Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

OBAMA MEDIA HYPOCRISY: ACCUSE McCAIN/PALIN OF INCITING RAGE AND IGNORE THE DEM'S HATE & RAGE FOR THE LAST 7 YEARS

John Hinderaker says:

You have to hand it to the mainstream media: they are utterly shameless in their effort to hand this year's election to Barack Obama. . . .  For those who have observed the lunacy that has gripped the Democratic Party and liberals generally over the last seven years, the idea that we are now witnessing "Republican rage" is laughable. Michelle Malkin does a definitive job of reminding us what hate, rage and lunacy really look like. Rage has been the public face of liberalism for the last seven years.

Me:  I couldn't agree more.  Michelle Malkin does indeed set the record straight with a terrific photo gallery.

Update: Check out the "calm reaction" of Dems to a McCain/Palin march on New York's Upper West Side.  Illuminating video!  Click here.

CONSERVATIVES ARE ASKING "WHEN WILL REPUBLICANS QUIT BEING WIMPS?"

Lots of conservatives are thinking along the lines Peter Kirsanow expresses [my emphases]:

. . . whether [Gwen] Ifill [vice-presidential debate moderator] betrays a bias in favor of Obama/Biden tonight is somewhat beside the point. I'll bet that it will be hard to detect any bias in the questions she asks or the manner in which she asks them. And that's precisely why her evident conflict of interest is so insidious. It's more often the questions that aren't asked that betray bias and unfairness.

Consider: I'd wager that if a poll had been conducted one year ago asking likely voters whether a candidate who had a working relationship with an unrepentant former terrorist had even the slightest chance of being elected president, at least 80% would answer "No." Yet here we are five weeks before the election and Obama leads in most polls. That isn't because of Obama's extraordinary accomplishments, his impressive experience or invincibly superior policies. It's because the media (with one exception) haven't asked Obama about his relationship with Ayers (among other thing).

Keep reading . . . 

GWEN IFILL TO MODERATE VP DEBATE - CAN SHE BE IMPARTIAL?

Unlikely, since she is in the tank for Barack Obama.  But here's hoping.  Read Michelle Malkin's article to learn about Ifill's commitments and biases (Hint: she has written a book on Obama to be published on inauguration day, Janaury 20; she has has written a puff piece on him for Essence magazine, etc. etc.)

Update: 10/2/08 - Victor Davis Hanson says (my emphases:)

TONY BLANKLEY - 'MAINSTREAM MEDIA NOW STRAIGHT OUT PROPAGANDISTS FOR THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN"

Tony Blankley's column says exactly what needs to be said (my emphases):

The mainstream media have gone over the line and are now straight out propagandists for the Obama campaign. While they have been liberal and blinkered in their worldview for decades, in 2007-08 for the first time, the major media are consciously covering for one candidate for president and consciously knifing the other. This is no longer journalism — it is simply propaganda. . .

The image of Barack Obama that the press has presented is not a fair approximation of the real man. They have consciously ignored whole years in his life, and showed a lack of curiosity about such gaps that bespeaks a lack of journalistic instinct. Thus, the public image of Mr. Obama is of a "Man who never was."

STANLEY KURTZ - "OBAMA AND AYERS PUSHED RADICALISM ON SCHOOLS"

Updates: See updates below on evidence of a possible cover-up of Bill Ayers’ role in choosing Obama to lead the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

- This much talked-about article represents a major piece of careful investigation. Michelle Malkin summarizes: "Stanley Kurtz elaborates on how Barack Obama and Bill Ayers organized a community of left-wing grievance-mongers in Chicago’s public schools."

Kurtz also published "Obama's Challenge," saying,

This second piece contains the full text of a public statement from the Obama campaign in response to my findings about Obama, Ayers, and Annenberg. It also includes my detailed response to that statement. I’ll have more on Obama, Ayers, and Annenberg soon. Stay tuned.

Update 9/24/08  - Stanley Kurtz points to another article he just published:

Quote of the Day -- on the Election and the Culture Wars

Rich Lowry writes:

Palin will forever be a target. A pro-life, pro-gun evangelical with five kids, Palin has made the election even more into a culture war than it was before. Not only do national journalists resent that, they are, as urbanites and self-styled sophisticates, largely on the other side of that war as a matter of lifestyle and conviction. Because cultural matters cut so close to the core, it is nearly impossible for them to hide their allegiance.

Me:  Lowry is absolutely right.  The election has become (at least as it looks now), a referendum on whether voices opposing a reflexively militant secular culture will be granted an opportunity to significantly influence future American culture or not.

DEMS AND MEDIA ELITES WHO DERIDE PALIN'S RELIGION EMPLOY A POOR STRATEGY

So says Michael Gerson in an interesting and insightful column.   (HT: The Corner)

Embedded in his article are some interesting lines:

Reporters press Palin's former pastor to reveal if she has ever spoken in tongues, the way it was once asked if candidates had ever used drugs.

And how about this telling quote?:

It was the sociologist Peter Berger who observed, "Puerto Ricans, Jews and Episcopalians each form around 2 percent of the American population.  Guess which group does not think of itself as a minority."

That's quite humorous. . . and true.  Secularists and "sophisticates" reveal their insularity at every turn.  As Gerson says,

The media treatment of Pentecostalism (Palin's main religious background) and Bible church evangelicalism (her current affiliation) has had the quality of a National Geographic special on a newly discovered Amazon tribe. 

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: CHARLIE GIBSON GOT IT ALL WRONG ON THE "BUSH DOCTRINE"

Regarding the Charlie Gibson interview on ABC-TV with Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, Krauthammer says:

Charlie Gibson got it wrong.

There is no single meaning of the Bush Doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.

He asked Palin, "Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?"

She responded, quite sensibly to a question that is ambiguous, "In what respect, Charlie?"  [more . . .]   (HT: Drudge)

LIBERALS ARE INTO CENSORSHIP & COVER-UP (as if you didn't know. ..)

 Not only Ophrah, but also YouTube (owned by Google).  How so?  Read this from the Family Research Council (my emphases):

Planned Parenthood has found an ally in YouTube in the attempt to cover up its racist   scandal. Last week, YouTube removed videos showing Planned Parenthood employees in seven states eagerly accepting donations with the express purpose of paying for aborting African American babies. Last year, UCLA student activist Lila Rose blew the story open by launching an undercover investigation aimed at exposing the racism rampant at the nation's largest abortion merchant. Rose was appalled to discover that every abortion clinic agreed to accept  racially motivated donations. Google, which owns YouTube, won't offer an explanation for this outrageous act of censorship. However, it's apparent that YouTube is covering the tracks of an organization that has a long history of nativism that goes back to Planned Parenthood's earliest days when founder Margaret Sanger advocated negative eugenics.

OPRAH WON'T HAVE GOV. SARAH PALIN ON HER SHOW

At least not until the election is over.  And most women aren't happy. Said one:  (HT: Drudge)

"I'm actually pretty angry with her right now because of this," she said. "I don't think I will be a gung-ho supporter right now.

"I'd think twice about switching her on or even buying her magazine."

Interesting, interesting.  Actually, there are a raft of responses to Oprah on her forum page.  It makes for entertaining reading.  The proportion of women upset and angry with Oprah seems to be running something like 50 to 1 in my unscientific browse.

See also the Politico article:  "Obama supporter, Oprah popularity declining" written back in April, 08.

HYPOCRISY OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA REGARDING GOV. SARAH PALIN'S DAUGHTER, BRISTOL

These commentators said the following about the  hypocrisy of the liberal media:

Jonah Goldberg -

Am I crazy, or did the press spend 16 years congratulating itself over how it left president's kids alone? I guess Sarah Palin doesn't qualify for that kind of decency yet.

Jay Nordlinger -

 - A Corner reader writes, “If only John Edwards were the father, then the media wouldn’t care — it’d be so tabloid.”

- From another reader: “Interesting that when John Edwards’s and Jesse Jackson’s ‘troubles’ came to light, nobody asked whether they were employing proper birth-control techniques, and, if not, why not. Those questions are reserved for the daughters of female candidates” — for the teenage daughters of female conservative candidates, I might add.

"NEW YORK TIMES" UNINTENTIONALLY BOOSTS SALES OF ANTI-OBAMA BOOK

Andy McCarthy at National Review Online notes:

As Roger Kimball points out this morning, the Gray Lady's hit piece on Jerome Corsi's Obama book (The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality) is only helping its sales.

Update: Jerome Corsi's book is a bestseller, but so is another book critical of Obama, David Freddoso's The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined AGenda of the Media's Favorite which will be #5 on the NYTimes bestseller list ...

QUICK TAKES

- Investor's Business Daily calls on Rep. Pelosi to resign.  "Any leader with an energy record as derelict as Speaker Pelosi's ought to step down."

- "The Associated Press shows itself worse than Al Jazeera" - This article proves the statement. (The AP produced a snuff film of two women murdered by the Taliban at Taliban's invitation)

- Important article on Obama-mania.  Me: An understanding of original sin would produce a healthy realism and save us from massive deception and disappointment.

MORE ON TONY SNOW

Bill Kristol tells us that Tony Snow was an avid reader of C.S. Lewis.  How marvelous!  No doubt Lewis offered significant underpinning to Tony's exuberance, gratitude, and joy -- all qualities emphasized and illustrated in Lewis's own life and writings. Although it had not crossed my mind that Tony Snow was a reader of Lewis, I should have guessed it.

Following are some excerpts from Kristol's tribute, but you've got to read the whole thing; it's that good:

. . But I’ll remember Tony Snow more for his character than his career. I’ll especially remember the calm courage and cheerful optimism he displayed in his last three years, in the face of his fatal illness...

Tony was one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet — kind, helpful and cheerful. But underlying these seemingly natural qualities was a kind of choice: the choice of gratitude.Tony thought we should be grateful for what life has given us, not bitter or anxious about what it hasn’t.

TONY SNOW DEAD AT 53

I read the news on Drudge a moment ago and felt sad and ill.  The last I had heard, Tony Snow was doing  better.  What a wonderful man!  I look forward to reading eulogies that will celebrate this man's life.

Update:

Byron York - "a breath of fresh air"

Shannen Coffin - "To call him a "rock star" was an understatement. He brought substance to every meeting he was in and every subject he covered... But what struck me most about him was his ceaseless optimism.. He had a smile that lit up a room and could put a friend at ease in an instant...

WHITEWASHING A MUSLIM "HONOR KILLING" IN ATLANTA

Phyllis Chesler describes how it is done.  Shame on CNN for failing to set forth the facts.

TV SITCOMS TAKE THE NEXT STEP DOWNWARD

- Update 8/6/08 - AP article: Network TV  likes sex, but not in marriage.

- Ed Veith in a World magazine article writes about the "new normal" which represents yet another step downward. After mentioning previous descents, he says:

In "The Office," arguably the funniest show on TV, it is simply taken for granted that unmarried people are having sex. there is no need for innuendo.  The characters talk about their sex lives openly, and extramarital sex is normal. . . .

In the TV culture, teen sex, single adult sex, and—in the most dramatic shift in sexual mores in history—homosexuality are all perfectly acceptable, unproblematic, and normal. Conversely, traditional sexual morality is presented as weird, strange, and out of the mainstream.

Now we have "Swingtown," a new series from CBS -- not pay TV or cable but a mainline broadcast network.  "Swingtown" is about wife-swapping.

(more . . .)

THE NEW YORK TIMES EXAMINES RUSH LIMBAUGH

Here's the nine-page article (remarkably balanced) -

Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade publication, puts Limbaugh’s weekly audience at 14 million. Limbaugh himself says it is closer to 20 million. Either way, nobody else is close. He has been the top-rated radio talk-show host in America since the magazine started the ranking 17 years ago.

Such massive and consistent popularity makes Limbaugh a singular political force. “Rush has completely remade American politics by offering an alternative to the networks and CNN,” Rove told me. . .

Harrison offered an even more grandiose view: “He’s a phenomenon like the Beatles. Before Rush Limbaugh there was nothing like talk radio. He’s been to talk what Elvis was to rock ’n’ roll. He saved the AM dial.”

Read the article and learn about Limbaugh's $450,000 car, a house of 24,000 square feet, a two-story library (a scaled-down version of the library at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina), and a Gulfstream G550 airplane costing $54 million,  Here's another item:

TIM RUSSERT AS DEVOUT ROMAN CATHOLIC LAYMAN

Jon Meacham over at Newsweek produced an excellent, worthwhile read.

THE BLOGOSPHERE - PAMPHLETEERING OF THE 21ST CENTURY

So argues Donald J. Kochan.

TIM RUSSERT - DEAD AT 58

- Update 6/16/08 - Jon Meacham over at Newsweek writes on Tim Russert the devout Roman Catholic.

- TV news is full of reminiscences of Tim Russert, by all accounts a most exemplary human being.  He died yesterday, June 13, 2008, of a heart attack.  Michelle Malkin packs a lot of links in her coverage.  Howard Kurtz offers an excellent overview of his work as a broadcast journalist.

Update -I like Byron York's comment - "Even though he was at the absolute top of the Washington ziggurat, he had not a trace of elitism." 

HOW THE DEMOCRATIC MEDIA (ABC-TV) LIES

From David Horowitz's blog:

Martin Fasak writes: My niece, Katelyn, stationed at Baluud , Iraq was assigned, with others of her detachment, to be escort/guard/ watcher for Martha Raddatz of ABC News as she covered John McCain's recent trip to Iraq . Katelyn and her Captain stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GI's walking past. They kept count of the GI's and you should remember these numbers. She asked 60 GI's who they planned to vote for in November. 54 said John McCain, 4 for Obama and 2 for Hillary. Katelyn called home and told her Mom and Dad to watch ABC news the next night because she was standing directly behind Raddatz and maybe they'd see her on TV. Mom and Dad of course, called and emailed all the kinfolk to watch the newscast and maybe see Katelyn. Well, of course, we all watched and what we saw wasn't a glimpse of Katelyn, but a hell of a view of skewed news. After a dissertation on McCain's trip and speech, ABC showed 5 GI's being asked by Raddatz how they were going to vote in November; 3 for Obama and 2 for Clinton . No mention of the 54 for McCain.

Quick Takes

- Sen. Bunning (R-Ky) resists housing rescue effort by the government.  Read Michelle Malkin's post about the brave, level-headed Senator from Kentucky and let your cynicism flow unimpeded towards the Senators who bring on one fiscal mess after another.  They don't even take time to read the bills they pass!

- Tony Blankley rightly warns that with news outlets pulling back from putting men and women on the field gathering news, the lights of true knowledge of events is flickering.  In the future we may not know enough about events to make rational decisions.

IS ATHEISM GETTING A FREE PASS IN THE MEDIA?

From CBNNews.com:

Does broadcast and print media give atheism the same degree of scrutiny as Christianity and other religious faiths?

The Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute says no. [Executive Summary here -"Apostles of Atheism."] 

The Institute examined the apparent "rise in atheism," subject covered in broadcast news programs, three leading weekly news magazines, and four programs on taxpayer-funded National Public Radio, all shown during 2007.

Gospel of Godlessness

Although only eight percent of Americans call themselves atheists, the report found that not only is the news media hostile toward religion, particularly Christianity, but the media may be spreading a "Gospel of Godlessness" on the American public.

"Whether deliberately or not, the news media did not subject atheism or atheists to the same skepticism to which they subject Christians and Christianity," the report said. "Journalists who look at America's majority religion through a skeptical prism should equally apply their critical faculties to atheism."

In their report, CMI details their discovery of imbalances in the media's coverage of the religion. Among the findings:

- Eighty percent of feature stories about atheism or atheists had a positive tone, 20 percent were neutral. No feature stories were negative.

- Atheists were used to challenge religious viewpoints more than journalists used religious viewpoints to challenge atheism. Fifty-four percent of atheist-themed stories included a religious counterpoint, but 71 percent of the Christian-themed stories included atheist counterpoints or were written from an atheistic perspective.

Double Standard

"By airing unchallenged interviews and reporting predominantly positive-toned features, the news organizations in this study effectively promoted atheism and held it in higher regard than other religions," the report said. "While the media are not

WE CAN'T TRUST MSM REPORTING ON THE ALLEGED NON-LINK BETWEEN AL QAEDA AND SADDAM HUSSEIN

I find it disconcerting that truthfulness in reporting no longer can be assumed.  In fact, we must now treat news organs the way Russians had to treat "Pravda," i.e. as instruments of propaganda. Consider Andy McCarthy's revelation over at "The Corner:"

As several of us have noted countless times, there are influential elements of the Intelligence Community who are unmovably vested in the absence of a meaningful relationship between Saddam Hussein's regime and radical Islam.  By some calculated leaks to friends in the mainstream media, they've once again managed to put an Orwellian spin on an important study, claiming the new Pentagon report on Iraq's terror shows, as the New York Times and ABC put it, "no link" between Saddam and al Qaeda.  They are trying to write the narrative before anyone can read what the report actually says.

What it says is breathtaking.  Today's required reading should be Steve Hayes's post over at the Weekly Standard's blog and Eli Lake's article in the New York Sun. There is simply no doubt that there were serious ties between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda elements — most especially, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (run by al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, who merged formally EIJ into al Qaeda in 1998).

MSM YAWNS AS THOUSANDS OF PRO-LIFERS MARCH IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Michele Malkin puts the non-coverage of the pro-life march on Washington in perspective.

If they were illegal alien activists, they’d get front-page coverage, multimedia packages, and prime time on TV airwaves.

If they were anti-war activists, they’d get front-page coverage, multimedia packages, and prime time on TV airwaves.

They are pro-life activists who marched today to mark the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

. . . Commenter Raging Republican notes: “You forgot to mention the attention it would have gotten if it had been the race hustlers.”   True that.

FREE SPEECH UNDER ASSAULT IN CANADA: THE CASE OF EZRA LEVANT

I don't have time right now to review the case of Mark Steyn, but will do so in due course.  Right now I want to post his comment on, and the link he provides to another case: the grilling that the Alberta Human Rights Commission gave to Ezra Levant, the man who published the Danish cartoons in Canada in the  Western Standard magazine.  Levant is utilizing video documentation of the interrogation to alert the world to what is happening.  Check that link!   As one news source reported:

"A secular government bureaucracy has essentially been hijacked by a radical Muslim imam," [Levant] said. "It's being used to further his fatwa against these cartoons."

Update 1/13/08 - Mark Steyn has more.

Update 1/14/08 - Stanley Kurtz notes absence of MSM coverage:

The electrifying Ezra Levant story has lit up the blogosphere. In the mainstream media it is nowhere to be seen. This is what the blogosphere is for. Will MSM even bother to show up? With how brief a story, how many days late?

(Later) - Kurtz also alerts us to Levant's opening statement to the Alberta Human Rights Commission today which he says serves as a "free speech document."

Analyzing How Religion in the News Gets Reported: GetReligion.org is indispensable

Religion is in the news Big Time these days - Shootings at YWAM and New Life Church in Colorado, Romney & Mormonism & Huckabee, Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas, etc. etc.  I am indebted to a friend for reminding me that the place to go to sort out coverage of religion in the news is GetReligion.org   It's a terrific site where experienced journalists analyze how religion stories are being covered.  Example (from GetReligion writer Terry Mattingly):

When it comes to covering the Youth With A Mission shootings, journalists in the mainstream media are still searching for a template to use.

What’s a template? It’s a pattern, an intellectual road map, a set of guiding principles for coverage based on years of experience and previous coverage (especially the coverage in major newsrooms that set the standards for other journalists across the nation).

For example: Let’s say that a heavily armed conservative Christian guns down some worshippers in a congregation affiliated with the pro-gay Metropolitan Community Church after days or weeks of spewing violent, anti-gay language on the Internet. This fits the “hate crime” template.

A white racist blows up a predominantly African-American church. This fits the racism and “hate crime” template.

A Christian attacks a local mosque. Hate crime. A Muslim attacks a local synagogue. This act is transfered over to a more complex template linked to terrorism. It is not simply a hate crime.

If ex-gay activists disrupted a same-sex union in an Episcopal parish, that would be a hate crime. If gay-rights activists disrupt a Mass in a Catholic parish, that fits into a civil-rights protest template. It is not a hate crime.

In the case of the late Matthew Murray, journalists are trying to figure out the nature of the “health issues” and/or convictions that kept driving him out of conservative Christian organizations. The current Associated Press report — click here for a version via Newsweek — is a good way to sample what is going on.   (more . . .)

This has become a "must read" website for me.

It Seems that Keith H. Kerr, the Clinton Plant, was not a Brigadier General and Served Only in the Reserves

So at least contends  Brigadier General William Becker in a communication to David Horowitz.  The communication reads as follows (the capital letters are original to the letter):

IN SPITE OF MY CURRENT DISTRACTIONS AT HOME I AM FORCED TO ENTER THE PUBLIC ARENA TO EXPRESS MY OUTRAGE AT THE CURRENT REPUBLICAN DEBATE AS MANAGED BY CNN. GAY KEITH IS NOT A BRIGADIER GENERAL. HE IS NOT EVEN AN ACTIVE DUTY RETIRED ARMY OFFICER. HE SPENT HIS YEARS AS A RESERVIST SOLELY IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA MILITARY BUREAUCRACY. HIS BIO IS PUBLISHED IN THE GAY ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO VOIDING THE "DON'T ASK DON'T TELL" POLICY.

FOR DETAILS. YOU MUST NOTE THAT KERR WAS RETIRED FROM THE INACTIVE ARMY RESERVES IN THE GRADE OF COLONEL. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF A FEW YEARS SERVED ON ACTIVE DUTY AS A LIEUTENANT HIS ENTIRE SERVICE WAS IN THE RESERVES IN CALIFORNIA. HE WAS PLACED IN RETIRED RESERVE STATUS WITH THE CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD RESERVES AND PROMOTED TO BRIGADIER GENERAL IN THAT FEDERALLY UNRECOGNIZED STATUS.

THIS IS CONSIDERED AN "HONORARY" TITLE SIMILAR TO THE PHD AWARDED BY UNIVERSITIES AS HONORARIUM. WE WOULD NEVER REFER TO SUCH AWARDEES AS "DOCTOR". IT IS ALSO NOTEWORTHY THAT HE WAS A GRADUATE OF UC BERKELEY AND SERVED AS AN INSTRUCTOR IN ACADEMIA. HE HAS NO COMBAT EXPERIENCE DURING HIS 43 YEARS OF "SERVICE" AND IT IS A DISGRACE FOR HIM TO BE ASSOCIATED BY THE MEDIA WITH THE ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY!!!!

THANKS FOR LISTENING TO THE VOICE OF WRATH OF THIS OLD MILITARY AVIATOR. BRIGADIER GENERAL BILL BECKER UNITED STATES AIR FORCE, RETIRED COMBAT VETERAN WWII, KOREA, VIETNAM

See my earlier post on the CNN sponsored Republican debate.

  

CNN's Debacle at Hosting a "Republican Debate"

Update: 11/30/07 - "Journalistic Malpractice" - Here is Michelle Malkin's video interview on Fox and Friends, plus her updated blog and NY Post article. 

**
Michelle Malkin rounds up all the non-Republican plants who asked questions of Republican candidates at last night's Florida debate.  CNN has egg all over its face.

Hugh Hewitt opines:

From the awful judgment displayed with the opening guitar serenade through the preposterous selection of topics and questions right to the stark reality that CNN either was easily and completely manipulated by the Dems with planted question after planted question or were totally complicit in the hijacking of a Republican debate . . . The network is either incompetent in a way no serious news organization should be, or wholly captured by agenda journalists of the left.

Manufacturing the News: ABC News Hires Actors to Engage in Homosexual PDA, Provoke Reaction

Michelle Malkin has the story.

Press Coverage of the Religious Right: Reliably Unreliable

Chuck Colson explains why.

Media Myths About the Jena 6

If this Christian Science Monitor article is accurate, and I think it is, then we have once again been given a pile of hog dung by the media.  Jonah Goldberg over at the Corner opens his abridgement of the article saying:

If even partially true, this strikes me as pretty devastating and, sadly, entirely believable. By now, I should stop being surprised when the press gets caught up in groupthink like this. Alas, this will go down the memory hole, along with Matthew Shepherd, whales caught in the ice, the "massacre" at Haditha and so many others.

[Me] Groupthink, indeed.  Goldberg's examples of previous groupthink, with all their falsity, need to be constantly kept in mind. In the case of the Jena 6, it seems like the press got it all wrong.  Click here.

Osama's Errors You Won't Read About in the MSM

Cliff May notes the new reality taking place in Iraq and underreported  (if at all) in the U.S.

Abdel Bari Atwan is the editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper. I’ve debated him on TV and radio shows a number of times. Let’s just say we don’t often see eye to eye.

But we do today. He is now acknowledging that Americans have been winning “the trust of certain tribal leaders” in Iraq and that “for the Iraqis the enemy has become al-Qaeda and not the occupying [American] forces.”

In his most recent audio tape, Osama bin Laden implies the same thing. Atwan calls that tape "possibly the most important message" in al-Qaeda's history. "It is the first time that bin Laden recognizes the error committed by  

25 Million People Who Rely On MSM News Left in the Dark

Duane Patterson, Radio Blogger, did a good job analyzing last night's newscasts. Highly recommended.

Associated Press Anti-Christian Bigotry Again On Display

Last Friday our local newspaper carried the Associated Press (AP) headline, "Police kill church deacon who shot 5, killing 2, at La. law firm."  As I read the article, I asked myself, "What in the world does 'church deacon' have to do with this story?  It has nothing to do with it."  I immediately chalked it up to anti-Christian bias. 

It turns out I'm not the only one who came to that conclusion.  Michael Medved drew the same conclusion in a column he wrote yesterday:

An October 6^th story by the Associated Press provided a small, odd but disturbing and undeniable illustration of the bitter anti-religious bias that’s become too typical of the mainstream media. The story’s lead paragraph proclaimed: “ALEXANDRIA, La – A 63-year-old Baptist deacon shot five people in a law office here on Thursday, killing two, before being killed by police officers early Friday...”

Later in the article we discover the name of the shooter (John Ashley) and that “anger over a divorce settlement may have prompted the shooting.” We also learn that the killer was a “retired city maintenance worker” who had given no signs of violent behavior before his rampage.

Why, then, did the AP decide that the most important factor in identifying him was his status as a “Baptist deacon”? This is not a professional position – it is a volunteer activity. Wouldn’t it seem odd if they began their story about the tragic shooting by describing Mr. Ashley as “a 63-year-old golfer” or “a 63-year-old Democratic volunteer” or a

Sister Toldjah Demolishes Whoopi Goldberg's Views on Abortion

I have a link to Sister Toldjah on the side of my blog, but I hadn't visited the blog in a long time.  Her post on abortion is excellent.  It's full of powerful insights, and reads as follows:

Another day, another example of rampant idiocy on the set of ABC’s The View.

Just one day after View co-host Whoopi Goldberg declared to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she’d enjoy a threesome with her and Pelosi’s husband Paul, who was sitting in the audience, Goldberg saw fit to chide conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck over her anti-abortion views. Justin McCarthy writes:

Is Whoopi Goldberg becoming the Rosie O’Donnell type bully? It appeared that way on the October 3 edition of “The View.” A discussion about Hillary Clinton’s $5,000 a baby entitlement plan quickly descended into a heated exchange between Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Whoopi Goldberg about abortion.

When Hasselbeck noted that $5,000 a baby could lead to fewer abortions in the world, Whoopi told Hasselbeck to

Tiresome "Washington Post" Bias

Stanley Kurtz makes the point:

Today, on the front page of The Washington Post, we see the third in a three-part series on roadside bombs in Iraq. The stories in this series have been centered on the top half of the page and highlighted in red (a device I don’t recall seeing before). Next to that is a huge headline about allegations of killings In Iraq by Blackwater. Below that is a headline that reads "Most in Poll Want War Funding Cut." Meanwhile deep inside the paper, on page A14, we find the following article: "U.S. and Civilian Deaths Decrease Sharply in Iraq: American Military Credits Troop Influx." True, nestled between

Christiane Amanpour's CNN Series "God's Warriors" Evaluated

What should we make of Christiane Amanpour's six-hour CNN production on Jews, Muslims and Christians titled "God's Warriors"?   

Camera (The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) has evaluated all three programs. The first is titled God's Jewish Warriors: CNN's Abomination; the second, "God's Muslim Warriors: CNN's Double Standard"; and the third, Amanpour Slurs Christians. 

Phyllis Chesler also weighs in with her own biting analysis.

Transcripts of the three programs can be found at the following links: God's Jewish Warriors; God's Muslim Warriors; and God's Christian Warriors.

A Long List of Mainstream Media Cases of Lying, Plagiarism, Bias, Deceptions

The American Thinker's Randall Hoven puts together a list of the inductees in the MSM Hall of Shame.  (HT: Hugh Hewitt) 

Offenses include lying and fabricating, doctoring photos, plagiarism, conflicts of interest, falling for hoaxes, and overt bias. . . 

Anybody for a Media Fast?

Justin Taylor writes:

One of the best parts of my vacation was being without a computer. Good for the soul!

I thought back to something that Doug Groothuis (philosophy professor at Denver Seminary) requires of his students:

I routinely require my students to engage in some kind of "media fast," in which they abstain from an electronic medium for at least one week. During this time they are required to reflection several portions of Scripture--the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the fruit of the Spirit, etc.--in light of their experiences. In the six or so years I have been assigning this fast, the results have

The New York Times Surrenders - Victor Davis Hanson responds

Click here for a point-by-point rebuttal to the New York Times' editorial.   VDH's article begins

On July 8, the New York Times ran an historic editorial entitled “The Road Home,” demanding an immediate American withdrawal from Iraq. It is rare that an editorial gets almost everything wrong, but “The Road Home” pulls it off. Consider, point by point, its confused—and immoral—defeatism.

VDH's rebuttal.

The MSM Refuses to Alter Its Narrative that the West is the Cause of Jihadist Terror

Hugh Hewitt nails it again.  The MSM (Main Stream Media) retains its storyline of blaming the West for jihadist actions in the face of all manner of contrary evidence.  An excerpt:

Melanie Phillips writes today that "We are losing." (HT: K-Lo.) If Phillips is correct, one of the primary reasons is that MSM refuses --simply refuses-- to convey to the public the nature of the enemy, and hangs on to narratives that blame us for the rise of the jihadists while turning a blind eye to the jihadists' own explanations.  Visit Laura Mansfield's always chilling site and scroll down.

Politicizing the News: The Press Shuns Covering Gay or Black Crimes

John Leo, in an important article,  The Politics of News, comments on the murders of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23 in Knoxville on January 6th. You probably haven't heard of this case because it failed to receive widespread coverage.  Christian and Newsom were carjacked, kidnapped, raped, tortured, sexually mutilated, and killed.  The suspects in the case are five black men. 

John Leo reminds us also of another double standard crime story:  the 1999 death of Jesse Dirkhising, a 13-year-old Arkansas boy who was drugged, tied to a bed, raped, tortured, and killed by two homosexual men. 

The big-time press was exasperated by complaints that, unlike the Matthew Shepard story, the murder of the Dirkhising boy virtually had no coverage outside of Arkansas . . .   The Shepard story was news in a way that the Dirkhising story wasn't because it "prompted debate on hate crimes and the degree to which there is still intolerance of gay people in this country," according to a Washington Post editor. This comes pretty close to advocacy. Hate-crime legislation was in some trouble at the time, and gays were fighting to get included under existing laws. . .    If Jesse Dirkhising had been a gay youngster tortured and killed by straight men, the story would have gone national in a heartbeat.

Now the press is making the Dirkhising mistake again in the Knoxville case. It may have the same result: the story will spread anyway thanks to the Internet. Before the press start up again about "angry white males," let's notice that the blogger assault on the press's failure in the Knoxville case is being led by Michelle Malkin, who is Asian-American, and LaShawn Barber, who is black.

Before long, more news consumers will conclude that even crime news is in effect being politicized. Is this any way to protect an industry in trouble?

See Michelle Malkin for more, including her 2001 article on the Jesse Dirkhising case.

Associated Press Hypocrisy: Kind of Humorous, Really

The AP recently accused Republican presidential candidates of a lack of diversity in their staffing.  But then Dan Riehl decided to look at the Associated Press Board of directors.  Click here for pictures of all 22 and note the statistics:

19 out of 22 are men.

0 out of 22 are "women of color."

1 out of 22 is a "man of color."

Sometimes you just gotta laugh at hypocrisy when it stares you so blatantly in the face.

Planned Parenthood Caught on Tape Lying to Underage Inquirers

Michelle Malkin has a "Hot Air" video report here. 

The so-called "main stream media" likes some kinds of undercover reporting, but not others, especially coverage that exposes their biases like Planned Parenthood.  Click here for an article exposing the Left's failure to report the undercover reporting they don't like.

Main Stream Media's Failure to Research Islam

Why do Main Stream Media writers fail to do background research when interviewing Islamic leaders?  Good question.   Alyssa A. Lappen has written a very important article filled with links to help educate writers on things Islamic.

When she worked as a financial writer, Lappen researched companies for weeks before interviewing a CEO.  But writers interviewing Muslim leaders do not do such research.  Please do read her article.  A few paragraphs follow:

In financial reporting, it goes without saying that one cannot write a major investigative piece on a corporation, industry or economic issue without first reading a great deal. For public companies, this requires extensive review of all Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings--recent annual reports (10-Ks, or F-20s for foreign firms), quarterlies (10-Qs), and changes to business strategy (8-K) or ownership (13-D). A good sleuth also consults the filings of major competitors and customers, in addition to interviewing as many of them as possible.

 
Only after laying this groundwork will the thorough reporter contact executives at the subject corporation. . .   But when it comes to interviewing Muslim community or religious leaders, mainstream reporters are little inclined to submit them to tough or probing questions. Frequently, the U.S. media present leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim American Society (MAS), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), or Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as “civil rights” activists, “soft-spoken,” regular guys to be taken at face value, “moderate,” “really respected,” and so on.

. . . On political religious matters, though, reporters don't even check readily available records to verify the claimed moderation of these men and groups. Otherwise, they undoubtedly would quickly find that these organizations are actually all

Gathering of the Eagles Supports the Troops

** Update 3/19/07 - Michelle Malkin provides a full video report on The Gathering of Eagles.  She says:

Many highlights there, but take special note of the face-off at the 6:00 minute mark. As you can see, we spent most of the day covering the march on the Eagles' side of the fence. Why? Because almost all of the news camera crews we spotted--the ones that bothered to show up, that is--gathered around Cindy Sheehan and the anti-war freak show--and then left. We didn't see any of them covering the long lines of Eagles waiting to get through security to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Didn't see them covering the speeches and performances by the vets and pro-military activists. Reporters mingled comfortably on the moonbat side, except to shoot drive-by photos casting pro-troops counterprotesters in a negative light. Bloggers continue to rip old media whitewashing of the historic event.  (Click through for links and more commentary).

** 
Here's a Washington Rally you probably didn't hear about, or if you did, you received a slanted version.   (The MSM coverage is unconscionable!) Michelle Malkin reports:

It was a breath-taking, historic, and emotional day in Washington, D.C. You won't know it if you tune in to the usual MSM channels. But new media--bloggers, conservative documentarians, Internet activists, FReepers (giant thread here), citizen journalists, photojournalists, and talk radio hosts--turned out in full force to participate and cover the Gathering of Eagles counter-protest. Thousands upon thousands turned out despite freezing temperatures and hairy travel conditions. We met bikers who drove up all night from Huntsville, Alabama; a retired NYC firefighter who arrived here at 2am; college students who traveled from Massachusetts; a Vietnam veteran's wife who bought plane tickets at the last minute from San Francisco; and countless participants who arrived as part of Move America Forward's cross-country caravan.

A pure, grass-roots effort, the Gathering of Eagles' volunteers matched the massive Soros-funded anti-war machine sign for sign, chant for chant, and marcher for marcher. The contrast was most stark right before the entrance to the Memorial Bridge, where Eagles gathered with a field of American flags--while anti-Bush, 9/11 conspiracy nuts wrapped themselves in a figurative blanket of yellow "Out of Iraq" placards. Several of the vets shouted, "Yellow! How appropriate!" in between spirited chants of "U.S.A! U.S.A!" While the classless Cindy Sheehan ranted profanely, the Eagles raised their voices in polite, but roaring disapproval and raised their American flags in answer to the ANSWER socialists' Che banners and peace pennants.

Why did the Eagles come? One common refrain: Vietnam veterans, some fighting back tears, told us they came to show the kind of support for the troops that they did not receive when the surrender lobby marched on the Pentagon 40 years ago today.

Mission accomplished. 

Click through for updates and links not shown above.

ACLU Exec In Court on Child Porn Charges

Update below

***
WorldNetDaily has the story which other news outlets haven't yet covered (and maybe never will).  WND's headline:

ACLU exec busted for child porn in court today
Former Virginia chapter president accused of downloading graphic assault videos

The news story begins:

A former American Civil Liberties Union executive, who once argued that Internet filters in libraries that limited children's access to pornography would interfere with their ability to learn and communicate, is facing a federal court hearing today on charges he possessed child pornography.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled in court in the Eastern District of Virginia for Charles Rust-Tierney, 51, of Arlington, Va., who has been held in custody in the case since his arrest. According to report on the case, Rust-Tierney admitted to investigators he had downloaded videos and images from child pornography websites onto CD-ROMS, which reportedly depicted graphic forcible assaults on young girls.

Rust-Tierney, who served as president of the Virginia ACLU chapter for several years, was the lawyer who argued against Internet filters in libraries in the early 2000s when the ACLU was opposing the Children's Internet Protection Act, which later was approved by Congress.

What's particularly interesting about this case is the lack of widespread news coverage so far.  As WND says: 

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly called it a "horrifying" case. And he noted that the two "biggest left-wing outfits in the country – the New York Times and NBC News – ignored the story entirely." CBS News, CNN and most of the big city liberal newspapers also failed to cover the Rust-Tierney arrest, Fox said.

"Now the failure of most media outlets to cover this colossal embarrassment to the ACLU contrasts vividly with the coverage of preacher Ted Haggard, which embarrassed conservative Christians. You remember when Haggard was accused of immorality by a male prostitute, the story was all over the place."

Read that last paragraph again.  Let's see if the press picks up the story.  Don't count on it since the accused is one of their own. Read the whole story.

Update 3/7/07 - Joseph Farah, in an article lambasting the AP for its activism and bias, notes:

Why is it so significant that AP did not "pick up the story"? Because AP is the major disseminator of news throughout our country and our world. Even with the Internet, if it doesn't make the AP wire, a story is going to have limited readership. Someone in AP's Washington bureau made a conscious decision to "spike" the ACLU kiddie porn connection.

AP has many activists on its 30,000-member staff. They don't call themselves activists. They call themselves journalists. But activism is their real calling. It's where their hearts are.

Jesus' Tomb Found? Filmmaker James Cameron Thinks So

I had not planned on blogging about the alleged "find" of Jesus' tomb because I thought it nonsense, but I see it is getting so much media play (including "Larry King Live" et al) that I had better at least make some mention of it.  Maybe the best way to do that would be to cite responses.  I wish I had time to produce extracts but I don't.  To "No Compromise" blog I am indebted to the following links:  Ben Witherington,  James White, and Brian Maloney (of "Hot Air" fame).

The Anchoress isn't a bit concerned (she titles her post "Laughing at the Jesus Tomb.")  She offers a slate of websites to check out for additional comments including Mac’s Mind, Stand to Reason, Captains Quarters Blog, Texas Rainmaker,  The Dude finding Jesus, and Doug Ross.   

Maybe I should be concerned, but I'm not.  I'm bored.  I've lived too long.  I'm too aware of the way these media blitzes work.  It's all so tedious.  Besides my own skepticism, many of the posts above (see for example the Stand to Reason post) explain the huge, really really huge, improbability of this being the tomb of Jesus.  So I say, rest easy, keep trusting in the Lord.  These attacks on Christian faith, though mounting in intensity, should be expected.   (Cf. the extraordinary hype given the story on NBC's "Today" show)

Actually, from another perspective, maybe this media blitz should be welcomed.  Considering the state of religious knowledge in the United States at present, it may come as a revelation to some that Christian faith is built on the proclamation of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead.  That may come as a shock to some people.