Roundup: Media's Take

June 16, 2005

Robert Kuttner: Bush's To-Do List

Robert Kuttner, in the Boston Globe (6-15-05):Somewhere, in a parallel universe, real leaders in a country very much like our own are dealing with real problems. Imagine what America might be like if our top officials were addressing the genuine challenges that confront us.Domestically, the president might have responded to the 9/11 attacks by calling

June 16, 2005

Dan Froomkin: Blame the Democrats

Dan Froomkin, in WashingtonPost.com (6-16-05)With his party solidly in control of two, going on three, branches of government -- but his agenda flailing in part due to lackluster support from his own fellow Republicans -- President Bush yesterday made it clear where the blame lies: With the Democrats.

June 16, 2005

Thomas L. Friedman: Let's Talk About Iraq

Thomas L. Friedman, in the NYT (6-15-05)[Born in Minneapolis on July 20, 1953, Mr. Friedman received a B.A. degree in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975. In 1978 he received a Master of Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford. He became the paper's foreign-affairs columnist in 1995. Previously, he served as chief economic correspondent in th

June 16, 2005

NYT Editorial: Bush Needs to Rethink Relationship with Pakistan

NYT Editorial (6-15-05)During a joint press conference last December, President Bush praised the visiting Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, for prosecuting "those who would inflict harm and pain" on the Pakistani people. "There is nobody more dedicated in the protection of his own people than President Musharraf," Mr. Bush said.That line may need to be run through the

June 16, 2005

Eric Alterman: PBS: Re-working the Refs

Eric Alterman, in his MSNBC blog Altercation (6-15-05)[Eric Alterman is Professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, media columnist for The Nation, the “Altercation” weblogger for MSNBC.com, and a senor fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he writes and edits the “Think Again” column.] The thing about all this

June 15, 2005

Paul Rogat Loeb: More Damning than Downing Street

Paul Rogat Loeb (6-15-05) [Mr. Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear (Basic Books), named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and American Book Association. See www.theimpossible.org.] It's bad enough that the Bush administration had so little intern

June 15, 2005

Slinger: Up Is Down in the World According to George

Slinger, in the Toronto Star (6-14-05) In the history common room of a fine old university on a drowsy afternoon in the fine old year 2084, historians sat around doing what historians had done since time began: picking dust-motes out of the air and holding them up to the light.

June 14, 2005

Martin Kettle: Rupert Murdoch May Be the Man Who Saved Europe

Martin Kettle, in the Guardian (6-14-05)Most of the time I don't buy into conspiracy theories. I no longer believe, for instance, that anyone shot JFK from the grassy knoll. Deep down I don't really think that Harold Wilson was the victim of an MI5 coup either. And I certainly don't believe the only reason why Gerry Adams isn't part of a power-sharing government in Belfast today is bec

June 14, 2005

Frank Rich: Don't Follow the Money/Deep Throat

Frank Rich, in the NYT (6-12-05): THE morning the Deep Throat story broke, the voice on my answering machine was as raspy as Hal Holbrook's. "I just want you to remember that I wrote 'Follow the money,' " said my caller. "I want to know if anybody will give me credit. Watch for the accuracy of the media!"The voice belonged to my friend William Goldman, who wrote the movie "All

June 13, 2005

Terry M. Neal: Drowning Out the Real Issues

Terry M. Neal, in the Washington Post (6-13-05)A certain and clear pattern has emerged when a damaging accusation or claim against the Bush administration or the Republican-led Congress is publicized: Bush supporters laser in on a weakness, fallacy or inaccuracy in the story's sourcing while diverting all attention from the issue at hand to the sour

June 13, 2005

Fred Hiatt: Editorials Are Meant to Educate

Fred Hiatt, in the Washington Post (6-13-05)Earlier this month Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld questioned the priorities of editorial pages such as The Post's."Two of the country's largest newspapers, for example, have devoted more than 80 editorials, combined, since March of 2004 to Abu Ghraib and detainee issues, often repeating the

June 13, 2005

Washington Post Editorial: Patriot Second Act

Washington Post Editorial (6-13-05)Congress passed the USA Patriot Act in haste after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Critics predicted that the act would deal a blow to liberty, while proponents insisted it was essential to the fight against al Qaeda. A wise compromise gave the administration new powers but had them expire at the end of 2005, giving Congre

June 13, 2005

William Powers: Bolivia's Must Shift Real Power to It's Poor Majority

William Powers, in the NYT (6-11-05)[Mr. Powers is the author of "Blue Clay People" and a forthcoming book on Bolivia, "A Natural Nation.]...For three weeks, the country has been paralyzed by blockades and protests; a few days after my experience at the roadblock, the uprising forced the president, Carlos Mesa, to resign. The protesters want to nationalize Bolivia's vas

June 13, 2005

Paul Klugman: Losing Our Country

Paul Krugman, in the NYT (6-10-05)Baby boomers like me grew up in a relatively equal society. In the 1960's America was a place in which very few people were extremely wealthy, many blue-collar workers earned wages that placed them comfortably in the middle class, and working families could expect steadily rising living standards and a reasonable degree of economic security.....W

June 13, 2005

LA Times Editorial: Is Dean the Dems Cinderella Man?

LA Times Editorial (6-12-05)Howard Dean has become the Russell Crowe of the Democratic Party. But unlike Crowe, who has been profusely apologizing for beaning a hotel concierge with a telephone in a fit of bad temper, Dean shows no signs of contrition for the intemperate rhetorical blasts that he sent flying in the direction of the GOP last week. Dean presents a conundrum for

June 13, 2005

Jeffery Sachs: Africa's Suffering Is Bush's Shame

Jeffrey D. Sachs, in the LA Times (6-12-05)[Mr. Sachs is a Columbia University economist and special advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.] President Bush last week brazenly brushed aside British Prime Minister Tony Blair's call for a doubling of aid to Africa. Blair and other European leaders have taken on the task of fighting extreme poverty — and Bush watches

June 12, 2005

NYT Editorial: The Center Can Hold

NYT Editorial (6-12-05) For those who think Washington is too bitterly divided, which is almost everyone, some relief could be in sight. The bipartisan "gang of 14" that struck a deal to save the filibuster could start to be a powerful force for centrism on the most divisive issue on Capitol Hill - judicial nominations. But for that to happen, moderate Republicans like Olympia Snowe

June 12, 2005

Peggy Noonan: The Dems Rage Against Republicans Is Not a Winning Approach

Peggy Noonan , from the WSJ Opinion Journal(6-9-05)[Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of A Heart, a Cross, and a Flag (Wall Street Journal Books/Simon & Schuster), a collection of post-Sept. 11 columns.]I don't know that Democrats understand how Republicans experience the attacks Democratic leaders make on them. I'm not sure t

June 10, 2005

Norman Solomon: From Watergate to Downing Street -- Lying for War

Norman Solomon, from his new book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (6-6-05)You wouldn't know it from the media focus on Deep Throat last week, but the lies that Richard Nixon told about the Watergate break-in were part of his standard duplicity for the Vietnam War. It wasn't just that the Nixon administration engaged in secret illegal actions against a wide range of peace advocates -- inc

June 9, 2005

Jasper Becker: Seoul's Dangerous Dance with Kim Jong Il

Jasper Becker, in the NYT (6-9-05)[Mr. Becker is the Beijing Bureau Chief for the South China Morning Post. His book, Hungry Ghosts was the winner of the Dutch PIOOM award for human rights.]THERE are hopes that President Bush's meeting tomorrow with President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea, coming on the heels of the latest North Korean overture on restarting nuclea