For a good media-savvy, liberal, that happens to be from Alaska, the last 10 months have been nothing short of depressing. I’m an Alaskan. Born and raised. I lived there twenty years, and go back every year. My family’s from Wasilla. While I didn’t grow up there, my mother did. I summered there. My family is one of the oldest families in the town, and I’ve spent time there virtually every year of my life. My parents live on the old family homestead, at 42 mile Parks highway, and I own a sliver of it, right next to them, right across the lake from the now-infamous Wasilla Sports Complex. (more...)

The immediate reaction to Gov. Sarah Palin's unexpected announcement Friday: mass confusion by the "media elites." The timing was less a "news dump" and more a "screw you" to her mortal enemies in the fourth estate. This time, though, even the conservatives were confused: Charles Krauthammer called it "erratic;" Hot Air's Ed Morrissey essentially wrote her political obituary.

Oh, "gotcha" media, you just don't understand how things are done in the "real world." (more...)

In the age of Twitter there is no such thing as a (Federal holiday) Friday afternoon news dump! Shortly after Sarah Palin announced from Wasilla, Alaska that she would be resigning as Governor effective July 25 our Twitter feed blew up with reactions from the media world. Here's a quick look at some of the responses. (more...)

It's not your imagination! Last week was a schizophrenic news week. Phew. So much for a summer news slump! Remember Iran? Whilst Twitter turned its attention to matters MJ and Sarah Palin they have opted to put the British Embassy on trial for inciting last month's enormous revolt. Anyway nothing like some screen grabs of the NYT homepage to get a sense of the recent whiplash the media has experienced. (more...)

What does it take to confirm - scratch that, report - a celebrity death? Any death? Any piece of news? And whom can you trust in that reporting? These are the core media questions raised by Michael Jackson's death on Thursday, which TMZ reported first, and without reservation - but which most "reputable" news sources declined to take as confirmation, instead waiting for almost an hour to report the death themselves, only after independent confirmation from the LA Times. In his report on those unfolding events in the New York Times, Brian Stelter doesn't necessarily answer these questions, but he certainly sketches out just how stark the difference they made was on Thursday afternoon: (more...)