The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Shorter Juan Williams: I’m Sorry My Underpaid Assistant Plagiarized That Column With My Byline I Didn’t Write

Who am I to judge, huh? Hasn’t it been my lifelong ambition to get paid big bucks without actually doing any work? But the rock star dream didn’t happen, so I was forced to resort to journalism, which requires me to sit in front of a laptop computer and at least pretend that this is [...]

OK, Let’s Make This Quick

Jimmie Bise Jr. called to my attention an article that Jon Ward of the Huffington Post had Tweeted out, in which Mark Judge complains about the lamentable dearth of writerly journalism by conservatives, under this provocative headline: Standing Athwart Breitbart, Yelling Stop Judge’s complaint is valid, so far as it goes. Conservative journalism was born [...]

Atlantic Editor to Freelancer: ‘We Unfortunately Can’t Pay You for It …’

Olga Khazan, global editor of The Atlantic, was a junior in high school on April 3, 2003. You may not recognize the significance of that date, even if you’re a longtime Atlantic reader. Evidently Ms. Khazan didn’t either, nor did she recognize the name Nate Thayer when she saw his byline on a story at [...]

The Sexualization of Journalism

Marin Cogan complains in The New Republic that some people don’t know where to draw the line: As a political reporter for GQ, I’ve been jokingly asked whether I ever posed for the magazine and loudly called a porn star by a senior think-tank fellow at his institute’s annual gala. In my prior job as [...]

Progressive Tax-Exempt Group’s Secret Plan to ‘Eviscerate,’ ‘Cripple’ GOP

Blueprint NC is “a nonprofit that coordinates the activities of liberal-leaning nonprofits” in North Carolina and when this 501(c) group’s communications director Stephanie Bass forwarded a strategy memo to member organizations, she included a disclaimer: “CONFIDENTIAL to Blueprint, so please be careful – share with your boards and appropriate staff, but not the whole world.” Oops. The memo [...]

Never Doubt That Kurt Eichenwald Cares Deeply About Gay Kids With Bad Haircuts

Thursday I posted a “coming out” video by a mopey kid with a bad haircut. This evidently enraged a Vanity Fair writer: Thu, February 21, 2013 7:38 PM From: KURT EICHENWALD <kurtewald@me.com> To: Chris Smith <smitty1e@gmail.com>; “r.s.mccain@att.net” <r.s.mccain@att.net> Subject: you are both despicable I will address you both as adults, even though you clearly are [...]

Stormfront for Liberals: The New Republic

Chris Hughes: Liberal white-guilt peddler from Elite City “The New Republic has abandoned its liberal but heterodox tradition and embraced a leftist outlook as predictable as that of Mother Jones or the Nation.” – Marty Peretz, former publisher of The New Republic After Facebook zillionaire Chris Hughes purchased The New Republic, he proclaimed that the magazine, which [...]

How to Avoid Journalistic Hindenburgs

“I’m the managing editor of Culture11 (www.culture11.com), a new online magazine/social network that was started by Bill Bennett, David Kuo, Steve Forbes, et al. Today is our first day and rather than trying to get attention using traditional media, we’ve decided to announce our launch by reaching out to our friends. “With your help, we [...]

Scientology ‘Advertorial’ Scandal Exposes Atlantic Executive as Truthless Swine

If nothing else, the past week has made clear that The Atlantic‘s president, M. Scott Havens, is an unethical scoundrel who cannot be trusted in the vicinity of anything purporting to be “journalism.” Monday, The Atlantic embarrassed itself by publishing a glowing “sponsored content” article that heaped praise on the leadership of the Scientology cult. [...]

#LennayKekuaFacts: What You Don’t Know About Manti Te’o's Fake Girlfriend

Shortly before she died, Lennay gave an exclusive interview to Jayson Blair of the New York Times. #LennayKekuaFacts — Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 18, 2013 From the “Too Good to Check” file: The Times was not among the most prominent offenders in taking at face value what turned out to be a hoax, as [...]

Five Years Ago Today …

. . . I tendered my resignation at The Washington Times: You may recall that I attempted to quit The Washington Times in August 2007, and was persuaded not to do so by Wes Pruden and Fran Coombs. Well, Wes and Fran are leaving now, so I suppose now is as good a time as any [...]

‘Streisand Effect’: Scientology Imploding?

One of the principles of the New Media age is that attempts to suppress the truth tend to backfire, generating greater interest in the hidden truth. The so-called “Streisand Effect” may now be invoked in the wake of Monday’s debacle in which The Atlantic published a ludicrously over-the-top “advertorial” for Scientology and was forced to [...]

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