Fox Fake Crowd Videos
For the second time in a week, Fox News has been caught using old video to give the false impression of larger-than-actual turnout at appearances of politicos they supported. Sufficiently embarrassed at having been caught, Fox executives are promising "serious disciplinary action" for those responsible. While the incidents add fuel to the fire that Fox is a Republican shill outlet rather ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 19, 2009 16:08
Douthat Blogging Again
A few months ago, when Ross Douthat became a New York Times columnist, I was pretty excited that the Times had chosen a fresh, conservative perspective for its editorial pages. Since then, I admit I've been a little disappointed. Douthat's columns have, by and large, been pretty lackluster--there was none of the depth, wit, or thoughtfulness that made ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 19, 2009 12:22
Newsweek’s Sarah Palin Cover
Newsweek's choice of cover art for its Sarah Palin issue has managed to generate controversy for three days now, finally prompting a response from the editors. The salient passage: To note that choosing that particular photograph has ruffled a few feathers is perhaps an understatement. Palin denounced it—and us—to her million-strong Facebook following last night. "The choice of photo for the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 18, 2009 08:07
Journalism as Friend Building
Ezra Klein points out that, while journalists like to think of themselves as intrepid sleuths, the best of them are social networkers moreso than detectives. If you go back to Woodward and Bernstein, Woodward met Felt back when he was serving in the Navy, and the two men bonded over night law school and low-level positions with elected officials. That's not to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 10, 2009 16:48
DVR Saving TV
Television executives have figured out that people watching their shows via TiVo-delay is a good thing. Against almost every expectation, nearly half of all people watching delayed shows are still slouching on their couches watching messages about movies, cars and beer. According to Nielsen, 46 percent of viewers 18 to 49 years old for all four networks taken together are watching ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 2, 2009 08:57
Advocate Goes Inside Out
Andrew Sullivan passes along word that The Advocate "one of the oldest titles out there - will now become a 32-page insert in Out." Which is apparently published by the same conglomerate. Rather clearly, gay-oriented media are having the same troubles as other titles for the same reasons: Increased costs, loss of advertising revenues, and competition from the Internet chief among ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 1, 2009 09:09
Republicans Better Informed
A new Pew survey shows a rather steep "Partisan Knowledge Gap," with Republicans and Independents generally better informed than Democrats. Mary Katharine Ham finds this quite amusing and also notes that, "if the polling had gone the other way, the NYT would shout it from the rooftops." She provides examples of the mainstream press doing just that on previous occasions. We'd need ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 28, 2009 13:18
CNN in Last Place – Behind MSNBC Reruns!
CNN has dropped to fourth place in the cable news business it invented. And Fox continues to rise while under fire from the administration. CNN, which invented the cable news network more than two decades ago, will hit a new competitive low with its prime-time programs in October, finishing fourth – and last – among the cable news networks with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 27, 2009 09:34
Roger Ailes for President?!
Topping Memeorandum is Mike Allen's wild speculation for Politico about a presidential run by Roger Ailes. Friends and associates are encouraging Fox News chief Roger Ailes to jump into the political arena for real by running for president in 2012, top sources tell POLITICO. "Ailes knows how to frame an issue better than anybody, and that's what we need now," says one ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 23, 2009 17:25
Limbaugh: Reporter Should Kill Himself
Rush Limbaugh has gotten everyone from Media Matters to The Guardian to Andrew Sullivan to Paul Krugman to Raw Story to FireDogLake up in arms because he allegedly suggested that a NYT reporter kill himself. Except that, to anyone familiar with either Limbaugh or the conventions of American English, it's rather obvious he was illustrating absurdity by being absurd. Here's the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 21, 2009 10:30
Fairey Admits Obama Hope Poster Based on AP Photo
Stephen Fairey, the author behind the iconic "HOPE" poster that symbolized Barack Obama during much of the campaign and since, now admits it was based on an AP photo. On Friday night, Fairey's attorneys -- led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University -- said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 18, 2009 08:37
Bush 41: Incivil Politics ‘Just Not Right’
President George H.W. Bush says presidents are "entitled to civil treatment and intellectual honesty when it comes to critics" and that harsh criticism "should not be par for the course. To the degree it turns off one student or one person from serving that's bad." Now, I fully agree that the 24/7/365 political combat that is the byproduct of cable news ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 17, 2009 08:14
Rush Limbaugh Dropped from Rams Bid Team
Missouri native Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from membership in a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams and keep them in the city. This speeds up the inevitable conclusion fo the NFL's owners refusing to let the controversial pundit join their ranks. Limbaugh was to be a limited partner in a group headed by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 15, 2009 09:25
Did Jon Stewart Hurt America?
Dan Drezner notes that "We're coming up on the five-year anniversary of Jon Stewart's verbal skewering of Crossfire in particular and the whole genre of left-right cable gabfests in general. Stewart said these kind of shows were 'hurting America' because of their general blather and failure to ask politicians good, sharp questions." Dan poses the Reaganesque question, Are you better off than ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 1, 2009 16:02
Obnoxious Web Ads
Having run advertising-supported websites myself for several years, I'm appreciative of the need to run ads and get reader clickthroughs. And the mass media is struggling to figure out a sustainable business model. But some of the ads are getting to be too much. Take this one at The Hill: No, not the banner ad on the top. Or ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 24, 2009 09:18
