Tag Archives: press

Bad journalism: it isn’t just a Manti Te’o thing. Remember Columbine?

As we try to unravel the whole Manti Te’o/”Lennay Kekua” mystery – is she dead? Is she alive? Does she exist? Was Te’o in on it or is he the biggest rube in America? – “sports journalists” (one of my favorite oxymorons, btw) are taking a right kicking, and deservedly so. Everybody out there who reported on the heartbreaking dead

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9/11 happened on Obama’s watch! GOP noise machine already hard at work on the history books of the future

Something wicked this way comes. Item: Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino says “we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.” Item: GOP apologist Mary Matalin says President Bush “inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history.” Item: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani says “We had

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The Summer of Hate provides a watershed moment for “reasonable Republicans”

I’m not a Republican, but I know many people who are. I have GOP friends, co-workers and family members, and for that matter I used to be a Republican myself. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, to be sure. But it’s true. It’s no secret that I don’t agree with the GOP on much of anything

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Why American media has such a signal-to-noise problem, part 1

Part one of a two-part series. From Cronkite to Couric: the Kingdom of Signal is swallowed by the Empire of Noise The recent death of Walter Cronkite spurred the predictable outpouring of tributes, each reverencing in its own way a man who was the face and voice of journalism in America for a generation or more. The irony of all

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War and the Press

A roundtable between Jay DeFrank, Greg Stene, Denny Wilkins and myself. It begins with Matt Taibbi’s column in New York Press.com this morning: “Cleaning the Pool: The White House Press Corps politely grabs its ankles.” You really need to read this first. So Dr. Denny Wilkins, our friend and colleague at St. Bonaventure University (no connection to the basketball program,

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