Culture & Media news

• “The fix is in”: Media annoyed that Trump is only calling on conservative outlets lately at pressers

  15-02-2017 23:41 via hotair.com
  
  The guy to read on this is Rory Cooper, who’s honoring the occasion of today’s guild shrieking by recalling some of the media’s greatest press-conference hits during the Obama era.Read his Twitter timeline for more examples. The difference between Trump calling exclusively on ideologically sympathetic outlets at his pressers and the average Obama press conference is … what? That Obama occasionally allowed a question from Fox News?
  Watch Jim Acosta declare that the fix is
  
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• Report: Trump to sign executive orders related to EPA’s climate work once Pruitt is confirmed

  15-02-2017 23:01 via hotair.com
  
  Inside EPA reports that President Trump plans to sign executive orders involving climate change at an EPA swearing-in ceremony set to take place once his nominee to head the agency, Scott Pruitt, is confirmed. From the Hill:
  At that event, an administration source told Inside EPA that Trump will sign executive orders related to the agency’s climate work and that they could “suck the air out of the room,” according to the report.
  The official did not say how many orders Tru
  
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• Woman Hatred, Fueled by Presidential Campaign, on the Rise

  15-02-2017 22:33
  
  Click here for reuse options!The Trump administration emboldens misogynists, and encourages violence against women.Much has been made of the rise in racist and xenophobic rhetoric, anti-Muslim attacks, and anti-Semitic trolling in the wake of Donald Trump’s ascent, and rightly so. But just as Trump’s promises to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, block Muslim immigration, and restore “law and order” have emboldened nativists and racists, so has his history of casual
  
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• Trump to Netanyahu: “Hold back on the settlements a bit”

  15-02-2017 22:31 via hotair.com
  
  Want to bet Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t see this one coming? During their joint press conference at the first summit meeting between Israel and the US, Donald Trump hailed Netanyahu as a man of peace and strength and his country as worthy of recognition for its greatness. Just one thing, Trump added — maybe Israel could “hold back on the settlements for a little bit”?President Trump called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday to temporarily freeze construc
  
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• Debunking Time’s “fact check” on non-citizen voting

  15-02-2017 22:01 via hotair.com
  
  The new status quo in the mainstream media is a generally accepted insistence that Donald Trump and the White House staff are a group of unrepentant liars and that proper reporting must always include clear statements when falsehoods are uttered. This is generally followed by a “fact check” which purports to set the record straight. Time Magazine engages in this practice this week with yet another duplicitous report on the potential for voter fraud committed by illegal immigrants and
  
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• Watch Wagner’s Ring Cycle: A Complete 15-Hour Performance Is Now Free Online Thanks to the BBC

  15-02-2017 22:00
  
  The word “Wagnerian” as a synonym for operatic bombast may have fallen out of favor in recent years, as has the reputation of German composer Richard Wagner. He has been regarded as “the most repugnant of musical nationalists,” writes David P. Goldman at Tablet—a sentiment widely shared given Wagner’s permanent association with Nazism. His music has long been banned in Israel, though “every so often a prominent musician makes a point of sneaking Wa
  
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• Trump: Mike Flynn has been treated very, very unfairly by the “fake media”

  15-02-2017 21:31 via hotair.com
  
  You would think rule one for a populist president would be to not let the “fake media” bully him into firing (or accepting the resignation of) an able officer who’d been treated “very, very unfairly.” So for the fourth time in the past two days, let’s ask this question again: If Flynn hadn’t done anything seriously wrong, why did Trump let him go?
  A friend who works in politics emailed last night to speculate that maybe Trump never much wanted Flynn on h
  
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• Aetna CEO on Obamacare: ‘It is in a death spiral’

  15-02-2017 21:01 via hotair.com
  
  The CEO of Aetna, Mark Bertolini, says Obamacare is in a “death spiral.” Bertolini was speaking at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal Wednesday. Asked about the future of Obamacare, Bertolini replied, “I think you will see a lot more withdrawals this year of plans.” Humana announced yesterday, shortly after its proposed merger with Aetna collapsed, that it was pulling out from its remaining Obamacare business in 2018.
  “We’re in Nebraska. We’
  
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• Duet for French Horn and Chair

  15-02-2017 20:59
  
  Pretty clever. Even more better is the comment left by one YouTube user, “I wonder if he’s first chair?” Ha!!
  Follow Open Culture on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, and Flipboard and share intelligent media with your friends. Or better yet, sign up for our daily email and get a daily dose of Open Culture in your inbox. And if you want to make sure that our posts definitely appear in your Facebook newsfeed, just follow these simple steps.
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• New FOIA release: Obama admin knew immediately Benghazi was “direct breaching” terror attack, not “under cover of protest”

  15-02-2017 20:31 via hotair.com
  
  Perhaps the subject of the terror attack on the US consulate in Benghazi will become more academic than political after the 2016 election denied Hillary Clinton the presidency. For now, though, documents continue to emerge that contradict the narrative created by Hillary and the Barack Obama White House about the nature of the attack. Yesterday, Judicial Watch received 54 more pages from its FOIA lawsuits and came across a bombshell buried in them. Notes of a State Department briefing for Congre
  
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• Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips are costing the local sheriff’s department a fortune

  15-02-2017 20:01 via hotair.com
  
  President Trump’s weekend sojourns to the “Southern White House” at Mar-a-Lago have attracted considerable media attention thus far. The same press corps which never seemed to make a big deal out of Barack Obama’s record-setting golf excursions has suddenly taken a keen interest in what the leader of the free world does with his weekends. But it’s not just the media that’s getting involved in the story. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department has been
  
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• Mattis warns NATO: Start paying your fair share on defense or the U.S. will “moderate its commitment”

  15-02-2017 19:31 via hotair.com
  
  Of all Trump’s policy unorthodoxies, demanding that Europe boost defense spending is the most justifiable. Among 28 members, just five — five — complied with the NATO guideline last year of devoting two percent of GDP to defense.Now here’s Mattis earlier today in Brussels with a message that came straight from the boss:
  “I owe it to you all to give you clarity on the political reality in the United States and to state the fair demand from my country’s people i
  
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• A Handy, Detailed Map Shows the Hometowns of Characters in the Iliad

  15-02-2017 19:26
  
  Click here to see a larger version of the map.
  You’ve adjusted to the strangeness of names like Ascalaphus and Phidippus. You’ve more or less figured out who’s on which side in the ancient war between Greece and Troy. But as literary epics will do—from the ancient Greeks and Indians to the 19th century Russians—Homer’s Iliad also presents you with several logistical puzzles you must either ignore or spend countless hours trying to solve: you are given the nam
  
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• Puzder’s ex-wife: ‘I have become the victim of the media’s malice’ (Update: Puzder withdraws)

  15-02-2017 19:01 via hotair.com
  
  President Trump’s Labor Department nominee, Andy Puzder, is facing old accusations of domestic abuse against his ex-wife Lisa Fierstein. As Ed pointed out yesterday, those accusations have been denied by Fierstein since the early 1990s. She claims she was encouraged to make the accusations by her attorney at the time. Today, Fox News reports Fierstein is lashing out at efforts to dredge up the old accusations:
  Fierstein, though, is now speaking out against efforts by an activist group
  
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• FP: Harward offered nat-sec job, but still deciding

  15-02-2017 18:31 via hotair.com
  
  According to the White House, the search for a replacement to Michael Flynn commenced Monday evening after Donald Trump asked the national security adviser to resign. According to veteran military-affairs reporter Thomas Ricks, the decision got made on Monday night — but the offer has not yet been accepted. Ricks reports today in Foreign Policy magazine that Vice Admiral Robert Harward will get the job if he wants it. That decision could come as soon as today:
  President Donald Trump offere
  
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• Russian fighters “buzzing” our ships (and vice versa) is nothing new

  15-02-2017 18:01 via hotair.com
  
  Allahpundit wrote last night about how the Russians are “testing Trump” with missile deployments and fighter jets buzzing our ships. The missile deployment question is a serious one to be sure and I think we’ve covered it fairly well. When it comes to the issue of Russian fighters and close calls with U.S. Navy vessels, this is a subject which seems to fascinate the media endlessly. Such things were taking place during the Obama administration as well but looking at some of the
  
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• Will Oprah Video of Battered Ex-Wife Sink Trump's Labor Secretary Nominee?

  15-02-2017 17:49
  
  Click here for reuse options!Senators view tape of Andrew Puzder's ex-wife who talked about abuse on camera and in court filings.Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder beat his wife, "vowed revenge" when she left, and went public with charges of abuse, according to a tape viewed yesterday by senators who will vote on Puzder's confirmation ThursdayWith four Republican senators refusing to commit to voting for Puzder, the former chief executive of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food c
  
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• A Very Personal Call for Peace in Syria

  15-02-2017 17:34
  
  Click here for reuse options!"This tragedy will scar my heart forever." A year and a half ago, the Turkish photojournalist Nilüfer Demir chanced upon a sight that would become iconic: the prone body of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, washed up from the angry Mediterranean Sea. Demir would photograph the small body, hands along his sides, his feet askance, his red shirt a beacon of distress. That photograph of the toddler would zip around the world from this beach in Bodrum (Turkey). It would be pain
  
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• Mika Brzezinski: Kellyanne Conway is barred from “Morning Joe” for lacking credibility

  15-02-2017 17:21 via hotair.com
  
  This is at least the third time in eight days that Brzezinski has made a show of her contempt for Conway. The first was on February 6th, when it came out that CNN had declined to have Conway on its Sunday show because of questions about her credibility. Conway claimed on Twitter that in fact she had skipped the Sunday shows that week due to family obligations. CNN replied to that — and so did Brzezinski:.@CNNPR @KellyannePolls you are not the first.
  — Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) F
  
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• The White House's Official Explanation of the Michael Flynn Scandal Makes No Sense

  15-02-2017 17:16
  
  Click here for reuse options!Available evidence suggests Trump misled reporters for weeks about his NSC adviser. White House press secretary Sean Spicer stood up before the Washington press corps on Tuesday and told several lies to cover up President Donald Trump’s lies about the scandal surrounding now ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn. These lies are important, and they make it clear that the White House’s official story of how the administration handled Flynn&rs
  
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• Elijah Cummings Has Had It with Jason Chaffetz's Naked Partisanship

  15-02-2017 17:10
  
  Click here for reuse options!The Maryland congressman is furious but not surprised his colleague refuses to investigate Michael Flynn.As chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) believes Hillary Clinton is more deserving of investigation than Michael Flynn. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), for one, would like to know why.“We in Congress need to know who authorized [Flynn's] actions, permitted them and continued to let him have access to our
  
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• Let’s exempt veterans from the federal hiring freeze

  15-02-2017 16:41 via hotair.com
  
  The president instituted a hiring freeze on federal workers almost before the applause had died down at the inauguration. This move has angered many Democrats, unions and government employees (but I repeat myself) to the point of distraction. Most of the objections have been coming from the usual list of suspects and can be safely discounted by those with a vested interest in cost-cutting and shrinking the size of government. There is, however, one point of contention which is worth a closer loo
  
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• How Machiavelli Really Thought We Should Use Power: Two Animated Videos Provide an Introduction

  15-02-2017 16:30
  
  Nice guys, so they say, finish last. Many of us might instinctively label such a worldview “Machiavellian,” partially for good reason and partially not. It stands as a testament to the insights of the Renaissance-era Florentine political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, expressed with great clarity and succinctness in his books The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, not just that his name became an adjective, but that it became one that remains in wide
  
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• 'Morning Joe' Warns Trump Administration Could Be on the Brink of 'Total Meltdown'

  15-02-2017 16:04
  
  Click here for reuse options!"This only gets worse for the country, for you and for your party."
  Don't look now, but Donald Trump may have finally lost the confidence of "Morning Joe." In the wake of Michael Flynn's resignation, both Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski caution that the scandal could torpedo his nascent administration—and sink the Republican Party. "Republicans and editorial writers cannot be so stupid as to pretend that they just picked on poor Michael Flynn out of no
  
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• 2020 poll: Trump tops Warren by six points

  15-02-2017 16:01 via hotair.com
  
  Normally I wouldn’t waste my time with a poll about the 2020 presidential election at this stage, because I’m too busy gaming out the 2032 election. Would George P. Bush be able to hold onto Wisconsin and North California (after the Split of 2026) against Chelsea Clinton? Hmmmm. I’d tell you the answer, but today’s Morning Consult/Politico poll actually does have an interesting nugget that reflects on today’s politics. They matched Donald Trump up against
  
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• We Must Know the Truth About Trump's Relationship with Russia—Now

  15-02-2017 15:41
  
  Click here for reuse options!This is the worst scandal involving the White House and a foreign power since Iran-Contra. Demand the facts.We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: there MUST be an investigation by an independent, bipartisan commission of Russia’s ties to Donald Trump and his associates and that nation’s interference in our elections. Emphasize independent and bipartisan. That commission must have full subpoena power to call witnesses
  
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• Hungary is accepting refugees… from liberalism

  15-02-2017 15:21 via hotair.com
  
  Victor Orban, the decidedly unconventional Prime Minister of Hungary, is staking out a new and markedly different approach to the refugee crisis currently engulfing the European Union. Like many other European leaders have done in recent years, Orban is laying out the welcome mat for refugees, but not the ones coming from terror plagued Islamic nations. Hungary, according to their leader, is ready to provide a new home for those fleeing… liberalism. (Europa News)
  Hungarian Prime Minister
  
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• Robert Reich Lays Waste to Trump's Rudderless White House: 'The Sloppiest Management I've Ever Seen'

  15-02-2017 15:01
  
  Click here for reuse options!The former secretary of labor sounds off on CNN.Robert Reich, who served as secretary of labor under Bill Clinton, is the first to admit that new administrations are prone to confusion and disorder. But the Berkeley professor believes there is no historical precedent for the chaos that has engulfed the first month of Trump's presidency."You have an executive order, a travel ban going out without any coordination with any other agency, creating absolute uncertainty an
  
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• A Neuroscientist Explains Why Donald Trump Needs LSD

  15-02-2017 14:47
  
  Click here for reuse options!The president's biggest enemy is his ego. But what if he could temporarily dismantle it? It’s no secret that Donald Trump is an egomaniac. That’s pretty much a bipartisan belief. He’s been called a narcissist by more psychologists than you can shake a stick at. He’s obsessed with his TV ratings and crowd sizes, to the point where he will lie to others and possibly even himself about them. In Trump’s world, everything has to be &ldqu
  
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• NYT: FBI probing Russian intel contacts with several Trump campaign officials

  15-02-2017 14:41 via hotair.com
  
  Win by the leak … live with the leak? Democrats still blame the FBI for its very public investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail system for her loss to Donald Trump in the presidential campaign, claiming that the constant leaks damaged her standing while leading to no prosecutable charges. The shoe may well and truly be on the other foot now, according to the New York Times report from last night about an FBI investigation into alleged contacts between Russian intelligence and
  
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• Stephen Colbert Bids a Fond Farewell to 'Dummy' Michael Flynn

  15-02-2017 13:10
  
  Click here for reuse options!"He just wanted to spend more time with his Russian contacts."Remember when Trump said that when he became president, we'd all get tired of winning? Stephen Colbert sure does."The Trump administration is going great," he deadpanned Wednesday before devoting the night's "Late Show" to former national security adviser Michael Flynn's resignation the day prior. "Man who doesn't see what's so damn funny... [Flynn] resigned last night, not because of a scandal, he ju
  
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• Meet Jane Little: The Musician Who Played with the Same Orchestra for 71 Straight Years, a World Record

  15-02-2017 09:31
  
  Last May, when Jane Little died at the age of 87, a world record came to an end.
  Standing only 4’11” and weighing only 98 pounds, Little began playing a double bass in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1945, at the age of 16. And she continued playing that bass for the orchestra for the next 71 years, giving her the longest professional tenure with the same orchestra. Fittingly, she died onstage, collapsing during an encore performance of ‘The
  
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• Here Are the Greenest Cities in America: Where Does Your City Rank and How Can You Can Help Make It Greener?

  15-02-2017 08:30
  
  Click here for reuse options!Help reduce the impacts of climate change—even if President Trump doesn't care to.There are many things to fear about Donald Trump’s presidency. From a decline in socially progressive values to deteriorating international diplomatic relations, the political effects alone are cause for conniptions. Then there’s the toll on the environment.Where to begin? In short, protecting the climate isn’t as profitable as selling oil. In the past, some gove
  
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• Global Cell Culture Media Market 2017 – Life Technologies, Corning (Cellgro), Sigma-Aldrich, Thermo Fisher - Aperture Games

  15-02-2017 07:21
  
  Global Cell Culture Media Market 2017 – Life Technologies, Corning (Cellgro), Sigma-Aldrich, Thermo Fisher
  Aperture Games
  The report, titled Cell Culture Media is an in-depth analysis of the Cell Culture Media market across the world. A brief historic overview of the Cell Culture Media market has been mentioned in the report, followed by the present scenario of the market.
  
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• Why Stephen Miller Comes Off as a D*ck

  15-02-2017 04:52
  
  Click here for reuse options!Trump's messenger is like all the most unlikable know-it-alls you've ever met all rolled up into one.
  Stephen Miller is reportedly a college buddy of neo-Nazi punching bag Richard Spencer. He’s also Donald Trump’s senior adviser, and was recently drafted as a new White House spokesperson. For his new role, Miller took a tour of the Sunday morning news shows, each appearance showing off an ability to lie matched only by the other members of the Trump
  
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• Benjamin Netanyahu Is in Bed with the Trump Administration—Almost Literally

  15-02-2017 01:25
  Click here for reuse options!Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has a long history of staunchly supporting Israel's right-wing elements. When politicians are suspected of having conflicts of interest, they are often said to be "in bed" with other individuals or institutions. In the case of the Trump administration and Israel, it's hardly a metaphor — the Israeli prime minister actually has slept in the childhood bedroom of the man appointed to oversee U.S. policy on Israel-Palestine.Donald T
  
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• Generation M - Misogyny in Media & Culture - Media Education Foundation

  15-02-2017 00:34
  
  Generation M - Misogyny in Media & Culture  Media Education Foundation
  
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