Does the Republican Party represent anything I stand for right now? Absolutely not. Right now the Republican Party doesn’t even know what it stands for.
Joe Wurzelbacher a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber” • Regarding the party which used him as a talking point during last year’s presidential election. Wurzelbacher is well-known for not pulling punches in his political opinion – he got into this whole mess by criticizing Barack Obama’s economic policies to his face – and remains a fierce conservative-leaning independent. His biggest issue remains the economy: “Instead of spending more of our money, they should cut back like ordinary Americans are having to. Why do they think they can spend their way out of this mess?” Since we last spoke to the the outspoken plumber, he’s aligned himself with the tea partyin’ wing of conservatism. • source
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
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
What happened? A group that our site has personal ties with, the Society for News Design, lost its president in an ugly and public way. Other sites have covered itmuch better than we can and will, but suffice it to say, a professional newspaper organization with a long, storied history and thousands of members will struggle to regain its formidable swagger. And honestly, it sucks.
Why is this?Ultimately, SND’s problems are a microcosm for the rest of the news industry. They’ve lost members in the wake of massive news-industry layoffs, and many former members complain that the organization focuses too much on big picture surface details at the loss of its rank and file. News companies do the same thing; they’re laying off their future right now.
What do we change?Ultimately, SND – and the news industry in general – has to function with the Internet instead of around it. Most newspapers are organized around themselves. The Internet doesn’t cluster to walled gardens – it clusters to smart little ideas here and there. Find ways to play inside the new rules. The old rules don’t work. The structure of news needs a redesign.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s victory has the merit of clarifying the situation within the Islamic Republic. The choice is now between a repressive regime based on a bizarre and obscurantist ideology and the prospect of real change and democratization. There is no halfway house.
Conservative commentator Amir Taheri • In a column for the Wall Street Journal, where he points out how Iran’s election has made the line between democracy and sorta-democracy clear. In other words, sorta-democracy doesn’t exist. Taheri ends his column by saying, regarding Ahmadinejad and his hard-line approach to victory, “hubris may turn out to be his undoing.” Hopefully it isn’t ours. • source
In case you haven’t heard, Michael Moore is working on an as-yet-untitled movie about the economy. We’re sure good portions of our audience are gonna loooove that. Read the comments on the YouTube page to get an idea.
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Today’s video game is more like a movie – as long as you turn the crank on the side of the projector, eventually you’ll experience the entire thing. That is the opposite of playing a game, since you are never guaranteed to win a game.
Blogger “agnostic” • In a long-winded rant about how video games became elaborate productions instead of simple, fun things that were reflexive challenges. We agree. Video games suck now because they’re overly complex, and we totally stopped playing them for this reason. • source
one Newsweek’s Josh Alston sez he’s doing well. “Conan tears himself to shreds in such a deft manner, that it’s easy to forget that self-deprecation is actually a super-annoying personality trait.”
two New York Daily News critic David Hinckley noted how “Conan made it subtly clear that the new kid in town will be a little naughtier and that for better or worse, “Tonight” is now his ride.”
three David Letterman was perfectly goofy about the whole thing. “I’m still here,” he said “I knocked off another competitor.” He also said his mother noted how he didn’t get the “Tonight Show” gig again.
The tax will not stop unsolicited communications, just as post charges limit, but do not kill, junk mail. An email tax would force senders to apply a simple test: is this message worth a penny to send?
Prospect Magazine contributor Edward Gottesman • On the idea of taxing e-mail as a way to stop spam. Gottesman, chairman of an international investment company and a lawyer, says the minimal charge – just like sending a letter – would help deter spammers without limiting e-mail communications. One problem, dude: E-mail’s already so last century. Everyone’s just going to use Facebook or Twitter instead and e-mail would become irrelevant. • source