Roundup: Media's Take

May 22, 2004

Are the American People too Dumb to Determine the Right Course?

John McManus, in Grade the News (May 19, 2004):New Yorker Editor David Remnick had the stage all to himself Monday evening. But Tuesday during the John S. Knight Journalism Symposium, he faced off against three prominent journalists, a history professor -- and the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Remnick's critique of the American press for turning from expensive foreign

May 21, 2004

Was Kerry Right About Atrocities in Vietnam?

Michael Kranish and Bryan Bender, in the Boston Globe (May 13, 2004):... Even as President Bush apologized for the abuses by the military under his command, questions have resurfaced about allegations that Kerry, his Democratic challenger for the presidency, made about the behavior of US troops in Vietnam three decades ago....Three weeks ago, Kerry said his allegations were a "little over the top," even as he pointed out that many atrociti

May 21, 2004

Are the Brown Case Similar to the Gay Marriage Case?

Bob Egelko, in the San Francisco Chronicle (May 17, 2004):Fifty years to the day after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school segregation, another court ruling will allow same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts today. There are many differences between Brown vs. Board of Education and Goodridge vs. Department of Health Services - for one, gays and lesbians have not faced the same historic level of discrimination as African Americans - but the two

May 18, 2004

Jack Beatty: History's Fools (Paul Wolfowitz et al.)

Jack Beatty, in the Atlantic Monthly (May 19, 2004):... Paradoxically, the very scale of the debacle in Iraq may yield one long-term good: the repudiation of neo-conservative"democratic imperialism." The Americans killed in Iraq will not have died in vain if their sacrifice keeps other Americans from dying in neo-con wars to"remediate" Syria, Iran

May 18, 2004

Christopher Dickey: Winning in Iraq Would Require Cruel Tactics Americans Wouldn't Tolerate

Christopher Dickey, in Newsweek (May 18, 2004): I’ve been covering guerrilla wars for almost 25 years, and in every case I’ve been convinced that the only way to defeat committed insurgents fighting on their home ground, in the short and medium term, is with ferocious, unrelenting repression. Afterward, compromise with the insurgents can help finish the job

May 18, 2004

How My Family Lost Their Home When Israel Took Over Palestinan Property in 1948

George E. Bisharat, a professor of law at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, in the Arizona Republic (May 16, 2004):This month, the 56th anniversary of the Palestinian"Nakba" (Catastrophe), when one people gained a homeland and another lost theirs, I was thinking of a home in Jerusalem. It was the residence occupied by former Israeli Prime Minister G

May 18, 2004

Hoover Remade the FBI in the1930s ... A Good Blueprint for Today

Bryan Burrough, in the NYT (May 14, 2004):As cherry trees blossom along the Potomac, members of Congress are castigating the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its inability to reign in heavily armed attackers who have struck at the heart of America. Critics say the bureau is incapable of discerning where the attackers may strike next, unwilling to work with rival agencies and unfit to fight what appears

May 18, 2004

The Kerry Family's Hidden Jewish Past

Joseph Berger, in the NYT (May 16, 2004):On n May 18, 1905, Frederick A. Kerry, a 32-year-old Viennese, arrived in New York City by steamship, the Königin Luise, with his wife and 4-year-old son, hopeful that his new country would bring him the success and social acceptance that had eluded him in Europe.Mr. Kerry probably could not have imagined that within a

May 17, 2004

At Prep School, Kerry Was an Outsider

Todd S. Purdum, in the NYT (May 16, 2004): He was a champion debater, a good student, a strong and graceful athlete in a small, judgmental universe that prized such skills and knew him well. But for five formative years, John Kerry stood a step apart at St. Paul's School

May 14, 2004

Another Gandhi at the Top in India

Paul Watson, in the LAT (May 14, 2004):Sonia Gandhi, the woman who Thursday staged one of India's memorable electoral comebacks, is a reluctant politician with a distaste for the rough and tumble of politics. Gandhi is said to have threatened to divorce her husband, Rajiv, after he decided to enter politics to succeed his assassinated mot

May 13, 2004

Why Are People Shocked by Prison Abuse?

Rick Hampson, in USA Today (May 13, 2004):One of the most surprising things about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers is that so many Americans are surprised.Decades of research and eons of history point to one conclusion: Under certain circumstances, most normal people will treat their fellow man with abnormal cruelty. The schoolboys' descent into ba

May 13, 2004

So Islamic Terror Is America's Fault?

Sean Grindlay, managing editor of Campus Report, in Frontpagemag.com (May 12, 2004):Columbia University in New York City is looked upon by many as a fountain of academic wisdom—and that’s a problem. A case in point is Mahmood Mamdani, the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the school’s Department of Anthropology.

May 12, 2004

Gay Marriage? What Next ... Women Voting?

Randy Scholfield, an editorial writer, in the Wichita Eagle(May 12, 2004): The argument sounds familiar: The writer rails against a dangerous new"right" claimed by a minority. He cites biblical arguments against this"horrible political nightmare," the result of decadent elemen

May 12, 2004

Kerry's in Trouble If First Impressions Really Count

Robin Toner, in the NYT (May 9, 2004):In the summer of 1988, Republicans rolled out a carefully tested, meticulously planned campaign aimed at turning Michael S. Dukakis, the Democratic nominee, into an utterly unacceptable choice for president. The message was simple: Mr. Dukakis was a liberal, "outside the mainstream," who let murderers out of

May 10, 2004

50 Years After Brown Inequities Remain at Universities

Sara Hebel, in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscribers) (May 10, 2004):Fifty years ago this month, Vivian Malone Jones picked up the newspaper outside her front door and read a headline about the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in public schools."I went to my mother and asked her what did that really mean," recalls Ms. Jones, wh

May 8, 2004

What Do the Insider Accounts of the Bush Administration Say About the President's Decision-Making Style?

Maura Reynolds, in the LAT (May 3, 2004):President Bush styles himself as the first CEO president, applying the rigor and authority of his MBA education to the job of chief executive of the nation. But that's not the picture that emerges from three recent insider accounts of the workings of the Bush administration, experts in decision-making and presidential management say. On the contrary, they say, the president appears to have a highly personal work

May 8, 2004

It's too Early to Judge Iraq a Military Failure

David D. Perlmutter, associate professor of mass communication at Louisiana State University and the author of Visions of War, in USA Today (May 4, 2004):The military historian in me answers, "Stay tuned." In about 100 years, we experts will have it all figured out. The problem with judging military setbacks in the very short term is that even eventually successful wars seldom go smoothly. Wars are not won by infallible

May 7, 2004

How 9-11 United Conservatives Around the Idea of Empire

Corey Robin, in the Wash Post (May 2, 204): In 2000 I spent the tail end of the summer interviewing conservative patriarchs William F. Buckley and Irving Kristol. I was writing about the defections to the left of several younger right-wing intellectuals and wondered what the conservative movement's founding fathers thought of their wayward sons. But Buckley and Kristol were less intereste

May 7, 2004

NIxon Was Stupid to Sign the Bill Establishing the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

Bruce Bartlett, in the Washington Times (May 5, 2004): When people vote for candidates, they are not just voting for an individual; they are voting for a party. I don't just mean in terms of control of the White House or Congress, but in a philosophical sense. The two parties have very different philosophies on various issues and when one votes for a candidate of a particular party, one essentially votes for that philosophy, regardless of the views of the individual c

May 6, 2004

Mistreatment of POW's an Old Story

Richard Pyle, Associated Press (May 6, 2004):... From the Confederacy's notorious Andersonville prison of the Civil War to the Hanoi Hilton, where American POWs were held in Vietnam, military history is rife with grim stories of brutality, starvation and humiliation in captivity. Few such tales stir such immediate and profound public revulsion and anguish as the recently d