Category: Favorites – Media
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Urban Progressive Privilege: Our Vacuous Overlords
I’ve listened to a lot of vapid, trite radio in my life. Janeane Garofalo’s attempt at a talk show. Most any “audio essay” by David Sedaris. Just about every local show on AM950, from Nick Coleman and Wendy Wilde and Two Putt Tommy and Steve Timmer through Bart McNeil or whatever his name is. Lots…
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Little Straw Men
A few weeks ago, I saw the new film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott “Little Women“. I’m told there are seven different versions on film out there – I’ve only seen parts of the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn, and of course the 1994 version with Winona Ryder (of which the less said, the better).…
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One Day In The Star/Tribunes “Morgue”
SCENE: It’s the “Morgue” at the Star-Tribune’s “Morgue” – a room full of file cabinets, deep underground, where no light has penetrated since the Kennedy administration. The door opens, and the MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES STORY, wherein mismanagement under two DFL administrations led to hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud, including credible allegations…
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NPR’s “On The Media”: Fake Analysis Of “Fake News”
There are a few things in the American media for which I have more contempt than the WNYC program “On The Media”. I’ve written about it in the past – it’s an NPR show, hosted by Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone, that seems to be based around the premise the journalist is a noble order of high…
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Somewhere In Morocco
KAEPERNICK (Staring out of the desert): “Chris Kluwe, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!”
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Film Review: “The Overnighters”
I went to the Saint Anthony Main theatre on Friday night for a showing of The Overnighters. It’s a good movie. It’s worth seeing. But it’s more complicated than that. The Punched Social Ticket: In reporting on life and the people in the Square States (aka “Flyover Land”), our culture’s self-appointed elites have a fairly…
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Doug Grow, Narrative-Fluffer
I was down at the State Capitol yesterday for a press conference, as Representative Deb Hilstrom (DFL Brooklyn Park) introduced the gun bill/s we talked about yesterday. The bills, as we noted yesterday, would exert the state to solve actual problems – close gaps in the background check system, add mandatory penalties for using guns…
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Chanting Points Memo: Slouching From Fargo
How do you measure success in a politician? If you’re a liberal, it’s likely in terms of sheer volume of legislation created and money moved about. Because to a liberal, government is about creating reams of paper, rules, laws, stuff for government to do. If you’re a conservative, it’s probably more a matter of princple;…
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Matt McKinney’s Whitewash Job
Earlier this week, when three media outlets (WCCO-TV, KSTP-TV and Rick Kupchella’s Bring Me The News) released near-simultaneous hagiographies of Darren Evanovich – the Minneapolis man who was shot by a “good samaritan” with a carry permit after Evanovich allegedly robbed and pistol-whipped a woman in a grocery store parking lot – I said (in…
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Protocols Of The Elders Of Times Square
Freedom can be confusing. We’ll come back to that. I’ve told this story many, many times. I think it’s still illustrative. Back in the nineties and early naughties, you could predict a few things about GOP gatherings. At precinct caucuses, you could be assured that there would be an avalanche of pro-life/anti-stem cell/anti-gay-marriage resolutions. In…
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Day Late, Millions Short
Brian Lambert shows why KTLK-FM had such a rocky start in the Twin Cities, in a piece that purports to be about Air America tanking; along the way, it also shows why liberalism is starting to gasp for air in the age of Obama. Lambert starts with the genesis of his short-lived radio show: I…
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Distrust But Verify. Then Distrust Some More.
The Violence Policy Center has a long record of cooking data to try to build a national case against civilian ownership of firearms. They’ve failed, of course; more Americans own guns today than ever, while the idea of a link between crime and the demonstrably law-abiding armed citizen is almost too specious for modern physics…
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Hero Worship
Growing up, I dreamed – among a few other things – of being a news reporter. Let’s just say it’s a good thing not every dream comes true. But I digress. One of my “role models”, of sorts, was “Joe Rossi”, a character played by Robert Walden from the Lou Grant TV series. One of…
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Open Letter to Ms. Sensitivity
To: Molly Priesmeyer, Rent-a-Blogger and Snark-Minx From: Mitch Berg, Unpaid Hack Re: John McCain’s Teeth. Ms. P, I realized that I said that I’d try to contact you the next time I had a question about your coverage of an event. And since the Sorosphere is suddenly all afroth over the state of Senator McCain’s…
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Too Loathsome To Loathe. But I’ll Try.
Michael Brodkorb said it best in his headline: PAWLENTY HATER NICK COLEMAN HITS NEW LOW. First came his first, deeply stupid column on Friday, which blamed the “No New Taxes” pledge for the disaster as rescuers were still frantically combing the wreckage for survivors, roughly 12 18 months before the NTSB actually expects to know…
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Snivel Radio
Taylor Marsh addresses the Center for American Progress report in the same way that Hugh Hewitt addresses a new football season; with preconceptions firmly in place, and no perspective to lend any credence whatsoever – a shortcoming that is neither of their fault, per se, but still renders their commentary meaningless: Boy did American Progress…
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Babble Radio
As we on the right have been predicting for quite some time, the left – unable to match conservative talk radio in either the marketplace of ideas or the marketplace, wants to bring in Big Brother to do what their own feeble talent and intellect can’t. A report by the “Center for American Progress” –…
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Robbing Peter To Pay Patricia
I was having an email discussion the other day with a friend who took exception to my continued criticism of Strib columnist Syl Jones. To be fair (to Jones and to me), unlike most conservative commentators I’ve actually found reason to agree with some of Jones’ work – but it’s been a rare thing. For starters,…