Archive for the ‘Bias’ Category
New York Times Deifies Obama
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
From the New York Times the Obama Jesus. Says Jammie Wearing Fool [photo at link]:
Not content to show Obama with a halo, the New York Times is now creating images of him with a cross in the background.
Good grief. I guess the separation of church and state no longer applies when it comes to The Sainted One.
This is the definition of sacrilege. But I’m not sure the editors at the New York Times know God–that’s why they’re fooled by Obama.
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Joblessness: Bad News Is Unexpected News
Thursday, February 4th, 2010When bad things happen during the Obama administration it’s always so “unexpected”. The latest round of unexpectedly unexpected news was in the jobs arena. The AP reports:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.
The rise is the fourth in the past five weeks. Most economists hoped that claims would resume a downward trend that was evident in the fall and early winter.
The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 480,000. Wall Street economists had expected a drop to 460,000, according to Thomson Reuters.
The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, rose for the third straight week to 468,750.
The figure is the highest in the past two months. Initial claims dropped sharply in late December, raising hopes among economists that layoffs were nearing an end and the economy would soon start generating net gains in jobs.
Why one might think that the easing of joblessness in December (people STILL lost jobs) was due to seasonal hirings and that now, those people and many, many more don’t have jobs.
One would think that, if they weren’t a press person who had their heads so far up the administration’s financial guru’s rear that he too was blinded by Obama’s light.
The American people find this “unexpected” news laughable. It’s what they see all around them. And they don’t expect things to get better any time soon.
If this was the Bush administration, the recession would be called The 2nd Great Depression.
The jobless numbers are disheartening. There are reasons they’ll continue to get worse. And it will continue to be unexpected because any bad news surrounding the Obama administration is unexpected.
It’s going to get worse, morons. There are so many reasons in the underlying economy (commercial mortgage loan resets, increasing home defaults, scaling back work force–many companies cut salaries, not employees, etc.) for bad, not good, things to happen.
Layer on to the actual economy the administration’s mixed messages and outright hostility toward business, and you have an EXPECTEDLY unstable economic environment.
The jobless woes should surprise no one.
John and Elizabeth Edwards Legally Split Today
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010Buried today in the news of the State of the Union and the Apple iPad this:
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who admitted last week that he fathered a child with a videographer, separated Wednesday from his wife, Elizabeth, according to a source close to her.
Edwards, 56, denied he was the infant’s father for more than a year, saying his affair with Rielle Hunter was over before she became pregnant.
The former U.S. senator from North Carolina unsuccessfully sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Elizabeth Edwards’ sister, Nancy Anania, told People magazine in an article dated Wednesday that Elizabeth told her, “I’ve had it. I can’t do this. I want my life back.”
The sister told the magazine, “She’s got cancer and has young children and totally believes in marriage … but she can only do so much.”
And there’s a sex tape. Of course. And it won’t get released “unless he needs the money.”
AND, John Edwards hates “fat rednecks:”
Young also writes that Edwards, who billed himself as the modest son of a mill worker, hated making appearances at state fairs where “fat rednecks try to shove food down my face. I know I’m the people’s senator, but do I have to hang out with them?”
You wouldn’t have heard this story if it weren’t for the MSM. But they’re no biased. Nosiree…
The Last Refuge Of A Miserable Democrat: Call The Voters Stupid
Monday, January 25th, 2010Joe Klein illustrates the anger coming from the left. The Democrats are imploding. The voters are frustrated. The horizon doesn’t look better for the libs.
Who’s to blame? Not the Democrats. Never them. It’s YOUR fault, says Joe Klein in his post titled Too Dumb To Thrive:
It is very difficult to have a democracy without citizens. It is impossible to be a citizen if you don’t make an effort to understand the most basic activities of your government. It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you’re a nation of dodos.
Oh, and it’s Fox News’ fault, too.
Why can’t voters just get how awesome the President, the Democrats, their policies and the cheerleaders in the press really are? Why oh why oh why?
Idiots./sarcasm off
Christiane Amanpour Gets Tortured With Enhanced Truth From Marc Theissen
Thursday, January 21st, 2010One of the more interesting parts of the Scott Brown campaign was his defense of enhanced interrogation techniques. The Massachusetts voters approve of them, and him. Says Andy McCarthy:
It was health care that nationalized the special election for what we now know is the people’s Senate seat. But it was national security that put real distance between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley. “People talk about the potency of the health-care issue,” Brown’s top strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom, told National Review’s Robert Costa, “but from our own internal polling, the more potent issue here in Massachusetts was terrorism and the treatment of enemy combatants.” There is a powerful lesson here for Republicans, and here’s hoping they learn it.
One of the great frustrations of the Bush years was the fact that the administration had strong national-defense and counterterrorism policies that it shied away from defending. On enhanced-interrogation tactics, for example, President Bush’s position resonates with most Americans: When the nation is under siege, nothing is more important than getting life-saving intelligence. And, particularly when we are dealing with terrorists who are trained to resist interrogation and exploit our legal system, we must aggressively interrogate them and keep them out of our legal system. The opposing position, espoused most prominently by Sen. John McCain, was counterfactual and incoherent. Senator McCain pronounced both that enhanced interrogation (which he called “torture”) never works (which is patently untrue) and that an interrogator might at most use it in a ticking-bomb situation (the last situation in which you’d want to use it if, in fact, it never works).
It seems that the American people are getting an opportunity to compare and contrast the “keep America safe” techniques of President Bush and President Obama. President Obama is found wanting. And hypocritical. And ineffectual.
The press, though, continue to pound this “torture” meme. For once, Christiane Amanpour is stopped by Marc Theissen, author of the book Courting Disaster: How The CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting The Next Attack. Here’s the clip:
The American people are very sensible. They don’t want people randomly waterboarded. They also know that the government has water boarded precisely three (3) terrorists and none have been water boarded at Guantanemo Bay.
It is atrocious that the Crotchbomber in Michigan never got questioned. I watched the testimony on the hill from America’s leading defenders–Janet Napolitano, and the DHS and the rest of the defense guys and was appalled. I thought Jeff Sessions was going to have a heart attack, he was so angry. And rightly so.
The American people don’t need a news anchor telling them that the Khemer Rouge is the same as the CIA with three confirmed terrorists. The moral equivalence is appalling.
Well, What Do You Know, Al Franken’s Vote Getter Marc Elias Has Set Up Shop In Massachusetts
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010Just great. Dan Riehl reports:
Coakley attorney Marc Elias speaking now, claiming spoiled ballots … Elias is Al Franken’s former campaign attorney. Yep.
Meanwhile, Mary Katherine Hamm has this screen grab from Coakley’s campaign yesterday, claiming fraud yesterday:
OUTRAGE: Boston Globe Calls The Election For Coakley Hours Ahead Of Time, OOPS!
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010My friend Eric at Funhouseus catches the Boston Globe reporting results in Massachusetts before they’re counted.
It’s all a big mistake.
[Associated Press] was testing an election data feed to its Massachusetts clients. During corresponding tests at our end, the feed of AP’s hypothetical test data was inadvertently posted for a few minutes on a single subsection page within ur site. As soon as the error was discovered, it was removed. We regret the mishap.”
Liberal Professors: A Type-Casted Profession?
Monday, January 18th, 2010Right out of central casting: Pony-tailed hair, elbow pads, Birkenstocks and nubby socks, spectacles and a general dislike for people, especially, ironically, young people. Seems that there’s a reason:
Nursing is what sociologists call “gender typed.” Mr. Gross said that “professors and a number of other fields are politically typed.” Journalism, art, fashion, social work and therapy are dominated by liberals; while law enforcement, farming, dentistry, medicine and the military attract more conservatives.
“These types of occupational reputations affect people’s career aspirations,” he added in a telephone interview from his office at the University of British Columbia. Mr. Fosse, his co-author, is a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard.
The academic profession “has acquired such a strong reputation for liberalism and secularism that over the last 35 years few politically or religiously conservative students, but many liberal and secular ones, have formed the aspiration to become professors,” they write in the paper, “Why Are Professors Liberal?” That is especially true of their own field, sociology, which has become associated with “the study of race, class and gender inequality — a set of concerns especially important to liberals.”
So it’s not that a conservative would have to keep his politics to himself lest he be denied tenure or tormented on his path to professorship, it’s that conservatives just don’t want to be a professor because professors are so politically typecast?
I don’t know. You can read the whole article and see for yourself.
It’s true that some professions are more female dominated: teaching, nursing, flight attendant, etc.
Political type-casting? Maybe conservatives want to be involved with something where they actually contribute something concrete to society rather than some airy-fairy intellectual exercise lost in the theoretical.
The problem with conservatives shunning academia, of course, is that there is a complete lack of diverse thought in education from bottom to top. Kids hear Marxist drivel and the ideas are never challenged. And heaven forbid a student challenge them. They’ll pay for their uppity-ness for sure.
It’s a chicken-egg thing, I think. One problem feeds into another. The solution has been for colleges to spring up that support more conservative ideology across the board. The problem is that there are just too few conservative schools.
Frank Rich Did It First, But More Would Follow: Trying To Destroy Sarah Palin And The Tea Party Movement
Monday, January 18th, 2010Here is one Mainstream Media Narrative: Tea Partiers (Baggers) are racist, mobs, hate-filled, unruly, people.
Here is another Mainstream Media Narrative: Sarah Palin is a stupid hick, a gender traitor, and a quitter.
And the Mainstream Media Narrative that underlies all narratives: Anyone who believes something other than the liberal agenda is selfish, mean, and evil. So, there goes the majority of the country too stupid to see greatness when it’s right in front of their eyes. /sarcasm
Now, the Judson Phillips’ Tea Party Nation, Inc. gathering at Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee [background here] had the potential to fulfill every single one of those narratives and give the MSM a story that wrapped everything up in a bow. In fact, the MSM was hoping to undermine the Tea Party movement, discredit Sarah Palin and vilify “rich” conservatives all in one fell swoop–hopefully the day of the convention.
Unfortunately for the MSM and fortunately for those who are concerned about the country, the shady actions of a few were exposed so as to not tarnish the vast majority of good people in the Tea Party movement. Some changes could be made to correct errors by the Tea Party Nation, Inc. founder. Sarah Palin could make a decision with all the facts and not be blind-sided.
Still, guys like Frank Rich tried to jump from this one bad actor and tarnish the whole movement. His piece was utterly predictable. He tried to say that Sarah Palin was attempting to hijack the Tea Party movement. Erick Erickson writes of Rich’s leaps in logic:
As for Palin? Rich is trying to build up activists to tear down Palin, but in fact Palin and the activists are one together. Sarah Palin is the epitome of the tea party activist — a mom who got involved in politics because the political establishment in Wasilla, Alaska was misspending sales tax revenue. Just as wasteful spending in Wasilla got her involved in politics, the federal waste and spending is getting lots of moms, dads, and kids involved in politics today.
The Left hates Sarah Palin with a vehemence that is impossible to quantify. They loathe the Tea Party folks because it is everything they’re not–true grassroots, not astroturf; common citizens coming together (not paid stooges); and people who are united by a desire to take power away from D.C. and give it to the American people.
So, if Frank Rich and others like him can tie the actions of one man to the average Tea Party person concerned for his country, he’ll do it. If Frank Rich can portray Sarah Palin as a hypocritical pol, he can defeat the most effective voice in opposition to Barack Obama and the left in general.
The Tea Party groups around the country are doing much good. They will be an effective foundation for bringing accountability to both parties.
Witness what is happening in Massachusetts. Even in a liberal state given to supporting Democrats almost exclusively, the people are rising up to send a message to elitists in Washington.
This is terrifying for the liberals. They’d like to knock down any symbols that will threaten their power.
So, the people do well to police their own. The Left accuses the Right side because they’re the Soros-funded, ACORN-defiled and SEIU astroturf kings. They are utterly corrupt and they want to dishearten Americans by painting the opposition with their own cynical brush.
The best defense against scurrilous attack by people intent on destruction is the truth. Keeping our own side clean deprives the Left of ammunition.
Meanwhile, it’s too late. The Left is losing. And they know it. That’s why they’re desperate.
Constrasting Mark Knoller’s Tweet Coverage Of Obama’s Church Speech With Mine (Unpaid Twitterer Citizen Journalist)
Sunday, January 17th, 2010Today, President Obama spoke at a D.C. area church to honor Martin Luther King Day. Gateway Pundit has the video. You can see my Twitter feed for the notable quotes, etc.
Here are some differences:
1. I admit my bias. Mark Knoller does not.
Anyone reading my coverage knows that I’m an out and proud conservative-libertarian. People read my stuff with that in mind.
That is not to say that Mark Knoller is unbiased. He just doesn’t admit it. For example, if you followed his coverage, you’d get a sweeping overview that would lead one to believe that the President’s speech was exclusively honoring Martin Luther King. You wouldn’t get the quotes about progress for gays and lesbians or the politicized comments about health care reform.
It was a political speech in a church, not a soaring ideals speech. You wouldn’t know that from Mark Knoller’s coverage. It’s what Knoller left out that demonstrates bias. This is a much more insidious form of bias because people don’t know what they’re missing.
2. I link to competing news sources. Mark Knoller does not.
For example, Knoller’s network was not covering the speech live. MSNBC online did cover the speech live.
So I linked to the coverage so people could watch, and discern, for themselves.
Those following Knoller’s feed would have to take his word for it. That’s too bad. On Twitter, a person can follow all network feed while watching another network video live coverage in another window. It’s not really competition at all. It is also incomplete news.
3. I link to “competing” Tweeters. Mark Knoller does not.
Well, I don’t view them as competition. I view them as different points of view. Period. People can take what they want from them.
So, I Retweet Knoller or Matt Lewis or Philip Klein or Jake Tapper or Mary Katherine Hamm or Matt Drache or Steve Green or any other news source who is offering information about the subject. That includes lots of people you haven’t heard of, but who I follow on Twitter. I retweet regular people and give their opinion the same weight as Mark Knoller. If he or she says something worthwhile, why does it matter WHO says it?
Mark Knoller’s feed is all Knoller all the time. It’s just limited, is all.
It is great that Mark Knoller is on Twitter. I like his Twitter feed. I have, however, noted more than once what he’s omitted salient information.
Following Major Garrett and Jake Tapper often fills in the blanks and leaves me wondering about subtle bias. On Twitter, bias is revealed rather easily. When multiple sources live-report an event an observer can see them.
Twitter is the great equalizer.
What does this mean for the future of news aggregation and assimilation? I don’t know.
I have linked to local people with webcams and big orgs like MSNBC. I have linked to heavily compensated pundits and average citizens like me who are especially insightful (or stupid–and I don’t mean just the citizens).
The media world is flattening. Between YouTube and U-Stream, Blogging, Twitter and other outlets, news and entertainment are becoming more merit-based.
There will always be room for a guy like Jake Tapper or Andrew Malcolm who are adapting to the new media forms. People will pay them for their content either under a big brand or on their own. They are safe.
Well, they’re as safe as anyone is in this morphing economy and accelerating technology.
