Category: Media and Journalism

Eamonn Dunphy: “Mark Steyn is a racist”. I have been following the writings of Mark Steyn for some time. I did not read the article from last Monday’s Irish Times that Dunphy referred to, but I can see that in Dunphy’s eyes Steyn is below contempt. But then that’s coming from a friend of the…

Many political rappers have expressed against the war, either publicly or in their lyrics. Political rap has an important role to play. It offers people a real criticism of the government’s policy. An engaged rapper is a fighter and a social commentator.

Kevin Drum points out some apparent inconsistencies in Andew Sullivan’s criticisms of John Kerry. As an irregular reader of Sullivan I still found Drum’s quotes rather convincing. Andrew Sullivan on John Kerry two days ago: “Life isn’t simple. But it doesn’t have to be as subtly, preternaturally, systematically complex as John Kerry makes it out…

David Aaronovitch with his thoughts on Jayson Blairs book. I think he gets it right, but why did it take him so long to realise? Blair is just a very dumb guy who got a very big cheque, he brought down the standards of journalism and then told us he was doing us all a…

William Sjostrom points to an article in the Guardian by David Aaronovitch. In the article, Aaronovitch brings up an article from the New Statesman in January written by Jack Jameson. Jack Jameson apparently wrote it as an “allegorical story” and not a factual story. Hmm. It seems that Peter Wilby is not happy at all…

The Atlantic continues to outstrip itself, this months magazine has a plethora of great in depth analysis. Ill blog some of the non-net stuff later.

I bought the Black Hawk Down DVD today, a snip at 15 euros. What I like about the film is that it is just about war, not about the nationalism or patriotism associated with it. It seems strange though to watch Black Hawks being shot down on film, and hear of real life events in…

BUCKEYE, Ariz. – Negotiators worked around the clock to try to free a pair of correctional officers held hostage by two inmates in a weapons-stocked guard tower, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

France’s fight to keep religion out of schools has entered new — and some say absurd — territory. Teachers and some religious leaders fumed Wednesday over a government minister’s call to ban beards and bandannas from classrooms along with Islamic head scarves, Jewish skullcaps and Christian crosses.

Seems that Reuters has now made a formal complaint to the US military about the detention of three members of their staff. According to this Ha’aretz article, the Reuters staff were detained for 72 hours, on suspicion of posing as journalists in order to shoot down helicopters. I hope the military do a proper investigation,…