Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

The revolution will be supervised.

Infrastructure week. at last.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Bark louder, little dog.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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For Good Times In Cambridge

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Three quick notices of fine talks to attend at MIT over the next week:

My colleagues Ta-Nehisi Coates and Seth Mnookin will be tag-teaming Mark McKinnon — yeah this Mark McKinnon — in just a little bit, 5 p.m. this afternoon.  Ta-Nehisi will be conversing/interviewing McKinnon, and Seth will moderate in this latest in the MIT Communications Forum series of talks. It’ll be happening up in MIT’s new Media Lab building, which is a beaut, on the sixth floor, or, in MIT speak, in E14-633.  The interactive map is your friend.

Here’s the abstract for the event:

In the 2012 presidential campaign, a handful of media outlets deployed “fact-checking” divisions which reported the lies and distortions of the candidates.  Some commentators have argued that these truth-squads exposed the inadequacy of standard print and broadcast coverage, much of which seems more like entertainment than news.  This forum will examine the changing role of the political media in the U.S.  Is our political journalism serving democratic and civic ideals? What do emerging technologies and the proliferation of news sources mean for the future? 

It should be interesting, and, of course, for the Balloon Juice snarlers, McKinnon’s role as a founder of the No Labels brand of (in my view) faux centrism might elicit some fun questions.  One note:  the room is fairly small, and while I don’t think this event has been hugely publicized, there might be a premium on seating.

Self-portrait_by_Salvator_Rosa

Next, (and giving y’all a little more notice) Seth and Ta-Nehisi will converse with David Carr, the New York Times’ media critic, on Wed., April 17, 7 p.m. in  Building 6, room 120 (6-120, as folks in the Shire reckon addresses.)  The event is running under the title “The Future of Print in the Digital Age” and is sponsored as part of the Writer’s Series within MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing, its Graduate Program in Science Writing, and the MIT Program in Science Technology and Society.  Should be a very smart evening; Carr’s one of the really good ones.  Again 6-120 is a reasonably large room — about 120 seats, I think — but this is one that should get a lot of interest, so if you want to be there, give yourself a little extra time.

Finally, my former student Emily Anthes is coming back to MIT to speak about her new book Frankenstein’s Cat. You might recall that Emily and I had a conversation about the book last month (podcast here).  Emily has taken a serious and very well researched look at the intersection of biotechnology and the animals closest to their human partners/owners/users.  The result of that work is a gracefully written book that wears the author’s knowledge lightly, and argues its point — the technological manipulation of animals is both inevitable and at least potentially a benefit to both parties to the deal — with grace and rigor.  She’s got a lot to say, and she says it well.  If this is the sort of thing you like to engage, this will be a fine evening too.  Her talk is the day after Carr’s, April 18 at 7 p.m. in yet another of MIT’s utterly impenetrably named venues, 56-114 — building 56, room 114.

Fun for the whole family, with decent pizza nearby for afters.  What could be bad?

Image:  Salvator Rosa, Self Portrait, 1645.  The caption reads in translation: “Be Quiet, Unless Your Speech Be Better Than Silence.”

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  2. 2.

    LanceThruster

    I agree that the “No Labels” brand seems more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It merely further reinforces the misperception of “both sides do it.”

  4. 4.

    oldster

    “Ta-Nehisi will be conversing/interviewing McKinnon”

    Correction: TNC will be conversating.

    Should be a great show. The only problem is that TNC is so fair-minded and humane that he won’t go in for the easy kills. Let’s hope Mnookin does!

  5. 5.

    Roger Moore

    The caption reads in translation: “Be Quiet, Unless Your Speech Be Better Than Silence.”

    A caption destined to be ignored. By me, in this very comment, for instance.

  6. 6.

    ranchandsyrup

    I would get kicked out of that room because I would not be able to stop laughing at McKinnon. I’d love to see an interview with the SNL/Kids in the Hall Mark McKinney with y’all.

  7. 7.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    In the 2012 presidential campaign, a handful of media outlets deployed “fact-checking” divisions which reported the lies and distortions of the candidates. Some commentators have argued that these truth-squads exposed the inadequacy of standard print and broadcast coverage, much of which seems more like entertainment than news.

    In the long run all this does is to give the Republicans another media target to harrass, intimidate, subordinate and put to use pushing their propaganda. There is no reason why what was done to convert the putatively liberal MSM into a rightwing agitprop shop cannot be replicated fully and completely with the so-called “fact-checkers”. Politfact has already demonstrated that this is not a hypothetical, the hijacking process is already well underway.

    I don’t want “fact checkers”. I want people in the media with a megaphone, a backbone, and a fucking conscience, and no scare quotes around any of those. Until we have that it doesn’t matter what we call them, we’re just arguing about what sort of makeup to put on the scary clowns.

  9. 9.

    Paul in KY

    Don’t think Mr. Rosa was a ‘suffer fools gladly’ type.

    Nice self portrait, though.

  10. 10.

    Roger Moore

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    I don’t want “fact checkers”. I want people in the media with a megaphone, a backbone, and a fucking conscience, and no scare quotes around any of those.

    +eleventy. A news media that needs separate fact checkers has already failed at its most basic duty. We need reporters who believe that their responsibility to getting the facts right does not end at verifying the accuracy of their quotes.

  15. 15.

    Violet

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Agreed. Media with a spine would be nice. STFU about what you think, overpaid media personality, and tell us what is happening. We can decide what we think about it ourselves.

  16. 16.

    jl

    McKinnon’s Wikipedia press release encyclopedia entry is funny, in a kind of conceptual humor Andy Kaufman kind of way.

    I wonder what selfless independent internet researcher, eager to provide free and useful information to the world, wrote it.

  17. 17.

    Suffern ACE

    @ranchandsyrup: Yeah. In Q&A, I’d probably ask, “No, Seriously. Who was that Billionaire you fleeced into hiring you and Schoen? And how big was the summer home in Martha’s Vineyard that you bought with the money you funneled to your firm?”

  20. 20.

    driftglass

    “Is our political journalism serving democratic and civic ideals? What do emerging technologies and the proliferation of news sources mean for the future?…”

    … “And why do such forums put together the least interesting topics on Earth for the people actually sitting on the panel to address?”

  22. 22.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Roger Moore:

    A news media that needs separate fact checkers has already failed at its most basic duty.

    Yeah, it sort of like proudly advertising that your ship comes with “flotation devices” (aka liferafts), while neglecting to mention that the very same ravenously hungry Kraken which tore a monster hole in the bottom of the main boat is now coming back to gobble up the liferafts and their occupants, and nobody is going to do a damm thing to stop it because they are either shitting their pants in fear of the beast, or they are already on the payroll of Kraken Enterprises, LLC.

    The root problem here isn’t “buoyancy”. The problem is craven cowardice and self-serving opportunism.

  25. 25.

    ranchandsyrup

    @Suffern ACE: I’d just do the same question I ask glibertarians and other conservatives wearing non-conservative clothing: How, exactly, will your platform differ from the GOP? (with the glibertarians I pre-but police abuse and drugz).

  26. 26.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @driftglass:

    The topics would be interesting if anybody on the panel would actually speak the brazen truth about them just for the sheer novelty of it all.

    Q: “Is our political journalism serving democratic and civic ideals?”
    A: Hahhahahahaaahaaaaa! [pause to catch breath] No. Not even in the same zip code. But then you already knew that.

    Q: “What do emerging technologies and the proliferation of news sources mean for the future?”
    A: Fuck you and the horses you rode in on, you assholes. Your businesses can’t die soon enough for me to enjoy pissing on your graves, and the best part is YOU DID IT TO YOURSELVES!

  28. 28.

    patroclus

    Mark McKinnon is a former Democrat who worked for Anne Richards and then was completely bamboozled by George W. and basically threw his life into the toilet by actually believing that pile of swill about “compassionate” conservatism which led to multiple ridiculous wars based on bald-faced whoppers, rampant torture, endless tax cuts for wealthy people and (virtually) the utter destruction of the American economy in 2007-08. Unless he has completely recanted (and “No Labels” doesn’t sound like it), his opinion is worthless and should be ridiculed, not listened to. He supposedly retired in 2008 because he didn’t want to be the tip of the spear attacking Obama, but he was one of Palin’s debate preppers as well as Cindy McCain’s speechwriter. He’s an amoral unprincipled grifter who likes being with the winning team much more than actually working on substantive problems.

  33. 33.

    beltane

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: It’s hardly tin-foil hat stuff to acknowledge that political journalism serves the needs of those who sign the paychecks of political journalists. The various corporate entities that own the American media are simply not going to provide funding and support to the type of political journalism that is most conducive the creation of an informed public.

  35. 35.

    handsmile

    @gogol’s wife:

    Following upon your “books and media” example, here’s one of my favorite stories of the day.

    The Irish central bank issued a E10 silver coin to commemorate James Joyce’s Ulysses, featuring a portrait of the author and a two-sentence quotation from the book. One little problem: they got the quote wrong, inserting the word “that” to the text.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/11/ireland-james-joyce-coin-misquote

    How many adults had to approve this before minting I wonder?

    ETA: Lovely link. Were you one of the protesting “American professors of Russian literature” by any chance?

  36. 36.

    minutemaid

    chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi

    Same as Bush

    DRONEZZZZZZ…SINGLE PAYER OR I’M NOT VOTING

    Same as Bush

    PS: Jane Hamsher and Dennis Kucinich are awesome.

  38. 38.

    minutemaid

    Typical day on Dkos…and BJ comments.

    chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi chained cpi
    Same as Bush
    DRONEZZZZZZ…SINGLE PAYER OR I’M NOT VOTING
    Same as Bush
    PS: Jane Hamsher and Dennis Kucinich are awesome.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    Salvator Rosa, Self Portrait, 1645. The caption reads in translation: “Be Quiet, Unless Your Speech Be Better Than Silence.”

    He looks lonely.

    Tom:

    Will there be a tape or transcript from TNC-Mnookin-McKinnon program?

    Would love to hear what they have to say.

  51. 51.

    handsmile

    @gogol’s wife:

    If only the world could adopt this precept from Joyce’s countryman:

    “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” (S. Beckett)

    It’s the failing worse every day that’s so damned depressing.

  56. 56.

    Yutsano

    @beltane: It’s Durf. Durf thinks he’s the smartest political commenter ever and that he can only reveal his utter brilliance and mock those who don’t recognise it. And he thinks this grants him thevstatus to be tje great blg critic. Of course he’ll descend imto racist, misogynist, and homophobic remsrks as well. He’s a flea.

  57. 57.

    Trollhattan

    @Morzer:

    To my knowledge the L&T Mrs. Bogg retains bassetness approval authoritah. But as a warning to unprepared travelers, beware the big-footed and floppy-eared seems prudent. Derf, not so much.

  60. 60.

    Cermet

    Well, my daughter is at MIT today attending their new and potential freshman four-day orientation. For ‘fun’ she decided to sit in on the quantum mechanics course … I guess her idea of fun at college is a bit different than mine.

  61. 61.

    Suffern ACE

    @lojasmo: No. T&H is a left progressive who does not like Obama or the policies of moderate democrats and the country as a whole. Minutemaid is a moderate democrat extremist who actually likes Obama. He’s a radical blue dog terrorist who hates republicans but anything to the left of Joe Lieberman even more.

    Not the same people at all. I think minutemaid was driven insane when he found out Cole used to be a Republican.

  62. 62.

    Morzer

    @Trollhattan:

    Perhaps it would be better to label the region “Here there be bassets” rather than instructing to people to be bassets there?

  63. 63.

    Ben Franklin

    @beltane:

    I think you came to the wrong house. FDL is across the street and a half-way down the block.

    Misdirected link? It’s always possible BJ was mistaken for a left-wing site.

  65. 65.

    DavidTC

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
    Yeah, it sort of like proudly advertising that your ship comes with “flotation devices” (aka liferafts), while neglecting to mention that the very same ravenously hungry Kraken which tore a monster hole in the bottom of the main boat is now coming back to gobble up the liferafts and their occupants, and nobody is going to do a damm thing to stop it because they are either shitting their pants in fear of the beast, or they are already on the payroll of Kraken Enterprises, LLC.

    Actually, it’s more like this XKCD: http://xkcd.com/463/

    The media needing ‘fact checkers’ is like a teacher needing condoms…someone doesn’t understand the very basic _premise_ of their job.

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