Media+Bias

Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Entertainment - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Limbaugh Cousin Whines About Tough Life Being a Limbaugh

April 3, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For years now American TV audiences been constantly accosted with the overblown drama, feelings, and theatrics of people we don’t care about. It is given the exalted genera title of “reality TV.” Now Salon.com brings that drama queen sensationalism to journalism! Oh, joy.

Enter Julie Limbaugh whining and complaining in the pages of Salon.com that her life is just oh, so hard because her cousin is famed radio yacker Rush Limbaugh.

Commiserate as she wails about the many times her ultra rich cousin flew the whole family to a resort for Thanksgiving and bought her Chanel sunglasses. Life is so hard. Feel her pain as she is introduced to famous people like Ann Coulter. Gosh what a trial. Assume her sadness as she reveals mistreatment by ignoramuses on the left that call her names because of what Rush has said merely because she carries the same last name. Oh, the humanity.

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Limbaugh Cousin Whines About Tough Life Being a Limbaugh”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP Scolds Republicans for ‘Noncompliance’ Over Stimulus $… But is There Any?

April 2, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press did a masterful job of portraying Republican Governors as perpetrating “noncompliance” for how they want to spend Obama’s education stimulus money. But, even as the AP spends the top half of a story wagging fingers at those nasty Republicans for not spending Obama’s generous gift the right way, buried in the story it is revealed that the fault is really with how the stimulus bill was written, not in how GOP governors wish to spend it. Ah, but it’s much better to make Republicans look like bad guys than it is to blame Democrat Congressmen for writing a bad bill, isn’t it?

Even worse, the point AP is trying to promulgate is that these evil governors are hurting “the children” by not spending on education the way Obama says they should. Yes, the AP and the Obama administration are again hiding massive increases in federal control behind help for “the children.” It’s agenda journalism at its finest… or worst, depending on your point of view.

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AP Scolds Republicans for ‘Noncompliance’ Over Stimulus $… But is There Any?”

History - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

L.A.Times Has a Problem with U.S. History

April 2, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

… and the problem is they don’t know any of it.

The story in the L. A. Times was supposed to be a story of lighter fare, a less hectic sort of human interest story that is supposed to be interesting, but not earth shacking. It’s all about the trials and tribulations of the folks that re-create the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in the dusty streets of Tombstone, Arizona.

Apparently a brash new sheriff is in town (really, I do mean the real local lawman) who has decided that the actors and reenactors that portray the original gunfight participants have gotten out of hand and need to be regulated out of existence, or at least scaled back.

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L.A.Times Has a Problem with U.S. History”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

New York Times Killed Stories of Obama’s Links to Vote Fraud/ACORN During Campaign

April 1, 2009 by 7 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

To the NYT it’s news that ain’t “fit to print” if it involves Obama’s criminal pals.

According to election fraud lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh, The New York Times decided suddenly to drop all efforts last October to publish stories about the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) because it came to light that ACORN was a big donor to then presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign. The Times is said to have told ACORN insider Anita Moncrief that they were dropping the story because it was a “game changer” for the election and might hurt Obama’s campaign.

Heidelbaugh, who worked for the Penn. Republican State Committee in a vote fraud lawsuit against ACORN, told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19 that she had found a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign through the inside information from former ACORN worker Anita Moncrief.

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New York Times Killed Stories of Obama’s Links to Vote Fraud/ACORN During Campaign”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Race - Republicans - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Confuses Criticism of Obama With ‘Racial Slurs’

April 1, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Proving that the left cannot tell the difference between “racism” and “criticism,” the AP posted a lengthy March 30 story confusing and conflating the two as it pertains to attacks on President Obama. As far as the AP is concerned it seems the whole country is running around with burning crosses and wearing pointy hoods aiming to cast racial epithets at Obama at every turn. It may as well still be the year 1860 around here.

The AP starts its piece by informing the reader that “racial slurs continue” against the president “despite” his “historic achievement.” But the main problem with the piece is that much of the report details political attacks that aren’t really racial in nature but are instead just those normal sorts of political attacks we see against any president. Granted they are tailored for Obama (like his citizenship and religion questions) but they aren’t really “racial” attacks per se. Still, the AP illegitimately lumps any and all attacks against Obama under the rubric of “racial slurs.”

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AP Confuses Criticism of Obama With ‘Racial Slurs’”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Did the U.S. Turn Socialist Just Because Obama Won?

March 31, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

TNR’s Chait gets it wrong thinking Americans are all nouveau left-wingers just because Barack Obama won the White House

Jonathan Chait is all upset at the Democratic Party. Hs is damning their eyes for not blindly accepting every extremist, left-wing idea that President Obama would like to implement. Chait is wailing that Congressional Democrats are standing athwart Obama’s radical agenda just when he assumes we are at a “once-in-a-generation chance for the Democratic Party to reshape” the country.

Chait is right, of course, that Congressional Democrats are not bending over blindly for Obama’s agenda and many elected officials are jealously guarding their privilege is true enough. He is also right that Obama has faced some obstacles within his own party — and it is probably coming as a surprise to the president, too. But he is wrong to assume they are doing it for spite, mere power or necessarily for personal aggrandizement. In fact, Chait has a major misunderstanding of the very country that Democrats represent. You see, Chait thinks that just because Obama won a 7 percent majority of the vote the whole country is ready to become a radicalized, socialist, anti-religious, and virulently anti-capitalist nation. Chait makes the major mistake in thinking “the people” of the United States of America are just like him.

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Did the U.S. Turn Socialist Just Because Obama Won?”

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Media Bias - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Were Shooters Unidentified in Press Because They Were Muslim?

March 31, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is something that you NewsBusters fans can help me with because I am having difficulty deciding what is going on with this one. We have a shooting incident in Minnesota perpetrated by three Muslim Somali immigrants but for some reason almost every single media report about the incident omits the names of the shooters, names of obvious North Africa or ethnic origin. So, the question is, did the Old Media in Minnesota purposefully leave the names unreported so that they could cover up the fact that the criminals were Somali immigrants? And, if so, why would they do this?

We start with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that reports that “three suspects were in jail Sunday following a shooting in Lakeville that injured four other people.” Apparently one of those arrested took umbrage at being told to leave a party and began shooting up the place as he and his friends left. But, all we get from the StarTrib is “three suspects.” No names or descriptions.

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Were Shooters Unidentified in Press Because They Were Muslim?”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

We NEED a Newspaper Bailout to SAVE This Professionalism

March 28, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Put Subhead HERE

The L.A. Times has always considered itself the cream of the newspaper crop in the Western U.S., the height of the industry. It is supposed to represent the best in newspaper professionalism. Papers like the L.A. Times are also held up as an example of what we don’t want to lose when supporters talk of instituting newspaper industry bailouts in the halls of Congress. Well, our friends at lies.com aren’t fooled!

With all the grave warnings of that excellence of newspapers that might be lost echoing in your ears, I offer an amusing example of that “excellence” for you today. Take a closer look at the accompanying photos of one of the pages in Friday’s print edition of the L.A. Times. Notice that the L.A. Times rushed to press before they even tipped in the subheads and photo captions and left the dummy type in its place.

Hail the professionalism of the L.A. Times.

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We NEED a Newspaper Bailout to SAVE This Professionalism”

Barack Obama - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Dear Barack, Don’t Get Mad, Was Just Doing my Job — Love Ed Henry, CNN

March 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is a somewhat amusing article on CNN.com right now. It’s not amusing for it’s witticism but for the fact that Ed Henry and CNN think they need to explain away the “tough exchange” that Henry and Obama engaged in during Tuesday’s press conference. Also amusing is the fact that Henry seems to be apologizing to The One for simply doing his job. Finally, it’s amusing for the fact that CNN and Henry think they are the news along with the president. It’s narcissistic and revealing all at once. On top of all that it is amusing for whom CNN obviously felt the need to explain themselves to because for the last day the left has been outraged over Henry’s gall at asking the president a simple question.

If you’ll recall, on Tuesday (March 24) CNN’s Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry asked Obama why he waited days to react to the outrage over the AIG bonuses that Treasury Sec. Geithner wrote into the bailout plan. Avoiding the question, Obama replied with a surly “Because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.” This exchange had the extremists at DailyKos and the profane folks at Wonkette as well as the rest of the left-O-sphere worked up into a frothy lather over Henry’s low down, hornswoggling ways. How DARE he ask the Obammessiah a pointed question! Why it’s sacrilege, surely!

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Dear Barack, Don’t Get Mad, Was Just Doing my Job — Love Ed Henry, CNN”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Reaches out to Media… But Only Lefty Ones

March 26, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Imagine the howls of anguish that would have belched forth from the Old Media if George W. Bush had decided to only talk to Fox News and Drudge? Imagine if members of Bush’s administration had reached out only to the Internet sites RedState and Powerline. What if Bush had instituted a concerted effort to only interact with conservative media sources? Who can doubt that the Old Media would have decried it as the end of the world as we know it? In fact, they did by so often attacking Fox News.

Yet, here is precisely where Barack Obama is going with his own media outreach. Not with out reach to conservative sources, of course, but to exclusively partisan, left-wing sources, often to the exclusion of moderate, right of center, and older media outlets. As Politico reported on March 24, the president’s team is “reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media” in hopes of going around long established Old Media outlets.

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Obama Reaches out to Media… But Only Lefty Ones”

Congress - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Name That Party: 3 Dems in FBI Probe, Party Affiliation Omitted/Buried

March 25, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I think it is finally getting to the point that when an Old Media story goes out over the wires without mentioning the party affiliation of troubled politicians, people naturally assume that all the criminal actions in said story are being perpetrated by Democrats. But, that assumption aside, we are still seeing reports nearly every day that omit the “Democrat” in any story involving criminal Democrats. Here is yet another one.

The Associated Press posted a story on the FBI’s probe of questionable campaign donations to Senator Patty Murray and Representative Norm Dicks of Washington state. The possibly worrisome donations were from PMA Group, a lobbying firm founded by an aide of Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania. With all these politician’s names being thrown around in the AP report, though, it is curious that not a one of them were ever identified as Democrats. Not once.

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Name That Party: 3 Dems in FBI Probe, Party Affiliation Omitted/Buried”

Barack Obama - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

LAT Torn: Do We Cover for Obama or Puff Pelosi? Let’s Try BOTH!

March 25, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times took upon itself a difficult task. The chore: to make it seem like Obama is in control of Congress at the same time that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is still a powerhouse there. The truth of the matter is that Barack Obama has revealed little influence over the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives but the Times wants to make it seem as if Obama is firmly in charge to puff his reputation. To do that, it would have to prove that Pelosi is taking a back-seat to the president. Yet, the Times also wants to show support for Pelosi. The resulting article is filled with one contradiction after another as it ends up attempting to say that both of them are in charge of the House. Quite a few journalistic backflips were made in the effort, too.

The L.A. Times headlined its piece, “Pelosi’s role diminishes under Obama.” This headline might tend to tell the reader that Nancy Pelosi has stepped back from her iron-fisted control of the House to allow Obama to push his agenda. Yet, even as the first six paragraphs of the piece starts that way, most of the article tends to dispute both the headline and the concept that Pelosi has relinquished any control at all to the White House. In fact, it says just the opposite, that she is just as firmly in control as ever, ceding nothing to Obama.

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LAT Torn: Do We Cover for Obama or Puff Pelosi? Let’s Try BOTH!”

Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

SF Chron Reports ‘Massive’ Anti-War Protest, Completely Ignored Equally Large Cincy Tea Party

March 24, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Back on March 15, Noel Sheppard noted that the San Francisco Chronicle completely ignored the thousands of average Americans that came together in Cincinnati, Ohio to protest Obama’s unprecedented take over of the US economy. The Cincinnati Tea Party truly was massive but is just one of the many dozens of Tea Party protests that have occurred — and are continuing to occur — all across the country in the last two months. Still, the SF Chronicle didn’t see any reason to cover the rally.

But never fear for the Chronicle does enjoy a good protest, nonetheless. As long as it’s of a leftist, anti-war flavor, of course. Witness the Chron’s coverage of the “Massive anti-war, anti-Wall Street protest in San Francisco” from this weekend, March 21.

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SF Chron Reports ‘Massive’ Anti-War Protest, Completely Ignored Equally Large Cincy Tea Party”

Barack Obama - Humor - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

Old Media’s Shoddy Work

March 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is just a small example of the shoddy work seen in the Old Media, but the Chicago Tribune uncorked an amusing bit of sloppy writing today in a story about Obama’s White House looking to change the way coffee and water is served there.

After regaling us about new coffee cups Obama’s administration wants to buy, the Bush cups not being sufficient, Sarah Gantz writing for the Trib unleashes this one (my bold):

The cold-drink equivalent of coffee at White House meetings has traditionally been bottled water. But the practice of distributing individual bottles is being phased out for a less wasteful method of water consumption.

“We’re also taking steps to minimize the use of plastic bottles,” Glunz said, by replacing the plastic with pitchers and cups.

Traditionally been bottled water? What “tradition” are we talking about? The practice of one president, and just the last one at that?

Naturally we all remember when Abe Lincoln tried to get rid of the plastic water bottles. The whole establishment was in an uproar. After all, George Washington himself started that tradition of drinking water in plastic bottles.

“Traditionally,” indeed.

Barack Obama - Censorship - Democrats/Leftists - Entertainment - Liberals - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

NYTimes Somehow Misses Obama ‘Special Olympics’ Jab

March 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

All day Friday the newspapers, TV stations, radio, and the Internet were abuzz with Barack Obama’s failed joke about the Special Olympics Thursday night on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. In shades of John Kerry’s failed joke about the unschooled being “stuck in Iraq,” the president’s apologists said he was merely joking and didn’t mean to say anything disparaging about people with developmental challenges. Still, the incident stirred passionate discussion all day Friday. At least it did for everyone but The New York Times’s Helene Cooper. Cooper seemed not to even realize it happened if her review of the show is any indication.

One has to wonder, with the entire country talking about Obama’s Special Olympics quip, how did Cooper miss that part of the story? Why would she not even make a passing notation of the controversy the joke caused?

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NYTimes Somehow Misses Obama ‘Special Olympics’ Jab”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Closes Press Award Ceremony… to the Press? Where’s Outrage?

March 20, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, this story has GOT to have been written by that satirical website The Onion! Barack Obama is about to be crowned “Newsmaker of the Year” by the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. The ceremony is to take place this afternoon,March 20, at the White House.

And here is the kicker… it’s CLOSED to the press!

Seriously! This dude is getting an award from the press and he’s closed the ceremony to the press. Where is the outrage? Where is the screaming about how Obama is the most “secretive president” since Bush? Where are comments about the lack of “transparency”? More to the point where are the guffaws about just how ridiculous this move is?

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Obama Closes Press Award Ceremony… to the Press? Where’s Outrage?”

Barack Obama - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Don’t Fall for Making a Big Deal of Obama’s ‘Special Olympics’ Comment

March 20, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today we will see the news all over the place that President Obama was making fun of the Special Olympics during his Tonight Show visit. I can only say to the center-right blogosphere, DON’T fall for it. It’s a complete non-issue. It’s meaningless. In fact, dwell on it and you risk acting exactly like how the unhinged, uncivil left-o-sphere does on any given issue.

As ABC’s Jake Tapper reports, Obama brought up the Special Olympics when discussing his bowling score.

Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he’s gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

He bowled a 129, the president said.

“That’s very good, Mr. President,” Leno said sarcastically.

It’s “like the Special Olympics or something,” the president said.

The knee-jerk, PC reaction is to feign outrage and howl that Obama was somehow making fun of the mentally challenged that participate in the Special Olympics. In fact, the White House itself tried to head off any carping about the comment with a quickly issued press release.

Continue reading “Don’t Fall for Making a Big Deal of Obama’s ‘Special Olympics’ Comment”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - Patriotism - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Networks Claim ‘Responsibility’ To Air Obama Speeches… But Often Skipped Bush’s

March 20, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hollywood Reporter’s (THR.com) James Hibberd is reporting that the TV networks are “reluctantly” shuffling their on air schedules to fulfill their “responsibility” to air President Obama’s important campaign speech… er, I mean address to the nation next week. The Nets are solemnly claiming the mantle of the patriotic American fulfilling their civic duty to air presidential addresses, it appears.

It is all well and good that they should do this, of course. Keeping the nation informed is one of those long-held, self-proclaimed charges of TV news organizations, of course. But, curiously enough, that same attention to a patriotic, civic duty to air presidential speeches didn’t seem so compelling to them while Bush was in office because they often refused to air his speeches to the nation. Or, as in at least one instance, they left the speech early to go on to primetime programing.

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Networks Claim ‘Responsibility’ To Air Obama Speeches… But Often Skipped Bush’s”

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - Name That Party - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Name That Party: Top NM Dem Sentenced, Party Affiliation Deep Sixed

March 20, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Manny Aragon was one of New Mexico’s most powerful law makers and power brokers. A former Senate president, Aragon was this week convicted and given a 67 month sentence for lining his pockets and that of his co-conspiritors with millions in fraudulently billed state contracting money.

While his “iconic” status is mentioned and his long standing position as a “Senate leader” is dutifully chronicled, his status as a Democrat doesn’t seem to make the cut of a large portion of the stories on his sentencing.

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Name That Party: Top NM Dem Sentenced, Party Affiliation Deep Sixed”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

New York Mag: Obama’s ‘Want Each Other’ Unlike Other Presidents?

March 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Did you know that no presidential couple ever “wanted each other” until the coming of The One and his Michelle? Well Stacy Schiff of New York Magazine knows, blurting out like a star-struck 13-year-old at a Jonas Brothers concert the question, “How long has it been since a First Couple seemed to want each other?” What about George W. and Laura’s love? Must have all been a head fake. H.W. Bush and Barbara, it’s all a sham I tell you. Nancy and Ron? Fuggedabout it. Bill and Hillary… OK, you might have something there. None of the rest really care about each other who can doubt? Not Schiff, anyway. No, as far as Schiff is concerned, love’s been reinvented by Michelle and her beau, The One.

It’s either a sole example of love in the Oval office… or it’s just another appalling exercise in Old Media sycophancy that takes slobbering devotion to a new level. I guess this is what passes for “reporting” these days, but it still seems like maudlin hero worship to me. It causes one to wonder what crackerjack box Schiff found her mind reading cap in to enable her to learn that no other presidential couple “want each other”? Still, Schiff has divined the fact for us like a late-night informercial psychic, nonetheless.

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New York Mag: Obama’s ‘Want Each Other’ Unlike Other Presidents?”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Family - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Living Like it’s 1899, What does ‘Sacrifice’ Mean?

March 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Newsweek has some prescriptions to save us all. We should live like it’s 1899 instead of 2009. Don’t use a dryer for your clothes, chop your own wood for heating fuel, buy a black and white TV because it’s “just as good,” and don’t get the Internet or cable TV. Sheese, talk about a kill-joy!

Of course, the piece by Steve Tuttle isn’t all stone-ageie, new-ageiness. Some of the points Tuttle makes are sensible enough — not buying what you can’t afford being the most salient. But, Tuttle’s harkening back to his parent’s depression era scrimping is a bit much and makes a mockery of the sensible suggestions he does make.

Naturally, a Newsweek piece isn’t complete unless it has some gratuitous (and in this case off base) Obamaisms as homage to the brilliance of The One. In this case, Tuttle invokes Obama’s exhortation for us all to engage in a little “personal sacrifice.”

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Living Like it’s 1899, What does ‘Sacrifice’ Mean?”

2nd Amendment - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Guns - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Conflation Junction: Tenn. Columnist Thinks Criminals and Madmen Obey Laws

March 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

See, the thing that makes crazy people, well… crazy, is that they don’t do things like normal people. Laws, rules, even simple human kindness is meaningless to such unbalanced people. The same can be said of criminals. See the thing that makes them criminals is that they don’t obey laws. But the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Rich Locker seems to think making a law will magically make a wacko suddenly heed reason. On top of that, to illustrate his allusion he conflates the criminal actions of a man in Alabama to laws in Tennessee in order to justify his anti-gun sentiment for Tennesseans. Will these disingenuous Old Media types never learn a love of logic?

The tragic and criminal actions of the nut in Alabama that killed 10 people in a wild traveling rampage served as Locker’s platform to advocate for a Tennessee law that would make illegal the carrying load guns in a vehicle. He seems to insinuate that such a law would have prevented the sicko in Alabama from driving around killing people. Locker neglects to reveal how some words on a piece of paper, though, could prevent a madman from transporting a loaded gun in a car.

The opening paragraph is a perfect example of this conflation in order to draw out an emotional reaction in the reader.

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Conflation Junction: Tenn. Columnist Thinks Criminals and Madmen Obey Laws”

Barack Obama - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Despite Massive Losses NYT Execs Enjoy Bonuses, Salaries Steady

March 13, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently the long knives President Obama has out for the blood of CEOs and high paid executives does not apply to the bigwigs at The New York Times. In a March 11 piece ABCnews.com posted a Reuters report that the suits at The Times are still doing quite well despite the downwardly spiraling fortunes of the newspaper they helm. Not only are salaries holding steady, even rising, but they are also receiving bonuses. All of this while profits have plummeted along with advertising sales.

While other large corporations are freezing executive salaries and or even cutting them, the top two NYT execs have seen salaries holding at the same rate since 2006 if not rising. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr, even got a one-time bonus of $38,045. NYT CEO Janet Robinson saw her total compensation rise from $4.1 million to $5.8 over last year.

So, where is President Obama to ask for their heads on a pike?

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Despite Massive Losses NYT Execs Enjoy Bonuses, Salaries Steady”

Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Dems ‘Must’ Keep Census Political — ‘Gerrymander and Gender-mander Away!’

March 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bonnie Erbe, a columnist and blogger for U.S.News and World Report, is keen to make sure that Democrats continue to cheat on re-districting as much as possible. She is insisting that Democrats not fall for a bi-partisan or a fair approach to re-districting and says that the Census should stay “politicized” because, after all, it’s Democrats in power now! So, as far as she is concerned, the Democrats should “gerrymander away” and absolutely demands that the Census should be politicized.

Erbe writes that she wants to “gender-mander” the Census for “feminist leaders” and wants to make sure that “hispanics and Latinos” aren’t “under-counted.” She claims the Census is “part of the spoils of victory” and wants her lefties to be able to wield that power. She says that the Democrats should “spare us the theatrics of trying to look nonpartisan.” So, the Dems should continue to cynically use the Census merely for partisan political purposes.

So much for the new tone in Washington, eh?

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Dems ‘Must’ Keep Census Political — ‘Gerrymander and Gender-mander Away!’”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Republicans - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Globe Column: A Perfect Example of Lies About Rush

March 7, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe started off her column on March 6 with the exact same feeling about the current Obama/Limbaugh feud that I at first had: I wasn’t going to talk about it either. But after reading her column of distortions and outright lies about Limbaugh — as well as the ever present fat jokes and general incivility — I couldn’t resist analyzing her column. It is, as it occurs, the perfect example of the calumny that lefty writers heap on the radio talker. It also reveals their low born style of discourse and their general state of apoplexy at Limbaugh, if not the general level of insanity he instills in them.

Proving the direction she intended to take right off the top Goodman starts with a fat joke. She says she caught Limbaugh’s CPAC speech as she was on a flight. Goodman quips that he “filled — and I do mean filled — the screen” before her. Yes, one can sense the high caliber of analysis about to assault the eye when reading this first paragraph. Goodman is obviously an intellectual giant.

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Globe Column: A Perfect Example of Lies About Rush”

Barack Obama - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Liberals - Media Bias - News - President - Republicans - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Rush Quickens

March 6, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s been two days now since Rush Limbaugh first challenged President Obama to a duel of words, a debate on issues, and five since the president and his surrogates made Rush the main Democratic Party talking point. Of course, the White House is pretending to stand above such a request from a mere talk radio mouth — no response on the challenge has yet emerged. Yet, Obama’s Press Secretary, his Chief of Staff, and all the Old Media folks that his Chief of Staff instructs on a daily basis in that well known morning strategy session all have been using Rush Limbaugh as a main talking point since the Sunday morning following Rush’s CPAC speech.

Not only has Obama’s seconds come out swinging at Rush, but the whole of the lefty blogosphere has joined in on the taking points. Never the sort to do much self-generated thinking, the lefty gab-o-sphere has with relish taken up the banner and run with it. Naturally, the tenor of discussion has fallen off a cliff into the typical guttural guffaws and epithets at which the left excels. From a purported “Assistant Professor in the Practice of International Politics at Columbia University” on Huffington Post to the DailyKossacks, the name calling is piling up.

With his attack on Rush Limbaugh, however, Obama risks a backlash that just might hit him where it hurts: his own credibility.

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Obama’s Rush Quickens”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - History - Liberals - Media Bias - News - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Why Do You All Keep Saying Obama Killed Reagan?

March 6, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The pundits and talking heads have settled on a sensational meme: Obama killed Reagan. To the Old Media and the pundit class, it’s got all the requisite characteristics of a great story. New beating old, liberal trumping conservative, it has power, pathos and amazement. But, it is also pure hyperbole and, well, a load of horse puckey.

Before I get too much further along here, it would be silly of me to claim that it could never happen that Obama will supplant Reagan as the miracle worker of the Oval Office. We have but to look at the long-term success of Franklin Roosevelt’s turning of America from a capitalist republic to a democratic socialist system to see that it is entirely possible that Obama’s next four years (or 16 if we’re talking FDR redux) could “re-make” the country once again. Not that what FDR did was a good thing, mind you, but it cannot be denied that it was a political success and was entirely transformative.

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Why Do You All Keep Saying Obama Killed Reagan?”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

TelePrompter Story Shows Another Way Old Media Covers for Obama

March 6, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Carol E. Lee of Politico had a short March 5 piece about President Obama’s singular inability to give a speech, even short ones, without the crutch of a TelePrompter in front of him to prod him about what to say next. This isn’t the only time the media has raised its eyebrow about the president’s TelePrompters (I even covered it myself not long ago), so the story isn’t a new one, but one little thing that Lee wrote reveals how the media goes out of its way to help Obama’s image by keeping the devices out of Obama’s photography.

His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face.

In other words, the Old Media puts in a herculean effort to make sure The One still looks like he is speaking extemporaneously by working overtime to make sure those speech prompters are NOT in the picture.

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TelePrompter Story Shows Another Way Old Media Covers for Obama”

00Publius Contributor - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Politico: ‘How the Press Sucks up to White House’

March 5, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Want to know the sordid details of how the press sucks up to staffers at the White House? According to Politico’s Michael Calderone it is via a “beat sweetener” article, a concept well known in Old Media circles. A “beat sweetener” is an article meant to flatter a White House staffer so that said reporter might find easier access to the inside stuff later on.

Calderone’s piece is an interesting glimpse into the world of Washington political reporters and it isn’t one that builds much confidence among us, the readers. Perhaps, like a magician revealing his tricks, Calderone might find a few of his colleagues being a bit miffed at the spotlight he shines on this less than edifying practice.

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Politico: ‘How the Press Sucks up to White House’”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Anatomy of a Left-Wing Smear: The Great Tea Party Conspiracy Busted

March 4, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Playboy Magazine got its undies in a bundle over the nation wide Tea Party protests held last Friday that were inspired by CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s free market rant of February 19. As Noel Sheppard noted on March 1, the skin mag published a piece claiming that Santelli was part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to protest Obama’s socialist policies.

It turns out, however, that the story has been proven false and in response Playboy has mysteriously removed the piece that first raised the question of the grand conspiracy. Happily, the facts have won over on Playboy forcing it to pull down the fallacious story. In its place, all we now get is a “We’re sorry, we couldn’t find the page you requested,” notice.

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Anatomy of a Left-Wing Smear: The Great Tea Party Conspiracy Busted”