Media

Shady Grove

Featured image The Star Tribune represents the mainstream media at work in Minnesota. It is the dominant voice of conventional wisdom that relentlessly peddles the left-wing line on its news pages and its editorial positions. It is, moreover, a profitable business owned by a billionaire. Glen Taylor bought it in 2014 for $100 million. He may have assumed some of the paper’s debt in the process. It reportedly makes a substantial amount »

A Gay chorus

Featured image Yesterday the Washington Free Beacon posted Thaleigha Rampersad’s video compilation of the chorus of hosannas that greeted the announcement Claudine Gay’s appointment to the presidency of Harvard in December 2022 (see “Raving gaily”). Today the Beacon follows up with another Rampersad compilation, this one of the chorus of media talking heads explaining Gay’s resignation from the presidency this week. Once again we see the herd of independent minds at work. »

Cotton’s Commentary

Featured image Senator Tom Cotton was the guest of honor at Commentary’s annual roast this past November 12. That means he was the roastee. In the January issue editor John Podhoretz turns over the space reserved for his monthly editorial on the issue’s first page (and in this case a few more) to Senator Cotton’s Guest Commentary (“Now More Than Ever”) — his remarkable speech paying tribute to Commentary at the roast. »

Raving gaily

Featured image In the video compilation below, the Washington Free Beacon draws on the chorus of hosannas that greeted the announcement Claudine Gay’s appointment to the presidency of Harvard in December 2022 after a five-month search. The Wall Street Journal reminds us: “That was the shortest search in about 70 years, according to the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper.” Gay’s appointment set off a stampede among the media’s herd of independent minds. »

The year in columns

Featured image I read a lot of columns and columnists to populate the Picks that rotate through the top of our home page. I thought I might take a look back over some of my favorites of the past year. Having thought about it over the past few days, I am afraid the list necessarily reflects a recency bias. Please take these Picks as representative of the columnists’ work and conservative publications »

Ye is sorry: A footnote

Featured image Commenting on the “apology” tendered by the rapper formerly known as Kanye West for causing “unintended outbursts,” I quoted the text verbatim. I also drew on Christopher Kuo’s New York Times story reporting on the denial of anti-Semitism reflected in the title track of his forthcoming compact disc Vultures. On the album’s title track, the Times reports, “Ye raps that he cannot be antisemitic because he had sex with a »

Ye is sorry

Featured image I first tuned in to the anti-Semitic ravings of Kanye West or Ye in his October 2022 interview with Tucker Carlson. In the part of the interview Tucker chose to air, Jared Kushner’s promotion of peace between Israel and Arabs in the Abraham Accords was disparaged as self-interested in an evocative fashion. “I just think it was to make money,” Ye said. “Is that too heavy-handed to put on this »

The mirage of Yahya Sarraj

Featured image The New York Times opened its opinion pages to Gaza City Mayor Yahya R. Sarraj. Sarraj’s op-ed column runs as “I Am Gaza City’s Mayor. Our Lives and Culture Are in Rubble.” Not to disappoint Times readers, Sarraj gave them what they came for on Christmas Eve — a blast of pure Hamas propaganda. In this respect it bears some resemblance to the news pages of the Times, but this »

How sad can you get?

Featured image Tom Elliot has compiled a supercuts video of the 10 most mortifying media moments of 2023. He has posted the video at Grabien News with comments here. One could reverse the order of the top 10 mortifying media moments and still have it right. The competition for number 1 is intense. It’s a good thing these talking heads are incapable of shame or embarrassment. It’s hard to do justice to »

Gay shambolism

Featured image Students of ancient history may recall that Harvard President Claudine Gay’s plagiarism scandal began with a late October inquiry by the New York Post to Gay and Harvard specifying incidents of what we have come to know as “inadequate citation” in Gay’s work. The Post submitted its inquiry and awaited their response. Harvard deceitfully asked the Post for more time to respond. The response was a 15-page letter from the »

Shocker: Gaza hospital a Hamas base

Featured image NRO’s Ari Blaff reports on the video released by the IDF via its Twitter feed (below). Blaff’s headline tells the story: “Gaza Hospital Boss Admits He’s a Hamas Commander, Used Medical Facility as Terror Base.” Hamas in their own words: Ahmad Kahalot—Senior Hamas Member since 2010 and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya in northern Gaza admits that Hamas has used hospitals as military facilities under their control. »

The Biden family business: Deep are the roots

Featured image This past weekend Washington Post reporter Michael Kranish worked up a detailed Sunday morning special on the Biden family business: “James Biden’s dealmaking caught on FBI tapes in unrelated bribery probe.” Subhead: “While Joe Biden campaigned in Mississippi, his brother planned to build a powerful consulting business — a deal that brought him to the periphery of a federal case.” Kranish’s story on the Biden family business goes back to »

Richard Kemp reports

Featured image There is so much news out of Israel’s current war that one has to work hard to keep up. You don’t hear about the Israelis displaced from their homes because of the attacks by Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north. For some reason or other, the world isn’t crying for them. You don’t hear about the IDF’s revelations of the Hamas way of war in contravention of »

Live from Tel Aviv

Featured image IDF Lt. Colonel (reserve) Jonathan Conricus discusses the incredibly tragic death of the three Israeli hostages killed by IDF forces yesterday. He speaks in the seven-minute video below with a Sky News anchor with the attitude to which we have become accustomed. He finds this an opportune moment to put Conricus on the defensive. To say the same effect I also note that takes up the casualty figures disseminated by »

After the atrocity video, Cuomo style

Featured image Chris Cuomo has reappeared with his own show on NewsNation. Leland Vittert has his own show over there as well. When I met Leland in the lobby of our hotel in Tuscaloosa, I told him one of my friends appreciated his uncompromising view of the Israel-Hamas war. He told me in his engaging style that he sees it as a matter of right and wrong. I was impressed with the »

You got a problem with that?

Featured image The headline on the story above the fold at the center of the Wall Street Journal’s page one today reads: “Israel Faces Outcry as Photos Of Detainees in Gaza Emerge.” In the online version the headline reads: “Israel Detains Hundreds of Palestinian Men in Search for Hamas.” Well, what’s the problem? The subhead explains: “Videos online show Palestinian men detained in their underwear, sparking concern among human rights groups.” You »

Of slimy filaments & dirty threads

Featured image Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman made news at a House hearing last week. He alleged without a scrap of evidence that the Hunter Biden laptop hard drive might have been altered by Rudy Giuliani. According to Goldman, the hard drive “was not authenticated as real.” It’s as real as Goldman is fake. The episode reminded me of one of Alger Hiss’s claims of innocence following his conviction of perjury. According to »