Media critic: Social Media a Landmine for Journalists

Dylan Byers at NBC News cites the case of Politico editor-in-chief John Harris, who last week implied in a tweet that President Trump is a white nationalist, as a “reminder of the perils journalists face on Twitter, where there is a temptation to stray from reporting and share jokes and opinions” that expose “their own biases.” Harris insisted his tweet was only “a quip” — which only “makes one wonder” why he “was quipping on Twitter in the first place.” Because “the nature of Twitter itself makes particular examples of partisan behavior stand out, in turn opening news organizations to accusations of partisan bias.” And as Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei, who maintains journalists should only share links to published reporting, has suggested, reporters’ social-media activity has “almost always betrayed a left-wing bias.”

Pollster: Democrats, We Have a Problem

Democrats have “a serious problem” — one Douglas Schoen at Fox News contends “they have yet to acknowledge fully or, frankly, at all.” It’s that their party has moved “so far to the left that Republican attacks on them for being extremist and too far in the clutches of their tired, out-of-touch leadership” are “working well.” Moreover, “the loud agenda of their Democratic socialist wing and the utterances of many of their potential 2020 presidential candidates only compound this perception.” It’s “the same problem that Hillary Clinton faced in 2016.” Once again, he adds, “Republicans are making the case” — successfully, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll — that Democrats “are too far outside of the mainstream to be trusted.”

Foreign desk: What Does Erdogan Want From Riyadh?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s speech on the Jamal Khashoggi murder was more notable for “what he didn’t say” than what he did, according to Bloomberg’s Bobby Ghosh. Indeed, “he revealed very little that we didn’t already know.” Yet he “never once mentioned Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” even though “there has been bad blood between the two men,” and Erdogan was expected to let off some verbal volleys” in MBS’ direction. Fact is, Erdogan “may yet make a deal with the Saudis that would allow the royal family to save face” — in return for cash to revive Turkey’s flagging economy, an easing of pressure on Turkey’s ally Qatar and withdrawal of Saudi support for Kurdish militants in Syria.

From the right: US Conservatism’s Forgotten Father

You “can’t tell the story of modern American conservatism” without discussing Russell Kirk, born 100 years ago this week, says Matthew Continetti at The Atlantic. A writer, teacher, columnist, novelist and storyteller, Kirk “defined and gave substance to American conservatism more than anyone else” besides William F. Buckley Jr. Yet “he often found himself at odds with prominent spokesmen for the very tendency he helped to develop.” He “clashed with the libertarians, never embraced Joseph McCarthy, held National Review at arm’s length, broke with the neoconservatives over the Gulf War in 1990 and supported Pat Buchanan in the 1992 Republican primary.” Most notably in “The Conservative Mind,” Kirk argued that “conservatism resists precise definition,” so “there is no conservative platform applicable to all people, in all places, at all times.”

Sports desk: This World Series Is All About the Managers

Alex Cora “was destined to be a Major League Baseball manager,” asserts Tim O’Donnell at The Week. Now Cora and his Boston Red Sox are facing off against the Los Angeles Dodgers, helmed by Dave Roberts, Cora’s former teammate and “another man who received praise for his leadership and on-field instincts as a player.” Both Cora and Roberts “are part of a new generation of managers” who are “thinking about baseball differently, combining the natural feel for the game they developed in their playing days with a cerebral analytics-approved approach. And they’re not afraid of bucking tradition in order to win.” Rather, “they understand that success in baseball requires a commitment to both the advanced numbers and the intangibles.” So while “anything can happen on baseball’s biggest stage,” look for this series to be “a grandmasters chess match.”

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann