Monthly Archives: January 2009

The Crack Baby Myth: Now They Tell Us

Posted on 01/30/2009 by Janine Jackson

A January 27 New York Times story, "The Epidemic That Wasn't," brought the news that researchers following children prenatally exposed to cocaine have found "the long-term effects of such exposure on children's brain development and behavior appear relatively small" and … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism | Tagged | 6 Comments

'Old Habits Die Hard' on GOP TV

Posted on 01/30/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Following up on the well-documented phenomenon wherein corporate news outlets justify their mode of getting "conservatives to dominate their shows, booking them as guests far more often than progressives" by using "the rationale… that Republicans were 'in power,'" ThinkProgress (1/28/09) … Continue reading →

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At NYT: The End of an Error

Posted on 01/30/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Guessing that the departure of Bill Kristol from the New York Times op-ed page will be "sparing the paper any further embarrassment, Editor & Publisher's Greg Mitchell (1/26/09) has "a good belly laugh" at the Times notation of Kristol's farewell … Continue reading →

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NPR: CIA Says Sites That Never Existed Now Closed

Posted on 01/30/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Catching Morning Edition correspondent Tom Gjelten asserting that Barack Obama's prohibition of "the CIA from holding any detainees in secret prisons" is "not a big change" since "those prisons are all closed anyway, according to U.S. officials," blogger mytwords (NPR … Continue reading →

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Bush Saves the World on Fox News

Posted on 01/30/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Fox News anchor Brit Hume's gratitude toward George W. Bush recently was expressed by Hume's amazement that "this country would pass into a new presidency eight years later with not a single attack" since September 11, 2001. Mark Howard (News … Continue reading →

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Middle East Reportage 'Smothered in Deceptive Euphemisms'

Posted on 01/29/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Credited by the London Review of Books (1/29/09) as the "former national director of the American Jewish Congress and of the Synagogue Council of America," Henry Siegman's list of official Israeli claims that "most of the Western media have accepted" … Continue reading →

Posted in International | 3 Comments

Media 'Grading [GOP] on a Curve'

Posted on 01/29/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall (1/28/09) is bemoaning how "Republicans have been getting a lot of air time and minimal press criticism for a series of arguments about the stimulus that are in most cases transparently ridiculous": For instance, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy | 1 Comment

Chris Matthews: The Thrill Is Gone

Posted on 01/29/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Blogger Brad Jacobson gives play-by-play (MediaBloodhound, 1/28/09) for an epic attempt by MSNBC's Chris Matthews to live down his one-time confession to having "felt this thrill going up my leg" during a Barack Obama speech. Matthews' reparation strategy: "How about … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism, Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

When Journalistic Liabilities Exceed Assets

Posted on 01/29/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Economist Dean Baker (Beat the Press, 1/28/09) points to an embarrassingly simple contradiction in the premise of Washington Post staff writer David Cho's worry that government plans to give cash to failing banks in exchange for current investors' shares "could … Continue reading →

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Update: Richard Cohen

Posted on 01/28/2009 by Steve Rendall

Far from holding the feet of the powerful to the fire, "liberal" Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen is the very model of the establishment-protecting beltway hack. Glenn Greenwald walks us through Cohenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s history of cheering for the capital's criminal class, … Continue reading →

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Bubble Alert!

Posted on 01/28/2009 by Steve Rendall

A New York Observer profile of NBC Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker looks at the differences between D.C., where Whitaker is now stationed, and New York City, where he's spent most of his career. (OMB chair Peter Orzag can turn … Continue reading →

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Limbaugh: The 'Kineesians' Are Coming!

Posted on 01/28/2009 by Steve Rendall

Attacking the White House's proposed economic stimulus plan (1/26/09), Rush Limbaugh explained that the issue pits his favored "supply-siders," who see the holy grail in tax cuts, against what he repeatedly referred to as, at least what sounded like "kineesian … Continue reading →

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O'Reilly's Phony Guantanamo Math

Posted on 01/27/2009 by Peter Hart

In a top-of-the-show rant about the dangers of the Guantanamo detainees, Fox's Bill O'Reilly declared (1/25/09): Just hours after President Obama announced he was going to shut down Guantanamo Bay, the feds confirmed that a released Gitmo inmate, 35-year-old Sahid … Continue reading →

Posted in International | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Mr. Cohen, I Used to Live in the Past

Posted on 01/27/2009 by Jim Naureckas

Looking back on the good old days when we all supported torture, Richard Cohen writes today in the Washington Post (1/27/09): "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." So goes an aphorism that needs to be … Continue reading →

Posted in International | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

AP vs. Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments

Posted on 01/27/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

An Associated Press headline about the "Issue of Terrorists' Rights to Test Obama's Pledge" to close the Guantánamo Bay prison facility spurs Salon critic Glenn Greenwald (1/26/09, ad-viewing required) to put a basic journalistic tenet as simply as possible: "The … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism | 2 Comments