The headline on a story by Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi is "On Iraq, Journalists Didn't Fail. They Just Didn’t Succeed." To make that case, though, he has to redefine "failure" so far down that it's hardly possible to avoid failing.
Mar
23
2013
O'Reilly Demands Respect for the Pagan Goddess Eostre
By 26 Comments
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, claiming victory in the "War on Christmas," declares that the new battle is the "War on Easter." In Bill O'Reilly's conspiracy theory, Barack Obama's election has emboldened "Secular Progressives" to ban the Easter Bunny because he stands in the way of jailing people who "criticize minorities."
Mar
20
2013
Two Peoples, Two Pictures
By 4 Comments
There was a pair of pictures on the front page of USA Today today, meant to illustrate a story about President Barack Obama's visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories. It actually illustrated the very different ways Israelis and Palestinians are depicted in U.S. media.
Mar
13
2013
Armistice's Day Is Done–Contrary to NYT
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Citing anonymous officials, the New York Times reported that "no party [to an] armistice can unilaterally terminate or alter its terms." International law expert Francis Boyle says that's nonsense.
Mar
06
2013
AP: Chavez Wasted His Money on Healthcare When He Could Have Built Gigantic Skyscrapers
By 149 Comments
Chavez squandered his nation's oil money on healthcare, education and nutrition when he could have been building the world's tallest building or his own branch of the Louvre. What kind of monster has priorities like that?
Feb
27
2013
CNN's Recipe for Italy: Austerity–No Matter What
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CNN.com had an odd piece of analysis of the Italian election results, arguing that austerity "is necessary by any calculation to actually start moving Italy out of the recession." That's not the calculation of Paul Krugman, who for what its worth is a Nobel Prize-winning economist.
Feb
27
2013
Forget Objectivity–Can We Have a Fact-Based Media?
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There is no objective evidence that allowing two people of the same gender to marry will harm mixed-gender marriages. So you might think objective reporting would treat that assertion as a dubious claim.
Feb
21
2013
When You're Cutting Social Security, 'Wealthy' Begins at $25K
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Here's a proposal for Social Security that was on the New York Times' op-ed page yesterday (2/20/13): The top third of beneficiaries (by lifetime income) [would] receive no annual cost-of-living adjustment in retirement. The middle third would get half of today’s adjustment, and the bottom third would receive the same annual increase they do now. Such a reform…would reduce Social Security spending by more than a tenth over a decade and fix the program’s long-term financing. This is part of Paul Ryan adviser Yuval Levin's attempt to find "common ground" on the entitlement issue: "Both sides should agree at least [...]
Feb
20
2013
Why Does a Climatologist Need to Explain Economics to Joe Nocera?
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NASA climatologist James Hansen has tried to explain to New York Times columnist Joe Nocera why he's so wrong about the tar sands, but Nocera's account of their argument makes it seem like explaining anything to him would be an uphill battle.
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
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
08
2013
At Beliefnet, 'Everyone' Doesn't Include Feminists
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The religious-themed website Beliefnet bills itself as offering "something for everyone" with a "broad editorial point of view." Unfortunately, as playwright and pastor Kristine Holmgren found when she was offered a chance to blog there, in Beliefnet's eyes, "everyone" does not include feminists.
