The Monday Media Mash-up

By Christopher B. Daly 

Looking at the NYTimes Business section this morning, I cannot help but noticing how the Media beat has been hollowed out at the Times since the departure of Brian Stelter and the death of David Carr. I don’t know how to recover from those two losses, but it appears that, so far at least, the Times is not even trying. Today’s effort is very meh.

Speaking of the Times, here are a few odds and ends:

–The Public Editor agonized over the story about HIllary Clinton’s emails (which the Times broke last week). All of which makes me wonder: Who among us who toil away in big bureaucracies hasn’t tried to engineer a work-around to get out of the clutches of the IT Dept? If’s everyone’s nemesis.

I don’t use my university-issued desktop computer, because I assume they are recording everything and because I do not control what software goes on it or when to update. I do all my work on my personal laptop and my own cellphone. Besides, I’d like to know: did a Republican Secretary of State like Jim Baker use an official email account? Did Thomas Jefferson ever use backchannels? Hmmm… context please!

–The Times’ Bits blog has an item at the intersection of journalism and history — about the reaction to the 1934 Communication Act, which created the FCC. Turns out, Republicans didn’t like it much. One even saw it as an attempt to “Hitlerize” America’s media.

–What’s up with the full-page ad in the print version of the Times today by Al-Jazeera? A full-page, color ad can easily cost more than $100,000, so they must have a reason.

Elsewhere . . .

On the O’Reilly beat, don’t miss Brian Stelter’s latest Reliable Sources show.

Plus, there’s this item from TPM by O’Reilly’s biographer.

Then there is the mammoth takeout by Gabriel Sherman in New York mag about Brian Williams and the multiple car wrecks inside NBC.

Finally, let me wish good luck to Jim Braude, who takes over tonight on the Greater Boston show on WGBH-TV. Keep it real, Jim.