Media
March 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The photograph of BBC Arabic editor Jihad Masharawi holding the shrouded body of his 11-month-old son, Omar, went viral within hours of the commencement of Israel’s Operation pillar of Defense in November 2012. The photograph depicted Masharawi outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The young Masharawi’s death was attributed to an Israeli airstrike. The photograph was featured on the Web and in newspapers around the world. The Daily Mail published
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March 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about the photograph of BBC Arabic editor Jihad Masharawi holding the shrouded body of his 11-month-old son, Omar, in posts here, here, here and here. The photograph depicted Masharawi outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City early in Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense. The young Masharawi’s death was attributed to an Israeli airstrike. The photograph went viral on the second day of the conflict between Hamas and Israel, being
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March 6, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Sometimes it really is hard to tell the difference between a Thomas Friedman column and the parody that spews forth from the Thomas Friedman op-ed column generator. Today is one of those days. So, it is this real Friedman, or a computer-generated, Daily Show-worthy parody: I just spent the last two days at a great conference convened by M.I.T. and Harvard on “Online Learning and the Future of Residential Education”
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March 4, 2013 — Steven Hayward
And then there are the stories you read that go beyond our usual category of mere ineptitude. Such as the Tabernacle Baptist Church in St. Louis that wants to fight gun violence by holding . . . a toy gun buyback. Just a hunch here: I’ll bet they don’t sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” in that congregation. The New York Times announced quietly on Friday afternoon at 5 pm (let’s see.
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March 3, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
What’s more fun than watching Tottenham Hotspur defeat Arsenal in the North London Derby, causing Arsenal to drop to within two points of Everton in the battle for fifth place in the EPL? Lot’s of things, actually, and one of them is watching this happen in front of Arsenal fan Piers Morgan, the insufferable CNN talk show host. I’ve seen Morgan on Fox pre-game shows before. On those occasions, he
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February 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t regret writing earlier today that the MSM would be turned off by Gene Sperling’s statement to Bob Woodward that he would regret some of his reporting on the sequester. But it looks like I may have erred in this prediction. Politico reports that some in the media reject Woodward’s claim that Sperling’s remark amounted to a threat. Among that group, interestingly enough, is Bret Baier of Fox News.
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February 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Until very recently, I had a hard time imagining what it would take to get the mainstream media riled up about the Obama administration. After all, even the Benghazi horror failed to accomplish this. But the Bob Woodward flap has remedied my failure of imagination. Whatever the merit of Woodward’s specific charge that the White House, through Gene Sperling, threatened him, the controversy at a minimum has struck a nerve
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February 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
As Scott pointed out yesterday, Bob Woodward has thrust himself even further into the sequestration saga by complaining that a “very senior person” at the White House warned him in an email that he would “regret” his comment that President Obama moved the goal post by asking for more revenue. Politico has presented what purports to be the email containing the threat, which was written by Gene Sperling. In context
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February 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Bob Woodward has been blowing the whistle on Obamaworld full of lies on the sequester, most recently over the weekend in a Washington Post column. It’s a great old-fashioned story in a number of respects, which was the point I tried to make in my Obamaworld post. In any event, it seems to have Woodward’s juices flowing. This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Woodward blasted Obama’s “madness” for letting budget
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February 27, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Over the years, we have often had fun with the ignorance shown by reporters and editors of the New York Times with respect to literature, history, geography, and especially math and science, as reflected in the paper’s corrections section. Today’s corrections include a classic of the genre. It concerns this photo, which was part of an article about an environmental controversy in Maine: A picture caption on Saturday with an
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February 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama’s transparent mendacity about his responsibility for the sequester is revealing. The obtuse Chuck Todd doesn’t think it’s a story; he characterizes it as a traditionally sterile argument about who is to blame for the unpleasantness (which is the way the New York Times treats the issue it when it deigns to touch it). Todd can’t be that stupid, can he? True, it would be nice to know how
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February 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Politics, it has been said for a while now, is “show business for ugly people.” (The line is said to have originated with either Paul Begala, or Texas political consultant Bill Miller, in a 1991 Dallas Morning News article.) Actually, the ugly part is less and less true; it is slowly becoming a requirement in politics as in Hollywood that you be good looking to succeed. With the appearance at
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February 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson
A cafeteria food fight turned into a riot at South High School in Minneapolis yesterday. The school’s security officers were insufficient to the task. Police officers dispatched to the scene sprayed mace and placed the school on lockdown to get a handle on the situation. Three or four students and a staff member ended up in the hospital. What’s going on? The Star Tribune discreetly reports that parents and students
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February 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker
There isn’t much left of the CNN brand, but there is still a little room to sink deeper–and today, CNN did. Compare and contrast: CNN’s panel is excited about Chris Dorner. They can understand why lots of people think he is a “superhero.” They think his deeds were “exciting,” like a “Denzel Washington movie,” and agree that Dorner shed valuable light on the critical issue of police brutality. Their panel
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February 12, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I’ll be on Bill Bennett’s “Morning in America” radio show tomorrow morning (as a guest, not a host) at 8:05 eastern time to talk about Obama’s State of the Union speech, which I must say I found surprisingly boring and listless. (Check your local radio listings, or listen online at www.billbennett.com.) With all the buildup, I expected a much stronger and more confrontational speech. Did the departure of inaugural speechwriter
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February 12, 2013 — John Hinderaker
As you are probably aware, Esquire magazine has published an interview with the Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden. The interview has made news for a number of reasons, but what does Esquire headline? The claim that the SEAL, now out of the service, has been left without health care by the federal government: Here is how the article’s author, Phil Bronstein, tells the story: “I left SEALs on
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January 31, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The New York Times announced today that its systems have been hacked by the Chinese over a period of months: For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems… Here comes the key bit: and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees. So that explains Tom Friedman’s columns! We probably should apologize for believing Friedman was dumb enough to consider
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