Tag Archives: journalism

A Question for James Lovelock on His Predictions of Global Depopulation and the Desertification of Europe: What is Your Evidence That This is Coming?

James Lovelock is 88 and turning into an apocalyptic crank. In a recent interview with Decca Aitkenhead of The Guardian, he makes some rather extreme predictions supported by no evidence whatsoever: His latest book, The Revenge of Gaia, predicts that by … Continue reading

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Howard Kurtz is My Hero

Journalist Howard Kurtz has been goofing up lately, but the way he addressed it this past weekend is incredibly impressive (as can be seen in the below video). It’s rare, almost unheard of in any context, for someone to so … Continue reading

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Total Message Control Solution #1: Just Handcuff Any Journalist Who Asks Questions That You Don’t Want to Answer

Total message control (that is, the Palin model) was on disturbing display on Sunday in Alaska. This from Glenn Greenwald: [P]rivate “guards” working for GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller forcibly detained and handcuffed a journalist as he tried to ask the candidate questions … Continue reading

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Nathan Baca: What Journalism (Should) Look Like

Sharon Angle wants to be a U.S. Senator, but she’s doing a Sarah Palin, studiously avoiding the national media. But below is Nathan Baca, a real journalist, doing what journalists are supposed to do: ask tough questions. What a great affirmation of … Continue reading

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A great Albert Einstein quote on critical thinking—and being a cyborg

I stumbled on the quote below while reading Walter Isaacson’s excellent recent biography of Albert Einstein. Einstein was being asked by an American journalist about the anti-theoretical pragmatism of Thomas Edison. Edison liked people with a lot of practical knowledge in their … Continue reading

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Writing 101: Know Thy 21st Century Internet Audience

Below is Michael Kinsley today on the pre-Internet 20th century fluff still typical in old school journalism news stories. Kinsley highlights such stories’ archaic inclination: . . . to accommodate readers who have just emerged from a coma or a coal mine. … Continue reading

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Can Columbia’s Famed Journalism School Adjust to the Times?

With traditional newpaper journalism imploding before its competition with the Internet, New York magazine asks whether Columbia’s journalism school is imploding with it. Money quote: Part of the problem is the perception that the situation is “a zero-sum game,” as one … Continue reading

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End Times Prophecy?

Michael Hirschorn of the Atlantic forecasts the end of the NY Times print edition. And it may come sooner rather than later, with 80% of its journalists laid off. Read the article here.

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The Future of Journalism?

Maureen Dowd’s recent column on the outsourcing of a California newspaper’s entire content to Indian writers at $7.50 per thousand words is sobering reading. Money quote: He fired his seven Pasadena staffers — including five reporters — who were making … Continue reading

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“Drill, Baby, Drill” or “Lie, Baby, Lie”? Sarah Palin Continues to Repeat Lies That Have Been Thoroughly Debunked in the Press

Salon.com reports that, in a Republican rally on Saturday in Nevada, Sarah Palin continues to make reference to things that, elsewhere, have been debunked as falsehoods: In her 20-minute stump speech, Palin reprised the greatest hits of her Republican National … Continue reading

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Sarah Palin Metaphor Watch: How Like an Alien in a UFO Sarah Palin Is!

Is John McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin, an alien? She moves around in an impervious capsule of far-right media rectitude—and that’s kind of like how an alien would move around, ensconsed in an armored machine, safe from anything unpredictable that it couldn’t … Continue reading

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On the THIRD Weekend After Sarah Palin was Picked for VP, She’s Still Not Sitting Down to Talk with Journalists on the Sunday News Shows

John McCain’s campaign continues to shield Sarah Palin from any extended, direct media scrutiny. Will she ever hold a press conference before November—or make the Sunday morning rounds of sit-down interviews with journalism news programs? Despite being a largely softball, and light focus interview … Continue reading

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Via Teleprompter, “She’ll Talk Directly to the American People”: McCain Campaign Surrogate Mocks the Notion that Sarah Palin Needs to Make Herself Available for Interviews and Questions From The Press

The following video is so gross to watch, I simply don’t know what to say. The cynicism is bottomless: When a national party can shield its candidates from interviews and press conferences, how is democracy to function properly? How are … Continue reading

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