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During the recently completed presidential campaign, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff was all excited over his "web exclusive" piece on staffers with the McCain campaign that had connections with past lobbying efforts. Back in those days Newsweek was all about the evils of those darn lobbyists. For their part, Obama supporters at the time ballyhooed the pledges that Barack Obama had made stating that…

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned due to his involvement in a prostitution ring, is slowly attempting to edge himself back into the public eye with his new column in Slate. The problem from the POV of The New Republic is that Spitzer is trying to make himself relevant again much too quickly without showing the proper remorse. As a result, The New Republic gives Spitzer some…

It's said that to work, humor must contain a kernel of truth. No wonder David Letterman's effort to wring humor out of the shoe-throwing incident fell so flat. The Late Show host joked that Muntadhar al-Zeidi had been offered a show on . . . Fox News.  Letterman was playing off the report that al-Zeidi is reported to be hot-tempered and possess poor journalistic skills.How lame was Letterman?…

No, it's a not a story from the Onion. It's AFP reporting on the actions of Associated Press photographers and journalists:US news agency staff stage 'byline strike' Journalists and photographers at the US news agency the Associated Press (AP) are withholding their bylines to protest management's stance in contract talks, their union said. "Staffers recognize the tough times, but they also…

Although president-elect Barack Obama has stated that he is opposed to the reimposition of the so-called Fairness Doctrine, it remains to be seen if he can resist the pressure of Congress to bring back a measure that many on the left favor because they claim it will "Hush Rush." Leading the charge for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine is Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California. According to this…

Rupert Murdoch has his critics - from those who think his papers are too tabloid-ish - The Sun, The New York Post - to those who find his cable television networks too right-leaning for their tastes. And back in 2007, there was a fear that his purchase of The Wall Street Journal would result in a hybrid of his newspapers and his cable news channels. However, a year after Murdoch's acquisition,…

Burger King is an Ugly American corporate villain that has raped the "pristine digestive systems" of so-called Whopper Virgins the world over.Sounds like an Onion article, right? Try the Chicago Tribune:Burger King's "Whopper Virgins" ad campaign is the company's latest salvo in its long food fight with rival McDonald's. But it appears to have missed the mark. Critics have heaped a super-size…

Former critics say media mogul's takeover of financial publication for the best, considering newspaper business downturn.

CMIs Dan Gainor and Colleen Raezler rate the attacks and defenses of Christmas on CMIs annual Grinch-o-Meter.

The New York Times and the rest of the media can't get enough of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, with a front-page story calling the potentially dangerous action a "defiant act" and a "mythic moment" and commenting on shoe-hurling Muntader al-Zaidi's "hero status" in the Arab world. Timothy Williams and Abeer Mohammed added insult…

On CNN anchor Campbell Brown’s “No Bias, No Bull” program on Monday evening, New York Daily News columnist Errol Louis and Time magazine editor-at-large Mark Halperin agreed that there was no problem with the transition team of President-Elect Barack Obama delaying the release of their internal findings into their contacts with the office of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Louis saw “nothing…

Was Time magazine's Jay Carney hired by the Obama transition as Joe Biden's director of communications in order to keep a tight lid on the Beltway's greatest gaffe machine? Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz reports, you decide:Time magazine's Jay Carney, who said over the summer that Joseph R. Biden Jr. is "incredibly prone to say the wrong thing," will soon be in charge of ensuring that…