brooklynmutt:

President Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner

Three years ago, Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists and supporters of libertarian causes, held a seminar of like-minded, wealthy political donors at the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colo. They laid out a three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes.

The first two pieces of the strategy — educating grass-roots activists and influencing politics — were not surprising, given the money they have given to policy institutes and political action groups. But the third one was: media.

Other than financing a few fringe libertarian publications, the Kochs have mostly avoided media investments. Now, Koch Industries … is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Company’s eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant.

Milwaukee’s Fox 6 filmed its reporter Angelica Duria dancing at the scene of a house fire that killed three young children. 

The president and general manager of WITI [Chuck Steinmetz] was forced to issue a statement in response to the controversy:

“We have been working to make parts of FOX 6 Wake Up more fun and spontaneous — especially near the end of the show as we transition into ‘Real Milwaukee.’ We have tried to involve all of the crew and staff.

While I personally received multiple positive comments from viewers about the segment—one person specifically thanking us for getting their day off to a fun start before going to work—we never intended to offend anyone. If we did, we certainly apologize.”

Oddly, Steinmetz’s statement—particularly the line about someone thanking the station for making life fun—suggests that he has mistaken Milwaukee, Wisconsin for Bomont, the tiny town from Footloose. He’s not sorry because Duria’s dance party took place in a grossly inappropriate setting. He’s sorry you hate dancing.

shortformblog:

hypervocal:

A day after excoriating Congress with a powerful “Shame on U.S.” front cover that took the U.S. Senate to task for removing the assault weapons ban from the larger gun reform bill, the New York Daily News is keeping pressure on DC. You might call this unrelenting, unfettered advocacy journalism. CHECK ALL THIS OUT HERE.

Unflinchingly meta, but unflinching all the same. HV’s right. Great advocacy journalism.

bongopoet:

Great cover of today’s New York Times Magazine.

If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you’ll see more of them doing it.

Discussing the historic number of women serving in the Senate, Fox News host asks: “Do you want your government run by The View?” 

andrewgraham:

The media is zero for two in trying to tie the Connecticut shooter’s identity to specific social networking profiles. So maybe it’s time to stop doing that. (Looking at you, Slate, Buzzfeed, and Huffington Post.)

You can add CNN to that list, as well.

No words.

Biden did absolutely roll his eyes, snort, laugh derisively and throw his hands up in the air whenever Ryan trotted out his little beady-eyed BS-isms. But he should have! He was absolutely right to be doing it. We all should be doing it. That includes all of us in the media, and not just paid obnoxious-opinion-merchants like me, but so-called “objective” news reporters as well. We should all be rolling our eyes, and scoffing and saying, “Come back when you’re serious.

The Vice Presidential Debate: Joe Biden Was Right to Laugh | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone (via robot-heart-politics)

Seriously. Everyone whining about how Biden was “mean” is conveniently overlooking the fact that he was responding to blatant lies. Paul Ryan deserves to have people laugh in his face when he talks.

(via stfuconservatives)

“[T]he film has a narrative drive unusual for a 60-minute television documentary, pulling us along like a political thriller.” - The New York Times

As Goes Janesville premieres tonight on PBS.

Basically.

Larry Flynt is offering up to $1 million for information about Mitt Romney’s unreleased tax returns.