Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

BREAKING NEWS FROM 2001, 2003, 2006, etc.

Monday, June 1st, 2009

CNN is running with the shocking headline, “Cheney: No link between Saddam Hussein, 9/11.”

The quote: “I do not believe and have never seen any evidence to confirm that [Hussein] was involved in 9/11. We had that reporting for a while, [but] eventually it turned out not to be true.”

Gosh, if only Cheney would have said something sooner…

September 16, 2001

Russert: Do we have any evidence linking Saddam Hussein or Iraqis to this operation?

Cheney: No.

September 14, 2003

Russert. [I]s there a connection?

Cheney: We don’t know. You and I talked about this two years ago. I can remember you asking me this question just a few days after the original attack. At the time I said no, we didn’t have any evidence of that. Subsequent to that, we’ve learned a couple of things. We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the ’90s, that it involved training, for example, on BW and CW, that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained on the systems that are involved. The Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the al-Qaeda organization.

We know, for example, in connection with the original World Trade Center bombing in ’93 that one of the bombers was Iraqi, returned to Iraq after the attack of ’93. And we’ve learned subsequent to that, since we went into Baghdad and got into the intelligence files, that this individual probably also received financing from the Iraqi government as well as safe haven.

Now, is there a connection between the Iraqi government and the original World Trade Center bombing in ’93? We know, as I say, that one of the perpetrators of that act did, in fact, receive support from the Iraqi government after the fact. With respect to 9/11, of course, we’ve had the story that’s been public out there. The Czechs alleged that Mohamed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official five months before the attack, but we’ve never been able to develop anymore of that yet either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it. We just don’t know.

Sept . 10, 2006

RUSSERT: Well, I asked you, I said, “is there a connection between Saddam and 9/11 on September ‘03” and you said “we don’t know.”

CHENEY: (Unintelligible). That’s right.

RUSSERT: So you raised that possibility.

CHENEY: It was raised by the CIA who passed on the report from the Czech Intelligence Service.

RUSSERT: All right. Now the president has been asked, “What did Iraq have to do with the attack on the World Trade Center?” and he said “nothing.” Do you agree with that?

CHENEY: I do. So it’s not…

RUSSERT: So it’s case, case closed.

CHENEY: We’ve never been able to confirm any connection between Iraq and 9/11.

The Bush administration said this again and again and again, but the Leftist media still continues to hear only what it wants to hear.

Newsbusters has more quotes.

WHAT WILL THE TEA PARTIERS DO NOW?

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

wendi_c_thomas_tweet

Leftist media types were eager to discredit the Tea Party protesters who assembled on Tax Day earlier this year to voice their objections to rampant government expansion, exponential deficit spending and the burdensome tax increases to follow.

Commercial Appeal Metro Columnist Wendi C. Thomas posted an update on Twitter, reporting that she was “driving past the Tea Party in Memphis,” but still felt qualified to offer a judgment based solely on the gathering’s signage and skin color. Apparently the Rush Limbaugh phrase “drive-by media” is literally true.

Upon confrontation, Thomas refused to elaborate and attempted to silence criticism by blocking access to her status updates. It was a curious move, since her Twitter account is prominently advertised on the newspaper’s website and can still be viewed publicly, even without logging into the site.

In another display of willful ignorance, the Memphis Flyer’s Jackson Baker wrote that the gathering was “a nationwide Fox News-generated ‘protest’ against — just what?”

Without bothering to lift a journalistic finger or attempt to actually discover anything resembling a set of facts concerning the event’s genesis or purpose, Baker was content to consult only his own crusty, ideologically-biased assumptions. That’s how he determined that the Memphis Tea Party “was as much a gathering of cranks and ideologues responding to a news conglomerate’s marching orders as it was a bona fide conclave over the issue of taxation.”

In an adjoining report, Flyer colleague Chris Davis amended this allegation and downgraded Fox’s role, saying it had only an “apparent, if not actual, partnership” with the event’s organizers.

Davis attended the rally long enough to document some homespun signs and photograph a young man wearing an offensive t-shirt. If these rather embarrassing props seemed to lack the polish of a rally professionally staged by the nation’s top cable news network, this was lost on our intrepid alt-weekly reporter.

But Davis reportedly took an early leave from the Memphis Tea Party on orders from an “aggressive middle-aged woman” who allegedly commanded him to put away his recording equipment. She must not have detected the other 999 people doing likewise, since everyone else was allowed to stay at the free and open event, held in a public park.

Is that really all it takes to rid ourselves of biased journalists? She apparently accomplished more with one well-deserved scolding than thousands have been able to achieve with frustrated letters to the editor, canceled subscriptions and general contempt for the entire floundering news industry.

While the media was busy peddling these deliberately misinformed notions to its dwindling readership, state and federal legislators were preparing their own assault — new tax bills unwittingly tailor-made for the tea party activists to expose and defeat.

Now we wait to see if they, like the Boston radicals before them, are determined to turn a grievance into a real political movement.

For more on that topic, see my editorial in the upcoming June issue of the Main Street Journal (subscribe online).

GIVE US THE NEWS OR GO AWAY

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Tom Guleff is probably right — when newspapers like The Commercial Appeal finally collapse in piles of their own feces, bloggers like Mike Hollihan will write the obituary.

Hollihan added a devastating comment to the discussion on today’s column by Wendi C. Thomas, titled “Funeral dirge for newspapers plays on.”

Along those lines, why am I, as a resident of the Memphis area, forced to consult the Tennessean in order to hear from my State Representative and State Senator, both of whom had op-eds published recently in Nashville’s newspaper?

UPDATE: Knoxnews Reporter/Blogger Michael Silence calls this a “perfectly reasonable request.”

UPDATE II: A second-degree Instalanche. Thanks, Glenn!

FAILURE: CHRIS “PESKYFLY” DAVIS

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

The Memphis Liar’s Chris “Peskyfly” Davis says I’m one of “the dumbest people on the planet” and a member of “halfwit central.” But of course not everything Chris Davis says is true. Take, for example, this comment (from the same post linked above):

Rush [Limbaugh], as we all know, said he hopes Obama “FAILS.” That, obviously, is not dissent. And although liberals openly disagreed with Bush and predicted at every turn that his policies would fail none ever actually wished for failure. There’s no hair to be split, these are VERY different concepts.

The transcript of Rush Limbaugh’s “I hope he fails” discussion is available online for all who care to read it in context, though Davis and other Leftist bloggers are loath to provide you with a direct link so you can examine the statement for yourself and make up your own mind.

Now that the rest of the historical record is trickling out, it looks even worse for Mr. Davis.

First, it seems that political strategist James Carville was recorded saying he wanted Bush to fail — on the morning of September 11, 2001, of all days.

Second, a FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that “51 percent of Democrats wanted Bush to fail” in 2006, at the height of the Iraq war when the President was formulating the “surge” strategy.

How is it that “the dumbest people on the planet” can disprove radical Leftists like Chris Davis without even the slightest bit of effort?

UPDATE ONE: As you may recall, it was James Carville who helped launch the coordinated attack on Rush Limbaugh.

UPDATE TWO: As you may recall, it was Leftist bloggers who launched the “miserable failure” google-bomb on President Bush.

THE BIBLICAL CASE FOR COMPLETE IGNORANCE

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

Newsweek has written a cover story on the “Biblical case for gay marriage,” but it forgot to actually consult the Bible. Instead of looking at its actual teaching on the subject or doing a comprehensive examination of Scripture, the author extrapolates from the record of flawed individuals in the Old Testament and selective quotes from Jesus and Paul, then adds a dash of innuendo and revisionism, in order to reach a series of ignorant assumptions based on a terribly corrupt set of premises.

But you probably could have guessed that just from reading the headline and considering the source.

Thankfully, the story has already been reviewed by Albert Mohler, Mark Hemingway, GetReligion.org, and others, saving us from wasted effort.

Previously: Red Letter Christians

LOW INFORMATION VOTERS

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Back in August, Memphis Flyer Editor Bruce VanWyngarden wrote a column about uninformed voters, labeling them “dumbasses.”

Now that a commissioned survey of Obama voters has found that a majority were seriously misinformed, it might be fair to question whether the “dumbasses” conclusively chose Barack Obama.

Either way, let’s take a second look at VanWyngarden’s editorial:

I’ve been reading recently about “low-information voters.” These are people who, for the most part, don’t read newspapers, political websites, or opinion magazines to learn candidates’ voting records or political positions. They don’t pay much attention to politics at all, which in theory makes them susceptible to whatever information is put under their nose — whether it’s from a talk-radio host, a preacher, a co-worker, a random e-mail rumor, a bumper sticker, or a catchy slogan on a T-shirt.

Notice which sources of information VanWyngarden includes, and which he omits. Apparently, low-information voters can only be led astray by radio commentators, religious leaders, co-workers and random slogans. They cannot be misinformed by TV shows and movies, teachers and professors, fake news comedians, celebrities and entertainers, or liberal activists.

These are not discerning voters. Another name for them would be “dumbasses.” I say this without fear of retribution, knowing that low-information voters, i.e., dumbasses, don’t read this column. (I can’t wait for someone to write me and say, “That’s CRAP, buddy. I’m a dumbass, and I read your column.”)

As it turns out, the Leftists news sources such as the Memphis Flyer were directly responsible for creating these low-information voters in the first place, which means that the very definition of “dumbasses” is people who depend upon VanWyngarden’s column as a primary source of information.

But I digress. For years, low-information voters have been seen as easy targets, a group that can be manipulated at will by a clever politician. Nuance and policy positions are for pointy-headed liberal losers. All you need is a simplistic slogan: “Mission accomplished!” “We can’t cut and run.” “He’s a flip-flopper.” “Jews hate Jesus.” You get the idea.

It’s a good thing that Barack Obama’s campaign was driven by nuance and policy positions rather than simplistic slogans such as “Change,” “Hope,” and “Yes, We Can.” Obama may be a clever politician, but he would never try to manipulate low-information voters; only a Jew-hating Jesus freak (?!!) would try something like that.

Nationally, we’re seeing a major push for low-information voters by the McCain campaign, which seeks to paint Barack Obama as a vapid celeb. “Hot chicks love Obama” is a tag-line at the end of one of McCain’s latest ads. (Frankly, I think conceding the hot-chick vote is a bad idea for McCain. I mean, what’s the corollary? “Ugly schlubs love McCain”?)

Yes, all the most memorable sloganeering of 2008 was launched by that crafty devil, Senator John McCain. Who could forget his devastating “Hot chicks love Obama” tag-line? I certainly haven’t. I’m still peeling those bumper stickers off my car, and I’ve got more “Hot chicks love Obama” T-shirts than I know what to do with. If I had a quarter for every time I heard that slogan repeated on talk radio, at work, and at church… I’d have enough money to hire someone to delete all the e-mails with that tag-line cluttering up my inbox.

The point is, the campaign seems to think there are lots of fools in America who will decide their presidential vote based on their resentment of uppity celebrities. (”Uppity” being the operative word here.)

But certainly not because these “uppity celebrities” use their fame to spout vapid political slogans or influence low-information voters with a constant barrage of Leftist propaganda, infecting every awards show, performance and public appearance with ignorant, partisan jokes and insults. Fools they may be, but they’re not that stupid.

Locally, 9th District candidate Nikki Tinker did her best to get out low-information voters — people she perceived would be receptive to messages that painted her opponent as the wrong race and wrong religion. Unfortunately for her — and fortunately for Memphis — there were way fewer dumbasses hereabouts than she was hoping for.

Thankfully, the national election had absolutely nothing to do with race. The President-Elect wouldn’t dream of even associating himself with someone like Nikki Tinker. And he certainly wouldn’t designate that person his spiritual adviser or sit at that person’s feet for 20 years of racist invective.

FLYER SPLIT OVER ENQUIRER STORY

Friday, November 14th, 2008

There appears to be some disagreement among Flyer staff concerning the National Enquirer’s story on John Edwards earlier this summer.

Senior Editor Jackson Baker:

This is pure Comstockery, writ large. What the hell is the National Enquirer doing, snooping around a hotel room where two consenting adults are doing whatever they’re doing? What business is it of anybody else’s? Why is the MSM admiringly preparing to creep into the same set of nocturnal shadows? This ain’t good, people.

Staff Writer Chris Davis:

Bottom line: John may have f*cked up but he isn’t the real bad guy in this piece, the National Enquirer is.

Editor Bruce VanWyngarden:

[T]hank God for the National Enquirer. They deserve a Pulitzer for saving us from the likes of Edwards…

What do you think? Pure comstockery, or Pulitzer Prize?

GO JIM GO!

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Thanks to Mediaverse for passing on this masterpiece of local tele-journalism (be sure to check out the transcript he posted): (more…)

MEDIA PRYING: HOW FAR IS TOO FAR?

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

I wish I hadn’t been triple-booked tonight, because I would have loved to confront Jackson Kibitzer/Baker at the SPJ forum on media Presidential coverage. Fortunately, Mediaverse live-blogged the event; I’m particularly interested in this excerpt:

7:30: Asked if he feels if the media invaded Joe The Plumber’s privacy by exposing his private details and whether he consented it, Baker said he invited the scrutiny because he asked a question of Obama that could have been politically advantage and the media was right to inspect his public image. Baker said that was a classic case of the media doing its job since McCain used him as a test case for his own agenda.

I’d like to have clarification on what “could have been politically advantage” means.

Still, Baker thinks Joe the Plumber — a private citizen — “invited the scrutiny” of his “private details” because he asked a question that provoked a controversial answer from a politician passing through his neighborhood?

Baker thinks the media was right to inspect Joe’s “private details” because a second politician seized upon that candidate’s gaffe to advance his own campaign?

And yet Baker thinks it “ain’t good” for the media to investigate an actual, prominent public figure who may have fathered a child with a paid campaign staffer (who apparently had no prior experience doing the job) while still married to his seriously-ill wife, may have been spotted visiting the child under the cover of night, and may have continued to lie about the whole scenario, while simultaneously being (seriously) considered for U.S. Attorney General?

Astounding.

It appears to be Kibitzer/Baker’s contention that private citizens who embarrass Democrats should be subjected to exponentially greater media scrutiny than public servants who engage in seriously unethical behavior but happen to be Democrats.

Kibitzer/Baker says “everything [I] do is boiringly ideological,” but he’s the predictably Leftist shill.

RELATED POSTS:

INSTEAD OF HOUNDING JOE THE PLUMBER: “If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story….”

JOE THE HEADLINE WRITER GAS NO ENGLISH DEGREE

Friday, October 17th, 2008