WaPost Enlisting ‘Hispanic Media’ To Attack GOP

-By Warner Todd Huston

Greg Sargent of The Washington Post is very concerned that if the Republicans don’t rush through an amnesty bill, it might cause the “Hispanic media” to get mad at least he says so in his latest entry at The Plum Line blog. There, Sargent warns that the “GOP will get a beatdown by the Hispanic media” by slowing immigration reform.

Sargent sourly notes that Republicans in the House are putting the brakes on any forward momentum in favor of amnesty and “see no urgency whatsoever about acting this summer on immigration reform.”

Of course, many of these Republicans, the Post writer says, “won’t feel any pressure to act on reform” because they are in safe, conservative districts.
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WaPost Enlisting ‘Hispanic Media’ To Attack GOP”


George Soros Funding ‘Nonpartisan’ Attackers of Kansas Gov. Brownback

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is now being reported that billionaire liberal activist George Soros is the bankroll behind the “nonpartisan” attacks on Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s new judicial selection plan.

Two organizations in Kansas have led the charge against the Republican Governor’s proposal and both claim to be nonpartisan. But the two groups, Justice at Stake and the Kansas chapter of the League of Women Voters, are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from two of extremist Sorros’ liberal organizations in a similar way that Colorado’s liberal organizations implemented the “Colorado model.”

Brownback has been supporting changes in the state’s process of appointing judges. Previously Kansas judges were chosen by a commission made up of lawyers who are unaccountable to voters but Brownback has been pushing the adoption of the federal model where judges are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the State Senate.
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George Soros Funding ‘Nonpartisan’ Attackers of Kansas Gov. Brownback”


Rep. Bachmann: Finish Border Fence Before Immigration Reform

-By Warner Todd Huston

USA Today recently put a negative spin on Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann’s position about the so-called “Gang of Eight’s” immigration reform bill, characterizing her point as a mere attempt to “kill the immigration overhaul,” yet her points were more nuanced than that.

The paper claims that Bachmann “contends immigrants who came to the United States illegally shouldn’t be rewarded with legal status” and went on to note that she opposes any of the current ideas being floated for immigration reform.

But Bachmann has not said that she doesn’t ever want to deal with the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S., but that she simply wants to secure the border before any further discussion on what to do with those immigrants is had.
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Rep. Bachmann: Finish Border Fence Before Immigration Reform”


Chgo. Sun-Times Apologize Over ‘Racist’ Asiana Airlines Crash Headline

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Sun-Times has apologized for a headline pun reporting on the Asiana 214 airliner crash that seemed racist to some Asians.


The Sunday Sun-Times Front Page

Asiana flight 214 crashed in San Francisco on Saturday, June 6, but in its front page report on the crash, the Chicago Sunday Sun-Times blared a headline that read “FRIGHT 214.”

The Asian American Journalists Association was not amused by the play on words wondering if the Sun-Times understood that changing the “L” in “FLIGHT” to an “R” could easily be perceived as a play on the stereotypical difficulty of some Asians to pronounce the letter “L.”

“While we at the Asian American Journalists Association are willing to give the Sun-Times the benefit of the doubt, the headline used to accompany the paper’s coverage was certainly unfortunate. An editor should have caught the racially tinged wording,” said AAJA’s Bobby Calvan in a public post on the organization’s website.
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Chgo. Sun-Times Apologize Over ‘Racist’ Asiana Airlines Crash Headline”


Soledad O’Brien Headed to Al Jazeera

-By Warner Todd Huston

Al Jazeera America has landed another member of the American media as Soledad O’Brien joins the foreign-owned cable network that is set to debut later this year.

The Soon to launch Al Jazeera America, owned by the Oil-rich, Muslim country of Qatar, has snapped up O’Brien since she was fired by CNN for low ratings last March.

Politico reported that Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of Al Jazeera’s international operations and the senior executive, praised the hire saying, “O’Brien’s career producing and reporting on the human side of many of the most important stories of the past decade will fit in perfectly with what Al Jazeera America will be covering every day.”

“Her dedication to that type of journalism is what makes it so exciting to announce that she and her production company are joining the Al Jazeera America team,” Al Shihabi said.
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Soledad O’Brien Headed to Al Jazeera”


Facebook Blocks Fox News Reporter Starnes Over ‘Politically Incorrect’ Gun Post

-By Warner Todd Huston

Todd Starnes of Fox News reports that Facebook blocked his postings because he posted support for the National Rifle Association (NRA), Paula Deen, Chick-Fil-A, and Jesus on his page.

The blocked comment was a snarky commentary on several news stories. It ended up eliciting hundreds of replies and likes before Facebook deleted it leaving a warning message.

In place of Starnes’ page, Facebook posted a message that read, “We removed something you Posted, We removed this from Facebook because it violates our community standards.

“I’m about as politically incorrect as you can get,” read Starnes’ Facebook entry before it was deleted. “I’m wearing an NRA ball cap, eating a Chick-fil-A sandwich, reading a Paula Deen cookbook and sipping a 20-ounce sweet tea while sitting in my Cracker Barrel rocking chair with the Gather Vocal Band singing ‘Jesus Saves’ on the stereo and a Gideon’s Bible in my pocket. Yessir, I’m politically incorrect and happy as a june bug.”

Facebook has since admitted that it was a “mistake” for blocking Starnes’ Facebook page and has re-instated his access and posting privileges.

Facebook sent Starnes a message explaining its actions.
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Facebook Blocks Fox News Reporter Starnes Over ‘Politically Incorrect’ Gun Post”


NBC’s Deceptive Editing Makes Rabbi Appear to be Covering Up Sex Abuse

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a June 24 report for NBC’s Rock Center, video for a story was deceptively edited and misleading voice overs added to quotes from an Hasidic Rabbi that made it seem as if the Rabbi was insisting that allegations of sex abuse should only be handled internally, within the community, and should not be taken to police. But in fact Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz did not say that at all.

After a series of emails from Rabbi Berkowitz complaining of the deceptive edits the web entry of the Rock Center story has an update and the video was pulled, but even that update does not really address the extremely unfair treatment that Berkowitz received at the hands of NBC’s editors

The story was ostensibly to have been an “inside look” at the Hasidic community in New York and in a segment near the end of the report the piece turned to recent sex abuse charges leveled at Nechamya Weberman, a once respected member of the community who acted as a “therapist” for the other members of his community.
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NBC’s Deceptive Editing Makes Rabbi Appear to be Covering Up Sex Abuse”


CNN’s Evident Bias on Supreme Court Decisions

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over the last several days in the last week of June the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) handed down two important decisions, one striking down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and one striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) leading to a renewed national dialog in the issues. But for CNN the rulings were just another opportunity to analyze the decisions from a decidedly leftward point of view.

According to a review of CNN’s coverage of the June 25 and 26 Supreme Court decisions conducted by the Media Research Center, the cable network’s coverage of the rulings showed a decided leftward tilt.

In the case of the June 25 Voting Act decision, CNN featured four times as many critics of the decision as supporters.
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CNN’s Evident Bias on Supreme Court Decisions”


‘New Yorker’ Portrays a Gay Bert & Ernie to Celebrate End of DOMA

-By Warner Todd Huston

The cover for the July issue of The New Yorker celebrates the end of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the nullification of California’s one-man-one-woman marriage amendment with a portrait of Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie in each other’s arms as they watch a TV showing an image of the nine Supreme Court Justices.

The cover art is titled “Moment of Joy” and was created by artist Jack Hunter. His cover concept was submitted via the artist’s social media campaign.

“It’s amazing to witness how attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime,” Hunter said. “This is great for our kids, a moment we can all celebrate.”

Gay activists have for many years maintained that the two muppet characters are “gay” despite the fact that the venerable children’s show does not introduce sexual themes to its audience and has not traditionally assigned sexual actions or motives to its characters. Sesame Street is aimed at preschool children.
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‘New Yorker’ Portrays a Gay Bert & Ernie to Celebrate End of DOMA”


Networks Do 92 New Global Warming Stories, Don’t Mention Lull in Temp Trends Once

-By Warner Todd Huston

The news departments at the Big Three TV networks have done 92 new stories on the global warming debate recently, but, curiously, not one of those stories informed viewers that there has been decade-long lull in rising temperatures.

A new Media Research Center review of network news coverage shows that ABC, CBS, and NBC have each completely ignored the 10-year “mystery plateau” in global temperatures in favor of alarmism about rising sea levels, allergies, and extreme weather.

The MRC review found that no network climate change story thus far for 2013 has reported the slowdown in global warming. It also discovered that “experts” that promote alarmism were quoted or featured in network coverage eight times as often as those critical of global warming. It also found that links between extreme weather and global warming were made nearly one-fourth of the time despite that scientists disagree with that notion.
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Networks Do 92 New Global Warming Stories, Don’t Mention Lull in Temp Trends Once”


Feminist Magazine Cosmopolitan to Push Obamacare on Readers

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama has been reaching out to all sorts of non-government partners in a renewed effort to push his Obamacare law. The President’s latest Obamacare-pushing partner will be the famed women’s magazine Cosmopolitan.

In its fall issues, Cosmo will begin to publish multiple feature articles extolling the virtues of Obamacare, will inform readers on how to sign up and will celebrate the many benefits they might realize by accepting the all-encompassing law.

The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Joanna Coles, says that she feels her role as Obamacare flack is pivotal. “This stuff is really important. It’s life-changing for a lot of people.”

Lifesitenews.com also reports that the Cosmo website and social media sites will also be infused with Obamacare propaganda.
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Feminist Magazine Cosmopolitan to Push Obamacare on Readers”


Washington’s ‘Newseum’ to Host Al Jazeera Studios

-By Warner Todd Huston

Media broadcaster Al Jazeera is owned by the Nation of Qatar, a Muslim country whose legislature operates mainly upon Sharia law. Since the mid 19th century Qatar has been entirely controlled by the monarchical Al Thani family. Today, Al Jazeera’s new American cable news network will broadcast out of the “Newseum,” an organization dedicated to freedom, liberty, and the First Amendment situated only blocks from the capitol building in Washington D.C.

“Is there anything wrong with that picture?” asks Claudia Rosett in a recent Weekly Standard piece.

When it opened in 2008 in downtown D.C., the Newseum celebrated its focus on Americanism, the Constitution, the history of journalism, and the First Amendment. Now it is hosting a network from a nation that holds to no such niceties. Al Jazeera, as it happens, is entirely owned by the Qatari state and is not a free media outlet.

Since the oil-rich nation bought out environmental guru Al Gore’s cable TV network to host Al Jazeera’s new American outlet, we have been told it will be “independent” and allowed to follow the news anywhere it take them.

That remains to be seen, of course. We cannot know what the future will hold for the sort of journalism that Al Jazeera will practice.
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Washington’s ‘Newseum’ to Host Al Jazeera Studios”


Has DOJ Given McConnell Bugging Suspect ‘Journalist’ Status?

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recent Politico story seems to indicate that the Department of Justice is stymied on its prosecution of the political activist that recorded a private campaign meeting between Senator Mitch McConnell and his staff because the DOJ considers the activist a “journalist” and wants to tread gingerly as a result.

The “bugging” incident came to light early in April when a recording of the private, closed-door meeting was released by Mother Jones magazine. It was soon revealed that Curtis Morrison, a political activist that works for the left wing political group Progress Kentucky, used his flip cam to record what he could hear of the meeting through a closed door in McConnell’s Senate offices.

Even with charges of illegal recording–essentially a bugging–Morrison is unbowed. In an op ed in Salon.com he was defiant saying he’d do it all over again, illegal or not.
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Has DOJ Given McConnell Bugging Suspect ‘Journalist’ Status?”


WashPost’s Sargent: IRS Scandal is ‘Fever Swamp’ Stuff

-By Warner Todd Huston

Greg Sargent of The Washington Post has decided that any worries over the IRS intimidation tactics that have gotten the county so riled up is nothing but “fever swamp” nonsense.

In his June 21 post at The Plum Line, Sargent has declared the IRS scandal over. In fact, it is nothing but Republican foolishness.

Despite the very fact that the IRS has admitted that it had, indeed, targeted Obama’s critics unfairly in a purely political action, despite disclaimers of coordination even though the heads of the IRS have visited the White House hundreds of times, and despite the reports from whistleblowers that the intimidation tactics and polices came from Washington, Sargent has declared it all a myth. Move along. Nothing to see here.
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WashPost’s Sargent: IRS Scandal is ‘Fever Swamp’ Stuff”


Ooops! Yahoo News Posts Article Calling Kenya The Land of Obama’s Birth

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yahoo! News raised the ire of liberals with a June 21 article that seems to have accidentally stated that Kenya was the “the country of Obama’s birth.”

The article was quickly changed, of course, but not before people noticed and not before Twitter became filled with outrage.

The piece, written by Rachel Rose Hartman, was headlined “White House doesn’t have ‘figure on costs’ of Africa trip,” and noted in the first paragraph that Obama was visiting Africa. “But he won’t be stopping in the country of his birth,” the paragraph ended.


Screenshot of article in its original form

Obama’s African trip has him visiting South Africa, Senegal, and Tanzania. But he won’t be visiting Kenya. Naturally with that opening line, many assumed that writer Hartman was talking about Kenya, the long rumored land of the President’s birth.
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Ooops! Yahoo News Posts Article Calling Kenya The Land of Obama’s Birth”


Labor Unions Hail Federal Sale of Low Powered Radio Frequencies

-By Warner Todd Huston

Labor unions and ACORN-styled community groups based in America’s big cities are hailing a new decision by the Federal Communications Commission to auction hundreds of low power FM radio frequencies in compliance with the federal Local Community Radio Act passed in 2010.

After a 15-year campaign to force the federal government to open up the dial to low power radio stations, the Prometheus Radio Project was finally able to convince Congress to pass the Local Community Radio Act (LCRA) which changed the law to allow more stations to be licensed by the FCC.

Originally new stations on the FM dial could only be licensed if the frequency requested was more than “three clicks away” on a digital dial from an existing station (for instance, from 96.1 to 96.3 is one click on the dial). The new law would allow for frequencies at three or only two clicks from existing stations with the stipulation that the new station would not cause interfere with existing stations. Hence why they would be 100 watt, low power stations.

The FCC has finally acquiesced to Congress’ law and will put thousands of new frequencies up for auction available only to non-profit groups between October 15 and October 29 of this year.
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Labor Unions Hail Federal Sale of Low Powered Radio Frequencies”


U.S. News Lumps LaRouchie in With Tea Partiers at IRS Rally

-By Warner Todd Huston

Lyndon LaRouche and his followers have never been welcomed into the Tea Party movement but his followers shadow nearly every Washington-based protest that occurs, whether left, center, or right. But in its coverage of Wednesday’s D.C.-based IRS rallies, U.S. News featured a follower of LaRouche as if he were a legitimate part of the Tea Party protest.

In its report on the Tea Party rallies, U.S. News noted that the protests “soon became about a lot more than the IRS” as speakers and protest signs began speaking to a list of complaints. But the first person U.S. News went to for a quote was one Mike Reeves, a follower of Lyndon LaRouche.

“Auditing the IRS is not enough,” protester Mike Reeves, a self-proclaimed follower of controversial political activist Lyndon LaRouche, told Whispers while holding an “Impeach Obama” sign. “The president has got to be removed like [President] Nixon was.”

But, U.S. News failed to inform readers that LaRouche followers have never been part of the Tea Party movement and lending a LaRouchie this platform is misleading. Any quote of a LaRouchie is simply not representative of conservatives, Republicans or the Tea Party movement.
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U.S. News Lumps LaRouchie in With Tea Partiers at IRS Rally”


Buzzfeed Sued Over Unauthorized Use of Photo

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is one of the dangers of the Internet age and Buzzfeed is only the latest website to find itself being taken to court, sued for $3.67 million for using a photograph without the permission of the original owner of the image.

While perusing the Internet, photographer Kai Eiselein stumbled across one of Buzzfeed’s ubiquitous photo essay lists, one titled “The 30 Funniest Header Faces.” The entry from 2010 gathered 30 images of soccer players caught by the camera lens making funny faces while butting heads against a soccer ball.

Eiselein was perturbed, though, to find one of his own photographs featured as one of the 30 amusing images Buzzfeed used. The photog was perturbed because he had uploaded the image to his Flickr feed and taken the time to note on all his images that his photos were “All Rights Reserved” in an effort to keep people from stealing them. As it happens, Buzzfeed simply took the image and never contacted Eiselein for permission to use the image.

Eiselein sent Buzzfeed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice and the site quickly acceded to his demand. So, upon visiting the Buzzfeed page in question now, visitors are greeted with “The 29 Funniest Header Faces.”
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Buzzfeed Sued Over Unauthorized Use of Photo”


Angelina Jolie’s Stunt Double Sues News Corp for Phone Hacking

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the first lawsuit filed in the U.S. over the British phone hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp media empire, a stuntwoman for actress Angelina Jolie has filed suit alleging that the media company hacked her telephone.

The suit was filed on June 13 by professional stunt double Eunice Huthart who claims that News Corp’s tabloids The Sun and News of the World spied on her phone while she worked on location as Jolie’s stunt double.

The stuntwoman says the hacking occurred over the years 2004 and 2005 as she worked on the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

The suit (Western Division, L.A. case No. 13-04253) alleges that Huthart began to miss messages on her phone, messages that later ended up in stories about the budding relationship between Jolie and actor Brad Pitt, co-stars on the action movie on which the stuntwoman was working.
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Angelina Jolie’s Stunt Double Sues News Corp for Phone Hacking”


National Review Hammers the ‘Gang of Eight’ Immigration Team

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a new editorial, the folks at National Review came out strongly against the immigration plan being sponsored by the so-called “gang of eight” Senators, a group that includes Florida Senator Marco Rubio, calling the bill “Rubio’s Folly.”

NR urges Senator Rubio to vote against the bill he has helped craft, disparaging the proposed legislation as, “an amnesty-first, enforcement-maybe program drawn up mainly to reflect the priorities of 11 million citizens of other countries rather than the concerns of more than 300 million citizens of the United States.”

NR goes on to point out that many of the bill’s “security triggers” are little else but “paper tigers” that are undermined before they even fairly begin. For instance, the requirement that prospective new citizens must have a “clean criminal record” is undermined by the fact that they can actually have two misdemeanors and up to two convictions for drunk driving yet still qualify.
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National Review Hammers the ‘Gang of Eight’ Immigration Team”


Politico Uses Glenn Beck Against GOP On IRS Protest

-By Warner Todd Huston

For Politico, the news about the hundreds of Tea Party protestors in Washington DC on Wednesday, June 19, wasn’t so much about why the protesters were upset, but how it affected the “bipartisan approach” to the House IRS probe. And Politico seemed to blame Glenn Beck for the strain.

Politico reported that hundreds of Tea Party supporters took to the U.S. Capitol lawn Wednesday to protest the IRS in a rally sponsored by conservative activist and radio host Glenn Beck, but the Internet newser quickly turned its attention away from the protests and to the House Ways and Means Committee’s IRS probe.

Politico reported that Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) was one of those invited by Beck to address the protest and this, they worried, would “upend the bipartisan approach” to the IRS probe.
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Politico Uses Glenn Beck Against GOP On IRS Protest”


Public Trust in Newspapers Falls to New Lows

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new poll on newspapers and television news shows that Americans’ confidence in the news industry continues to erode in this era of mass communications, reaching a low not seen since 2007.

The Gallup polling firm finds that trust in newspapers has fallen to 23 percent. This is down from 25 percent in 2012 and 28 percent in 2011.

The previous low was recorded in 2007 when trust in newspapers reached 22 percent.

Trust in newspapers has undergone steady erosion since its 1979 high of 51 percent, Gallup reports.

Television news fares no better in the estimation of those polled by Gallup. Trust in TV news tied that of newspapers with 23 percent saying they trust TV news sources. This is down from a 1993 high of 46 percent–when Gallup first began asking about it.
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Public Trust in Newspapers Falls to New Lows”


CBS’s Scott Pelley Thinks Fox News Has Few Viewers

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a recent interview, CBS Evening News host Scott Pelley said that he thinks that Fox News really doesn’t have very many viewers–underestimating the network’s actual ratings by about 90 percent.

Pelley told Deadline Hollywood that Fox might have perhaps as few as “200,000 viewers.”

Deadline asked Pelley what he thought of the cable news outlets that cater to “just one segment of the political spectrum in their reporting.”

“Certainly. It’s no surprise,” Pelley replied. “Fox is associated with the right and MSNBC is associated with the left and they’ve done that because it is a business model. It’s a strategy. They’ve decided to bite off one small part of the viewership and be happy with that 200,000 viewers, 300,000 viewers that they have.”
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CBS’s Scott Pelley Thinks Fox News Has Few Viewers”


Big Three Networks Have Stopped Reporting on IRS Scandal

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently the Big Three TV networks have decided that the IRS intimidation scandal is over and it seems that reporting on the issue has disappeared from the airwaves.

When the story first broke after IRS official Lois Lerner admitted that the taxing agency had unfairly targeted conservatives and Tea Party groups seeking a tax status, the Big Three jumped into the story with both feet. But now, only a month later, coverage of the matter has slowed to a trickle.

A new review by the Media Research Center of the first month of coverage of the IRS scandal shows that three quarters of the stories hit in the first two weeks after the news broke.

MRC analysts reviewed each of the morning and evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC from May 10 through June 12 (ABC’s World News, Good Morning America, CBS’s Evening News and This Morning, and NBC’s Nightly News and Today show), and found 127 full stories, interviews or anchor briefs that focused on the IRS scandal. Analysts determined that 76 percent of the IRS stories were aired within the first two weeks, while 24 percent of the stories arrived in the latter period, a huge drop-off.

MRC found that CBS hit the story the most (49 stories), while NBC came in second (at 44), with ABC brining up the tail (with 34).

Finally, during the week of June 10, only one mention of the scandal was heard anywhere on network TV.
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Big Three Networks Have Stopped Reporting on IRS Scandal”


Sarah Palin Calls Bill Maher Out for Calling Son Trig a ‘Retard’

-By Warner Todd Huston


Don’t poke the Mamma Bear!

Sarah Palin is getting back on track as an outspoken commentator on the news and her first step back in the spotlight is to slam so-called comedian Bill Maher for calling her son, Trig, a “retard” in his “comedy” act.

Palin has recently re-signed as a Fox News commentator after having let her contract lapse in January of 2013, likely with an eye toward having a voice in the upcoming 2014 midterm election cycle.

But elections were far from her mind after she discovered that so-called comedian Bill Maher was going around calling her Down’s Syndrome child a “retard.”

Palin heard about Maher’s calumny from a piece in the Daily Caller by Ron Furtell titled, “Why I Heckled Bill Maher.”

Furtell had gone with friends to see Maher’s stand up routine in Las Vegas last week and took issue with the “comedy” Maher was dishing out.

Furtell noted that he has a special needs son and when Maher started calling Palin’s son, Trig, a “retard,” the writer couldn’t take it in silence. He heckled Maher and was dutifully ushered out the door by security.

After Furtell published his Daily Caller piece, Sarah Palin also had a thing or two to say about Maher’s nonsense.

Palin took to Twitter, as she is wont to do, and slammed Maher twice.

It is always interesting to note that these extremist liberals are always the first ones to chastise people for calling names until it is a conservative they want to attack. Then the name calling runs fast and thick.

That isn’t the first ime he’s attacked a special needs child. Here is another example of this creep’s “work”…
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Sarah Palin Calls Bill Maher Out for Calling Son Trig a ‘Retard’”


Journalist’s Twitter Fight Club

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you are a Twitter user you know without question that the social media service often becomes little else but a massive fight club with lots of name calling and foul language and a survey of the Twitter accounts of some well-known journalists and media types shows that they are just as prone to the fight club mentality as everyone else.

Fishbowl DC put together an amusing survey of the Twitter feeds of ten journalists and warns that they are “10 Journos You Don’t Want to Fight on Twitter.”

Included on the list are two Breitbart scrappers, John Nolte and Matthew Boyle. But also appearing are The Washington Post’s Jenifer Rubin, Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher, Politico’s Glenn Thrush, CNN’s Jake Tapper, and several others.

The back and forth is hot and heavy with Commentary’s John Podhoretz calling “total horseshit” on Ben Smith from BuzzFeed, Wonkette publisher Rebecca Schoenkopf calling Red State’s Eric Erickson a “pussy,” CNN’s Jake Tapper essentially calling someone a liar, Breitbart’s Boyle slamming Ashley Judd for her bad grammar… it’s a veritable playground rumble out there.

The fur is flying on a daily basis and if you follow many of the nation’s top writers and media personalities you’ll see. As Fishbowl DC warns, “if you take some of them on, you [sic] doing so at your own risk.”

Now time to go slag Fishbowl DC for its bad grammar…. Boyle, you up for this?
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Journalist’s Twitter Fight Club”


Activism, Not Journalism? Radical Filmmaker Laura Poitras Shares Washington Post Byline on NSA Story

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Washington Post recently made waves with a story on the National Security Agency’s domestic data mining project “Prism,” but interestingly one of the co-authors of the article is a radical, left-wing filmmaker who has been a loud critic of U.S. counterterrorism policies.

The article, “U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program,” authored by former Post writer Barton Gellman and filmmaker Laura Poitras, is a bold expose of the NSA’s domestic surveillance program.

While Gellman is certainly to be considered a “journalist,” Poitras is more of an activist who has quite a history of criticizing the United States since the attacks on September 11, 2001. She has, for instance, called the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba an “illegal” prison and has called treatment of suspects “legalized torture.”

It is clear that she is an activist, not a journalist. Yet nonetheless here we see the Post giving her a byline on a straight news story.
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Activism, Not Journalism? Radical Filmmaker Laura Poitras Shares Washington Post Byline on NSA Story”


LA Times Pushes ‘Gun’ Angle Instead of Mental Illness on Santa Monica Shooter Story

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the 24-year-old Santa Monica shooter had a history of mental illness but leads a June 9 story with the claim of an “unnamed source” who said that the killer had a “fascination with guns.”

In the Times report the story about killer John Zawahri leads with two paragraphs detailing the claims of this unnamed source, but the spends many more paragraphs discussing his mental health problems and run-ins with the law.

It is interesting that the paper leads with this claim when there is far more evidence of Zawahri’s run-ins with the police in the past, his reputation as a young man with an explosive temper, and his undefined mental problems.

Yet the paper quotes an unnamed person said to be familiar with the murderer and his family who feels he had “a fascination with guns.” This unnamed person also claims that many people were worried about Zawahri’s gun fixation and also wondered where he got the money for the firearms.

But the Times finds that Zawahri had a history of emotional problems. He was upset over his parents divorce and police had been called to his family home in 2006 over an incident of domestic violence.
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LA Times Pushes ‘Gun’ Angle Instead of Mental Illness on Santa Monica Shooter Story”


Paul Krugman: ‘We Are Kind of an Authoritarian Surveillance State’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Liberal economist and leading modern Keynesian, Paul Krugman of The New York Times, has been one of Barack Obama’s biggest cheerleaders, but suddenly he is a bit down on the Obama administration saying that he is afraid that the country is becoming an “authoritarian surveillance state.”

With a mounting list of scandals from government-sponsored intimidation of the President’s political enemies, to surveillance of reporters, to a growing list of communications companies allowing government intelligence agencies access to all of our personal phone calls, Internet searches, and text messages, this must be a confusing time for the President’s most ardent supporters. Krugman’s reaction here is an example of that turning of the head.

For Krugman, with latest news about the massive collection of data on everyday Americans he sees the United States of America drifting toward authoritarianism.

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Paul Krugman: ‘We Are Kind of an Authoritarian Surveillance State’”


CNN Criticized for Celebrating Palestinian Terrorist

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNN is drawing criticism for a feature story on a Palestinian soccer player who is in the news for boycotting Israel. The cable network is being criticized because its glowing treatment of the Palestinian protester neglects to mention that he is a member of the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). In fact, the piece seems to reject any claim that he is a member of the group.

CNN’s fawning treatment of Palestinian soccer player Mahmoud Sarsak begins with sympathetic descriptions of his hunger strike against Israeli authorities.

The piece then goes on to give Sarsak the space to complain about how the professional soccer league, the UEFA, has decided to hold its latest tournament in Israel, allowed him to discuss his (failed) boycotting efforts, and then went into a long, one-sided description of the “abuse” Sarsak claims he suffered at the hands of the Israelis while under arrest for suspicion of links to terror groups.

The long CNN piece is reported entirely from the soccer player’s perspective and readers would be excused for going away from the piece imagining that Sarsak is innocent of Israel’s charges that he is a member of any terror group. The piece paints Sarak as a victim.
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CNN Criticized for Celebrating Palestinian Terrorist”