Perhaps the most relentless and determined blogger this side of Beldar, the great and good Patterico has his yearly review of the Los Angeles Times out for your perusal.
This is just a guess, but I am thinking that the Times editors are . . . well . . . not happy to have Patterico focus his spotlight on them. Read the post and you will see why.
I told you the man is relentless.
Opinion Research Corporation has just announced a poll which tells us that 77% of Americans blame the media for making the economic crisis worse.
No surprise there. It’s been nothing but "We’re All Gonna Die!" for virtually the entire eight years of the Bush presidency. What’s new is the idea that media organizations could potentially be held liable for some of the damage they’ve caused:
Richard L. Scheff, a national expert on corporate liability and white collar crime issues, warns media that they could potentially be exposed to liability despite apparent constitutional protections:
"Although statements by the media are protected by the First Amendment, the survey results demonstrate that the public believes that the press bears some responsibility for the lack of confidence in the economy. One would hope that the media would act less out of self-interest in these times of national crisis," said Mr. Scheff, vice chairman and partner with Philadelphia-based law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads.
In a country where a judge took seriously a claim that the loss of a pair of pants was worth $54 million, surely someone could claim that the loss of half the value of their 401(k) was worth $100 million, and that The New York Times was the culprit who caused it. The Times might win the suit, but so did the couple who ran the dry cleaning store in the Great Pants Suit. The “win” cost them $64,000 in attorney’s fees. (Generous donors held a fund-raiser and covered this cost, but would anyone do that for The New York Times?)
Where’s John Edwards when you need him?
Two very telling stories have surfaced in the past few days as we bring to an end 2008, the year of the Democrats. Both stories are extensions of the major story of the year, the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President. Extensions because neither would have taken place had Obama not been elected.
Both stories also show once again the hypocrisy and liberal bias of the media and their obsessive infatuation or love affair with Obama and the long standing affair that the media has had with the Kennedy’s.
The first deals with the President Elect and his Christmas vacation in Hawaii. Numerous pictures have surfaced that show Obama either swimming in the ocean or walking on the beach after a refreshing dip. In every picture the , “athleticism,” and buffed look of Obama is shown with drooling articles or captions expressing the ,”fine,” shape that the President Elect is in.
First let me stress that these pictures ARE NOT just happenstance or taken from hidden perches by , “Paparazzi,” from the media hype concerning Obama. Presidents and President Elects are surrounded by the most highly sophisticated and strict security found in the world. Photographs of a President especially in a private situation like those seen of Obama on the beach are not just taken and released by reporters who have not received prior security checks and clearance to take the pictures.
Remember a picture taken in secret could just as easily be a potential assassin and no one would be aloud to be that close to any President without the Secret Service taking the photographer out. So these pictures were staged and allowed to be release with a prior agreement by the Obama people as PR for the President Elect.
I know this for a fact also because of an incident at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point when Clinton was President. A Marine stationed on the base tried to get a picture of Air Force One as it took off after a Clinton visit and the Secret Service pounced on the Marine and confiscated his camera for security reasons BEFORE the picture could be snapped. If they will do this to one of America’s finest trying to get a picture of a plane carrying the President, do you actually think Paparazzi pictures on the beach of Obama would stand a chance ?
Stories surrounding the pictures drool over the buff look of Obama stating his work our regime since being elected and how is shows discipline and focus by a man who will take the same type of focus and stamina into the White House. Media hype praising their messiah for being in shape. The same media who has been condemning President Bush since he took office for , “excessive,” exercising. Running way to much. Bicycling far more than necessary and generally over doing it from an exercise stand point. But with Obama it is a sign of ,”greatness,” and character !
Give me a break! First Bush has been doing his exercise routine for years and he continued it in the White House. Obama just recently started his exercise regime and the pictures were allowed only to show the type of shape he is now in to create further media hype before he takes office.
Now on to Caroline Kennedy. She has become the front runner and the likely candidate to take the Junior Senator’s seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton. With no prior political experience and little clue as to what a Senator does, her name and the payola owed by Obama for her endorsement and work for his campaign will most likely gain Kennedy the seat.
She has shown pitiful savvy politically speaking in interviews and she , “you know, ” has no, “you know, ” ability, “you know, ” when it , “you know, ” comes to ,” you know,” public, “you know, ” speaking. She also dances around every questions because she has absolutely no clue concerning how to answer what she is asked.
Where the hypocrisy by the liberal media shows its ugly face is in how they are almost defending her especially the New York Times. If Sarah Palin had conducted an interview or press questioning even remotely like Caroline Kennedy she would have been fried like a chicken leg and condemned as an idiot. Palin conducted several interviews during the Presidential campaign and made a few gaffs that the press demonized.
The press lambasted Palin and Saturday Night Live lampooned her for, “you betcha,” and ,”dog gonnit.” But Carolina Kennedy using, “you know, ” every other word scarcely receives a mention. Kennedy’s total lack of political knowledge is also scarcely mentioned while the very politically successful and astute Palin was portrayed as raving lunatic.
The honeymoon for Barack Obama with the press may never end because of the love affair they have had and continue to have with the messiah. The Kennedy’s have had this type of infatuation from the media since the days of ,”Camelot,” and JFK which has allowed a considerable amount of garbage and controversy to receive little attention.
Scrutiny of a President by the press is something that has helped to keep balance in our system since the day George Washington first took office. Good, bad or indifferent, media scrutiny of a President has brought to light real or percieved scandals in out history which has brought a form of balance to our system, a balance that will not exist with Obama and a very liberal Congress. The hypocrisy and infatuation by the press over Barack Obama and the Kennedy name is going to allow a complete novice into the Senate. It has already aloud a novice to be elected President !
Ken Taylor http://theliberalslies.blogspot.com
One need only look at QandO’s demolition job on the New York Times’s effort to pin the blame concerning the current housing and financial crisis on the Bush Administration’s supposedly “hands-off approach to regulation.” As QandO points out, there were a whole host of people to blame on this issue–including Democrats who denied that there were any problems with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, even as Republicans sought to have more oversight of the two government agencies.
The Times needs to read Steve Horwitz as well before going off half-cocked about the supposed dangers of the market. I don’t expect it to do so–its easier to beat up on scapegoats than it is to face facts. But the rise of the alternative media is tied directly and explicitly to the failure of mainstream media outlets like the New York Times to process facts and its consistent willingness to allow its editorial board to dictate to its audience what we should believe the facts of a certain story to be.
Of course, this promises to have an awful effect on policy formulation. Misinformation does not lead to good choices when it comes to creating and implementing policy and at a time when we are facing a severe economic downturn and financial crisis, access to the correct information is crucial to our ability to right our economic ship.
Too bad, then, that the Times made it that much tougher to access and utilize complete and accurate information on the financial crisis and the causes behind it. The sentiments in its story were better expressed on the editorial page, if anywhere at all. Ironically enough, by choosing to substitute ideology for facts, the Times has proven itself as intellectually sloppy and dishonest as it presumes the Bush Administration to be.
Warner Todd Huston in his “The GOP cannot win until…” is absolutely correct. Education is the key. And there is no doubt about the indoctrination by the Left, which actually starts in K-12 and continues through the University. I will argue that the key to the success of the left-indoctrination may also be the key to counteract it.
The left indoctrination (be it in our current universities or in any Marxist strategy of any time and place) works by distorting the truth. The left is unencumbered by the eight commandment. In the Marxist ideology the ends justifies the means. The strategy of distorting the truth in schools and the media has always worked very well for the left. Unlike Europe, and especially Eastern Europe, Americans have little experience of this Marxist strategy. They don’t see that plain distortion of the truth is at work everywhere in the education enterprise, whether it is by biasing textbooks in K-12, rewriting history, ignoring economic facts, or misrepresenting the embryonic stem cell research potential.
The AAAP (American Association of University Professors) has recently sanctioned that the pursuit of the objective truth is not anymore the goal of a university department. The accepted truth is what the department decides it is. This is now written in their charter. So, for example, if the Women Studies department declares that women have been oppressed because of capitalism, that is the truth about the condition of women.
But a University’s mission is the pursuit of the Truth. Thus, to counter the continuing invasion of the left in academia, an essential (and probably effective) strategy is to insist on zero tolerance for distortions of facts and contest each and every claim unsupported by rigorous evidence. We protest when the media distort facts about Sarah Palin. But we don’t protest when university professors distort facts about so many things. We must start doing so.
A possible place to start contesting the increasing amount of truth distortions present in Universities is from the Science and Engineering departments. They are the most concerned with and sensitive to the truth. I would not start with Physics and Mathematics because, although they would certainly see the importance of the truth issue, they are already too much left leaning. Engineering is better. Many engineering students don’t have a strong interest in society and so they have not have had a chance to be indoctrinated. The trouble with them is that they have little time and inclination to devote to university policy. But they could be helped; especially by using social networking and other internet-methods that would make it easy and not time consuming for them to voice their intolerance for truth distortions. They spend all their time in front of computer and it would be easy for them to support a cause just by clicking here and there every once in a while.
Once the movement of protesting for a return to the mission of the University to searching for the Truth gets going, many idealistic students who now fall for the left would embrace this ‘rid-us-from-the-liars ’ movement. For example, if they convinced themselves that ‘professors lied when they said that Bush lied’ it is likely that they, being idealistic, would turn against the original liars.
Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, and the “Misery Index.”
As the title states - this is a leap - so it will be up to you whether you hang in with me while we get through the “strange” to get to the point and then (hopefully you will choose to) engage in some discussion of the point, that we will eventually get to. 
I know some of you are here just to see what “strangeness” may abound, but regardless - all are welcome…
As I sat watching a marathon of The Match Game “Holiday” episodes (meaning, Christmas-time, back when they could call them “Christmas episodes,” but even at the end of the 70’s incarnation run of these shows there were some folks making an “issue” of Charles’ wearing of a Santa suit on air… those Left-wingers were always as they are today in Hollywood… but anyway… where was I? oh…) I thought of this strange little diary idea…
I’ve watched the re-runs of this (probably my favorite, maybe second to Hollywood Squares) Game show seemingly forever. Political references would always creep up. Some Nixon references from back then on occasion, but a large number of the re-run episodes remind us of the Jimmy Carter era, and obvious connections in the “Fill in the Blank” opportunities to poke at Carter’s administration short-comings. It was/is those Carter memories (all night-mares really) that is the stimuli of this topic.
I have often around RS stated my fears that Obama is going to return us to the days of Carter, hence the connection of “Match Game,” Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama, in my minds ability to stretch an association. Like I said, at times within Diaries there had been some connections of ObaNomics to Carter, I thought I’d dedicate an actual Diary to that potential! or should that be - Potential?
Gas shortages are not likely to return, though if they cause additional strains on Refinery operations they may, but high gas prices (RS discussion: If Obama is elected: The return of $4.00/Gal Gas and continued 70% Imports) are IMO a sure bet at some point during an Obama administration. But, will that be a side-effect of Democratic policies accidentally (Democrats ignore law of unintended consequences, and we pay or Obama/Democrats Surrender doctrine and Defense Cuts leading to more Middle-east turmoil and Oil crisis) or by (Taxation, Cap-and-Trade, failure to Drill here, policies prolonging CRA induced Mortgage meltdown, upcoming ObaNomics $timulus plan, etc…) design? Certainly the fact that Obama to push Global-Warming agenda (despite the current scientific data) is going to have a bearing.
Of course, knowing of the real pain to come the MSM is covering for Obama (before he even takes office, rather a continuation since his Iowa caucus start) by attempting to pre-blame anything and everything on the Bush administration. The NYT even is preempting the inevitable by introducing the Return of the Misery Index story, to associate and attach the stigma to/with Bush. The new “Great Depression” proclamations have gone on since the Election, while we still wait for the official “Recession” of Two straight Quarters of Negative growth. It cannot be denied we are on our way out of an “Economic Slow-down” and the direction isn’t currently up. With Obama poised to take the White House, with a cast of Democratic leadership characters in control of the House and Senate, the “Progressive” wish-list of what they “HOPE” to do to (er… for) America ensures Obama’s Pledge (sure he meant it as a warning though) that “The Economy is going to get worse before it gets better.” The Misery Index currently is at 7.77%.
Misery Index Facts: Bush’s current 7.77 (which might creep a little upward his last months in office) equals that of JFK’s first year, about the same as Clinton in 1997 (mid-way administration), and barely higher than Clinton’s 7.35% when he left office. It is also lower than the Bush 41 years average of 10.5%, and is in stark contrast to the high (Carter legacy) of 20.76%. Bill Clinton’s average was 7.8 and George W. Bush’s is 7.88, but you never heard the “Misery Index” term even once during the Clinton years!
So, to close… You can follow with the line of thinking of how Obama will certainly NOT be the return of Camelot and more be Jimmy Carter Jr. Further discuss the Misery Index, or its Inflation and/or Unemployment rates sub-parts. Laugh at my minds ability to wonder and/or wander. Or, just have some fun (in the spirit of The Match Game) and complete the following: Obama _______!
In today’s world of moral relativism, the media frequently reverses labels and agendas. Good men are made the villain. Villains are made good men. Heros are made traitors and traitors are made heros.
After spending thousands of words to claim God is a proponent of gay marriage, Newsweek works hard to paint a traitor as a hero.
Meet Thomas Tamm. Mr. Tamm is the man who leaked to the New York Times the foreign surveillance program the media dubbed “warrantless wiretaps.”
The program, mischaracterized by the media and Mr. Tamm, listened in on foreigners calling foreigners whose calls were routed through the United States. In some cases calls were monitored that ended in the United States. The purpose of the program was to gather intelligence on foreign terrorist activities.
Revelations of the program by the media significantly impacted its effectiveness. According to people inside the Bush administration, the effectiveness of intelligence gathering against the enemy was impacted after the New York Times leaked the existence of the program.
Mr. Tamm is to blame. As Newsweek notes
Tamm concedes he was also motivated in part by his anger at other Bush-administration policies at the Justice Department, including its aggressive pursuit of death-penalty cases and the legal justifications for “enhanced” interrogation techniques that many believe are tantamount to torture.
Mr Tamm did not like John Ashcroft. He did not like rendition. In fact, if you plow through the Newsweek article, you’ll find that Mr. Tamm did not much care for the War on Terror at all. So he decided to undermine it.
A media, willing to aid and abet Al Qaeda, seized on the story, badly mischaracterized what the NSA was doing, and tipped off the nation’s enemies about the program.
Neither the media nor Mr. Tamm have any regrets. And now the media will paint the traitor a hero. He fits the media narrative of standing up to the man — damn the consequences. But we should remember him as Tamm the Traitor — he put a personal agenda ahead of the nation’s security.
You have all, no doubt, heard (and probably seen the video footage) about the Iraqi “reporter” that hurled his shoes at President Bush during a Press conference in Iraq. However, you probably have yet to see/hear about the Che Guevara connection.
President Bush was not expecting gifts on the visit, and it turned out the Iraqi wasn’t caught up in the Christmas giving spirit (knowing Bush to be a Dog lover) and presenting him with some hush-puppies, but was throwing his shoes in what is known as an insult. A form of saying, “you are beneath me.” President Bush got the last laugh by just ignoring the intended insult meaning and laughed at the man (Muntadhar al-Zeidi of a minor Iraq TV outlet) joking to the remaining Iraqi Press, ’so you can have the facts straight, they are size 10,’ figuratively throwing the shoes back in the mans face.
Apparently, the Iraqi “journalist” was just trying to point out that George W. Bush is just ducking the is-shoes. Yet another example of Liberal Bias in the MSM, even all the way over in Iraq! Reports were untrue however, that al-Zeidi was singing Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots” as he was dragged from the premises.
I couldn’t have been more correct (re: Liberal) it turns out… a later news story had footage of the al-Zeidi home where a nephew threatened to throw shoes at Iraqi officials if they didn’t let his uncle go free… In the background… A POSTER OF CHE Guevara! While I have been very tongue-in-cheek (catch that one), this part is not at all a joke, there really was a poster of Che (watch the CBSnews video below closely, you’ll see in interview part with his nephew the Che poster on the wall). It doesn’t get any better than that nor more telling.
Mr al-Zeidi refuses to is-shoe an apology. He is jailed, though many call for his unconditionsoul release. Since it is doubtful heel ever learn, he may as well be released, especially during this “Christian” (Christmas) time of forgiveness, love, caring, etc…
Had the shoe been on the other foot and al-Zeidi assaulted the Iraqi President they wouldn’t be so forgiving. In fact, he’d be six feet under had he attempted to do that to Saddam or his Sons while they were around.
In the History of the Iraqi conflict, Muntadhar al-Zeidi will no doubt be relegated to nothing more than a footnote.
In all seriousness though….
I APPLAUD President Bush treating this Pathetic… Little… POS… Petty…. Moron…. with NO RESPECT by demonstrating that he was/is “NO THREAT, WORTHLESS, AND NO NEED OF MUCH A REACTION!”
The room was cleared/swept prior to the Press conference… Those getting access to the room had been screened…. Entrance involved extensive weapon scanning (but shoe-bombs, not joking, may become more of a concern/issue in the future)…. etc….
If you watch the whole ordeal you see President Bush extending his Right arm out to “stand down” the Agent that was going to step in front in order to provide protection, as additional people come in from other rooms.
As for the Pathetic (al-Zeidi) individual… HE NEEDS TO BE PROSECUTED, AND MADE EXAMPLE OF, FOR ASSAULT. Terms like “FREE SPEECH” are coming out in his defense over there… This is a good learning opportunity for the morons (and I AM NOT referring to all Iraqis, just the anti-American ones that give us no credit for liberating their country giving them these Freedoms) in this emerging Free State and Democracy that “Free Speech” is ONLY THAT… Speech…. Assault and Physical Manifestations are NOT a protected form of “Expression!” Heck… Good lesson for MORONS ON THE LEFT IN THIS COUNTRY TO FINALLY LEARN!
The US MSM reaction is, of course, typical and expected, as they portray al-Zeidi as indicative of Arab or Islamic viewpoint of Bush and/or America because of G.W. Bush. Any other monolithic labeling of these groups would be deemed Racist and insulting, but somehow when the Liberal MSM does it is is “factual” and “informative.” Yeah, Right… NOT!
The MSM enjoys playing up this story and the Anti-Bush narrative and that somehow violence is the norm, while constantly avoiding the positive and increasing Peace that is over-taking Iraq. We see nothing about the historic SOFA (Status Of Forces Agreement) providing Radical-Elect Obama with the luxury of withdrawal in VICTORY!
If you are going to report on the shoe-throwing incident in Baghdad, perhaps you ought to get your facts straight and report the context of the story properly. Or so thinks Bill Roggio. I am sure that some people think his argument is a revolutionary one but until Roggio’s larger points are considered accepted and par for the course as far as journalistic standard operating procedure goes, journalism itself will continue to suffer as a profession.
Jay Carney, Time Magazine’s D.C. Bureau Chief, will become Communications Director for Joe Biden.
The Politico sums it up best, writing
Carney, a Yale graduate, is known as a middle-of-the-road, well-connected journalist with establishment instincts.
Earlier this year, I noted Carney was willing to buy into the left-wing rhetoric that Rush Limbaugh and right wing bloggers started the Michelle Obama “Whitey Tape” rumor, when it was in fact pro-Hillary Clinton left-wing bloggers who had done so.
Jay was kind enough to note the left-wing origins after I posted.
Here’s the thing folks: Jay Carney is an awesome reporter. He always played it middle of the road and tried to get both sides, but his biases were always to the left.
The point here is this: have any major reporters gone on to work for Republicans? The left likes to use Tony Snow as their example, but of course Tony was a well known conservative and Republican, having guest hosted for Rush Limbaugh for a number of years.
But who in the mainstream media ever goes to the Republicans? Linda Douglass of ABC News went with Obama. Carney is going with Biden. What about ABC’s Claire Shipman, Carney’s wife? Do you really think she’s going to cover the political beat fairly with her husband working for Biden? I doubt it.
Jay Carney is a good guy. He’ll serve Biden well in what will be a position of little influence in a small corner of oblivion. He is not the first. He won’t be the last. He’s just another example of the mainstream media showing its bias against conservatives.
I will miss his coverage at Time. Its always sad to see a good guy turn hack.
