In granting Obama his gift as a confident and skillful communicator, especially via the television medium, what the photo clearly emphasizes are the limits of such skill, especially with (the country in trouble and) reporters standing by for "real" news.
Continue ReadingNewsweek, along with much of the media, is consumed right now with the theme of populist rage.
Continue ReadingI guess the first thing that gets me suspicious about these gold parties is the reference to it as a "party."
Continue ReadingAfter the insanity of this past week, thank God for Michelle Obama and the emotional ballast she offers this troubled country.
Continue ReadingGoing the horsey route, touting Meg Whitman's wealth and CEO status on the FORTUNE cover against the larger background of the Wall Street meltdown and the political rioting over AIG, seems particular flat-footed.
Continue ReadingAnyone who could credibly come out of a week like this week with a smile like that is a skilled politician.
Continue ReadingI'm attracted to both photos for one reason. There's a overwhelming sense right now, with all the venom and retribution reverberating around Washington, of blood in the water.
Continue ReadingBarry Blitt's cover illustration on the new New Yorker has a great twist. Not sure I completely understand it, but it still made me lol.
Continue ReadingFor my money (heh, heh), Liddy's instinct to reach out to and dignify the Code Pink protesters was an off-note exposing how this guy has been calibrated to an absolutely stratospheric level of damage control.
Continue ReadingHow much is Jet Blue's clever attack on CEO's a clever play by Madison Avenue to co-opt public anger toward Wall Street?
Continue ReadingWhat made "The Rock Obama" sketch the other week on SNL so clever is that, despite his primarily cool demeanor, Obama does in fact get pissed off.
Continue ReadingProbing the backstory surrounding the AIG – Administration bonus war, Josh Marshall offered some visual commentary on AIG executive Gerry Pasciucco based on an outfit the executive assembled for a 40’s Havana- theme society benefit in Fairfield County last June. Pasciucco (third from the right left) is a former...
Continue ReadingAs the White House and Congress turn A.I.G. into a "Great Recession" piñata, people are running every which way to avoid the taint of Wall Street. One of the most brilliant examples is this scene from Sunday's 60 Minutes.
Continue ReadingI'm finding the visual media more comfortable portraying people suffering from the recession as victimized and upset (in a sorrowful way) than aggrieved, stressed and pissed off.
Continue ReadingFormer Vice President Dick Cheney appears on CNN's "State of the Union." And, what a halo!
Continue ReadingI came across this old, but undated AIG ad -- which seems to still leave John Q. Public at water's edge.
Continue ReadingI leave it to you how to legend this image (taking off on Eddie Adams' photo of the execution of a Viet Cong prisoner in the middle of a Saigon street) as it marks the mass media celebration of Barbie’s fiftieth birthday.
Continue ReadingI wonder what the chances are that Jim Cramer will actually clean up his act given that he spent the morning of his Jon Stewart interview making dough with perhaps America's most famous and unrepentant insider-trading convicts.
Continue Reading