Category Archives: Current Events

Hey, I link to Conservatives once in a while. I probably don't agree with Rod Dreher about how Liberal some newspapers are or were. Right-wingers have a tendency to see bias every time the news doesn't go to their liking, and to see plain, old-fashioned bad reporting as deliberate sabotage. But I agree with his main thesis, which is that there's probably nothing newspapers could have done to avoid the massive drop-off they've had in importance and circulation…and it isn't just the Internet. It's paper that's the problem.

Print media is atrophying in this country and has been for a long time. As I keep pointing out in panels about the sales decline in the comic book industry, Playboy has nose-dived in sales and it's not because men have lost interest in photos of beautiful nude women. Interest in Spider-Man, Iron Man, Batman, etc., has never been higher but it doesn't translate into hordes storming the comic book shops and buying their adventures in that format. The Iron Man comic sold a lot better back when most people had never heard of the character.

Dreher says that at one time, he thought newspapers could thrive by being less Liberal and more Conservative, as witness the success of Fox. I think they might have done a bit better to go more in either direction — to become truly Liberal newspaper or Conservative newspapers. This possibility probably didn't occur to Mr. Dreher because from his vantage point, anything to the left of The Washington Times is ultra-liberal. (In other writings, he seems to think the Public Option is a far-left idea. No…Single-Payer is the far-left idea. The Public Option is the compromise from that.) But I think he's right that it wouldn't have helped much. People these days just don't want to spend money on things on paper.

Fred Kaplan on what's happening in Afghanistan…and why Obama seems to be "dithering" about troop strength.

Writer Nell Scovell tells about her experiences working for David Letterman and about the sexual politics involved. This is a long, complicated problem and one that goes deeper than just the male/female divide. (There are introverted male writers, for instance, who feel disadvantaged in a workplace where writers are expected to "perform" their material in meetings.) Frankly, since good writing is so vital to any show, it's just plain lunkheaded to not be open to getting it from anyone of any age or gender.

Josh Marshall explains about what the "opt-out" public option will involve. I find it hard to believe that with the health care crisis we have in this country, even the reddest of states will say, "No, let's protect the business interests of Aetna in our state and turn down lower-cost medical insurance." Some probably will at first because, after all, it's important in some quarters to oppose any Democratic program. But in the long run?

Frank Rich discusses Sondheim, gay rights, Barack Obama and other topics of interest.

I agree with Frank Rich about the whole "balloon boy" meshagus. The odd part wasn't that the news media was hoaxed. It gets hoaxed all the time. It's just kinda nice to see one instance blow up so totally that they have to admit they got snookered.

I've pretty much lost interest in the Roman Polanski matter but I did read this overview of the case, which strikes me as a pretty fair account. It reinforces my feeling that justice was largely trampled when this matter was first in the courts. I have a hefty prejudice against plea bargains but won't rule out the possibility that maybe, to those close to the case at the time, the "settlement" made more sense than it does now from afar. I just don't see that any resolution of the current matter is going to make any sense at any time.

Thomas F. Schaller on the U.S. Postal Service. Over the years, I've written my share (and probably some other folks' shares) of jokes about lethargic or insane postal employees. I've also done what everyone does, which is to blame the post office when I was tardy in mailing something to someone. The truth is I think the post office does a great job providing a vital service for fees that, since they can't raise 'em by fiat, pretty much guarantee they'll always be operating at a loss. In this blog post follow-up, Schaller adds another point to his argument.

An article about the recent Hollywood Collectors Show. I always find those events fascinating for the intersection of stars — some of whom haven't worked in a long time, some of whom worked last week — with folks who've always wanted to meet them.

There is broad support in this country for a public option in Health Care Reform. There is support from the public…even, according to some reports, from a majority of Republicans. There is support from doctors. There is support from hospitals. As Timothy Noah notes, the way some opponents of the public option have chosen to deal with being in minority on this issue is by simply lying and saying the opposite.

Two pundits who specialize in statistics and the analysis of them are engaging in a public wager over whether or not Sarah Palin will run for president in '12. One says she will, one says she won't. I dunno from the stats but my suspicion is that Ms. Palin will run for the presidency the way Pat Buchanan has run for the presidency — as a way of pocketing cash and promoting his name to advance his real, other career.

You've gotta love an article entitled, "Life is too short to be unhappy." So says Garrison Keillor and he's right.

Fred Kaplan — whose writings are promoted more on this website than mine, and rightfully so — tells us all about John Kerry's diplomacy with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Bob Elisberg says all that needs to be said about the "balloon boy" incident, thereby saving me the time. Thank you, Bob.

Robert Lloyd previews the new documentary on Monty Python. My TiVo is set.