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Weird just keeps getting weirder. A close read of the New York Times’s profile of a mysterious top Obama speechwriter and advisor raises questions about the media, the presidency, and power itself.
Friends don’t let friends continue to believe there’s no climate change when they could simply show them Chasing Ice. This is not only the most powerful visual evidence of global catastrophe, it’s also one of the most disarmingly beautiful and riveting films you may ever see. Here’s a preview: opens around the US in November.
Russ Baker answers questions on why he started WhoWhatWhy, the state of the media, the Edwards/Siegelman cases, the future of journalism jobs, and more.
Do you still believe in Deep Throat? June 17 is the 40th anniversary of Watergate; as good a time as any to emerge from the fog of disinformation.
Several best-selling books have debunked the “All the President’s Men” version of Richard Nixon’s presidency. Here are three excerpted chapters from one of them—“Family of Secrets” by WhoWhatWhy founder Russ Baker.
Hollywood, like all fine institutions, routinely lies to us about most everything. So, when someone calls them on it, that’s a breath of fresh air. Here’s a “back at ya” post from Dan Harmon, recently relieved by NBC of his duties running the comedy show Community.
Suddenly, everyone’s interested in the real story of Watergate and the CIA. A new documentary in the works from Robert Redford, who played reporter Bob Woodward of the Washington Post in the hit movie “All the President’s Men.” A new book claiming that Bob Woodward’s boss at the Post, Ben Bradlee, had doubts about the stories Bob and Carl Bernstein produced. And Salon wrote about the tension between Nixon and the CIA.
Would a really big set of revelations be of interest? We’re going to publish the three chapters of WhoWhatWhy Editor Russ Baker’s book, Family of Secrets, that relate directly to Nixon and Watergate, and explain the back story, including the real role of Bob Woodward, George H.W. Bush and the CIA in Nixon’s undoing. Today, the first of those three chapters.
HR 347 is either a reasonable effort to protect the president or it’s an effort to sack the constitution. Or maybe it’s neither. Whatever it is, it deserves further study.
When it comes to the media, all uprisings are not equal. Not when the oppressor is an ally and sitting on gobs of oil.
Was The New Yorker’s gripping moment-by-moment account of the Abbottabad operation that killed Osama bin Laden great journalism—or the ultimate spin job?
Do we listen to “Lord Monckton” on climate change because he knows what he’s talking about, or because of his title? And what’s that title about, anyway?
If we care about Greg Mortenson’s credibility, do we also care about the credibility of those who sold us on Mortenson—and the military agenda behind him?
Anyone who still wonders why the Bush administration invaded Iraq would do well to become familiar with an institution whose existence few Americans are aware of: the American University of Iraq-Sulaimaniya.
Located in Kurdistan, at the nexus of northern Iraq’s border with Iran and Turkey, AUI-S opened its doors in 2007. At the time, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times wrote about it with the sort of wide-eyed enthusiasm that had generally accompanied the invasion itself four years before. “Imagine for a moment if one outcome of the U.S. invasion of Iraq had been the creation of an American University of Iraq…Imagine if we had created an island of decency in Iraq…Well, stop imagining.”
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