Archive by Author
Graduation Day
Posted on 06. Dec, 2009 by Michael Preston.
In ten days I will accept my degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. A half month later, we’ll collectively close the door on one of the most turbulent periods of American history, a ten year span that Time magazine recently dubbed “the decade from Hell. In the case of both, it’s about time. […]
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Learning the Wrong Lessons
Posted on 28. Nov, 2009 by Michael Preston.
I can’t remember the exact moment when I first “got” Bruce Springsteen. It was probably the summer on 1999, right after I graduated from UVa. I recall picking up Live 1975-1985 at the now closed Circuit City out on Rt. 29 in Charlottesville. I brought the cd’s home and proceeded to sit on the roof […]
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Collapsing Into Nothing
Posted on 20. Nov, 2009 by Michael Preston.
As something of a nerdy birthday present to myself, I downloaded J.J. Abram’s re-imagined Star Trek movie the other day from iTunes. If you haven’t seen it, it’s quite good; it’s visually stunning, action packed and actually funny. The plot itself is a bit hard to describe (there’s some time travel/alternate reality stuff going on), […]
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The Return of the Paranoid Style in American Politics
Posted on 12. Nov, 2009 by Michael Preston.
I must confess to the fact that I’ve never read Richard Hofstadter’s classic work, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, cover to cover. However, I feel like I’ve read enough to know that, were he alive, Hofstadter would probably be morbidly fascinated by how presciently he’d described our current political moment. Of the paranoid style, […]
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Much Ado About Very Little
Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Michael Preston.
One of the main reasons I decided to pursue a career in journalism was to try, perhaps in vain, to correct something I often see in the media, which is the easy acceptance of narratives pushed by one group or another in service of advancing their agenda. I understand the appeal if you’re a reporter. […]
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Joseph Lieberman (Fredo-CT)
Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by Michael Preston.
I wonder what Barack Obama thinks about when he hears the name Joe Lieberman. I wonder if it makes him angry. I wonder if it makes him feel like a dupe. I wonder if he feels betrayed. I wonder about these things because Lieberman, who was just a controversial Supreme Court decision away from being […]
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What's Going on with the Public Option?
Posted on 25. Oct, 2009 by Michael Preston.
Even if you’ve obsessively followed the myriad twists and turns of the health care reform debate, the current drama surrounding the fate of the public option seems like something out of a Dan Brown page-turner: threats, back room meetings, questionable motives and misinformation cloud the picture. As a new week starts, though, it does appear […]
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President Snowe?
Posted on 14. Oct, 2009 by Michael Preston.
“Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our […]
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Winning Changes Everything
Posted on 10. Oct, 2009 by Michael Preston.
One of the more vocal and consistent complaints voiced by liberals about President Obama is that while he’s frequently inspiring, he doesn’t appear committed to marshaling public opinion behind progressive ideals. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones sums up the argument: His speeches soar, but they rarely seem designed to move the nation in a specific […]
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If You're Gonna Compromise, At Least Get Something in Return
Posted on 03. Oct, 2009 by Michael Preston.
On Friday, the Labor Department released its jobs report and the results were, in a word, depressing. While the economy shed jobs at a much slower rate than it had earlier in the year, the unemployment rate inched up to 9.8 percent in September as the economy lost 263,000 jobs, exceeding economists’ expectations. Notably, 53,000 […]
