CHRIS ANDERSON RUNS THE NUMBERS and declares a mainstream media meltdown.

UPDATE: Reader Frank Hujber emails:

Regarding your post on the media meltdown, every six months or so, we encounter an article disparing why the loss of the male audience. Every time, I parse the article and try to find the organization responsible for the survey, and I send them an email pointing out to them the possibility that perhaps they are not showing men enough respect. I might be wrong, but in my view, the media gives so much to the women’s point of view that they demonstrate disrespect, or at the very least, dismissiveness, for men and masculinity and fatherhood. I’m convinced that this is the reason men are no longer interested in watching anything but sports.

Anyway, whether I’m right or wrong, I never even get the shortest of replies. It occurs to me that they’re so well steeped in their own view that they won’t even listen to the notion that they might be wrong.

It seems like there MIGHT be some significant business opportunity there.

You’d think. This is a theme that’s been addressed here before. Send ’em a link to Doris Lessing! Or, if you’re really angry, to Steve Verdon. Yeah, people notice this stuff.

HAVING FUN WITH MARY MAPES’ BOOK: Like Robert Bork and Al Gore, she’s working hard after-the-fact to make clear that she never deserved that job to begin with.

MAZDA INTRODUCES a hydrogen-powered rotary-engine sports car. There’s also a hybrid version, combining two of my automotive interests in one!

Sadly, they’re just concept cars at present, though the hydrogen-powered RX-8 will be available for lease next year.

MICHAEL BARONE was on Hugh Hewitt’s show talking about yesterday’s elections. Here’s the transcript.

There’s more on Barone’s blog.

NORM GERAS REPORTS on problems faced by the opposition in Zimbabwe as it faces a crackdown by Robert Mugabe, the Pol Pot of Africa.

EDUCATIONBLOGGER JOANNE JACOBS’ NEW BOOK, Our School : The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea, and the School That Beat the Odds, is out. Don’t just sit there — buy it!

HEH:

Judy Miller has been fired from the New York Times, and one of the Times’s crack pavement-pounding reporters writes that “Ms. Miller could not be reached for comment.”

What, they lost her phone number? And couldn’t walk down the hall to the desk she was cleaning out?

Did I say “heh?” Yes, I did.

SCOTT BURGESS offers a pretty thorough debunking of the “U.S. used chemical weapons in Fallujah” story — though it was pretty obviously bogus on its face.

UPDATE: More on the “white phosphorus” claims here, leading to this conclusion: “I guess there is a place for ‘Mary Mapes-style’ journalism in the world after all.”

And a pretty big one, by all appearances.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Fred Ray emails:

Just wanted to comment on the allegations going ’round about “indiscriminate” use of white phosphorus against civilians. I’m a former armor officer and Vietnam vet who has used WP on quite a number of occasions. So far as I know it is no longer made for tank (or Bradley) guns, but is fired by artillery and at times by mortars.

We use WP as a marking round, because it makes a nice column of white smoke that’s easy to see. The most common use is with air strikes and helicopters — you can direct them in relation to the smoke column and thus avoid hitting your own troops or civilians. I suppose you could use it as an incendiary (and it says so in the book) but I’ve never seen it used that way, because it’s not very efficient.

So did we use WP in Fallujah? Maybe — but the effects would have been quite limited because the burst radius is about 150′ (that for a 155mm shell), and it only affects people who get some particles of it on them. We also have a non-WP smoke round that we use for screening.

Now, WP is nasty stuff, no doubt. If you get it on you it will burn you badly and it’s very difficult to extinguish. But it’s not a “chemical” weapon except in the sense that any non-nuke is a chemical weapon i.e. it works by means of a chemical reaction. Nor is it in any sense banned by any sort of international convention. Some of the drivel coming from these so-called human right organizations is unbelievable — that people can be burned or “caramalized” (what does that mean?) without their clothes burning. WP will burn anything it comes in contact with.

Or…that WP creates a killing toxic “cloud.” I’m sure breathing the smoke isn’t the best thing for you, but Sarin it ain’t. Both these statements ought to be your clue that you’re dealing with pure BS.

It always amazes me what people will believe, but apparently there is a segment of the MSM that will believe anything as long as it’s anti-American.

Yes, and it’s a sizable one.

MORE: Reader Henry Gowen emails:

Look for the next breathless reporting about weapons in Iraq to include the startling news that bullets are being used, and they hurt people. White phosphorus has been around at least since World War II–and it was used as an antipersonnel weapon. Like napalm, it was useful against targets protected from conventional explosives. In my Army days, 1959-61, we fired WP (“Willie Peter”) shells from 4.2 inch mortars for practice. When the round lands, it produces a cloud of white. (Watch for this in WWII documentaries, especially from the Pacific.) Nasty stuff, we were told, because the dispersed particles stick to cloth and skin and cannot be extinguished with water. Bad, but certainly not new. This is what happens when news staffs have nobody with any military connections. Reminds me of a Wall Street Journal headline from decades ago that referred to a .30 caliber cannon. That would be an accurate descriptor, of course, only in the Lilliputian army.

Indeed.

MAX BOOT is saying I told you so to Jacques Chirac. Or something like that. But he finishes on a hopeful note:

The outlook for the Continent may appear hopeless, but it’s not. Britain faced an equally severe crisis in the winter of 1979, when a series of strikes left the dead unburied and the garbage uncollected. Things got so bad that voters tossed out the Labor government and brought in free-market firebrand Margaret Thatcher. Today, Britain is the envy of Europe. France and its neighbors could make a similar rebound. Perhaps the flames emanating from Clichy-sous-Bois will illuminate Europe’s problems and burn down some of the barriers to change.

If we’re lucky.

TOM MAGUIRE is parsing Nick Kristof, and wonders: “Hmm – might the Times sue me as a promotional stunt? I’ll believe anything about Times Select.” Sounds like it could use the help.

Mickey Kaus chimes in on Maguire’s analysis, and comments on blog-revisionism:

I’m not saying bloggers should never revise after hitting “publish.” Maybe they shouldn’t, but I rewrite sentences all the time–if an emailer makes a good objection or I just have second thoughts. But it does become Orwellian at some point–i.e. when you redo a column after you’ve been publicly attacked for some stupidity to make it look as if there was never any stupidity to attack. … P.P.P.S.: Luckily, I have a printed-out hard copy of Kristof’s original, presumably dumber,** version, which I will mail to anyone who wants it for only $49.95.! Call it TimesSelectClassic.

Yeah, stuff looks different on the screen, and it’s okay to fix things once published, but once people are commenting on your posts, it’s time to make changes in a clearly labelled update.

A BAD NIGHT FOR REPUBLICANS? Or a bad year? Evan Coyne Maloney has thoughts.

VARIFRANK POSTS A TRIBUTE to failed prophets of doom. And, along those lines, here’s a list of Jeremy Rifkin’s failed predictions.

DAVE KOPEL notes the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

MICHAEL BARONE has a lengthy post on yesterday’s election results, and promises more soon.

UPDATE: Larry Kudlow: “Last night’s election results were a stinging blow to the Republican party.”

MASSIVE PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS IN AZERBAIJAN: Gateway Pundit has a roundup, with photos and lots of links.

IT’S NOT JIHAD, AND NEVER HAS BEEN: Jim Dunnigan on the French riots:

Thus, the street violence is partly a lark, because the kids know the cops are not going to use lethal force, and anyone who gets caught will, at worst, do maybe a year in the slammer (for burning cars looting stores). The drug gangs encourage the violence as a way to intimidate the cops. When the violence dies down, the gang bosses can threaten the local cops with a revival, if the cops do not back off (when it comes to the drug trade).

There are some Islamic radicals running around in all this, but they are a minority. The Moslem kids like to talk about respect and payback, but very few see this as a religious war. It’s become a sport, with various groups competing to cause the most destruction. Text messaging, Internet bulletin boards and email made it possible for the rioters to stay in touch and compare notes. The media coverage also encouraged the violence, giving the kids some positive (for them) feedback.

But now, nearly two weeks of street violence have thoroughly embarrassed the government so much that curfews and more arrests have taken some of the joy out of these Autumn antics. But it’s not jihad, and never has been.

I certainly hope he’s right.

REVISITING NEWSWEEK’S NEGATIVITY over at Gaijin Biker.

Related post here.

NORMAN PODHORETZ:

Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.

What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up, or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what.

It keeps coming back because it’s politically expedient for many Democratic politicians, and the media.

A MARINE RESPONDS to E.J. Dionne.

THE CARNIVAL OF TOMORROW is up!

WE HAD A SCHOOL SHOOTING not far from Knoxville yesterday. That’s not my area of interest, but the InstaWife, who’s written a book on the subject, has weighed in.

THERE’S A LOT OF GOOD POST-ELECTION NEWS rounded up at the Hotline Blog — results, spin, demographics, etc.

I tend to leave that kind of analysis to people like Michael Barone, who actually know things. But it seems as if the GOP voters didn’t turn out for Republicans the way they did in 2004, and I think that can be laid at the feet of the White House and the Republican leadership.

I also think that I may have been right in suggesting that the GOP had lost its mojo with the Terri Schiavo affair. Things seem to have started to go south then, not only because of the issue itself, but because of the divisive venom that so many Schiavo partisans aimed at people who disagreed with them. I think it was very damaging to the GOP coalition, and they’ve continued to pay a price.

Meanwhile, I’m sure he’ll have more later, but here’s Barone’s take on the elections.

UPDATE: Howard Kurtz thinks it’s a mistake to draw national lessons from these elections: “What journalists often fail to appreciate is that state and local races turn on state and local issues and personalities.”

On the other hand, Patrick Hynes says it was a “values election” — and that this is bad news for the GOP.

And here’s a big roundup from Michelle Malkin.

PATRICK BELTON has more blog-reporting from Paris.

PRO-GROWTH PROGRESSIVES AND 2008: My TechCentralStation column is up.

A LOOK AT EVENTS IN WESTERN IRAQ, from the Officers’ Club.