Separately, NPR announced yesterday

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  • What is Eric Alterman talking about?

    I have previously criticized the methodology of the Groseclose/Milyo media bias study (PDF). But at the end of a diatribe attacking it on the American Progress website, Eric Alterman takes a cheap shot at the authors: Check the fine print and one finds this study — naively touted as both objective and significant by the

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  • Bush attacks dissent at VFW

    During a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars yesterday, President Bush engaged in yet another attack on dissent: We face an added challenge in the months ahead: The campaign season will soon be upon us — and that means our nation must carry on this war in an election year. There is a vigorous

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  • Answering John Henke’s questions about George Allen

    Jon Henke at Q&O attacks my post on the ugly racial history of George Allen, a Republican senator and 2008 presidential contender: I’ll ask Brendan: do you actually believe George Allen to be racist? Specifically: Are you alleging that the noose in his office was a reflection of Allen’s feelings about black people, as opposed

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  • What is John Micklethwait talking about?

    In the special Economist issue “The World in 2006,” US editor John Micklethwait notes the setbacks suffered by President Bush during 2005 — the failure of Social Security privatization, our struggles in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and the DeLay scandals — before offering this ridiculous analysis (sub. required): As a result, a president who stormed back

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  • A better poll question on no-warrant wiretaps

    I previously slammed this awful Rasmussen poll question about President Bush’s no-warrant wiretap program: Should the National Security Agency be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States? As I wrote, the obvious answer is yes, but the question is whether the NSA should have

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  • McCain liberal hatred watch III

    How long will everyone love the senator from Arizona? Based on this Franklin Foer post from TNR’s blog The Plank, not long: Earlier this week Hotline excerpted a dispatch on a forthcoming John McCain visit to South Carolina. Buried inside there was a stunning revelation. It quoted McCain’s spokesman, one Richard Quinn. He described McCain

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  • Fox News: Fair and balanced

    The graphic tagline for a discussion on Fox News that I saw this morning: “Is Wall Street worried liberals are forgetting 9/11?”

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  • Ed Gillespie signs on with George Allen

    Much is being made of former RNC chair Ed Gillespie’s decision to sign on with George Allen’s PAC — an important sign of establishment support for the Virginia Senator’s 2008 campaign. Does that mean Gillespie isn’t concerned about Allen’s ugly racial history? Does he even know about it?

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