Bruce Springsteen Dragged into Politics
Presidential candidates (Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton) trying to get into the act (and possibly Rick Santorum, too)
‘We are the world’: Foreign news coverage and Midwestern children
BY DAFNA LEMISH / As a non-native to this country and as an academic who moved to the Midwest from Israel a few years ago, I often have been baffled by what seems to be a very ethnocentric view applied when American journalists and academics relate to the rest of the world. For example, in my role as an editor of an international academic journal, I find myself routinely calling to the attention of U.S.-based authors that expressions such as “the Midwest,” “over Christmas break,” “in the summer” or even “third-graders” are inherently cultural.
Send in the Clowns: On the MSNBC-Mitt Romney flap
BY GEORGE SALAMON / During the last days of 2013, a controversy erupted on MSNBC when a panel of comedians on the Melissa Harris-Perry show poked fun at a photograph showing Mitt Romney’s adopted African-American grandson sitting on the former presidential candidate’s knee surrounded by the rest of his white family members.
Miscellaneous observations from a media critic
BY TRIPP FROHLICHSTEIN / Brian Stelter, formerly of the New York Times, has taken over the host role of CNN’s Reliable Sources. Former host Howard Kurtz has moved to Fox where he hosts MediaBuzz (ironically competing against his old CNN show – both airing at 10 a.m. CST on Sunday mornings).
The Rev. Biondi: Still swinging away
BY ROY MALONE / The Rev. Lawrence Biondi, as outgoing president of St. Louis University, used his last monthly newsletter to take a final swing at a professor he’s battled for more than two decades. The two-page rant, against Avis Meyer, was near the end of Biondi’s long missive to faculty, staff, students and others. But it was longer than any of the other subjects he discussed during his 25-year tenure as head of the Jesuit university.