Twitter Doesn’t Have to Be the End of the Conversation

War on the Rocks August 18, 2021 Social media has the potential to make anyone famous, but rarely in a good way. Tweets, TikToks, Instagram stories, Facebook posts, and the like can go viral, and thoughtless acts by otherwise obscure people can turn them into instant celebrities. This is equally true in the armed forces,…

Don’t Believe Everything You Read in the Papers

War on the Rocks July 25, 2014 Many of us have experienced occasions where we’ve read about an event in which we were a participant — either as a direct actor or merely an observer — and found ourselves perplexed by the written account. Whether because of an ideological agenda, an inadequate understanding of the…

Blogs are Dead, Long Live Blogging

James Joyner The Hill, July 2, 2014 A decade ago, everyone was talking about blogs. Bloggers claimed they were going to make the mainstream media obsolete. The mainstream media dismissed bloggers as losers writing in their mom’s basement in their pajamas — while simultaneously starting their own blogs and hiring some of the best bloggers.…

YouTube Politics

TCS Daily August 16, 2006 The Washington Post ignited a firestorm Tuesday with a front-page report that Virginia Senator George Allen, a highly touted 2008 presidential hopeful, twice called a cameraman for Democrat James Webb, who was of Indian descent, “Macaca” while ribbing him. Apparently, “macaca” is a type of monkey and is used as a slur for dark-skinned…

Closing the Book on NovakGate

Human Events July 13, 2006 Robert Novak’s column yesterday revealed that, before publishing his now-controversial column in which he “outed” Valerie Plame, he get confirmation of her role from Bill Harlow, the CIA public information officer.  That makes it pretty clear that Plame/Wilson’s status with the CIA was far less “covert” than we’d been led…

Panoptic War

TCS Daily June 8, 2006 Editor’s Note:  Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed.  Images of Zarqawi’s face are making the rounds as you read this, reinforcing many of Dr. Joyner’s assertions below. The war in Iraq has had powerful images from the beginning and public perceptions of the war have shifted along with the prevailing images. The…