NY Times: A PBS Documentary Makes Its Case for the Armenian Genocide, With or Without a Debate. It is impossible to debate a subject like genocide without giving offense. PBS is supposed to give offense responsibly. And that was the idea behind a panel discussion that PBS planned to show after tonight’s broadcast of “The […]
Current affairs
Bruce Sterling on the state of the world
Author Bruce Sterling gave a keynote address at this week’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. In this 25-minute video excerpt, which I filmed on Tuesday, he discusses "The State of the World," politics, Serbia, international affairs, deceit, living out of your laptop and much more. This is the first video footage I […]
Remembering Gene McCarthy
I was too young to be “clean for Gene,” but I always respected Eugene McCarthy, the populist candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 (and three times thereafter), who died Saturday at age 89. I met McCarthy only once, on the steps of a conference hall at Rutgers University in 1976. By then, McCarthy […]
Endorsements for California’s propositions
My friends back East don’t quite get California’s crazy system of propositions, which dates back to the Progressive Era. True, it’s been compromised by big money, by special interests, by misleading and simplistic 30-second attack attacks. But it’s still democracy, messy and flawed as it is. Here are the major measures on the Nov. 8 […]
Resources for reporting on the tsunami
Columbia’s Sreenath Sreenivasan points to the South Asian Journalists Association as a good source of tips and resources related to the devastation wreaked by the Indian Ocean tsunami. A brand-new collection of the best ways you can contribute has been built by Team Zoo Station here. And Michael Bazeley has a front-page story in today’s […]