Tom Friedman wrote a column about how government policies are harming the recovery. What we need is some kind of grand bargain to, as the headline puts is, "unparalyze" the economy and spur new growth. What's that mean? Cuts to Social Security and Medicare, along with "tax reform."
Feb
19
2013
The NYT's Problem With Leftist Presidents
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The polls showed that Ecuadoreans weren't "apprehensive" about giving Correa another term. So why was the New York Times? Probably because his policies are the kind that institutions like the Times tell us aren't supposed to work.
Feb
19
2013
Friendly Oil–Not the Venezuelan Kind
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With the Keystone climate protests in Washington bringing climate change back into the media, we're hearing a lot about how the Keystone pipeline will, at the very least, mean that we'll be getting our oil from a nice country.
Feb
15
2013
Are Iranian Magnets the New Aluminum Tubes?
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In the run up to the Iraq War, the New York Times famously reported on an Iraqi scheme to procure special aluminum tubes that could only have one purpose: Iraq's secret nuclear weapons program. The claims were false–Iraq, as it turned out, had no nuclear program–but still hugely influential.
Feb
14
2013
If There's a 'War Against Boys,' Why Are Men Still Winning?
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Christina Hoff Sommers, who played a starring role in the anti-feminist backlash of the 1990s, is back again with a new edition of her book The War Against Boys. Originally subtitled How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men, it's now relabeled How Misguided Policies Are Harming Our Young Men; she now stresses–in a major New York Times op-ed (2/3/13) and a 10-minute one-on-one interview on NPR's Tell Me More (2/12/13)–that changing schools to help boys do better educationally is just a question of "basic fairness." She writes in the Times: That boys struggle with school is hardly news…. Over [...]
Feb
14
2013
On Transgender Healthcare, NYT Reports Tree, Ignores Forest
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The New York Times reports that in the last few years, several elite U.S. universities have begun to cover sex reassignment surgery and/or hormones for transgender students. On the one hand, it's great that they're reporting news like this, and after years of extremely disrespectful coverage of transgender issues, it feels like a victory that their "balance" is limited to noting that "the idea still seems radical to plenty of people." On the other hand, not a single trans-identified person is quoted. But what I really want to highlight here is how this kind of article utterly fails to connect some [...]
Feb
14
2013
Is John Boehner a Labor Economist?
By 5 Comments
Republican leader John Boehner must have some expertise when it comes to labor economics. Either that, or the New York Times is allowing him to make misleading claims without being challenged.
Feb
13
2013
The Pentagon's Budget Crunch: No Dissenting Views
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The Washington Post had a whole piece devoted to yet another round of complaints from military leaders–without a single comment from anyone who might take the view that cutting military spending would not be such a disaster.
Feb
13
2013
The 'Politically Divisive' Minimum Wage
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It's important to step back and figure out what "divisive" means here. Republicans and corporate interests are opposed to this idea, but the American people say they overwhelmingly support the concept of paying people at the bottom of the wage scale more.
Feb
12
2013
AP Decides Your Husband or Wife Might Not Be
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AP's intention was presumably to remain neutral on the issue of marriage equality–but its initial policy did take a position, indicating that no matter what their state government says, AP was not going to consider legally married same-sex couples to be really married.
Feb
12
2013
PBS Goes to Israel and Palestine–Mostly Israel
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When NewsHour anchor Gwen Ifill said, "We will hear more from Margaret [Warner] as she travels through Israel, the West Bank and Gaza over the next week and a half," That sounded like it could be be an interesting opportunity for TV viewers to get a glimpse of Palestinian life. But that's not what PBS chose to put on the air.
