Friday, October 14, 2005

Fault-line: Family Research Council's Tony Perkins lambastes Grover Norquist for speaking to the Log Cabin Republicans: "Grover has spent years working to assemble a coalition of fiscal and social conservatives and his decision to aid those who are trying to destroy the institution of marriage is truly a disappointment and will no doubt split this important coalition." 7:12:31 PM   permalink   comment []

Underpaid journalist: "I'd beat a man to death with a fish for $25,000 a year." Readers in Greensboro complained that the N&R dumbed itself down by dropping Friedman and the other NYT columnists. True. But I don't think readers understand how much in the way of local talent that $34 K NYT fee can buy in the newspaper business. 2:52:17 PM   permalink   comment []

Mr. Sun has some questions for Fitzgerald to ask Rove. "How come you couldn't find anything on Richard Clarke's wife?" 2:41:07 PM   permalink   comment []

The Scene on South Elm is not just showing great movies, it's open for business during the day as a cafe. Yes, there's wifi, the fancy coffee machine comes next week, and soon...the liquor license. Tonight, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday. 2:22:10 PM   permalink   comment []

Tim Porter on the Melanie Sill-Jay Rosen conversation at the N&O: "a powerful illustration of the changing dynamic between news provider, news source and news audience." 10:18:23 AM   permalink   comment []

Lenslinger rounds up some thoughts on Apple's new vi-pod service. Atrios made an important point about the tiny-screen video: it ports to your TV. The biggest question remains unanswered: Did Jobs schedule the announcement just to make us look good for having a vid-blogging session at ConvergeSouth? 9:41:24 AM   permalink   comment []

An interview I did just prior to ConvergeSouth with WFDD's Jennifer Curry about Greensboro's blog community. 9:24:58 AM   permalink   comment []

N&R front-pager: Jefferson-Pilot/Lincoln deal is an acquisition, not a merger of equals. The article is not online, but some online readers already know the score on this one. Update: Here's the N&R story, "When equal really doesn’t mean equal." 7:05:42 AM   permalink   comment []

DarkTimes: Krugman says the media ignored clear signs of Bush's less-great qualities: "Right now, with the Bush administration in meltdown on multiple issues, we're hearing a lot about President Bush's personal failings. But what happened to the commanding figure of yore, the heroic leader in the war on terror? The answer, of course, is that the commanding figure never existed: Mr. Bush is the same man he always was. All the character flaws that are now fodder for late-night humor were fully visible, for those willing to see them, during the 2000 campaign." Best line: "Read the speeches Howard Dean gave before the Iraq war, and compare them with Colin Powell's pro-war presentation to the U.N. Knowing what we know now, it's clear that one man was judicious and realistic, while the other was spinning crazy conspiracy theories. But somehow their labels got switched in the way they were presented to the public by the news media." Kicker: "What we really need is political journalism based less on perceptions of personalities and more on actual facts. Schadenfreude aside, we should not be happy that stories about Mr. Bush's boldness have given way to stories analyzing his facial tics. Think, instead, about how different the world would be today if, during the 2000 campaign, reporting had focused on the candidates' fiscal policies instead of their wardrobes." Friedman tortures a dinner-table metaphor to get to the excellent if oft-noted point that the US needs better science and math education, and better tech infrastructure, in order to compete in the global economy; he cites this report, and recommends its recommendations. 7:01:27 AM   permalink   comment []