Making Nowhere Plans for Nobody
We have a new
Think
Again column, called "No Iraq News (Still) Isn't
Good News," here.
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I find the
reporting out of Iowa and New Hampshire profoundly
dispiriting. A fair
estimation would be that 99 percent of it is entirely irrelevant to the question
of who should be the next president and what issues that person is likely to
face. That 99 percent
includes horse-race
coverage of one variety or
another, devoted entirely to process and execution, and meant almost
exclusively for insiders. What
is further dispiriting is the degree to which so many liberal bloggers and
journalists who generally decry this kind of thing have fallen into exactly this
trap. It's a lesson in the sociology of journalism and the power of group
dynamics. I remember during the first election that I traveled with the press, I
was with Al Gore in Nashville on Super Tuesday in 1988. When Gore
held a press conference the next day, I was determined to ask him a question
about the MX missile. When I did, the rest of the room looked at me as if I had rabies. They had done their
"issues" six months ago, and now the only reason that issues mattered
was to what degree they accorded political advantage.
Ditto today, but even more so. I won't name names because the
disease is so prevalent, it would be unfair.
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How to cheat in journalism: from the current New York magazine:
After a failed attempt by front man Thom Yorke's record label to strong-arm OiNK into removing his solo album from the site, the band changed strategies, inviting fans to pay whatever they wished to download their new record, In Rainbows, or drop $80 for a lushly packaged, high-fidelity physical album. One estimate puts their first-month online sales as high as $2.74 million.
Really, I estimate their first-month online sales as high as ten bazillion gazillion dollars. From Altercation:
After a failed attempt by front man Thom Yorke's record label to strong-arm OiNK into removing his solo album from the site, the band changed strategies, inviting fans to pay whatever they wished to download their new record, In Rainbows, or drop $80 for a lushly packaged, high-fidelity physical album. One estimate puts their first-month online sales as high as ten bazillion gazillion dollars.
Just as true,
(and would survive an intern fact-check just as easily). Remember reader: beware thinly sourced
claims!
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Quote of the Day, from Paul Krugman, here:
Rupert Murdoch, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq:
The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country
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" 'You Don't Understand Our Audience': What I learned about
network television at Dateline NBC." Great piece by
John Hockenberry, here.
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From the "You can't make these people up," department:
Fox News guest: sex ed boosters want kids to get STDs.
During the Dec. 31 broadcast of Fox News' Special Report, Concerned Women for America President Wendy Wright claimed that proponents of comprehensive sex education are trying to "encourage" sex because "they benefit when kids end up having sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies and then they lead them into having abortions." She then added, "You have to look at the financial motives behind those who are promoting comprehensive sex ed."
Lifted
from Think Progress,
here.
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Nice profile of Dion here. I was planning to complain that it could have been written two years ago, when Dion released that excellent acoustic blues album, but that's only because the headline is a bit misleading. The story is an evergreen ...
Petey's new
wife. Sorry ladies.
(Read from the bottom up, but only if you have a valid-looking ID card that can
get you a beer somewhere.)
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Craziest thought
of the day, if serious, here: "[Gil Scott]
Heron's
like the Leonardo Da Vinci of our generation." Really, Ezra. Johannesburg = Sistine Chapel Mona Lisa? Come
now.
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Many months
ago, I noticed an obituary in one of
the papers for a retired diplomat whose first name I don't recall, but the
description of his life struck me as that of an ideal liberal American
patriot. His last name
was "Kaiser." The mind
gets hazy, but if I recall correctly, and I apologize if I don't, he was the father of Robert
Kaiser, Charles Kaiser,
and David Kaiser. He must have been quite a dad, therefore as well. Robert
Kaiser has led a long and distinguished career as a liberal Washington Post reporter and editor, and
is one of the people most responsible for my career path when he politely
suggested that I forget about working at the Post about 20 years ago, and so sent me on my path to my doctorate,
etc., and thank
goodness for that. Charles Kaiser is a distinguished liberal journalist who
writes about gay issues a great deal and is a bit too generous to New York Times poohbahs for my taste but
has been doing very interesting interviews for Radar and has a spot-on column
about Andrew Rosenthal and William Kristol here.
His column informs me that his brother, the historian David Kaiser, on whose
history of Vietnam I relied a great deal when
writing When
Presidents Lie and who I learn from Charles' column
maintains a terrific blog, soon to be added to our roll here. Check it out here,
as Charles suggests,
for an extremely useful compendium of Kristolania, and much else that is
worthwhile as well.
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Name: Billy
Hometown: Helena, Montana
Eric, I think every
time that the idea of Michael Bloomberg running for president as independent is written
about, there should be a
sentence or two about the incredible difficulties he
faces.Petitioning to be on the ballot in 50 states is incredibly hard. Without the passionate
volunteers to circulate these petitions, the cost is very high. When you pay people to
collect signatures on
petitions, your ratio of duplicate signatures and signatures
from ineligible voters
(residency, not registered, etc.) increases. Paid circulators have to collect anywhere from 50% to 100% more
signatures to withstand
challenges. Here in Montana, I don't see a lot of committed, passionate
moderates wanting a
bipartisan presidential
ticket. Maybe New York or
Oklahoma are
different.
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The opinions voiced in these columns are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of Media Matters for America or any other organization or institution with which any author may be affiliated.
