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 […]
L.A. TIMES SMEARS GARY WEBB
By JAN HERMAN If proof were needed that the Los Angeles Times is still covering its ass when it comes to Gary Webb, the investigative reporter who was found dead on Dec. 10 (an apparent suicide), the paper provided it Sunday with an obituary that is nothing less than character assassination. It’s a bloody hatchet […]
GARY WEBB, R.I.P.
“Just one more example,” a friend writes, “of why I have so little respect for American journalism. Much of the work done does not even deserve the name of journalism. But the real blame rests on the American public. It gets the government and journalism it deserves.” Here’s what he’s talking about: In 1996, journalist […]
RADIO BUZZ
Satellite radio has buzz, with Howard Stern, Eminem, Maxim magazine signed to host shows for big bucks, and now moviemeister Robert Evans signing up. But the great radio medium is already here. It’s on the Web, and it’s not part of any commercial hype. For instance,
REARVIEW MIRROR
Have a look at “Slow-Rolling Democracy in Ohio” by Robert Parry, who broke many Iran-Contra stories for AP and Newsweek. He writes: “George W. Bush’s political allies appear to be slow-rolling a requested recount in Ohio, leaving so little time that even if widespread voting fraud is discovered, the finding will come too late to […]
NOT CLIT LIT
The (London) Guardian reports that “Pride and Prejudice,” Jane Austen’s “salty-tongued commentary on the plight of women in the 19th century, perhaps best known today for providing Colin Firth with the opportunity to pose in a wet shirt in front of many grateful viewers,” has won the Women’s Watershed Fiction poll. Although Austen’s novel was […]
DRUNKEN SAILORS AND A JEWISH BIRTHDAY BOY
Couldn’t help noticing that PC has reached a new height. A New York City councilman is demanding an apology from the mayor for his aide’s use of the term “drunken sailor,” because it denigrates the men and women in the Navy. After the aide accused the council of “spending money like a drunken sailor” earlier […]
A SAILOR’S PROTEST
Remember the name Pablo Paredes. He’s an enlisted sailor who has protested the war in Iraq by refusing to board his ship for deployment to the Persian Gulf. More than anyone so far, Paredes recalls the Vietnam war resisters. He showed up four days ago on the naval pier in San Diego where the USS […]
‘TIS THE SEASON
Now meet the elf overseer at Macy’s world-famous store on 34th Street, where this former actor’s job is “to promote the annual rite of good cheer.” No matter that he used to play “monsters, murderers, even Dracula.” Or that in his office eight floors above Santaland, where he leafs through “The Elfin Manual,” he keeps […]
WIT AND WISDOM
A reader writes in re: yesterday’s KERIK CONNECTION: “Bernard Kerik was named Iraq’s interim interior minister through a misunderstanding. As a former NYC cop, he was an expert on hookers, not hookahs. Thus are insurgencies born.” In re: HIGH COLONIC, he also writes: “Could an inside examination of Bush’s presidency be considered a solonoscopy?” And […]
THE FLAKY REV. FALWELL
Because Rev. Jerry Falwell invariably points 180 degrees in the wrong direction on any subject, whatever he says helps me set my compass. See, courtesy of Wonkette, The Biggest Decision of His Life, an interview that includes his typically flaky remarks (thoughts, if you like) about homosexuality.
OH, THOSE KOOKS AND CRAZIES
It’s worth catching Richard Clarke’s entertaining speech to the New York Society for Ethical Culture, which he gave last night in an event co-sponosored by Pacifica Radio. The former counterterrorism chief under both Bill Clinton and Georgie Boy had some funny lines. “If the old Cabinet was a closed circle, this Cabinet,” Clarke said, referring […]
COLIN POWELL’S NEW RAP
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell got down the other night in Washington D.C. — or thought he did — when he paid tribute to Warren Beatty at the Kennedy Center Honors with a rap that went like this: I’m Colin Luther Powell.Public service is my thing.Don’t do it for the fame.Don’t do it for […]