Financial Times

The Financial Times of London reported a rumor Monday that if Barack Obama wins in November, Oprah Winfrey will be appointed the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain.That makes some sense, doesn't it? After all, she's about as qualified for that position as the junior senator from Illinois is to be president.The rumor was posted at FT's blog by Gideon Rachman, the paper's chief foreign affairs…

Not that there was any doubt that McCain walked away the winner from Rick Warren's forum, but when David Shuster cracks that Obama was lucky not too many people were watching . . . Subbing for Chris Matthews on this evening's Hardball, Shuster kibitzed Saddleback with Dem Steve McMahon and Republican Todd Harris. Shuster made his surprising remark at segment end.DAVID SHUSTER: I think it also…

As NewsBusters reported, John McCain was Conan O'Brien's guest on Friday's "Late Night," and the comedian asked the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for some joke ideas beyond just his age.According to the Weekly Standard's Christopher Caldwell, comedians are having a far more difficult time finding humorous material about Barack Obama.Writing for the Financial Times Friday, Caldwell…

"The world would dearly love a vote in this, yes, epic contest, but will content itself with a ringside seat," Philip Stephens closed his June 6 column about the U.S. presidential election. The Financial Times associate editor certainly played the spectator part, cheering for Obama while booing McCain.Stephens seemed to argue that McCain may well have stooped to outright racist talking points to…

President Bush's effort to coax the Saudis to boost oil output was given wildly different treatments on the front pages of the Washington Post than the British broadsheet the Financial Times. "Saudis bow to oil pressure: Kingtom to lift output to highest in two years; US lobbying comes after price nears $128" reads the May 17 front page FT headline. (The headline for the online version is…

The May 14 edition of the Financial Times carries a "Digital Business" special report. The section deals with challenges facing the future of computer dorkdom corporate IT departments. Chief among them, the FT asked in its front-page story, "What is it about girls and IT?""They are heavy users of technology yet avoid studying IT," the subhead explained, noting that "female skills" in IT are "in…

Interviewed for the "View from the Top" feature in the May 9 Financial Times, NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker praised CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric, formerly with NBC's "Today" show. Zucker also dismissed any notion that he regretted not buying the Wall Street Journal. Here's an excerpt (portion in italics to denote questions by Financial Times):You worked with Katie Couric […

Big bad oil company ExxonMobil is "on the defensive in the face of consumer ire and congressional indignation" as it raked in a "huge" first quarter profit, Washington Post's Steven Mufson informed readers of his front page May 2 article.Mufson later noted that "[d]espite Exxon's colossal profit, the company's stock fell yesterday." Mufson blamed investors "shift[ing] gears" to turn to other…

Theoretically one of the pluses of reading British newspaper coverage of American politics is that the reporters and editors would exhibit a certain detachment from the political biases that much more easily ensnare domestic reporters. That often doesn't play out in practice, however, as today's Financial Times demonstrates with a four-paragraph brief on yesterday's Supreme Court ruling upholding…

If there was ever an obvious conflict of interest in economic reporting, this may very well qualify. NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell evaluated the housing crisis solution proposals of both Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) on the March 25 "NBC Nightly News." "Clinton was the first of the two to sound alarms about the…

From yesterday's Financial Times: Current Media, the online media company co-founded by Al Gore, the former US vice-president, on Monday said it planned to file for an initial public offering that could see it raise up to $100m. Of course, it’s never made a profit and the vast majority of its revenue comes from cable companies paying it for the privilege of carrying Current (emphasis mine…

Widows and orphans, beware: the Republicans are coming!That was the upshot of Chris Matthews's observation today about two Republican front-runners.View video here.Financial Times US Managing Editor Chrystia Freeland has become a "Hardball" regular of late. CHRYSTIA FREELAND: The other thing that people worry about is if someone forecloses on their home, and that's the issue we haven't really…