Law & Order: Dublin Edition

Court reporting has its moments. Especially in Ireland apparently.



"The plaintiff said of the experience, 'It frightened the shite out of me altogether, Lord Jesus.'"

2012 in 4 Minutes

Happy New Year.

 

via Ryan James Yezak

The Ezra Klein Show

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We've been seeing a lot of Ezra Klein on MSNBC lately. Washington Post's "Wonkblog" editor is now Rachel Maddow's go-to substitute host, and there are rumours floating around that he may get his own show. That's how Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry got their start on the network, after all.

I like the guy and he's really smart, so I wouldn't mind seeing him join the lineup. He needs work, though. You can tell he's trying to develop more on-screen charisma, but right now he's copying Maddow's inflections and mannerisms too much. (Don't worry, Ezra, Chris Hayes used to do that too and he's much better now.)

If the show rumours are true, my suspicion is that MSNBC is trying to tap into the geek love generated by Nate Silver's polling triumph in the 2012 election - which is funny, because Nate Silver apparently hates punditry.

P.S. Yes, I know I talk about MSNBC people all the time. I haven't drunk the Kool-Aid, it's just that Fox News is too absurd and CNN is too boring, and all my other favourite news sources are on the Internet. I think of the network as a tidy case study of everything that is good and bad about cable news.

Richard Engel, Superman

I'm relieved to hear that NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his team are safe after being kidnapped and held for five days in Syria:

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Engel's ordeal reminded me of his theory about the four stages of stress a reporter goes through while covering war zones, outlined in his book War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq:

• Stage One: I'm invincible. Nothing can hurt me. I'm Superman.
• Stage Two: What I'm doing is dangerous. I might get hurt over here. I'd better be careful.
• Stage Three: What I'm doing is really dangerous. I am probably going to get hurt over here no matter how careful I am. Math and probability and time are working against me.
• Stage Four: I have been here too long. I am going to die over here. It is just a matter of time. I've played the game too long.

It's not time just yet, thank goodness. Welcome back, Richard.

Jon Stewart Skewers CNN (Again)

I don't always agree with Jon Stewart, but CNN's big mistake on the Supreme Court ruling was what he was born for.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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"Yes, 'widely different'. There's what you've been saying, and then there's what happened."

HBO's "The Newsroom"

Days after Keith Olbermann gets fired from Current TV, we get this spectacular teaser from Aaron Sorkin.
 

I'm hooked. Sorry, "Mad Men."

(I can see it now. Sorkin in interview after interview, saying "Why, my character is completely fictional! He's a combination of a range of different TV personalities! After all, he's a Republican!")

Charlie Brooker: How to Report the News

Amen on the vox pops, seriously.

Outing the Ringers

The usual clever take from Jay Smooth on media coverage of Occupy Wall Street:

Drunk Ron Paul Fan

I need to not run around showing this to every Libertarian I can get my hands on. That would be rude.



Constitution. Read it. Live by it.

Norway, Journalism and Stephen Colbert

The Colbert Report
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"The point is, this monster may not be Muslim, but his heinous acts are indisputably Muslish. And we must not let his Islamesque atrocity divert our attention from the terrible people he reminds us of."

I'm really starting to think that Jon Stewart is the better comedian, but when it comes to insight and political commentary Stephen Colbert has gained the upper hand.

Diane Sawyer: "I Have Nothing"

Actor/comedian Harry Shearer has posted raw footage of Diane Sawyer preparing for a live broadcast from the disaster area in Joplin, Missouri:



"This is a portrait of a fly-in anchor covering a disaster," Shearer says in a statement. "Diane may be Diane, but this is pretty much what you get when you send high-priced anchor talent into a place where everything has fallen apart and nothing works. The quote, 'I have nothing,' of course, should more appropriately be coming from a tornado victim.'"

Is that really what's going on here? The footage shows the entire crew, not just Sawyer, looking disorganised and shaken after losing power in the middle of a storm. What we don't see is how they recover from the problem. Did they continue struggling when the camera went live or did they pull together and get through it?

I'm all for taking self-important celebrities down a notch, but if Diane Sawyer managed to provide solid coverage in a disaster area without a script, then I don't really mind that she gets paid a lot for doing her job.