The war in Iraq is obviously the biggest issue on the national policy landscape, but it’s not dominating the news the way it used to. In media terms, Iraq is becoming the incredible shrinking war. While the conflict consumed 15 percent of the space or airtime at many news outlets in the second quarter of […]
Skube slips in slamming scribes
I’d be remiss if I didn’t note one of the weekend’s more noteworthy thought pieces — Michael Skube’s 1,200-word take on why he hates blogs. We’ve seen a few of these of late, but Skube, a journalism professor at Elon University, was unusually hostile to the medium. His argument, which is hardly without merit, is […]
The Master of Malice, the Sultan of Smear, the Captain of Corruption…
Karl Rove hit the morning shows yesterday, reflecting a bit on his White House tenure as it comes to an end. Most of the attention was focused on his latest Plame-related lies, which were certainly interesting, but I found a different exchange just as interesting. Fox News’ Chris Wallace noted the 2002 smear of Max […]
I watch debates, so you don’t have to — Part XII
Maybe presidential candidates are less aggressive early in the morning, but yesterday’s 8 a.m. debate in Iowa was surprisingly docile. If the YouTube debate was the event at which the gloves came off, yesterday was time for the gloves to go back on. John Edwards said Hillary Clinton “did a terrific job” in fighting for […]
Dropping the pretense
Anyone who’s seen Fox News knows its on-air personalities offer Republicans in-kind contributions with practically every broadcast. Once in a while, though, they drop the pretense and make the support more direct. It’s no secret that Sean Hannity, the conservative Fox News commentator, has helped to raise Rudy Giuliani’s profile – but now he’s helped […]
‘A flawed, American-centered framework’
It’s been a really discouraging weekend for the Lieberman-Kristol-McCain contingent of Iraq war supporters. Yesterday, Jonathan Finer explained that their visits to Baghdad — after which they boast of widespread “progress” — are scripted, largely “ceremonial” visits. Their “epiphanies” aren’t based on much, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Today, champions of the Bush administration’s […]
The gift that keeps on taking
And here I thought the FISA “reform” measure rushed through Congress before the August recess was bad before. Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American […]
Sunday Discussion Group
Depending on what part of the country you live in, the latest in a series of debates for Democratic presidential candidates is about to get underway in Iowa. ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos will moderate the event, which, depending on your definition of “debate,” will be the eighth Democratic debate of the campaign thus far. And […]
Funny how times change
National Review’s Victor Davis Hanson is dismayed by the criticism of the war in Iraq from congressional Democrats. (via Steve M.) [I]t is hard to recall of any war in our history — the Vietnam hysteria aside — that a sitting Senate majority leader declared it lost in the middle of hostilities. We have not […]
‘You’re going to look super in a burka’
There was a fascinating peek into the mind of a radical on “Hardball” yesterday, when Chris Matthews asked Melanie Morgan — unhinged, even by contemporary far-right standards — to respond to how right Dick Cheney was about Iraq before he became Vice President. C&L has an excerpt, which is worth watching, if for no other […]