View image | gettyimages.com Bill O’Reilly suffers from the same malady as Brian Williams: a tendency to embellish stories of the dangers and horrors he has faced as a journalist (though in O’Reilly’s case, his career as a journalist was brief, before he discovered his true calling). They may have had a slightly different motivation; […]
Media
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Photo of the Day, Flying Kick Edition
View image | gettyimages.com A Shaolin monk demonstrates his flying side kick on a visit to London. What does this have to do with American politics? Think of it as a metaphor. The monk represents one thing, his target off-camera another thing, and the red doors behind him yet another thing. You fill in the […]
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Beyoncé Misses the Point of What Gospel Music Means to Black Americans
The selection of Queen Bey to deliver a song identified with Mahalia Jackson ignored the importance of spiritual conveyance in the music that moved a people to action.Â
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Photo of the Day, Media Edition
View image | gettyimages.com New York Times media columnist David Carr, speaking at an event yesterday. He died later that evening after collapsing in the Times newsroom.
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On Swashbuckling, Tall Tale-Telling News Anchors
My column in The Week today is (probably) the last thing I’ll have to say about Brian Williams, in which I ask whether the whole problem stemmed from his apparent need to get out in the field where the action was, which really isn’t something we need from a network news anchor: But even when […]
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Charts of the Day, Decline of Network News Edition
Now that Brian Williams has been suspended by NBC for six months-and I’d be really surprised if he gets his job back at the end of that-my younger readers might be wondering why this is a big deal. After all, isn’t he just some guy who reads the news to your grandparents in between ads […]
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Should Brian Williams Get the Benefit of the Doubt?
View image | gettyimages.com In 2015, network news anchors are not the towering cultural figures they were in the days when there were only three channels and a majority of American households tuned in to watch the likes of Walter Cronkite every night. Nevertheless, anchoring the nightly news may still be the highest-profile job in […]
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The Crash of The New Republic
The mass exodus from the storied magazine was not the result of disagreements about the value of new technology.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Liberal Media Suddenly Very Interested in Scott Walker
View image | gettyimages.com Can the media make Scott Walker the Next Big Thing in Republican presidential politics? With Mitt Romney announcing today that he’s breaking my heart by not running, the race is in need of a new storyline. And in the wake of a good performance at the Iowa Freedom Summit-which I submit […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
How Bernie Sanders, In New Role, Could Make Wall Streeters Very, Very Unhappy
The iconoclast from Vermont plans to use his place as opposition leader on the Senate Budget Committee in a whole new way.
