The RP’s BREAKING News: The Politics of the Media

Check out CNN’s profile on the surprisingly shy Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. [CNN]

The RP Burns the Radio Waves for No Budget, No Pay

The RP is criss-crossing the country for No Labels’ effort to encourage Congressman to pass “No Budget, No Pay” legislation.

OK, he is doing his country-crossing in his office, on the phone.

Here’s his latest radio interview on one of Missouri’s most influential radio talk shows, Missouri Viewpoints with Mike Ferguson.

Click here to learn more about “No Budget, No Pay.”

Click here to take action — with easy links to your Congressmen

The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of the Media

Marketers are finally targeting new categories of see today’s women: young urban professionals, working mothers, and luxury-seeking older women. [Adweek]

WikiLeaks is about to release 5 million emails from Stratfor, a private intelligence firm based in Texas that specializes in international affairs. [CNN]

Why are Twitter death hoaxes still so popular? [NY Times]

The Washington Post steps into the world of paid online content, with an iPad app about politics. [Poynter Institute]

Now that the Oscar winners have been announced, relive the magic with these (some unintentionally) hilarious moments frozen into awkward GIF files. [NY Magazine]

Update on Jeff Smith’s Stories RE: Missouri Redistricting

In several well-read pieces here at The Recovering Politician, former Missouri State Senator (and contributing RP) Jeff Smith has analyzed the impact of redistricting on his one-time political rival Congressman Russ Carnahan, and then predicted that Carnahan would ultimately choose to challenge his fellow Democratic Congressman William Lacy Clay.

Turns out, Jeff was right. Here’s an excerpt from Real Clear Politics,Carnahan Files for Congressional Seat.”

Scores of hopeful candidates turned out Tuesday to file for political offices in Missouri, including a pair of incumbent St. Louis congressman now poised to square off in a Democratic primary, despite legal uncertainty over the district boundaries.

The candidacy filing period for the 2012 elections kicked off as planned, even though Missouri still lacks a final map for the state Senate districts and the Missouri Supreme Court has yet to rule on challenges to the state and U.S. House districts.

The first to file Tuesday was Democratic U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan of St. Louis, whose 3rd District was carved up and re-assigned to surrounding districts under a reapportionment plan enacted by the Republican-led state Legislature after the 2010 census. Until Tuesday, Carnahan has steadfastly affirmed he would run again in 2012 but had remained silent about in which district he would run _ hoping the Supreme Court would toss out the new map and order a do-over on the boundaries.

Carnahan filed to run in the 1st District in St. Louis, which currently is held by Democratic U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay. Not too far behind Carnahan in line, Clay also filed to run for re-election Tuesday, setting up a battle in the August primaries that both congressmen declared they could win.

Read the full piece from Real Clear Politics here.

 

Artur Davis: No Tears for Buchanan and MSNBC

I didn’t shed many tears for Pat Buchanan in the wake of his firing from MSNBC. The sales for his book—a pedestrian work that merely recycles 20 years worth of his diatribes—are about to surge, and he is mildly more familiar and relevant to Americans today than he was 72 hours ago. If he desires it, it’s a certainty that he is headed to Fox News Channel, and probably with a prominent platform.

The lack of sympathy shouldn’t be confused with an affinity for censorship. It should have been no wonder to MSNBC’s hierarchy that Buchanan’s demographic theories are overheated, and that he sounds alarm bells that are alarms primarily if you have a certain crabbed view of the country or a trace of zenophobia. To penalize those views now, when they have been the Buchanan brand for over two decades, has an arbitrary, unfair quality.

The problem with each side of this saga is that I always suspected that MSNBC was using Buchanan in a distasteful kind of way, and that he played along to the detriment of the conservatives whom he supposedly embraces. Buchanan’s on-air role had the feel of a caricature; it was the elevation of a conservatism that is exactly what many liberals imagine conservatives to be—smugly intolerant of the left, cantankerous, narrow-minded. Every time Buchanan chided modern conservatives for waywardness, it was exactly the kind of claim that the left expects the hard right to make—one that seemed unacquainted with the new hues in our culture, and one that yearned to reconstitute America along pre-sixties lines.

Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: No Tears for Buchanan and MSNBC

Artur Davis: Covering the JFK Affair

JFK revisionism is always jarring, but no longer surprises. The disdain toward John Kennedy in conservative intellectual circles seems borne out of contempt that he was what the right suspects about Barack Obama – unaccomplished, stylistic rather than substantive, a media darling who rose on the wings of a star-struck press.

In my college years, it was the left-wing that was just as fierce – to them, Kennedy was a cold warrior who dug our grave in Vietnam and almost postured and bluffed into a nuclear war. To younger African American intellectuals, he was too passive on civil rights, too much of a follower to deserve the spot on the wall next to Dr. King in the grandparent’s living room.

There is something that is meaner, though, in this week’s round of coverage of Mimi Alford’s tell-all regarding an affair between herself and Kennedy during her stint as a White House intern. Timothy Noah, at the New Republic, tops it off with a headline, “JFK: Monster”. But he only goes where others have gone this week: a condemnation of Kennedy as a psychological torturer, a crude user of a 19-year-old, and a voyeur.

Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: Covering the JFK Affair

The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of the Media

Prepare to be terrified. The New York Times investigates how companies like Target can know everything about you, even things you want to hide, from your social media account. [NY Times]

The Women’s Media Center released its annual report on the state of women and the media, and the results are worse than you’d expect. [Good]

AMI’s new magazine about reality shows, Reality Weekly, isn’t doing as well as expected. Are Americans finally developing some taste? [Adweek]

Despite the controversy surrounding The Sun after this summer’s hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch says the tabloid will continue to thrive… and even launch a new Sunday edition. [Time]

The RP on Detroit Radio at 10:45 AM ET

The beat goes on…

At 10:45 AM on “The Craig Fahle Show” on WDET in Detroit, The RP will be discussing “No Budget, No Pay,” the important new legislation supported by No Labels that would withdraw the pay of Congress if they fail to pass a budget on time.

 

Click here to listen to the RP LIVE on WDET.

Click here to learn more about “No Budget, No Pay.”

Click here to take action — with easy links to your Congressmen

 

The RP’s BREAKING News: The Politics of the Media

ESPN fired one of its reporters this morning for using an ethnic slur about Knicks player Jeremy Lin in a headline posted on the website. They also suspended an anchor for using the same offensive phrase. [CNN]

Jason Grill: Will Trump Boost Romney?

The endorsement by “The Donald” of Mitt Romney will amount to very little when all is said in done in the Republican primary.

To be honest, I firmly believed Trump would endorse Newt Gingrich. Why? First off, I think Trump and Newt are more aligned politically. More importantly, in the last year Trump has said Romney walked away with some money from a company he didn’t create, he closed companies and got rid of jobs, and he wasn’t in love with the job he did in Massachusetts. Trump also didn’t like the fact that Romney wasn’t a popular governor, served only one term, and didn’t like that he didn’t have high approval ratings. Trump wanted the individual running for president of the United States to be the most popular person you can have.

Read the rest of…
Jason Grill: Will Trump Boost Romney?

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