Media
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46 entries. 11,781 words.
2005-05
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‘Wars.
2005-05-24.
Cynthia and I saw Episode III Sunday night. Pretty cool. Way better than I and II.
- Blog
2005-08
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Today’s News.
2005-08-26.
Today was particularly boring, being a Friday and all, so I decided to comment on today’s top story. I have discovered the joy of RSS Newsfeed Readers, so I now have instant news from around the world available at my fingertips.
- Blog
2005-09
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Rita’rded Reporting.
2005-09-25.
The level of absurdity in the news media is approaching mind-numbing proportions. I saw one reporter holding up a busted-up streetlight and talking at great length about how it had come hurtling down in front of them. Last night there was some “new video” of the aftermath of Rita being shown (on several competing news channels simultaneously).
- Blog
2005-12
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How To Read Op-Ed Articles.
2005-12-30.
I’ve recently added some “controversial” feeds to my news reader (by which, I mean political and religious-themed topics) to broaden my knowledge base. I’m intentionally trying to add feeds that give arguments from opposing viewpoints (ie. conservative vs. liberal, intelligent design vs. science, etc) in the hope that some median truth might come forth.
- Blog
2006-01
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Book of Daniel.
2006-01-09.
We taped The Book of Daniel and watched it over the weekend. We willfully and maliciously fast-forwarded through the commercials while we laughed ourselves silly in defiance of Big Media. Sorry, I digress.
- Blog
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Dark Tower Found.
2006-01-16.
I finished the Stephen King Dark Tower books last night… I’ve had the last two books for like six months but just now got around to reading them. (My life is such that I have to deliberately exclude things from my plate in order to read.) I started with book five and went on through to the last two. All I can say is: Wow.
- Blog
2006-03
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Belated Oscar Bashing.
2006-03-06.
It’s Oscars time again, and we all know what that means: Time for conservative pundits everywhere to phone in and bash Hollywood! (Just pretend I finished this before the Oscars.)
- Commentary
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Media Bias Exposed.
2006-03-16.
Part 2 in a Special 4-Part Series: Random Thoughts Of Thursday
- Commentary
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‘Ware That Tricksey Media.
2006-03-21.
I always enjoy deciphering how stories get distorted by the people that report them.
- Commentary
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Entertaindit Balance.
2006-03-24.
Since I’ve been ragging a lot on Daily Kos writers lately, I suppose I should be fair and balanced and identify some conservative Entertaindits too. I’ve already mentioned Ann Coulter a few times, which was a no-brainer. But overall I find that it’s much harder to locate Entertaindits on conservative blogs.
- Commentary
2006-04
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Nightly News Watch.
2006-04-25.
I’m officially renaming NBC Nightly News to NBC Nightly News For Dummies. Last night, I saw one of the most asinine news reports ever. (Yes, even more asinine than the unending “Long Road Back” series.) Here it is: Road trip reveals impact of gas prices.
- Commentary
2006-05
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May Day Survived.
2006-05-02.
If you’re rabidly opposed to any form of immigration, and are looking for ways to hastily generalize the actions of a few individuals to encompass all 12 million illegal immigrants, you will undoubtedly want to visit Michelle Malkin’s blog to gather ammunition for your logically fallacious argument: The Day To Hate Republicans and Borders? What Borders? and The Pictures You Won’t See.
- Commentary
2006-06
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The Revolution.
2006-06-12.
Last night, I watched some of the History Channel’s series The Revolution. It was interesting to me because, much to my chagrin, I had previously not known much about the American Revolution. I noticed something odd though, when viewed through modern eyes: America was basically founded by liberals.
- Commentary
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Weather Happening In Gulf, Experts Shocked.
2006-06-13.
Here’s a quick impression of tonight’s NBC Nightly News For Dummies:
- Commentary
2006-07
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ADD Media And Belligerentive Bloggers.
2006-07-18.
Apparently an outbreak of war between two countries only warrants a few days of major media coverage. The CNN feed today mainly covered Bush’s un-newsworthy epithet and details of Westerners “fleeing” Lebanon. Pretty much nothing from CNN about the fighting itself or any of the politics surrounding it.
- Commentary
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Creating Content From A Substantive-less Blogosphere.
2006-07-22.
A Virginia “Weekend Without Echoes” post by Thomas Krehbiel
- Commentary
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Not A Slam Dunk For Me Yet.
2006-07-26.
Naomi Oreskes recently wrote a piece in the LA Times telling us about the most recent scientific consensus on global warming: Global Warming – Signed, Sealed and Delivered.
- Commentary
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ThatViralMarketerEmily.
2006-07-28.
Some weeks ago, I saw a post somewhere in the Virginia blogosphere about ThatGirlEmily’s blog. I jotted down the link on the 19th and wrote: “I think it’s contrived, but it’s compelling in a can’t-look-away-from-the-train-wreck kind of way: That Girl Emily, the blog of a woman’s revenge against her cheating husband.” It never ended up on my blog, though, because it’s more “pop culture” than “culture wars” material.
- Commentary
2006-08
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Media Reports Of Lebanese Reconstruction.
2006-08-17.
I’ve seen several media reports discussing the reconstruction in southern Lebanon, all of which seem to go out of their way to mention that Hezbollah is right there to help out the poor displaced citizens with food, medicine, and money, while everyone else’s relief efforts are slow and ineffectual. The implication, of course, is that Hezbollah is a powerful organization, and much better suited to govern southern Lebanon than anyone else.
- Commentary
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Other Important News.
2006-08-18.
Now that the situation with Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon is completely solved, we can turn our attention to other important news. No, not Iraq, silly. I mean the all-important JonBenet Ramsey case!
- Commentary
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Ernesto, Day 1.
2006-08-31.
We’re hunkering down for Ernesto here in Richmond. In the spirit of those brave bloggers who fought off the looters and stayed online in New Orleans last year, I’ll also try to stay online and report on this disaster.
- Commentary
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Ernesto, Day 1 Update.
2006-08-31.
A quick update. The radio said Ernesto was racing toward the coastline, now at tropical storm strength. They said it will be impacting our weather starting tomorrow morning, so it’s vitally important that we stay tuned to Richmond’s Morning News with Jimmy Barrett for all our weather-related news.
- Commentary
2006-09
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Ernesto, Day 2.
2006-09-01.
Back for a second. Will post while I can. Ernesto is still bearing down on us.
- Commentary
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Taliban Who?.
2006-09-07.
I am shocked – shocked! – that nobody is talking about Katie. (At least nobody in my daily reads.) Perhaps it’s because she behaves just like any other generic anchor chained to a news entertainment business that’s desperate for ratings.
- Commentary
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Rush On The War.
2006-09-08.
Rush Limbaugh sounded off on Katie’s “free speech” segment last night, because if there’s one thing Rush Limbaugh needs, it’s a public forum to express his opinions. Overall I thought his spiel was okay, but he snuck in a couple of head-scratchers.
- Commentary
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My 9/11 Tribute.
2006-09-11.
As you know, today is the anniversary of William Wallace’s defeat of the English at Stirling Bridge. Let’s all take a moment to remember where we were on that fateful day.
- Commentary
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Digital Fortress.
2006-09-18.
I finished Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress last night. It’s a very typical Dan Brown novel (that is, sort of a cross between the Hardy Boys and Oliver Stone’s JFK), but I didn’t think it was as good as DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons. Um, perhaps I should say that it’s below the quality level found in DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons, because I wouldn’t want to give the impression that any Dan Brown novel is “good.” At best, I’d call them “kind of entertaining.”
- Blog
2006-12
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To Ignore Or Not To Ignore.
2006-12-29.
Wow, this is fun. I haven’t written this much in a while.
- Commentary
2007-02
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Accuracy In Media Not So Accurate.
2007-02-06.
My conscience dictates that I post this small retraction: Last week when I was rambling about Keith Olbermann, I linked to what I called an “interesting article” on Accuracy in Media (AIM) which suggested a link between the post-9/11 anthrax mailings and al Qaeda.
- Commentary
2007-03
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CNN Is Fast.
2007-03-01.
It’s nice to know that CNN is on top of the news. They are so good, in fact, that they can pose a thought-provoking question and then answer it for you all in the span of 10 minutes.
- Commentary
2007-04
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Dennis Miller’s New Radio Show.
2007-04-03.
Out of curiosity I listened to Dennis Miller’s first radio show over the weekend. I’ve always been a fan of his comedy, but I think he jumped the shark somewhere during the Dennis Miller Live show on HBO. (It was hip and edgy at first, but by the end he was doing that high-pitched giggling thing way too much.)
- Commentary
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After Virginia Tech: Who To Blame?.
2007-04-17.
There are a lot of jumbled thoughts in my head after the Virginia Tech shooting yesterday. One infuriating aspect of the media coverage has been the almost constant attempts to shift blame away from the shooter. “What went wrong?” they ask, as if the shooter was just another victim.
- Commentary
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After Virginia Tech: Media Death Toll Obsession.
2007-04-18.
There are a lot of jumbled thoughts in my head after the Virginia Tech shooting on Monday. One of them is about the media’s grisly obsession with record-breaking death tolls.
- Commentary
2007-05
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1/2 Hour Train Wreck.
2007-05-21.
Has anyone else seen that 1/2 Hour News Hour on FOX? We stumbled onto another episode last night. It’s obviously targeted toward the loyal Rush Limbaugh fan who also owns signed, dog-eared copies of every Ann Coulter book, but I can’t even imagine a diehard dittohead laughing at any of the jokes.
- Commentary
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Operation: Mindcrime II.
2007-05-29.
I was interested to see that Queensrÿche released a sequel to Operation: Mindcrime a few years ago. I just got it last week. I had very low expectations, because I think Queensrÿche peaked in the mid- to late-90s, and their last couple of albums have been occasionally good, but overall nothing to write home about.
- Blog
2007-07
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Contrasting Story Titles.
2007-07-05.
This unintentional pairing of story titles from a CNN news feed made me chuckle.
- Commentary
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ABC World News Last Night.
2007-07-12.
Last night’s ABC World News was annoying. The top story was about Michael Chertoff’s infamously irresponsible “gut feeling” about an impending terror strike this summer and the super scary “elevated chatter” going on. I couldn’t help but recall that the government and the media has informed us about this same “elevated chatter” every summer since 9/11.
- Commentary
2007-09
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U.S. News Needs More Gravitas.
2007-09-11.
I forgot to post this yesterday. Sometimes the top news coming out of the United States is a little embarrassing when compared to the rest of the world…
- Commentary
2007-12
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Crash of the Choirs.
2007-12-19.
About this Clash of the Choirs thing: First of all, it should have been called, Clash of the Pop Music Backup Singers. Calling them “choirs” is an insult to choirs everywhere. They weren’t doing anything remotely resembling the harmonic complexity of real chorale music.
- Blog
2008-06
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Best and Worst Stephen King Adaptations.
2008-06-29.
Best movie adaptations of Stephen King works.
- Blog
2008-07
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NBC Loves Them Hurricanes.
2008-07-25.
Does anyone else get the sense that NBC Nightly News for Dummies simply can’t wait to report on another hurricane destroying a U.S. city? While they were spending approximately 20,000 hours reporting on The Long Road Back from Katrina, they must have put a lot of hurricane disaster reporting resources in place, because they sure are anxious to tell us about these things now. This year, they’re building up fear and drama about hurricanes before they’re even hurricanes.
- Commentary
2008-09
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This Is An Outrage.
2008-09-01.
I am outraged that Hurricane Gustav is interfering with the Republican National Convention. How am I supposed to compare it with the DNC now?
- Commentary
2009-03
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No Agenda Podcast.
2009-03-24.
My new favorite political show is the No Agenda Podcast. It’s sort of a subversive, anti-government, rambling talk show with Adam Curry (the former MTV VJ) and John C. Dvorak (the technology columnist).
- Commentary
2009-05
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Tea Parties, Two Weeks Later.
2009-05-03.
Speaking of tea parties, it’s been roughly two and half weeks since the big FOX News Tea Party thing. As expected, all of those people that “weren’t going to take it anymore” meekly went back to their homes having accomplished absolutely nothing. Presumably they’re now sitting comfortably in their homes, watching YouTube and American Idol.
- Commentary
2010-04
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Mission: Earth Accomplished.
2010-04-19.
I recently finished a series of 10 pulp sci-fi books (allegedly) by L. Ron Hubbard called Mission: Earth. The books were terrible beyond belief (worse even than Dan Brown – at least Brown novels have an interesting story idea), and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. Wikipedia has it right: “It is frequently cited within science fiction circles as one of the worst science fiction novels ever written.”
- Blog
2010-10
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Daemon by Daniel Suarez.
2010-10-23.
I just finished Daniel Suarez’s much talked-about Daemon. (Talked about among the digerati, at least.) It’s not a literary masterpiece, but it’s a great story and a thought-provoking idea, and I think it will resonate particularly well among the tech-savvy and younger generations. (There is talk of an upcoming movie, which would be pretty awesome.)
- Blog