The Risks Journalists Take on Our Behalf
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 21st, 2014 11:08 pm by HL
The Risks Journalists Take on Our Behalf
Ed Morrissey, Fiscal Times
The ghastly death of James Foley reminded us this week of those risks taken by journalists on our behalf. Foley had been captured in November 2012 while trying to cover the civil war in Syria, which at the time had not quite captured the American public’s rapt attention. The Obama administration had called for Bashar al-Assad’s resignation a year earlier, but the news media was much more focused at that time on the presidential election in the US and the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Ironically, Foley had only recently won his release from capture in Libya by loyalists…
Midterm Loss for Dems May Be Boon for Clinton
John Harwood, NY Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s international woes give his former secretary of state good reason to seek political distance. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent foreign policy criticisms made that clear.Domestically, their interests diverge in a different way. A Republican takeover of the Senate this fall would hurt Mr. Obama for the final two years of his presidency, but it might help Mrs. Clinton if she runs to succeed him.
Obamacare & Extreme Judicial Politics
Linda Greenhouse, NY Times
The Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — has endured so many near-death experiences that digging into the details of still another effort to demolish it is admittedly not an inviting prospect. (My own reaction, I confess, to hearing some months back about the latest legal challenge — this one aimed at the supposed effect of a single word in the 900-page statute — was something along the lines of “wake me when it’s over.”)
Ferguson Divides Us Less Than We Imagine
E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
WASHINGTON — African-Americans are not alone in being horrified by the killing of Michael Brown. They are not alone in their concern over the police’s behavior. And there’s evidence that a large number of white Americans have still not fully formed their views on this tragedy. This means that how we discuss and debate the events in Ferguson, Mo., in the coming weeks really matters.What you have probably heard up to now is how racially polarized the country is in its reaction to the shooting of Brown by a police officer — at least six times, including twice to the head. But polarization is…