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Michael Wolff

The Myth of Fox News' Ratings Spike

Eric Boehlert | Posted 11.04.2009 | Media

Read More: Kathleen Parker, Ruth Marcus, Pbs, Nielsen, Mike Allen, David Brody, Sally Quinn, Michael Wolff, Cnn, David Gergen, Travis Smiley, Politico, Fox News, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune Swamp, Bill O'Reilly, Media News
Eric Boehlert

The breathless claim that Fox News' ratings recently spiked thanks to the White House's public critique is bogus hype.

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Newser's iPhone App: Are We Nuts?

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.23.2009 | Media

Read More: Future of Journalism, Iphone, Michael Wolff, Media, Newser, Online News, iPhone Apps, Media News
Michael Wolff

The most popular news medium became, over the last 10 years, the computer, effectively putting newspapers out of business and changing the nature of t...

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I've Changed My Mind on the Obama-Fox Showdown

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.20.2009 | Media

Read More: Barack Obama Fox News, Fox News, Michael Wolff, Conservatives, Liberals, President Obama, Media News
Michael Wolff

The Fox audience is, tops, only 2 million people, and yet, because of its flamboyance and success, it manages to convince the rest of the media that conservatism is the national mood.

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Do the Balloon People Have a Right to Publicity?

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.19.2009 | Media

Read More: Richard Heene, Falcon Heene Balloon, Michael Wolff, Media, Falcon Heene, Publicity, Balloon Boy Found, Balloon-Boy-Publicity-Stunt, Balloon Boy, Media News
Michael Wolff

The boy in the balloon or, as it were, the boy not in the balloon, is a publicity stunt which has many people outraged, questioning the sanity of the ...

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What Rush Limbaugh's Bid for the Rams Tells Us About Hate Speech

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.15.2009 | Media

Read More: Michael Wolff, St. Louis Rams, Media, Nfl, Rush Limbaugh, Media News
Michael Wolff

Rush Limbaugh's effort -- aborted by his fellow investors, it seems -- to buy the St. Louis Rams has given me the insight. I think people have a natural instinct to want to declaim, to inveigh, denounce, opine, and show-off.

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Berlusconi Is Going, Going...Almost Gone

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.08.2009 | World

Read More: Michael Wolff, Italy, Berlusconi, Silvio Berlusconi, Berlusconi Scandal, World News
Michael Wolff

It could be that in the years ahead every Italian alive in the strange years of Silvio Berlusconi, as both his nation's leading media mogul and domina...

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Soda Is the New Right-Wing Issue--and Fatsos the New Base

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.01.2009 | Politics

Read More: Taxes, Michael Wolff, Soda, Soda Tax, Right Wing, Obesity, Health Care, Overweight, Politics News
Michael Wolff

The soda tax is being tried out as a potential wedge issue, a populist theme. Super groovy cool self-satisfied yuppie people don't drink soda. But gross fat compulsive lacking-all-self-control normal Americans do.

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Sarah Palin Is Winning

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.29.2009 | Politics

Read More: Michael Wolff, Politico, Republican Party, Sarah Palin Reaction, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Politics News
Michael Wolff

There are only two political stars in the country. One is president, the other is Sarah Palin.

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Why Nab Roman Polanski Now? Revenge

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.28.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Roman Polanski Arrest, Michael Wolff, District Attorney, Revenge, Rape, Los Angeles, Roman Polanski, Entertainment News
Michael Wolff

There is nothing inevitable about catching a famous person who has not been in hiding after 31 years. Indeed, he didn't just riskily or mistakenly show up in Switzerland; he owned a house there.

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Mackenzie Phillips Scores

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.25.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Mackenzie Phillips Incest, Drug Addiction, Michael Wolff, The Mamas & the Papas, MacKenzie Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Mackenzie Phillips Oprah, Incest, Mackenzie Phillips Family Secret, Heroin, John Phillips, Entertainment News
Michael Wolff

As it happens, whenever we follow an incest story at Newser it becomes the biggest story. The Phillips story is even bigger because it's not just an incest story but also a disputed incest story.

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Foreign Policy: The President Is a Screw-up

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.23.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Michael Wolff, Afghanistan, Obama Foreign Policy, Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Afghanistan War, President Obama, Politics News
Michael Wolff

It seems pretty clear that the Obama foreign policy is being run in all important aspects by the president himself. On this subject, he fancies himself the smartest boy in the class. He's the decider and he's decisive.

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It's a Cold War: Fox Against the President

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.19.2009 | Media

Read More: Barack Obama Fox News, Fox News, Michael Wolff, Sunday Talk Shows, Sunday Morning Talk Shows, Barack Obama, President Obama, Media News
Michael Wolff

The president is not going on Fox News, and the network and many Republicans are spitting mad about this.

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Who You Calling a Racist?

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: Jimmy Carter, Racism, Michael Wolff, Rush Limbaugh, Barack Obama, Joe Wilson, Politics News
Michael Wolff

How is it that racism has been so successfully rejected as a description, precisely by the people it is meant to describe? How can they so stubbornly deny their obvious feelings, and why would they want to?

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White Guys Can't Apologize

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.16.2009 | Politics

Read More: Michael Wolff, Kanye West Taylor Swift, Joe Wilson Apology, Apology, Apologies, Kanye West, Joe Wilson, Politics News
Michael Wolff

Apologizing has become some formal social, political, and media condition. It's a ritual and nicety like a thank you; it's part of a political process, like a campaign; it's a media event like a season finale.

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Wall Street: The President Is Playing the Market

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.15.2009 | Politics

Read More: Wall Street Reform, Michael Wolff, Dow Jones, Lehman Brothers, Barack Obama, President Obama, Politics News
Michael Wolff

The president needs the Dow to get to 11,000 over the next year to keep from being routed in the mid-term election.

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Repeat After Me: 'The Czars Are Ruining America!'

Michael Wolff | Posted 11.14.2009 | Politics

Read More: Michael Wolff, Glenn Beck Van Jones, Van Jones, President Obama, Glenn Beck, Barack Obama, Czars, Cass Sunstein, Politics News
Michael Wolff

the Democrats are always scrambling against a rhetoric that they can't parry and don't ever seem to have anticipated. Now it's the czars.

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What's Wrong with Jennifer Aniston?

Michael Wolff | Posted 11.10.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Michael Wolff, Celebrity, Jennifer Aniston, Romance, John Mayer Jennifer Aniston, Dating, Entertainment News
Michael Wolff

Is America a nation of dumped and unrequited women? Is the common experience the failed relationship? The recalcitrant man? Yes, obviously.

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Health Care Is a Done Deal if You Read Between the Lines

Michael Wolff | Posted 11.08.2009 | Politics

Read More: Michael Wolff, Peter Baker, John Podesta, President Obama, Health Care Reform, Democratic Party, Health Care, Obama Health Care, Barack Obama, Politics News
Michael Wolff

If we assume that Podesta represents certain powers that be in the Democratic Party, are those powers writing off the president?

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Blame America (and Jesus) for the Jaycee Dugard Kidnapping

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: Phillip Garrido, Michael Wolff, Jaycee Dugard, America, Kidnapping, Jaycee Lee Dugard, Josef Fritzl, Politics News
Michael Wolff

There is a great morbid curiosity about Jaycee Dugard and her imprisonment, but nobody is drawing any conclusions about what this might say about the American character.

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Afghanistan Could Ruin Everything--Soon!

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.18.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Michael Wolff, Troops, Bill Kristol, George Will, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, President Obama, US Troops, Democratic Party, Democrats, Afghanistan War, Politics News
Michael Wolff

What are they going to do about Afghanistan? And how much time do they have left to do it? I figure a month.

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Does the World Need Another Murdoch?

Michael Wolff | Posted 10.16.2009 | Media

Read More: Rupert Murdoch, Michael Wolff, Lachlan Murdoch, Media, Bbc, James Murdoch, Media News
Michael Wolff

There is something excruciatingly little-boyish about Rupert Murdoch's 37-year-old son, James, who runs his father's companies in Europe and Asia. Seldom have I seen an adult so intently trying to mimic his father.

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Torture Rules: How Much Pain and Suffering Works for You?

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.28.2009 | Politics

Read More: CIA Torture, Michael Wolff, Bush Administration Torture, Bush Administration, Torture, Politics News
Michael Wolff

So what is our policy on torture? What's allowed?

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Hitler Is Back And He's in Charge of Your Health Care

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.27.2009 | Politics

Read More: Health Care Reform, Michael Wolff, Nazis, Sean Hannity, Health Care, Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Politics News
Michael Wolff

While it's the right wing that now seems to have a penchant for seeing Nazi ghosts, the left has often been just as guilty.

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Teddy Kennedy, We Hardly Knew Ye

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.26.2009 | Politics

Read More: Michael Wolff, Edward Kennedy, Chappaquiddick, Ted Kennedy Dead, Ted Kennedy Brain Tumor, Teddy Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Kennedy Family, Politics News
Michael Wolff

Few living people have been as famous for as long as Teddy Kennedy. Still, after so long, I can't say I have much of a clear sense of the man.

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Slate Joins Newser: This Is How to Save the News

Michael Wolff | Posted 09.25.2009 | Media

Read More: Aggregator, Michael Wolff, Wolff's Newser, Newser, The Slatest, Slate, Content Aggregators, Content-Aggregators, Aggregated News, Newser.com, Washington Post, Media, Journalism, Media News
Michael Wolff

Just as so many save-our-business types are castigating news aggregators as pirates, Slate takes up the aggregating craft.

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