Tag Archives: Jonathan Alter

Afghanistan: War and Politics

 

BY TONY BLANKLEY

Reprinted from Townhall.com

With the end of combat in Operation Enduring Freedom presidentially certified, all eyes rivet toward Afghanistan. This is the fight President Obama, when campaigning for office, called our “war of necessity.” This is the theater of conflict where Obama, when debating Sen. McCain barely two years ago, promised us victory ending with the killing or capture of Osama bin Laden. Ironically, Afghanistan may also be the only war in American history with a presidential expiration date.

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Journalists’ Tell-All Books A Troubling Trend

BY MICHAEL JOHNSON

Every author wants to be popular enough to make a living from their efforts.  But more and more journalists are cutting financial deals and skirting their own professional code of ethics to get on the best seller lists.

The reigning king of  journalist bookdom is the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward.  But this year, according to Reliable Sources columnist Howard Kurtz there is a stampede of journalists headed toward the publishers’ doors.

Many of the top names in national political journalism writing for fun and profit include Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, NBC’s Chuck Todd, and MSNBC’s Richard Wolffe; the Post’s David Maraniss; the New York Times’ Jodi Kantor and New Yorker writers David Remnick and Ryan Lizza, according to Kurtz.   Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin and New York Magazine’s John Heilemann just published their moneymaker called Game Change and they have already signed a multi-million contract for a 2012 tome, according to Kurtz.

Most of the books have five common traits:
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