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Entries Tagged as 'Media Matters'

All the names that aren’t fit to print

September 3rd, 2010 · View Comments · Currently, Media Matters

NEW YORK TIMES standards editor Philip Corbett recently issued a memo to NYT’s reporters and editors concerning the use /abuse of anonymous sources. The document, posted on Gawker, is interesting reading for media watchers. I can’t speak to what’s going with most other papers, but I read the NYT a fair bit, and now that I think [...]

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What’s love got to do with it?

August 30th, 2010 · View Comments · Celebrity Scandal, Currently, Media Matters, Sporting Life

BEFORE TIGER WOODS took to the fairways at last week’s Barclays PGA tournament, the ”cheetah” sat down for a perfunctory pre-tourney press conference. Reporters started things off with a few run of the mill golf-related queries: “Drive well today?”; “How many drivers will you hit out there?”; “Have you made the decision now to change your swing?” But this was no ordinary [...]

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Getting over Katrina

August 26th, 2010 · View Comments · Around the World, Currently, God Bless America, Media Matters

WITH THE five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina drawing near, the U.S. media is busy pumping out special reports and retrospectives on the day disaster struck the Gulf Coast. Most of this reporting is naturally focusing on Katrina’s aftermath and the botched response that continues to impact the area; notably the work done by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who’s returned to [...]

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Wyclef: Not presidential material

August 23rd, 2010 · View Comments · Around the World, Celebrity Scandal, Currently, Media Matters, Pop Culture

WHAT WAS Wyclef thinking? Hatian-American hip-hop star Wyclef Jean made a huge media splash earlier this month when he announced on Larry King Live that he was running for president of his native land, effectively positioning himself as the saviour of that earthquake-ravaged country. Only one teeny tiny problem: Clef doesn’t meet the requirements for those seeking to become president; [...]

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No ‘Buff Bam’ this time

August 19th, 2010 · View Comments · Currently, God Bless America, Media Matters

THE WHITE HOUSE press corps was up in arms last weekend upon learning that they missed a chance to snap photos of President Obama swimming in Florida. You might recall back in 2008 when pics published of a shirtless president-elect on vacation in Hawaii created a media maelstrom. “FIT FOR OFFICE: Buff Bam is Hawaii hunk,” is how the New York [...]

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Warning: Journalism being attempted here

August 16th, 2010 · View Comments · Around the World, Currently, Media Matters, Oh Canada

SELF-PROCLAIMED “geek comedian” Tom Scott has a funny-cause-it’s-true bit on his blog that really sticks it to crappy newspapers: Journalism Warning Labels. “It seems a bit strange to me that the media carefully warn about and label any content that involves sex, violence or strong language — but there’s no similar labeling system for, say, [...]

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Making the most of a meltdown

August 12th, 2010 · View Comments · Around the World, Currently, God Bless America, Media Matters, Pop Culture, Weird and wacky

IT WAS EASY to predict that the Steven Slater story would quickly turn into a media circus. After all, America was in desperate need of a fresh hero / villain to obsess over, and, eventually, give a reality show to. UPDATE: Steven Slater offered reality show There’s really nothing left to say about the whole Slater and the slide incident, so [...]

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Facing reality

August 8th, 2010 · View Comments · Around the World, Currently, Media Matters

THE COVER of the Aug. 9 issue of Time has generated a fair bit of controversy among those on both sides of the debate over the war in Afghanistan. The magazine’s front features a disturbing image of an 18-year-old Afghan woman who had her nose and ears cut off as punishment for fleeing an arranged [...]

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Fast is the new slow

July 31st, 2010 · View Comments · Currently, God Bless America, Media Matters

EARLIER THIS WEEK on PoliticsDaily.com, veteran journalist Walter Shapiro had a column in which he called for a “slow news movement.” “We have lost sight of so many significant aspects of our age because they cannot be boiled down to bite-sized news nuggets,” he wrote. “The problem is not the new technology of the news, [...]

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The biggest buzz of all

July 25th, 2010 · View Comments · Around the World, Currently, Media Matters, Pop Culture, Weird and wacky

YOU’VE GOT to hand it to BrewDog – they sure know how to create a big buzz. The Scottish brewery made headlines this week for producing a 55%-alcohol beer, ominously named the End of History. “This blond Belgian ale is infused with nettles from the Scottish Highlands and fresh juniper berries,” the proprietors say on [...]

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Keeping Apple honest

July 21st, 2010 · View Comments · Around the World, Currently, Media Matters, Pop Culture

NEW YORK TIMES media columnist David Carr had an interesting piece in last Sunday’s paper looking at the role Consumer Reports played in the iPhone4-reception debacle. The magazine said it can’t recommend the phone because of issues with the antenna, which wraps around the outside of the device. If the phone is held a certain way, dropped [...]

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Canada’s very own Fox News

June 18th, 2010 · View Comments · Currently, Media Matters, Oh Canada, Pop Culture

CANADIAN MEDIA COMPANY Quebecor announced this week it plans to launch Sun TV News, a right-wing all-news network that will take aim at the nation’s existing players: CBC and CTV. Here’s the promo: The station — which will be fed by the Sun Media chain of newspapers – is promising “hard news” and “straight talk” when it launches Jan. 1.

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Jobs: ‘I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers’

June 14th, 2010 · View Comments · Around the World, Currently, Media Matters, Pop Culture

EARLIER THIS MONTH at the D8 Conference near Los Angeles, Apple CEO Steve Jobs discussed the impact of his company’s latest gadget: the vaunted iPad. In an interview, Jobs was asked whether this new technology – which, among other things, provides print-news organizations with a tool to offer digital content in a more engaging and interactive fashion than through conventional websites – will “save journalism.” “One [...]

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OK Leafs, stop being losers

June 10th, 2010 · View Comments · Currently, Media Matters, Pop Culture, Sporting Life, Toronto

GOOD ON the Chicago Blackhawks. The young squad finished off the tenacious Philadelphia Flyers in six games last night, ending the club’s 49-year Stanley Cup drought, the only Original Six team whose dry spell was longer than the Toronto Maple Leafs’. What a strange goal to end it all, though. Other than Chicago forward Patrick Kane — who scored – no one in Wachovia Center, nor [...]

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Time to KISS goodbye

June 9th, 2010 · View Comments · Currently, Media Matters, Pop Culture, Toronto, Weird and wacky

NOTE TO KISS and the KISS Army: it’s over. I’m sure it was fun while it lasted — far too long, IMO — but alas the time has come to wipe off the clown makeup, lose the body armor and ditch the platform boots. I realize old Gene wants to squeeze a few more dollars out of his washed-up troupe of mimes (and wag [...]

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