Two in-depth pieces hit cyberspace ahead of the long weekend and they are a study in contrasts.
One, from Vanity Fair, focuses on the infighting in Hillary Clinton’s campaign. A cross between bad Shakespeare and well…more bad Shakespeare, it’s a telling look at the ultimate demise of the junior senator from New York.
The other is a long profile story from the New York Times magazine on legendary AM talker Rush Limbaugh. Interesting reading on two of the most divisive figures in American politics.
Kiyoshi Martinez, former editor in chief of the Daily Illini, got famous today for his founding of angryjournalist.com. The web site is home to over 2000 anonymous gripes from people in the journalism business. A wire piece written today was picked up on Drudge as a supplement to news that CBS will be making cuts to its newsroom staff.
If you’re interested in the inner-workings of a (not so?) modern newsroom, AJ is a good place to start. It’s kind of depressing reading so those with weak stomachs (read: journ majors) beware.
However, despite the growing pains modern journalism is going through, other occupations could use a site like this too. Angryteacher.com? Angrypolitician.com? Angrycop.com? Angryparent.com? Angrystudent.com?
Katie Hamilton, a U of I student who’s majoring in public policy is now the face of one of the great newspaper battles of recent memory. She’s been interning at the Chicago Tribune and before that she did press work for the Illinois Student Senate. Bravo!
Full disclosure: I’m a Cardinals fan so I’m not as invested in the Cubs as most people in this area are but even I think selling Wrigley is a bad idea.
A new Pew Research Poll notes that only 28% of Americans could correctly identify the number of troops that have died in Iraq, which stands just shy of 4,000. This is an enormous drop in awareness about the human toll of this war; only seven months ago, in March 2007, 54% were familiar with the death count.
The drop, however, can be accounted for. The Project for Excellence in Journalism recently found that coverage of Iraq has fallen from 15% of total news coverage last July to 3% in February, so it’s not just the people who have lost interest in the war. It’s the journalists, too.
The link above has a great chart that shows - via a squiggly line that resembles an EKG heart monitor - the percentage of news coverage devoted to the war in Iraq.
Another question the survey asked: “Who is Oprah Winfrey backing for president?” 84% of Americans nailed that one.
I was browsing the Web, when I ran across a neat mini-series called Purple States. The series is run by the New York Times, and it documents the stories of five everyday Americans as they criss-cross the country covering the 2008 primary season. Each of the series’ subjects represent a key primary state (Iowa, Florida, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and California), and, more importantly, each subject portrays a different facet of American society.
During each episode — which is no longer than ten minutes — two or three of the Purple State subjects grapple with an issue that is both directly affecting their lives and currently being debated by the 2008 presidential candidates. I will warn you; the series is a bit out-dated, being that the majority of it was filmed throughout the weeks leading up to the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary. However, the topics of each episode and what the subjects have to say about them are still relevant.
Here’s an article a friend recommended to me. It’s nice to be reading about something other than the election:
“It is 2016, and the Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Barack Obama administration is nearing the end of its second term. America has pulled out of Iraq but has about 20,000 troops in the independent state of Kurdistan, as well as warships anchored at Bahrain and an Air Force presence in Qatar. Afghanistan is stable; Iran is nuclear. China has absorbed Taiwan and is steadily increasing its naval presence around the Pacific Rim and, from the Pakistani port of Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea. The European Union has expanded to well over 30 members and has secure oil and gas flows from North Africa, Russia and the Caspian Sea, as well as substantial nuclear energy. America’s standing in the world remains in steady decline.”
Parag Khanna is the author of “The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order.” His adapted essay, “Waving Goodbye to Hedemony, ” about the emerging Second World and its effects on the United States, European Union, and Chinese power blocs can be read in its entirety at the New York Times online.
This column, written by New York Times op-ed columnist, Nicholas D. Kristof, argues against the claim that Barack Obama is too inexperienced to become our next president. I would have written on this topic myself, but Kristof’s words exemplify my opinion perfectly. I especially enjoy his ability to extract historical evidence and make it relevant to the reader — journalism at its finest!
