The Self-Absorbed Americans

TOTALLY self absorbed.

At least according to the editors of Time Magazine, USA edition.

I really, really wish I didn't believe this...

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O'Reilly. That didn't take long

As Maire predicted, O'Reilly insists that his book about Lincoln is being savaged by 'enemies.'

Like historians.

My favorite quote:

"We well understand our enemies are full of rage at that success," he said. "We also know the media lies at will these days with little accountability."

I think we can all agree with that last bit.

America the Meritocracy

News item:

Chelsea Clinton has been hired by NBC News, joining George W. Bush’s daughter, Ronald Reagan’s son, John McCain’s daughter, and Tim Russert’s son.

I am really tempted to make an unforgivably snide and rude comment ...

... but I'll wait til next time.

About Marc Rubio

I don't like the guy, wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances that I can realistically imagine, and, as Carmen tells me, "All Cubans know the date they left Cuba."

But Andrew Sullivan provides some perspective as he often does on his slip-up about being a refugee from Castro.

No, he wasn't. And he played artfully around the truth for political ooomph in south Somewhere. But he had said publicly on a number of occasions that his family came out of Cuba before the "Revolution."

In other words, not quite the lying bastard I would like to make him out to be. It may be a lot of huffing and puffing about little.

Oh well. It's only a matter of time. And he was both silly and dishonest in his reaction to the death of Qadaffi in not mentioning the role of American forces and the prez.

Without comment

Myths: Lots of people watch Fox News

We all know that Fox News' ratings are huge because of all the ranting and pandering that goes on appeals to a huge number of people.

Well, actually, not. Few people actually watch the network. Here's a small reality check from Conor Friedersdorf subbing for Andrew Sullivan:

And let's be clear on the size of the Fox News audience. In 2008, 59,934,814 Americans voted for John McCain. During election week, Fox News as a network averaged 3.54 million viewers. (Perhaps liberals would have more success trying to persuade the other 56,394,814 Republican voters.) That same year, Oprah Winfrey's show – just the one show – averaged 7.3 million voters (reported here as a ratings slump). Yes, among a certain demographic, Fox News is a huge ratings success. So is Rush Limbaugh. But where is the evidence that this rating success has translated into electoral victories or a friendlier policy environment for conservatives? There is none.

Define the demographic right and I probably could show you that Sententiae is a roaring success.

Of course, even fewer people watch the other news networks.

I'm still puzzled

Well, by a lot of things, but especially this (at least this morning). Why is it that the Pope's ruling on condoms is being brayed about the universe and parsed within an inch of its life, while his much more significant position on healthcare is virtually ignored?

it's almost as if ... as if... the media and the bloggers were not serious or something.

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The Use of Comedians

In the Middle Ages every king, emperor, or really important armored thug, had a court jester. Even Attila the Hun. Their purpose was to tell the truths that no one else dared utter.

We still have some. Here's one now:

[Jon Stewart] had a closing statement of sorts, speaking at the very end for about 12 minutes, and if you haven't seen it, it's worth watching -- not just for the humor or the poignancy, but because it helped summarize the point of the gathering. Stewart didn't seem especially disappointed with partisans, ideologues, or activists; he reserved his discontent for the "tool" we're supposed to rely on for "delineating" between sanity and insanity -- i.e., the American media -- which Stewart believes "broke."

The 24-hour news media, Stewart said, "did not cause our problems. But its existence makes solving them that much harder.... If we amplify everything, we hear nothing. The press is our immune system. If it overreacts to everything, we eventually get sicker."

Go here to watch the video of a scorching critique of the media and a surprisingly moving description of the American people as they really are. Late for something they should be doing. Probably something really important.

I'd write more but I am late for finishing a paper that has to be done by last week at the absolute latest. And I have to have it done before Máeráed the anchor baby and family return for the great Sanity Rally in DC, my hometown.

Meanwhile ABC hires Andrew Breitbart for news commentary. And then tries to walk it back. Profiles in media courage.

Your tax dollars at work

I learned something I did not know today. It was in an article by Matt Taibbi reaming a suborned soi-disant journalist named Lara Logan. You can read his rant here, but this is the part with the new info:

True, the Pentagon does have perhaps the single largest public relations apparatus on earth – spending $4.7 billion on P.R. in 2009 alone and employing 27,000 people, a staff nearly as large as the 30,000-person State Department – but is that really enough to ensure positive coverage in a society with armed with a constitutionally-guaranteed free press?

Hope you feel like you are getting your money's worth.

As for the content of the article, read it yourself and keep in mind the obviously forgotten advice of the old battle weary and drunken journalist who once told a rookie reporter:

When you interview someone you always have to ask yourself 'why is this lying bastard lying to me?'

But of course, I am only an historian. We never lie to anyone.

though we may not know what we are talking about.

Linguistic Terrorism

I have discovered a new news source: GlobalPost.com. It's interesting. They only pay their reporters about $12K a year, but for that price they get some pretty good talent since most newspapers are laying off their foreign correspondents. After all, if it doesn't happen in America how could it be news?

The first article I read was about the French fear of linguistic terrorism. Well, it is the French, but to some small extent they have a point. OTOH, French is not exactly the international language it once was, and nothing is going to change that.

Still, I wish I could speak it better.

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The State of the News

From ONN, some brilliantt parody of our news as brought to you by the MSM. This is what all news stories are beginning to sound like to me. Some blunt four letter words, so not for kiddies.

(courtesy of Andrew Sullivan).

Journalism ... not just for adults anymore

But then, you probably already knew that. Check this out.

and at the Washington Post too. tsk.

And now, business journalists

As you may have seen me mention, since I repeat it at every chance, no one's reputation survived the first decade of the new century. Here, from today's WaPo, is the Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual report overall assessment of the business media's role in reporting the recent unpleasant news:

"By and large the press as an institution failed to function as an early warning system for what is now being called the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression."

So, who do you trust? Other than tarot cards and tea leaves.

which are just as accurate as the pundits. But then, so are you. So am I. So is my dog Leo.

A new conservative voice at the NYT

Having finally gotten rid of Billy Kristol, who managed to be both a hack and a twit, The New York Times goes for Ross Douthat to fill the void on the conservative side - unless you think David Brooks already does that! Douthat though is a good choice: smart, engaged and articulate, which will be nice for a change.

if you click on the article, be sure to read the comments.

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Post mortem on Culture 11

Andrew Sullivan thought that Culture 11 was a big deal, and now it is gone. Sullivan laments.

But the loss of Culture 11 is, in my view, far worse than 14 lost jobs. It represented, at its best, a new and honest start for a thinking young conservatism, forged by a new generation of writers who, for the most part, were unafraid to think freshly - and showed up their elders by their courage and curiosity.

Perhaps. It is a bit depressing that it could not garner more support, ie money. I have to assume that what they were peddling is not selling, at least among the conservative crowd.

But one wonders where that "new generation of writers" is likely to go.

"New Majority" readers and Rush Limbaugh

Most serious bloggers, at least political bloggers, admit that they owe a huge debt to the comments of their readers. Josh Marshall over at TPM actually encourages them to do some of the basic reporting for his blog. So it is always educational to read the comments sections.

Here is one from Frum's New Majority site by "HollywoodBill that claims Rush Limbaugh's popularity is waning. If true, one can only wonder what took it so long.

The free market is taking care of Rush. In Southern California, one of the largest talkradio markets in the country, Rush Limbaugh is bleeding market share. The afternoon rush hour shockjocks, John and Ken, openly call him the Morning Gasbag. Bill Handel, admitted at a symposium that Rush is losing money for KFI. KFI was fiercely against the idiotic choice of Sarah Palin as VeeP. Do they influence much? Bush lost California in 2000 by 10 points, 11 in 2004. McCain/Palin lost California by 23 points, the largest loss in a Presidential election in nearly 60 years.

Others point out that a high profile Rush benefits the Dems.

Interesting, if true.

A new conservative blog

Ever since he boasted of seeing star bursts careening around the room every time Sarah Palin winked at him it has been hard for me to take Rich Lowry seriously. So much for his designated adult status. The rest of the crew over at National Review are just pathetic. The strongest contender for the uncoveted title of designated adult was David Frum, followed closely by Ramesh Pannuru. NRO solved that problem by getting rid of Frum, leaving Pannuru.

Frum, however, insists that it was an amicable parting brought on by his desire to start a blog of his own, New Majority. I've looked at it and it does seem to be a genuinely conservative voice, at once serious, intelligent, and sane, more or less. It is from tiny little sparks like this that the conservative movement will regain some credibility and, perhaps, a new identity at least in the perception of the American voter.

There was, briefly, another conservative blog called Culture 11 that attempted to do much the same. It had to fold. Lack of support.

while NRO rolls merrily along. No lack of support there.

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The Kindle again

We've discussed the Kindle e-book reader from Amazon before on Sententiae. Some readers won't use an e-book for any reason but I think there is a place for them - especially for extended travel. It may be other features of the Kindle that will turn out to be important , however, like being able to buy books on the fly and above all to subscribe to newspapers.

Here, via Andrew Sullivan, is a discussion of the possibility that the Kindle, with its paid subscriptions, might be the salvation of old fashioned print media. The New York Times, e.g. has 10,000 paid subscriptions from Kindle accounts. Keep in mind that there are virtually no production costs involved.

Given that the electronic Times costs $13.99 a month, that would mean the NYT Kindle edition is generating in the neighborhood of $1.68 million a year. How much of that goes to NYT Co. and how much stays with Amazon is unclear.

The author of the article seems to doubt that this is really going to work.

I’m not yet sold on that vision. I think for the Kindle to reach mainstream success, it’ll have to shift its focus from being an ebook reader with a junky mobile web browser to being a great mobile web browser with an ebook reader attached. It’ll have to become something more like the iPhone with a bigger screen and better battery life. (There are signs the iPhone might already have the ebook-reader lead over the Kindle, although without the business model attached.)

And when that shift happens, it’ll become trivially easy to read newspapers’ (free) web sites on the device — which I suspect will undercut Kindle newspaper subscriptions just as it undercuts print newspaper subscriptions.

I still haven't ordered one yet myself and may never. Amazon will not release its sales figures but there seems to be a permanent backlog of orders for it. Don't know how you measure success for a product like this but if you are selling every single one you can manufacture you've got all the success you can handle.

And why wouldn newspapers with a paid subscription base keep providing free editions on the web? Just because they are there now doesn't mean they can't go away.

Political Prescience

A screen shot from the Wall Street Journal* this morning. About 10 hours before the debate (which is apparently on again) even starts.

Update: well, maybe not so prescient. Hope over reality? Or will public opinion turn one more time?

*Man. Those guys are good!

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American viewpoint

A democracy probably works best when you have an informed electorate like we have here in America.

If you wonder why we always seem in need of some political hygiene, consider these facts assembled by Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com:

"Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 -- up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds" (Washington Times, 7/24/2006); "Nearing the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks" (Washington Post, 9/6/2003); "The same poll in June showed that 56% of all Republicans said they thought Saddam was involved with the 9/11 attacks. In the latest poll that number actually climbs, to 62%" (USA Today/Gallup poll, 10/6/2004); "The latest Harris Poll has some interesting results on public opinions of Saddam Hussein's possible links to al Qaeda. Of those Americans polled, 64% agree that Saddam Hussein had 'strong' links to al Qaeda" (Harris poll, July 21, 2006); "49 percent of Americans think the president has the authority to suspend the Constitution . . . Only a third of Americans understood that much of the rest of the world opposed our invasion [of Iraq]. Another third thought the rest of the world was cheering our invasion, and a third thought the rest of the world was neutral" (Rick Shenkman, June, 2008).

70% of Americans think Saddam had a role in 9/11. Well, look on the bright side. At least they aren't buying that 9/11 Truthteller nonsense Jesse Ventura is peddling.

Me? I'm going back to the Middle Ages to finish my essay on the Ossetians. I think they were involved in 9/11 somehow.