Chris Barna's Weblog

Journalists In Haiti

Chris Barna — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:52:42 +0000

The New Republic has an article about journalists’ experiences in Haiti (including our fare hero, Anderson Cooper). An interesting statistic:

Still, as of yesterday, CNN and CBS both had about 50 staffers in Haiti, and Fox had 25. (ABC and NBC almost certainly had similar numbers but we were unable to obtain them; the major papers were considerably more restrained, with The New York Times and Washington Post both claiming about ten employees.)

Anderson Cooper Helps A Hatian Child

Chris Barna — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:46:17 +0000

It’s difficult to figure out what to feel about photos like this. On one hand, Anderson Cooper is a journalist who should be covering a story rather than creating one. However, on the other hand, Haiti requires all the help they can get. This sort of thing came up hypothetically in James Fallows’ book “Breaking the News” that I am currently reading (link to Chapter 1):

He asked Jennings to imagine that he worked for a network that had been in contact with the enemy North Kosanese government. After much pleading, the North Kosanese had agreed to let Jennings and his news crew into their country, to film behind the lines and even travel with military units. Would Jennings be willing to go? Of course, Jennings replied. Any reporter would-and in real wars reporters from his network often had. But while Jennings and his crew are traveling with a North Kosanese unit, to visit the site of an alleged atrocity by American and South Kosanese troops, they unexpectedly cross the trail of a small group of American and South Kosanese soldiers. With Jennings in their midst, the northern soldiers set up a perfect ambush, which will let them gun down the Americans and Southerners, every one. What does Jennings do?

Forthcoming NYTimes Paywall

Chris Barna — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:18:08 +0000

It’s been just over two years since the New York Times dropped the paywall on its website and the Gray Lady looks about ready to admit defeat. This is a move similar to the one that NewsGator made with its products this last summer and will likely not be the last of the paid-turned-free-turned-paid online services. I have very little faith that people will pay for New York Times online if they’re simply charging for the same content. That being said, if the price is low enough I may consider it.

Brown Victory May Not Kill Healthcare Reform

Chris Barna — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:05:22 +0000

Mickey Kaus is reporting that a Brown victory in the Massachusetts Senate race may not necessarily kill the healthcare bill. If the house passes the current Senate bill as-is, there will be no need for a conference. A tricky move indeed but we’ll have to wait and see the outcome of the election for the Democrats to make their choice.

RedState Demonstrates Rare Amount of Sense

Chris Barna — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:54:57 +0000

Erick Erickson of RedState has said something that I actually agree with:

Let me be blunt: charging people $500.00 plus the costs of travel and lodging to go to a “National Tea Party Convention” run by a for profit group no one has ever heard of sounds as credible as an email from Nigeria promising me a million bucks if I fork over my bank account number.

Chris Barna — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:20:22 +0000

I’ve updated the list of books I’m currently reading on the sidebar of my homepage. This feature will get a lot of play over the next ten weeks because my classes have about 2000 pages of required reading this quarter.

One of These Things…

Chris Barna — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:19:42 +0000

…is not like the other. The Atlantic had people vote on Best Republican and Best Democratic scandals of the decade. All of them were sort of personal/morality issues, with the striking example of the GOP winner:

Results: the Abramoff investigaion, 47%;

Compare this with the scope of the top Democratic scandal:

Results: John Edwards’ affair with Reille Hunter, 45%;

Historical Comparisons

Chris Barna — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:10:29 +0000

Even before his election, Barack Obama’s persona led to many historical comparisons. One does not need to look any farther than the first hit of a google search for “Barack Obama JFK”, to find perhaps the most common. Since his election and subsequent inauguration, Obama has been compared to, among others, FDR, Lincoln, Carter, and most recently Herbert Hoover. It is interesting that this man can be measured up against so many Presidents with such different styles, or with a past president at all. To me, this shows that he is at least operating in the realm of historical American political thought despite what his critics might say.

George W. Bush tended to not garner such historical references. His governing style was unprecedented and never in recent history had the executive branch been run so close to corporate interests. Indeed, the Bush administration could be called the corporate administration. In foreign policy, Bush took the unprecedented step of preemptive strike. Perhaps it was because his leadership was so unique that kept people from comparing outcomes of past and present.

So some may be worried that negative comparisons will shed some light on the outcome of President Barack Obama’s term. While I cannot make predictions about the future, I feel reassured that my current president can be compared.

Adventures in Cooking With The Barna Brothers

Chris Barna — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:48:27 +0000

My brothers and I decided to use our spare time on Christmas break to make some unhealthy culinary decisions and ended up with some tasty results.

The first five photos are of Andrew’s bacon wrapped hot dogs. The following photos document “The Great Barna Chicken Fry.”

Presidential Silence

Chris Barna — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:03:22 +0000

The first I heard of the events in on the Detroit bound plane on Christmas was a text message from CNN. “Passenger sets off firecrackers on a Northwest flight as it lands in Detroit.” My initial reaction is “this is not news.” As the story developed, Americans learned that this was not some failed attempt at a holiday prank, but an effort to ignite an explosive on a Christmas flight. Since then, political thinkers have been pontificating as to the implications of these events. Janet Napolitano has made a fool of herself, Ben Stein has called for the TSA to privatize and everybody has wondered why the President is still on vacation.

It’s no mystery. If the attack failed, why terrorize people more? Ideally, this is what would have happened. Not in this world. The opposition has pulled the amateur stunt of acting as if the country is running around with its head cut off because the president had chosen not to publicly comment for a few days. Where is our leader? Why is he in the middle of the Pacific ocean? This is not something that happened to George W. Bush, as Politico pointed out, and I think both Presidents made the proper decision to let the truth of the situation percolate through the media before commenting more. The opposition made the improper choice to politicize this, and it has sort of come back to haunt them.