Stephen Colbert reports on Robert Gates’s criticisms of President Obama, noting that Gates said he though Obama made the right decisions, but was beset by second thoughts. He contrasted him to President George W. Bush in this regard. Colbert: Yes, Bush had no second thoughts. He had no first thoughts, either.
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media
The Ruling that Endangers the Internet as we Know It
(By Juan Cole) A Washington D.C. federal panel has struck down the Federal Communication Commission position on net neutrality, threatening the corporatization of the internet. The reason readers of Informed Comment can reach it as quickly and conveniently as they can reach a multi-billion dollar corporate web site is the principle of internet neutrality, built […]
“Fox was Romney’s War Room”; GOP being run by Fox News: Zucker & Gabriel Sherman Agree
The new head of CNN, Jeff Zucker, replied to Fox News’ Roger Ailes obituary for CNN by alleging that the Republican Party is being run out of Fox. Then Gabriel Sherman, author of a new biography of Ailes, weighed in, saying that Fox was the “War Room” of the 2012 Romeney campaign. Ailes decided, he […]
Colbert: NSA Spying on Online Games to Prevent non-existent Virtual Terrorism
Stephen Colbert reports on NSA spying on online games. He notes that covert NSA analysts may be a majority in some virtual hang-outs and had to institute protocols so that they did not end up spying on each other! [Juan Cole made fun a few years ago of the obsession by some security agencies with […]
Twitter Sexist Bullying: The Criado-Perez Case (Channel 4 Video)
“She led the successful campaign to put a woman’s image on the [British] £10 note – but feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez has found herself the victim of an abusive backlash.” Channel 4 News reports:
UK’s Channel 4 Schools US Media on How to cover NSA, Snowden
This report by Channel 4 News in the UK, covering Edward Snowden’s application for asylum in the Russian Federation and his revelations of collaboration between Microsoft and the National Security Agency struck me as everything that US “news” coverage is not. The reporters don’t just parrot the Washington line. They point out that the transit […]