Abortion, health care and the media
John Boehner While driving to work yesterday, I heard House Republican leader John Boehner on NPR, claiming — as he has on any number of occasions — that the health-care-reform bill now being...
View ArticlePaul Krugman’s prescient criticism
Paul Krugman I’ve been trying to think of a way to add some value to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman’s blog post on the “cult of centrism,” which he’s now expanded into a column. I can’t think of...
View ArticleA counterintuitive view of why Obama blew it
If only I want to offer a counterintuitive view of why President Obama and congressional Democrats caved to the demands of Republicans, and to challenge the notion that if only they had held firm we...
View ArticleBoehner puts words in Obama’s mouth
It looks like House Speaker John Boehner put out a fake quote attributed to President Obama, and that no one is going to call him on it. Here it is in the New York Times: “President Obama likes to talk...
View ArticleHow Kennedy and Obama are alike, for good and for ill
Kennedy with Nikita Khrushchev in 1961 I’m most of the way through Robert Caro’s “The Passage of Power,” the latest in his series of Lyndon Johnson biographies. And I’ve been struck by his description...
View ArticleTierney, Tisei and a defense of party-line voting
John Tierney We all live in Nate Silver’s world, so there were no real surprises on Election Day. Except one: Republican congressional candidate Richard Tisei’s failure to topple U.S. Rep. John...
View ArticleHold the uplift, and make that shower extra hot
Earlier this month my wife and I were watching the news when Patrick Leahy came on to talk about something or other — I don’t remember what. Leahy, 73, has been a Democratic senator from Vermont for...
View ArticleAt the Times, quoting the voices in their heads
What is the point of this pointless speculation in an otherwise straightforward piece on U.S. raids in Libya and Somalia, New York Times? With President Obama locked in a standoff with Congressional...
View ArticleA loose, funny and partisan SOTU. But will it matter?
President Obama delivering the 2014 State of the Union address Tuesday night. This commentary was published earlier at WGBH News. President Obama’s fifth State of the Union speech wasn’t his best, but...
View ArticleHeadlines distort CBO report on Obamacare
The reaction to a Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday demonstrated how easily politicians are able to game the media system. The CBO, a respected source of nonpartisan data, found that...
View ArticleHere’s an idea for how to fix Boston.com
Previously published at WGBHNews.org. I have an idea for how to fix Boston.com, whose executives on Wednesday found themselves apologizing yet again — this time for some juvenile humor about House...
View ArticleClean water, political infighting and the View from Nowhere
I’ve asked my students to come up with examples of news stories that reflect the View from Nowhere — an idea advanced by New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen that, to oversimplify,...
View ArticleIs Mitt the one? For House speaker, that is!
Mitt Romney in 2010. Photo (cc) by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. Previously published at WGBHNews.org. House Republicans appear to have reached their End of Days. David Brooks of The New...
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