Mainstream Media

The NY Times: All the Bad News That’s Fit to Print

By Marc Comtois | August 24, 2007 |

On Sunday, the NY Times published and op-ed by 7 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne in which they explained their reservations about the way the War in Iraq is going. An excerpt: Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist,…

Shutting Down Freedom of Speech

By Donald B. Hawthorne | August 21, 2007 |

Duncan Currie writes in The Libel Tourist Strikes Again: How to Kill a Book You Don’t Like: In late July, Cambridge University Press announced it was destroying all its remaining copies of Alms for Jihad, a 2006 book exploring the nexus of Islamic charities and Islamic radicalism. At the same time, Cambridge asked libraries around…

ProJo: In Foreclosure, there’s profit!

By Marc Comtois | August 17, 2007 |

What to make of the “Housing in R.I.” section displayed prominently on today’s ProJo.com frontpage? Let’s see, hmmm….wow, how ironic, Both condo sales and foreclosures are rising. Weird. Aw gee, Foreclosures taking a toll on Providence neighborhoods that’s sad. Not just here either? Nation’s mortgage woes put brakes on construction of homes, apartments. Yikes. Wait…

On Journalism

By Marc Comtois | August 14, 2007 |

A couple few related thoughts on today’s journalism. First, former NY Times Magazine editor William Katz on today’s journalists (h/t, via Powerline): There have been many changes in journalism since World War II, but the most striking has come in the resumé of the journalist. Of course, there have always been college graduates in journalism.…

Re: The “Scott Thomas” Saga at TNR Continues

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 7, 2007 |

According to Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard, Scott Thomas Beauchamp has recanted his controversial New Republic articles concerning the conduct of American troops in Iraq…THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned from a military source close to the investigation that Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp–author of the much-disputed “Shock Troops” article in the New Republic’s July 23…

The “Scott Thomas” Saga at TNR Continues

By Mac Owens | July 30, 2007 |

My post on the “Scott Thomas” affair at The New Republic elicited a spirited debate. It has now taken some interesting turns. First of all, the author has now identified himself. Here is what he wrote in TNR: My Diarist, “Shock Troops,” and the two other pieces I wrote for the New Republic have stirred…

Rocco on the Radio

By Carroll Andrew Morse | July 23, 2007 |

Rocco DiPippo will be discussing his experiences in Iraq on WPRO’s (630 AM) John DePetro Show, this morning, at 10:00 AM.

I Don’t Suppose We Can Blame This On a Lack of Local Ownership

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 27, 2007 |

From an unsigned editorial in today’s Projo… It is time to consider consolidating many more town and city services regionally. To that end, it might be time to revive Rhode Island’s four counties — Providence, Kent, Bristol and Washington (aka South County) to provide local services.Um, what happened to Newport County?

Where Art Thou, Liberal Talk Radio?

By Marc Comtois | June 25, 2007 |

One of the side conversations in the comments to my “Media Bias” post concerned the possible resuscitation of the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” which Sen. Diane Feinstein floated on FOXNews Sunday: WALLACE: So would you revive the fairness doctrine? FEINSTEIN: Well, I’m looking at it, as a matter of fact, Chris, because I think there ought…

Media Bias

By Marc Comtois | June 22, 2007 |

I don’t expect anyone was really surprised to learn that journalists open their wallets and donate to Democrats over Republicans by a 9:1 ratio. Well sweep me off my feet. In a trade where the panacea of “objectivity” is touted…well, these polls just don’t help, do they? But you know what? Bias isn’t an inherently…