Desert Island Debate

Hard-hitting stuff. I can't believe how lame so many of the answers are. The four front-runners all said "books."

Pithiest answers: Brownback, Tancredo.

Rank Hypocrisy

Tim Blair has the goods on Media Watch.

"Bespectacled cynics prone to neuroses who are actually doing just fine"

That's NPR's audience, right there.

[HT: Douthat, on Sullivan.]

UPDATE: Oh, and Wikipedia links to this delightful bit of scandalmongering about Glass's unsuitability as a life partner. From 1998! (Well, only part of it's scandalmongering, really.)

Here's the best bit:

"Get this," says Barry. "He dumps me and does this radio piece about getting his hair cut. That is Ira to a T. You know what he used to call me? He used to call me his 'little ghetto girl!' We were reading the New York Times one morning a couple of weeks in, and he looked at me and said, 'You don't know what the IMF is, do you?'"

Wow. You can taste the condescension. He should give a master class.

Tragedy in Real Time

A striking account of NBC's handling of materials from the Virginia Tech murderer.

More Dog-Whistle Theories

The New York Times is obnoxious. It says:

In partisan Republican circles, the pursuit of voter fraud is code for suppressing the votes of minorities and poor people. By resisting pressure to crack down on “fraud,” the fired United States attorneys actually appear to have been standing up for the integrity of the election system.

Oh really? And how did the Times, of all publications, manage to crack this "code"? Did they get a copy of our handbook? Did someone slip it to them?

In any event, we all know that this must be true, since the idea that Democrats would ever engage in voter fraud is absurd. Right?

Here's a newsflash, NYT: in "partisan Republican circles," the pursuit of voter fraud is code for... the pursuit of voter fraud.

Viacom v. Google

The Journal has an interesting piece on Viacom's copyright claims against Google over its recently acquired YouTube. (There's more on the Law Blog as well.) The case implicates important questions regarding the applicability of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" provisions to a video-sharing site like YouTube. Viacom alleges that YouTube does not merely host websites that display copyrighted videos; rather, it "itself commits the infringing duplication, public performance and public display." In this way, Viacom argues, YouTube is unlike AOL and other ISP providers, which were within the contemplation of Congress when it passed the DMCA in 1998.

But surely the congressional record, if not the DMCA itself, contemplates the rise of new technologies? After all, it was the rise of new technologies that led to the DMCA in the first place. I don't see why AOL should enjoy a safe harbor even though it makes the display of copyrighted material possible, while YouTube does not. Neither AOL nor YouTube directly posts copyrighted material; they both provide ways (one through an ISP system, the other through a website) for displaying copyrighted material posted by others. Congress knew about ISPs and websites when they passed the DMCA. So why distinguish between them when it comes to the safe harbor provisions? Just because it's YouTube's business plan? But why can't a company build a business plan around a legitimate exception in copyright law, especially when YouTube is careful to avoid generating advertisement revenue from pages showing material that is not covered by a licensing agreement?

Score One (Again) for Gesture Politics

It's form above substance. I mean, doesn't it actually look like Roger Ailes was making fun of Bush? Here's what he said, in a joke-laden speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF):

And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called (Pakistani President Pervez) Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?

So for this, the Nevada Democratic Party has gone on a humor strike in protest. Sheesh.

I liked this joke, which came just before the one above:

A man in France was arrested today for using his car to run down a pedestrian. He said he thought it was Osama bin Laden. Ok, it was a mistake, but it still ranks as France's biggest military victory ever.

Hah!