Paul Waldman

Just what is a newspaper ombudsman for? This is a question raised by Sunday’s column by Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander — not because he raises it, but because the column is so misguided it’s actually quite instructive. The column is about the manufactured “scandal” of the New Black Panther Party voter-intimidation case. Alexander notes […]

One of the things I tell college and grad students studying social science whenever I have the chance is that the most important class you can take is the one in research methods. It’s usually taught by someone who doesn’t really want to teach it, and it’s usually pretty boring, but what you learn there […]

You’ve probably heard about the New Black Panther Party “scandal,” in which a guy stood outside a polling place in a heavily black precinct holding a billy club (Adam has been talking about this extensively; see here). Well it’s starting to break through to the mainstream media, as these things always do; see, for instance, […]

Dave Weigel makes a good point about congressional candidate and now-famous nutball Rick Barber, whose loss in a runoff for a seat from Alabama Jamelle wrote about this morning: But the tea party’s success in boosting some serious candidates, like Scott Brown, has got the nonpartisan and liberal media chasing after any candidate who ostentatiously […]

Coal-powered vehicle? (Flickr/jurvetson) Two things for you to contemplate: First, Scientific American gives us “The Dirty Truth About Plug-In Hybrids,” which shows you how, depending on where you live, switching to a plug-in vehicle might actually increase your carbon emissions (compared to a regular gas-electric hybrid, that is). That’s because much of that electricity is […]

Let’s say you’re an opinion writer, and you really, really want to write that Donald Berwick, the new head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, is a communist. Sure, he’s not actually a communist, but why should that stop you? You can try taking some remarks he made about Britain’s National Health Service […]

We’ve been hearing a lot of those lately, from inconvenient tweeting to being mean to Matt Drudge in private e-mails. But here’s a good one, Romanesko: a few people working for KARK, an NBC affiliate in Little Rock, were fired after they made a video spoofing the life of a local TV reporter. In the […]

(Flickr/Marcin Wichary) As you debate whether to toss your year-old phone and get yourself a snappy new iPhone (look at that screen!) or a Droid X (a 1-gigahertz processor!), take a moment to think about how far we’ve come. In that spirit, take a moment to read this awesome article from 1982 in The Atlantic, […]

I often decry the cynicism of the press corps — heck, I did it in my last post — but allow me to make the case for some more cynicism in one particular case. Today, Slate editor Jacob Weisberg, long a big fan of Sen. John McCain, washes his hands of the former presidential candidate, […]

One of the unenviable tasks of the professional spinner is not only to put all developments in the best possible light for your boss or your side but to express optimism so boundless it often becomes inane. “You bet,” says the press secretary for the candidate trailing by 20 points, “we’re going to win this […]