The Other McCain

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

On Media, Money and Membership

“Since 2003, Soros has spent more than $48 million funding media properties, including the infrastructure of news — journalism schools, investigative journalism and even industry organizations.” — Dan Gainor, Vice President for Business and Culture, Media Research Center Did Mitt Romney Mention That He Can Raise $10.25 Million in Eight Hours? — New York magazine […]

Tina Brown + Newsbeast = Profit?

Tina Brown, empress of the recently merged Newsweek/Daily Beast, tells Joe Pompeo of Yahoo that her operation will be profitable at some point “in the next two to three years.” Mark your calendars, then: Newsbeast will be in the black by May 2014 at the latest. According to Tina Brown, that is. Do you trust […]

Kiss and Tell at the Revolving Door

When Joe Biden’s press secretary, former Time magazine reporter Jay Carney, was promoted to White House press secretary, Washington Post reporter Shailagh Murray was hired as Carney’s replacement. Now, New York magazine reports: Murray was not the first journalist considered to handle Biden’s press. Both CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid and Slate’s chief political correspondent […]

TheDaily.com: How to Lose $10 Million on a Startup Web Site in Three Months

Step One: Get $10 Million. After that, the rest is easy: Asked to comment on The Daily’s performance, [NewsCorp chief operating officer Chase] Carey says it’s a work in progress, which lost $10 million last quarter. Then, in the background, someone — most likely [chief financial officer] Dave DeVoe — mentions “800,000 downloads.” So: 800,000 people […]

Professor Reynolds and Journalism

One of my pet peeves is when people criticize “journalists” when what they actually mean to criticize are “people on TV.” It is the latter category of TV news that so often inspires contempt for “the media” — an attitude I generally share, except for the fact that I’ve been a professional journalist for 25 […]

Royalists for Social Justice?

After yesterday’s post about the royal wedding, I decided to develop the theme into a column for The American Spectator: Conservatives, predisposed to defend all things traditional and hierarchical, might naturally be expected to admire the British monarchy. But the remarkable fact is that most of the Americans obsessed by the royal wedding (and the […]

An Elbert Hubbard Moment

If you work for a man, in heaven’s name work for him! If he pays you wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him—speak well of him, think well of him, stand by him and stand by the institution he represents. I think if I worked for a man I would work […]

They Won’t Work for Tina Brown

Jonathan Alter today added his name to the list of Newsweek writers who have left since the magazine’s merger with the Daily Beast. As Politico reports, Howard Fineman is now with Huffington Post, Michael Isikoff has joined NBC News, Fareed Zakaria is at Time magazine, and Evan Thomas is at Princeton University, while Jon Meacham, […]

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