The popular Portland rock group The Decemberists is about to come out with an "amorous" song titled "Valerie Plame."

Plame, of course, is the former CIA operative outed by Robert Novak and Bush adminstration officials, but she is already married, to Joe Wilson.

A press release from EMI music for...

In a piece coming this Sunday in The New York Times magazine, Matt Bai suggests that, despite recent gains in the polls, John McCain's charge that Barack Obama is a "celebrity" may, in fact, backfire. He titles his essay, "The Case for Cool."

The issue also feature a cover story...

A surge of "investments" in Sen. Joe Biden has now made him the heavy favorite to get the nod for Vice President to run with Barack Obama.

Intrade, the well-known "prediction market" where people can buy and shell shares in candidates (among other things), reports today that Biden "has overtaken...

Remember 2004 (I know it's painful)? It's true, the New York Post got the most memorable scoop on John Kerry's pick for a running mate -- Dick Gephardt -- but an airline mechanic actually took the "true" honors.

Will it happen again? The moral of this story: Keep an...

I posted here yesterday about the in-depth new Pew Survey which, among many other things, gave respondents a three-question current events test. The results showed, for example, that viewers of certain "fake news" shows (Stewart, Colbert) performed better than those who favor many "real news" programs (such as Dobbs, O'Reilly)....

They have bought everything from the Chrysler Building to the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas. So why not some of the biggest newspapers in the U.S.?

We are referring, of course, to foreign, oil-rich investors. Leading newspapers in Chicago, San Diego, Newark and Austin are very much up for...

The results of the new Pew Survey on News Consumption (taken every two years and released this afternoon) suggest that viewers of the "fake news" programs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are more knowledgeable about current events (as judged by three test questions) than watchers of "real" cable...

When the U.S. military death toll in Iraq dropped to 13 last month it received wide attention. But now, midway through August, the toll this month has already topped the July rate. Meanwhile, two more Iraq vets have killed themselves here at home.

A U.S. marine killed by gunmen...

The lead Jon Stewart piece -- blessed with a nearly-half page opening photo -- in The New York Times' Arts & Leisure section tomorrow poses the question in its headline, "Is This the Most Trusted Man in America?"

The answer from writer Michiko Kakutani is yeah, maybe, since The...

Four years ago this month, with E&P's Joe Strupp, I explored in a number of articles the belated or conflicted media response to the "swiftboating" of Sen. John Kerry, then the Democratic nominee for president. The mainstream press gave the charges -- carried in ads, in books and articles, and...

The HBO doc about journalism legend Helen Thomas, Thank you, Mr. President, is now slated for is first airing next Monday. My colleague at E&P, Joe Strupp, interviewed the director, Rory Kennedy, today and has a full report at our site, see link below.

Here are a few highlights:

--...

The Atlantic article revealing Clinton campaign emails is drawing all the attention but there is another fascinating politics piece in the same September issue, not yet online the last time I looked.

It's by longtime contributor James Fallows and it reveals his thoughts after doing what no sane person would...

Despite the overall drop in U.S. deaths in Iraq there has been a spate of "noncombat" fatalities there in the past week -- including a female soldier who was accidentally shot by a colleague who was cleaning a weapon. Also, Iraq vets (some who may be set to return there)...

That U.S. casualties had finally hit the 500 mark in Afghanistan drew wide press attention today, including coverage on the front page of The New York Times. Every so often now, the media notes that the ongoing American death toll in that country now eclipses the grim tally in Iraq....

In the next issue of TIME magazine, out tomorrow, reporter Michael Scherer reveals -- though this is not exactly a shocker by now -- that John McCain is ready to "play rough" to win in November.

In the article (not yet online), Scherer writes, "The new McCain is tight...

Sixty-three years after the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The Bomb is still very much with us. The U.S. retains over 5000 nuclear weapons -- does this surprise you? -- with better than 4000 said to be "operational." There are plans to reduce this number, but only by 15%....

The question of how strongly race will play out in the November election -- that is, how many whites will prove to be colorblind -- has dominated the discussion of racial politics in the Obama-McCain race so far. But coming this Sunday, The New York Times Magazine looks at what...

Sure, the new Ron Suskind book, out today, is already drawing headlines for its "impeachable" revelation about a cooked CIA document linking Saddam to al-Qaeda. And there may be much more in this vein in the book. But Suskind's influence -- with the mainstream -- pales in comparison to that...

For years, Connie Schultz has been one of my favorite local columnists, going back to her Pulitzer-winning days at Cleveland's Plain Dealer. She has since gone "national," via a syndicated column, two books, and the attention she received as the wife of Sherrod Brown, who won a surprising victory to...

It was the e-mail read 'round the world. Nearly four years ago in September 2004, Farnaz Fassihi -- an Iranian-American correspondent in Iraq for The Wall Street Journal -- sent a brutally frank, private e-mail to friends that somehow leaked out to fellow journalists and various bloggers, who posted much...