The Anchoress

I’m running out of creative ways to announce that I am doing a links post - but there is so much good stuff out there, I have to do it.

First up, some thoughtful commentary from a woman I’ve read before but always seem to lose sight of, Neo-Neocon. She’s wondering, as many of us are, in light of Korangate, whatever happened to journalistic discretion?

If we go back in time, we find that, during FDR’s Presidency, reporters didn’t even publish their own certain knowledge of how physically limited he was. They were so wary of the consequences of the story, so protective of both the President and the public, that they voluntarily censored themselves. The same is true for the early rumors concerning JFK’s kinky extra-curricular sex life…

I have no idea whether the Starr report factored into the 9/11 attacks in any way. I am not familiar with any references to it; it’s certainly possible (perhaps even likely) that it did not. But, whether or not it had such an effect, the idea was already implanted in my mind that the media needs to at least consider the effects of the stories they publish.

Read it all. Also, she has a piece on blood libel.

Michelle Malkin quotes Barcepundit about some fake news that came out onto the ABC news site and was later pulled without comment. There seems to be no end to this. You’ll want to read that whole Barcepundit post.

Rich Lowry has a very good look at what Korangate tells us about the state of the press. And Peter Kirsanow - also at NRO - has an informative article on Janice Rogers Brown who I am starting to admire a lot.

Red at Scared Monkeys is following the Cannes Film Festival and finds it more subtle than last year, but still ripe with anti-American feeling. It’s a pretty scathing read.

Quick unrelated thought: Am I the only person in the world completely not interested in George Lucas or Star Wars? Because I’m SO not interested. But LaShawn Barber seems to have patience for it all, so maybe it’s me. John Podhoretz doesn’t think much of the new movie, anyway. Don’t read him if you don’t like spoilers.

Hugh Hewitt is aggravated that Newsweek is essentially telling Isikoff to take a Mulligan. He makes an excellent point about the new, “the riots weren’t really about Newsweek” narrative:

Interestingly enough, it was Fred Barnes who threw Isikoff the only lifeline he can grab: The demonstrations may have been a put-on job, not really provoked by the false allegation that Newsweek published, but which used the false allegation as an excuse to riot and kill in an attempt to halt the American momentum in the region.

But if MSM goes with this analysis, it will have to start asking a lot of tough questions about “anti-Americanism” around the world. When is a demonstration not a demonstration, but a rally using violence as a prop? Rather than abandon their own deeply held suspicions of America’s role in the world and the nobility of its opponents, expect MSM to sacrifice Isikoff if it has to.

Dirty Harry is running his own collection of links that you will want to check out. They’re angrier than mine and his observations are funnier than mine, too.

Ann Althouse wonders if the NY Times has really thought through its “special voices,” pay-to-read policy. I’ve wondered, too. I’ll miss responding to Maureen Dowd’s eye-spinning insanity, (MoDo has been beddy, beddy good to the Anchoress’ site meter) but frankly, it’s not worth fifty bucks a year for me to read her, and I cannot help but think Althouse is correct, that MoDo and the rest are being protected, insulated and cosseted - protected from those mean old bloggers who routinely shine a light on their tripe. Ah, well. It was sweet while it lasted. Now all they will preach to is the choir.

Kim at Musing Minds reports the passing of Mae Magouirk who died, finally, of a stroke, instead of by her granddaughter’s pulling of feeding tubes. This was a particularly interesting situation. Magouirk went into hospital for a naortic dissection and was recovering nicely, but the granddaughter seemed to figure, eh, she’s old. Gonna die anyway. They just killed Terri Schiavo…can’t we speed all this up a little? Mae, like JPII, got to die when it was HER time to go, and not on someone else’s schedule. RIP Mae.

Finally Sigmund wants your opinion: Is should be legalized. For balance, I offer this Crisis article from Mark Shea the question of torture from a Catholic perspective.

Buster wants me to direct your attention to the Bookshelf section in the sidebar, where he has insisted I ad that Sam Cooke/Soul Stirrers CD, and I am supposed to tell you that you will love it. He is currently in a doo-wop/gospel mode and this stuff is speaking to him. He is also forming an “all bass quartet” with three friends and I have no idea what they think they’re going to do with four bass voices, but I’m staying out of it.