Paul Krassner
There were a couple of scatological incidents reported over the 4th of July holidays.
From NPR News:
"Bird droppings could be a threat to the shuttle re-entry."
And from the WayneMadsenReport.com:
"Even Bush's crap is classified top secret. According to our Austrian sources, Austrian newspapers are currently abuzz with special security details of George W. Bush's recent trip to Vienna. Although the heavy-handed Gestapo-like security measures meted out to Viennese home owners, business proprietors,...
Harry Shearer
I finally realized what CNN's up to after experiencing much of Wednesday night's AC360. My first question is, what took me so long? A program name that owes more to MTV than Murrow is a pretty good tipoff. But, for at least the third time in a week, CNN pegged its "news" coverage around a sprawling--and plug-filled--celebrity interview. This time, it was Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, who I'm sure are lovely people and whose...
from HospitalConnect.com
After being briefly knocked out of the top spot by teenage drinking and low-priced airfares, "What Shamu Taught Me About A Happy Marriage" is back atop the NYT's Most-Emailed List, aka MEL. Shamu has been rockin' the top of the charts since it was published almost two weeks ago on June 25, 2006, and Maureen Dowd jumps on the bandwagon with "How To Train A Woman?," restating author Amy Sutherland's central thesis (only react to behavior from your man that you want to encourage) and wondering if men can similarly train women (answer: I think yes, because of something to do with us gals spending millions of years holding babies in front of our faces, though in my case, I'll be honest, chips and salsa usually works). The point here is not that Maureen Dowd jumped on the Shamu bandwagon - herself reaching #4 on MEL yesterday as a result - but rather, that, by citing "Guys And Dolls" in noting that "you can't get alterations on a dress you haven't bought," she once again uses showtunes to brilliantly illustrate her point.
Upshot: New York Times readers love Shamu, and New York media writers love showtunes. This has been conclusively established; challenge me if you dare.
Related: How To Handle A Woman? Love her, love her, love her. [Lerner & Lowe]
In a testy and extremely personal farewell broadcast yesterday, RocketBoom anchor and internet vlogging superstar Amanda Congdon announced she was leaving RocketBoom because business associate "Andrew Baron, is no longer interested in being my partner, and since he owns 51 percent of Rocketboom, and I own 49 percent of Rocketboom, that's just something I'm going to have to live with." RocketBoom is a three-minute, daily show that featured a blend of news and pop-culture. Congdon's quirky humor helped the show achieve levels of success unparalled in the vlogging world: the site sometimes earned $40,000-$85,000 a week in ad revenues, and Congdon had an on-air interview with Senator John Edwards. Despite claims that he fired her, Baron says he was unaware Congdon was leaving the show until he saw her farewell vlog yesterday. Instead, he claims Congdon unexpectedly announced she was moving to L.A. two weeks ago, and planned to do so within a week. Baron adds that while "we wanted her to get to L.A. to pursue her personal opportunities as soon as possible," such short notice left them "unable to uproot Rocketboom from NYC at this time." Baron is seeking a new star for RocketBoom; no word yet on where Congdon may land.
— Troy Schuler
The Globe has a story today on the recent controversy between The New Republic and DailyKos over Markos Moulitsas's alleged conflicts of interest stemming from his friend and co-author Jerome Armstrong's ties to a number of political candidates. To the paper's credit, Michael Grynbaum finds an able defender of liberal bloggers in the form of Jay Rosen, who argues that TNR is just annoyed that there's a new center of influence emerging that doesn't involve, well, them. "They can't imagine that these roughbacks, these unsophisticated activists, have any credibility whatsoever. I really think it's a class war more than anything else," Rosen said.
TNR's Jason Zengerle, who led the charge against Kos on the magazine's blog The Plank, says his involvement in the affair led to death threats. If that's true, it is, of course, unforgivable. But something is strangely missing from the article -- any mention of the fact that Zengerle published an e-mail that he later admitted to have been a fabrication on the part of one of his sources. Did Zengerle ever burn this source? No. Has he ever mentioned why not? Not so much. Should the Globe be curious about such things? Absolutely, even despite Zengerle's claim that the error was of "a relatively minor nature."
TNR editor Franklin Foer -- who has made some very thoughtful criticisms of the liberal blogosphere in the past -- also chimes in with this lovely bit of stereotyping: "The liberal blogosphere are a group of people who feel incredibly disenfranchised. They feel their country's been hijacked and they're essentially powerless and the only way to stop it is to scream as loudly as you can." Greg Sargent has addressed this point well, but suffice it to say that while there may be a good deal of anger in the liberal blogosphere -- and really, can you blame them? -- it mostly resides in comment threads and is nowhere near pervasive enough to justify Foer's gross overgeneralization. TNR, believe it or not, does not have a monopoly on well-reasoned and insightful arguments, and many liberal bloggers are demonstrating this on a daily basis.
But perhaps most importantly: When your magazine has seen a 40% circulation drop in four years, it's probably best not to further antagonize potential subscribers.
- Ankush Khardori
...or just more WMD intel from the administration?
Related: NK Missile Launch: CNN "Pounced" [TVNewser]
Big year since then. For all that eventually emerged about Miller, PlameGate, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove - and is still emerging about the roles of Dick Cheney and George Bush - reporters and their rights to gather and publish information and protect sources are still very much under fire - far more than last year at this time, as we have seen.
Slate's Peter Scheer knows this, and brings a new strategy for reporters to the table: instead of pleading the First Amendment, plead the Fifth. Based on comments from trigger-happy Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, which open the door to prosecuting journalists under federal espionage laws for publishing classified information, Scheer points out that journalists have every right to refuse to speak for fear of incriminating themselves. Taking the fifth is a "badge of honor" he says, which means that reporters have done their job.
Saturday's joint op-ed between the NYT's BIll Keller and the LAT's Dean Baquet could have been a quartet — but WSJ managing edior Paul Steiger and WaPo executive editor Len Downie Jr. said no. Steiger, whose paper came out with a stinging rebuke to the NYT on Friday from the editorial side, said that he thought about joining but decided not to "because our position was different from theirs...It is a big difference if the government asks you not to publish, I would consider that very carefully." The WSJ was not asked by the governement to hold the story. Said Downie: "I think one of the important things about American journalism is that each newspaper operates on its own and I didn't want to join in a group situation. We are independent."
Eric Boehlert
"The White House is not waging war on the press" Terry Moran, March 25, 2005
Last year I wrote a piece for Salon detailing how the Bush administration had effectively declared war on the press, noting how it was stifling the flow of information, paying off conservative pundits, subpoenaing reporters, inviting a former male escort to White House briefings without a proper FBI background check,...
Geoffrey R. Stone
The Bush administration and its allies continue their drumbeat attack on the First Amendment with repeated threats to prosecute the New York Times for disclosing the President's secret surveillance programs. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has suggested a criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act, Congressman Peter King and Senator Jim Bunning have accused the Times of treason, and Republicans in the House of Representatives have passed a resolution condemning the Times for putting "the lives of...
