Sarah Palin Loves the MSM
February 10, 2009
Will her fifteen minutes ever time out?
“What I’ve Learned: In Her Own Words”
“There is one America, but there are different priorities reflected in individual Americans that certainly can stand in stark contrast with — I’ll give you an example. Some people, money is the be-all, end-all to them. Money and power, prestige, a title next to their name is the be-all, end-all. Other people, the highest priority would be their character, their reputation, their word, and money has nothing to do with that. The beauty of America is that individuals making up this great country do have different priorities. And that’s the contrast that I would point out.”
from Esquire
DB notes: No one has spotted her in Iowa yet but watch the county and state fairs this summer.
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Next on Take 2: Abraham Lincoln’s worst year.
The Thousand Faces of George W. Bush
January 27, 2009
He plans to look in the mirror.
A Photo Series, 2001-2008
“The traveling pool of press photographers that follows presidents includes representatives from three wire services — AP (The Associated Press), AFP (Agence France-Presse) and Thompson Reuters. During the last week of the Bush administration, I asked the head photo editors of these news services — Vincent Amalvy (AFP), Santiago Lyon (AP) and Jim Bourg (Reuters) — to pick the photographs of the president that they believe captured the character of the man and of his administration. There are overlapping pictures — of the president with a bullhorn at Ground Zero, of the president looking out the window of Air Force One over New Orleans, of the president receiving the news on the morning of 9/11. It is interesting that these pictures are different. They may be of the same scene, but they have different content. They speak in a different way. (The photos are reproduced here with their original captions, unedited.)
“Vincent Amalvy (AFP), who started his job a couple of years into the Bush administration, is struck by the uncommon access Americans have to our head-of-state. His selections include shadows, reflections, the unexpected things that happen in an image — the president’s own shadow flanking the seal of the United Nations, the shadow that accompanies Bush and Barack Obama on a walk into the Rose Garden. Santiago Lyon (AP), on the other hand, speaks of the ways in which presidential images are scripted and posed, how very little is left to chance. Jim Bourg (Reuters) has selected images that showcase his fascination with odd juxtapositions and found moments of great emotion.” Written by Errol Morris.
from The New York Times
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DB notes: Sometimes even the stagecraft of the American presidency cannot transcend the man who is actually president. A riveting series of photographs of President Bush with accompanying commentary and dialogue from White House pool photographers about the context for each picture. He was never ready for the job.
Also, update on my post from December 30, 2008, “Iceland Is What…?”: Iceland’s government collapsed today. Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir Haarde announces the immediate resignation of his government in the wake of his country’s dire economic crises. Read report from the BBC.
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iTimes
January 14, 2009
Would you pay 99 cents for Frank Rich’s opinion?
“Let’s Invent an iTunes for News”
“Free is not a business model,” said Mr. Moffett of Bernstein. “It sounded good and everybody got excited about it, but when you look around, it is clear that is creating havoc and will not work in the long term.” (He pointed out with a laugh that his report on print for Bernstein, a proprietary piece of research, was quickly passed around as Web samizdat.)” Written by David Carr.
from The New York Times
Face It, They’re Doomed
January 6, 2009
Stop the presses.
“How the Newspapers Tried to Invent the Web”
“Despite being early arrivals, despite having spent millions on manpower and hardware, despite all the animations, links, videos, databases, and other software tricks found on their sites, every newspaper Web site is instantly identifiable as a newspaper Web site. ” Written by Jack Schafer.
from Slate
