Yes, on the face of it, the first Amendment limits congress. That's as it should be.

Unfortunately, the United States Supreme Court interpreted the fourteenth amendment as extending that prohibition on Congress to the States and all government agencies within them. The Washington State University, as a state-run College recieving both federal and state funding is therefore NOT exempt under that interpretation from the restrictions imposed by the first amendment.

Personally, I think the SCOTUS got it wrong in the first place, but that's the reality of the situation.

So, I'm curious. Is the new thing titled "going rogue" as implied - in other words Sara Palin is a rogue - working against the flow - or is it as the cover says "going rouge" - meaning going red?

Or am I simply misreading the title since Sarah's book is actually titled Going Rogue and this is a hit piece against that?

So, I'm courious. Is the new thing titled "going rogue" as implied - in other words Sara Palin is a rogue - working against the flow - or is it as the cover says "going rouge" - meaning going red?

Or did the editors at The Nation simply reveal their inability to spell?

I can't rejoice when a major media outlet goes through these sort of troubles, even if they are heavily biased to the left. Most thoughtful, careful readers can still filter out the bias and get to the meat of the stories. If all of the liberal papers went under today we'd really have very little in the way of media to keep us informed.

On the other hand, if the papers come out of this having learned a lesson and with a bit more objectivity, it can only be a good thing. I'm not counting on that though.

Schadenfreude just doesn't work for me.

Another way to look at this sort of news is a bit scary. One of the big reasons for print medias decline is that people can't be bothered to sit down and actually read the news. People would rather get their news from television (a short sound-bite is all you can get there), or read it online, or not bother with it at all. This last group is the one that disturbs me the most, because if the public isn't interested in the news then we might end up with a socialist in the White House (oh wait, that's already happening).

Television news isn't really news, it's just sensationalism and entertainment packaged to look like news. Watching it is almost as bad as not bothering to read the news in the first place.

Getting your news online is likely to be more timely than reading it on dead trees, but the newspapers haven't quite figured out how to get revenue from that yet. As more papers file for bankruptcy, we're likely to see less ink on paper, and eventually less recycled electrons on the Internet keeping us informed.

I love the new look. It's much cleaner than the old site. I do miss being able to read the post content on the main page, but with the number of posters here, the new layout is probably a bit easier to work with.