Russ McBee

Commenting on the MSM coverage of the Democratic National Convention, Jim Voorhies said this (in comments here): It’s so much easier if you don’t watch at all and just read about it online afterwards. That way you get to do something else. It’s almost like multitasking, without the screwing two things up at once. Amen.

Here's something I don't say very often: a story in today's Knoxville News Sentinel is such a masterful example of beautiful storytelling, it brought a tear to my eye. This piece by Scott Barker describes the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's Music And Wellness Program, in which musicians visit hospital wards to serenade the patients with the ...

David Neiwert, who has written extensively about eliminationist rhetoric from the right wing against liberals, had this to say about Sunday's tragedy in Knoxville: In reality, of course, rhetoric like this has historically played a critical role in some of the ugliest episodes in American history, as well as thousands of little acts of ...

Yesterday, a senseless act of non-random violence struck this city. A man, mad at the world and blaming liberals for his personal ills, targeted the innocent congregants of a progressive church in Knoxville, killing two and wounding seven. Like everyone else in Knoxville, I've spent the last couple of days in a state of shock over this. Described ...

This week's roundup of Tennessee liberal bloggers is up. Check it out. The sort-of weekly roundup is also featured in today's paper edition of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Last week, the Associated Press sent seven DMCA take-down notices to the Drudge Retort (a liberal counterpoint to that other Drudge) based solely on the fact that they had posted short excerpts of AP wire stories. After some pretty significant blowback (and a boycott of their content), the AP decided it might not be in their best interests to ...

Glenn Greenwald has two pieces in Salon on the persistent myth of the ''liberal'' media. In the first, he notes some comments from Scott McClellan's explosive new book that portray the media as willing lapdogs of the Bush administration in its run-up to the Iraq invasion. McClellan says this about the media's complicity during the 2002-2003 White ...

On the subject of TV pundits, the always-wise Sven had this to say: The real issue is why this doofus was invited in the first place. If a journalist interviewed winos about Federal Reserve policy, our first question probably wouldn't be why winos don't understand core inflation. Sven needs his own TV show.

The rapidly shriveling newspaper industry has seen many papers adopt a smaller size to save costs. One Maryville paper has decided to spin the decay of their business model a bit more creatively: Instead of shrinking staff, the Maryville Daily Times is shrinking the physical size of the newspaper, scaling it down from 24 inches to 22 inches ...

Number of Google News hits on Obama's ''bitter'' remark: 2006 Number of Google Blog Search hits on the same remarks: 3757 Number of Google News hits on Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Kentucky) calling Obama ''boy'': 64 Number of Google Blog Search hits on the same remarks: 112 ''Liberal'' media? Draw your own conclusions.