Mainstream Media

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…

ProJo’s Broad anti-Blog Brush

By Marc Comtois | June 1, 2007 |

In “The blogosphere bog,” the ProJo editors use the recent controversy about Katie Couric’s ghostwritten blog as a jumping off point to damn the entire ‘sphere. Much of what they say is true: [T]he Internet, with its fluidity, lack of sourcing, misleading sourcing, problematic (or nonexistent) dating and vulnerability to manipulation is a veritable Great…

Left & Right Versus Big & Bland

By Carroll Andrew Morse | May 29, 2007 |

When the publisher of National Review teams up with the president of The Nation (the magazine, that is) to write an op-ed, it’s worth noting. In today’s Los Angeles Times, Jack Fowler of NR and Teresa Stack of TN take a joint stand against the change in postal rates for magazines and other periodicals that…

Ware the Innovators Among the Invaders

By Justin Katz | May 18, 2007 |

Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, wants his fellow newspaperati to stop caving to the urge to give away news content for free: News has become ubiquitous, free, and as a result, a commodity. Anytime you are trying to sell something that becomes a commodity, you have lost much of the value…

The Helplessness of Being the Joke

By Justin Katz | April 29, 2007 |

It’s a tricky business responding to the personal anecdotes that opinionists sometimes use in their columns. The reader was not there, for one thing, and it isn’t always evident what emotions the memory revives, for another. But the stories are offered, ostensibly for the purpose of illustrating an important point relevant to current events, and…

Fairness Doctrine Watch, or Newspaper Publishers for Stronger Government Control of the Media

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 23, 2007 |

1. Commenter “Suzanne” thought my characterization of those attempting to connect the events leading to the firing of Don Imus to the movement to restore the fairness doctrine as having an agenda of getting the government to “limit the expression of certain viewpoints in order to promote civility” was unfair. Well, here is Henry Brandt…

Thank You and a Complaint

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 23, 2007 |

I’d like to thank the Warwick Daily Times for acknowledging Anchor Rising in their new community blogs section and on their editorial page. And now, because I’m a surly blogger, I have a complaint. How come the Times feels the need to point out that we’re “conservative”, while RI Future is just a blog…We’re particularly…

Re: Imus and the Fairness Doctrine

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 13, 2007 |

The connection between the fall of Don Imus and the restoration of the fairness doctrine hits the mainstream media today, courtesy of the San Jose Mercury News. Remember, the following excerpt is from a news story, not an op-ed…Radio has gone unbridled since the relaxing of the fairness doctrine in 1987, which required stations to…

Liberals Say Imus Proves the Need for Stricter Regulation of Broadcast Speech Content

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 12, 2007 |

In case you’re wondering where the Imus debacle is leading to, Sheldon Drobny of the Huffington Post gives us a hint…Imus is another example of the degradation of talk radio that has been going on since Rush Limbaugh started this in 1980. Rush was another failed DJ that got lucky in 1980 when talk radio…

Baseball and Blogging, and Trust the Locals on This One

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 2, 2007 |

With all due respect to Andrew Sullivan, Dan Shaughnessy‘s cranky Boston Globe column about Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s blogging indicates nothing beyond what New Englanders have known for years — that Shaughnessy writes cranky columns using whatever material he can find. With Red Sox season starting today, he’ll at least be able to turn…