Radical communists, Union thugs, anti-Americans, and general creeps, it’s Occupy Wall Street! Not that the Old Media will tell you anything about the true character of the OWSers…
Media
Berkeley Storm Troopers: Don’t Write What The Police Don’t Like or Else
-By Warner Todd Huston
If police chiefs send armed officers to a journalist’s door because he didn’t like what was written abut him, would you feel just a tad uncomfortable as an American at the audacity? This is no academic discussion because it really happened. Not in what liberals may claim is the dangerous, intolerant south but instead in the heart of liberal land itself, Berkeley, California.
Worse, one of the reasons this whole situation arose is because police were too distracted by an Occupy Berkeley protest to respond to an incident that ended up in the murder of a 67-year-old resident.
But first, on Friday, Feb. 9, Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan sent an armed officer to the door of Bay Area News Group reporter Doug Oakley at nearly one in the morning to demand that he publish a correction about something the reporter had written about the Berkeley police department.
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Berkeley Storm Troopers: Don’t Write What The Police Don’t Like or Else”
William J. Kelly Hosts Visit By Fox News’ Dick Morris
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Saturday, March 10, William J. Kelly hosted a visit by Dick Morris, famed Clinton triangulation man and now Fox News contributor. Kelly is running for 42nd Ward GOP Committeeman with an eye toward also running to head the Chicago GOP.
Morris came out as a strong supporter of Kelly calling him a “cactus” that can thrive in the arid political environment of Chicago — arid for conservatives, anyway.
“Anyone can thrive in an environment with good water and nice climate. But Kelly can thrive in Chicago and bring the fight to the Democrats. That’s what we need,” Morris said, “someone that is a bulldog and is an expert at using the new media to get the point across.”
Morris talked a lot about how getting rid of Obama is a must to save this country and detailed how Obama’s policies made a bad economy into a world debt crisis.
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William J. Kelly Hosts Visit By Fox News’ Dick Morris”
This is the Disgusting Racism of the Left…
-By Warner Todd Huston
Some leftist creep has been having some fun at the expense of Andrew Breitbart’s grieving widow, Susan. Pretending to be Susie Breitbart on Twitter, this leftist has engaged in all sorts of racially charged, sexually explicit “jokes” claiming that this faux Susie is having sex with black men, Hispanic men, and happy that Andrew is dead.
I won’t repeat a single disgusting post made by this inhuman creep but if you want to see some of them check out Tony Katz’ piece at AllPatriotsMedia.com.
As Tony says:
The true colors here are two-fold: The inherent racism ingrained in the perpetrator, and the depths of their depravity.
Leftist are liars. They are racists. They hate the United States. They are intemperate, cretinous, disgusting human beings that deserve to be shown for the creeps they are.
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This is the Disgusting Racism of the Left…”
False Fronts: Obama Still Pretending Fluke is an Innocent Kid
-By Warner Todd Huston
If you want to see how the left skews the narrative using untrue claims and false imagery to sell a message, you don’t need any other example than President Obama’s recent press conference where he continued to perpetrate the myth that Sandra Flake is somehow an innocent coed, a kid barely out of high school, when she is actually a long-time liberal activist in her 30s.
At the press conference the President was asked about Rush Limbaugh and his apology. Not only did Obama drag his own daughters into the debate, but he said he told activist Fluke that “her parents should be proud of her.” This line feeds into the myth that Sandra Fluke is but a young coed. However, Fluke is 30 years old. People stop assuring folks that their parents should be proud of them once they begin approaching middle age, certainly! If Mz. Fluke’s parents still aren’t proud of her as a 30-year-old, I doubt the president can help matters much.
But the thing here is, the left wants to promulgate the false image that Fluke is a young woman, innocent as the driven snow. She just isn’t. She’s a conniving activist, not a wide-eyed coed.
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False Fronts: Obama Still Pretending Fluke is an Innocent Kid”
My Cancun Dinner With Andrew Breitbart
-By Warner Todd Huston
When Christopher Hitchens passed on not long ago, we were all treated to a seemingly never-ending stream of illiterati recounting their brush with greatness. I scoffed at their conceit, their hitching to Hitchens. Who cares about them I wondered. We want to talk about the Hitch not some lower rung journalist! Well, now I am walking in those shoes myself with the sudden and all too soon passing of our beloved Andrew Breitbart.
Unlike those that talked more of themselves than of Hitch, let me try to keep my Cancun dinner with Andrew more about Andrew in the hopes that it might give those millions who were not as lucky as I to have had some intimate moments with such a luminous figure a measure of the man. After all, no one cares about me, we want more of the man that was so cruelly torn from us.
I flew to Cancun, Mexico in 2010 to attend Americans for Prosperity’s effort to expose the UN Climate Conference meeting there for the con game it truly was. I was unaware that Andrew was going to be there. On my first day there, as I exited from the elevators late in the afternoon there he was striding toward me from the lobby.
He was as surprised to see me as I him and he told me that it was a last second decision for him to make the trip. We exchanged pleasantries and he bounded up to his room to stash his luggage. Not more than an hour later I was outside the lobby finishing up a Cuban cigar… hey, it was Mexico and they are legal… and Andrew was once again suddenly there right next to me.
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My Cancun Dinner With Andrew Breitbart”
WARNING: If You Use Carbonite Computer Backup Service, Cancel it NOW
-By Warner Todd Huston
There is accidental “hypocrisy,” where you didn’t actually realize that you have committed the logic/moral sin, and then there is rank hypocrisy, that time when you do two things that are totally opposite each other yet you defend both. The on-line computer backup company, Carbonite, has committed the latter over this business with Slutgate and its ending of advertising with the Rush Limbaugh radio show.
For those unaware, a long-time liberal activist named Sandra Fluke was brought to a faux committee hearing in D.C. by former Speaker of the House Nancy “Sanfran” Pelosi to disgorge the left-wing, big government, liberal ideology about spending federal tax dollars to give free sex supplies to rich Georgetown coeds so that they can sleep around all they want without all those messy consequences.
After her White House planned “testimony” Rush Limbaugh, as is his wont, called this woman a slut. It’s hard to defeat his blustery logic with that. After all, what DO you call a woman that thinks everyone else should pay for both her education and her sex supplies? Anyway, Rush made such a splash with the comment that the inevitable, left-wing faux outrage was ginned up.
As a result, Carbonite announced that it would pull its advertising from the Limbaugh show.
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WARNING: If You Use Carbonite Computer Backup Service, Cancel it NOW”
We are ALL Breitbart Now!
These posters are popping up in D.C.
See some of the places they’ve turned up at IOwnTheWorld.com.
My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends –
It gives a lovely light.
— Enda St. Vincent Millay
Leftist’s Hate on Full Display Over Breitbart’s Passing
-By Warner Todd Huston
It is sad that to be a left-winger is to be a hatemonger, but the death of conservative media activist Andrew Breitbart has certainly brought out those true colors of the left. The giddiness displayed and cheering indulged by America’s leftists over the fact that Mr. Breitbart died late Wednesday night has been shrill, disgusting, and suffused with the lamentable inhumanity so commonly found in the hearts of leftists everywhere.
It should be no surprise that left-wingers are prone to authoritarian regimes and acts of genocide.
Breitbart succumbed to a heart attack (most likely) as he took a late night stroll around his Los Angeles neighborhood late on February 29. It was only hours later that the cacophony of celebration by the American left began.
The worst example is that of Rolling Stone’s venom-spitter Matt Taibbi who said of Breitbart’s death, and pardon the language, “Good! Fuck him. I couldn’t be happier that he’s dead.”
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Leftist’s Hate on Full Display Over Breitbart’s Passing”
Breitbart: A True Son of Liberty
-By Frank Salvato
I was, yet again, set to write about the reprehensible behavior of the Republican presidential candidates and their enabling by the Republican National Committee when news broke of the passing of Conservative new media publisher and advocate, Andrew Breitbart. To be certain, the loss of Mr. Breitbart, at the incredibly young age of 43, is not only a loss for the Conservative political community, it is a tragedy for his family – his wife and four young children, and for the cause of preserving our country for the next generation.
In the interest of transparency, I am honored and privileged to be a contributing writer to BigGovernment.com, Mr. Breitbart’s signature publication. He and his managing editors – Michael Flynn (EiC) and Alexander Marlow – have facilitated the showcasing of many important stories as well as a litany of fact-based introspect into the ever-expanding list of issues facing our country. From BigGovernment.com, BigJournalism.com, BigPeace.com, BigHollywoold.com to Breitbart.com and BreitbartTV.com, Andrew Breitbart provided the citizenry with publications through which they could glean facts, information and perspective, and he provided a potent platform for writer/editors like me, by which we might be able to share our knowledge, research and thoughts about the many issues of the day.
I could chronicle the many stories that Mr. Breitbart’s publications have broken – the corruption of ACORN, the sexploits of Anthony Weiner and the many quasi-criminal actions of labor union operatives, among them. But it is more important – and more appropriate – to expound on why people like Mr. Brietbart are moved to do what they do; are moved to do what he did so well.
Breitbart: A True Son of Liberty”
RIP, Andrew Breibart
-By Warner Todd Huston
The country has lost a leader. Early this morning I was woken by texts, phones calls, and Facebook IMs to the devastating news that conservative activist Andrew Breitbart passed away, late last night. He was only 43.
Andrew was a force of nature, for sure. He was everywhere at once, attended every conservative gathering of note. I met him from Las Vegas to Chicago, from Washington DC to Cancun, Mexico and everywhere in between. Anywhere conservatives gathered he was there to cheer them on and urge them on to greater activism against the extremist, left-wing media establishment that has done so much damage to this country.
He was the one that served as the platform to take down the anti-American group the Association for Community Activism Now (ACORN), his megaphone brought us the outrage of the Pigford case, and many other stories that shed a bright light on government waste, left-wing operations, and the liberal media’s attempts to distort the coverage of the news to fit their left-wing agenda.
Breitbart started his life of conservative activism working for Matt Drudge helping Drudge program his news coverage on the Drudge Report website, it was here Andrew began to see how pernicious the left-wing media really is. Soon Andrew went on to help Arriana Huffington start the Huffington Post website and ultimately he began his own series of sites, The Bigs. BigJournalism, BigHollywood, BigGovermnet, Big Peace and Beitbart news — all of which I write for.
I have to say, that Breitbart’s star burned white hot. He was always on the go these last 10 years so much so that it was a wonder if he ever got any time to sleep. He logged more air miles than a veteran pilot, in New York one day, LA the next and the great Midwest still the next. He seemed indefatigable but we now understand how his crusade took its toll on him physically.
Andrew was one of the most real, most generous men I knew. He never ceased to take a few minutes out to meet attendees, shake hands, pose for photos with them, and chat. Let me assure you that he was the genuine article. What you saw on TV was Andrew Breitbart. There was no artifice about him. He wasn’t portraying a character or presenting a false front. There weren’t any unguarded times when the “real” Andrew came out. He was exactly what he seemed to be.
One of my fondest memories with Andrew was when we were in Cancun, Mexico in 2010. He, myself and three other bloggers, just the five of us, sat in a hotel room and for hours talking about life, the media, and the state of the conservative movement. It was a quite night, but one that proved to me that Andrew was just as presented. No faux Andrew. He was a real, passionate, brilliant man.
Andrew leaves behind his wife, Susannah Bean Breitbart, 41, and four very young children. Please pray for the family for this devastating loss.
Rest in Peace, Andrew. You are a great friend, a great boss, and a credit to your country. You will be sorely missed as there is so much more work to do.
**UPDATED**
Dan Collins gives us some inside baseball from the Breitbart camp about the split that happened between Andrew Breitbart and Glenn Beck. But his points on the left’s lies about the Shirley Sherrod tape is particularly important.
Andrew never used that Sherrod tape in any effort to hurt Sherrod. In fact, his entire point was to use that video to attack the NAACP. After all, the disgusting thing about the Sherrod video is that the NAACP audience was insanely happy that Sherrod had perpetrated racism at the white farmers she once worked with.
THAT was Andrew’s point. Sherrod herself didn’t mean a thing to him. He was pointing out that the NAACP was cheering hate and racism against whites.
The left has been lying about this point since the incident happened.
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RIP, Andrew Breibart”
Chop Licking: How Obama Uses Falsehoods to Advance His Policies
-By Warner Todd Huston
Last week we all got a great lesson in how the left promotes a lie to make Republicans the enemy and this time President Obama was a chief participant.
This is how the game is played: the left-leaning media establishment makes a claim about how rotten Republicans are and Obama then echoes the claim and presents it as the true state of Republican opposition to his policies. The result is that we have a partisan opinion foisted on the public as truth about how mean the GOP is to this poor, well-meaning president. A false media narrative is established by the partisan press, politician adds said meme to a policy speech, presto-chango, a political “fact” is born. But it’s all just a partisan hit job masquerading as fact.
We are talking, of course, about President Obama’s claim that the GOP is “licking their chops” over the bad news of high gas prices. This is the line uttered by the president in his most misleading energy speech delivered in Florida on February 23.
In that speech, President Obama claimed that Republicans were happy that gas prices were hurting Americans. Obama intended to show that Republicans didn’t care that America was hurting, happy they could use it as a political tool to hurt the president and his well-meaning policies.
Here is what he said:
“Some politicians, they see this as a political opportunity. I know you’re shocked by that. Last week the lead story in one newspaper said, ‘Gasoline prices are on the rise and Republicans are licking their chops.’ That’s a quote. That was the lead. Licking their chops. Only in politics do people root for bad news. Do they greet bad news so enthusiastically.”
Note how Obama uses the partisan slam, published in “one newspaper” written by a left-wing writer and presents this as fact about how Republicans feel about rising gas prices. Note that Obama didn’t quote any actual Republican saying rising gas prices is a good thing. He quoted one of his own follower’s partisan claims and then assigned that false narrative to his political enemies.
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Chop Licking: How Obama Uses Falsehoods to Advance His Policies”
Heartland Institute: The ‘Gate’ Scandal That Never Was
-By Warner Todd Huston
Global warmists finally have an email “gate” of their own that they can turn against “deniers” and they are taking full advantage of it. The Warmists are excited that the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based state policy group, has been “outed” for attempting to undermine the religiously held tenets of global warming. Emails to that effect are claimed to have been leaked from this group and the warmists as well as their handmaidens in the Old Media are touting this scandal as proof of… well, it’s a bit hard to discern what it is proof of. In fact, it isn’t “proof” of much of anything, really.
For one thing the documents are fakes, but even if they weren’t… so what?
For quite some time, for instance, Chicago’s Heartland Institute has been holding events, debates, and seminars on the hoax of global warming. The Heartland Institute has an entire section of its website dedicated to debunking global warming and it has produced books and pamphlets attacking the false “consensus” of man-made global warming. Without question, global warming (a quasi religious belief I personally call globabloney) has been a major focus at Heartland for a long time, to be sure.
That being understood — not only understood but glaringly obvious — leaked emails that purport to show that Heartland has a plan to influence lawmakers, scientists, members of the media, and even schools against global warming is a bit of a “well, duh!” Any ten seconds of time spent on the Institute’s website would tend to make it clear that they are against claims of man-made global warming. At some point, even if the documents were real it should not come as any sort of shocking revelation.
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Heartland Institute: The ‘Gate’ Scandal That Never Was”
CBS Radio News: Still Attacking Sarah Palin in ‘News’ Reports
-By Warner Todd Huston
In a report on the recent FCC rules tightening requirements for telemarketers, CBS Radio couldn’t resist loosening a shot at Sarah Palin even though she has been out of office for several years already and has taken no part in political robocalls for some time. (Listen to audio HERE)
There is one area of media bias that many of us overlook and that is radio. All the big News outfits have radio shows, newsbreaks, radio offerings of all sorts, but we rarely talk about them for one reason… it’s hard to link to a just finished radio broadcast! Radio newsbreaks come and go in a nearly ephemeral manner and rarely can you catch it again, not to mention that rarely do you have something on hand to record it. Once you hear them they are gone so it’s hard to report on the bias constantly revealed in radio broadcasts. But the bias is there nonetheless.
Another reason radio is often ignored is that few of the networks put their newsbreaks up on the Internet so that you can review them. And those that do put them on the Internet, well they don’t make finding specific bits easy to track down. Then again, network radio news is not now a big focus of media with print and TV taking precedence.
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CBS Radio News: Still Attacking Sarah Palin in ‘News’ Reports”
Liberal Tactics: Just Lie, No One Will Check!
-By Warner Todd Huston
I have to say, at this point I am convinced that no one on the left really hates racism. In fact, they love it as it is their most important tool with which to control gullible voters. Cry racism and their mind-numbed acolytes dutifully echo the charge whether it is true or not — and it’s usually not. Well, they’ve done it again, cast the race card at conservatives. But this time they fell into a trap laid for them purposefully, set in order to prove their hatemongering, stupidity, cynicism, and lies.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last weekend a humorous video debuted during the TheTeaParty.net blogger awards hosted by John Hawkins of RightWingNews.com. It was a rap video created by comedian Steven Crowder and his pal Chris Loesch. They called themselves the “Powdered Zombies” and the song was meant to highlight the wrong turn this country has made and how we’ve drifted away from the founder’s ideas.
One line of the song was an obvious satire on the left’s constant cries of racism. Remembering that these rap singers were evoking the founders, the line in question goes: “But I’m back from the dead now bringing back all my knickers.” The next line confirms what the reference meant: “I’m just talking about my short pants.”
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Liberal Tactics: Just Lie, No One Will Check!”
Obama Programming Media Matters, or is it the Other Way Around?
-By Warner Todd Huston
There has been a lot of chatter about the blockbuster report at DailyCaller.com revealing the extent to which the self-proclaimed “media watchdog” outfit Media Matters for America is joined at the hip with the White House. Many are shocked at just how much Obama is seemingly programming the media with the supposedly independent Media Matters acting as its pipeline to the Old Media.
Shockingly, DailyCaller notes that MMFA is even holding teleconference briefings with members of Obama’s administration and the subsequent salting of the results of those meetings among the Old Media’s coverage seems to be a weekly occurrence. If true this is in contravention to MMFA’s tax-exempt status, too.
The report points out that at least up until last fall, an Obama administration official participated in weekly strategy sessions to plan out what the Old Media should know about the Obama agenda. DailyCaller notes that Obama’s recently resigned com director Jen Psaki was “a frequent participant” on those strategy calls.
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Obama Programming Media Matters, or is it the Other Way Around?”
Breitbart Editor, Dana Loesch Receives Accuracy In Media Award at CPAC
-By Warner Todd Huston
(Note: The Wardman Marriott lost all Internet connection half way through the event on Thursday and it never came back so no one in the entire building had any connection unless they had their own Internet aircard. I apologize for not getting these up earlier today, but there was no help for it!)
Long-time media watchdog group Accuracy in Media bestowed its Grassroots Journalism Award to the editor-in-chief of BigJournalism.com, one of Andrew Breitbart’s suite of conservative websites on Thursday evening at CPAC.
Of the award and Miss Loesch, Don Irvine, Chairman of AIM, said:
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Breitbart Editor, Dana Loesch Receives Accuracy In Media Award at CPAC”
Washington Post Skews Poll for ‘The One’
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Washington Post was very excited to report on Feb. 5 that President Obama has finally achieved “the edge” over Mitt Romney in a “general election matchup” poll. The Post was pleased to note Obama was “boosted by improved public confidence” and that he now led Romney by over 50%. Well, he does if you don’t poll actual voters, anyway and therein lies the major problem with the Post’s polling.
The flaw in the Post’s poll is that they seem to have polled “adults” instead of “likely voters” and this fact calls into question the claim in the headline that “Obama holds edge over Romney in general election matchup.” You see, you have to be an actual voter before your opinion in an “election matchup” much matters but the Post apparently did not make sure that its respondents were actual voters before declaring that Obama is now winning over more voters.
But the bigger problem is the fact that the Post has decided it no longer needs to include the partisan breakdown of its respondents for readers to assess. The Post did not include the percentages of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in its polling data so there is no way to know if the poll included a fair representation of all parties or if the whole poll was weighted heavy with Democrats.
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Washington Post Skews Poll for ‘The One’”
CNNs John King Calls Romney ‘Governor Mormon’
Talking the Nevada primary, CNN’s John King accidentally called Mitt Romney “Governor Mormon.” If it meaningful? Is it telling? No. But it’s funny.
Courtesy of Mediaite.
Admission: Journalists are Liberals Not Interested in Facts and Truth
-By Warner Todd Huston
Polk Award-Winning Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings made a startling set of admissions on CSPAN, recently. Not only did he admit that most “journalists” are liberals, but he implied that they really aren’t interested in just reporting the facts of stories. Instead he said they are filled with a liberal “moralistic righteousness” and their goal is to “afflict” those they disagree with.
In the discussion, Hastings laid out how he sees his work as a journalist. “I think any journalist worth his salt often has a real moralistic kind of righteousness to them somewhere in their soul… and we talk in grand terms about ourselves, you know, afflicting the powerful and comforting the afflicted,” he told the CSPAN host.
Not much “objectivity” going on there, is there?
In the video segment featured by Townhall, Hastings is initially asked about his “prestigious” Polk Award and this discussion led CSPAN’s Brain Lamb to ask Hastings about the ideological mindset of Polk Award winners. This brought Hastings to his admission.
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Admission: Journalists are Liberals Not Interested in Facts and Truth”
CBS Featured No Pro-Lifers in Photo Essay About Pro-Life Rally
-By Warner Todd Huston
If you want a case of clear bias, the Washington D.C. affiliate of CBS will surely fill the bill for its bias against pro-life supporters. On January 23 the DC affiliate featured on its website a photo slide show of pictures taken at the March for Life rally held annually at the nation’s capitol. Curiously, though, there wasn’t a single photo of any pro-lifers. Instead the photo essay featured only photos of abortion-supporting protestors that stood on the sidelines taunting the pro-life marchers.
The photo slide show initially featured seven photos of abortion supporters such as one of marchers holding signs saying “Family Planning Saves Lives Worldwide,” one featuring women holding signs saying that abortion should be kept legal, and another showing a woman sporting an abortion on demand sticker.
Upwards to 50,000 pro-life supporters turned out in the DC cold to participate in the March for Life, yet apparently CBS could only find the small handful of pro-abortion supporters to photograph.
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CBS Featured No Pro-Lifers in Photo Essay About Pro-Life Rally”
Conservatives: Occupy Wall Street Shows How We Can’t Get Our Message Out Over Old Media Din
-By Warner Todd Huston
The gauzy puffery that the Old Media slathers upon the Occupy Wall Street movement has helped keep most Americans in the dark about how nasty, how violent, how outrageous, and even how incredibly lacking in integrity this movement is. On the conservative blogs the truth is well known, of course, but the fact that few Americans seem to know how bad the OWSers are shows that as conservatives we are not effectively getting our message out there.
For the initial two years of its existence the Old Media spent its every waking moment destroying, maligning, and out right lying about the Tea Party movement. Even today you’ll see an occasional swipe at the Tea Patiers made by some hater from the left and the Old Media is happy to “report” the slander, naturally.
You might remember when Obama operative Anna Park tried to start a counter movement that she prosaically called “the Coffee Party” during the heyday of the Tea Party. You may also recall that those Old Media mavens, while daily lying and lambasting the Tea Partiers, fell all over themselves to play up the silly and quickly failed and forgotten “Coffee Party” effort.
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Conservatives: Occupy Wall Street Shows How We Can’t Get Our Message Out Over Old Media Din”
Chicago Sun-Times Shows White Flag: No More Political Endorsements
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Chicago Sun Times has received your message loud and clear, dear readers. As much as admitting that they are biased and they know it, the long-time Windy City staple has decided that hence forth it will no longer endorse candidates for political office.
In a Sunday editorial, the 71-year-old paper announced its new policy amusingly touting the Old Media’s party line that it engages in “unbiased news coverage” and that newspapers today wish to “appeal to the widest possible readership.”
“They want to inform you, not spin you,” the editorial avers. Yet, the editorial goes on to admit that it has heard from readers who seriously doubt that dedication to unbiased news coverage. And when you note that over the last several decades few national news papers have endorsed a Republican for President — most especially the left-leaning Chicago Sun-Times — it is easy to doubt that purported dedication to just-the-facts reporting.
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Chicago Sun-Times Shows White Flag: No More Political Endorsements”
Restoring American Exceptionalism – Chicago Townhall
-By Warner Todd Huston
I just got back from a wonderful evening taking school choice at the Restoring American Exceptionalism, Chicago Townhall. In attendance were radio talk show host Michael Medved, Fox News contributor Juan Williams, and Dr. Paul Worfel, Director of Education of Trinity International University. The discussion was moderated by John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute.
The event was sponsored by National School Choice Week, an effort by Americans for Prosperity, and is one of many events being held across the country to encourage parents, legislators, and activists to work toward allowing parents a choice in their children’s education. Co-sponsors were Townhall.com, Salem Radio Networks, and Chicago’s WIND Radio, AM 560
Arriving at the sprawling campus of Trinity International University of Deerfield, Illinois, the biting cold outside was quickly forgotten by the warm reception all received by the event staff. The program started promptly with an introduction by local radio host Big John Howell of AM 560, WIND radio who turned the program over to John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute.
The night’s debate was nicely balanced from right, center and left with a panel featuring the conservative side of the debate on education represented by talk show host Michael Medved, the center represented by Fox News contributor Juan Williams, and the more traditional educrat’s position taken by Dr. Worfel.
I won’t repeat the whole discussion, but here are some of the more interesting (and some might say provocative) highlights.
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Restoring American Exceptionalism – Chicago Townhall”
Guilt By Association Used by Old Media Only to Hurt Republicans
-By Warner Todd Huston
Last week two political operatives were arrested in separate incidents, one Democrat and one Republican. It certainly isn’t news that political operatives sometimes break the law, but how the different incidents were reported is typical of how the Old Media establishment uses guilt by association to tar Republicans but rarely does the same thing to take swipes at Democrats.
The similarity in the two stories is that both of the accused are former staffers of high profile politicians. The Democrat was an Obama campaign staffer while the Republican was a staffer of the Republican Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. Neither currently works for those high profile pols, but only the Republican was linked to his former boss. The Democrat’s link to Obama was mostly ignored by the media.
Story One: Some Guy Arrested
We’ll begin with the tale of Iowa Democrat operative Zachary Edwards who tried to steal the identity of a rival Republican in order to use that identity to get the Republican in trouble.
Edwards tried to use the identity of Iowa Secretary of State, Republican Matt Schulz (and/or Schultz’s brother) to illegally obtain some sort of state benefits so that he could then claim that the Republicans were illegally obtaining state benefits. This Edwards fellow hoped he could smear the GOP Sec. of State as engaging in some sort of unethical behavior. (The Iowa Republican blog has more on the fight between Schultz and Iowa Democrats)
Now, as it happens Edwards is not only a member of a politically connected Democrat consulting firm, Link Strategies — a company with long-standing ties to powerful Iowa Democrat Senator Tom Harkin — but Edwards was also a member of Obama’s Iowa team in 2007/08. Edwards’ bio has since been scrubbed from the Link Strategies page but read in part, “In September 2007, Zach joined the Obama New Media department as co-director of the Nevada New Media team and then moved on to direct New Media operations in five other primary states (New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, and South Dakota).”
For a screen shot of Edwards memory-holed bio from the Link Strategy site, see the Iowa Grounds blog.
So, how was Edwards’ arrest reported? For one thing, it was hard to find Edwards’ Democrat affiliation and his past role as a top Obama campaign staffer in stories of this incident.
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Guilt By Association Used by Old Media Only to Hurt Republicans”
CBS This Morning Losing to Fox And Friends?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Apparently it is not morning in America for CBS. The big network roll out of its revamped morning show, CBS This Morning, is struggling to gain a foothold. It’s so bad that even the Fox News’ morning show, Fox and Friends, is beating the network morning extravaganza. In Chicago, Fox and Friends even beat the debut episode of CBS This Morning despite the fact that Gayle King, a long-time Oprah confidante, was one of the main features of the program.
In fact, CBS This Morning isn’t even beating its own former iteration when it was called The Early Show. The new show is down 10 percent in total viewers and down 13 percent in the key demo of 25-45 year-old viewers. Interestingly, Fox and Friends is beating CBS in four of the top 20 national markets in total viewers (Atlanta, Detroit, Orlando, and Tampa).
| Market | Fox And Friends (P2+) | CBS This Morning (P2+) |
| Atlanta | 30,000 | 17,000 |
| Detroit | 19,000 | 12,000 |
| Tampa | 40,000 | 30,000 |
| Orlando | 23,000 | 19,000 |
| Period | Dates | Program | P2+ AA(000) |
% Diff | 24-54 AA(000) |
% diff |
| CBS This Morning Launch |
1/9/12 to 1/15/12 |
CBS This Morning | 2718 | 1115 | ||
| Same Week 2011 | 1/10/11 to 1/16/11 |
Early Show | 3016 | -10% | 1287 | -13% |
(Stats from Nielson)
It should be remembered that Fox News cable channel reaches just over 102 million homes whereas CBS ostensibly gets to 100 percent of the 116 million homes with TVs. Since CBS is one of the “big three” original TV networks, it is interesting that a cable channel has seen such an amazing success rate for its early morning show.
Continue reading “
CBS This Morning Losing to Fox And Friends?”
Politico’s Fake Tea Party-Slamming South Carolina Poll
-By Warner Todd Huston
It almost seems that on a daily basis the onetime political news website Politico is edging toward a Daily Kos-like experience and on Jan 14 we see yet another step in Politico’s journey toward left-wing extremes with a fake poll that claims that no one in South Carolina likes the Tea Party movement. Did I mention it was a “Facebook poll”?
The headline ways it all, really: Facebook/POLITICO poll: South Carolina users cool to tea party. If the fact that this “poll” is just some posting on a Facebook page doesn’t make you laugh at its validity, the hilarity continues as Politico goes on to treat this silliness as real news.
“Almost two-thirds of adult Facebook users in South Carolina say they aren’t fans of the tea party, according to a Facebook poll conducted today with POLITICO,” the “news” website begins.
Come on. Does anyone imagine that Politico reached “almost two-thirds” of the Facebook uses in South Carolina? Does anyone even imagine that Politico reached even a representative number of Facebook users in South Carolina? Was there any scientific method at all to this or was it just some posting that a handful of South Carolinians saw on Facebook? Bet you can guess.
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Politico’s Fake Tea Party-Slamming South Carolina Poll”
Dana Loesch Replies to the Illinois Policy Institute’s Disinvite
-By Warner Todd Huston
Today on her radio show, Dana Loesch told her audience about being disinvited to an event hosted by the Illinois Policy Institute over the weekend.
I detailed this story here: Appearance by Andrew Breitbart Employee Canceled By Illinois Policy Institute
Appearance by Andrew Breitbart Employee Canceled By Illinois Policy Institute
-By Warner Todd Huston
Last Friday, The Illinois Policy Institute disinvited Dana Loesch, the editor of Andrew Breitbart’s Big Journalism site, from a breakfast event that was to be held over the weekend on Saturday.
The Illinois Policy Institute was holding the event in conjunction with the Independent Women’s Forum and Smart Girl Politics and was to be a “discussion on women, liberty, and America’s future.”
Loesch was disinvited due to a small controversy over what she said Friday on her Saint Louis-based radio show on KFTK 97.1 FM. Loesch took umbrage over those criticizing U.S. Marines that were filmed urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
Loesch was incensed at those complaining about the conduct of our soldiers and went into one of her patented rants about how she didn’t care if our solders urinated on the corpses of our enemies. “I’d drop trou and do it too,” she said of the incident.
Loesch went on to say, “Do I have a problem with that as a citizen of the United States? No I don’t.”
During the rest of that Friday many progressive sites (like Politico) went after Loesch for her comments.
Loesch herself has said that the left’s attack on her is all unfair. “There is a difference in advocating for the Marines to break the law, which I didn’t do, and defending them from overly-dramatic hysteria,” she said.
Sadly, this faux controversy gave the Illinois Policy Institute cold feet for the weekend breakfast meeting and they told her she was no longer welcome at the event. Worse, the group never even made a public comment on the disinvitation. They just, in the dead of night, disinvited her.
Continue reading “
Appearance by Andrew Breitbart Employee Canceled By Illinois Policy Institute”
Romney ‘Shoe Shine’ Photo a Hoax, Left-Wingers Push Story Anyway
-By Warner Todd Huston
If you want to see a perfect example of how the left-wing media plans to smear and destroy Mitt Romney should he win the GOP nomination, no better example can be found than the hoax over a photo that lefties every where are trying to sell as evidence of Romney’s “privileged” life. Lefties say the photo in question shows Romney “getting his shoes shined” before getting on a private jet during his campaign travel. That is not what the photo shows, of course, but let’s not let the truth get in the way of a good left-wing mudslinging, OK?
The meme began from a photo by Getty showing Romney sitting in a chair on the tarmac with his foot up and a red-jacketed worker attending to the candidate’s footwear. The left immediately assumed that Romney was getting his shoes shined before getting on a “corporate” jet. This story was made up out of whole cloth because in reality what the picture shows is Romney getting his shoes wanded by an explosive sniffing device wielded by a TSA agent before being allowed to board the plane.
The photo seems to have appeared early on the blog of the MSNBC smear show The Ed Schultz Show with the headline, “Romney Creates Another Job.” The caption set the tone for the left-wing onslaught to come saying, “Mitt Romney created another job with his presence alone… a job giving shoe shines on the tarmac in front of a corporate jet.”
Continue reading “
Romney ‘Shoe Shine’ Photo a Hoax, Left-Wingers Push Story Anyway”