Carl Bernstein's reaction

Carl Bernstein, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist most famous for exposing Nixon's involvement in Watergate with Bob Woodward, on Rachel Maddow's show talking about the alleged wiretapping of journalists during former President George W. Bush's term.

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Spying on journalists? I hope not.

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Interesting piece from the Daily Princetonian

A profile of Josh Bolten, a Princeton alumnus, who served as chief of staff for former President George W. Bush after Andy Card.

Cable news—who will win the war with O in office?

An article in the NYTimes today analyzes how the new presidency of Barack Obama may affect the ratings of cable news networks (Fox News, CNN, MSNBC). 

During the past seven years (aka the Bush presidency), Fox News has had the highest ratings among the demographic coveted by advertisers:

The media world will watch carefully to see whether Fox receives the same treatment from an Obama White House that it received from Mr. Bush's. And it will wait and see whether Fox can stave off its two primary competitors, CNN and MSNBC, in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that matters most to advertisers.

Fox easily leads the other cable networks in that demographic on a total day basis. But for a couple of important hours, the gap has narrowed. On at least 10 days since the election, Fox's 9 p.m. program "Hannity & Colmes" has been surpassed in the competition for viewers in that demographic by Rachel Maddow, the new MSNBC host.

It sounds like Fox is shaking up their programming for the new administration, but I certainly hope Maddow's quick-fire wit and sense of humor will ultimately win the day.

The final countdown

As the final hours of the Bush presidency pass today, I am again drawn to an incredible article in the current issue of Vanity Fair—"An Oral History of the Bush White House".

The magazine did the same type of article during the summer about the history of the Internet in which they talked to several key players who launched the World Wide Web. Basically, this style of writing is like a Q&A but the questions are omitted and several people tell the story—a perfect fit for an article with some of the people closest to the current president. 

When I say the article is incredible, I don't mean that it is necessarily about an extraordinary man or that it was written particularly well, but that it gives a view from the inside in a way that hasn't been published before. 

So, as the final hours of the Bush presidency pass today, I hope you will take the time to read it too.

(photo courtesy VF)