New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg took on a weird assignment: puffing up Katherine Weymouth, publisher of The Washington Post. A cynic might joke that Stolberg could apply for a job at the Post in a less obvious way. Or the Times is self-conciously trying to say “Newspapers are still glamorous properties!” and repeat it for emphasis.
Stolberg wrote that 47-year-old Katherine convened a “power dinner” at her house and passed muster with her mommy, Lally Weymouth, as worthy of Lally’s mommy, Watergate-era Post publisher Katharine Graham. It all went overboard into a goo puddle when this family are like “royalty” and national newspapers are “crown jewels” – even if the Times just unloaded the Boston Globe like it was cubic zirconia:
Sheryl Stolberg
Will Newt Gingrich's big credit line at Tiffany's define his 2012 Republican presidential run? The New York Times seems to hope so. Wednesday’s front page "Political Memo" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg on Gingrich’s credit line was bejeweled with a headline that sounded like a liberal wish: "All That Glitters May Redefine Run by Gingrich."
To the long list of rich-guy foibles that turned into defining campaign moments -- John Edwards’s $400 haircut, John Kerry’s kite-surfing, John McCain’s inability to remember how many homes he owns -- let us now add Newt Gingrich’s $500,000 revolving line of credit at the luxury jeweler Tiffany & Company.
One difference: The Times ran their April 20, 2007 story on Edwards’ haircut not on the front page, but on page 15.
President Bush is holding a press conference on the U.S. economy. I'll be blogging the questions to the president below.
Video of Bush/Raddatz clash here (audio available here).
Video of Stolberg and Ryan on recession here (audio here)
My bottom line analysis (11:25): The two R's of bias from this Rose Garden presser: Martha Raddatz on Syria and numerous reporters on the dreaded R-word, recession. Of course a recession is two consecutive quarters of NEGATIVE economic growth, and we've yet to see one quarter of negative growth, much less two. But all the same, NY Times's Stolberg made it sound like Q1 numbers on GDP tomorrow will show a recession.
The questions below will be posted in reverse chronological order: