MORE ON THE BULGE. Jon Garfunkel has assembled a useful overview of everything we know about the Bush bulge. A couple of quibbles.
1. He writes in reference to this: "The rage against the media meme has become a knee-jerk reaction by every armchair critic, and now it comes from Dan Kennedy. He's channeling more cynicism than media analysis." It's not that I disagree; it's that I have absolutely no idea of what he's saying. Sounds good, though!
2. He uses the word blogosphere three times in one post. He may not realize I'm grading him, but I take off 10 points for every mention.
I'm sure Garfunkel and I agree on this: the bulge is real, it's never been properly explained by the White House, and we're not going to know what it was or is unless the mainstream media start demanding an answer. Maybe not even then.
WATCHING THE PAT HEALYS. Late in November, after news got out that Patrick Healy was leaving the Boston Globe for the New York Times, I linked to what I thought was his first piece for the Times. As it turned out, it was a different Pat Healy. And apparently there are not just two, but three or four, so care must be taken.
Still, I am reliably informed that this piece from last Thursday was the former Globe reporter's first for the Times.
OMBUD FODDER. Normally I wouldn't torment someone for misspelling a name. But I can't resist pointing out that Boston Globe columnist Cathy Young misspells two today (Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh and blogger Ana Marie Cox) in a column right above (in the print edition, that is) ombudsman Christine Chinlund's annual roundup of corrections.
Writes Chinlund: "There were 98 corrections of misspellings [in 2004], although the paper does not attempt to correct all misspellings or grammatical errors." Well, Young's certainly got '05 off to a rip-roaring start.
Chinlund also reports that editor Martin Baron has begun checking randomly selected stories, in which sources are called to see whether they believe the story was accurate. This is a notion that was promoted by the Shorenstein Center's Alex Jones, among others, following the Jayson Blair scandal of 2003. It's an excellent idea.
Still nothing on Mallard Fillmore.
2 comments:
You know, the bulge has me curious, too...but even so, I'm reeeeeeally starting to think there's more important flaws in Dubya that we could be talking about. For me, at least, I'm going to chalk the bulge up to a third arm growing out of his back (a la Judd Nelson in The Dark Backward) from all the environmental deregulation in Texas. :-)
On a totally unrelated sidenote, the College Broadcasters, Inc listserv reported new news about WFCI, one of the student stations in Indiana whose license renewal is being challenged by Hoosier "We're not really a religion broadcaster, swear to God!" Public Radio Corp and Marty "Six Months to Live" Hensley. Apparently WFCI has partnered with a real public radio (as in, NPR) affiliate, WFYI, to fill in the time that they weren't broadcasting on their own.
It has been repeatedly mentioned that broadcasting for more than 12 hours a day NOW is no protection against a CFR 73.561 challenge if you weren't making 12 hours a day before...but this move will likely be helpful should the issue move to comparative hearings before the FCC.
The local paper has a rundown, too, but check it quick...they only keep web content up a few days.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/7/207659-4957-102.html
For your average Joe, of course, this news is meaningless...but the whole shebang is very interesting to us non-comm radio junkies. Especially since there are SO many high-school and college radio stations around Boston.
- Aaron Read
I'd lean toward the defrib. as an explanation. He wouldn't need the secret earpiece to drive his truck around the ranch. If it was a bulletproof vest, the White House would say so and stop the speculation about heart problems. (and no, I don't think revealing a bullet proof vest would endanger his life.)
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