Fourth Estate

NYTimes: Many also shared with Mr. Bush’s national security team a belief that pessimistic war coverage broke the nation’s will to win in Vietnam, and there was a mutual resolve not to let that happen with this war.

This was a major theme, for example, with Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News analyst from 2001 to 2007. A retired Army general who had specialized in psychological warfare, Mr. Vallely co-authored a paper in 1980 that accused American news organizations of failing to defend the nation from “enemy” propaganda during Vietnam.

“We lost the war — not because we were outfought, but because we were out Psyoped,” he wrote. He urged a radically new approach to psychological operations in future wars — taking aim at not just foreign adversaries but domestic audiences, too. He called his approach “MindWar” — using network TV and radio to “strengthen our national will to victory.”

NYTimes
Wikipedia: Dr. Mindbender

[Via CNN.com]

An all-time classic image - a commemorative plate with Bill and some broads - graces this week's TIME magazine.

*... and when you add in the 50 Cent/Denzel box on top ... well, the line between hard news and satire are blurred beyond recognition.

Yes, this is CNN.com HP, during the prime "I just got to the office and am going to read the Internet for an hour before starting any work" AM period.

So you don't have to:

This morning, we learned that the New York Times spent upwards of five weeks
stalking NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg outside his Upper East Side home in an effort to learn whether he really does in fact take the subway to work every day.

Apparently he doesn't. At least he sort of doesn't. According to the report, the Mayor actually has two large ethanol powered Suburbans idling outside his home, which then drive him past two 6 (local) stations and then drop him off at the 59th Street express.

Frau Merkel on the cover of conservative Polish weekly Wprost, suckling everyone's favorite prime minister/president identical duo, those adorable Kaczynski twins. Machocha means stepmother.

Wprost ("directly") editor-in-chief Stanislaw Janecki sums it up pretty well:

Ann Coulter, known for being on the top of everyone’s “Who I’d Like to Hate Fuck” list and for totally lurving What's Happening? reruns, says more words that make people’s mouth’s O with surprise. (‘Oh no she di-in’t! That girl is one crazy bitch!’)

First, she makes fun of people who don’t have wholesome, American, WASP-y names like she does:
“No, but I do think someone named B. Hussein Obama should avoid using hijack and religion in the same sentence.“

Isn’t Barry an American enough name for you, Ann?

Then, she makes the tenuous connection that an expensive haircut is grounds for assassination:
"If I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.”
It’s too bad your cheaply layered and highlighted hair will get more expensive to maintain once you get your Mexican hairstylist shipped back to whatever country it was she came from.

Best part abut that last bit is that when Coulter was on Hardball, she gets a call from Elizabeth “Live Strong” Edwards calling her out on her low-balling of political discussion. Ho, shit! Get the Jell-O pit ready, this is gonna get nasty.

I can’t wait to see what she says next!

[Ed. Note: The picture used was found during a Google Image Search for “Ann Coulter”. More searching could have been done, but we feel it gets the job done.]

Note to Rupert Murdoch: at least the unending media scrutiny of your business dealings w/r/t your purchase of the WSJ has yielded one valuable asset: the title of your forthcoming hip-hop album.

Actually come to think of it, "Ruler of a Vast Empire Reaches Out For More" isn't too bad either.

The New York Times leads with Paris.