Category: Media Beat column

At this point, many journalists are speculating about the number of congressional seats that Republicans will lose on Election Day. But a boost in the size of the Democratic majority might not count for much if a blue wave simply makes it possible for conservative and centrist “blue dogs” to end up doggie-paddling into the…

It’s mid-October, and the Wall Street bailout that was supposed to save the economy from collapse is a flop.     Only two weeks ago, the media hype behind the $700 billion bailout was so intense that it sometimes verged on hysteria. More recent events should not be allowed to obscure the reality that the…

Projection is a psychological hazard of politics. What’s “obvious” to some doesn’t occur to others. So, these days, it’s hardly reassuring when some progressives roll their eyes at the latest McCain-Palin maneuver and express confidence that few voters will be swayed by the latest slimy attacks on Barack Obama.     The poll numbers so…

These times provide a crash course on the corporate state: If a company like AIG is too big to fail, the government will rescue it. Mere people — too small to matter — are expendable. The insurance industry is too big to fail. A person’s health is too small to matter, so — when it…

As corporate media coverage of the presidential race becomes even more notably stingy with intrepid journalism, the mainstream press enthusiasm for “The Daily Show” seems more cloying than ever. The pattern is now a routine feature of the media landscape: “The Daily Show” gets laudatory attention from major news organizations, where countless journalists watch like…