Maybe Blackwater founder Erik Prince really is a "Christian crusader" protected by God, because a judge throwing out what seemed like a rock-solid case against five mercenaries for the manslaughter of 14 unarmed civilians is nothing short of a miracle.
In 2006 ABC's Bob Woodruff was seriously injured in a bombing by Iraqi insurgents while covering the war for his network. Today he returned for the first time since the incident.
Did media careerism help build the case for the Iraq war? This guy thinks so.
Remember Scott Thomas Beauchamp, that soldier who wrote candidly about the dehumanizing effects of the war for The New Republic while pursuing a passionate affair with the TNR intern fact-checking his pieces until the conservablogosphere began campaigning to get him shitcanned? Former TNR staffer Spencer "Attackerman"…
"My BlackBerry just died and we need more Polaroid film at the protest." — a San Francisco police officer, overheard by photographer Steve Rhodes.
Jackson West, reporting live (don't tell my boss!) from downtown San Francisco: War protesters have shut down Market Street between Sansome and Montgomery, with smug Berkeley Hills residents gleefully getting arrested. The cops expect to clear it soon. Police have shut down San Francisco's old-money corridor of…
You know, as opposed to the usual calm, relaxed state of things there.
Don't get us wrong. We know Times Baghdad bureau chief John Burns is a swashbuckling foreign correspondent; we admire his reporting and we're humbled by his willingness to spend so many years in such a horrible and dangerous place. (Our most taxing reportorial excursion is typically to Michael's — which, to be…
• Charlie Rose — with a new pig-heart valve — returns to TV Monday. [NYDN]
• Congress boosts TV indecency fines, ensuring the Parents Television Council can continue its reign of puritanical terror over the nation's broadcasters. [WSJ]
• CBS's Kim Dozier returns to United States, still in critical condition but "in…
• Times Baghdad bureau likes 'em young; Times Mag editor Gerry Marzorati likes 'em late-30-something and in business. [NYO]
• And James Wolcott likes 'em monocled and on a compiliation DVD set. [New Criterion]
• Seth Mnookin says Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown is a plagiarist, if not necessarily by the legal…
• Five news orgs — including NYT — pay Wen Ho Lee $750,000 to settle his case. Which seems not a not entirely unreasonable amount after mistakenly being labled a nuclear spy. [NYT]
• CBS News Iraq reporter Kim Dozier now off respirator, breathing on her own. [CBSNews.com]
• Charlie Gibson thinks New York's Joe Hagan…
• Valerie Plame's $2.5M book deal with Crown falls through. Patrick Fitzgerald subpoenas Judy Miller and Matt Cooper in attempt to find out why. [NYT]
• CBS reporter injured in Iraq is in critical but stable condition, sedated and breathing with a ventilator, and able to recognize her boyfriend. [AP via NYSun]
•…
• CBS cameraman and soundman killed in Iraq, reporter injured, making Iraq the deadliest modern war for journalists, worse the World War II. [NYT]
• Hearst is still tweaking Shop Etc. [Mediaweek]
• And could use to be tweaking Quick & Simple, which ain't selling well. [WWD]
• Charlie Rose is not dead. [NYM]
• The Times…
Then the president traveled to Capitol Hill, where he kicked several Democratic legislators in the shins. Just because he could.
At right is the cover of last week's Newsweek. And here is the correction from this week's Newsweek:
• That Times front-pager on Saturday about the Iraqi prisoner who was photographed robed, hooded, wired up, and quasi-crucified at Abu Ghraib? Yeah, well, they maybe didn't get the right guy. [Salon]
• One bit of good news on Cooper Square? Voice art critic is said to be a Pulitzer finalist. [Arts Journal]
• Times…
We know you don't like the media, Donnie. And we know the media aren't perfect. But here's the thing: You go to war with the media you have, not the media you might want or wish to have at a later time.
A once-Salon-subscribing friend o' Gawker passed along this odd solicitation, which arrived in his inbox this morning:
• James Risen's State of War — the impending publication of which forced the Times to finally publish the domestic-spying story — also makes Judy Miller's WMD excuses fall apart. [NYO]
• Still, the domestic-spying articles were better than the book is, says Jack Shafer. [Slate]
• Lunatic talking head Bill O'Reilly…
