Now that she has smooched you-know-who this week, the talented Ms. Winfrey is ready to end the talk show that made her a billionaire and start the next phase of her life as a media mogul with a cable channel aptly named OWN. Like the would-be VP but for much longer and in a far different way, Oprah has been a phenomenon, rising from the depths of poverty to become an American icon with empathy, intelligence...

The story behind the much-heralded Associated Press fact check was detailed in a weekly internal newsletter to the company’s 4,000 employees. TPMDC snagged a copy: Mike Oreskes, a senior managing editor, offers staffers a description of the AP’s own work tracking down and fact checking the book and it reads like a spy thriller: “The AP was determined to get the first copy,” Oreskes wrote,...

Can President Obama persuade China not to be so dependent on growth, particularly trade-dependent growth? Likening Beijing’s obsession with growth to a Chinese version of the ‘Berlin Wall,’ Feng Mengyun of China’s state-run Global Geographic Times expresses his hope that President Obama can do something to talk the Beijing leadership into turning over a new leaf. With some surprising...

“The Oprah Winfrey Show” will end in 2011 as she prepares to start a cable channel of her own. Media Decoder: A spokeswoman for Ms. Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, confirmed Thursday evening that Ms. Winfrey would make an announcement on her show on Friday. The plans were first reported by WABC, the ABC station in New York City. “The sun will set on the Oprah show as its 25th season draws...

According to this blog entry from the Web site of China’s Global Geographic Times, a U.S. Embassy request that China use a new spelling of Obama’s Chinese name has been met with suspicion among that nation’s ‘Netizens.’ So what’s in a name, one might ask? For the Global Geographic Times, Scholar Jiang Huai writes in part: “On November 12, officials at the U.S. Embassy...

With Joe Biden Tuesday, Lou Dobbs last night, and Hannity caught faking the news last week*, The Daily Show continues on it’s long hot roll. Here’s a Poytner look inside the most effective media criticism shop in America: “I feel like there are lot of critics of the government but there are very few critics of the media who have an audience and are credible and keep a watch on things,”...

This time when talking about the crowds Sarah Palin is attracting. (Oops!)

Andrew Sullivan informs his readers that he is taking a brief pause to pore over Sarah Palin’s new book: Since the Dish has tried to be rigorous and careful in analyzing Palin’s unhinged grip on reality from the very beginning – specifically her fantastic story of her fifth pregnancy – we feel it’s vital that we grapple with this new data as fairly and as rigorously as possible....

On Monday, Think Progress trashed liberal pundit Mark Shields for allegedly saying, with regard to Obama’s patience on Afghanistan, [It] makes me nostalgic for those days when we had a manly man in the White House who could say, “Let’s kick some tail and ask questions afterwards” you know? That’s what we really need instead of any reflection. Kevin Drum read TP’s post and seconded the motion,...

With the onset of H1N1 flu there are many experts who think that the biggest problem is not the flu itself but the panic that comes with it. The overwhelming majority of people who get the flu will recover with no problem and in fact most people who get it might not even be aware they have it the symptoms are so mild. Yet with the media hype everyone panics, rushes to the doctor or the hospital, insists on...

Palin reportedly doesn’t rule it out, although it was an idea prompted by Newsmax.com… Now, that would REALLY expand the GOP’s existing base, and attract moderate Democrats, independent voters, moderate Republicans and Latino voters. If he’s not available, why use the same approach to expand the GOP’s base by inviting Rush Limbaugh? Actually a ticket like this would make sense:...

In the years that we have pursued this project, today’s posting is one of the strangest international press articles I can recall. And while it indicates that Hamas may be allowing more press freedom than we thought – the conclusions of the author are anything but comforting. Keeping in mind that the accused killer is of Palestinian origin, the author of this article from the Al Watan Voice, a newspaper...

I’m bummed out on politics for the moment and as Keith Olbermann does more often than not escape into the world of sports entertainment as Plan B. Just to piss off Glenn Beck and annoy Rush Limbaugh who hasn’t thought of it, I am applying for the position of College Football Czar as an adviser to President Obama. With the powers invested in me by executive order, the first and only decision I will...

Writing about “The Excommunication Of Lou Dobbs” in Forbes, one Roger Kimball is perturbed by the claiming of the “middle ground” by Dobbs’ critics. Elevating political discourse. Drawing a line in the sand. Polite company. A middle ground. Get it? If you’re Media Matters, CNN or The New York Times, you are in the happy position of proposing that what you espouse is elevating,...

Four decades after being tortured in a North Korean prison camp, John McCain is trapped in a slow drip of accusations from Sarah Palin as she embarks on weeks of media ubiquity to promote her aptly titled, “Going Rogue.” A New York Times review notes that “the most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the press, but at the McCain campaign. The...

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

According to China’s state-run Global Geographic Times, the state-controlled Internet chat rooms are filled with tough questions for, and sharp criticism of, President Obama. On his Global Geographic Times blog page, a man named Tian Yifeng lays out some of the comments and explains why they show the insight of Chinese Netizens. The topics of the comments run the gamut, from economics, to history, to...

By Walter Brasch It wasn’t unusual that Rush Limbaugh went ballistic on his show, Nov. 13. He does that several times a day. It wasn’t unusual that he mixed a few facts with opinion and outright lies in his three-hour daily show. Fact checking for the man who calls himself “America’s Truth Detector” is as rare as union organizers working for Walmart. What is unusual is that...

Sarah Palin’s magical mystery book tour has begun — a media blitz in which she’ll appear far and wide, and get interviewed by all and sundry. The immediate, short-term goal: to hype up interest in her new book and sell a zillion copies. She’ll be appearing with the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Rush Limbaugh — the ying and yang of modern American media. You can rest assured that many...

David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

In an NPR story this morning, David Gergen, professor of public service at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of its Center for Public Leadership, comments on Sarah Palin’s book tour and whether it has anything to do with her possible candidacy for the GOP nomination to the White House in 2012: I don’t think this looks like a presidential campaign…[it has] more the sense...

Make a decision — any decision. That is the Dean of Washington Journalism’s advice to Pres. Obama on Afghanistan:

The right-wing tsk tsk tskers are at it again. This time it is a deep bow of respect President Barack Obama offered when greeting Japanese emperor Akihito this weekend in Tokyo. That bastion of conservatism, The Drudge Report, signaled its disgust by shouting in 42-pt. boldface headlines “How Low Can He Get?” And, get this. Drudge uses as an example of diplomatic decorum none other than former Vice...

A Congressman offers a lesson today about how politics and the media collude to distort rational discussion. In an Op Ed, Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon explains how his bipartisan proposal to have Medicare pay for voluntary end-of-life discussions morphed into death panels: “I found it perverse that Medicare would pay for almost any medical procedure, yet not reimburse doctors for having a thoughtful...

Once again, Barack Obama has demonstrated his appalling hatred for America, and his elitism, and his arrogance, and his tearing down and bashing of his country and his predecessor’s foreign policies, by greeting Japan’s prime minister with a deep bow in a culturally appropriate way.