Criticism

Determined to make the rags-to-riches drama "Slumdog Millionaire" as authentic as possible, director Danny Boyle reworked his film's first act, casting Hindi-speaking children from Mumbai's slums in two lead roles. Now his choice to put the impoverished 7-year-olds into the film has sparked a growing controversy that is threatening to overtake the movie's global goodwill.

Matt McCarthy's professional baseball career flamed out after one season, 2002, with the Provo Angels in the lowly Pioneer League. He was quietly released the following spring. Now, McCarthy has published "Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit," and the notoriety the memoir has generated ensures that he will be enshrined in baseball and publishing lore.

I have to admit it would be fun to join the rollicking beat-down of the New York Times and Alessandra Stanley that has followed the chief television critic's egregiously error-ridden tribute to Walter Cronkite. Wasn't the public fascinated, after all, to learn that Stanley and the nation's Paper of Record managed eight mistakes in an almost 1,200-word tribute to Uncle Walter?

Whenever there's an overwhelming favorite in the Oscar race, you can be sure, human nature being human nature, and the media being the media -- in short, an institution that likes to build 'em up and then knock 'em down -- that the overwhelming favorite will soon find itself fighting off a nasty backlash. That's exactly what's happening right now in the Oscar race to Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," which in recent days has gone from beloved underdog to embattled front-runner.

SAN DIEGO -- It's not clear whether San Diego's Philip Rivers will be healthy enough to line up at quarterback Sunday when the Chargers play at New England in the AFC championship game. But Rivers can still play defense -- at least verbally.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reproached a presidential envoy Tuesday for predicting that North Korea would not bow to pressure from the United States and its allies to disclose full details of its nuclear program. In an unusually sharp tone, Rice said that Jay Lefkowitz, Bush's special envoy to North Korea on human rights, was not speaking for the administration Thursday when he predicted that Pyongyang would hold on to its nuclear weapons. In talks involving six countries, U.S.

When Sen. Barack Obama campaigned in Nevada two weeks ago, he scored what his campaign described as a political coup: the backing of Maria Elena Durazo, the head of the powerful 800,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. But while the endorsement gave a psychological boost to Obama, it created some blowback for Durazo, considered Southern California's leading voice on labor issues.

A member of the U.S. Olympic team would face no official rebuke for wearing a T-shirt that said, "Free Tibet," while walking the streets of Beijing during the 2008 Summer Games. Wear that shirt in the Olympic Village or any sports venue, and the athlete might be on the next plane home after violating the international Olympic Charter. U.S.

washington -- The Senate Select Committee on Ethics harshly criticized Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) on Wednesday for his actions during and after his arrest last summer in a men's restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. In a strongly worded "public letter of admonition," the panel of three Democrats and three Republicans told Craig that his behavior constituted "improper conduct reflecting discreditably on the Senate."

It wasn't supposed to be this way. When China seven years ago won the right to hold this summer's Olympics, the nation erupted in joy, confident it would finally receive the accolades it deserved as an emerging global power after a century of isolation and humiliation.