Email Author James Ledbetter

1998 Stories by James Ledbetter

• Everyone's a Critic

  published September 15, 1998

  This is the 400th or so media column I have written for the Voice; it is also, absent unforeseen circumstances, the last. After... More >>

• CBS Fires Yeltsin

  published September 8, 1998

  As of the Voice's Monday deadline, the CBS News report on Boris Yeltsin that helped rock world markets last week seems to have been... More >>

• Damage Control

  published September 1, 1998

  Sometimes the smallest word repetition can create mischief, as with the following back-to-back sentences from the front page of Friday's New... More >>

• Media Re-Dress

  published August 11, 1998

  So there always was a dress. The reemergence last week of Monica Lewinsky's much doubted "love dress" tripped up an army of... More >>

• USA Today's Rent-a-Hype

  published August 4, 1998

  Attention corporate America: the logo and likeness of USA Today, the nation's second-largest circulation newspaper, are for sale.That... More >>

• Rupert's Welfare

  published July 28, 1998

  The New York Post's editorial and opinion page is a place where the sanctity of the free market is practically a religion.But behind the... More >>

• Kinsley--for a Day

  published July 21, 1998

  Has Michael Kinsley gone nuts? That was the prevailing sentiment in New York media circles late Monday morning. The Slate editor was... More >>

• Whose 'Talking'?

  published July 7, 1998

  As Linda Tripp's scheduled grand jury testimony swirls through the press this week, you'll be reading more about the notorious "talking points"... More >>

• The Globe Spins

  published June 30, 1998

  In Boston, racial polarization is as much a part of everyday life as Red Sox games or cool wind off the bay. So when the Boston Globe last... More >>

• Content's Providers

  published June 23, 1998

  Take a moment to pity Howard Kurtz. It's always been difficult for The Washington Post media reporter (and author of the recent bestselling... More >>

• Drudgement Day

  published June 16, 1998

  Matt Drudge sure got noticed when he came to Washington, D.C., and gave an afternoon talk on June 2 at the National Press Club. What got much less... More >>

• Bloody Sunday Times

  published June 2, 1998

  The Daily News has covered the Irish peace referendum as aggressively as any paper in America, sending top columnists Jim Dwyer and Fintan... More >>

• India Ink

  published May 26, 1998

  It became the spin of the week: how could United States intelligence agencies have been unaware that India was getting ready to test a nuclear... More >>

• Serious as Cancer

  published May 19, 1998

  The New York Times's May 3 front-page story on a potentially imminent cure for cancer has given the paper its worst publicity blitz since... More >>

• FBI Probes Dole '96: Part II

  published May 12, 1998

  Top Republican media consultants Don Sipple and Mike Murphy, responding to last week's Press Clips, deny that they had any role in the alleged... More >>

• Rocky's Road

  published May 12, 1998

  It was Election Day 1972, and Governor Nelson Rockefeller's top advisors thought they were in for a breather. With the next gubernatorial election... More >>

• FBI Probes Dole TV Ads

  published May 5, 1998

  The FBI is investigating allegations that top staff members of Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign received kickbacks from prominent media... More >>

• Puckfellas

  published April 28, 1998

  The National Hockey League thinks Details should spend some time in the penalty box.Stung by charges in Details's May issue that... More >>

• Seined, Sealed, Delivered

  published April 21, 1998

  Did Vanity Fair freelancer Lynn Hirschberg, author of this month's cover profile of Jerry Seinfeld, provide an advance copy to the... More >>

• Puffing Over Huffington

  published March 17, 1998

  Beware the blue pencil--it can run up quite a bill. In late January, the editorial page staff of the New York Post carved up an opinion... More >>

• No Mort Tomorrows

  published February 24, 1998

  After less than six months, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow has lost his biweekly gig at U.S. News & World Report.Tomorrow's departure does not... More >>

• Paying Lip Service

  published February 10, 1998

  Bill Clinton is the first president caught in a scandal apparently because of a predilection for oral sex (although an earlier president was... More >>

• Dressing Down ABC

  published February 10, 1998

  If you're looking for a case of journalistic excess to help explain public fury over the reporting of the Clinton sex scandal, there's none better... More >>

• Drudge Match

  published February 3, 1998

  For a few days, the Clinton sex scandal overwhelmed even Matt Drudge. During the entire weekend, America's speediest gossip columnist did not... More >>

• 20 Questions

  published January 6, 1998

  Acknowledging that committing predictions to print is usually foolish, Press Clips offers its first year-end media quiz. No more than one letter... More >>