Journalism

Congress - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Journalism - Judges - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - The Atlantic - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Article On John Edwards Never Once Mentions ‘Democrat,’ But attacks Republicans Five Times

April 17, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Curiously, the same Atlantic article that rightfully points out that the Old Media was “late to report” on Democrat candidate for President John Edwards’ extramarital affairs an corruption makes its own strange omission from the storyline by somehow forgetting to mention even one time that Edwards was, indeed, a Democrat. Yet five times the piece mentions “Republicans” in order to lead the reader to question motives and cast aspersions on the Grand Old Party.

This one can be chalked up to one of our favorite games, the “name that party” game, where one can read an entire story about a troubled or criminal politician without once being told that the subject is a Democrat.

In his piece headlined, “Why the John Edwards Trial is a Bigger Deal Than You Think,” for The Atlantic, blogger Hampton Dellinger goes into detail about Edwards’ prosecution and tries to tell us what it is all so unusual about the situation.

But it is strange that Edwards is never fully identified as a former candidate for the Democrat nomination for President. On the other hand, Dellinger spares no effort to name Republicans in order, perhaps, to provide mitigation for Edwards.

While Dellinger never uses the word “Democrat,” he goes for the throat of any Republican he can connect to the Edwards case, even if tangentially.
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Article On John Edwards Never Once Mentions ‘Democrat,’ But attacks Republicans Five Times”

Animals - Anti-Americanism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Warner Todd Huston - Washington Post

Washington Post Columnist: You Know, My Racist Dog Is Pretty Republican

April 10, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten wants us all to know that he’s “fallen in love” with a racist, sexist, female that presents “awkward truths that people tend to deny.” His dog, you see, is a racist Republican. And in the end the whole column is just an excuse to slam Mitt Romney.

I guess it’s supposed to be a “humor” column, but when this “humorist” thinks it’s funny that Republicans are racists, and any manner of creeps, well, perhaps we red staters might be forgiven if laughter isn’t our first reaction.

Weingarten begins by confessing that at 60 years of age he’s “fallen in love with a Republican.” Apparently, it’s Murphy, his dog of five years.

Then Weingarten goes on a terror rolling out all the anti-Republican tropes. Republicans are racist, they are prudes, they are buttinskis, they are rigid, they hate the disabled, they’re against alternate energy, they hate the environment, and are gun-loving rednecks. In short, Republicans are all ignorant creeps that embarrass smart fellows like Weingarten.
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Washington Post Columnist: You Know, My Racist Dog Is Pretty Republican”

California - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Huffington Post - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Republicans - The New York Times - Warner Todd Huston

Media Caught Peddling Left-Wing Narrative in Place of News

April 4, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There are several things in common that recent stories about a San Diego City Councilman who is running for Mayor have and truth doesn’t seem to be one of them. In fact, these stories are so similar that one is tempted to think that those columnists and “reporters” that wrote these stories had a bit of, um, “help” writing them.

At least three stories, one by David Brooks of the New York Times, one by LA Times columnist George Skelton, and one by partisan Huffington Post blogger William Bradley, all seem to be selling the exact same talking points — and ignoring all the same facts — on San Diego City Councilman and Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio. The three pieces are eerily similar, most especially in the missed truths, accidental, I’m sure.

The central point of each of these stories where DeMaio is concerned is to relate that he is a hard-core, right-wing, Social-Con whose candidacy is the result of the GOP moving “further to the right” than ever. This is, apparently, to show that even on the left coast where “moderates” supposedly reign, the GOP can’t stay in the mainstream of the local political scene.
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Media Caught Peddling Left-Wing Narrative in Place of News”

Apple - Business - Capitalism - China - Computers - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - MSNBC - NPR - Radio - Warner Todd Huston

Will Media Apologize for Airing Anti-Apple Computer Activist’s False Claims?

March 22, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

When it broke, the Old Media was all over Mike Daisey’s story of the horrid working conditions at Apple Computer’s foreign manufacturing plants. The story had oppressed workers, pathos, and best of all, eeevil corporate greed. Daisey was well on the road to making Apple the liberal’s newest bete noire and was being hailed as the next Upton Sinclair. Until, that is, it became clear that he made it all up.

One of the first major media outlets to push Daisey’s anti-Apple claims was the program This American Life aired on the venerable Public Radio station WBEZ. The program featured Daisey’s claims in a January episode, but has now been faced with the “difficult news,” as representatives of the show have said, of Daisey’s fabrication.
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Will Media Apologize for Airing Anti-Apple Computer Activist’s False Claims?”

Entertainment - Movies - PCism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Sacha Baron Cohen, The Oscars, And the Death of Propriety

February 24, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Outrage of the day: The Academy Awards folks banned shock comedian Sacha Baron Cohen from its ceremonies this week. Then did only with caveats. Then didn’t know what to do. It all shows a certain death of propriety, not just in Hollywood (where its been dead a long time in most cases), but in the US in general.

This tempest in a teapot started when comedian Cohen asked the Academy if he could walk down the red carpet on his way into the Oscar Award ceremony in the full regalia of an ersatz Middle Eastern dictator’s military uniform, the same costume he wears in his forthcoming comedy flick, The Dictator. He planned, so he told them, to change into his regular tuxedo once inside but wanted to use his entrance to the ceremony for his own purposes.

As they should have, the Academy folks told him no way. And they didn’t just tell him no, they pulled his invitation to attend unless he promised not to pull any such stunts. They rightly feared he’d pull the stunt anyway.

Unfortunately, after initially standing on principle, the Academy is now dithering, afraid the “negative publicity” is making it look bad, and is now in the throes of reconsidering its actions. To me, I think the Academy is perfectly correct to tell Cohen that the Oscars are for celebrating film not a place to serve as a platform to advertise his own project, a film not even up for consideration for an award at that.
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Sacha Baron Cohen, The Oscars, And the Death of Propriety”

CBS - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Radio - Warner Todd Huston

CBS Radio News: Still Attacking Sarah Palin in ‘News’ Reports

February 17, 2012 by

-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”

Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Huffington Post - Liberals - Media - Race - Warner Todd Huston

Liberal Tactics: Just Lie, No One Will Check!

February 16, 2012 by

-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!”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - MSNBC - President - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Programming Media Matters, or is it the Other Way Around?

February 15, 2012 by

-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?”

Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

Admission: Journalists are Liberals Not Interested in Facts and Truth

February 3, 2012 by 1 Comment

-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”

Abortion - CBS - Journalism - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

CBS Featured No Pro-Lifers in Photo Essay About Pro-Life Rally

January 30, 2012 by

-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”

Chicago Sun-Times - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Senate - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Sun-Times Shows White Flag: No More Political Endorsements

January 25, 2012 by

-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”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politico - President - Republicans - Scott Walker - The New York Times - Warner Todd Huston

Guilt By Association Used by Old Media Only to Hurt Republicans

January 23, 2012 by

-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”

Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Liberals - Media - Politico - President - Republicans - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Politico’s Fake Tea Party-Slamming South Carolina Poll

January 17, 2012 by

-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”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - GOP - Government - Huffington Post - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Mitt Romney - MSNBC - NPR - PBS - President - Republicans - TV - Warner Todd Huston

Romney ‘Shoe Shine’ Photo a Hoax, Left-Wingers Push Story Anyway

January 16, 2012 by

-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.”
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Romney ‘Shoe Shine’ Photo a Hoax, Left-Wingers Push Story Anyway”

Anti-Americanism - Arizona - Congress - Conservatives - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - GOP - Government - Guns - House of Representatives - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - NPR - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

NPR: Again Falsely Blaming Giffords’ Shooting on Uncivil Political Rhetoric

January 10, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I suppose we couldn’t get past the one-year anniversary of the crime against Democrat Representative Gabrielle Giffords without some Old Media outlet blaming the supposed “heated” political rhetoric of the day for her shooting. On Sunday we saw NPR doing just that. The fact is, no matter how many times they say it, politics and the “heated rhetoric” thereof had absolutely nothing at all to do with Giffords’ shooting. The linking of the crime to politics is just not legitimate.

On this one-year anniversary, NPR’s Linton Weeks was all about the improvement of our “civil discourse,” and full of lament that it just isn’t happening. Perhaps it is a noble sentiment, but he marred that nobility by beginning his piece with a false allusion once again tying the Giffords shooting to the “political atmosphere” of the day.

“When a gunman opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords,” Linton wrote, “some people were quick to blame the episode on the overheated political climate.”

With that false allusion we also know what NPR meant to do. It meant to blame conservatives for Giffords’ shooting.

He went on to say:
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NPR: Again Falsely Blaming Giffords’ Shooting on Uncivil Political Rhetoric”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

The Essential Lies Underneath Occupy Wall Street

January 2, 2012 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The folks at Fox News made a fantastic video that helps elucidate the lies floated about how wonderful, how pro-America, and how peaceable the Occupy Wall Street “movement” has been. It is important to watch this video for the truth.

The whole nonsense that OWS is a “peaceful movement” is the bigger lie than all of them, too. By John Nolte’s count there have been upwards to 417 serious criminal actions perpetrated by OWSers.

Worse, the claim that OWS supporters make that theirs is essentially a true American movement is also a pile of steaming garbage. Every one of these protests are filled to the gills with communists, socialists, anarchists, and other anti-American “ists.” The people that are the most active simply are not interested in America, its ideals, and its processes. They are essentially un-American.

The way the Old Media has gone out of its way to come to the support of OWS is telling. The same media attempted to destroy the Tea Party Movement casting all sorts of aspersions upon it. Yet, OWS has been by many magnitudes more criminal, more destructive, more anti-American and the Old Media has gone out of its way to be nice to the OWSers.

This pretty much proves the Old Media’s bias against anything conservative, Republican, or center right.
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The Essential Lies Underneath Occupy Wall Street”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Money - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington Post

Wash. Post Plays Hate-The-Rich-Republicans With Graphic Chart

December 30, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Wednesday morning the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake posted an infographic that was a perfect example of how one can use a graphic chart to influence the public in subtle ways, ways that we of the center right better start employing in our own efforts if we want to win over the public.

Blake’s post, “Why People Hate Congress,” fits in well with President Obama’s class warfare rhetoric as employed in his campaign to set different economic classes against each other in a desperate and cynically populist bid to get reelected next year. There is little of substance to Blake’s post other than to fan the flames of the sort of hatred that he wants to see grow in order to aid Obama in 2012.

The Post’s Blake also ended up having to pull the graphic off his The Fix blog post because it simply did not illustrate what he claimed it did in his story — but that is another issue that we’ll deal with at the end of this report.

Blake begins his piece asking, “Want to know why Americans hate Congress?” He then goes on to claim it is in part because our elected representatives in Washington D.C. are members of the eeeevil rich.

The fact that members of Congress are getting richer (and 57 members come from the top 1 percent, according to USA Today) confirms what Americans suspect about the people who are running this country: that they don’t empathize with normal people.

Of course, with a dispassionate application of logic, having a few dollars more than the next guy does not ipso facto make the richer guy so out of touch that he cannot empathize with anyone in a lower salary range. Only those filled with hate make this assumption. Empathy has nothing to do with class, money, or politics. It has to do with one’s character.

Further there are plenty of members of Congress with the character to understand and have empathy with others. Then there are some that don’t. People are people, rich or poor.

It is also telling that even Blake admits that Congress has always been filled with “the rich.” The founders were not groveling in poverty, after all. It often takes a person that has achieved a certain place in society to become elected. I mean, should they be elected, how can anyone expect “the poor” or even the lower middle class to afford to fund homes both in D.C. and back in their district? Who can afford to leave their family and business if half the year off more to fly off the D.C. to attend to government business? And with the costs of elections and the Byzantine election laws these days causing many candidates to self fund, it will only be natural that “the rich” end up being our representatives in Congress.

But special attention has to be paid to the graphic Blake used to illustrate his story. And what a masterwork of subtlety it is. Blake claimed that the illustration made by a well-known hate-the-rich researcher from California showed in graphic form the distribution of wealth among both chambers of Congress. The graphic depicts the “top 1%” and the “next 9%” in the color red. Then it uses blue to show the “following 10%” and the “bottom 80%.” Notice what is going on? That’s right, this graphic uses the color red to depict the eeevil rich. And what is the color red in politics these days? None other than the color the Old Media has assigned to the Republican Party.
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Wash. Post Plays Hate-The-Rich-Republicans With Graphic Chart”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politico - President - Warner Todd Huston

Politico’s Top 10 Political Blunders: Mostly GOP Blunders?

December 28, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Top ten lists at year’s end are always subjective, to be sure. But some lists seem rather obviously out of whack at first glance. Politico’s “Top 10 political blunders of 2011” is one of those lists that is glaring for what isn’t present as opposed to what is. And what isn’t seems to bespeak that Politico wanted to avoid focusing on Democrat failures in a year when there are so many Democrat failures.

Politico bills this list as one of the “worst political strategic decisions” of 2011. Strangely enough, this list contains fully seven GOP “blunders” yet only three Democrat goofs. Some of the GOP blunders are also questionable for any top ten list considering what is missing from the thing.

First we need a rundown on what is on this list, and in the order Politico places them.

  • Obama pivots to deficits
  • Republicans vote on the Ryan budget
  • Tim Pawlenty bets it all on Ames
  • Mitt Romney hides
  • Rick Perry debates
  • Jon Huntsman returns from China
  • Mr. Daley goes to Washington
  • Mitch and Haley stay home
  • Dems pick Charlotte
  • John Kasich pushes S.B. 5

Isn’t it fascinating that some of these “top blunders” did not actually result in a major reversal of great import of some type or another? Take the Jon Huntsman point, for instance. Jon Huntsman is not consequential and his decision to enter the GOP primary race instead of staying in China is not going to make much difference to anyone, anywhere. The Mitch Daniels point is also specious for such a list as Daniel’s decision to sit out 2012 did not necessarily end his career. Further the blunder of Democrats picking Charlotte, North Carolina, while certainly a messy proposition fraught with mistakes, is hardly any kind of end of the world goof, is it?
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Politico’s Top 10 Political Blunders: Mostly GOP Blunders?”