Category Archives: Newpapers
Free Press Group-Think
The Boston Globe organized an editorial writing campaign last week. The idea was for independent newspapers to tell Trump to stop calling them “the enemy of the people.” All on the same day.
Three hundred plus papers including the New York Times obliged.
Some of the editorials also complained about Trump calling the media an “opposition party.” But here’s Jim Rutenberg in the NY Times two years ago:
If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional.
Free Press Group-Think
Others like the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post took a pass on the campaign. Carl Cannon in Real Clear Politics called the joint effort “group-think.” And he recalled H.L. Menken’s journalistic advice to “be a party of one.”
Jack Shafer in Politico added this bit of advice:
Editorial pages of America, don’t unite! Think for yourselves! Reject this stupid pro-press assignment!
He also agreed with Cannon that the whole scheme played into Trump’s tiny hands. (Okay, he didn’t really say “tiny.”)
Peak Spock Speaks
Aspiring novelist Ben Rhodes created narratives for the Obama administration. In a NYT story he once took credit for creating a media echo chamber to push the president’s Iran nuclear deal.
But on election night 2016 Rhodes found himself at a loss for words.
Peak Spock Speaks
Now he’s written a book. It’s titled “The World as It Is.” Or “Peak Spock” as Maureen Dowd calls it.
In the book President Obama consoles despondent young Ben by telling him, “There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.”
Back on earth Obama says, “Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early.”
To which Matthew Continetti asks, “What was he early for?,” “Fundamentally transforming America?” “The moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow”?
Nope. According to Ms. Dowd, “We just weren’t ready for his amazing awesomeness.”
Ben Rhodes now works for MSNBC. His brother, David Rhodes, is president of CBS News.
Thank You For Spying
Eric Holder’s Justice Department threatened Fox News Reporter James Rosen as a co-conspirator under the espionage act. Except Holder never really intended to charge Rosen. It was all a pretext to spy on his phone calls and emails to find out who in the government was leaking information to him.
The Obama administration also spied on the phone records of Associated Press journalists.
More Spying
And of course they lied about spying on us too.
This week Joy Behar, of all people, outed James Clapper for spying on the Trump campaign. Clapper claimed Trump should be happy about this because his agent was really spying on Russians.
The Washington Post and New York Times find this explanation perfectly reasonable.
White House Correspondents Nerd Prom
Hardened reporters cringed at Michelle Wolf’s comedy routine at the White House Correspondents dinner. She hit a new low when she played the light side of abortion for laughs. She didn’t get many.
Nerd Prom
And I haven’t seen anyone ridicule women the way Wolf attacked Sarah Huckabee Sanders since um … well, maybe The Donald.
Rigged Elections
It was Donald Trump and other Republicans who fretted about rigged elections – before Trump actually won one. But now the tables have turned.
