Joe Cutbirth
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Joe Cutbirth is visiting professor at the University of Virginia department of media studies. He previously taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, New York University and the University of British Columbia.

He writes about politics, examines social impact of mass media and follows the University of Texas Longhorns on joecutbirth.com, a blog by a Texas expat and longtime Manhattan resident.

Cutbirth has lectured internationally on the increasingly complex relationship between satire and traditional journalism in American politics. He's been cited as an expert on the topic by The New York Times, British Broadcasting Corp., Canadian Broadcasting Corp., CBC, CTV and The Globe and Mail.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, he was a recurring analyst for Politics Live w/ Sam Donaldson and Rick Klein on ABC News NOW. He has blogged for Huffington Post since 2007.

Cutbirth is a former communications director for the Texas Democratic Party, where he worked for Gov. Ann Richards' 1994 re-election campaign and the Clinton-Gore '96 Texas coordinated campaign.

Before that, he spent more than a decade reporting on government and Texas politics, largely for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. His work also has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Texas Observer, Education Weekly, DogCanyon.org, Northwest Magazine. He was a contributing writer to the politics section of The Lonely Planet Phrase Book and a co-editor of Beaches, Bureaucrats and Big Oil: One Man's Fight for Texas.

Cutbirth earned a doctorate in communications from Columbia University; a master's degree in communication, culture & technology from Georgetown University; and a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

His epitaph should read: He was a Longhorn and a Democrat.

Blog Entries by Joe Cutbirth

Rick Perry's Gaffe: Channelling Phil Gramm or Clayton Williams?

0 Comments | Posted August 17, 2011 | 5:48 PM

He's FED UP! and he's come out swinging. He's attacking Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Social Security and Medicare, anyone who is anti-business or anti-Jesus, and now -- Ben Bernanke.


The national press loves...

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Why I'm Calling It *Gulp* for Michele Bachmann

0 Comments | Posted June 14, 2011 | 10:45 AM

Yep. Monday night belonged to Michele Bachmann.

Let's be clear: If history is any indication, the Republicans are not going to nominate "a maverick" for president. The party has its share of them at the state and Congressional levels, but I'm talking about a presidential nominee who's a true outsider...

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Phelps' Son Says "God Hates Fags" Church Could Turn Violent

0 Comments | Posted April 11, 2010 | 2:24 AM

The challenge with writing about Fred Phelps, frankly, is suppressing the urge to urp.

Phelps and his hateful clan spent this weekend in West Virginia taunting innocent families whose fathers, brothers and sons were buried alive in the Upper Big Branch mine disaster. The last four...

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A Socialist Primer: Rick Perry, Health Care & the Texas Governor's Race

0 Comments | Posted March 27, 2010 | 3:06 PM

I'm wondering what it's going to take for my former colleagues in the Texas press corps to call out Rick Perry for using the term "socialism" over-and-over to describe the insurance reform Congress passed last week.

Either Perry and reporters covering him don't know...

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Open Letter: From Sam Houston to Barack Obama

0 Comments | Posted January 22, 2010 | 3:03 PM

Mr. President:

It's my humble privilege as a citizen with my own place in American history to write to you as you're about to make the most important decision of your presidency. I'm referring to more than a single issue here, Mr. President. I'm talking about the course you are...

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Leach Incident Shows ESPN Ethics Stink

0 Comments | Posted January 2, 2010 | 2:34 AM

The whole mess at Texas Tech involving head coach Mike Leach and Adam James, son of ESPN college football analyst Craig James, is just sort of dark and odd.

We know Leach is quirky. We know he can be crude and sexist. It's...

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Mr. President, Please: A Little Less Oprah, a Little More LBJ

0 Comments | Posted December 17, 2009 | 2:05 PM

We're really in trouble if Barack Obama thinks his road to the pantheon of presidential history is getting Joe Lieberman to giggle again.

You know, the Lieberman who campaigned against Obama in 2008. The Lieberman who lost his own Democratic primary then waged an independent campaign...

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Happy Birthday Harvey Milk (and thanks for giving us hope)

0 Comments | Posted May 21, 2009 | 4:23 AM

The defining moment in my adult life came inconveniently about six months after I got the first big break in my journalism career. At least it seemed so at the time.

"You ought to look at our (pro-gay) position papers on gays and lesbians, if you want to see something...

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Digging Further Into the Texas Rape Kit Scandal

0 Comments | Posted May 18, 2009 | 1:48 AM

Turns out -- to my relief -- my gut reaction to a Houston TV story (picked up by CNN) last week that blasted the Texas attorney general for saddling rape victims "across Texas" with outrageous bills for police investigations in their cases was on target.

I should...

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How Can Texas Ask Women to Pay for Rape Kits?

0 Comments | Posted May 10, 2009 | 3:38 AM

Journalists occasionally shine light on a public policy that is so disgusting it literally stuns you - just takes your breath away and leaves you speechless.

Your first thought is they've made a mistake. Or this is ratings hype. It can't be true.

After the initial shock wears...

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Rick Perry Should Stop Embarrassing Texas

0 Comments | Posted April 15, 2009 | 9:07 PM

I've had enough of Rick Perry.

At least the Perry who stood on the steps of the Texas Capitol today bashing our federal government and talking openly about Texas seceding from the United States.

This isn't the Perry I knew 25 years ago, when he first ran for...

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The Pope Can't Get Away With This

0 Comments | Posted March 18, 2009 | 1:02 PM

Pardon my excess here, but occasionally I just lose it. Someone needs to tell Pope Joseph Ratzinger to stop the demagoguery or abort this trip to Africa.

His statement Tuesday, reported as a virtual Papal pronouncement -- that condoms actually increase the spread of HIV -- is frankly unconscionable....

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My Must-See Moment at Every Inaugural

0 Comments | Posted January 18, 2009 | 12:34 PM

The scene that hugs my heart each time a new president is sworn-in, is generally eclipsed by the pomp and circumstance of the parade and the swearing-in at the Capitol.

It typically lasts about five minutes, and it's treated like an afterthought by the media and celebrants trying to capture...

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I Voted (Twice) for Obama, and Apparently I Lost

0 Comments | Posted December 18, 2008 | 2:46 PM

Let's talk hope for a minute.

Barack Obama seized the word "hope" this year, but back in 1977 my first political hero gave a big speech about it out in California. His name was Harvey Milk, and there is a film about him right now every American...

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Vet the Princess Before She's Crowned

0 Comments | Posted December 17, 2008 | 1:47 PM

Enough.

I don't have anything against Caroline Kennedy, though I sort of hate to see her get into electoral politics.

I was in second grade when her father was assassinated about two hours from my home in North Texas, and I always thought of her as keeper of something...

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McCain's Racist Surge

0 Comments | Posted October 15, 2008 | 12:45 PM

As I watch John McCain's presidential campaign degenerate into a dark, disgraceful display of veiled racism unworthy of the hero who suffered in Vietnam, I'm reminded of the late J.J. "Jake" Pickle, the venerable congressman who represented Central Texas from 1963 to 1995, and a story he once told...

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Why I Called It for Joe Biden

0 Comments | Posted October 3, 2008 | 6:59 AM

The Twainesque, Becky Thatcher, awww-shucks shtick is wearing a bit thin. It works for certain audiences under certain conditions, but the stakes were too high on Thursday for Sarah Palin to use it all night.

Her folksy fireworks flat-lined after an hour, and as she sounded more and more like...

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Our National Sue Simmons Moment

0 Comments | Posted September 30, 2008 | 5:30 PM

Like a lot of Americans, I'm watching the White House and Congress preside over this national economic disaster, and it's got me pretty worked-up.

I'm also disgusted with the frame corporate media have constructed for the whole mess beginning with the cadre of recognizable, well-heeled Henny Pennys parading...

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Oh, HELL NO!

0 Comments | Posted September 24, 2008 | 10:24 PM

Well, John McCain left the stump Wednesday and ran to his old comfort zone, Washington, D.C., hoping a publicity stunt framed as "suspending the campaign" would stop Barack Obama from talking about the fiscal crisis facing the country.

What else should we expect from a guy who asked

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The Incredible Lightness of Being Sarah Palin

0 Comments | Posted September 4, 2008 | 3:12 PM

Well, isn't Gov. Palin the gift that keeps on giving?

Just when the pack was sure that John McCain chose her to reach out to disaffected Democratic women and lure Hillary Clinton supporters to the GOP, Palin roared onto the national stage Wednesday with Barack Obama so squarely in her...

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