Jeff Horwitz, writing in the latest Columbia Journalism Review, examines the way The New York Times and CBS covered the mortgage lending practices of Golden West Financial Corporation in the years just before it was purchased by Wachovia. This is an important story to get right in all the details, in part because Mr. and Mrs. Sandler, who led Golden West for more than 40 years, have a foundation that is the principal financial backer of the investigative journalism web site ProPublica and other liberal causes.
Author: dmirons
538: Time to Start Counting Yes Votes
And Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com tackles the game theory of the last House votes to be rounded up.
Andy Stern: “We need to make ourselves more involved in these people’s career planning”
Ezra Klein interviews Andy Stern of Change to Win on the politics of health care reform today.
Andy Stern: “We need to make ourselves more involved in these people’s career planning”
TPM: Countdown To Reform
Given that Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn aren’t blogging about the House vote count, Talking Points Memo probably has the next best thing.
Safire’s Successor: On Language
Meant to post this yesterday: WBUR’s Tom Ashbrook interviews NYT Mag’s new On Language maven Ben Zimmer.
Nate Silver counts the votes
Over at fivethirtyeight.com, Nate Silver is cautiously optimistic.
TPM: Countdown to Reform Wire
Talking Points Memo counts the votes and links to the news. The administration sure sounds confident they’re going to win passage of the Senate bill in the House. But it’s going to be close and I wish it were clearer where the votes are actually going to come from.
Taking the NYT to task on Social Security
Over at The American Prospect, Dean Baker’s “Beat The Press” column regularly questions the economic assumptions (and knowledge) behind mostly mainstream media reporting. This post on the differences between Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid as a “fast-growing entitlement benefit program” is typical – and classic.
Liars Poker 2
Steven Pearlstein reviews Michael Lewis’s latest, out tomorrow.
The first pararaph: “If you read only one book about the causes of the recent financial crisis, let it be Michael Lewis’s, ‘The Big Short.’”
I will take his advice.
NYT: Apple’s Spat With Google Is Getting Personal
Will anything good come from this brawl? And if so, what?
Bali Arts 