Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

26 Apr 2011 15:49

tags

Politics: The bed bug cares not for Rupert Murdoch’s flock

  • bed bugs… A well known parasitic bug that feeds on human blood for nourishment — they had been declining for decades, but the 1990s saw a return of the bitey little punks. New York City in particular has battled them in recent years.
  • bug FOX! Media empires are not immune to bed bugs, either. In 2007, Fox News fought an infestation in their NYC HQ with bug sniffing dogs (!?), an entomologist, and the freezing agent Cryonite, as litigation today revealed. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 21:08

tags

Politics: Pander to the Birthers, and Fox News will give you gig

  • rhetoric Donald Trump has been stoking the Birther fires lately, repeatedly questioning President Obama’s place of birth (and, by extension, the legitimacy of his presidency).
  • result Fox News has given Trump his own weekly segment, “Monday Mornings With Trump.” We mean “given” in the literal sense; Fox says that Trump isn’t being paid. source
  • » Fun fact: In announcing Trump’s new gig, Fox amusingly referred to the billionaire TV star as “The Donald.” Admittedly, this nickname format rolls off the tongue much better with Trump than with other 2012 contenders (The Mike, The Mitt, The Newt, etc).
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Mar 2011 00:59

tags

Politics: Evan Bayh: Former Democratic Senator joins Fox News

  • Democrat Evan Bayh, who was both Governor of and Senator from Indiana, has signed up to be a Fox News contributor. Bayh declined to run for re-election in 2010, and some thought he might become a lobbyist after his exit. They were wrong, though, and now he’s primed to become Fox’s new token Democrat. (Alan Colmes! What, what?) Now, some might say that any Democrat would be crazy to join (and, in doing so, help promote) a place like Fox News, given that it’s, well, Fox News. Others, however, argue that people like Bayh are doing an invaluable service to the Democratic cause in providing a liberal perspective to an audience that would not otherwise hear one. What do y’all think? Is Bayh a sell out, or will his stint at Fox help open some eyes? source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Mar 2011 21:32

tags

Politics: New York Times’ Bill Keller rips on Fox News unobjectively

  • I think if you’re a regular viewer of Fox News, you’re among the most cynical people on planet Earth. I cannot think of a more cynical slogan than ‘Fair and Balanced.’
  • New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller • Assessing Fox News while speaking at the City University of New York graduate journalism school late last week. As you might guess, the comments weren’t taken particularly well, partly because he’s the executive editor of the New York Times and the NYT regularly breaks news about Fox News. Including, uh, like two days ago. Now, considering how hard-up they are about their objectivity (this piece on Nate Silver is a pretty great example), it’s a reasonable criticism – and one that sticks a little harder than the one about Anderson Cooper using the word “liar.” Because, unlike this, he landed a direct blow on a competitor that compromises his paper’s objectivity. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Mar 2011 12:33

tags

Politics: Fox News kills Newt, Santorum contracts over presidential plans

  • This had been contemplated from the start. This is Fox policy, this is the announcement that is being made today.
  • Fox News’ Brett Baier • Explaining why Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, each of whom are running for president, just had their contracts suspended while they consider presidential runs. Sixty days from now, if they actually plan to run, their contracts get terminated. So … wait. There are a bunch of other folks on Fox News’ payroll in the same boat. Like, you know, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, who have basically used their entire careers on Fox News as one long presidential pre-campaign. And they’re not getting ditched yet, simply because they haven’t done their presidential exploratory committees? Wuuh? Fox News has some very strange policies about what constitutes “considering presidential runs.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Feb 2011 20:30

tags

Politics: 2012 election: Mike Huckabee conflicted about money issues

  • You know, the last few years, I’ve certainly done better than I’ve ever done in my life. You know, if I have the choice of being, let’s say, better off or abjectly poor, I kind of like better off better.
  • Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee • Pointing out that, were he to walk way from his Fox News and public speaking income and run for president again, it would probably make him broke. The former Arkansas governor has been mulling a presidential run for ages, but seems kinda unsure of whether or not he should. “In order to run for president the last time, I cashed in my life insurance, my annuities,” he noted. “You know, I pretty much went through everything that I ever had as an asset that I thought I might one day live on.” Dude should just run in 2016 and ensure he has so much in the bank that he doesn’t go broke in the process. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Feb 2011 20:14

tags

U.S.: Glenn Beck rips on Google because of Wael Ghonim. WTF?

  • And so it begins: “I’m really not sure I want my search engine involved in government overthrows,” says Glenn Beck, who did exactly what we pointed out might be the side effect of Wael Ghonim’s activism – that people would start ganging up on Google because of its employee’s side projects. “I’m not leading any boycott,” he said eventually. “I hate boycotts: you do with your time, your money, and your information what you want.  For me personally, I’m not feeling real comfortable about the current direction of Google, the more I find out.” He then goes into that kooky conspiracy theorist thing that he does. Shoot us now. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

08 Feb 2011 02:26

tags

Politics: Max Headroom: Reporters talk about their Egypt battle scars

  • Somehow, these guys made it out. Perhaps one of the most harrowing reporter stories to come out of Egypt this week comes from Fox News reporter Greg Palkot and cameraman Olaf Wiig, who were smoked out of the building they were staying in, only to get caught in a crowd of pro-Mubarak supporters. Palkot has some pretty severe injuries. Yikes. A lot of reporters probably were put in situations similar to this, and it’s good to note that their hard work kept the cameras on the country as things started to waver. source
  • Anderson Cooper gets scared, tooIn one of the more harrowing clips from the past week, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he of getting punched in the face by some pro-Mubarak supporters, is in some random room trying to report the news. He left the country not long after this episode, a victim of having a well-known face in an area not kind to journalists.
  • Are things really getting better?On tonight’s show, Rachel Maddow brought up the plight of Ayman Mohyeldin, the Al Jazeera reporter who was detained by authorities for a few hours before finally getting released. Mohyeldin’s words, Maddow argues, show that the narrative doesn’t support what’s actually happening in Egypt. It’s way worse.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jan 2011 19:52

tags

Politics: The Juan Williams after-effect: NPR shakes up its leadership

  • cause NPR decided to quickly fire news analyst Juan Williams for saying that Muslims made him feel uncomfortable, which drew a lot of controversy and led Fox News to hire him full-time.
  • effect After an investigation into what happened, NPR’s Senior VP for News, Ellen Weiss, resigned, and CEO Vivian Schiller won’t be getting a bonus this year. Them’s the breaks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jan 2011 21:33

tags

Culture: In general, we’re watching more television – and a LOT less CNN

  • +1% the increase in the total audience on all cable and broadcast television channels in 2010
  • -7% the decrease in Fox News’ total audience – they’re still on top of the cable news game
  • -34% the decrease in CNN’s total audience – the worst of any cable network, period source
  • » Time to bring back “Pop-Up Video”: Behind CNN, the second-biggest loser in cable was VH1 (down 31 percent), which, unlike big gainer The History Channel (up 34 percent), is unable to bank on an antiques-and-pawn-shop lineup to pump up the ratings.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>