Saturday, February 26, 2005
First Amendment in action
Pete Engebretson does a great job pointing out one of this month's biggest hypocritical moments (scolding countries for developing nuclear weapons while we do the same is another whopper this month).Letters from readers: "First Amendment in action
Kudos to President Bush for chiding Russian President Vladimir Putin's democratic efforts, especially regarding freedom of the press.
After all, will Russia ever truly be free until Putin can pay journalists to expound his political agenda and solicit questions from a partisan male escort at a Russian press conference?
Pete Engebretson, Minneapolis."
Thursday, February 24, 2005
MyDD :: The F-word
A good summary of just how many F- policies this administration has enacted. Actions speak louder than words. Here's the summary:MyDD :: The F-word: "The F-word
by Chris Bowers
The same administration that distributed fake news releases to promote its Medicare legislation, which were cited by the GAO as illegal propaganda;"
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
The Big Trunk Confusing Voter Suppression with Voter Registration Fraud
The Big Trunk needs an education on the difference between voter fraud an voter suppression.The seven step program below should help The Big Trunk understand the difference.
1. If fraudulent voter registrations are submitted under the names of cartoon characters, how many cartoon characters are likely to show up to vote?
2. Based on #1, what effect does fraudulent voter registration like the one described in the linked to article have on an election?
3. If people are kept from registering to vote based on ridiculous paper stock weight requirements, does that effect the number of elibible voters?
4. If a person isn't registered to vote, how many votes will they be able to cast on election day in Ohio?
5. Based on #4, what effect does voter suppression have on an election?
6. Now, compare #2 to #5.
7. See the difference?
Additionally, The Big Trunk has to ignore the well reported problems with voting in order to make his case.
Race-based voter suppression -- exposed!
The humorless and now contemptible Al Franken peddles one of the stupid Democratic lies concerning the last election in his column today (linked below) when he refers to "the [Republican] race-based voter suppression of yesteryear — by which I mean last year..."
The real news of the last election is the vote fraud and election misconduct that continues to come to light among Franken's Democratic allies. These stories not only demonstrate that Franken has the story upside down, but also explain why the race-card comes in so handy for Franken and his ilk. Today's Toledo Blade, for example, reports a story out of Defiance, Ohio: "Man pleads guilty to filing bogus voter registrations." The Blade reports:
Two months after pleading not guilty to faking voter registration forms in exchange for crack cocaine, a Defiance man has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of false registration.
FOX News Doctors Clinton Quote
Eschaton: "As the original AP shows, she calls them 'suicide bombers.'"I emailed FOX News about their manipulative editing of Senator Clinton's quote:
I noticed that you misquoted Senator Clinton in the following news article:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148136,00.html
"The fact that you have these homicide bombers now, wreaking such hatred and violence while people pray, is to me, an indication of their failure," Clinton told reporters.
Please review what Sen. Clinton really said and publish a correction at your earliest convenience.
FOX's executive editor's response:
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
No excuses here . . . You're 100 percent right.
I've gone back and changed the quote, just so it will be accurate in a search of the story.
And I've written a note to all our editors pointing this out.
Thanks for the heads up.
So they corrected the news story BUT DID NOT PUBLISH A CORRECTION NOTE, so history has now been changed twice without informing FOX readers. And this was the decision of the executive editor, Steve Bromberg.
So, if I understand FOX's position correctly, it's:
1. Making up quotes from Senators is okay as long as you don't get caught.
2. If you do get caught, fix it, BUT DON'T INFORM YOUR READERS that you've manipulated an AP news story!
Monday, February 21, 2005
How liberal is CBS really ? ... [Media Matters for America]
Very interesting.How liberal is CBS really ? ... [Media Matters for America]: "A Media Matters for America analysis of CBS Evening News broadcasts since the November 2, 2004, presidential election found that the program featured Republicans and conservatives more often than Democrats and progressives."
Howard Kurtz Misses the Bigger Story and Takes a Proven Liar at His Word
As Crooks and Liars points out, Howard Kurtz can't seem to figure out what the real store is with the Jeff Gannon / James Guckert case.Crooks and Liars: "Kurtz has been 'swimming to the heart of darkness' on this story so far, and the first question he asks follows in suit as he misses the bigger 'picture' here, that his colleague Dana Milbank is so in tune with. Why was Gannon allowed into the White House at all?"
But beyond that, check out Kurtz's comment following John Arovosis' statement that a hooker was asking questions in the White House and we deserve to know how and why this happened (starting at 2:14):
http://movies.ziaspace.com/Reliable%20Sources-~1.wmv
Or view the transcript:
CNN.com - Transcripts: "ARAVOSIS: Yes. I mean, you know, right. I mean, the gay- baiting is a cute line that the right likes to throw out there. I mean, as a gay man who's been working on gay issues for years, I wish there were more people on the right who claimed to care about gay issues.
But we have an administration here that goes out of its way to bash gays, whether it's the marriage amendment or what. And then we've got a writer like Jeff Guckert -- or I can't even get his name right anymore; nobody can -- who writes anti-gay articles and then wants the protection of saying, 'Oh, I'm a gay man.'
The bottom line is we had a hooker in the White House talking to the president two weeks ago, and if that president's name was Bill Clinton, it would be people like John and others who rightfully would say, 'What's this guy doing there?'
KURTZ: All right. Well, he can -- Gannon denies running anti- gay articles. "
Why does Howard Kurtz take Gannon / Guckert's denial at face value immediately after Arvosis brings up the point within the first 2:14 that Gannon / Guckert, "The issue was how Jeff Gannon, what we would consider a fake journalist with fake credentials, got into the White House to report fake news."
What do you call a media critic who fails to criticise this media failure?
John Hinderaker certainly comes across looking like an idiot when he he states, "The idea of these people posting those photographs, I mean, it is pure, flat out gay-baiting. I think it is contemptible."
John, the pictures were first published by Jeff Gannon / Guckert, and he, unlike Kurtz is willing to grasp, has published anti-gay columns, which makes it newsworthy. It's not an invasion of someone's privacy to republish photos of a male hooker to a blog.
To act like is contemptible is immature, or shows a lack of understanding of the story.
