Media Roundup, week of May 26

Scottie fesses up:

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war."

And the White House isn't pleased:

But Dana Perino, the current White House press secretary, had harsh words for Mr. McClellan, calling the situation “sad” and suggesting that he mischaracterized his years in the West Wing to sell books.

“Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House,” she said. “For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew.”

Does anybody get the feeling that they're just pissed that they weren't able to fully brainwash McClellan? In any case, kind of makes me feel guilty about making fun of Scottie back in the day...

The best part of the article, however, is Karl Rove's response to the book:

“First of all, this doesn’t sound like Scott. It really doesn’t,” he said. “Not the Scott McClellan I’ve known for a long time. Second of all, it sounds like somebody else. It sounds like a left-wing blogger.

OMG LEFT-WING CONSPIRACY! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, moving on before I die of laughter...

The Democrats, on the other hand, are still fighting about Florida and Michigan. You know, for once, I'd like to see an election in Florida that isn't way more complicated than it needs to be. But not like it really matters...

Whatever the committee decides about the delegates may not be a big factor in Mrs. Clinton’s pursuit of the nomination. Even if she were awarded all the delegates in proportion to her popular vote in those states — her best-case scenario — she could not overtake Senator Obama’s delegate lead.

Elsewhere in the world, much more interesting things are happening...

Nepal, the small Himalayan country, is now a republic. I'll admit that I didn't even know it WASN'T a republic... But there's also this fascinating story about a crown prince killing many members of the royal family (his father, the King, included) before shooting himself. But he ended up in a coma for a few days, during which he was officially the reigning monarch of Nepal.

The Maoists, who emerged as the largest party in last month's elections, were committed to ousting King Gyanendra and creating a republic.

They entered politics in 2006, after signing a peace agreement that ended a decade-long insurgency.

The approved proposal states that Nepal is "an independent, indivisible, sovereign, secular and an inclusive democratic republic nation".

Hurrah for democracy. WaPost, NYTimes and BBC all seem relatively calm about the situation, if not even positive, so I guess we'll have to wait and see how things turn out...

And finally... the new Bond novel is out, and in true 007 fashion.

** Edit: I realize I wrote "Tibet" instead of Nepal... That's what I get for blogging while checking my email. There's a TON of Tibet-activism on campus, especially by some people in my dorm. That's no excuse... and it's really embarrassing, since it says NEPAL in the damn portion of the article I quoted. But I just wanted to reassure you that I very much intended to write "Nepal"... Just that I was also reading two emails about this event on Tibet...