A nice profile of Wellington in the New York Times:

IT was a Saturday night in Wellington, New Zealand, and the denizens of Cuba Street were proving that the ’80s aren’t dead. A performance group decked out in unitards, Lycra G-strings, leg warmers and fluorescent wigs was dancing almost in rhythm to tunes like “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Like a Virgin,” occasionally inspiring the crowd to join in. Farther down Cuba Street, clutches of the young and restless spilled out along the pedestrian mall on their way from bar to restaurant to cafe, many ending up at nightspots like the Matterhorn to catch the latest hot D.J. from Ireland or Ethiopia. In the middle of the mall, one of the city’s signature landmarks, the Bucket Fountain, dropped water from one bucket to another and onto passers-by, causing them to shriek and jump into one another’s arms to dodge the spray.  …

Back on Cuba Street while the dance troupe was still shaking those leg warmers, we struck up a conversation with a truck driver who paints and a construction worker who makes films. (In the less-modest United States, they’d be a painter who drives a truck and a filmmaker who works construction.) Both avowed that Wellington was by far the most avant-garde city in all of New Zealand, and to prove it, they decided to find us the kind of cool bar that could be found only here.

First, they tried Havana Bar off a side street in two connected colorful, Cuban-style shacks, but despite its lively atmosphere and available tables our friends immediately pronounced it “dead.” We finally ended up at a place called Mighty Mighty, where the band was playing psychobilly rock. We perused the drinks menu, which was hidden in a vintage record sleeve, and observed the wildly decked-out patrons, some dressed in afro wigs and others in lederhosen.

My wife and I looked at each other, and then at our impromptu guides, their point well and truly made: Wellington is cool. We get it now.

It is indeed the coolest little capital city in the world.

In terms of other capitals, I do love Washington DC. Canberra is probably the most boring. London is cool also.

Tags: New York Times, Wellington

Tags: Humour, New York Times, Sarah Palin

The NY Times has a fascinating interactive display showing how different demographics in the 50 states voted with Obama and Clinton. They do it for 16 different demographics. I’ve pasted below two of them – for blacks and whites.

The NY Times has also done this map showing support for the two candidates.

You can click on the version above for the full size one.

Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, New York Times

Paul Sheehan in the Sydney Morning Herald does the mother of all fiskings on the New York Times’ story on John McCain.

I won’t even quote from it, because you need to read the whole thing. But it really is a template for all future fiskings.

It is also an important lesson in how subtle bias can be. They find the article:

• had 13 negative and anonymous attributions
• undermined a positive fact seven times with “but”
• repeatedly turns ethical actions of McCain into innuendo of hypocrisy

It is a classic case of twisting the facts to fit the story.

Tags: fisking, John McCain, Media, media bias, New York Times, Paul Sheehan, Sydney Morning Herald

The NY Times recently ran an article alleging John McCain had an affair with a lobbyist around 10 years ago.  They had no proof for the article, and not a single on the record source.

The story has been criticised widely, and now even by the paper’s own ombudsman.

Ironically it has served to unite the conservative base around McCain.  Previous conservative critics are now rallying to support him due to fury over the NY Times story – especially its timing.  The NY Times has had the story for months and months and by waiting until McCain was the presumptive nominee, their motives appear to be purely to damage the Republican Party – otherwise they would have run it earlier on before he was the presumptive nominee.

Tags: John McCain, media bias, New York Times, United States