Showing posts with label MSM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MSM. Show all posts

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Washington Post's Eugene Robinson imitates Custer, claims 'Charlie Rangel is no crook'

One need only read the latest op-ed by the sixties retread named Eugene Robinson to comprehend the depths to which the Washington Post has descended. I did not make up the title of his most recent piece. Perhaps the Post, in its efforts to cut costs, outsourced title editing to The Onion.

Charlie Rangel is no crook


Charlie Rangel is no crook. He’s right to insist on the opportunity to clear his name, because the charges against him range from the technical all the way to the trivial...

...Rangel apparently was careless in filling out his required financial disclosure forms; he should have known better than to take that important exercise so lightly. And he’s accused of using a rent-controlled Harlem apartment as a campaign office -- which, I suppose, makes him the first New Yorker to look for loopholes in the city’s Byzantine rent-control laws. But where’s the old-fashioned venality? Where’s the out-and-out graft? Where’s even the hint of avarice?

...What’s missing is any allegation that Rangel bent or broke a single House rule -- or even a New York city ordinance -- for his own gain... ...Rangel was trying to satisfy his ego, not line his pockets. The real crime would be if such a long, distinguished, important public career ended in disgrace.

Eugene Robinson is a very, very disturbed individual. Rangel's dozen-plus charges would have landed any normal citizen in prison for a decade-long stint. The list of House ethics violations include, but are not limited to:

• Rewrote tax law to benefit a company that donated money to his namesake center;
• Used four rent-controlled apartments (violating NYC's rent-control laws) including using one as an office, not a residence (also violating NYC's laws), which also raises the question of an improper in-kind campaign contribution
• Improperly reported his ownership interest in a Dominican Republic condominium and failed to pay income taxes on $75,000 in rental income
• 'Intentionally failed to report' hundreds of thousands -- or millions -- of dollars in mysteriously acquired assets -- including an IRA, mutual fund accounts and equities

The full story will probably never come to light, thanks to the Journolistic practices of DNC PR hacks like Robinson.

Gee, look what I found: a Eugene Robinson op-ed from 2005!

Immoral Majority


...It may be too much to hope that the former House majority leader [Tom Delay] -- and how good it feels to write "former" -- will actually be convicted and do jail time. The indictment for criminal conspiracy returned by a Texas grand jury on Wednesday is for alleged campaign finance violations that are the rough equivalent of money laundering, which is not the easiest crime to prove in court.

But DeLay's problems are bigger than Texas. His golf-buddy relationship with Jack Abramoff, a fat-cat lobbyist under federal indictment, will face months of scrutiny. DeLay's resignation from the House leadership is supposed to be temporary, but Republicans ignored his wishes and picked a strong successor who could serve out the rest of this Congress if necessary. Clearly they believe their former leader will be distracted for some time.

Which makes me feel like it's morning again in America.

It's little wonder that the Washington Post is hemorrhaging readers faster than a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman.

It's the intellectual dishonesty, stupid.


Saturday, August 07, 2010

Pass the Popcorn, Nahanni: HuffPo Readers Try to Blame Everyone But the Left for the Collapse of the Modern Welfare State

There's nothing more entertaining than watching the rabid denizens of PuffMo froth over the collapse of the modern welfare state. In this case, Arianna's tepid tout sheet features eight states that are slashing services due to immense budget deficits.

KlinzBoy: "This is all the result of 30 years of conservative policies. We bought in and here we are. This is all part of the plan folks."

Sean6399: "Illegal immigration has destroyed California's budget. Schools are full of the children of the illegals. California's prison population is 20% illegal immigrant. Hospitals are full of these impoverished economic refugees who can't pay for the government services they suck up... But observation of these facts is clearly motivated by racism."

The dense ball of cement that is DSOTM's brain: "The Costs of Illegal Immigration vs. State Budget Deficits: a Chart"
DSOTM: "I find it so ridiculous that the people of Arizona want to spend the millions defending the immigration bill and lay off teachers at the same time... Way to go Arizona, you're all white future looks mighty bright"

Winston120: "The States have to align with the realities of the current economy. Printing money in DC to prop up budgets in states can't go on forever. The entire civil servant population needs an overhaul. In my state, CA, the civil servant salaries and pensions are outrageous and unsustainable. These leeches still want to retire at 50 while people in the private sector will see retirement raised to 70 and maybe more. A 20-25 year retirement gap alone is outrageous. "

Gee, and all this time I thought America had thrived because of the Constitution that the "right wing" founders created, which led to the most prosperous society on the face of the Earth? My mistake.
Procrustes13: "Let's play how low can your wages go. Down, down, down they go. A permanently-lower standard of living is the right wing utopian future. "

Robinhood1: "Do you expect Democratic politicians to turn against their union masters? That leaves the Republicans, who are more interested in keeping gays in their place. The average resident is screwed."

Racoon1: "The old, the sick, the children.......do with less or do without. This is civilization?"

I love it when the deepest of blue states blame Republicans for the giant turds their Democrat masters left in the punch bowl. Cali, NY, Illinois -- heartless Republican leaders!
BiseeOrNotBisbee: " It is in the Republican world. :( "

MissingAmerica: " We need an overhaul in government. To cut budgets in education and yet continue to fund war and penal institutions is simply assuring that we will have no shortage of ignorant warriors in the future, especially since no one will be educated well enough to teach anything else. How I miss the days when we expended our efforts on the young people and the living, rather than depleting funds for the common good in order to fund death, destruction, ignorance and chaos. How far we have sunk since I was a child! "

BannorHill: "Since when did State budgets fund the war? States do not finance death and destruction yet they have unbalanced budgets. The state proplem is not war funding but over spending in wrong areas. A typical problem of big government. "

TruelyFedUp: "Please see my petiton entitled Unemployment Solution USA ... to help the 44.25 million unemployed in America have a solution like you have seen here... Our alternative is to have massive numbers of hungry, angry people with the right to bear arms in our neighborhoods seeking any means to survive.

Gee, putting the unemployed in 'compounds'. Sounds familiar. Like 1930s Germany.
MissingAmerica: " While parts of petitions ideas are good, it has one basic flaw. If funds are removed to assist the unemployed who are not a part of the community, it requires them to relocate to what is effectively a compound... What we do need is a government that encourages corporations to return to us. I could see the government funding the building and/or retrofitting of factories for corporations who agree to return to the land of their industrial birth. They could fund the building of housing around those industries."

RobinHood1: "Too bad so many Republicans distracted the voters with the bogus issue of gay marriage. The right wingers should have sponsored an initiative to roll back government pensions instead."

Firstep: " Meanwhile we are paying for a big vacation in Sapin "

That 4.6% unemployment was a bitch!
Welib: " And George Bush didn't even bother to show up for work for more than 3 years of the 8 years he was supposed to be working for us. He took a 3 year vacation! 1020 days! "

AyeChart: "The states (run in the main by left-wing Democrats) liberal states and cities for the most part, have been cutting NECESSARY and BENEFICIAL services while funding left-wing liberal boondoggles like opera houses and art museums and other items that COULD BE CUT WITHOUT ENDANGERING the citizens. But NO! They continue to fund the icing on the political cake while cutting back police and firemen, etc."

This rant by "Welib" has it all: Bush lied. Borrowing from our grandkids' to fund 99 weeks of unemployment makes sense when the government's got record-setting debt. Talk radio is inciting people to violence. And Valerie Plame is a hero. The guy apparently never heard of the Democrat creations called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Come to think of it, a more terrifying example of the typical drone mentality you'd be hard-pressed to find. This guy needs to be in a laboratory so scientists can figure out how and when his brains leaked out of his ear-holes. My guess is it was sometime during his AFT-approved education.
Welib: "You're full of *hit! Talk about endangering citizens? You are trying to hang that stink on liberals? Get out of here. Republicans sent this country to war FOR LIES. That's not just 'endangering' our citizens lives, it's making them give up their lives so Republicans can make money.

...Republicans refused and still refuse to sign off on benefits for the American people and rebuild this country, but they don't mind spending billions and billions rebuilding other countries.

...Republicans incite violence against Mr. Obama and other minority Americans, al la Glenn Beck, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh. Mr. Obama gets 400 times the threats GWB got and the Repubs even show up to Obama's town halls with not just guns, BUT LONG GUNS, ASSAULT RIFLES.

...The Repubs would have shot anyone on site if they had come like to within 2 miles of Bush! There wasn't even free speech back then. Like Valerie Plame found out, you tell the truth, your career is over!

...IS IT AN ACCIDENT THAT REPUBLICANS HAVE BANKRUPTED US TWICE AND PUT A 7.5 TRILLION DOLLAR HOLE IN OUR ECONOMY? "

MarkAndre: " Wow a psychotic rant from a liberal, what are the odds, it is all Bush’s, and the Republican fault: after 19 months of Obama and a Democratic majority only a fool could not see the truth! "

Gee, I feel all sparkly clean now!

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

The Best Ideas to Save Our Beloved Newsweek Magazine: Hashtag #SaveNewsweekIdeas

Yes, it's true. The Democrat public relations rag known as Newsweek was just sold for the tidy sum of one dollar. The magazine had been hemorrhaging cash in recent years: "Revenue dropped 38 percent between 2007 and 2009, to $165 million... the business lost $32 million in 2008 and $39.5 million in 2009. Even after reducing headcount by 33 percent and slashing the number of issues printed and distributed to readers each week from 2.6 million to 1.5 million, the 2010 operating loss is still forecast at $20 million."

Thankfully, the perennially helpful cadre of conservatives on Twitter chimed in with scores of suggestions to save the DNC's official news-magazine.

MoRocca: To prevent further loss, engineers begin pumping heavy drilling mud into Newsweek offices
@directorblue: Include small number of golden tickets in each print run, winners to receive tour of Weehawken print shop
@directorblue: All articles printed in barcode to cram in more content

@directorblue: Create world's first fireproof magazine using asbestos newsprint
@directorblue: Include collectible kids stickers featuring faces of SEIU bosses
@RickSheridan: Kathleen Parker centerfold

@matthewrnewman: Use monkeys to recreate news of the day on the cover
@directorblue: Piggyback on popularity of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' trilogy by adding umlauts to every letter 'u'
@directorblue: Add more hilarious, rolicking MediaMatters columnists

@jimmiebjr: Hire Ackerman to throw underperforming ad salesmen through a plate glass window
@iowahawkblog: Rename to Smug Self-Righteous Asshole Review to avoid reader confusion
@ExJon: Print on two-ply, absorbent paper stock

@chucksavga: Move fiendishly coded instructions to sleeper cells from p 95 to p 11. They never read that far.
@directorblue: Include bootleg DVD of a different first-run movie with every issue
@directorblue: Cram each issue with as many used automobile and apartment rental ads as will fit

@IronyNOW: Deal Fareed Zakaria for prospects, sign Stephen Strasburg
@directorblue: Photoshop incriminating photos of Simon Cowell with Snooki
@directorblue: Pay readers to buy magazines, make up shortfall with high volumes

@SamValley: Partner with Bird Fancy Magazine as the Cage-lining edition
@directorblue: Print on delicious, crunchy Nestle's rice paper
@directorblue: Rename to "Newsmonth", hire hip young writers like Ruth Marcus and Leonard Pitts

@Rschrim: Shark Week!
@Michael_Haz: Helen Thomas swimsuit issue.
@iowahawkblog: Have reporting staff spend more time in the field, selling roses at busy frontage road intersections

@RennaW: Fire 1 of 15 columnists each week based on reader votes, bizarre physical challenges
@iowahawkblog: exclusive deal for magazine rack monopoly in reader-packed Govt Motors recall center waiting rooms
@StarlessTwit: Tell readers, "I must break you," and hope they will be intimidated into subscribing.

@jd_nyc: Have Government force people to buy it. Apparently they can do that now.
@cuffperfunction: Rent out the storied Newsweek Mansion for sexy sexy JournoList parties
@Joe: Kristan Just keep sending same magazine, changing only date. Remaining readers have dementia anyway and won't notice.

@iowahawkblog: Get rid of the unpopular 'Newsweek' part of magazine
@DrewMTips: Cut out unnecessary middlemen and let Robert Gibbs write all stories on Obama Administration
@j4140: Promise smoother looking skin in just 10 issues


Monday, August 02, 2010

'Non-partisan' Democrat front group Media Matters tacitly approves of Oliver Stone's hate speech; racism just hunky dory for Obama backers

I've waited over a week for the so-called media watchdog site Media Matters to report upon Oliver Stone's recent hate speech. You may recall that Stone, an avowed Marxist who -- curiously -- enjoys living in the lap of Capitalist luxury, spouted off some unbelievably hateful invective to a UK newspaper.

Mr. Stone promised that his new series would put "in context" and "show empathy" for people many Americans hate, like Hitler and Stalin. In an interview with London's Daily Telegraph, Mr. Stone said that Jewish deaths during World War II had to be viewed "in proportion," since "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people."

When asked why so much attention is paid to the Holocaust, Mr. Stone blamed "Jewish domination of the media." The Jewish lobby in the United States, he said, was "the most powerful lobby in Washington" and had "[expletive deleted] up United States foreign policy for years."

Media Matters' silence on this racist screed is indeed curious. Let an 18-year old intern at Fox News splice the wrong crowd shot into a news report or a talk radio commentator misattribute a quote from the Baron de Montesqueiu, and the Democrat front group breathlessly reacts with dozens of paragraphs dedicated to the falsity of conservatism, the Constitution and America's founding.

But we watch in wonderment as one of the Left's heroes espouses an appreciation for the misunderstood genius of genocidal barbarians -- and Media Matters clams up tighter than a Tokyo subway car at rush hour after Michael Moore waddles on board.

If Media Matters is non-partisan, then so is Keith Olbermann, since he cribs so many of the same stories from the DNC teleprompter.

Hopefully it won't be long 'til the IRS launches a much-deserved investigation into this front group's abuse of the taxpayer through its supposed 'non-partisan, non-profit' status and, accordingly, its byzantine sources of funding.


Sunday, August 01, 2010

The Wife Was Really P.O.'ed This A.M. -- Chelsea's Wedding Extravaganza

The wife was on a roll this morning, pointing out some interesting facts about the immense Clinton wedding that took place this weekend.

"This damn wedding cost between $2 million and $5 million."

"They hold this wedding at the Astor Estate, with its porcelain bath fixtures, paying millions of dollars, and claim to be for the little people?"

"Here's the spokesman (Clinton) for Haiti and he's blowing ten grand on a cake?"

"And all of the liberals defending this extravaganza claim it stimulates the economy. Can you believe that? These are the same geniuses who tell us that trickle-down economics doesn't work!"

"Apparently Chelsea wanted a quiet little wedding. She's very publicity-shy. So why didn't they tone it down and donate the money to Haitian relief?"

"But, no, they had to hold an over-the-top, massive celebration when the American economy is suffering."

"There really are two Americas: the Democrat ruling class and everyone else."

"These people are such f***ing hypocrites it makes me sick to my stomach."

"And no one is pointing out a comparison to Jenna Bush's wedding."

"She had a small, discrete ceremony in Crawford, Texas."

"The whole thing probably didn't cost much more than Chelsea's cake."

"Oh, but the Democrats are for the little people. They feel for the common man."

"It's like the difference between Al Gore's multiple mansions and George W. Bush's simple ranch that really is a 'green', environmentally friendly home."

"And the media plays along, as usual. The American people know exactly what they would have done had Bush held this kind of shindig in an economy like this one."

"The media in this country suck."

Like I said, the wife was on a roll this morning. And she's right.


Related: There is a God!. Linked by: Michelle Malkin, iOwnTheWorld, Don Surber, Memeorandum, The Other McCain, American Power, So it goes in Shreveport, DaTechGuy and DBKP. Thanks!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Behold: the Awesomeness of the Obama Recovery as Explained by Journolist Members, Apparently

You've got to love the desperate, wheezing hacks in the media who are still pitching an economic recovery to a disbelieving electorate. Please consider "A Surprise Upswing in the Housing Market."

After weeks of disappointing housing reports from the government and realtors, new data released Monday could offer some hope for a stalled market.

The annual rate of new home sales climbed in June to 330,000 units, up 23.6% from May. The rate was well above the 295,000 units a year that economists polled by Briefing.com had expected.

New home sales are still down 16.7% from June 2009, but last month's surprising data suggest the housing market may have a life even without the homebuyer's tax credit, which expired for most potential buyers at the end of April...

Mish and David Rosenberg expose the reality of these desperate numbers.

One can't help but laugh at headlines touting a huge 23.% jump in new home sales given that the "jump" was to the second worst month in history, dating back to 1963.

Dave Rosenberg puts the headline jump into perspective in Housing Data Are Not Supportive.

Market sentiment is positive and as a result of the market going straight up, people believe that the economic data are somehow getting better. Not the case at all.

April new home sales were revised DOWN to a 422k annual rate from 504k when the data for the month were first released. You know what that means? It means that the homebuyer tax credit was even a bigger dud than we thought it was previously. No bang for the buck from these spending gimmicks.

May new home sales were revised DOWN to 267k units from 300k. That sure puts a 23.6% "jump" to 330k into perspective, doesn't it? It's called bear market math.

At 330k in June, this goes down as the second worst month on record (data back to January 1963). And in per capita terms it is far worse than that considering the population has expanded 63% since then... [And] the average sales price was cut 9.8% MoM in the third steepest month ever in terms of discounting. At $242,900 for an average price of a new home sold, this represented the lowest number since October 2003 and off 26% from the 2007 peak.

But just think about that for a second. The third largest price cut in history managed to generate the second worst new home sales tally on record. This is something to get excited about?

Given that housing leads recoveries (more specifically housing starts followed by new home sales), this is another nail in the coffin that suggests there has been no recovery except in financial assets. Moreover, that financial recovery is only a result of unsustainable stimulus that is now quickly fading into the sunset.

Could someone let Ezra Klein know that the truth is slipping out again? Message discipline, folks... message discipline!

And Mish, I would keep your head on a swivel and stay away from plate-glass windows. The pencil-necked weasel named Spencer Ackerman is a lot more terrifying in person than you could possibly imagine.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Thought experiment: if 60 Minutes employed journalists

*** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick ***

I'm Morley Safer. They told us they needed $787 billion to fix the economy -- $2,500 for every family in America. But unemployment continues to skyrocket and many wonder: what happened to the hundreds of billions of dollars? When we investigated, we found that no one really knows. And the corruption, graft and criminality we discovered were surprising -- even for us.

I'm Steve Kroft. Barack Obama authored an amazing autobiography called Dreams from my Father. But one man has unearthed overwhelming evidence that Obama didn't actually write his own book. And the name of the real author might surprise you, he says: Bill Ayers. The domestic terrorist and one-time neighbor to the President.

And I'm Mike Wallace. The promises were grandiose. Transparency. No lobbyists in the White House. Leaving Iraq. Ending NSA wiretaps. Finding Bin Laden. Post-partisanship. But the realities have shaken even the President's most committed supporters. Now Democrats are asking: is the President a serial liar?

That and Andy Rooney, tonight. On 60 Minutes.

*** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick *** Tick ***

Attention, College Students: Paul Krugman Will Write Your Economics Essay for Cash!

Not that you'll get a good grade, mind you, for reasons that should already be clear to anyone right of Dana Milbank.

Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman delivers the good news that 2010 is "the year in which all hope of action to limit climate change died." Needless to say, he thinks this is bad news, but that's not why we're highlighting his column in yesterday's New York Times. Instead, it is for this passage:

You've probably heard about the accusations leveled against climate researchers--allegations of fabricated data, the supposedly damning e-mail messages of "Climategate," and so on. What you may not have heard, because it has received much less publicity, is that every one of these supposed scandals was eventually unmasked as a fraud concocted by opponents of climate action, then bought into by many in the news media.

Now, it would be one thing for Krugman to argue--wrongly, in our opinion--that the "supposedly damning e-mail messages of 'Climategate' " were not actually damning. But no one has denied that they are genuine. Krugman's description of them--and every other accusation "leveled against climate researchers"--as "a fraud concocted by opponents of climate action" is flatly false.

Nor is this the first time such a statement has appeared under Krugman's byline in the pages of the Times. You may dimly recall this passage of his Aug. 17, 2009, column:

In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We've all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false.

Again, a categorical statement: not "some of these stories are false" (which is probably true) or "these stories paint a misleading picture; although the British health-care system has its shortcomings, on the whole it is vastly superior to America's" (which, as a statement of opinion, is at least defensible). If even a single scare story about Britain's National Health Service is true, Krugman's assertion is false.

James Taranto is too kind. Krugman is an economic illiterate -- yes, I said it! -- who has all the emotional stability of a prepubescent girl with a crush on Obama.

He's apparently never learned the one common-sense principle every business owner quickly discovers: Government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.


* Do not read Krugman if you take nitrates for chest pain. Don't drink alcohol in excess while reading Krugman. If you find yourself dumbfounded by the sheer partisan tomfoolery of Krugman, contact a medical professional immediately.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Media blackout continues as Journolist members shriek like scalded cats: our words and intentions were twisted by 'the Right-Wing Hate Machine'

A coordinated news blackout of the Journolist affair continued today with just a handful of exceptions. Most coverage now comes in the form of apologias by Beltway insiders and confessionals from ex-Journolistas who decry the release of their most private thoughts by the right-wing hate machine.

WaPo's Kathleen Parker Pooh-Poohs the Affair


Today's Washington Post column by Kathleen Parker condemns the exposure of known liberals' seemingly private thoughts, which she terms as 'Gotcha Journalism'. She conveniently fails to mention that we know only 107 of the 400 participants' names and that those we do know instantly coordinated a "line" -- a counterattacking viewpoint -- to undermine Sarah Palin. They planned to paint innocent individuals as racists --- uhm, kind of like how Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, the White House and the legacy media have conspired to label innocent Tea Party activists as racists, come to think of it.

Best responses in the comments to Parker's misleading trope:

• ...let me know who the cabal (they called themselves that, by the way) chooses to have elected in 2012 and 2016 so we can watch them at work in the press. We dullards outside the elite 400 of Journolist apparently can't be trusted with information of all views to read and analyze on our own... and we, unlike you, do value a free, independent press!

• ..."gotcha" journalism is sophomoric, sleazy, unprofessional and intellectually dishonest... unless, of course, Sarah Palin is the subject.

• ...Parker, please feel free to continue to undermine what little credibility the Post may still have left... "Friends" making a case to get Obama elected by any and all means possible... Oh, heck, I'll just use a Journolist method...Parker, you are a racist!

Tribune Media's Cox: Journalists Shoulda Known Better


Ana Marie Cox of Tribune Media Services goes right to the heart of the matter -- any journalist worth their salt would know these sorts of innocent, private conversations could someday be exposed.

Joe Klein's Mealy-Mouthed Defense of the Indefensible


Time Magazine's Joe Klein, one of the 107 Journolists, claimed that the cabal was simply an innocent gathering of media personalities no different than, say, the conversation that takes place in a normal media junket. The unintended hilarity of his message appears to have escaped Klein.

...the Daily Caller has printed one of my Journolist emails, in which I share my latest published thinking about the just-announced Republican vice presidential candidate and thank the group--in an ironic, overblown tone--for the conversation we'd been having on the subject. When seen through the lens of witless right-wing conspiracy mongering, this seems embarrassing. But there was no conspiracy afoot. I didn't need the folks on Journolist to figure out how to react to Sarah Palin: her lack of qualifications for the vice presidency--and her spectacular abilities as a stand-up politician--represented a fecund gusher of material that made even the most mediocre of columnists seem like geniuses. Writing about Palin was not hard work; it still isn't; it will never be.

The phrase vicious, twisted hack comes to mind.

Another Journolist -- Kevin Carey -- Screeches Like a Wounded Feline


The immortal Kevin Carey (heh) at the Chronicle of Higher Education whines like a little girl in his epic "Inside (Or At Least, Uncomfortably Near) The Right-Wing Hate Machine".

[The Daily Caller's revelations were] more than enough to set the gears of the right-wing outrage machine in motion. Soon Daily Caller folks were being interview [sic] by Fox News' Megyn Kelly, a woman whose reporting technique consists primarily of modulating the degree to which her eyeballs bulge with rage and incredulity. Glenn Beck weighed in, and Rush Limbaugh, and the guy who posted that fake video that led to Tom Vilsack railroading an innocent woman out of her job at the USDA, and so on. Right-wing radio host Mark Levin published a McCarthyite list of known Journolist members on his Facebook page...

...People in academia are often accused of hiding in the ivory tower. These people were doing the opposite, engaging with people in other spheres and fields. For that, they've been branded as thugs, traitors, and other words I can't reprint here. All so the owners of various cable news outlets and web sites can make money by lying to their audience and fanning the flames of resentment.

Irony, thy name is Kevin "Dumbass" Carey.

What else are they hiding?


And what other juicy stories are today's journolists keeping under wraps? I mean, besides the blockbuster revelations we already know they're hiding.

Remember, folks: for these budding Marxists the ends always justify the means, no matter how badly they maul the foundations of this country.


Saturday, July 24, 2010

Journolist: All 107 (Known) Members With Their 'News' Affiliations

Via Buckeye Texan:

1. Spencer Ackerman – Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect
2. Ben Adler – Newsweek, POLITICO
3. Mike Allen - POLITICO
4. Eric Alterman – The Nation, Media Matters for America
5. Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic
6. Greg Anrig – The Century Foundation
7. Ryan Avent – Economist
8. Dean Baker - The American Prospect
9. Nick Baumann – Mother Jones
10. Josh Bearman – LA Weekly
11. Steven Benen - The Carpetbagger Report
12. Jared Bernstein – Economic Policy Institute
13. Michael Berube - Crooked Timber (blog), Pennsylvania State University
14. Lindsay Beyerstein - (blogger)
15. Joel Bleifuss - In These Times

16. John Blevins – South Texas College of Law
17. Sam Boyd - The American Prospect
18. Rich Byrne - Playwright and freelancer
19. Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
20. Jonathan Chait – The New Republic
21. Lakshmi Chaudry - In These Times
22. Isaac Chotiner – The New Republic
23. Michael Cohen – New America Foundation
24. Jonathan Cohn – The New Republic
25. Joe Conason – The New York Observer
26. David Corn – Mother Jones
27. Daniel Davies – The Guardian
28. David Dayen - FireDogLake
29. Brad DeLong – The Economists’ Voice, University of California at Berkley
30. Ryan Donmoyer - Bloomberg

31. Kevin Drum – Washington Monthly
32. Matt Duss – Center for American Progress
33. Eve Fairbanks – The New Republic
34. Henry Farrell – George Washington University

35. Tim Fernholz – American Prospect
36. James Galbraith - University of Texas at Austin (professor)
37. Todd Gitlin – Columbia University
38. Ilan Goldenberg - National Security Network
39. Dana Goldstein – The Daily Beast

40. Merrill Goozner - Chicago Tribune
41. David Greenberg - Slate
42. Robert Greenwald - Brave New Films
43. Chris Hayes – The Nation
44. Don Hazen - Alternet
45. Michael Hirsh - Newsweek
46. John Judis – The New Republic, The American Prospect
47. Michael Kazin - Georgetown University (law professor)
48. Ed Kilgore – Democratic Stategist
49. Richard Kim – The Nation
50. Mark Kleiman - The Reality Based Community
51. Ezra Klein - Washington Post, Newsweek, The American Prospect
52. Joe Klein - TIME
53. Paul Krugman – The New York Times, Princeton University
54. Lisa Lerer - POLITICO
55. Daniel Levy – Century Foundation
56. Alec McGillis – Washington Post
57. Scott McLemee - Inside Higher Ed
58. Ari Melber - The Nation
59. Seth Michaels – MyDD.com
60. Luke Mitchell – Harper’s Magazine
61. Gautham Nagesh – The Hill, Daily Caller
62. Suzanne Nossel – Human Rights Watch
63. Michael O’Hare - University of California, Berkeley
64. Rick Perlstein – Author, Campaign for America’s Future
65. Harold Pollack – University of Chicago
66. Foster Kamer – The Village Voice
67. Katha Pollitt – The Nation

68. Ari Rabin-Havt - Media Matters
69. David Roberts - Grist
70. Alyssa Rosenberg – Washingtonian, The Atlantic, Government Executive
71. Alex Rossmiller – National Security Network
72. Laura Rozen – Politico, Mother Jones

73. Greg Sargent – Washington Post
74. Thomas Schaller – Baltimore Sun
75. Noam Scheiber – The New Republic
76. Michael Scherer - TIME
77. Mark Schmitt – American Prospect
78. Adam Serwer – American Prospect
79. Thomas Schaller - Baltimore Sun (columnist), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (professor), FiveThirtyEight.com (contributing writer)
80. Julie Bergman Sender - Balcony Films
81. Walter Shapiro – PoliticsDaily.com
82. Nate Silver - FiveThirtyEight.com
83. Jesse Singal – The Boston Globe, Washington Monthly
84. Ben Smith - POLITICO
85. Sarah Spitz – NPR
86. Adele Stan – The Media Consortium
87. Kate Steadman – Kaiser Health News
88. Jonathan Stein – Mother Jones
89. Sam Stein - The Huffington Post
90. Jesse Taylor – Pandagon.net
91. Steven Teles – Yale University
92. Thoma - The Economist's View (blog), University of Oregon (professor)
93. Michael Tomasky – The Guardian
94. Jeffrey Toobin – CNN, The New Yorker
95. Rebecca Traister - Salon (columnist)
96. Cenk Uygur - The Young Turks
97. Tracy Van Slyke - The Media Consortium
98. Dave Weigel - Washington Post, MSNBC, The Washington Independent
99. Moira Whelan – National Security Network
100. Scott Winship – Pew Economic Mobility Project
101. Kai Wright - The Root
102. Holly Yeager – Columbia Journalism Review
103. Rich Yeselson – Change to Win
104. Matthew Yglesias – Center for American Progress, The Atlantic Monthly
105. Jonathan Zasloff – UCLA
106. Julian Zelizer - Princeton professor and CNN contributor
107. Avi Zenilman – POLITICO

The Good Old Days: When Protesters Weren't Racists

So let me get this straight...










...it's Breitbart that's supposed to apologize?

Friday, July 23, 2010

Most Hilariously Awesome Revelation from Journolist Scandal: Everyone Hates Keith Olbermann

Even the denizens of Journolist -- the mainstream "journalists", pundits and academics of the left -- thought Keefus was an arrogant, offensive misogynist.

Salon’s Rebecca Traister agreed Olbermann regularly displayed his contempt for women. “Olbermann has a terrible record of going out of his way to talk about young, attractive women he believes to be stupid in grotesquely dismissive and oversexualized terms.”

Traister had written the same thing in her columns for Salon, for instance calling Olbermann out when he “felt free to call [Paris] Hilton a slut on air and speculate about whether anyone had ever ejaculated in her face.”

Blogger Lindsay Beyerstein said maybe the time was now to take down Olbermann. “When we liberals were fighting for political survival after 9/11, it was important to be disciplined and to pick our internal battles very carefully. Now that the Democrats are in charge and progressivism is ascendent, we can afford to demand more from our leaders.

“We can certainly afford to smack down Keith Olbermann when he spouts misogynist garbage,” she said.

University of Chicago Professor Harold Pollack said at the end of a long hard day, the last thing he needs is an hour with someone like Olbermann...

So who's gonna be the WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD tonight, Keefus?

Oops. Tito, hand Keith a tissue.


Thursday, July 22, 2010

Journolist Rallies Around Tiger Woods

Papa B relays this unsourced email.

I think it is remarkable that within a week of Tiger Woods crashing his Escalade, the press found every woman with whom Tiger has had an affair. The media unearthed photos, text messages, voicemails and more. In fact, they not only knew the cause of the family fight, but they even knew it was a wedge from his golf bag that his wife used to break out the windows in the Escalade (not to put too fine a point on it, they even knew which of Tiger's wedges she used)!

And with each passing day, they fed America more updates on his sex-rehab stay, his wife's plans for divorce, and the dates and tournaments in which he'll play.

Barack Obama has been in office for more than a year-and-a-half, and this same press:

· Still cannot find any of his childhood friends or neighbors,

· Or locate any of Obama's college papers, grades or transcripts,

· Or determine how he paid for a Harvard education,

· Or discover which country issued his visa to travel to Pakistan in the 1980's,

· Or his thesis, Barry Soetero's thesis -- even Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis on racism,

They just can't seem to find them.

Yet the public still trusts that same press to give them the whole truth.

In fact, if you want to know any of those details, the press will call you a racist.

Truly, he is the man from nowhere. No tracks, no roots, no history, no records, no transcripts, no one who remembers him, no girlfriends, and no neighbors.

Perhaps someone should ask Ezra Klein or Spencer Ackerman if they can check into these matters.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Der Joürnolist: The Media Scorecard

All you need to know about Der Joürnolist can be gleaned from Dougie's exclusive Scorecard. Here's who you can trust -- and who you can't. Here are the folks reporting -- and not reporting -- on Der Joürnolist Scandal:

• ABC: None
• American Thinker: Forget the Whistleblowers! WaPo Management Owns the Journolist
• Bloomberg: None
• CBS: Debunking the Journolist “Conspiracy” (Chait)
• CNN: None
• Fox: Report: Journalists Debated Whether Government Should Shut Down Fox News
• Investors Business Daily: The Smoking Gun For Media Bias
• MSNBC: None
• NBC: None
• New York Post: Steering the Press
• New York Times: None
• NPR: None
• Washington Examiner: First came Climategate, now it’s JournoList; Who’s next for an email scandal?
• Washington Post: Nothing to See Here, Just Move Along Folks (Klein)
• Washington Times: Inside the Beltway

I have a suspicion that Tucker Carlson's biggest revelations are yet to come.

In which case, readers of the Wrinkled Gray Lady and viewers of NBC will find themselves shocked when their favorite commentators are suddenly and unexpectedly forced to resign.


Breaking: Media Cabal Buries News of Media Cabal

Scandal? What scandal? Dan from New York writes:

Don't blame yourself if you haven't heard about the JournoList conspiracy and its activities on behalf of Barack Hussein Obama. It just means you're still getting your "news" from the One-Party Media.

WSJ, Notable & Quotable, July 21, 2010


John Fund discusses how members of the liberal email group JournoList attempted to control media coverage of Barack Obama.

John Fund writing yesterday in the Journal's Political Diary e-newsletter:

From 2007 until last month, some 300 liberal journalists and policy wonks exchanged ideas and commentary on a secret, off-the-record Internet email group called JournoList. It was shut down after portions leaked, leading to the resignation of Washington Post writer David Weigel last month over his intemperate criticism of conservatives he was covering.

But someone who belonged to JournoList continues to leak information from its archives, providing a fascinating glimpse into how some liberal journalists coordinate their story lines to protect their favorite politicians and ideas. The Daily Caller website reports that at several times during the 2008 presidential race, "employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how [Barack] Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage."

Some of the comments will no doubt revive conservative allegations of a liberal news media conspiracy. Spencer Ackerman, then of the Washington Independent, now at Wired, urged fellow journalists to kill the story of Mr. Obama's ties to the controversial Revered Jeremiah Wright by going after some of his critics. "Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares—and call them racists," he urged. "What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger's [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically."

Chris Hayes of the Nation magazine urged "those in the ostensible mainstream media" who were on the list to ignore the Rev. Wright story. He insisted the real issue had nothing to do with Mr. Obama's pastor and instead "has everything to do with the attempts of the right to maintain control of the country."

Apparently, many on JournoList had an agenda that had little to do with covering legitimate news stories, but instead were concerned with protecting their friends and trying to ensure they had "control of the country."

###

Now that the cockroaches' temporary home has been exposed to the light of day, JournoList is kaput. But the cockroaches will survive. Expect them to scurry into a dank cellar before regrouping somewhere else.

False accusations of racism. Suppression and censorship of news deemed unacceptable. Endlessly marketing a big government, Statist agenda. Tacit, overt support for government control of nearly every facet of human life.

Forget the liberal media. Consider them the fascist media.


Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A trip through the archives: the agitprop the Journolist conspiracy produced

By now you've probably heard about the cabal of liberal journalists (but I repeat myself) who conspired to salvage Senator Obama's presidential campaign in 2008. After Fox News uncovered videos of Obama's longtime friend and pastor, Jeremiah Wright, directing racist and anti-American screeds from the pulpit, the campaign appeared to be foundering.

Journolist, Ezra Klein's private mailing list, provided the venue for journalists from Time, Politico, the Puffington Toast, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon, the New Republic, and other outlets to orchestrate a rescue operation on several noteworthy fronts:

• To label conservative journalists 'racists' for reporting the news; and
• To suppress any discussion of Wright's disgusting rhetoric.

In fact, the conversations on Journolist went far beyond what most reasonable Americans might imagine among those claiming the mantle of "journalists".

Thomas Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, “why don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?... “It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort..."

...[The Nation's Chris] Hayes urged his colleagues – especially the straight news reporters who were charged with covering the campaign in a neutral way – to bury the Wright scandal...

[The Washington Independent's] Spencer Ackerman [was resigned to defending Obama and Wright, stating:] "Part of me doesn’t like this s*** either... But what I like less is being governed by racists and warmongers and criminals... It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically."

"...take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction."

All of this is some damning stuff, but I wondered: what kind of articles did legacy media run in the immediate aftermath of the conspiracy? Did Journolist really have an impact?

It took but a few moments to find the template: Kevin Merida's May 2008 article in WaPo -- alleging all sorts of racism against Obama and his campaign workers -- to pick up the meme.

• 05/24/2008 Salon: How much will white racism hurt Obama?
• 05/23/2008 CBS: Obama's wife remains fair game for GOP
• 05/19/2008 Washington Post: Clinton Quiet About Own Radical Ties; Faulting of Obama Called Hypocritical
• 05/18/2008 Times-Union: Obama helps transcend racism
• 05/15/2008 NewsHounds: Master (race) baiter O'Reilly still rampaging after Syracuse professor
• 05/13/2008 Washington Post: Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause
• 05/11/2008 Herald-Mail: Old racial hate phrased a new way
• 05/06/2008 Evening Standard: Racism and the threat of assassination haunt Barack's historic achievement
• 05/05/2008 Black Star News: Conservative Media Duplicity; George Will’s Big Obama Lie
• 05/01/2008 CBS: Michelle Obama: "Voters Are Tired Of This"
• 04/31/2008 Leonard Pitts: Let us face the ugly truth of racism
• 04/28/2008 BBC: Obama's pastor defends comments
• 04/26/2008 USA Today: Obama's ex-pastor: Comments taken out of context
• 04/26/2008 Newsweek: With Barack Obama, it's about much more than just race.
• 04/25/2008 Globe & Mail: Are Rust Belt race relations working against Obama?
• 04/21/2008 NPR: Appalachia the Scapegoat for America's Racism

So if you didn't know the media was dead, the Daily Caller's report just printed the obituary.

Which raises -- once again -- the question: what other stories has the media suppressed?

Like the Khalidi tape: recall that the Los Angeles Times has yet to release the tape (or even a transcript) of Barack Obama's speech at the banquet for PLO member Rashid Khalidi.

I have a new name for the mainstream media. I shall call it, from this point forward, the laughingstock media. They're unworthy of any contemplation above and beyond that which I'd devote to The Daily Show.

Oh, and Spencer Ackerman, if that is your real name, don't let me catch you on the street lest I be tempted to bust your head through a plate-glass window, take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas email to Journolist.

Obviously I mean this rhetorically.


Saturday, July 17, 2010

WaPo Ombudsman Explains Non-Coverage of PantherGate: We Were Really Quite Busy, What With the Macaca Fallout and All

Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander took time away from his busy schedule to explain why the dying newspaper hadn't covered the New Black Panther voter intimidation case.

For months, readers have contacted the ombudsman wondering why The Post hasn't been covering the case. The calls increased recently after competitors such as the New York Times and the Associated Press wrote stories. Fox News and right-wing bloggers have been pumping the story. Liberal bloggers have countered, accusing them of trying to manufacture a scandal.

But The Post has been virtually silent.

...National Editor Kevin Merida, who termed the controversy "significant," said he wished The Post had written about it sooner. The delay was a result of limited staffing and a heavy volume of other news on the Justice Department beat, he said.

In related news, the Post did manage to print the word macacca 96 times within a one month period.

Try to imagine the Post ignoring a story about, say, John Ashcroft killing a case involving whites who intimidated blacks with weapons and racial epithets at a polling place.

The Post's agenda is crystal clear. Its purpose is not the pursuit of objective reporting. Its ideology trumps the truth -- and its purpose is to mislead.

Businesses must sell and make a profit to stay in business. The Post is so dedicated to its cause, however, that it will still be manufacturing lies when the last customer exits stage left.

The act of committing fiscal suicide -- wearing ideological blinders as real news stories occur, unreported, around them -- is proof that liberalism is a mental disorder.

Perhaps if the Post ventured into reporting the news accurately, its staffing might not be quite so limited.


Hat tips: Memeorandum, Jack Spratt and other WaPo commenters.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Shock, Dismay as Dana Milbank Proves His Cranium Somehow Detached Itself from the Rest of His Body

I feel sympathy for the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. He has a truly difficult job. On the one hand, he has to pretend to be a real journalist. On the other, he has to recycle David Axelrod's press releases and position them as factual.

In his most recent public relations project for the DNC, Milbank pilloried Arizona Governor Jan Brewer for her references to drug gang beheadings on the border with Mexico.

Jan Brewer has lost her head.

The Arizona governor, seemingly determined to repel every last tourist dollar from her pariah state, has sounded a new alarm about border violence. 'Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded,' she announced on local television.

Ay, caramba! Those dark-skinned foreigners are now severing the heads of fair-haired Americans? Maybe they're also scalping them or shrinking them or putting them on a spike...

But those in fear of losing parts north of the neckline can relax. There's not a follicle of evidence to support Brewer's claim.

Of course, in the tiny land of reality -- which we like to call "outside the Beltway" -- the Mexican crime gangs running wild in Arizona are well-known for beheading and hanging victims just to make their point.

A friend on the Hill read Milbank's piece and pronounced it "utter BS," then produced a copy of a July 8, 2010, letter to Brewer from Arizona rancher J. David Lowell describing a recent incident involving one of his ranch hands:

"In January 2010, Congressman Rob Bishop visited our ranch here in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. During that visit, I related to him an incident that occurred on June 27, 2008, in one of our pastures west of the ranch house... On that day, one of our ranch hands was working horseback and discovered a human head near a trail believed to be used by drug and alien smugglers.

"Although the head was missing the lower jaw, it was immediately apparent that much of the mass and flesh of the head was still present. The cowboy searched the area in hopes of finding the remainder of the body to no avail.

"The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office was notified and they took possession of the head on that same date. We suspect that the head may have been placed along side the trail as a warning to other drug and alien traffickers using the trail."

Famed blogger Fausta Wertz regularly reads the Spanish-language news sites published in central America and adds:

If you, dear readers, can read Spanish, read the Narcotráfico section of Mexican newspaper El Universal. The reports of beheadings are not tall tales at all. Beheadings are a form of execution by the drug cartels operating across Mexico and in the US-Mexico border area. It behooves the governor of a state bordering with a drug war zone to ensure the safety of her state’s citizens by enforcing the law.

How many decapitated heads found would Milbank consider acceptable in order for the Arizona governor to justify enforcing the law? One? Fifty? Ten thousand?

In fact, photographs of beheaded drug gang members were published by The Westerner [Caution: extremely graphic!] to help Milbank come to grips with his cranial detachment syndrome.

It's really a shame that Dana Milbank -- who, at one time was a respected journalist -- has transformed himself into an out-and-out laughingstock. All of this embarrassment could have been avoided had he only bothered to use the complex research tool called "Google". Perhaps in the future David Axelrod will require the use of this revolutionary new application in his instruction-sheet for Mr. Milbank.


Related Reading Just to Tick You Off Even More:
The Shameless Duplicity of the Obama Administration: Napolitano Directly Contradicts Solis on Immigration Enforcement; Media Strangely Silent.
Four Border Stories Guaranteed to Make Your Blood Boil
Obama Administration Unveils Dramatic New Plan to Seal Massive Gulf Leak: Suing Arizona for Arresting Drug- and Human-Smugglers
Anyone know what you call it when heavily armed intruders cross the border into the U.S. unmolested by authorities? Oh, that's right: Arizona.