Media
June 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Over at InstaPundit, Glenn Reynolds makes a shrewd observation about David Brooks that seems to me worth rescuing from the stream of links. Glenn writes: WHEN WOMEN COMPLAIN ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CHIVALRY, I’m prone to point out that chivalry was a system, one that imposed obligations of behavior on women and girls as well as on men. Likewise, when David Brooks complains that Edward Snowden is an unmediated man,
»
June 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Josh Kraushaar has an interesting National Journal column on Obama’s appointments of Susan “it was the YouTube video” Rice and Samantha “let’s invade Israel” Power today. Borrowing from the title of Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, I think of these ladies as “a problem from hell,” but that’s unfair. They reflect the boss. Here is the opening of Kraushaar’s column: A hallmark of the Obama administration is its imperviousness to conventional
»
June 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Atlantic has posted an item assessing effect of the death of Senator Lautenberg on various issues near and dear to the Democrats. The item is posted under the heading “How Senator Lautenberg’s death makes the Senate even less functional.” After each of three issues, the Atlantic rates the “Affect of Lautenberg’s death.” The “Affect” of Senator Lautenberg’s death rates from Low to Very High. Although the effect is slight,
»
May 30, 2013 — Steven Hayward
File this under the ditty “Tie a Yellow [Journalism] Ribbon Round the Old Koch Tree” (hat tip to our erstwhile headline writer RS), as we take in our pals at ReasonTV allowing the protesters against a possible Koch purchase of the LA Times make utter fools of themselves:
»
May 28, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Eric Holder doesn’t need to be as creative as Cole Porter in expressing regrets. He’s got Daniel Klaidman doing public relations for him in the risible Daily Beast article “Holder’s regrets and repairs.” Klaidman gives a source close to Holder anonymity in order to deliver a limp noodle such as this: As one of Holder’s advisers put it, the message was: “Look we get it. We understand why this is
»
May 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Charles Enderlin is the France 2 Jerusalem correspondent who broadcast the incendiary account of the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura at the hands of Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip in September 2000. Based on film footage provided by a Palestinian cameraman, Enderlin’s report has become infamous among students of terrorist propaganda both for its destructive effects and for its probable falsity. The al-Dura affair bids to join the
»
May 25, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The latest reporting in the matter of Fox News Channel’s James Rosen indicates the Obama administration fought to keep the search warrant for Rosen’s private email account secret, arguing that the government might need to monitor the account for a lengthy period of time. Thank you, Ryan Lizza. And one more thing. Despite Eric Holder’s protestations of ignorance regarding the Rosen matter, NBC reports that Holder himself authorized the warrant
»
May 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I have greatly admired the work of James Rosen over the years. He seems to me a classic old-fashioned reporter, as the events of the past week have strongly suggested. And while working his day job at Fox News, he also wrote an intensely interesting biography cum history, The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate. Rosen’s biography of Mitchell was unjustly neglected upon its publication in 2008.
»
May 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The emerging conservative line on the Obama administration’s aggressive investigations of journalists is that national security leaks should be dealt with by going after the leaker, not the reporter. I’ve heard this line from a number of conservative commentators, most notably Karl Rove. I couldn’t disagree more. Reporters are not above the law. And, as John has explained, the law (per the Espionage Act, 18 US Code Section 793) prohibits
»
May 22, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Writing from memory yesterday morning, I recalled the role George Will had played as National Review’s Washington columnist during Watergate. I was faithfully reading the magazine in 1973 and 1974, and I think I was remembering Will’s NR columns accurately, but I was also recalling an inside account written, I thought, by William Buckley or NR senior editor Jeffrey Hart. I couldn’t find what I was thinking of in Buckley’s
»
May 21, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The two most honest and independent reporters in Washington are, I think, Jake Tapper, now of CNN, and CBS’s Sharyl Attkisson. I’m probably forgetting someone, but those are the two that come to mind. Ms. Attkisson reported on Fast and Furious more fearlessly and effectively than any other reporter. Today she disclosed that her personal and work computers have been “compromised.” The circumstances are being investigated: “I can confirm that
»
May 21, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Having lived through the Watergate scandal and the impeachment of President Nixon, I recall that one conservative journalist stood out from the pack. As the Washington columnist for National Review, George Will regularly exposed the Nixon administration’s lines of defense as the lies that they were. He distinguished himself both for his merciless analytical rigor and his skills as an anatomist. Will was in the infancy of his now long
»
May 20, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday the Washington Post broke an explosive story: as part of a leak investigation, the Department of Justice obtained access to Fox News reporter James Rosen’s email account, without giving notice of such access to Rosen, Fox or anyone else: When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving
»
May 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
In early March, I wrote a post called “Tears for Piers” about the meltdown of Piers Morgan on Fox Soccer Channel as he watched Arsenal, the soccer team he supports, lose to Tottenham Hotspur, the club’s North London rival. In a tirade the sophistication of which failed to meet the standards of a 3:00 a.m. sports call-in show, Morgan castigated Arsenal’s long-time, hugely-successful manager, Arsene Wenger. He concluded by advising
»
May 19, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Charles Enderlin is the France 2 Jerusalem correspondent who broadcast the incendiary account of the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura at the hands of Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip in September 2000. Based on film footage provided by a Palestinian cameraman, Enderlin’s report has become infamous among students of Arab propaganda both for its destructive effects and for its probable falsity. The al-Dura affair bids to join the
»
May 19, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Our friends at RealClearPolitics have posted Steve Chapman’s Chicago Tribune column “The false Nixon equivalence.” It addresses the subject I took up in “Nixon’s IRS” and, more broadly, in “A Watergate footnote.” Chapman makes the case that comparisons of Obama with Nixon in the matter of the current IRS scandal are misguided. I think the comparison is useful. The outrages committed by the IRS under Obama in the past few
»
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
»
