News Media

Dead Tree Alert: The Year of the Nontroversy

Who’s nicer to dogs? Whose idiot supporters said more obnoxious things than the other guy’s idiot supporters? Who didn’t eat a cookie that it would have been more advisable for him to eat? These are some of the burning issues that have faced America as the general election of 2012 has gotten under way. And [...]

Ann Romney, and Her Running Mate Mitt, Meet Diane Sawyer

Facing a likeability and gender gap, the presumptive nominee and presumptive nominee’s spouse talked about their money, motherhood and Saturday Night Live. Feel better informed, America?

The Week Ahead: One, Two, Three Shades of Grey

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TV shows, movies, books and albums you can’t miss in the next seven days — this time with math.

Grand Inquisitor: Mike Wallace Dies at 93

The original lead reporter and head interrogator for 60 Minutes, Wallace, with his hawklike attentiveness and softly disarming questions, knew how to make good journalism into good TV.

Crystal Persuasion: Keith Olbermann, on Letterman, Likens Self to Expensive Chandelier

It made perfect sense for Keith Olbermann to go on Late Show with David Letterman to post-mortem his departure from Current TV. Two talented broadcasters, two very strong-willed guys, two guys who have a history of, shall we say, friction with their employers. So whatever Letterman thinks of how things went down with Olbermann and [...]

Game Change! On Today Show, Palin Joins Lamestream Media

Peter Kramer / NBC

Today was borrowing Fox News contributor Palin for precisely the same reason the McCain campaign recruited her. Flagging, fading, it needed buzz, even if it took a transparent publicity stunt to do it. Welcome to the lamestream, Governor!

You’re Sorkin in It: HBO’s Newsroom Trailer Looks Pretty Familiar

Taking advantage of the tune-in audience for the season premiere of Game of Thrones, and the built-in overlap between fans of fantasy epics and cable news, HBO previewed a trailer for its Aaron Sorkin drama The Newsroom last night.

The Week Ahead—10 Things To Watch, Read and Listen To: April 2–April 8

Paramount Pictures

Every Monday, we lay out the week ahead in entertainment. You’re welcome.

Olbermann Out, Spitzer In at Current TV

Once Keith Olbermann worked for MSNBC. Then he left amid a feud with his bosses. Then he signed up to remake Current TV’s news operation. Then he got embroiled in a feud with his bosses (despite ostensibly being one of them). Now, eight months and change later, late on a Friday afternoon Current announced that [...]

Hummus-Aisle Intifada! The Daily Show Comes to My Neighborhood

Is The Daily Show quite so delightful and satirically on-point when it’s making fun of an organization you belong to? Hell, yes.

Geraldo Rivera Opens Hoodie, Inserts Foot in Mouth

Rivera doesn’t deserve the attention for saying Trayvon Martin’s hoodie is responsible for his death. But he at least showed the difference between using a tragedy to look at the way our society works, and using a tragedy to say “Look at me!”

Did I Just Say That Out Loud? Romney Adviser’s Unerasable Etch-a-Sketch Comment

The Mitt Romney presidential campaign has been unusually full of sitcom analogies this election season. Earlier, Romney compared opponent Newt Gingrich to Lucy in the candy factory from I Love Lucy, and characterized Gingrich as “zany,” a la a sitcom neighbor. In a recent debate, Romney alluded to the wisdom of Seinfeld’s George Costanza. But [...]

The New York Times Celebrates Paywall’s Birthday, By Fortifying It

Right about a year ago, journalists and people who obsess about journalism were talking about the New York Times‘ online paywall, its rules, its porousness, its ethics and its chances for success. We’re almost a year into the wall’s existence and it’s still there. The New York Times is still there. It has, it says, [...]

This American Life's Apple Retraction: The Danger of Truthiness

Qilai Shen / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Does theater have the right to fudge the facts in dealing with the news? There are plenty of other, reported indictments of Foxconn’s practices out there, and they now risk being tarred by a false “larger truth.”

CNN Poaches Palin From Fox (For a Few Minutes)

The network sends a crew to Wasilla and gets Sarah Palin, Fox News analyst, to answer some questions as Sarah Palin, potential future GOP candidate.

Limbaugh and the Imus Effect: Has Rush’s Mouth Written a Check His Sponsors Won’t Cash?

Bill Pugliano / Getty Images

Limbaugh may not suffer the same fate as Imus, but he committed the same kind of offense: using a massive media perch to personally, sexually insult a sympathetic college student who listeners could imagine as their student, their daughter, their friend.

Andrew Breitbart, 1969-2012

Andrew Burton / Getty Images

Breitbart was one of journalism and politics’ most abrasive, zealous brawlers, willing to use his websites for political ends. As he once told TIME: “I liked being hated more than I liked being liked.”

Election Watch: Hell Fails to Break Loose in Michigan

Ready for a weeklong (at least) orgy of speculation about a new candidate or a brokered convention, TV’s political-analysis teams instead ended up covering an ordinary election night.

Twimmolation Alert: Roland Martin Gets His Ascot in Hot Water at CNN

Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP

Martin may or may not have meant his tweets about David Beckham and wearing pink as homophobic, but they’re obnoxious regardless.

State of the Union: A Call for Unity, in a Political Package

A lengthy, listy speech appealed to Americans’ common goals, but was always conscious of political opponents in the room—and at least one Presidential rival outside the room.