“The New Yorker” on The Daily Caller

NPR recently ran a two-part series on media bias. The reports, by David Folkenflik, were quite good, with a couple major flaws. Folkenflik ignored the question of who gets hired by the major media and why. Isn’t it time to do a nuts-and-bolts investigation of who gets brought on to the Washington Post, New York Times, CBS, et al, and who does not? Answering that question may answer why the media has lost its capacity to report fairly, not to mention delight, compel, and surprise — characteristics that, idiotic pronouncements about “objectivity” aside, are part of what makes good journalism. (more)

Your cereal is about to get a little bit lonely. (more)

Congressman-elect Tim Scott, one of two incoming freshman Republicans who will serve as part of GOP leadership, is voicing doubts about raising the debt ceiling, a key showdown vote poised for the first few months of the next Congress that incoming Speaker John Boehner has called “first really big adult moment” his conference will face. (more)

Glance atop the polls for 2012 and you’ll see a familiar list of Republican contenders: Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich. Romney is as close to a sure bet as you can find. Gingrich’s propensity for throwing the rhetorical grenade at President Obama and his frequent trips to early primary states all point to a run. Even the unpredictable Sarah Palin is leaving a trail of verbal clues that lead her supporters and detractors to believe that she is inclined towards running for the grand prize. (more)

The most politically successful Democrat since JFK, Bill Clinton, could hope for many things but not the deep affection and loyalty of the nation’s liberal establishment. He may have achieved a lot but not what they were really after: a validation of their faith in the power of government to manage as much as possible all aspects of daily life. (more)

The Daily Caller has highlighted some of Journolist’s worst moments — such as when liberal members of the media plotted to kill important stories about the presidential campaign. (more)

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story. (more)

Nov. 3: (more)

Liberal Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein has disbanded the “Journolist,” an e-mail list-serv catering to liberal journalists, professors and think tank experts, after e-mails from one of its prominent members were made public yesterday. (more)

The courtship was smooth. Glamour magazine approached dating site Match.com and within weeks they were readying the launch of Glamour Matchmaker, a dating service featuring men selected by the magazine’s staff from the sea of singles on Match.com. (more)

Political writers and thinkers on the left have criticized Barack Obama for considering a SCOTUS nominee who’s not sufficiently to the left. This morning, as word spread that Elena Kagan would indeed be Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, liberals weighed in. (more)

Democratic Sen. Carl Levin saw an opportunity to reach out and grab easy viral video fame yesterday during the his questioning of top Goldman Sachs executives, and he’s being hailed as a populist hero for accusing Goldman of having a “conflict of interest” by selling an investor something it doesn’t want any part of. Not everyone’s thrilled, though, and with good reason. As The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki observes, investment banks typically don’t guarantee that they feel the same way about a deal as their customers do. They sell assets of ambiguous value — like subprime C.D.O.s — and investors accept that risk and acknowledge that not everyone in the investment bank may think it’s such a hot idea. (more)

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Paul Kennedy, author of “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,” was wrong. Nations don’t fall because of imperial overstretch. They fall because of entitlement overstretch. It’s not what happens outside their borders, but what they do to themselves inside their borders. (more)

I’d like Ed Gillespie, the Republican strategist, to give me some money. Actually, Bill Kristol, Roger Kimball and the Heritage Foundation can chip in as well. (more)

If you want to know what’s really behind the international Climategate scandal you need to know about Greg Taylor. (more)

Democratic California Rep. Pete Stark, whose own political career has hardly been devoid of scandal, will take over the gavel on the House Ways and Means Committee from Rep. Charles Rangel following the New Yorker’s temporary departure over ethics complaints. (more)

You called Rachel Maddow a man? How dare you, sir? How dare you? – Jim Treacher (more)