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23 Jul 2009 10:12

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Politics: Was journalism icon Walter Cronkite really worthy of our trust?

  • If the nostalgia for Cronkitian news values were genuine, you’d expect PBS’s soporific News Hour would be drawing huge and growing numbers of viewers. … Alas, the NewsHour’s Cronkite-lite approach has failed to attract much of an audience.
  • Slate columnist Jack Shafer • Discussing why the legacy of someone like Walter Cronkite – the trustworthy face of journalism for a generation – was bad for news consumers. Shafer suggests that today’s era of multiple opinions all over the place is a much better market – and that trust, especially of a information source like Cronkite is a bad yardstick to follow. He ends his piece by saying: “Be skeptical, news consumers, especially of the journalists you trust most. It will make you smarter and keep them honest.” • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jul 2009 10:24

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Politics, U.S.: Katie Couric asked Obama the biggest softball we’ve ever heard

  • You’re so confident, Mr. President. And so focused. Is your confidence ever shaken, do you ever wake up and say, ‘Damn, this is hard! Damn, I’m not going to get the things done that I want to get done,’ and it’s just too politicized to get anything done?
  • Katie Couric • In an “Early Show” interview with President Barack Obama. Originally, we were going to pull the quote in response to Couric’s more-hardball question about Obama’s vacation time (which you should still go to the link and read), but then we saw this and simply had to criticize it. Katie, you’re interviewing the president, not a Hollywood actor. The standard for question-asking needs to be a little higher than, “Is your job too hard?” • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jul 2009 12:52

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Politics: The GOP latches onto a Lady Gaga parody as a shining example

  • 23-year-old Matt Damon … er, Peter Cowman is currently being used as a shining example of how to do social media right in terms of spreading a political message. Cowman, from Republican Rep. Dave Reichert’s district in Washington, re-wrote the lyrics to Lady Gaga’s newfangled classic “Just Dance” to criticize overspending in Congress and by Obama. It’s clever, but it’s no Penny guy or Auto-Tune the News.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jul 2009 18:30

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Politics: A lefty says that Sarah Palin is an example of the rise of idiocy

  • She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn’t say what she read because she didn’t read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity.
  • The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan • Describing why Sarah Palin often didn’t know what the heck she was talking about on TV. Noonan’s quote (Noonan is a conservative, BTW) is something of a centerpiece of Salon columnist Gene Lyons’ thrashing of not only Palin herself but her quote-unquote idiotic fans, calling her a product of TV celebrity culture. Lyons goes further: “President? Get real. Sarah Palin couldn’t manage a Wal-Mart.” Ouch. Those claws sure dig deep, don’t they? • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

19 Jul 2009 17:45

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Politics: Max Headroom: Trashing on Canada, remembering Cronkite

  • A friend in Canada … On “Meet the Press,” top-ranking Sen. Mitch McConnell discounts the idea of health care for all Americans using an argument involving both Ford Motor Co. and a friend of a friend who died because Canada wouldn’t allow him to get a medical procedure. Hm.

  • A friend in Canada … On “Meet the Press,” top-ranking Sen. Mitch McConnell discounts the idea of health care for all Americans using an argument involving both Ford Motor Co. and a friend of a friend who died because Canada wouldn’t allow him to get a medical procedure. Hm.

  • “It was about news” CBS’ Bob Schieffer, who’s had a full weekend of comments about Walter Cronkite to make, makes yet another one on CNN about what made Cronkite stand out – he cared about the news above all else. “He loved no scoop better than HIS scoop,” Schieffer said.

  • A friend in Canada … On “Meet the Press,” top-ranking Sen. Mitch McConnell discounts the idea of health care for all Americans using an argument involving both Ford Motor Co. and a friend of a friend who died because Canada wouldn’t allow him to get a medical procedure. Hm.

  • “It was about news” CBS’ Bob Schieffer, who’s had a full weekend of comments about Walter Cronkite to make, makes yet another one on CNN about what made Cronkite stand out – he cared about the news above all else. “He loved no scoop better than HIS scoop,” Schieffer said.

  • From bad to worse Fox News had a friendly chat this morning with Obama budget wizard Peter Orszag, who says that the economy is worse than anyone thought – backed by unemployment figures. “You can’t go from job losses of 700,000 a month … to job growth like that,” he said.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jul 2009 16:29

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Politics, Tech: Digg’s DiggBar gets kinda shady in its linking style

  • The more disturbing part is that they’re expecting us to use their diggbar urls to deceptively push their site to our followers. If I broadcast a link to the New York Times, people expect to see the New York Times when they click that link. They do not expect to land on Digg.
  • End of Web blogger Matthew Rogers • On a recent change of functionality in the DiggBar, a service we admittedly initially liked. However, the functionality has changed in such a way that the links no longer lead to the source of the content for logged-out users but to the Digg page for that article. Granted, we’ve read some of Rogers’ other posts and feel that he generally comes off a bit hard-line on things, but in this case, we feel that he’s right. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

19 Jul 2009 11:42

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Politics, U.S.: Is NASA just a major financial boondoggle for the U.S.?

  • We know what we got from the interstate highway system—fast, easy transportation, the creation of the suburbs, an entire transformation of our way of life. What did we get economically from the space program, especially the manned portion? Much, much less.
  • BusinessWeek chief economist Michael Mandel • Pointing out the very low cost-benefit ratio of our space program. We’re not sure if financial benefit should be the only consideration of something like NASA, but points out that, with inflation considered, we spent $176 billion on NASA during the height of the space race era, 1962-1972. Comparatively, we spent $220 billion on highways during that same period. Like we said, not sure we agree, but something to consider. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink
 

17 Jul 2009 17:19

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Politics: For fans of political scandal, three words: “C Street House”

  • Chip Pickering’s tie A mistress of former Mississippi Rep. Chip Pickering, who didn’t run for re-election in 2008, was sued by Pickering’s wife on charges of cheating with her hubby in the house.
  • John Ensign’s tie Nevada Sen. John Ensign, currently in the midst of the fallout from his own affair, was apparently roommates with Pickering at the sketchtastic D.C.-based home with religious group ties. source
  • Chip Pickering’s tie A mistress of former Mississippi Rep. Chip Pickering, who didn’t run for re-election in 2008, was sued by Pickering’s wife on charges of cheating with her hubby in the house.
  • John Ensign’s tie Nevada Sen. John Ensign, currently in the midst of the fallout from his own affair, was apparently roommates with Pickering at the sketchtastic D.C.-based home with religious group ties.
  • Mark Sanford’s tie S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, while a congressman, was a member of the group. When word broke of his recent marital problems, he said he was getting help from the house. Conspiracy theories ahoy! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jul 2009 14:58

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Politics, U.S.: Obama sez black role models aren’t good enough

  • They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers.
  • President Barack Obama • Speaking at last night’s NAACP 100th anniversary dinner. The president has largely avoided taking on issues of race in his presidency, letting his actions speak for themselves, but spoke openly about the racial divide at the dinner, saying “the pain of discrimination is still felt in America.” But of all the comments he made, this one strikes the hardest. Obama isn’t saying that either LeBron or Lil Wayne are bad on their own, but they set terrible examples for children. You don’t want to lean too hard on the “scientists or engineers” angle here, but he has a solid point. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Jul 2009 14:11

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Politics: ESPN.com columnist: Don’t compare gay rights to civil rights

  • This is one of the main reasons why so many blacks bristle at the comparison of the two movements – everybody wants to sing the blues, nobody wants to live them.
  • ESPN.com columnist LZ Granderson • In a column on CNN comparing the gay rights movement to the struggle that blacks have faced. Granderson, an openly gay black male sportswriter (which is a pretty specific social segment), takes the movement to task for leaving out black people and complaining that President Barack Obama isn’t moving quickly enough. Granderson has a long history of insightful comments on gay rights, by the way. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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