[First published in ‘AM New York’]
TODAY VOTERS DECIDE if Tony Blair gets returned to office for an historic third term as Britain’s Prime Minister. He’s sure to win, but not by as big a margin as he wants.
He’s been endorsed by the U.K.’s top-selling daily newspaper, The Sun – owned by Australian-American Rupert Murdoch (below, right). Surprisingly. possible terms for that support emerged here in Manhattan last week. Continue reading “Aussie Power – in UK … and in US” »
[First published in ‘AM New York’]
POPE BENEDICT XVI is enjoying quite a media honeymoon. As Cardinal Ratzinger he was such a severe disciplinarian, and his guarding of Church orthodoxy so steely, that he was nicknamed “God’s Rottweiler” and “the Panzer Cardinal“. But he’s now a darling of the press.
Professor Robert Scott Appleby from America’s bestknown Catholic university, Notre Dame, has assessed the Pope’s press treatment: “I am not saying that he has been given a pass, but some appropriate deference has been shown.” Continue reading “Soft-Pedaling Popes; and Losing Credibility” »
[Originally published in ‘AM New York’]
ANOTHER POPE IS FINALLY CHOSEN, and so ends another historic episode of ritual, mystique and secrecy – more suited to the novelist’s craft than the journalist’s.
And publishers are redoubling their efforts to find another ”Da Vinci Code” – Doubleday‘s canny exploitation of public hunger for arcane information about religion and history, mixed in with dizzying conspiracy theories. Continue reading “Following the Code – And Getting More Accurate About Origins” »
[First published in AM New York]
SOME OF OUR CITY‘s ever-suspicious press corps are spotting conspiracies again.
Last week’s entirely creditable Pulitzer national reporting prize for The New York Times and its expose of killer railroad-crossings is being linked – much less creditably – with a sloppy Times debacle. Continue reading “NYT – Columbia Trade-off? … And Brevity, Please?” »
[First published in AM New York]
THE WORLD’S MOST VISIBLE RELIGIOUS LEADER EVER will disappear tomorrow from human view, deep below St Peter’s Basilica – with, of course, the media following as far as they can. Continue reading “The Pope and Women; Women and Cable” »
