From Poynter: Richard Prince reports that ESPN has reversed its initial stand against staffers posting pictures of themselves in hoodies to show solidarity with Trayvon Martin. After Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera suggested that the 17-year-old’s choice to wear a hooded sweatshirt was partly to blame for him being killed, many pro athletes began to post photos of themselves wearing hooded sweatshirts. ESPN staff were at first warned not to join them. Now the network has decided “to allow this particular expression of human sympathy.” Workplace Tyranny Averted. For Now. Meanwhile, in the not-so-wide world of the media, Gannett has told staffers who signed a petition calling for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s recall that they would be disciplined. More here.
Yesterday, libertarian blogger Julian Sanchez announced that if the right-wing Koch brothers successfully take over the libertarian Cato Institute, where he works, he’ll resign. (According to most reports, the Kochs want Cato to be a more reliable instrument of the Republican cause.) Today, Sanchez criticizes progressives who can’t help noting the irony of libertarians complaining about wealthy people using their money to buy the kind of speech they like. If Cato is Koch property, progressives say, doesn’t libertarian theory require that the Kochs be allowed to do with it what they will? Silly progressives, says Sanchez. Libertarians aren’t recommending that the Kochs, assuming they have legal title, not be allowed to do whatever they want with Cato. They’re simply saying it’s not a good idea for the Kochs to […]
I see the New York Times is still assigning book reviews to Jacob Heilbrunn. I guess they never read this 2008 piece I wrote in The Nation. Or this follow-up from John Palattella about the same issue: Heilbrunn’s problem with acknowledging his sources and with not producing prose that doesn’t track the prose of others. Here’s what I had to say about all this in The Nation (apologies for the long quote): These are simple errors, and though one wishes that Heilbrunn didn’t make them so often or with such confidence, they don’t detract from his overall argument. The same cannot be said of the book’s two other problems. The first is that They Knew They Were Right leaves the […]