What I'm reading today...

"Left-leaning" or "non-partisan"?

"Why would a Times article call the American Enterprise Institute "conservative-leaning," but not refer in the same article to the politics of the Mike Mansfield Foundation? Why do stories refer to the Brookings Institution variously as "centrist," "conservative" and "nonpartisan"?"

Who Will Tell Us?

"The steady drip of buyouts and layoffs has consumed an estimated four thousand newsroom jobs in print alone since the turn of the century, according to the much-chewed-over annual State of the News Media report released in March by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. As to whether the Web is replenishing this reportorial firepower, the authors are blunt: “In print, broadcast and elsewhere, more effort is moving to packaging and repurposing material….But less is being devoted to original newsgathering, especially the bearing witness and monitoring of basic news.”'

Cablevision Chief: Deal will 'bolster' Newsday

"In the News12 interview, James Dolan promised a "renewed invigoration of the newspaper here on Long Island." He said cable executives feel "that we can make this paper at least what it was before," referring to circulation declines experienced under Tribune."

I'm back...

I know. It's been a while since I posted --- not great for building readership, I suppose. But I've been busy at work and home, but I've finally got time to rant a little.

This isn't about CAR.

However, being from Oklahoma, I always take a peculiar interest in how the press talks about flyover country, particularly during election season. A lot of times, it seems to be with an, "Aww aren't they cute?" attitude.

Most of the time the national press does a pretty good job. However, the international press is another thing.

Disclaimer: I haven't been overseas much. Other than the typical Caribbean haunts, I spent about 20 days in England a couple years back, staying with some long-time English friends. I got to spend a lot of time in the pubs, far away from the tourist haunts in London, and meet a lot of people.

But I do enjoy reading as many of the British papers online as possible.

One thing became clear when I was in England: We think we understand Europe, but we really don't. And Europeans think they understand America, but they really don't. Anyways, I saw this lead in the Telegraph's online edition:

"They call it flyover country. These are the parts of the United States that the pundits and prognosticators of American politics see just occasionally - and usually from several thousand feet. It is a land where people shop at Wal-Mart, eat at Dairy Queen, work two jobs to make ends meet and have a Bible at home. They can decide on their vote with the help of talk radio, cable television and the internet - or from a combination of rumour, scraps of hard information and gut feeling."

Huh?

I think the part that really grabbed me: "It is a land where people shop at Wal-Mart, eat at Dairy Queen, work two jobs to make ends meet and have a Bible at home."

I guess I have a hard time figuring out what the author is saying. Does this mean people in other states don't shop at Wal-Mart? Does this mean people in other states don't eat at Dairy Queen? And, of course, no one in other states has a Bible at home or works more than one job.

Maybe I'm over-reacting. But these generalizations in political coverage really annoy me.