Two journalists defying brutal dictators won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their battles for press freedom and free expression. Maria Ressa (bio here), a critic of Philippines president Rodrigo Dutarte, has been harassed, prosecuted, and threatened with prison. Dmitri Muratov (bio her[...]
Archive for the ‘News Media’ Category
Seattle Times drives WSU president to drink
Despite the governor’s mandate, WSU football coach Nick Rolovich isn’t vaccinated. WSU President Kirk Schulz (photo below) admitted it during a faculty meeting, a Spokane TV station reported on Friday, September 24, 2021, noting that Gov. Inslee has mandated that “all state workers[...]
Trump sues the New York Times; why that’s a good thing
Trump sued The New York Times and several of its reporters, along with his niece, on Tuesday, September 21, 2021. The Times reporters won a Pulitzer Prize for their exposé of Trump’s tax avoidance schemes. (His tax returns still aren’t public, but the Manhattan district attorney has the[...]
The great peril of Trumpism, and what we must do
The Constitution defines our system of government and protects our freedom only while we agree to abide by it. If we don’t, it’s a useless scrap of paper, and right now 4 in 10 Americans don’t consider themselves bound by it. We are in great peril of this thing called America falli[...]
A stupid vaccine mandate argument
It’s unfair, Chris Talgo of the Heartland Institute says. His complaint? “Biden’s federal vaccine mandate does not apply to Americans on welfare, illegal immigrants, members of Congress, U.S. Postal Service employees and several other groups.” After noting that “Americans w[...]
September 18th, 2021 - 12:11 pm § in News Media
The hard life of opinion writers
Wherein a Guardian journalist carries on, at length, about the sad lot of writers consigned to writing opinions. Hey, it’s a paying job in journalism, and how many writers have that anymore? These days, anyone can write opinions, and lots of people do, mostly for little-read blogs (like this o[...]
The Afghanistan Papers
With U.S. troops now completely out of Afghanistan, most Americans don’t want to hear about that country anymore, much less read an entire book about our war there went awry. Nobody learns anything from the mistakes of the past anyway. So this posting will be very short. The Afghanistan Papers[...]
September 2nd, 2021 - 3:42 pm § in News Media, Politics
The squeamish media
Writing wistfully about Reagan’s “big tent” party, Chris Cillizza, a CNN political commentator, said (here), “Republicans would do well to take a breath and remember Reagan’s assertion of who was welcomed into the GOP.” Well no, he’s missing the point. First[...]
August 30th, 2021 - 8:08 pm § in News Media
White man accosts black TV reporter doing storm coverage
An angry white man jumped out of his pickup and confronted a black reporter doing a live shot for NBC News from Gulfport, Mississippi, the day after the area was “slammed by Hurricane Ida,” The Hill reported on Monday, August 30, 2021. (Read story here.) The driver pulled off the road an[...]
Tucker Carlson falsely blames refugees for housing shortage
Ranting about America’s housing crisis, which is real enough, Fox host Tucker Carlson told his gullible audience, “So, why is it happening? Well, lots of reasons, but one reason it’s happening is America is becoming a lot more crowded than it ever was, and one of the reasons for th[...]