Progressive News Feeds

Salon’s TV critic Willa Paskin is one of my favorite people to read, and one of the people I turn to whenever I need to make an idea sharper. We got together to discuss the new television season in a conversation that spiraled from how depressed we are by the new fall comedies, to what Homeland , Gone Girl , and We Need To Talk About Kevin have to do with each other: There are two parts of the conversation that I think are going to be particularly important to my work going forward. First, is a conversation we had about the relationship of story structure to comedy and drama, which has really reshaped a lot of my thinking about how television works

Tags: alyssa, author, climate, economy, election, facebook, lgbt, media, security, television

I’m waiting to see how Copper , BBC America’s first original drama, which follows the rudimentary police force in 1864 New York, turns out over the coming episodes. There’s a lot of promise there: an exploration of the settlement of Harlem, the challenges of standing up a law enforcement system in the aftermath of the Draft Riots, the impact of soldiers returning from the war, and rich cross-class dynamics.

Tags: alyssa, black, climate, director, facebook, lgbt, president, tweets

The kind folks at Bloggingheads were good enough to ask me to do a regular show over there, which means you’ll be getting a lot more culture alongside your politics. I’m lucky enough to have as my first guest the AV Club’s television editor and one of my absolute favorite writers on any facet of culture, Todd VanDerWerff: There’s a lot in this conversation, including a discussion that I think is really important: which networks and services see themselves as in competition with each other. If HBO, Netflix and FX see themselves in competition with each other, it’ll have a dramatic impact on which movies and premium programming are available elsewhere.

Tags: alyssa, author, breaking bad, climate, critic, director, economy, lgbt, mitt-romney, netflix

On the debut episode of Critic Proof, Alyssa and Todd recount their experience at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles. They preview the upcoming TV season, listing the best and worst new shows. Why is it so hard to make a good sitcom?

Tags: feeds, progressive news

On this week’s edition of “The DMZ” on Bloggingheads.tv, Kristen Soltis and I size up the Ryan pick. Watch it below.

Tags: author, daily kos, democrat, democratic party, director, economic policy, feeds, george-bush, green, media matters, security

We make the case that the Ryan pick is evidence that Mitt Romney has lost his mind. Plus, Traci Olsen and the Stabby Five. You can download the podcast at these links: ( iTunes / XML feed / MP3 ).

Tags: author, democrats, facebook, foreign-policy, huffington-post, liberal, marriage equality, opinion, politics, progressive news

How Michael unmasked Jonah Lehrer…The psychology of the fabricating journalist…Michael confronts Lehrer: “Stop lying to me!”…Writing is hard…Is Fareed Zakaria the Andy Warhol of punditry?…Is it too soon for a Lehrer rehabilitation?…

Tags: feeds, progressive news, war

Kristen makes a triumphant return to Bloggingheads and learns the rules of The DMZ.

Tags: feeds, media, progressive news

On Foreign Entanglements, Matt and Rob explore the foreign policy aspects of the election. They begin with what Paul Ryan means for foreign policy in the campaign, and for the battle between neocons and realists within the GOP.

Tags: feeds, foreign policy, progressive news

Adalat’s life as an exiled Turkmen dissident…Turkmenistan, a nepotistic kleptocracy…Why do abuses in Turkmenistan get so little attention?…Is there a new Great Game in Central Asia?…Kafkaesque repression and a divided opposition…

Tags: feeds, progressive news