Category Archives: Media Criticism

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Dhimmification

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Sam Harris has a long piece at (of all places) the Huffington Post on the unwillingness of western civilization to stand up for its own values against radical Islam. And as others have noted (and he notes himself), this is particularly ironic:

In a thrillingly ironic turn of events, a shorter version of the very essay you are now reading was originally commissioned by the opinion page of Washington Post and then rejected because it was deemed too critical of Islam. Please note, this essay was destined for the opinion page of the paper, which had solicited my response to the controversy over Wilders’ film. The irony of its rejection seemed entirely lost on the Post, which responded to my subsequent expression of amazement by offering to pay me a “kill fee.” I declined.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Tuskegee Libel

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I had never heard that the Tuskegee experiment involved deliberately infecting people with syphilis. I always thought that the sin was leaving it untreated in men who already had it, so that the progression of the disease could be studied (a sin that was mitigated by the fact that at least at the beginning of the study, there was no known effective treatment, anyway).

But apparently, in the wake of Jeremiah Wright’s lunacy, several news people have bought into the nonsense that the researchers infected healthy men. I guess that there’s no libel that is too difficult for some people to believe, and even embrace, as long as it is directed against the US.

Anyway, Jonah has more (including the fact that it was a “progressive” project).

Someone should publicly, and loudly, confront Wright on this latest lie. There is a huge leap from studying men already infected, and deliberately inventing a disease and then infecting a race of people for the purpose of genocide, which is what he accuses the country of doing, with Tuskegee as a supposed existence proof.

But don’t hold your breath.

[Update a few minutes later]

Jonah has more at The Corner.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Not Ready For Youtube

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A couple years ago, I speculated on whether or not Bill Clinton could have been elected if there had been a blogosphere in 1992. I called him an MSM president.

Now Chuck Todd says that he has been done in by new media (specifically, Youtube):

Although Clinton caught a glimpse of the digital future when he was president and a little-known Internet gadfly named Matt Drudge broke the Monica Lewinsky story, he was never subjected to the kind of unblinking scrutiny of today’s media environment.

When Clinton was running for president, Todd said, he and his fellow candidates could misspeak — and even willfully obfuscate — with relative impunity.

“It was like a Jedi mind trick with him,” he added. “It would take a few days for the media to catch up [and] by then he had moved on.”

Well, it was a Jedi mind trick that never worked with me. Or in fact, not even a majority, since he could never win a majority. But he always had the press on his side, at least until their new love from Chicago came along.

[Via Virginia Postrel, who is, happily, currently cancer free]