Larry’s List: Mark Halperin’s Trash Edition

Posted on Jan 13, 2010

Mark Halperin’s sleazy new book (the one that snared Harry Reid and beats up on John and Elizabeth Edwards) is proof, writes Glenn Greenwald, that our media aspire to trash and gossip. This story, plus Nixon, Sinatra, Limbaugh, drugs and more after the jump.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

Newer links are on top.

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‘Political Reporting’ Means ‘Royal Court Gossip’
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Harry Reid ... a Closed Book?
Sen. Harry Reid’s comments about Obama’s racial profile might be “a closed book” for our president.

Google Threatens Pullout From China After E-Mail Accounts Are Hacked
In a calm and understated blog post, Google said Tuesday that it had recently come under an unusual cyberattack from China.

The Supremes’ Orthogonal Moment
Arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday in the case of Briscoe v. Virginia, the University of Michigan law professor Richard Friedman gave the justices an unintentional vocabulary lesson.

Hiding Movies From Critics
I haven’t seen “Armored,” a new heist movie starring Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne. And, before it was released, neither did professional movie critics.

Cost of Wars Through September: $1 Trillion Plus
These current year appropriations do not include funds to support the “surge” of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan proposed by the Obama administration on Dec. 1, 2009.

Nixon’s ‘Seduction’ of Frank Sinatra
Gearing up for President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign, White House aides plotted the “seduction” of Frank Sinatra, who was viewed as a source of “massive financial resources.”

Rush Limbaugh for OxyContin?
A website featuring a phony Rush Limbaugh endorsement of OxyContin is the target of a Drug Enforcement Administration probe into the illegal online sale of prescription medication.

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