Category: World Politics

Good looking politicians get more attention

Posted by dwilson – March 22, 2012

Two Israeli professors produced a study that indicates that more attractive members of Congress get more television coverage.

Professors Israel Waismel-Manor and Yariv Tsafati of the University of Haifa asked students to rank the attractiveness of members of Congress. After screening out presidential candidates and top leaders who would naturally draw more attention, the study found that good looking members get more TV play. They did not find the same in radio and newspaper coverage.

“In an ideal democracy, the amount of news coverage representatives receive should be determined by the quality of their work and the originality of their ideas,” the professors wrote.

A news story about the study is linked here.

Osama bin Laden’s vain, ‘pathetic’ side revealed

Posted by dwilson – May 9, 2011

Video recovered in the raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed show the terrorist watching coverage about himself on television. Five videos released by the White House last weekend show a gray-bearded bin Laden huddled under a blanket, watching himself on television and holding a remote control. He changes channels in one spot whenever pictures of President Barack Obama appear on the screen.

Brian Ross of ABC News said the U.S. government is using the videos paint bin Laden as “a vain, pathetic old man.”

Raw video inside bin Laden compound

Posted by dwilson – May 2, 2011

ABC News has released a video purported to have been taken inside the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed on Sunday.

Chinese official who kept salacious diary arrested

Posted by dwilson – March 16, 2010

Han Feng, 53, an official in China’s Tobacco Bureau, was arrested Saturday on charges that he took about $71,000 in bribes between 2002 and 2010.

The arrest, however, was not as interesting to most of the people in China as the diary entries written by Feng that got posted on the Internet a while back. In an Associated Press story linked here, Feng is quoted as say “Womanizing is on the right track. It’s been a lucky year with women. I need to pay attention to my health with so many sex partners.”

In a Reuters story, Feng also was credited with writing about frequent binge drinking.

Reporters say Feng’s diary was posted online by the husband of a mistress who sought revenge by outing Feng’s behavior.

This entry probably would have made my colleague Steve Eighinger’s moron of the month listing, but the political connections of Mr. Feng made this appropriate fodder for this blog site.