Well researched piece on what pain may mean to a fetus/soon to be human depending on your value viewpoint. There seems to be a common medical basis for when the fetus feels pain, and how it may impact treatment for surgeries, and for the ramifications for pro-choice advocates. The article does allow the experts in the field to speculate philosophy on conclusions from that point, but does provide others as counter-point. It does not tackle the issue of if pain makes a "person" or not ... More »

Dead on commentary for the lackluster federal government we have in our midst today. The Dead Parrot Skit has no relevance except as counterpoint to our democracy's current state. I did find the essay biting, however it is not undeserved. All branches of government have checked out over the takeover by the presidents office. The actions of the executive branch, the fear of the legislative branch of the negative reaction of the population if they are seen as one iota as supporting ... More »

Nicely done local interest piece on China and the reaction to the weather conditions. The effect on the people is stark and clear. There is some commentary, much on what is not said versus direct statements. The ability of the Chinese people to cope with conditions continue to surprise and humble me. Given the situation politically, they have a sense of peace (resignation?) that is truly eye opening.

This is a bit rambling so in that sense it is not up to snuff on the journalism angle of Newstrust, but it does hit home on what "Change" means. In point of fact, as represented by the essay, Change means whatever the candidate means by it at the moment. There is no substance to the Change movement; no break with the current practices; no guide to find what it means; no direction from the candidates. The media is co-opted into the "horse race" comparison of the campaigns and it is so ... More »

Well written and concise. 10 short paragraphs that outline some of the flaws in reporting on Heathcare costs and solutions.

Nice summation of the economic crisis we are facing and how we got there. The author provides some steps to get us back on the path if only we are willing to take them and push our government into a set of responsible behaviors. The facts based on government published numbers line up the house of cards that the global winds are blowing against. This is an easy to read and to understand article, and while it may ruffle some preconceptions, it is worth a look for all Americans.

The starting point of the review is the claim by Bill Clinton that the media is giving Obama a "free ride" and the "fairy tale" on his judgement and it gets lost right away. The remaining points of the article focus on the Clintons, votes and statements on the Iraq War. Given, from the media, we only have Obama and his stance on the War to compare to, it is pretty clear cut - he was right on the war and she was not. There may have been lies and lack of investigation by the media on ... More »

Actually this is pretty poor from such a well regarded publication as the Economist. The tag of "news analysis" should read "punditry". There is no facts cited by the author, I suppose it is assumed that all know the assumptions that the Fed used for the rate cut, and then the author picked at the bones of these assumptions to build an outcome they preferred. There is no attempt to look at the complete answer, in this authors viewpoint, the Fed fired the only shot it had - short term ... More »

Very well done. Direct citation of public documents (at least 8) to support the premise that GA, NY, NJ, and NM tried, in concert with AARP to craft model legislation to curb lending practices with sub-prime mortgages and were blocked by the lenders lobbying efforts. Clearly the states were ahead of the game here and only the OCC at the federal level was able to cause them to bypass correcting this environment of greed. The sad thing was pointed out that GA actually removed their ... More »

This says it all... I could not possibly agree more regarding the lack of true media analysis and coverage of the political environment. A quote cited in the article is a good summation "Voters are bombarded with information about which contender has 'what it takes' to be the best candidate. Who can deliver the most stirring rhetoric? Who can build the most attractive facade? Who can mount the wiliest counterattack? Whose life makes for the neatest story? Our political and media ... More »

The premise here is that debt is America's greatest crisis. I happen to agree with that view, however this story misses this mark. The data in the story is factual and is well researched. The problem is that the author is hung up on the military spending and tax cuts for the rich which are admittedly bad things. But these two things alone are not the source of all the debt issues we have facing us as a country and the author ignores that. If we cut military spending today, and taxed ... More »

Short and informative. Did miss the opportunity to hear from the Diebold company and their take on the missing votes from the automation equipment. The big picture was drawn in with the bill to fund the use of automation that provides paper tallies to confirm the voting machines tallies.

Disclosure - I will probably be unable to vote Republican in the next general election. Where to start... the article's attack on Clinton and the energy bill of 2005. Subsidies to Oil and Gas balanced out by tax increases. Per the numbers reported Oil and Gas taxation has gone up 27.3 million per year over 11 years for the industry. Does anyone on the planet think that 1) these taxes were not immediately passed on to consumers, and 2) that profits for this industry sector are orders ... More »

This is to be commentary on the news, when it reads more like an opinion piece. To be open it does reflect my thoughts in this area. There is little in analysis in the news today that does not reflect the bias or opinions of the producer of the articles. I think the fear of the writer and myself is that the internet is a tool that can provide precise measurement of views / ad space placement like never before. The ease of this internet count would seem to tend to remove thoughtful ... More »

The article included sources from other locations and as such was fair. As far as the combining of other viewpoints, other than the obvious direction from the title, there were none. Was this a lapse in journalism? Probably not. My reasoning is that while we can hear of the hundreds, if not thousands of issues with our government's HomeLand Security actions, we rarely if ever hear of any successes. Is this due to the successes not published by the government (for security reasons) or ... More »

Article was well written. The subtext of providing a point on the focus of the TX textbook issues on the presentation of science is a tough one to pull off. Is there a stealth effort to remove evolution from the classroom? The naysayers indicate with their responses that there is nothing of that sort going on. the author comes to a different conclusion from their acts. This is not so much a science related article as it is a study in grassroots politics showing the impacts of an ... More »

The efforts of the blogsphere will be looked on in 20 years as the only rein we have on big business and big media. The ability of an individual to call to account for the actions of those in the 4th estate can not be underestimated, we just need a larger megaphone to share the news. I think the benefits of the 1st amendment that professional journalists have extended (to cover for protection of sources) has a reciprocal responsibility to report the events or issues of the day ... More »

As many reviewers have mentioned, the lobbying efforts of the power companies have not been allowed for in the plan. That does not say that a coherent lobby effort can not be made by others - it is just an uphill battle that needs to be recognized. Back to the article. It is well thought out as far as it goes- a plan that is on paper with allowances for performance degradation and for sizing impacts. I would say it is an excellent article with solid research. The only lingering bad ... More »

As this is from the foreign press it is good to see American politics / policies from a different vantage point. It does point out one of our exports is knowledge. The author comes from a "free trade" point of view that sounds very American. I think the point here is that he fails to understand that his own Germany places barriers to trade from the US (Farm subsidies for one) so in essence his complaints of our system wanting to place requirements or barriers is no different than his ... More »

The reporting was accurate and balanced as far as it went. The issue is that it takes the arguements from both sides and assumes those are the only positions. It does make a point where the Senate Majority leader uses the same rhetoric regarding the administrations "..impossible.. to deal with." but makes no attempt to query the Democrats how this time will be different. So reporting the public story we have a "B"... reporting the forces behind the story and what is up for grabs a "D".

This is a background piece on Edwards. The writer interviewed people that knew him as he grew in his home town. As such it is a "color" piece and while informative, needs to be taken with that in mind. There is little counterpoint and as you would expect few if any negative comments about the local boy "done good".

I happen to agree with this post, however it does not answer the "why" of this situation. If the Republicans were in charge, they would be pushing the democrats against the wall as public opinion would support that. Here we have milktoast - nothing of substance is tried as "...he would veto it anyway..". Makes you wonder why Gravel and Paul get no love from the media - at least they try and stir things up.

Historical revisionism is rampant in our society. This article cites sources and dates to provide proof that this revisionism is alive and well regarding the actions / inactions preceding the Iraq War. Newspeople clearly have agendas here, they should have warning labels on them much like cigarettes - use at your own risk - promotes non-thinking and blazingly insane positions with repeated use.

I think this is a balanced view of the dollar on the world scene. My own prejudices lean toward the pessimistic in this area, and the article did not pander to that nor did it become another "cheerleading" piece that is self serving to the current economy. That being said, the article, in my opinion does tend to soft pedal the demise of this as the standard exchange currency of the world markets. As we tie closer together in trade, the warts on the dollar - in particular our ... More »

Agree with first reviewer. The article is giving Hill-Billy the benefit of the doubt. I am thinking leaning towards Hillary for 2008, but I have yet to see a firm stand that makes me think she has a backbone in an area. I hear good words - but they have no bite from a firm stand and as such she may be an excellent prez or a wantabe. You would think with the campaiging at full swing we would know more about the candidates - perhaps she should spend more time in the Senate right now ... More »

Good balanced reporting. We have both sides of the story laied out with no large - or overpowering anyway - bias one way or the other. Interesting story and may underline some of the concerns of Paul supporters about our currency and their decision to start something different. Whether you perceive them as trailblazers or nut cases, the story lets you have the information to make up your own mind.

Interesting read. Sourcing all from Fox or from competitors, but enough work to cast doubt on explanations "that nothing is going on". Not sure what the "smear" is all about - but given it is on Fox it is not surprising I have not seen it.

The attack here is truly on the 4th estate. The research that one would expect from journalists is shown to be lacking. Whether that is complacency on the part of journalists due to the attitude of "another Clinton screwup" or whether it is just plain lazy of them not to investigate further from the FUD from the Cox report is unknown. In a republic where the electorate is limited to the news they can get from the mainstream media -or, perhaps worst, a secondary media that requires ... More »

Problem with this is that in politics things are made sound simple that are not really. If you take all the statements from all politicians and ask them to provide a dissertation on every point - when media is aiming at sound bites (admittedly politicians are feeding that need) the public AND the media tunes them out. Even this article cuts things short "...we pointed out before...". Many elected leaders indicate they "submit" bills to accomplish things that in reality end up ... More »

Good story, well documented. Unfortunately the subject is the same - our Congress is unable to do anything for fear of results in the next election.

Well written and focused on the issue of the Democratic led Senate and their unwillingness to attend to business. Some items are in doubt in terms of motivation of the leadership when they wiggle away from tough stances with the administration. Clearly enough data to share with your congress-critter of a democratic nature to find out why they are sitting on their collective hands.

Is a good summation of the failure of the Senate Democrats to hold the administration in check. While it is informative it is more of a reporting of the events and the lack of honesty in the situation, rather than an expose on "why" it is occurring.

The statement that the article covering the review of hedge fund manager's performance pay and behavior (witness Cramer) was accurate and complete. The article then tried to apply the same criteria to stock options with little support other than the authors prejudices. The author may have been completely right in this analysis, but had nothing to back it up.

Contradictory. This story has facts and comments from the players but what it does not do is help understand the issues. If the purpose of the EPA is to clean up messes, then perhaps a cooperative approach (which can take longer) is appropriate. On the other hand, if the EPA is to hammer polluters, then this could be considered a scathing attack on the Bush Administration. While journalism should allow educated people the facts to draw their own conclusions, it should also set the ... More »

Sorry - Op-Ed is not journalism. I have an opinion... so does that make me a journalist? Op-Ed is not expected to be fair, use a wide range of sources, or to show a "big picture". Anyone that expects it to behave as an information source is kidding themselves. It reads well - as it is written by an experienced writer, but it is not journalism.

No it is opinion on journalism. Per the Congress, this term, journalism is anyone that wants to write can claim it is a public service and protected speech. I think the problem as I see it is we are filled to the brim with commentary - the public is not allowed to think due to the rapid fire pace of "opinions". Everyone has an opinion on something - is it proper to label my opinion as "journalism" because I write it in a blog... or a op-ed column in a paper?

Well written and balanced. Identified the key problems for journalists in terms of if all the "industry experts" have business relationships with the companies they comment on then the data provided needs to be examined more closely. In fields, like technology it is hard to find expert opinion that has no axe to grind either for a company or against a company (given an analyst has a competitor for a company). Interesting point made here is that the NY Times seemed to "wake up" to the ... More »

I think that we need tougher questions for all candidates, and this interview was a fair one in that regard. For too long some journalists have been giving politicians / government officials a free ride.