Is basic American telephone service in a death spiral?
ASK THIS
Bruce Kushnick questions whether AT&T and Verizon are trying to kill off the “plain old telephone service” that millions of Americans rely on. In a recent FCC filing cited by Kushnick, AT&T stated that landline utilities are from a bygone era, and asked to be relieved of its obligations to service them. 
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Obama gave a pass to out-of-control military spending
COMMENTARY
The GAO showed that contractors’ estimates have nothing to do with reality, and economic hard times may eventually force the President and Congress to rein in outrageously costly warships, planes and missile systems that don’t work. But that time isn’t here yet.
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Lincoln said that, even in the midst of war, the power of corporations made him tremble for the safety of the country.
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Some remedies for the Supreme Court power grab
COMMENTARY
It’s easy to find activism, impossible to find original intent behind the Roberts/Scalia group’s ruling on corporate political spending. Martin Lobel suggests six sharp, practical steps to deal with it.
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George Wilson's column | Why rush the F-35 into production?
ASK THIS
Ask Defense Secretary Gates: What is the threat that justifies spending $298.8 billion on 2,456 F-35s, or $122 million each, counting research and development costs?
Life over property | Covering Haiti: When the media is the disaster
COMMENTARY
Human life matters more than property, survivors of a catastrophe deserve our compassion and our understanding, and journalists live and die by words and ideas, writes disaster expert Rebecca Solnit. So why is so much media coverage out of Haiti focused on demonizing 'looters' who are taking necessary supplies to sustain their lives?
No money, no food, no fuel | New survey tells it like it is in Afghanistan: Primitive
COMMENTARY
The latest poll by ABC News, BBC and ARD German TV shows disgust with corruption, anger at the Taliban, and widespread poverty almost beyond the imagination of Americans.
Breathless press corps | Press hits the dumb button on body scanner reporting
ASK THIS
Privacy advocate Marc Rotenberg writes that breathless, uninformed media coverage has saved the vendors of digital strip-search devices hundreds of thousands of lobbying and public-relations dollars that might otherwise have to be spent to foist these machines on the American public. Where is the reporting on what these scanners will and won't see?
A journalistic golden age | A paean to the late James Goddard, and to Martin Agronsky as well
SHOWCASE
Morton Mintz recalls getting candid answers from Goddard, then FDA Commissioner, on Agronsky’s ‘Face the Nation’ in the 1960s, a time when – believe it or not – some Sunday morning talk shows cared about, reported, and made news.
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Calling Isaac Asimov | War of the robots -- all too real questions we have to ask
ASK THIS
Defense expert and author P. W. Singer writes that robotics is a game-changer on the battlefield and elsewhere -- but there's been remarkably little public discussion of what the rules should be, or how this will affect our lives.
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As an old assignment editor I’m used to asking questions and not being embarrassed if they expose me as naïve or wrong minded, because sometimes there’s a good story lurking. So here are a few simple questions. The biggest financial institutions are said to be on the verge of issuing $145 billion in bonuses. My [...] 
A friend and contributor to Nieman Watchdog, Martin Lobel, sent this emaiI with the suggestion that people pass it along. Looks worth passing along to me. Here’s Marty:
“I don’t know whether you’re as upset with the Supreme Court’s legislating in Citizens United v. FEC as I am, but there is a simple solution that is [...]
Item: The New York Times reported Friday afternoon that “two more Democratic senators” said they would vote against a second term for Fed Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. From there, the Times said this made it unclear “whether there were the 60 votes necessary to confirm Mr. Bernanke.”
Excuse me? Sixty votes are not necessary to [...]
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(Nieman Watchdog)
Torture probe abandoned
For lack of interest, the Senate will not move ahead on the idea to appoint a commission to investigate detention, rendition and interrogation policies by the U.S. during the George W. Bush administration.
(Secrecy News)
Find John Brennan's op ed
Harry Shearer, working from a fantasy assignment desk, wants reporters to find a 2005 anti-Iraq war op ed that never was published.
(Huffington Post)
Those Mohammed cartoons
On Jan 2 a man with an axe tried to attack the Danish artist whose 12 depictions of the prophet Mohammed created a furor in 2005. After the failed attack, a Norwegian newspaper reprinted six of the drawings.
(Editors Weblog)
Afghanistan surge to rely heavily on private contractors
Private contractors are expected to make up at least half of the total military workforce in Afghanistan, according to Defense Department officials cited in a recent study from the Congressional Research Service. The number of contractors will likely increase by between 16,000 and 56,000 for a total of 120,000-160,000.
(TPM Muckraker)
Recession scars will be lasting
The aftershocks from deep recessions reverberate for years, even decades.
(USA Today)
The curious spending of a GOP pro-choice PAC
The money doesn't seem to actually go to supporting choice.
(Center for Public Integrity)
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