meta-appalling news

Some of the news isn't appalling. It's simply about how appalling the news is. I'm including a must-read editorial by Paul Krugman from the NYT. If you don't religiously read Krugman (twice a week, every week) then register for the online times and just do it. Bob Herbert is also good. Kristof and Dowd are excellent; Kristof tends to raise issues about how we fail to notice tiny things like genocide in Sudan, and Maureen Dowd writes great essays, but ends them terribly. I'm not sure why this bothers me so much, but it does. I always feel like I've missed a page when I get to the end of one of hers.

Amy Goodman in a Democracy Now! interview gets a similar meta-news thing going with Ted Koppel. Lots of good news about news articles on the democracy now home page...  

Triumph of the Trivial
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: July 30, 2004
Under the headline "Voters Want Specifics From Kerry," The Washington Post recently quoted a voter demanding that John Kerry and John Edwards talk about "what they plan on doing about health care for middle-income or lower-income people. I have to face the fact that I will never be able to have health insurance, the way things are now. And these millionaires don't seem to address that."

Mr. Kerry proposes spending $650 billion extending health insurance to lower- and middle-income families. Whether you approve or not, you can't say he hasn't addressed the issue. Why hasn't this voter heard about it?

ABC's Ted Koppel Refuses To Apologize For Pre-War Iraq Coverage
Koppel tells Democracy Now!, "I don't think an apology is due. If what you are saying is could we all have been more critical? I think the answer is yes."

Jimmy Breslin: “The Media Should Have Their Licenses Revoked” for Lack of Convention Coverage
We speak with Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Jimmy Breslin about the intense scripting of John Kerry’s coronation ceremony at the Democratic National Convention.