In the rush to leave 2004 behind, I never got around to posting the conclusion of a small debate that erupted about Bill Moyers. It began with a farewell to Moyers that praised him — he was retiring from broadcast journalism — and continued with reader Larry Lippman’s negative response, which attacked Moyers for being […]
TORTURED TESTIMONY
The front-page headline says: “Gonzales Speaks Against Torture During Hearing.” Well, as Rummy Boy might say, golly gee willikers. How noble of Mr. Gonzales. Give that man a medal. Better yet, make that man attorney general. After all, he says he understands the difference between being White House counsel, his current job, and being the […]
THE PURE MALARKEY OF SOFTSPEAK
Alberto Gonzales has added softspeak, a modification of newspeak, to the Orwellian lexicon, although Sen. Joe Biden had another term for it: “Pure malarkey!” That’s how Biden, fed up with Gonzales’s lack of candor, characterized the Attorney General nominee’s testimony in this morning’s Senate hearing. (A big tip of the hat, too, to Sen. Ted […]
ESSENTIAL VIEWING
The U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General begins this morning. Watch the Webcast on C-Span. It begins at 9:30 a.m. ET.
VONNEGUT, TERKEL DO THE HONORS
Two essays — one by Kurt Vonnegut, the other by Studs Terkel — appeared on New Year’s day in The Guardian in London. They’re both about Nelson Algren, who was, it is no exaggeration to say, one of the great American authors of the 20th century, and among the most neglected. “Like James Joyce,” Vonnegut […]
A NEGATIVE TOO FAR
Secretary of State Colin Powell is everywhere these days. He ushered in the New Year from Times Square with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Today he’s off to survey the tsunami damage with Florida Governor Jeb Bush. On top of that, he’s leaving politics, but he’s not retiring. Powell says he expects to serve the […]
RUMMY’S WHISTLE-STOP TOUR
Rummy Boy in Iraq, speaking to the troops: “We’re on the side of freedom. You’re on the side of freedom. And that’s the side to be on.” Golly gee willikers.
DEPARTING WORDS
I should have said, “Back in ’05, if not sooner.” Sooner because I wanted to link to the video of all 50-plus minutes of Bill Moyers’s keynote speech to the National Conference on Media Reform. It was posted on the Web this morning by Democracy Now!, the best daily TV-radio-Internet news broadcast we’ve got. A […]
BRRRR!
Gone ice-fishing. Best wishes for the New Year. Back in ’05.
FINE TUNING
Reflecting on last week’s farewell to Bill Moyers, a reader let me know what he thought. Larry Lippman writes: Hey Jan, I can understand (sometimes) that in the battle of ideas, well-meaning and even bright people can have a different idea of what ought to be. But adulation for the sanctimonious, sans clerical collar Bill […]
THE HAUNTED HOTEL
Guess who’s joined the conservationists fighting to preserve the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where Robert Kennedy was gunned down. According to Preservation Online, it’s none other than Sirhan Shirhan. In a lawsuit to keep the structure from being demolished to make way for a school, he claims that evidence lodged in the hotel walls shows […]
LOVING LITTLE BROTHER
Talking the other day about Orwell’s portrait of the future, I should have mentioned that it’s not only hatred and fear which serve as the twin engines of misrule. It’s also love and worship. As Orwell’s doomed hero Winston Smith learns to his everlasting degradation, it is so important in the scheme of things to […]
HANGING IN WITH GEORGE
By Jan Herman When 1984 came around smack in the middle of the rose-tinted Reagan era, many in the commentariat had a field day noting that George Orwell, for all his genius, had overstated his case. The future he’d warned of in “1984” simply hadn’t come to pass. Yeah, right. Thinking of Bill Moyers this morning, it occurred […]
SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Bob Herbert took the words right out of my mouth this morning.
MOYERS MOVES ON
By Jan Herman The departure of Bill Moyers from “Now” — tonight will be his last broadcast — is a huge loss for mainstream television journalism and the nation. His views on truth and journalism, as noted in June, are more striking than ever: In earlier times our governing bodies tried to squelch journalistic freedom with the blunt […]
OLD FOLKS GET IT
Surprise! Surprise! The latest news from the Center for Media Research: Biddys and Geezers Drive Internet Growth
BACKING OFF
Six weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi had sued the U.S. Treasury Department for denying her right to free speech by ruling that she could not publish her memoir in this country, the government has backed off. It has now dropped restrictions on writers from Cuba, Iran […]