Tag Archives: media

Musicians as citizens: Ilona Oltusky on Evgeny Kissin

Somehow I managed to miss Ilona Oltusky’s fascinating take on Evgeny Kissin’s outspoken opposition to what he sees as increasing anti-Semitism “in some of the prominent British media in general and the BBC in particular in the last few years.” Ouch. The post makes for provocative reading — as does Kissin’s scathing open letter to the Beeb.

Joan Walsh Dares Say It

Via the incomparable Bob Somerby comes this gem written by Joan Walsh, echoing exactly what American Politics Journal‘s founding editor, Jeff Koopersmith, was saying well over a decade ago (Bob’s emphases preserved):

“The Clinton Tapes” makes clear that from start to finish, President Clinton was besieged by a vicious just-say-no GOP abetted by the perversely, inexplicably, cruelly anti-Clinton leaders of the so-called liberal media—from the New York Timeslame crusades against Whitewater and Chinese donors and Wen Ho Lee, to the integrity-free “opinion” journalism by Maureen Dowd and, sadly, Frank Rich, to a whole host of other liberal media characters who couldn’t shake their feeling that Clinton was a fraud, a poseur, a hillbilly, a cynic. Their trashy eight-year oeuvre will likely go down in history as the most spectacularly malevolent and misguided White House coverage ever —and politically costly, since it also encompassed Vice President Al Gore and probably made George W. Bush president in 2000.

Read Joan’s erudite takedown of your media here, and Bob Somerby’s analysis here.

[Crossposted to APJ.]

Thursday Morning Reading

So this is supposed to be the “slow season” for political junkies? If you haven’t already read Adele Stan’s terrific AlterNet piece from Monday on how millionaires, lobbyists and special interest media strategists have gotten thousands of teabaggers to invade congressional town halls, you must! Also: I know you don’t need more evidence that right wing bobbleheads have no shame whatsoever, but you have to read this.

Greenwald explains the Beltway Press Rules on Torture

Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald gets it. In an early morning blog post, the legal analyst and press critic spells out three rules of the Beltway elite that are shaping the so-called media “coverage” of torture:

Continue reading Greenwald explains the Beltway Press Rules on Torture