In this recent post I discussed how we tend stay focused on content in a new media environment and fail to notice how the new forms change the rules of the game. Naturally, I came across a striking example shortly after posting.. A McClatchy (formerly Knight Ridder) reporter named Bobby Calvan bragged on his blog [...]

Richard Landes in The Brits Pig out on Anti-zionism: How Europe Commits Suicide at Augean Stables wonders what is behind the kind of one sided debate put on by the Oxford Union where the pro Israel team is made up of antisemites. It’s hard to figure out which plays more, whether they can’t stand another [...]

I’m trying to write this post about TV because my Normblog profile went up today (shameless I know) and of course I’m stuck. When I’m stuck I check what time is in Joisey City and give my friend Joey the Tuna a call. ME: Tell me Joey, what do you think of TV? Joey: You [...]

The following Pajamas Media overview of an article by Bill Roggio about the situation in Pakistan confirms in some ways the claims made by Syed Saleem Shahzad in the Asia Times Online that I discussed in yesterday’s post while, at the same time, painting a far more dire picture. Bill Roggio looks at the worsening [...]

The reaction by Benazir Bhutto to the attempt on her life has been a ringing speech (video here) in which she has denounced the Taliban and al Qaeda by name. She started by thanking the young men who gave their lives defending her “with their bare hands” distributing honor directly and dishonor indirectly with telling [...]

According to this Jerusalem Post article. Former premier Benazir Bhutto narrowly escaped a suicide bombing that shattered her homecoming procession and killed up to 126 people hours after she returned to Pakistan from exile pledging to fight extremism and promote democracy. Given the central importance of Pakistan in the world’s struggle with terrorism my immediate [...]

In a recent post at Augean Stables, Richard Landes opens a discussion of the al Durrah affair with a contrast between American and French attitudes to truth in TV news reporting. In an article for the Columbia Journalism Review, Gal Beckerman offers France2 some friendly advice. In the process, he shows just how inadequate both [...]

One of the things I am learning from my other blog newmediatheory is that trying to come up with a new media theory has made me more aware of my assumptions. Today I want to begin digging into those assumptions. Given my background in literature and the psychology of Freud and Jung I see a [...]

In a Pajamas Media essay entitled Why They Hate the Neocons Roger Simon writes about being so described: Still, I had been categorized. But it wasn’t until quite recently when I read Joshua Muravchik’s fine essay “The Past, Present and Future of Neoconservatism” that – despite actually knowing several people regarded as leaders of the [...]

One of the few commentators who aggressively tries to address the critical differences between Western culture and Arab culture is Richard Landes who blogs at the Augean Stables and The Second Draft. His essay Honor-Shame Jihad (HJP) is an excellent introduction to the role of honor-shame culture in the Arab Israeli conflict. As he says [...]