Let's see if I can't close open bookmarks before they pile up too much:
• The sudden and shocking death of Tim Russert inspired out some interesting posts in the liberal blogosphere. I haven't read one single post that didn't acknowledge the sadness of his passing, as one would acknowledge the sadness of any celebrity's death; he's someone we felt we knew, someone obviously intelligent enough that we could vehemently disagree with his methods even while we admitted he knew exactly what he was doing (which probably infuriated some of us even more). And the stunned eulogies that MSNBC and fellow journalists offered are understandable, even if they bordered on the uncomfortably worshipful (Marc Cooper at HuffPo dubbed it a Requiem for Pope Russert); after all, I'm sure every on-air pundit was thinking "it could be me," and hyper-awareness of one's own mortality (combined, of course, with the civilized protocol of not examining someone's shortcomings right after their death) certainly colored much of what we were told. And it also deeply affected their ability to handle anything else going on; I know when my dad died I couldn't manage to be very other-directed for quite awhile. As Mark Adams at American Street puts it, "I agree with absolutely everything [Russert's detractors] have to say, and I’ll agree with it later, at a slightly more appropriate time. But...if the front page of every paper carries the same story and the cable news outlets devote hours and hours and hours to the same subject —- that IS the news. Deal with it."
• Keith Olbermann is being discussed as a possible Russert successor, understandable as he (like most of his MSNBC cohorts) obviously looked to "Timmeh" as a role model. In the wake of this New Yorker profile of the Man with the Special Comments, many are still extremely skeptical of his recent devolution, and the article won't disabuse you of that notion. Even though Olbermann's a pundit and not a journalist (a distinction made in the article by, among others, the late Mr. Russert), he seems incapable of realizing when he's gone too far, as with the locker-room-level sexism directed against Senator Clinton. Which reminds me, What Digby Said. (And again, I voted for Obama in the NY primary, but I don't think Hillary Clinton got a fair shake since at least February, and I believe the newsroom nastiness contributed as greatly to her eventual loss as the same people virtually ignoring Edwards contributed to his early losses.) As my buddy MadKane puts it, "I’d thought that once Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, it would be safe to start watching Countdown again. Without Keith's daily anti-Hillary target practice, I might even be able to watch it without cringing. Wrong! Keith’s bloviating "Worst Person in the World" anti-Katie Couric tirade was almost enough to make me turn to Bill O’Reilly. Talk about desperate!" And she follows up with a limerick that echoes what Robin and I have been saying to each other for awhile, musing on whether Olbermann is well on his way to becoming the liberal equivalent of his nemesis Bill O'Reilly. Yes, the man's still worth watching, but only on DVR and not until about 8:45, so I can skip all the pointless stuff (the sports-derived horse-race speculation, the misogyny, the O'Reilly obsession) to get to the increasingly fewer good minutes.
• Val makes a chilling prediction that the days of the free internet are numbered. And David Byrne laments the rising cost of everything else, but sees opportunity in the challenges ahead.
• Charlie Jane Anders at io9 thinks Steven Moffat might be dumbing down women in his Doctor Who episodes. I think she makes some good points but I'm not sure I agree. I think he's terribly romantic at heart, and I quite enjoy the "just this once, everybody lives" endings, I believe they're very dramatically satisfying.
• Yum, baseball stadium food! I didn't know Shea had sushi. Hope Citifield will too.
• You know, when you try to set up your little art exhibit without permission in a vacant store front, it's usually not a good sign. I have no use for the antics of Yazmany Arboleda. There's a fine line between examining racism/sexism and celebrating it, and he totally crossed it. On the other hand, I have nothing but applause for JJ Kissinger's well-planned exhibit about White Privilege (via Jack at Alas). The second-biggest difference between Arboleda and Kissinger, after the former's tone-deaf conflation of examining with celebrating, is that Kissinger involved other folks in his community.
• Lastly, congratulations to Melissa and Iain on six years and counting!
Back to watching more baseball...
• The sudden and shocking death of Tim Russert inspired out some interesting posts in the liberal blogosphere. I haven't read one single post that didn't acknowledge the sadness of his passing, as one would acknowledge the sadness of any celebrity's death; he's someone we felt we knew, someone obviously intelligent enough that we could vehemently disagree with his methods even while we admitted he knew exactly what he was doing (which probably infuriated some of us even more). And the stunned eulogies that MSNBC and fellow journalists offered are understandable, even if they bordered on the uncomfortably worshipful (Marc Cooper at HuffPo dubbed it a Requiem for Pope Russert); after all, I'm sure every on-air pundit was thinking "it could be me," and hyper-awareness of one's own mortality (combined, of course, with the civilized protocol of not examining someone's shortcomings right after their death) certainly colored much of what we were told. And it also deeply affected their ability to handle anything else going on; I know when my dad died I couldn't manage to be very other-directed for quite awhile. As Mark Adams at American Street puts it, "I agree with absolutely everything [Russert's detractors] have to say, and I’ll agree with it later, at a slightly more appropriate time. But...if the front page of every paper carries the same story and the cable news outlets devote hours and hours and hours to the same subject —- that IS the news. Deal with it."
• Keith Olbermann is being discussed as a possible Russert successor, understandable as he (like most of his MSNBC cohorts) obviously looked to "Timmeh" as a role model. In the wake of this New Yorker profile of the Man with the Special Comments, many are still extremely skeptical of his recent devolution, and the article won't disabuse you of that notion. Even though Olbermann's a pundit and not a journalist (a distinction made in the article by, among others, the late Mr. Russert), he seems incapable of realizing when he's gone too far, as with the locker-room-level sexism directed against Senator Clinton. Which reminds me, What Digby Said. (And again, I voted for Obama in the NY primary, but I don't think Hillary Clinton got a fair shake since at least February, and I believe the newsroom nastiness contributed as greatly to her eventual loss as the same people virtually ignoring Edwards contributed to his early losses.) As my buddy MadKane puts it, "I’d thought that once Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, it would be safe to start watching Countdown again. Without Keith's daily anti-Hillary target practice, I might even be able to watch it without cringing. Wrong! Keith’s bloviating "Worst Person in the World" anti-Katie Couric tirade was almost enough to make me turn to Bill O’Reilly. Talk about desperate!" And she follows up with a limerick that echoes what Robin and I have been saying to each other for awhile, musing on whether Olbermann is well on his way to becoming the liberal equivalent of his nemesis Bill O'Reilly. Yes, the man's still worth watching, but only on DVR and not until about 8:45, so I can skip all the pointless stuff (the sports-derived horse-race speculation, the misogyny, the O'Reilly obsession) to get to the increasingly fewer good minutes.
• Val makes a chilling prediction that the days of the free internet are numbered. And David Byrne laments the rising cost of everything else, but sees opportunity in the challenges ahead.
• Charlie Jane Anders at io9 thinks Steven Moffat might be dumbing down women in his Doctor Who episodes. I think she makes some good points but I'm not sure I agree. I think he's terribly romantic at heart, and I quite enjoy the "just this once, everybody lives" endings, I believe they're very dramatically satisfying.
• Yum, baseball stadium food! I didn't know Shea had sushi. Hope Citifield will too.
• You know, when you try to set up your little art exhibit without permission in a vacant store front, it's usually not a good sign. I have no use for the antics of Yazmany Arboleda. There's a fine line between examining racism/sexism and celebrating it, and he totally crossed it. On the other hand, I have nothing but applause for JJ Kissinger's well-planned exhibit about White Privilege (via Jack at Alas). The second-biggest difference between Arboleda and Kissinger, after the former's tone-deaf conflation of examining with celebrating, is that Kissinger involved other folks in his community.
• Lastly, congratulations to Melissa and Iain on six years and counting!
Back to watching more baseball...
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