Walter Cronkite Dead at 92
Walter Cronkite has passed: Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday. He was 92. Cronkite's longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 17, 2009 22:02
Memorial Day – Canuck Edition
Richard Florida passes along this snippet from The illustrated History of Canada: American draft dodgers in Canada were far outnumbered by the young Canadians who joined U.S. forces to fight in Vietnam. This factoid may be in that category Stephen Colbert would call "truthy" and Dan Rather would call "false but true." Canada did not participate in the Vietnam War for a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 25, 2009 07:19
Biden Gaffes Covered Up by Biased Media!
Kirsten Powers has an amusing piece in the NY Post headlined "BIDEN'S BUNGLES: A BLATANT BIAS." It echoes sentiments I've been seeing in the comments section: Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden as his running mate prompted a small wave of warnings about Biden's propensity for gaffes. But no one imagined even in a worse-case scenario such a spectacular bomb as ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 23, 2008 06:38
Bloggers and Journalism: False Dichotomy
Stilgherrian has attended one too many Future of Media conferences and he has a long tirade for Old Media journalists whining about bloggers and professional standards. What’s tiring about this false dichotomy is that it compares the highest ideal of journalism with the lowest grade of personal blogging about what the cat did yesterday and — lo and behold! — they’re ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 16, 2008 07:09
Two Blogs that Pass in the Night
Yesterday's exchange with Thers over the state of conservatism reflects a major defect in the blogging medium. For the most part, we write blogs in serial fashion, as a conversation with our readers, and presume that recent posts on the same subject have been read. Most blog readers, on the other hand, parachute into posts based on links ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 26, 2008 08:35
Irony Immunity
Dan Rather Sues CBS for $70 million. For "intentional mishandling" of the "aftermath" his "discredited story about President Bush's National Guard service."Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 19, 2007 18:21
Everything I Needed to Know About Politics I Learned from Facebook
Social Media is the wave of the future. You don't have to be a blogger or a blog follower or even a blog agnostic to recognize that the cool kids are hanging out at places like Facebook, or MySpace. Have you heard about Twitter - the pseudo instant conversation maker that mashes up web, IM and SMS into something that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 18, 2007 06:01
Blogging the Scooter Libby Trial
Jay Rosen has a long homage to those who blogged the Scooter Libby trial, most notably the Firedoglake gang. As a critic who follows the fortunes of the American press, and writes about its collapse under Bush, I found it extremely painful to sit on the sidelines for this event. But as compensation I had the pleasure of watching Firedoglake, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 10, 2007 10:04
New Media Yields New Politics
John Harris observes in a front page "Analysis" piece in today's WaPo that the emergence of blogs and other Web based media is changing the dynamic of political scandals. At first glance, three uproars that buffeted American politics in recent weeks have little in common. Former congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) ended his political career over sexually charged e-mails to former House pages. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 6, 2006 13:32
Caption Contest Winners
The Walk a Mile for a Camel Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over. (CBS NEWS 60 MINUTES/Handout/Reuters) Winners: First: Greg Tinti - I didn't realize you were that close with Mel Gibson... Second: charles austin - Mike Wallace calms a jittery President Ahmadenijad by telling him that the ticking sound he hears is just the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 14, 2006 21:43
Reuters Purges All 920 Adnan Hajj Photos from Database
Reuters has removed all 920 photos taken by Adnan Hajj from its archives: Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah. Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 7, 2006 13:44
Feeling Rather Left Out
A little gossip for your Friday: Is CBS trying to wipe out all traces of Dan Rather's history at the network? In a glowing story about Katie Couric's "Eye on America" tour's going to the Twin Cities, the CBS News Web site crows that the perky newsgal, who takes over Rather's seat in September, "will be the first female solo anchor ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 21, 2006 11:51
“A Secret The Media Kept”
Michael Berlin, a former U.N. correspondent for the New York Post and The Washington Post, has an interesting piece in today's Washington Post on the media and--obviously--a secret they kept. The story itself [of six American officials who managed to escape being captured by Iranian militants during the seizure of the U.S. embassy in November 1979 - JHJ] is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 21, 2006 10:58
Rather Dishes With Larry King (Video)
In less than seven minutes, here's a video summary of Larry King's interview last night with Dan Rather. Rather talks about CBS, Memogate, and, well, Rather. Lots of Rather. But hey, I took one for the team and watched the whole thing so you didn't have to. Enjoy... And by the way, I swear I didn't fool around with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 13, 2006 12:52
Rather: “I have a very strong bias toward…”
Fallen from grace. Photo credit: AP/Damian Dovarganes "...independent journalism." In other words, no more darned interference from the pesky corporate brass that insists on fact-based reporting: Former CBS newsman Dan Rather says he'll have complete editorial control over the content of the weekly newsmagazine he will kick off for Mark Cuban's HDNet in October. "News at its best ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 12, 2006 10:51
