Uncategorized
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The last 35 percent
Does the base realize that President Bush is in big trouble politically? According to the Washington Post, one “conservative ally of the White House” referred to conservatives as the “last 35 percent of the country that’s really on his side” — ouch: Many conservatives howled last summer at the prospect of Gonzales replacing O’Connor because
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Jack Shafer: “The Rebellion of the Talking Heads”
Via Andrew Sullivan: Slate’s Jack Shafer documents how angry journalists have stopped rolling over and started to question the official spin on Katrina: In the last couple of days, many of the broadcasters reporting from the bowl-shaped toxic waste dump that was once the city of New Orleans have stopped playing the role of wind-swept
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Charles Babington reads minds
Charles Babington purports to know that John Roberts’ demeanor is “deliberately bland” in a Washington Post news story yesterday: Given Roberts’s deliberately bland demeanor, some of the more entertaining or dramatic moments [in his confirmation hearings] could come from the mercurial chairman [Arlen Specter], who combines an incisive legal mind with an almost puckish pleasure
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Katrina
I have little to add on this heartbreaking subject except another Red Cross donation link. I have to admit, though, that I was galled to see President Bush saying (falsely) that no one anticipated the breach of the levees — just like the White House line on 9/11! Yes, it’s truly the Responsibility Era.
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Go read Wonkette
Ana Marie Cox is officially on fire this week – go read Wonkette ASAP. Here’s my favorite item so far: Fox News and others are reporting that the President just got “his own bird’s eye view” of Katrina’s damage as Air Force One flew over the devestated region. Shortly after, Bush gave prepared remarks to
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Slate and the future of intermediation
My debate with Jack Shafer made me realize something: the next casualty of blogs may be general-interest intermediary publications like Slate. Just a few years ago, the need for a meta- approach to the news seemed compelling. But with so many expert blogs now available for free, I don’t need a general interest intermediary anymore.
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The “Bush Boom,” Harper’s Index style
Number of articles touting the “Bush Boom” on nationalreview.com: 44. Change in median income 2001-2004: -$673. Change in the number of Americans in poverty: +4.1 million Change in the number of Americans without health insurance: +4.6 million (All statistics are from Census data via the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.)
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Debating journalism at Slate with Jack Shafer
Last Friday, I linked to some criticism of Slate by Eric Alterman and wrote this: [T]he problem with Slate is that it’s virtually content-free. There’s almost never new reporting, so the articles have to present really smart takes on the news to be worth reading. But as Alterman points out, there’s only one Michael Kinsley,
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What is Eric Alterman talking about?
Today, Eric Alterman writes: Will Bush become the most unpopular president in the history of Gallup Polling? Here. (And will the mainstream media continue to refer to him as “well-liked” by the country?)” I agree — Bush’s approval ratings make the phrase “well-liked” totally inappropriate. So I took Alterman at his word and tried to
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Things you should read
My friend Chris Mooney’s book The Republican War on Science is out today — pick up a copy! I’ll have a full review by next week (haven’t quite finished reading it yet), but in the meantime, see his blog for links to excerpts and reviews. Also, Dateline Hollywood, the satirical entertainment website that my friend