The Art of the Con
A good prank attempts to shed light on an issue and to create social change. It is the manipulation of ideas and emotions in order to shift focus onto otherwise hidden agendas or social justices.
The Right’s ‘Race Desk’
Anyone remotely familiar with conservative think tanks’ diatribes regarding such hot-button race issues as affirmative action (they’re against it), bilingual education (they’re against it), multiculturalism (they’re against it), welfare “reform” (they support it) or tougher criminal sentencing (they support it) would not be surprised by the American Enterprise Institute’s analyses of race issues in the […]
‘Old Days’ Slow to Haunt Lott
Long-standing ties between Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens are finally, if hesitatingly, coming to light. But at a time when the politics of impeachment have produced a number of related scandals involving a variety of Congress members, mainstream media have been slow to recognize Lott’s involvement […]
A Sex-Free Scandal
The current scandal involving Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s long-term association with a white supremacist hate group, the Council of Conservative Citizens, arose almost by accident. Its emergence as a major story is the result of the dogged reporting of one Washington Post reporter and a handful of mostly African-American columnists, with help from independent […]
Secular Liberal Media?
Conservative critics often accuse mainstream media of being hostile to religion. But a quick survey of cover stories in the leading newsweeklies puts an end to that notion. Religion is one of the favorite cover subjects of Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report. Religion is an important force in social life that deserves […]
Don’t Believe Everything You Read:
The same day the Washington Post was hyperventilating about the U.N. being excessively candid with its own reporter (1/7/99), the New York Times advanced the UNSCOM-spying story with a front-page article by Tim Weiner. Weiner’s piece went further than the previous day’s story in the Post, reporting that “American spies had worked undercover on teams […]
Withholding the News
On January 6, the Washington Post’s Barton Gellman revealed in a front-page article, sourced to “advisors” and “confidants” of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, that Annan had “obtained what he regards as convincing evidence that United Nations arms inspectors helped collect eavesdropping intelligence used in American efforts to undermine the Iraqi regime.” A similar story […]
Something Stinks
For the Times of London and the Times of New York, it is still quite proper to say the natives stink—provided they are French. When French soap merchants followed the lead of ours to persuade their public that it had B.O., the Timeses were happy to confirm it. The one in London (11/21/98) whinnied: “It’s […]
