‘Television made all the difference’ in McCarthy’s fall, Watergate? Hardly
30 Sep 2019 Leave a comment
The Washington Post’s media columnist, Margaret Sullivan, offered the facile observation in an essay yesterday that last week brought “a tectonic shift of media attention, [with] every major television network — broadcast and cable alike — focused on a deeply damaging story” about President Donald Trump, a story he “can’t control.”
Sullivan
As if Trump could “control” the frenzy over disclosures he encouraged Ukraine’s president to investigate shady dealings in that country by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
As if anyone could “control” such a bizarre frenzy.
We’ll see how long this latest frenzy lasts. For now, allegations of Trump’s misconduct seem too nebulous to support impeachment, let alone conviction after trial before the Republican-controlled Senate.
Of keener interest to Media Myth Alert were passages in Sullivan’s column that touted the presumptive power of television in the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 and…
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Sam Fowles: Cherry/Miller: What’s Next?
26 Sep 2019 Leave a comment
Yesterday the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous judgement in Cherry and Others v The Advocate General and Miller v the Prime Minister. The court found that the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue parliament was unlawful and, consequently, null and void. This article aims to identify some of the immediate constitutional and political impacts of that decision.
The decision
Four key points underpin the court’s reasoning. First, the matter of justiciability. All parties accepted that the court was entitled to determine the existence and extent of prerogative powers. The government parties, however, argued that, where the power was exercised within its lawful bounds, it was not justiciable. Cherry and Miller argued that, even within lawful bounds, the ordinary principles of judicial review applied. The question of justiciability formed the cornerstone of the government’s case. Ultimately, however, the court decided it on entirely uncontroversial terms. The court found that it…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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