NP: The Charlie Hunter Quartet, Ready...Set...SHANGO!

Andrew Sullivan quotes Paul Waldman on political/media shamelessness. It's an interesting point, because my experience as a referee for various sports back in college showed me that there is a time and a place when confidently asserting that you're right is important. I'm just not convinced it's journalism.

Didn't see if there was contact on the jump shot? Make the call with enough authority and the players on the court will usually defer to it. If you're wishy-washy, you get run over by the players, and you lose control of the game. Maintaining authority is how you maintain order, even if you have to fake it. Is the news the same way? Maybe it is, as Fox News is maintaining a certain kind of dogmatic right-wing "order," for whatever that's worth. Except that in the refereeing example, you're exercising your authority in the case where maybe you didn't see what actually happened, and not, for example, that you're trying to fix the game. Usually.

The cautionary tale that comes from the comparison, though, is that if you make enough bad calls with authority, you still lose control of the game. Which may be what's happening to Glenn Beck right now.