I need hyperlinks in meatspace

My day started off terribly, since I had forgotten the NYT had collapsed the Metro Section into section A, and spent quite a while looking for it.

Therefore, I'm especially appreciative of online media and hyperlinks today and will now proceed to furnish a number of them. David, Kate, Ferny, and I are guest blogging at HuffPo today. HuffPo has set up a symposium here on the recent YPU debate R: Blogs are good for democracy.

My post is here, so enjoy! (But please keep the number of comments mocking my previous HuffPo post on Harry Potter to a minimum)

She came, she dimpled, she conquered

I know it was unreasonable to expect Joe Biden to not drag out all of his wonky answers, even when contrasted with Palin's quick, folksy remarks. I know it was unreasonable to expect Joe Biden to anticipate that Palin's flag pin would be that much bigger and sparklier than his. I even know it was unreasonable to expect Joe Biden to do the smart thing and say he'd cut government subsidies to rather than raise taxes on Big Oil and Big (Evil) Corporations.

But for the love of anything, was it really unreasonable to expect Biden to look out at the audience, not at Gwen Ifill! Do the Dems just hate winning, or do they really not see the need to give any kind of media coaching?

Why won't someone tell the Dems it's not deceptive to use a little lipstick?

No gauze-filtered montage for the gays

NBC laid the human interest stories on pretty thick during the Olympics. From the one-legged swimmer to Misty May's lost wedding ring, the stories ranged from inspirational to trite, and it seemed like NBC's pursuit of moving montages was unstoppable.

Until Mathew Mitcham won gold.

Mitcham, an Australian diver, was the only non-Chinese athlete to win gold in any diving event, so his win was newsworthy by any standard, but NBC's coverage conveniently skipped over the fact that Mitcham was the only openly gay man at the 2008 Olympics. NBC also, unusually, did not show footage of his mother and his partner reacting to his dives. NBC was not the only media outlet to ignore Mitcham's sexuality, and the omissions can't just be chalked up to time crunches. The New York Times's article the next day also did not mention Mitcham's orientation or his stuggle to raise money to bring his partner to Beijing to watch him dive.

OutSports.com summed it up pretty well:

It’s a big story. The only openly gay male athlete in Beijing pulled off one of the great upsets at the Olympics in a spectacular fashion. If he had had cancer, or if his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was 2, or if he had just proposed to his girlfriend, they would have mentioned it. But they never showed him hugging his boyfriend, never mentioned it. They referred to “personal problems,” but I’m afraid they decided Matthew’s sexuality was off limits. A real shame.

Fun Fact: if all of the 14 openly LGBT athletes were a country, they would rank just behind Romania and hold a commanding three medal lead ahead of Greece.

Thoughts on Watching 45 Minutes of Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room

Yes, it was personally immoral for John Edwards to cheat on his cancer-stricken wife. Yes, it was also irresponsible for him to keep this to himself as he ran for president. Yes, it does raise questions that the MSM sat on these allegations for about three weeks.

But, Wolf, when I watch 45 minutes of The Situation Room and see you spending 40 of those minutes on a close reading of Edwards's public statement, while Russia is sending tanks into and declaring war on a soverign nation that is important to our security interests in the reason, it's not really John Edwards's judgement that I'm all worked up about.

"Don't you have any declaratives hiding in that beard, anywhere?"

The corrupt hiring practices at the DoJ are already so ludicrous that they leave little for Stewart and Colbert to mock. However, last night Stewart was absolutely right when he attacked Wolf Blitzer's coverage of the issue (starting at about 4:05 in the video below).



The idea that reporting unflattering facts represents bias is insane. I've heard some pro-McCain-ers arguing that, even if you don't support McCain's policies, you should support divided government, since it forces each side to defend their policies and not overreach their mandate.

If you really want limited, defensive government, you'll get a lot more mileage out of agressive journalism than divided government (the 60 vote cloture rule in the Senate and Coburn's holds make division and compromise a foregone conclusion anyway). This kind of wimpy reporting makes it impossible for all but the most wonky to get energized about government misdeeds and to be motivated to push for change. Once again, Comedy Central is out reporting the MSM. Shame on you, Blitzer.

(If the embedded video doesn't work, the clip can be found here or by searching for "Illegaly Blonde" on the Daily Show website.)