It took seven years of talks to convince Gaddafi's Libya to dismantle its nuclear program. There were numerous setbacks, even breakdowns, along the way before a final agreement was reached. That is not the situation between the West and Iran for a very simple reason -- the U.S. and the EU are going to significantly escalate the pressure on Iran in the coming weeks. The EU's oil embargo and U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil sales will formally come into effect at the end of the month. And as unprecedented as these measures are, the U.S. will move shortly thereafter to impose even more sanctions to strangle Iran's oil exports. The pattern of the past 10 years clearly shows that when one side escalates, the other side counter-escalates. Neither side has had a particularly elaborate or sophisticated strategy. It's been nothing more than a kindergarten-level tit-for-tat game. This is the takeaway from the Moscow talks.
There's an information blockade in America and it must be broken. In order to find crucial facts, numbers and outside perspectives a person must spend an hour searching and cross-searching on the computer.
Lawmakers or anyone else who wants to gauge public tolerance for politically incorrect language just needs to turn on their television. It's all there in living, colorful language.
The Summer Olympics are beginning next month and London 2012 hype is in full swing. It was just a matter of time before some guy took the time to write an absurdly retro article telling straight dudes how female athletes are like, totally hot.
With information as abundant and instantaneous as it is, what's valuable nowadays is the ability to distill that information and interpret it.
The right wing relies on an old method of deception: repeat something often enough and people will begin to accept it as fact. When the media acts as a conduit for delivering this message without verification, false truths spread at a rapid pace.
If you are trying to figure out whether or not the iconic "snows of Kilimanjaro" are disappearing due to climate change, don't expect to find an easy answer from the media. When scientists attempt to explain the nuances, the media too often gets it wrong and misreports.
These are some of my memories and methods of wanting music so badly that I just reached out and grabbed it even before Napster made it easy and cool. Apparently, none of my cohort ever did any of this stuff. Either that, or they are doing that generational-amnesia thing.
Newspapers no longer need publishers, copy editors, designers, production managers or advertising salespeople to be stationed at the newspaper. They can do their job from anywhere. You can even set up automated answering services so you don't have to deal with an actual customer.
If Romney's political archrival isn't even willing to consider religion fair game in this election, why should you?
Surprisingly, punishing journalists for infelicitous Twitter or Facebook postings has drawn little protest. Aren't journalists presumed to have a special claim to expressive freedom, not just a basic human right but a professional responsibility?
One of the joys of coming to Cannes every year has been its expansion of the definition of creativity, and with it, the mind-blowing changes in technology that have let us tell richer, better stories.
Ultimately, "The Newsroom" is the worst possible vehicle for promulgating the values and beliefs that the core characters profess. With shrill, self-righteous friends like these, journalism doesn't need enemies.
Media coverage has -- to a certain point understandably -- included stories about negotiators quibbling over punctuation, subliminally painting images of Roman emperors, lyres, and blazing urban backdrops. But success comes in many forms.
It wasn't just the image focus that wore on me, I was tired of amplifying these tragic stories. I wanted, instead, to promote inspiring ones. My agent told me that job didn't exist. So I quit.
James' injury -- both the shot he made when he briefly returned to the game while still cramping, and his time on the bench during the game's final moments -- became the main topic of conversation among fans and pundits alike. And that's a shame.
They've called for a leap into online learning, but demonstrate no understanding of that field. They use the popular language of disruption theory without understanding any of its mechanisms.
This would make a good comedy if we were viewing it in the distant past. Instead it's a tragedy.
Here's a question for President Barack Obama's re-election team. It could influence the outcome of this year's election: How do they get the "we" back?
Gone are the days when no one could take a joke about what might happen in a bed shared by two men or two women. These days, we know gay sex is just as funny, and sometimes tragic, as the other kind.
David Sable, 2012.20.06