Washington Babylon

Barking up the wrong tree, via Andrew Sullivan, offers a guide (of sorts) to college drinking.

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Has the Helen Thomas affair prompted reporters to reflect on Middle East coverage? For example, is there a media bias that favors Israel? Is the plight of the Palestinians ignored?…

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Steven Taylor of Outside the Beltway writes: Ultimately, I would argue that if the re-elect race for the House is 85% or higher, then most of the media narrative that…

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From ProPublica: A series of internal investigations over the past decade warned senior BP managers that the company repeatedly disregarded safety and environmental rules and risked a serious accident if…

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Granted, Helen Thomas’ remarks were vile and disgusting, but it’s been hard to stomach much of the media commentary about her. For example, CBS correspondent Mark Knoller is quoted in…

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From William Minter: The estimates are at best approximate on both sides on the equation, but six weeks after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico,…

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I wrote an item earlier this year about the journalistic practice of the “beat sweetener,” namely writing fawning profiles of top political officials in the hopes of currying favor for…

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I don’t have any particular insight into the ongoing political scandal in South Carolina, but I do know the two primary players involved: political consultant Will Folks and gubernatorial candidate…

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The New York Times had a story today about a topic I have covered here several times lately: how Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, is…

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Thanks to the diligent work of Glenn Beck, the world has finally seen footage from the flotilla incident that shows Israeli soldiers being hit with clubs. Until Beck aired the…

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The oil spill in the Gulf was the topic of an item posted yesterday, which cited the remarks of a man who grew up in Nigeria and now lives in…

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Former Washington Post reporter Lorraine Adams on Bob Woodward: I worked with him in passing at the newsroom, actually I worked with him on a few stories so I knew…

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During the past few days I’ve reported here on Congressman Gary Miller’s misrepresentations about his military service. As I had noted in the original story, Miller has also been involved…

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I received an email from a reader this morning that said, “A friend from Nigeria now living in the U.S….said BP has made such a mess in Nigeria that generations…

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Yesterday I posted an item about how UNESCO may allow Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the corrupt dictator who rules Equatorial Guinea, to endow a prize in his own name. In…

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From digitalemunction.com: For nearly four decades, there’s been an open ques­tion about the 1971 coup that brought dic­ta­tor Hugo Banzer Suárez to power in Bolivia: was the U.S. gov­ern­ment involved?…

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In the face of intense pressure from human rights and advocacy groups and a barrage of bad publicity, the lunkheads who run UNESCO are apparently reconsidering their decision to allow…

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After I posted an item yesterday about California Congressman Gary Miller misrepresenting his military service, Miller’s office contacted several of the publications I cited to correct the record. Miller told…

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From David Grossman: How insecure, confused and panicky a country must be, to act as Israel acted! With a combination of excessive military force, and a fatal failure to anticipate…

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1. When will Israel call for an investigation into the incident? 2. When will the Washington Post editorial page cite the investigation in hailing Israel as the only “true democracy…

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[Editor’s note: After this item ran, Miller’s office contacted Congress.org (and apparently several other publications cited below) to correct the misinformation about his military record.] Congressman Gary Miller of California…

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From The Onion: All 1,472 employees of Facebook, Inc. reportedly burst out in uncontrollable laughter Wednesday following Albuquerque resident Jason Herrick’s attempts to protect his personal information from exploitation on…

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From the Washington Post: The company at the center of a massive recall of children’s Tylenol and other popular over-the-counter products tried to perform a “phantom recall” of defective Motrin…

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From Steven Pearlstein: The biggest oil spill ever. The biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The deadliest mine disaster in 25 years. One recall after another of toys from…

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John McCain’s campaign has started running a web ad attacking his GOP primary opponent, J.D. Hayworth, ridiculing him for saying earlier this week that “we never formally declared war on…

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In 2006, I wrote a piece about then-Congressman Jeb Bradley, who owned about $1 million in oil, gas and electric company stock, took over $45,000 in campaign contributions from energy…

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From Jeff Stein: During planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group kicked around a number of ideas for discrediting Saddam Hussein in the eyes of…

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From the Washington Post: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has long pushed an amendment to limit those pesky and expensive transaction fees at automated teller machines, but his fellow senators didn’t…

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