So the next time some anti-gun talking head says “There’ve been 355 mass shootings so far this year”, remember – the figure comes from this site, “Shootingtracker.com“. It’s a crowd-sourced site that allows pretty much anyone to report a “mass … Continue reading
…in the media, these days, seems to be the idea that “the GOP is racist”, since Donald Trump, who has certainly brought out more than his fair share of the angry and the ignorant (sort of the flipside of Bernie Sanders, … Continue reading
If you listen to, read, or talk to me, you know I’m not a Donald Trump fan. Very, very, not. But over the weekend, I listened to NPR’s “On the Media” program. It’s NPR’s in-house out-house of media “criticism”. I listen … Continue reading
…was, paradoxically, only incidentally about Ryan Winkler. Our Big Game of Telephone: From the mid-nineties on, when Michele Bachmann was still organizing the Maple River Education Coalition, before she even ran for the State Senate, the late Karl Bremer was … Continue reading
If you listen over the weekends to American Public Media is “On The Media”, heard on NPR stations nationwide, you’ll hear the hosts, Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, sniffling and shuffling about the state of the modern media. Periodically, the … Continue reading
Remember – the reason to distrust the alternative media, and keep your faith in the mainstream media’s veracity, is their reams and reams of gatekeepers and fact-checkers that ensure the story you get is the unvarnished truth: On “NBC Nightly … Continue reading
In the middle of a year that promises to be a good, if not great, year for Republicans nationwide, Minnesota Republicans are hoping to flip the House, so as to at least contest control for the state, and praying for an … Continue reading
The Star/Tribune Editorial Board, perhaps shockingly, called for a special prosecutor in the IRS Scandal: That’s a necessary step, and the request should be expediently heeded by the Obama administration. Although there are two investigations underway in the Republican-controlled House, … Continue reading
To: Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone, Hosts, NPR’s On The Media From: Mitch Berg, Uppity Peasant Re: Your Concern For Journalistic Integrity Ms. Gladstone / Mr. Garfield I caught your story in this week’s edition of On The Media criticizing … Continue reading
To: Joel Kramer (CEO/Editor), Roger Buoen and Susan Albright (Co-Managing Editors) Don Effenberger (News Editor) From: Mitch Berg, Uppity Peasant Re: They Get What They Pay For Esteemed Editors: I was never much of a reporter. I could always do the “who, … Continue reading
In the wake of the Newtown shooting, the Lower Hudson (NY/CT) Journal News published an interactive map of every single legal carry permit holder in southern Connecticut. Regardless of whether they’d ever committed any sort of crime (which, indeed, none … Continue reading
For us Second Amendment activists, especially those of us who’ve been at it for a while, there’ve been a few constants. One of them: the rank hypocrisy of the leadership of the gun control movement; then, now, and always. For … Continue reading
I was out at Target the other day when I ran into a familiar face pushing a shopping cart full of Reynolds Wrap through the grocery section. It was Professor William G. Krieppi, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Hennepin Technical … Continue reading
During a weekend where a casual listen to National Public Radio programming repeatedly, er, repeated that the economy double-dog-is in recovery, and Mitt Romney is probably doomed, I got to hear the network ask itself and its listeners: Is National … Continue reading
Either the New York Times, for all of its vaunted excellence in the field of journalism, really is just a bunch of bumbling Barney Fifes who stumble into controversies completely obliviously… …or they are as excellent as their, er, press claims they are, … Continue reading
The next time someone from Public Radio asks why conservatives distrust public media and think it has institutional bias, I’ll tell them to listen to this Bob Garfield piece on “On The Media“, in which this official NPR production does a … Continue reading
CBS has apparently gundecked Sharyl Attkisson, after she exposed the White House’s spittle-flecked response to her reporting on the media’s complicity in “Fast and Furious”, the Administration’s attempt to tie Americans’ gun rights to Mexico’s drug war: Yesterday, CBS News … Continue reading
In his “jobs” speech, Barack Obama jobbed history. In a flub that would have set the media and Jon Stewart babbling for a solid week had it come from George W. Bush, Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin, Obama said that … Continue reading
Session ends and, if you believe the the media, the MNGOP spent the entire time sightseeing: All that and more must now await a special session this summer, as the Republican majority and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton ended an acrimonious five-month … Continue reading
The DFL loves playing politics more than just about anything else. One of their favorite ploys – using their advantage with the complaint mainstream media to frame all debates in terms that favor them. Have you noticed the way the … Continue reading
I take the occasional bit of flak for not reflexively bagging on Minnesota Public Radio. Oh, I do think it’s a travesty that the taxpayer is supporting an organization that can easily support itself. Perhaps in the style to which … Continue reading
When you talk with public radio people about public funding, you notice there’s a certain schizophrenia. When The Legislature Isn’t In Session: “It’s wrong to call us “Government Radio”; there really isn’t that much public funding! It’s not all that … Continue reading
The media’s been starting – juuuust starting – to get a little critical of The One. The immigration debate? Jobs For Congressmen? Oil washing up on the media’s vacationing grounds? When you have not only CNN and Brian Willians but … Continue reading
The Gawker – which serves as a model and poster-child for the dumbing down of the alternative media – notes that Fox News sandbagged Jon Stewart. And how do they know this? Fox News has generously placed the full, unedited … Continue reading
Here’s a story that’ll make the media wonks on NPR’s On The Media knit their brows with academic exasperation: Fox News is the most trusted news net: A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found … Continue reading