Top 10 Harvard-Globe Comments

MITHRIDATES
The Internet has changed journalism forever. You heard that first here. One of the great improvements over old-fashioned print media is the comment section at the end of an online article. This is where you learn that — however reasonable you originally thought the article was — it's really just either socialist propaganda from the left-wing media machine or fascist rhetoric from the corporate/Christian right.

Don't be fooled by a seemingly bland article about an apparently apolitical topic . Somewhere there's a communist plot — and our commentators are going to find it for us. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a supposedly left-leaning (left-wing, socialist, COMMUNIST!) paper's article about an allegedly liberal (radical, anti-American, MARXIST!) institution.

So without further ado, here are the top 10 comments from Harvard to Lay off 275 in the Boston Globe:
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1. Ah, the poetic justice is intoxicating. These Universities were the most fervent supporters of President Obama in his run. The Liberal minded Professors slamming any opposition to him on campus. Now, with benefactors getting hammered left and right with taxes, threats to take their wealth, and so forth and so on, they are running for the proverbial hills. Which leaves the previously mentioned Professors scrambling to retain their jobs. I wonder what they think of their CHOSEN ONE now. He conned everyone he came in contact with, and is now dismantling the very same establishment which put him in power. The sweet smell of buyers remorse is in the air. - Posted by Jim

2. See what communists does? It runes the eckonomy by redistributting the wealth. Now those Harvard libruls can feal it.
   We need Free Markets, deregulation on Wall Street and TAX CUTS for the top 5 percent in order to make this economy better for all of us teabaggers.
   Who cares about educashun and evoloution when you don't get a job?? Knot me. - Posted by Jonny Wingnut

3. billions in the bank and laying people off??? Not for profit??? something is not right here? LIke everyone else said, why arent they paying taxes? This state is a JOKE. Why do we still live here?If they only had a BILLION in the bank it shouldn't matter. - Posted by rayhags

4. Harvard can't dip into its endowment to save some of these jobs? Got to build another gigantic building, but let go of all the personnel? I thought communism was all about redistributing wealth to everyone? - Posted by realist

5. Harvard isn't going to hell, it's already there. E-gad what a horrible bunch of people. - Posted by Jack Higgins

6. This is almost entirely fault of former Harvard President Larry Summers.
   I just hope he would not screw our nation/federal government.- Posted by Rudy Biden
   

7. Economic problem precipitated largely by Harvard Alum's and now it comes home to roost. Maybe a revision of the Ethic's Standard and Practice courses would be apropos! - Posted by DanB

8. Sure .... Destroy the economy and lose 275 jobs. Justice??
   What a bunch of elitist clowns at that place...
   They do not get it at all... Answer - Do not respect these low life bone heads. Show them massive disrespect wherever they go. They are the elite gone mad. - Posted by Terry Wise

9. I find it interesting that a large majority of comments on this subject are barely literate. - Posted by Ed

10. Is there a sensible reason why there is a commentary section for articles published in this newspaper? The quality of the reactive screes that people write is an embarrassment. It is a forum for those that need somehow to express their anger at anything that stays still long enough to tag with graffiti.

    It is hardly any better than that.

    I think that this newspaper should rethink the premise on which researched news articles are plastered with these random splatters of anger. - Posted by David
    

Ah, the delightful bashing of: one of the best of our world-leading institutions of higher education; a great contributor to the advancement of science; a source of pride for the U.S. and the state of Massachusetts; one of the state's top employers; one of the top attracters of talent from around the world to the United States; a leader in providing affordable debt-free education to top students; and a contributor to the education of the general public through its Extension School . . . thank God for the Internet!

Iraqi Elections Ignored by Liberal Media

MITHRIDATES
Iraq just held provincial elections and the liberal media won't say anything about how peaceful they were, how this is a big step forward to making the Iraqi government more representative, how much progress has been made in Iraq, and how happy people were to vote in free and fair elections! The fact that Iraq is an Arab country where woman can vote for their leaders is barely noted.

"Transparency"

PHUTATORIUS
The White House press corps is on Obama's case already, as they weren't offered full video coverage of the President's do-over swear-in inside the Oval Office:

“It is ironic, the same day that the president is talking about transparency, we were not let in,” CNN’s Ed Henry said on the air Wednesday night after news of the second swearing-in broke.

Substitute "unrelated" for "ironic," and you have a true and accurate statement.
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Now this isn't the case we see five times a day, where "ironic" isn't the right word, because the speaker doesn't know what "ironic" means. This is a case where "ironic" isn't the right word, because the speaker doesn't know what "transparency" means.

By invoking the word "transparency," President Obama means to differentiate himself from the Bush Administration's policies and practice of secret government and information warfare. Transparency in government is a social value — a democratic value — and the role of the press in ensuring it is critical. So yes, Mr. Henry, you're really important. You have a privileged status in American society.

But transparency wasn't at issue here, because the White House did invite a number of print reporters into the Oval Office to view and document the event. Let's be clear: nothing about the re-swear-in was kept from the public. It's just that Ed Henry and his counterparts in cable news didn't get the video footage they wanted. Boo hoo.

This is not to say that, to date, Obama and his people have always been open and forthright with the press and the American people. They might have front-loaded the information about Tim Geithner's tax liabilities; instead, they waited for the news media to dig it up. This would describe a failure to live up to the "transparency" value: We know something that might be material and you don't. But we're not going to tell you.

It says something about the state of the profession that "we wanted to get footage of that" is greater cause for complaint from the media than "you withheld that information from us." I'm fine with the media zealously defending the principle of press access: I'd just like the underlying rationale to be service of the people, and not simply an assertion of Big Media privilege.

Let's Play Stump the TiVo

PHUTATORIUS
I'd like to thank Fox for its re-titling of 24 as 24: Redemption this year. This wholly unnecessary change (how much value does it add, really, except to tell me I should be on the lookout for instances of redemption over the next 24 hours?) completely outwitted my DVR, which despite its charming anthropomorphic logo, is still very much a machine that only complies with precisely-worded instructions.

TiVo's instructions were to record any and all airings of a television show called 24. So programmed, the DVR happily ignored the two-hour premiere of 24: Redemption that aired last Sunday.

Now I have to play catchup, all because a bunch of idiots sitting in a boardroom thought they'd come up with something clever.

UPDATE: Looks like Amazon has the first episode available for sale for $9.99. I smell opportunism.