The So-Called Liberal Media

Glenn Greenwald and Jay Rose talk with Bill Moyers about the media culture in Washington.

It’s not about the truth, or even about ideology — it’s about journalists’ desire to maintain their insider status and access to power, so that they can continue to project an elite air of authority. According to Greenwald and Rose, in today’s media culture, you really don’t have to know what you’re talking about, as long as you sound like you do [insert irony here].

More good stuff related to this story on the PBS website.

The Mask of Lincoln

Interesting to think of “honest Abe” as a calculating media whore.

Hyperinsanity

When the Zimbabwean dollar was first introduced in 1980 (replacing the Rhodesian dollar) it was worth more than the U.S. dollar, with ZWD 1 = USD 1.47. But after more than a decade of economic crisis under the disastrous government of Robert Mugabe and hyperinflation that’s currently estimated to be 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (five sextillion) per cent, it would now take $2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (2.5 octillion) Zimbabwean dollars to buy just one American dollar.

But Gideon Gono, Mugabe’s whacky central banker, who takes his instructions from no less a person than God Himself and claimed in his autobiography that President Bush had offered him the post of senior vice-president at the World Bank last July, has come up with a brilliant solution to the problem: simply knock all those pesky zeros off the money… and print more of the stuff!

RMR: Canada Explained

Or, everything you wanted to know about Canada, but were afraid to ask…

Perhaps they should be showing this in schools, given that a frightening number of Canadians (and especially those supporting the Conservative Party, funnily enough) don’t appear to have the slightest idea how our system of government actually works.

Arrrrr, Maties!

Another “Worst Person” trifecta for Faux News from this past Friday’s Countdown with the added bonus of Olbermann doing his piratey impersonation of Rupe (I know it’s goofy, but it always cracks me up) declaring that News Corp. has “…never been a company that tolerates facts.” Yes, we gathered that.

Ah, but not so fast. In fairness (because we’re nothing if not “fair and balanced” here), it has to be noted that there’s some dispute regarding this quote. It seems that what Rupe actually said to shareholders about News Corp.’s dismal quarterly earnings was: “Even in plush times, we have never been a company that tolerates fat. So in times like these, we are better positioned to weather this cycle than our competitors…” That version actually seems much more likely to have been the case. If indeed it is, then maybe KO will have to put himself on his next “Worst Person” list.