The world media is in a spin. The Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel have published a huge cache of secret military files from the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, detailing the war in Afghanistan. Readers can folllow the latest reactions to the Afghanistan war logs here at this Guardian blog. The huge cache of classified papers – posted by Wikileaks as the Afghan War Diary – is one of...

If the ancients had oracles and soothsayers, why not the president of the United States? That is the question posed by columnist Shawki Hafez of the newspaperAl Watan of Oman, who recommends the impeccable Paul the Oracle Octopus, fresh off a perfect run of World Cup football predictions, as a senior adviser to President Obama. For Al Watan, Shawki Hafez writes in part: A multi-appendaged soft marine creature...

Is there any hope of Western forces honorably leaving Afghanistan by their announced date of withdrawal? According to Die Welt columnist Richard Herzinger, if NATO withdraws too soon, as it now plans to do based on last week’s international conference on Afghanistan, it will be an abrogation of its responsibility based on a pipe dream. For Die Welt, Richard Herzinger writes in part: Specifying 2014...

Get ready for the moan of “OH NO!” from stand-up comedians everywhere when they read this news that British Petroleum’s public relations challenged CEO Tony Haryward is about to leave the BP corporate building. According to reports, he will be stepping down — free to get his life back and go to any yacht racing events he wants without recrimination. Some new reports suggest he will...

The Sunday chat shows are offering up their dogmatic balance on the Sherrod case, albeit a balance infused with far more color on their panels than usual. But, Greg Sargent asks, “Do both sides really engage in Breitbart-style tactics? Is all ‘ideological media’ created equal?” His answer, an unequivocal no: Do some left wing commentators say crazy things? Sure. But high-profile commentators...

Cam Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

My last post criticizing Constitutional Originalists seemed to have hit a delicate nerve with many TMV readers and other contributors. One commentator noted that my post had no point but was entertaining. Thanks for the left-handed compliment. There was an underlying point that most people missed and might not have appreciated, particularly if they have not read or fully understood some of my other TMV rants...

Okay, everyone: Here is Exhibit A on exactly the kind of hysterical, rumor-driven, unconfirmed story that gets grabbed by irresponsible bloggers who then use it to make wild accusations against the government and the media for not reacting quickly enough (read: for not reacting instantly with no effort to find out the truth) — the very same bloggers and media pundits who then turn around and heap scorn...

In its recent, highly controversial resolution condemning the “Tea Parties” for “racism”, the NAACP (to the applause of most liberals) demanded that the “Tea Parties” separate themselves from racists whenever possible and condemn racism in their midst. Unfortunately, when leaders and members of various elements of the “Tea Party” movement do exactly that, it just...

There are lessons to be learned for everyone involved in the events that led to Shirley Sherrod’s forced resignation from her USDA position as director of rural development for Georgia. So far, though, only one party to those events has shown any sign of learning those lessons. While the man who fired Sherrod — USDA director Tom Vilsack — and Pres. Obama, and Robert Gibbs, have all apologized...

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker has this MUST READ column on how the Journolist flap “shows a destructive ‘gotcha’ mentality”: she recounts the controversy and puts it into a different context than those who use it for their own partisan or ideological purposes. I haven’t weighed in on this controversy yet, but to this column I say “Ditto.” I have often noted...

Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

I was looking for new stories covering the death of Dan Schorr, a well-respected journalist. On the MSNBC.com web site, the story on his career was listed under the “Entertainment” section. Dan Schorr was definitely NOT an entertainer, but apparently journalism now falls under that heading according to at least one editor.

Has recent South Korean media coverage of U.S. military plans in the Yellow Sea forced Washington’s hand – and triggered an overreaction in China’s media? In this ironic article from China’s state-controlled Global Times written by what is thought to be a fictitious People’s Daily editor, Ding Gang, Chinese media should consider information in other media as a ‘calculated...

Many on the extreme right and elsewhere on the political spectrum strongly advocate we return to some imaginary original Constitution, and that we should live by what the original framers thought or intended – as these advocates are only able to decipher. Of course, any political, economic, social or religious ideology expanded via rigid consistency will naturally lead to insanely ludicrous statements and...

Conservative talk show hosts aren’t the only ones going after Barack Obama now. So are liberal progressive talk show hosts as you can read about here. But this is how the game works, folks. Earlier today I put up THIS LINK to my first weekly column on Cagle Cartoon’s MSNBC site that dealt with the issue of talk radio. Since then, I got three emails insisting what I wrote only really refers to...

A long time ago, I had a friend who had never cast a vote. In any election, ever. She just didn’t vote. When I asked her why (which I did more than once), she would always answer my question the same way: “What’s the point? They’re all the same.” I tried to convince her that there were differences even in the most unexciting elections. I tried to get her to see that not voting was,...

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

The best, concise short take I have seen on the issue of journalistic lack of integrity is HERE. Rather than recap it, visit it yourself. Journalistic integrity is an issue that goes back to the glory days of the old media and is becoming a major one now on several fronts in the new media — even as the new media tries to use it against the old media. And it’s coming into play now on several stories...

There is no Atticus Finch or Joseph Welch in all this. On the 50th anniversary of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” we are back in a time when McCarthyism played on fears to spread hatred and destroy lives of people in public life. The President, who won an election by putting the Civil Rights era behind him, will have to revisit that time before his birth and make things right not only with Shirley Sherrod...

On The Media, new to Georgia Public Broadcasting and already a favorite find of a good many friends, spent an hour last week on the future of newspapers. In support of TMV Assistant Editor David Shraub’s excellent Sherrod-inspired post on the true failings of the journalistic enterprise, a few select quotes… Yochai Benkler, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-director of Harvard’s Berkman...

Talk radio is flying high. But how powerful, positive..or dangerous..is it? What does it mean to our politics and how we discuss politics? I deal with those ISSUES HERE in my first weekly political column on www.cagle.com’s MSNBC site.

I was driving to a client appointment this morning in Phoenix, traveling north on 7th Avenue just south of Bethany Home Road, when I noticed a White SUV in front had a fairly unique bumper-sticker that appeared to have been professionally printed. It stated as follows: ‘I LOVE MY COUNTRY” “BUT I FEAR MY GOVERNMENT” I happened to pull up on the left of the same vehicle at the next light and noticed the...

RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Let’s stop pussyfooting around the Shirley Sherrod story and go for the jugular. I don’t give a poop whether Andrew Breitbart and his Big Government website is a conservative post dead set on destroying the Democratic Party. What I do care about is that Breitbart, artificially inflated with a profile in New Yorker Magazine and a darling contributor of false stories to Fox News, the Drudge Report and Rush...