April 16, 2007

Wonder if he's apologized to the ADL yet. It seems just as offensive as anything Imus said. Media Matters is obviously asleep at the wheel on this one.
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April 13, 2007
The general public forms many of its perceptions of world events through the news media - especially television. By general public, I mean those who don't read online news, blogs, or spend a lot of time with other media like radio (many in the media do read blogs and Internet news, however.)
The Imus story has totally drowned out the mainstream TV media coverage of the Duke deboggle. Why is one story still going on and on, and why does another one seem to fade away quickly into the background? They're not even naming the lying accuser for fear of "victimizing" her (they had no problem pounding the three boys' names and faces into your brain, didn't they?)
At the risk of sounding glib, I'm going to be blunt.
Putting aside discussions about "newsworthiness," I think there is something more simple and subtle here. In the collective mind of the elite media establishment, one story makes blacks look bad, and one makes whites look bad (in the metanarrative sense.) . Given media history, partisan leanings, and self-styled reasons de existence, which one do you think they're going to concentrate more firepower on instead of giving them equal weight?
By the way, Google News is currently showing 3,856 news hits for "Don Imus," while
"Duke Lacrosse" is currently returning 2,798. Also notice the results - 4,053 for Duke Lacrosse and 10,000 for Imus.
Discuss.
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Via Reuters:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer, dancer and one-time Playboy magazine model Willa Ford will star as the late Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith in a biographical film about the billionaire's widow that starts shooting next week.A publicist for Ford, best known for her hit single "I Wanna Be Bad" and a stint on the ABC television show "Dancing with the Stars," confirmed a report in Wednesday's Daily Variety that she was signed to play the title role in the film, "Anna Nicole."
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April 11, 2007
Olby's earned a spot on his own "Worst Person" countdown, and has been completely exposed as an amateur fraud and a complete partisan hypocrite with these two audio clips from Johnny Dollar.
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April 10, 2007
FREE EXPRESSION SPOTLIGHT:more...
1. Tunisia: Free Expression Violations Worse a Year on, says TMGREGIONAL NEWS:
2. Zimbabwe: Cameraman Slain over Leaked Tsvangirai Pictures
3. Mexico: TV Correspondent Gunned Down amid Wave of Killings
4. Pakistan: Militants Kill Reporter's Family
5. Iraq: Bloody Weekend for Country's JournalistsUPDATES:
6. Afghanistan: Abducted Reporter Killed, says Taliban
7. United States: Blogger Released after 224 Days in PrisonTAKE ACTION!
8. Tunisia: Unblock Dailymotion CampaignREPORTS AND PUBLICATIONS:
9. C-Libre Investigates Free Expression in Honduras
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April 08, 2007
Pope: 'Nothing Positive' From Iraq more...
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April 03, 2007
On the one hand, Bush has crushed al Qaeda to the point where they no longer have the ability to mount an attack in the United States:
Even as al Qaeda tries to rebuild operations in Pakistan, experts including current and former intelligence officials believe the group would have a hard time staging another September 11 because of U.S. success at killing or capturing senior members whose skills and experience have not been replaced.But, every silver lining has a cloud, especially if Reuters disapproves of the President's political party. more..."If the question is why al Qaeda hasn't carried out another 9/11 attack, the answer I think is that if they could have, they would have," said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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April 01, 2007
First of all, misleading messages from a hapless attorney general can be corrected: Janet Reno had only been on the job for a matter of days when she announced the blanket dismissal of U.S. attorneys in March 1993, and she bungled the job, letting word get out that prosecutors involved in significant investigations would be allowed to complete them. As was noted at the time, this would have meant that an ongoing investigation of the powerful House Democrat and vital Clinton ally, Dan Rostenkowski, by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jay Stephens, would continue uninterrupted.The White House, or rather Mr. Stephanopoulos, quickly torpedoed that idea. In a press briefing, he announced that among the prosecutors whose resignations had been demanded, "there are at least some people who are in the middle of trials right now who will not be replaced." Trials, he specified, not investigations. "Interestingly," a Hartford Courant editorial noted back then, "Miss Reno didn't explain the impending dismissals. The president's personal spokesman, George Stephanopoulos, did the fast talking."
Lesson number two: When the White House comes under suspicion of politicizing the process of replacing federal prosecutors, don't deny it. In 1993, when a reporter asked Mr. Stephanopoulos about the origins of Ms. Reno's decision to jettison all the U.S. attorneys, the exchange went like this:
Mr. Stephanopoulos: I assume she was in discussions with the White House counsel, but it is her decision.
Q: Can you tell us whether the White House counsel may have suggested the idea?
Mr. Stephanopoulos: I don't know if he specifically suggested it, but I am certain that he was consulted.
Q: Would it be fair then to say that after consultations with the White House she decided to do this?
Mr. Stephanopoulos: It would be fair to say that she consulted with the White House before making the announcement.
Q: And the White House approved.
Q: The decision or the announcement?
Mr. Stephanopoulos: The White House did not disagree.
Q: I want to thank you for your persistence--(Laughter).
Finally, keep an eye on the aftermath: Jay Stephens put his U.S. attorney job behind him and was soon hired by the Resolution Trust Corp., an independent regulatory agency, to investigate claims stemming from the collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. For those who have filed away their memories of the Clintons' Arkansas years, Madison Guaranty was connected to the Rose Law Firm, Hillary Clinton's former employer, and the firm would be an area of interest for any investigator.
Then, in February 1994, according to the Dallas Morning News, the RTC got an irate conference call from Harold Ickes, the White House deputy chief of staff, and George Stephanopoulos, by then President Clinton's senior advisor, to protest the hiring. Amid reports that they tried to have Mr. Stephens fired--it would have been his second pink slip in less than a year--the White House issued a statement that Mr. Ickes and Mr. Stephanopoulos had "no recollection" of making such a request.
READ THE CONCLUSION BELOW THE FOLD --> more...
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Activist. Not a reporter. Treat all further information opined by Ware as such. Also, this:
Michael Ware has also publicly expressed his views on the war last year in an interview with Bill Maher, saying, “I've been given a front-row ticket to watch this slow-motion train wreck … I try to stay as drunk for as long as possible while I'm here … In fact, I'm drinking now.â€
UPDATE: It wasn't Ware. It was an AFP reporter. The above quote, however, still stands - not the laughter thingy, though. Dismissed.
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March 31, 2007
In the old days of real journalism, that was known as a severe and actionable conflict of interest.
If a campaign worker of Tom Tancredo worked at CNN in the same general capacity as James Carville, would he have to step aside?
Oh, wait. He did. What say you, Baldy?
Time. To. Go.
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March 30, 2007
Pathetic. Guess we'll just have to keep bringing it up over and over again at inconvenient times until someone notices.
MORE...Michelle Malkin has a question for DiFi. And speaking of Google News searches, check this one out. The original MetroActive story is at the top of the list, and the rest of the listed articles are about DiFi calling on the Attorney General to resign.
Heh.
For those who want to dig further, the MetroActive site's blog has a response written on March 15 from Camp DiFi regarding the paper's reporting. Here's what DiFi had to say:
Sen. Feinstein has never had any knowledge nor has she exercised any influence on the award of environmental cleanup contracts under the jurisdiction of the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee.What about other types of military and construction contracts?
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March 27, 2007
Charles returned fire by finding a few HuffPoesque comments on the Washington Post story on Tony Snow's cancer. Here are some of the more choice haters.
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March 16, 2007
83 percent of likely voters think bias is "alive and well." Of that number, 64 percent said the press leans left, while slightly more than a quarter -- 28 percent -- said there was a conservative bias.The only real surprise here is that a full 28% of Americans suffer from mental retardation and/or pathological dishonesty.Naturally, there's a partisan divide, and a pronounced one. Among Republican respondents, 97 percent said the press was liberal. Two-thirds of political independents agreed with them, with less than a quarter of the independents -- 23 percent -- saying there was a conservative bias.
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March 15, 2007
On its face, the plan is not improper, inappropriate or even unusual: The president has the right to fire U.S. attorneys at any time, and presidents have done so when they took office.Its Libby Redux.
Faux-outrage. Trying to find impropriety and crimes where there are none. Open admission that these things aren't illegal or unusual, and that those before have done the same things for the same reasons. Mountains made of molehills. Important news ignored. Nobody cares.
The American people aren't being fooled, you know.
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March 12, 2007

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March 07, 2007
Attacks on Iraq Shiite pilgrims continuemore...BAGHDAD, Iraq - Attacks on Shiite pilgrims showed no sign of easing Wednesday with at least 11 people killed by bombs and gunfire as they streamed toward a Muslim shrine ahead of a weekend holiday.
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February 28, 2007
As a proud member of the mainstream media, let me suggest that this double-standard — this refusal to hold Al Gore accountable for his actions which are contradictory to his words — only feeds the belief that the media is biased in favor of liberals — particularly born-to-the-manor, overfed, limousine liberals who consume 220,000 kilowatts of electricity each year in just one of his three homes.Why weren't Algore's utility bills flashed on the screen when Melissa "I was once relevant" Ethridge was wailing and bemoaning the alleged environmental ravages and absolute horrors of the average, 1/25-of-Algore citizen's lifestyle?
Because they're interested in drastic lifestyle changes - for you, not them.
ht: Insty
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February 27, 2007
There's a case to be made the Drudge helped tank the markets today, particularly when thinking about information/news sensitive environments like the market floors.
Interesting if you're one of those types who believes the "hypodermic needle (strong effects)" theory of communications - namely, that the transmission of a message on a widely read and relied-upon source (usually a news source) will have a strong impact on the receivers of that message.
By the same token, the overall MSM coverage of the war in Iraq has had a negative net impact on the opinions and perceptions of many Americans regarding the daily events taking place there. Individual stories are not enough to do it alone. This is not to say that covering the markets is exactly like covering a war, but I would surmise that market reporters at least report positive developments in the markets from time to time without hesitation. So in terms of general news practice and protocol, there is an imbalance coming out of Iraq in the coverage.
The aggregation of the drip-drip-drip is what killed the public support of the war. The negative effect was not as instantaneously felt or as potent this time as it was when TV nightly news was in its "Uncle Walter" infancy (and before 24-7 repetition of newspaper headlines news networks) during Vietnam era. It is also inevitably true that bureaucratic and political mismanagement from all sides of the aisles has prevented the war from being executed in a more precise and efficient manner, but you go to war with the "slam dunk" Intel agencies, "Peace Dividend" military and Marx-lite Political Parties you have, not the ones you want.
A balanced drip, with positive (or even the seemingly mundane "everyday Iraqi/American troop interactions" angle reported with equal ferocity and breathlessness as the bad news), would perhaps have yielded a more moderate divergence on the collective public perceptions of the war. Fweh. Childish fantasy.
Instapunk had a great post on this sort of thing all the way back last May, dubbing it the "water torture" effect of negative media coverage. He also asserted that (for better or worse) the MSM were winning. In many ways, he was right. Here's the nut:
It doesn't have to be true, it doesn't have to be fair, it doesn't have to be consistent in its terms. All that matters is that it is repeated with uniform constancy: drip, drip, drip. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good. Change the headlines, seem to change the subject. Abu Ghraib. European disdain. Tom Delay. Katrina. Deficits. Valerie Plame. Gas prices. Karl Rove. Death in Iraq. Angry mothers. NSA wiretaps. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, the lede is always the same. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good. George W. Bush is no good. Forget the good news, bury the accomplishments or ignore them altogether. Drip, drip, George W. Bush is no good, George W. Bush is no good, George W. Bush is no good.
--READ MORE BELOW THE FOLD--->
Cross-posted at Mein BlogoVault.
more...
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February 26, 2007
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The Israeli-born, Canadian-based filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici is reigniting claims, first made over a decade ago, that a burial cave uncovered 27 years ago in Talpiot, Jerusalem, is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.Critic Bar-Ilan University Professor Amos Kloner said, "It's nonsense." The names and inscriptions found are common and the claim is not based on proof, only an attempt to sell, he added.At a press conference in New York on Monday, the two-time Emmy winner Jacobovici and his team - including Hollywood director James Cameron - will detail claims that of 10 ossuaries found in the cave when it was discovered in 1980, six bear inscriptions identifying them as those of Jesus, his mother Mary, a second Mary (possibly Mary Magdalene), and relatives Matthew, Josa and Judah (possibly Jesus's son).
Their documentary will be screened this week in the US, UK, on Channel 8 in Israel and around the world. The producers are said to have worked on the project with world-renowned archeologists, statisticians and DNA specialists.
On a lighter note, one source hints that James Cameron wasn't satisfied sinking the Titanic, so now he's going to sink Christianity.
Heh.
Posted by: Mike Pechar at
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February 24, 2007
"Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity," Zumbo wrote in his blog on the Outdoor Life Web site. The Feb. 16 posting has since been taken down. "As hunters, we don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them. . . . I'll go so far as to call them 'terrorist' rifles."Given the casual nature with which Zumbo denounced an entire segment of the gun owning community, you may not be surprised to learn that Zumbo's time with Outdoor Life is over. Unfortunately, the news of this event has been penned, as it often is, by writers almost completely ignorant of, and likely antagonistic to, firearms. Readers familiar with firearms issues will spot right away multiple problems with the following paragraph:
The reaction -- from tens of thousands of owners of assault rifles across the country, from media and manufacturers rooted in the gun business, and from the National Rifle Association -- has been swift, severe and unforgiving. Despite a profuse public apology and a vow to go hunting soon with an assault weapon, Zumbo's career appears to be over.The part about Zumbo's career being over is probably accurate, but the writer's use of "assault rifle" and "assault weapon" appears to be clumsy and to evince an ignorance of firearms and firearm terminology that is all too common among the nation's professional reporting class. If news writers were really the professionals they claim to be, they'd learn the terminology of the subject they're writing about.
In any event, the fate of Jim Zumbo should serve as a word to the wise : if you rely on gun owners for your bread and butter, don't go relying on Sarah Brady for edgy article ideas.
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February 22, 2007
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February 21, 2007
Dear SirApparently stunned by this, baffled reporter Keith Epps sent Craig the following response:You state that this man attacked the Republicans stating "argument
got heated and the suspect learned that the young residents had not
enlisted in the military and "put their all" behind the Republican-led
war effort in Iraq". You then state "It was not clear in the report what
political agenda Stone was supporting." Are you for real? Come on
man...you can't be that dense.Craig, Texas
I'm not and never claimed to be a political whiz, but there are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and a myriad of other political affiliations. So yes, I can be that dense because I know what can happen when you make assumptions.This is, of course, plausible deniability. It has been roundly demonstrated by such people as John Kerry (D), Michael Moore, Glen Rick Ellen Ellensburg Greenwald, and Frank Lautenberg (D) that the term is used by Democrats to slander Republicans. One need look no further than the Wikipedia entry on the term.
Just tryin to help, Keith.
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February 20, 2007
"Loss of Victory in Germany Through U.S. Policy Feared," November 18, 1945Bzzzt. Wrong.Grave concern was expressed today by informed officials that the United States might soon lose the fruits of victory in Germany through the failure to prepare adequately for carrying out its long-term commitments under the Potsdam Declaration. Government failures were attributed in part to public apathy. The predictions of a coming crisis are predicated upon three points:
1) The failure to start training a civilian corps of administrators to take over when the Army's Military Government pulls out of Germany by June 1.
2) The failure of the Government to set up an expert advisory group, such as that which existed in the Foreign Economic Administration's Enemy Branch to back up the American administrators of Germany with informed advice and provide a focal point in Washington for policy-making on the German question.
3) The failure of the Allies to decide together, or the United States for itself, the crucial economic question raised by the Potsdam Declaration; namely what level of German economic activity is desired over the long term?
Days ago in 2007, from the lofty perches of the Ivory Tower in their air-conditioned offices playing armchair quaterback from half-a-world away:
President Bush lost touch long ago with Iraq’s political reality — not to mention Americans’ anguish and disbelief at his mismanagement of the war. So we welcome the House of Representatives’ long-overdue attempt to shake some sense into Mr. Bush with a resolution opposing his decision to send another 20,000 combat troops to fight this disastrous war without any plan to end it.NYT plays Democrat advisor. They sure were on point in 1945, weren't they?Yet yesterday’s vote, in which 17 Republicans joined the Democrats to produce a margin of 246 to 182, was the easy part. It takes no great courage or creativity for a politician to express continuing support for the troops and opposition to a vastly unpopular and unpromising military escalation. Even if the Senate manages to overcome its procedural self-hobbling and approve a similar resolution, the war and the mismanagement will go on.
The next necessary steps will require harder thinking and harder choices. Congress needs to do what Mr. Bush is refusing to do: link further financing for the war to the performance of Iraq’s Shiite-led government, which is making no serious effort to rescue its country from civil war.
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February 14, 2007
From AdAge.com:
Google has lost a copyright lawsuit in Belgium brought on by a group of newspapers. The case was decided in favor of copyright protection group Copiepresse, composed of 17 mostly French-language newspapers.Remaining unresolved is the question of whether the linking Google does can be considered fair use. Consequently, expect to hear more on the issue in the future.The newspapers complained that Google breached copyrights by publishing headlines and links to news stories without permission. They also claimed Google's cached links allowed searchers to find and read past articles that were no longer available for free online. Google has been ordered to pay a retroactive fine for the days it used the content; the company said it will appeal the decision.
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04:17 PM
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