Murdock: Nations Will Be Redefined
Matt Drudge has the banner headline "MURDOCH WARNS NATIONS WILL BE REDEFINED" above a story that begins: Media baron Rupert Murdoch issued an urgent internal communication late Monday, warning his staff: "We are in the midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their futures fundamentally altered." There's not much more detail, so I don't know whether ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 24, 2009 14:01
Indiana and North Carolina Postmortem
Barack Obama moved to within 200 delegates of securing the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday, scoring a 56-42 blowout in North Carolina while narrowly losing, 49-51, in Indiana. Barring revelations that would make the Wright affair look insignificant in comparison, the race is all over but the shouting. Obama Wins the Night AP's Calvin Woodward: On the rebound, Barack Obama left Hillary Rodham ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 7, 2008 06:11
Drudge Breaks Media Silence on Prince’s Mission
At 12:20 Eastern yesterday, I got a CNN Breaking News alert that read, in its entirety, "Britain's Prince Harry has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan, CNN confirms." I found it mildly interesting, in that his superiors had previously decided the security risk in sending him to Iraq was too high, but didn't have anything significant to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 29, 2008 06:47
Sex Scandals and Journalistic Standards
Howie Kurtz has an interesting piece on how mainstream media coverage of allegations of sexual misconduct have changed in recent years. It begins: When Gennifer Flowers held a news conference in 1992 to announce that she had carried on an affair with Bill Clinton, the New York Times devoted one paragraph of a news story to her charges. "I am ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 25, 2008 15:22
NYT Hit Piece on McCain Alleges Adultery, Favoritism
The New York Times today fronts a long exposé on John McCain, which the campaign describes as a "hit-and-run smear campaign," under the headline "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk." The piece alleges that McCain did favors for a female lobbyist nine or more years ago and insinuates that they were romantically involved. Early in Senator ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 21, 2008 07:51
Mary Katharine Ham ‘Worst Person in the World’
Keith Olbermann has named Mary Katharine Ham the "Worst Person in the World" for expressing the view on CNN's "Reliable Sources" that Bill Clinton has to be a bit stunned by the backlash over his negative campaigning on behalf of his wife because he was used to soft treatment from the press. I think he's sort of a victim of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 29, 2008 08:19
Hillary Clinton Quitting Campaign?
Matt Drudge has the bold headline -- but no flashing siren -- TALK OF HILLARY EXIT ENGULFS CAMPAIGN. Facing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a sudden collapse in national polls and an expected fund-raising drought, Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?! "She can't take multiple double-digit losses ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 7, 2008 11:45
John Edwards Love Child Scandal
BREAKING NEWS (7/22/08): John Edwards Love Child Scandal Re-Erupts A story entitled "NATIONAL ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE: JOHN EDWARDS LOVE CHILD SCANDAL!" is the top story on memeorandum this morning. The link now goes to an otherwise blank page with some advertising but, as you may have guessed from the subtle clues in the headline, it originally featured a story about a scandal ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 19, 2007 08:55
Most Influential American Conservatives
The London Telegraph has been rolling out its list of the 100 Most Influential American Conservatives, twenty at a time, all week. The exercise has been somewhat dubious, clearly seeming to be aimed (successfully) at attracting attention from American bloggers, and I've refrained from commenting on it until now. They've now released the final installment, #1-20, and I ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 2, 2007 07:55
Don Imus Returning to Radio
To the surprise of perhaps no one but Matt Drudge, Don Imus is getting another shot at talk radio. In a dramatic and dazzling career rebound, controversial radio host Don Imus has secured a deal returning him to the airwaves on December 3 -- this time on the nation's most listened to talk station, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! "Imus In The ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 15, 2007 13:17
Reid Calls Pace ‘Incompetent’ – So What?
When I saw the headline "Reid labels military leader 'incompetent'" in my aggregator yesterday and then saw various bloggers citing the story about the Senate Majority Leader making disparaging remarks about the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, I didn't think much of it. After all, Reid is against the war, Pace is widely regarded by war critics as ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 15, 2007 07:47
Blogging for the Young and Bored
Jennifer Hunter's survey of bloggers at the California State Democratic Convention has raised the hackles of a few bloggers. At issue is this passage: But Sree Sreenivasan, new media professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, says the effectiveness of Web sites and blogs as political tools may only go so far: "It's still a small percentage of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 8, 2007 09:04
McCain Head Spot Photos Dirty Pool?
Hotline is dubious of Matt Drudge's skills and suspects foul play: Suddenly, Drudge has sophisticated image capturing software and a detailed obsession with the nooks and blemishes on Sen. John McCain's head? Nah. This is a tasteless bit of oppo sent Drudge's way by an overconfident opponent of McCain's who wants to exploit McCain's vulnerable political status right now by ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 4, 2007 16:40
Reinventing Television
Jeff Jarvis is "reinventing TV," along with a few thousand other folks, on the Internet. In the evolution of the new TV, this is 1954: Arthur Godfrey and Friends, My Little Margie, the Adventures or RinTinTin. That was not the golden age of TV. TV then sucked. But it got better. So will ours. One would hope. The convergence of "Old ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 21, 2007 10:10
Biden: Obama Clean, Articulate, Bright African-American
UPDATE: 23 AUG 08 - Irony of ironies: Obama Taps Joe Biden for VP - Storybook, Man Joe Biden is set to launch his second run for the presidency today but it will likely be overshadowed by some candid comments made in an interview with Jason Horowitz of the New York Observer. Most noteworthy is what he says about Barack Obama: “I ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 31, 2007 12:54
