If Guantanamo prisoners are being held without charge, and there is no available evidence to charge them with any terrorism-related offenses, why is the Washington Post talking about the possibility that they may "reengage in extremist activity"?
May
02
2013
NYT's Beat Sweetener on New Interior Secretary
By 4 Comments
"Beat sweetener" was written all over John Broder's April 30 New York Times profile of new Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, "a woman of untamed energy, competitiveness and confidence in the boardroom and on a mountain trail."
May
01
2013
How Dare Hamid Karzai Take Our Money!
By 8 Comments
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams had a most peculiar reaction to revelations that Afghan president Hamid Karzai receives regular deliveries of cash from the Central Intelligence Agency.
Apr
30
2013
Cutting the Military Budget Is a Problem…for the Left?
By 13 Comments
The Washington Post presents a "paradox" wrapped in a "conundrum" inside a "quandary"–all on top of a big heaping of right-wing policy advice for the left.
Apr
29
2013
The Sick Madness of Tom Friedman's Culture
By 35 Comments
What is going on in our community that a critical number of our columnists believe that every American military action in the Middle East is justifiable?
Apr
26
2013
Reporting 'Says' Rather Than 'Says It Believes' Could Make a War of Difference
By 9 Comments
The front page of the New York Times had a very definitive headline on Syria and chemical weapons–but when you read the actual story, a much more ambiguous picture emerged.
Apr
26
2013
Texas Fertilizer Plant Disaster: Little Coverage, Much of It Wrong
By 15 Comments
The West Fertilizer Co. explosion last week was largely obscured by blanket coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. More than that, says legendary EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman, a guest on this week's CounterSpin, what coverage there was often obscured the real story.
Apr
23
2013
George W. Bush Is a Swell Guy, Just Ask His Friends
By 16 Comments
The opening of the George W. Bush library is generating coverage about the state of the Bush legacy. But if the journalists who were far too generous in their coverage of Bush's presidency are the same ones writing about how that presidency should be viewed now, he's in safe hands.
Apr
22
2013
Al Neuharth's Front-Page Sexism
By 9 Comments
Seeing a photograph of USA Today founder Al Neuharth above the fold in the edition of his newspaper that reported his death calls to mind a rather famous story about Neuharth's outburst at a 1983 USA Today editorial meeting.
Apr
22
2013
Don't Quote Me by Name, But My Friends the Koch Brothers Respect the Hell Out of Press Freedom
By 12 Comments
The New York Times finds anonymous sources to assure us that the Koch brothers are not trying to buy the Tribune newspapers in order to "destroy the other side." But Mother Jones finds an actual person who explains how the Kochs actually treat media outlets whose reporting they don't like.
Apr
19
2013
Democrats Can't Blame Guns for '94 Losses
By 2 Comments
There are perhaps plenty of lessons in the (most recent) Senate failure to pass even modest new restrictions/regulations on gun ownership. But one lesson needs to be resisted: The idea that passing a more expansive gun control law in 1994 came back to bite Democrats in the midterm elections.
Apr
17
2013
Thatcher Lifted Millions–Says Who?
By 11 Comments
New York Times reporter John Burns admires Margaret Thatcher's legacy. But when he claims she lifted millions to prosperity, does he have any evidence?
Apr
17
2013
Al-Qaeda Pressure Cookers?
By 5 Comments
Are the pressure cooker bombs used in Boston really a link to Al Qaeda? No. But some reporters are trying to make that connection.
