TVNewser posts word of a CNN special this weekend hosted by Fareed Zakaria: Fareed Zakaria will debut his first primetime special this weekend, solidifying his new role at CNN. The special, Restoring the American Dream: A Fareed Zakaria GPS Special, will feature Zakaria's talks with four global CEOs, who provide advice for businesses and political leaders in the U.S. His guests will include: Former IBM chairman and CEO Lou Gerstner, Google, Inc. chairman/CEO Eric Schmidt, Coca Cola Company chairman/CEO Muhtar Kent and Alcoa, Inc. chairman/CEO Klaus Kleinfeld. The CNN press release tells ustheCEOs will discuss "America's unacceptable unemployment rateâ┚¬Ã‚¦and how [...]
Oct
29
2010
David Gregory Loves Michelle Rhee, Hates Criticism
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Alan Suderman at Washington City Paper (10/28/10)caught NBC host David Gregory moderating an education event at a Washington hotel, where the Meet the Press host lavished praise on controversial former D.C. schools chancellor (and media darling) Michelle Rhee: Before we begin, we have Chancellor Michelle Rhee here, and I just want to say publicly what I say privately, which is, thank you for what you've done, thank you for your commitment, for your leadership, for your stick-to-it-ness and for the result that you have achieved. Washington, D.C., will miss you greatly…. But your commitment to kids and to education endures, [...]
Oct
29
2010
Joe Klein's Bipartisan Advice: Obama, Embrace Nukes!
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The conventional wisdom among corporate pundits has long been that Democrats have to move to the right in order to win. You're likely to hear a lot of this after Tuesday, but there's already plenty of advice being offered in advance of the Democrats' likely midterm defeat. Time's Joe Klein has his take in the new issue of the magazine (11/8/10). He writes that "with the prospect of a Congress tilted toward the right, Obama will have to figure out new ways to sell his wares, if he can sell them at all." Klein urges Obama to think big–and to [...]
Oct
29
2010
Adam Nagourney Wonders Why Women Aren't Republicans
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New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney has a long piece (10/29/10) about California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, the Republican candidate for Senate. Both are expected to lose on Tuesday, which leaves Nagourney wondering why women aren't more eager to support female politicians. The piece poses a lot of big questions–the fact that both are struggling "raising questions about money, gender and Americans' views of candidates who come out of corporate boardrooms." It is surprising that they are trailing Democrats who are"symbols of liberal policies and nearly as old as talking pictures." Nagourney gets to gender: And [...]
Oct
29
2010
Scientific American Doesn't Doubt Climate Change–But It Acts As If It Does
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Scientific American editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina (10/28/10) responded to criticism from Climate Progress' Joe Romm (10/26/10) and FAIR Blog (10/27/10) of the magazine's recent coverage of climate change: In actuality, Scientific American reports on climate-related science in depth in nearly every issue and frequently online. You can see a sample list of past print and online-only articles at "Want to Learn More about Climate Change?," including coverage of carbon and climate back to 1959. Climate is the issue of our time. We covered the debate surrounding Judith Curry as a news event in this topic area–and as a way to foster [...]
Oct
28
2010
Juan Williams' Ethical Duties–and NPR's
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A guest post by Frances Cerra Whittelsey, Extra! contributor and journalism scholar: Whether or not Juan Williams is truly a liberal or just playing the role to give Fox an appearance of balance begs the question of whether his comment about fearing Muslims on airplanes justified his firing by NPR. Williams is waving the free speech flag to defend his "honest statement of feeling," as he put it in a statement published online by Fox. He insists he has not shown himself to be a bigot by admitting that fear grips him when he sees Muslims in Muslim garb getting [...]
Oct
27
2010
Is Scientific American Running Away From Science on Climate Change?
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Has Scientific American jumped the shark on climate change? That's the contention of Climate Progress blogger Joe Romm (10/26/10), who accuses the magazine of treating human-caused global climate change as an open question. Romm points to an article by Michael Lemonick (11/10) about Judith Curry, a climate scientist whose critiques of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are often cited by non-climate scientists who (unlike Curry herself) deny that people are dangerously warming the Earth. The articles seems to leave the impression that the truth on climate change is somewhere in the middle: Climate scientists feel embattled by a politically [...]
Oct
27
2010
Did the CIA Try to Kill Phil Agee? Ask the CIA!
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CIA whistleblower Phil Agee's papers are headed to a library at New York University. A Washington Post article by Jeff Stein (10/27/10) notes that Agee, who died in 2008,revealed information that was"arguably more damaging than anything WikiLeaks has produced." But Stein, an intelligence blogger for the Post, devotes some time to critiquing the library's press release, since it "made no mention of the renegade agent's KGB and Cuban intelligence connections." Actually, Agee always denied working with the KGB; he did get help from Cuban intelligence files while writing his expose of his CIA activities in Latin America, but rejected accusations [...]
Oct
27
2010
Tea Party Endorses 'Lamestream' Media Coverage of Tea Parties
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Amy Gardner'srecent reporting on the Tea Party in the Washington Post has been very insightful. Today's piece (10/27/10) deals with the activists' views of the media.There's astandard right-wing whine about mainstream media neglect, but actual Tea Party activists see things differently: Most local tea party organizers interviewed in an extensive canvass this month by the Washington Post said media coverage of their groups has been fair, suggesting that perceptions of antagonism between the tea party and traditional news media are overstated. Seventy-six percent of local organizers said that coverage of their groups is either very fair or somewhat fair. Only [...]
Oct
26
2010
Juan Williams, Fox News Liberal
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After being fired by NPR, Juan Williams made an appearance with Fox host Bill O'Reilly (10/21/10) where he explained that he wasn't likely to get support from prominent African-American leaders like Al Sharpton because "I'm not a predictable black liberal." It's not totally clear what he means by that, but Williams does a pretty good job as a Fox News Liberal– i.e., someone willing to attack left-liberal groups and leaders while doing very little topromote an actual left-leaningperspective.This point was echoed in a column penned by Newsmax's Ronald Kessler (10/25/10), who wrote that he's known Williams since the 1970s and [...]
