Media

Once again, the Iranians have prevailed in a hostage crisis. The smirking leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, fresh from his latest demonstration of "performance-art politics," is no doubt preparing his next stunt for the world stage.

And once again, the rogue regime in Tehran has been enabled by many westerners, who knee-jerkingly sentimentalize hostages, reflexively look for the worst in their own country and instinctively adapt the language of their avowed enemies.

Any hostage who appears on television, or on Internet… more

The latest brouhaha over alleged copyright infringement on the Internet has pitted some of the biggest names in corporate America against each other: Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone versus Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.

But you’d be wise to keep your eyes on two other guys who, in a small way, are helping to transform the media landscape: Christopher Allan Smith and Ryan Neisz.

They’re the creators and co-stars of an online comedy series called Snowmen Hunters, which was nominated… more

Ready for a war with Iran? Hollywood is, at least in the form of a new movie, 300.

The film is a wildly inventive, comic-book-y feast of ancient history, bloody swordplay and patriotic rhetoric, ringing with the politics of today. Spawned by graphic novelist Frank Miller -- who penned The Dark Knight Returns, reviving the Batman franchise in the ‘80s, and who also created Sin City -- 300 shows the Spartan good guys defeating the Persian bad guys at Thermopylae in… more

Clint Eastwood is "growing" as a movie director. And we know what that means -- he is going to the politically correct left. And that has led him to some strange conclusions, which are worth addressing.

The onetime archetypal tough guy -- his "Dirty Harry" cop character took wrathful justice into his own hands decades before Jack 24 Bauer -- has been sliding over to liberalism for the past 15 years. And, of course, equally predictably, he has been showered with… more

It’s official: Chuck Hagel is the new John McCain, getting the glowing treatment from glam publications such as GQ. And John McCain is the new Bob Dole -- and we know what kind of press Dole got. Perhaps I should explain.

Once upon a time -- say, five years ago -- the liberal media were infatuated with McCain. Yes, the Republican senator from Arizona was a hard-line conservative on most matters, but he was sufficiently unorthodox on a few issues (campaign… more

Talks on the 8th floor about an oft-delayed digital radio order include consideration of whether the FCC should issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on multicast reporting obligations, said an agency official and activists involved in the issue. An order to permit FM multicasting and nighttime digital AM broadcasts already has the backing of Chmn. Martin and the other 2 Republican commissioners (CD Aug 14 p3). At stake now is what compromises might bring Comrs. Adelstein and Copps aboard. more

Let’s divide this column on the late Gerald Ford into three parts: First, Ford the man. Second, Ford as an historical memory. Third, Ford as a subject of manipulation in the media.

First, I always liked Ford -- who didn’t? He served his country in wartime, was married to the same woman for 58 years, raised four children. And amid all the obituary-ing, it’s hard to find anyone who has any criticism of him as a person. That’s rare enough for… more

Here is the redacted version of a draft Op-Ed article we wrote for The Times, as blacked out by the Central Intelligence Agency's Publication Review Board after the White House intervened in the normal prepublication review process and demanded substantial deletions. Agency officials told us that they had concluded on their own that the original draft included no classified material, but that they had to bow to the White House.

Indeed, the deleted portions of the original… more

Do you like being pandered to? Do you like being presented with a mirror so that you can admire yourself? Time magazine sure hopes so.

The venerable but not-much-venerated newsweekly is sucking up to you, its hoped-for audience, pure and simple. In naming "you" as its Person of the Year for 2006 -- complete with reflective plastic on the cover -- the fading publication demonstrates how its weakening financial condition has led to a weakening of editorial judgment.

Are self-generated online media… more

For generations, being a big-city mayor was akin to being confined to the political equivalent of Devil’s Island. Even if you escaped imprisonment, it was only with the shirt on your back.

But today, mayors across America are riding an unprecedented wave of upward mobility. Here in California, for example, the men most widely touted to become governor once the Terminator terminates are not any of the myriad of statewide Democratic officeholders, but two high-profile mayors, San Francisco’s Gavin Newsom… more