THE MEDIA BEAT
Veteran journalist David Tereshchuk’s ongoing review of global media coverage.
New columns appear periodically on this page, below.
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The Media Beat columns.
What it Means to be neighborly
I’LL BET YOU KNOW MANY PEOPLE eager to escape the follies and cruelties of our current US administration.
America the Spiteful
THE NEW AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION SHIFTS from its initial flurry of wild actions to a steady-state that’s vicious and menacing.
The Real World Awaiting Trump
THIS IS A MOMENT IN HISTORY when most American news media are (perhaps understandably) looking inward, domestically more than internationally.
Journalist Held Captive: Unarguably a US Priority
IN MY MOST RECENT The Media Beat BROADCAST/PODCAST, I promised a dispatch from Washington DC. Well, I have indeed spent some time now in the nation’s capital … and I can reliably report that the place is still (quite obviously) abuzz with transition news and gossip.
Inevitable Forensics - But Then What?
NINE DAYS AFTER ELECTION DAY, American mass media struggle to present explanations for Donald Trump’s sweeping victory …
The Election and War: Journalism’s Omissions
THE MEDIA CANNOT MISS that we’ve reached a telling juncture in the calendar, one with multiple points of significance. First: we’re at just twenty-six days until the US Presidential Election...
Assassinations, USA
THE U.S. IS STILL A VERY YOUNG NATION, we must always remember. This week’s major news, another evident attempt on the life of a candidate in the Presidential race, must put us in mind of our country’s youth. In previous eras before the USA’s creation, leaders had to regard meeting a violent death as simply an occupational hazard.
Country vs City in Presidential Campaign Coverage
I’VE BEEN TAKING A HIATUS far removed from my home-base in the “Media Capital of the World,” New York City. And I have to say, rural Maine offers a perspective not always fully taken into account during mainstream media coverage of our presidential contest.
Media Election Coverage – Turn-Out Levels Are Critical
LET’S TAKE A BREAK, shall we, from American media’s most intense preoccupation, as evidenced by yesterday’s supposedly crucial, but inevitably inconclusive White House press conference?
Computers for the Brain and Body
IN MY ROLE OF MONITORING the media I inevitably have to deal with a lot of screaming. Literal screaming – as in so-called discussions on cable television’s so-called news channels. And written screaming, in headlines and text on paper and online. So I’m grateful to have a solid, dependable, and quietly-spoken news outlet like the Financial Times to turn to.
Nazis and Other Rightists - An Old Story Resurging
Dateline: Dublin, Ireland – IN THIS MOST EUROPEAN OF CAPITAL CITIES, I have a very effective viewing platform from which to look over all of Europe. But the view can sometimes be very disturbing.
Staying Truthful in Documentaries, Even In An A.I. World
I'VE MADE TV DOCUMENTARIES MOST OF MY LIFE. A lot of them are …
Media Opp! Issues of War & Peace in Odd Settings
COMEDY … and … GAZA. Two words that probably don’t sit together too well. But they did come together in this week’s news.
Social Media's Harms Condemned But Not Halted
THE TABLEAU IS VERY RESONANT. It echoes infamous episodes from an earlier time. Chief Executive Officers of big corporations are lined up, all being sworn in, hands raised solemnly, and then being called to account by our country’s elected representatives.
South Africa versus Israel: Many (Under-Reported) Reasons Why
THE SLOGAN, AS OFTEN WITH SLOGANS, is provocative, though it lacks precision as well as any subtlety. Appearing overnight, it’s fly-posted now on the streets of many cities, and it says: FREE PALESTINE - END APARTHEID!
Iowa and Onward - the Oldsters Battle
THE MEDIA HAVE HEADED, en masse, into Iowa. As usual in a presidential election year, it’s the first preparatory event in America’s whole unfolding primary process. And in Iowa, after a bad snowstorm that interrupted things, even the often sedate New York Times says that campaigning has now returned to “a fevered pitch”.
As the Year Turns, What Do the Media Forecast?
AFTER MONTHS OF EURO-TRAVEL, I’m back in my home base of New York City. I returned at that point in the calendar when journalists of a certain bent try as an annual ritual to predict the coming year.
Views on Coverage of a Violent World from Ireland
Dateline: Dublin, Ireland -- I FIND IT INVALUABLE, always, to be viewing world events via a global lens, instead of through purely American eyes. This week there’s been a powerful array of global forces at work, not least in the Middle East (left), and some good international reporting on those forces.
From Today’s Diminished Status, UK Seeks Global Stage for A.I.'s Dangers
Dateline: London, England – THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR has been dominating the media here as in much of the rest of the world. And I’m afraid that like many international crises it has lamentably been yet another chance for the British, be they politicians or journalists, to slip again into an old habit.
Close, but Contrasting, in the Medium of Fine Art
WE CAN REJOICE THIS FALL in a remarkable double exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s been mounted jointly with the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, where it showed through Spring and early Summer before coming to New York.