Media
May 16, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I already thought National Review‘s Kevin Williamson, author of the fine new book The End Is Near And It’s Going to Be Awesome was a total stud, but after last night’s bravado performance in a New York theater, he’s a total heroic stud. If you haven’t heard the story yet, check out how he dealt with cell phone rudeness during a performance: The lady seated to my immediate right (very
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May 16, 2013 — Scott Johnson
According to Eric Holder, Eric Holder is no more responsible for the investigation of the Associated Press than Barack Obama is for events in Benghazi according to Barack Obama. That was Holder’s theme in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, which I first read about yesterday in a post by Allahpundit at Hot Air. Looking around for a narrative account of Holder’s testimony this morning, I find the liberal
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May 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, Bret Baier’s Special Report program on Fox News featured interviews with Marco Rubio and Jeff Sessions about the Rubio-Schumer amnesty legislation. The interviews were given separately. Although Baier tried his best to make it into a point-counterpoint kind of affair, it couldn’t really be a debate because Rubio and Sessions didn’t appear together. I understand that Baier, naturally enough, would have preferred to have Sessions and Rubio on
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May 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Last month Time’s Joe Klein decried the Obama administration’s “incompetence” implementing Obamacare. This month Klein expressed relief in an “Exclusive” report. In his “Exclusive” Klein praised the administration for streamlining the complex 21-page online Obamacare application to a mere three pages. Klein called it “a spiffy, new three-page application for individuals (find it here)” (footnote omitted). He added: “There will be a seven-page application for families (11 including the appendix),
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May 9, 2013 — Steven Hayward
When I wrote my much-misunderstood and mischaracterized feature on “Is Conservatism Brain-Dead?” in the Washington Post four years ago (wow–can it really be four years already?), no passage caused a more mixed reaction than my mixed judgment on Glenn Beck: The case of Glenn Beck, Time magazine’s “Mad Man,” is more interesting. His on-air weepiness is unmanly, his flirtation with conspiracy theories a debilitating dead-end, and his judgments sometimes loopy
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May 4, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Last month Time’s Joe Klein decried the Obama administration’s “incompetence” implementing Obamacare. This week Klein expressed relief in an “Exclusive” report. In his “Exclusive” Klein praised the administration for streamlining the complex 21-page online Obamacare application to a mere three pages. Klein called it “a spiffy, new three-page application for individuals (find it here)” (footnote omitted). He added: “There will be a seven-page application for families (11 including the appendix),
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May 2, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I spent last evening at a splendid dinner of the Friends of Ronald Reagan at the California Club in downtown Los Angeles, where our special guest was Senator John Thune. It was off the record, so no, I won’t tell you what he said, except that when I mentioned I was from Power Line, he recalled running into Scott at the airport recently and was wondering if we were starting
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May 1, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Strip away the pro-illegal alien rhetoric and name-calling in this piece by NBC Latino contributor Stephen Nuno and you will find an important truth — the immigration reform game is dominated by money, and the pro-amnesty side has nearly all of it. Nuno points out that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has put together a coalition of like-minded billionaires to sell Schumer-Rubio style immigration reform to Republicans. Michael Bloomberg has been
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April 28, 2013 — Steven Hayward
There’s likely an inverse relationship between the decline of the legacy media and the increasingly over-the-top desperation, self-congratulation and spectacle of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, held last night. You would think the media would do themselves a favor and not televise the proceedings of their Otherness on C-SPAN, just as the Gridiron dinner is not open to cameras. Even Tom Brokaw has had enough; isn’t this almost a
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April 28, 2013 — Steven Hayward
As we noted here a few weeks ago, The Economist has gone off the reservation on climate change, and in the current issue it has done so again on the issue of affirmation action and race-conscious policy. The issue is featured on the cover, which means it is the subject of the first “leader” (house editorial), “Time to Scrap Affirmative Action,” as well as the focus of a long feature
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April 21, 2013 — John Hinderaker
It is being reported that Koch Industries is considering bidding for the eight regional Tribune newspapers. The Tribune Company, having recently emerged from bankruptcy, is putting the papers up for sale. The Tribune papers include the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel and the Hartford Courant, and represent a substantial media presence. The New York Times, which has more than a passing interest in
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April 21, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Roger Simon comments regarding the Marathon bombers: [W]e have the worst possible president to deal with the situation. And even after an event as heinous as Boston, he is supported by a media desperate to preserve his narrative at all costs. It’s already started. On Saturday the Boston Globe published an article titled — I kid you not — “Islam might have had secondary role in Boston attacks.” (Don’t look
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April 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Probably not. Recall, to cite just one recent example, how the news media got virtually every fact wrong during the first hours and days after the Newtown shootings. Still, the media’s Boston performance has been atrocious, to the point where the FBI released a statement chiding the press: [C]ontrary to widespread reporting, there have been no arrests made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack. … Over the past day
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April 16, 2013 — Scott Johnson
When a liberal hack wins the Pulitzer for commentary or editorial cartoons or news coverage promoting the left-wing party line, it is full of sound and fury signifying nothing but the left’s domination of the institutions conferring recognition and renown. When a conservative of some stripe wins a Pulitzer, it suggests (to me) that his or her undeniable excellence has overcome the resistance of the judges. Such is the case,
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April 16, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In his USA Today column Glenn Reynolds pays tribute to Kirsten Powers for her USA Today column on the silence of the mainstream media regarding the Gosnell murder trial: Like pretty much everyone who writes opinion columns, I hope that people will read what I write and look at things differently as a result. It happens, sometimes. But very few have the impact of Kirsten Powers’ column on the murder
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April 15, 2013 — Steven Hayward
There’s no good purpose in adding to the half-informed speculation on the TV news outlets about what has taken place in Boston. So far only the NY Post is reporting a Saudi national in custody, but I recall how the authorities rounded up the first Middle Easterner they could find after Oklahoma City in 1995, not to mention the rush to judgment about Richard Jewell after the Atlanta Olympics bombing.
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April 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I posted J.D. Mullane’s PhillyBurbs.com column in our Picks over the weekend, but I want to take the liberty of drawing special attention to it. Mullane’s column is “What I saw at the Gosnell trial.” Mullane’s column is accompanied online by a photo of the press section at the trial that Ed Morrissey declared “Photo of the day.” Mullane’s column opens: It is hard to decide the most appalling images
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