Just a Quick Example on How Bad Writing is in the Old Media These Days

June 14, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Economy/Finances, Education, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Labor Law, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Regulation, UAW, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here’s how bad writing is in the media. In a Reuters story about unions making concessions is this amusing line:

“Under Gettelfinger, the UAW agreed to allow new workers to be hired at about $14 per hour — about half of the $28 base rate for existing autoworkers.”

Uh, per my math, 14 IS half of 28. It isn’t “about half.” Nice writing there al Reuters!

Now, a better way to say it would have been:

“Under Gettelfinger, the UAW agreed to allow new workers to be hired at about half the $28 base rate for existing autoworkers.”

More precise, less wordy and makes sense. It was pretty poor work by Reuters. I know I make my share of mistakes, but then again, I’m just blogging here. I don’t have editors!

Michigan To License Journalists?

May 29, 2010 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Blogging, Civil Rights, Computers, Constitution, Free Speech, Freedom, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Journalism, Media, Media Bias, Michigan, Newspapers, Radio, Technology, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is the face of tyranny. A Michigan State Senator has introduced an Orwellian bill that would provide for the licensing of journalists. There is no doubt that this thing is aimed squarely at delegitimizing the New Media, silencing bloggers, and creating a protected class of state approved “journalists.”

State Senator Bruce Patterson is the braintrust behind this flouting of the U.S. Constitution and outrageously enough, this Patterson fellow claims to be a “constitutional lawyer.” Pair him with the “constitutional scholar” we have as president and we have a matched set of revisionists out to steal as much power for themselves as one can find in any tinpot dictatorship! Even more ridiculously, this mustachioed villain is a Michigan Republican, proving that this sort of megalomania infests both sides of the aisle.

So what is this licensing deal supposed to do for we, the stupid people not able to figure out what end is up with current events, anyway? According to Patterson we can’t get “good information” any more because of the proliferation of new sources of info. But not to worry, granny Patterson is here to save the day and he’ll selflessly take it upon himself to determine what news source is a “legitimate media source.” What could possibly go wrong, eh?
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A Tale of Two Book Banners: Palin Ripped, Kagan Excused

May 24, 2010 | Filed Under Associated Press, Barack Obama, Books, Democrats/Leftists, Entertainment, Government, Government, Corruption, Huffington Post, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Republicans, Sarah Palin, TV News, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Comparisons are always a great way to show how differently the Old Media treats conservative and leftist politicians in America today and Obama’s nomination of the Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court gives us another opportunity to see the Old Media’s penchant to excoriate a Republican’s actions while soft peddling and excusing away similar actions by a left-winger.

In this case, it is instructive to see how the Old Media treated the claim that Sarah Palin banned books from the Wasilla library when she was mayor and today how it is treating the recently highlighted Supreme Court arguments made by Elena Kagan that the government could ban books under the McCain-Feingold Act.

After McCain picked Governor Sarah Palin for his number two slot during the 2008 campaign for president the Old Media lit upon a story that said Sarah Palin tried to ban books from the Wasilla library when she was mayor there in 1996. A list of the supposedly banned books was even bandied about by the left-wing blogs causing a ruckus in the media but it turned out the list had books on it published years after Palin had left the Mayor’s office. The list was a fabrication and was lifted from a website that detailed the books that had been banned at one time or another, in one place or another, over the last 100 years.

As it turned out the whole story came from another former Wasilla mayor. He claimed that Palin had asked a Wasilla librarian “how she could go about banning books.” No books were banned, no list was made and Palin said she was asked by a constituent to look into how a book might be removed for its “objectionable material.”
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Old Media: Democrats = Moderate, Republicans = Extremist

May 24, 2010 | Filed Under Congress, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is interesting to see how the Old Media constantly spins American politics, but one thing underlies the media’s conception about current events. The Old Media’s base assumption is that the left is “moderate” but all on the right are “far right.” This concept serves as the benchmark for almost every single analysis of American politics. It’s the assumption they nearly all start with as they analyze modern politics.

Ron Fournier, Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, recently penned an analysis of Washington perfectly infused with this benchmark assumption. In early May Fournier wrote a knee slapper that claimed that there is “no place to go for moderates” because the US political scene is headed for “extremes.” And why is it headed for “extremes”? Likely it’s because it looks like the GOP is on the ascendance and the left is in retreat. But according to Fournier it’s because “moderates” are being chased from the parties.

Fournier thinks that “extremes” are befalling American politics because Charlie Crist of Florida was somehow “chased out” of the Florida Republican Party. He also points to Arlen Spector’s ship-jumping move from GOP to Democrat as evidence that the “extremes” are winning. For balance he tries to use the case of former Democrat, now independent, Joe Lieberman as an example of a “moderate” Democrat chased from the Democrat Party. These examples, Fournier posits, is proof that “compromise” is being killed in politics today.
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Media Lets Conn. Dem Slide on Vietnam Lies for Three Decades

May 18, 2010 | Filed Under Connecticut, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ahead of multiple ethics violations Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd is retiring from his long-time Democrat held seat. The Conn. Democrat Party is keen to keep that seat and has proffered Conn. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as the man to do it for them. But, Blumenthal has a tiny little problem: for three decades he’s told fibs and outright untruths about his service in Vietnam.

Blumenthal has for decades said he was a veteran of the war and led constituents to believe he served overseas but the truth is he served only during the last few years of the war, having gotten multiple deferments before 1970, and then served only here in the United States, never overseas.

Kudos to the New York Times for reporting this fact, of course, but the Old Media is not absolved because of this one story. Condemnation for the media is evident in these words in the NYT story: “The Vietnam chapter in Mr. Blumenthal’s biography has received little attention despite his nearly three decades in Connecticut politics.”

Amazing. This man has been prevaricating about his non-existent service in the war for three decades and only NOW he’s getting called on the carpet for it? Where has the Connecticut media been all this time? Where has the national media been for the months that Blumenthal has been running for Senate?

One of the lead paragraphs in the Times story is pretty damning.
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Gov Christie calls Columnist Thin-Skinned for Inquiring About his ‘Confrontational Tone’

May 13, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Economy/Finances, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Media, Media Bias, New Jersey, Newspapers, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

I love this guy…

Bloomington Paper Takes Odd Swipe At Kinzinger’s Military Service

May 7, 2010 | Filed Under Adam Kinzinger, Air Force, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, House of Representatives, Kane County, Media, Media Bias, Military, Newspapers, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

On May 6 the Bloomington Pantagraph took an odd swipe at GOP candidate for the 11th Congressional District Adam Kinzinger’s military service in a brief story that reported that he’d been called to active duty.

Kinzinger, a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, was called to active duty and the paper duly reported that fact in a short report. But an odd thing happened between the editor and printer. First of all the paper didn’t detail Kinzinger’s rank, bad enough I know. But the 6 short paragraph story ended with this line:

He often touts his military experience on the campaign trail in the once reliably Republican district.

Just what the heck is all that supposed to mean? Kinzinger “touts” his military experience? Does he not really have any such military experience, Pantagraph? Are you claim he is lying or making more of it than it is? Do you have any examples of Kinzinger making light of his service or using it unduly? Why the negative connotations here? Unless, of course, you have an ulterior motive of place doubt in the reader’s mind?
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Tenn. Newspaper: Being Pro- US Constitution and Anti-Obamacare is Raaaaacist

May 3, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Health, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Tennessee, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Did you know that if you cared about the U.S. Constitution you are a racist? Oh, and did you also know that being against big government and being against Obamacare also makes you a racist? Well if you didn’t know that the Nashville Tennessean wants you to realize that if you love the Constitution but hate intrusive, overarching Obamacare… well, you, sir, are a big fat racist. The paper also resurrects the lawmaker-spate-upon lie and lays the blame for all this on the Tea Partiers.

That’s right, for the Gannet-owned Tennessean reporter Nate Rau wants you to know that loving the U.S. Constitution is an evil thing to do and if you don’t accept Obamacare like a fish after a baited hook, then you hate black people, too.

Rau starts his slanted piece off claiming that the current states’ rights debate “raises” the “specter of slavery and segregation.” Of course, it does nothing of the kind except for those looking to use that issue to push their race-baiting schemes. There isn’t a single contemporary states’ rights advocate that has brought slavery and segregation into the argument. Nowhere have states’ rights advocates said that relying on the original American principle of local control is an avenue for somehow bringing back slavery! In fact, it is slanderous and patently stupid to say it does. But this is the sort of race baiting that the 30-some-year-old reporter Nate Rau is trying to enflame. I’d say he is the one raising “specters” not the states’ righters.
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Tea Party: Instantly Attacked by Old Media, Coffee Party: Immediate Respect from Old Media

April 28, 2010 | Filed Under Associated Press, Budget, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Huffington Post, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Radio, Tea Party, TV News, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Nothing says “media bias” like coffee in the morning.

If anyone ever wanted to see an example of the bias of the Old Media no better example can be found than the different ways that it has treated the tea party movement and the coffee party astroturf effort. The tea party movement was initially ignored, then it was ridiculed, then it was attacked as dangerous, but no where in the Old Media was it treated as a valid, powerful political movement despite the literally millions of Americans that have attended them.

On the other hand, the astroturf coffee party effort created by an Obama campaign staffer was treated as a viable, important effort from the second it was announced and all that quite despite the fact that no coffee party event seems to have been able to turn out more than 20 people at a time.

Let’s look at some numbers. Just from those first tax day tea party events (April 15, 2009) the number of participants topped *500,000. And since then there have been thousands of more tea party protests of all sorts sponsored by any number of local and national groups and they, too, have turned out thousands of participants. There have been tea party participants in the millions since April of 2009.

Of course, the Old Media has done its best to downplay the number of tea party protestors. Instead of detailing the actual numbers, the Old Media continues to use the nebulous phrase “hundreds of protestors,” or when the numbers are greater the dismissive “thousands of protestors.” An excellent example of this can be seen in the great Washington D.C. protest of September of 2009. Where the foreign press noted that as many as a million flooded Washington D.C. on September 12, 2009, the American Old Media insisted on using the less accurate phrase “tens of thousands.” When asked to quantify a million people no one would use the phrase “tens of thousands,” unless, of course, they were trying to diminish the amount.

Also since April of 2009, we have seen tea party groups begin a foray into local politics. From coast to coast tea party groups have been holding candidate forums, endorsing candidates, and proffering candidates from their own ranks. Now, as it is right now this moment, we are still at a nascent stage of these electoral efforts, so it is difficult to say what will come of it. But the fact is, they’ve begun at various levels from north to south and east to west.
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Media Spinning Against New AZ Law for All It’s Worth

April 28, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Taxes, Tea Party, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The media has been trying its hardest to spin this Arizona immigration law to its agenda for all its worth. It’s such a swarm of media agenda journalism that even liberal reporters that write about the travel industry are trying to demonize Arizona over it all. We can see this in the facile reporting by USA Today’s travel reporter, Barbara De Lollis. Hers titled, “Arizona immigration law backlash? Traveler says state ‘is off my travel list for sure,’” is a screamer for the wild assumptions and unproved and unprovable assertions made in order to further the Old Media agenda.

De Lollis asserts that there is a “backlash” among travelers over the Arizona legislature’s decision to strengthen its immigration laws. She thinks that the tourist industry in the Grand Canyon State will find itself on the losing end of the stick because of “the USA’s toughest immigration law.”

That is quite a claim, isn’t it? One would think that she’d have reams of evidence to prove her contention that Arizona’s tourist industry will be hurt by the immigration law, wouldn’t you? Maybe she has some major travel industry spokesmen or organizations saying Arizona is out? Perhaps she has a few large corporations or government agencies announcing travel bans? Maybe she has some survey from a respected group like Gallup, or some such polling group?

No, none of that.

So what does De Lollis use to prove her case?
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Scott Lee Cohen, Independent Run for Ill. Guv?

April 22, 2010 | Filed Under Chicago, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Liberals, Media, Newspapers, Republicans, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Could it be? Could Scott Lee Cohen be roaring back to politics so soon after being thrown off the Democrat ticket in disgrace?

I don’t know about you, but this blogger is crossing his fingers and toes in hopes that it could be true. Oh, LORDY make it true. I mean, why not, eh? What fun it would be.

For those that don’t quite remember the dim days so long ago last February, Scott Lee Cohen won the Democrat primary to take the Lt. Gov. spot on the Dem. Ticket. But no sooner was he celebrating his big win when the Chicago Old Media finally started to research candidate Cohen only to discover that he had all sorts of unsavory legal and criminal allegations in his past. There was the beating he gave his prostitute girlfriend, the assault with a knife… well, let’s just say that things were a bit messy in his recent past. Once the Dems found out about his past the whole Democrat establishment rose up to demand that Cohen quit his campaign for Lt. Gov.

Well, as he headed for the door Cohen promised that he’d try for office again someday. Apparently, he’s considering that someday should be today. Several sources are reporting that Cohen would like to run for Governor as an independent this year.
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Why Can’t Old Media Get History Right Part 2: Boston Herald Muffs Rev War

April 20, 2010 | Filed Under Britain, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Revolutionary War, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week I posted a deconstruction of the muffed WWII history as penned by NPR commentator Cokie Roberts. Today I have another example of muddled history in the Old Media. This one is misconstrued Revolutionary War history as published by the Boston Herald. Hard to believe that the Boston Herald, a paper that sits in the cradle of the Revolutionary War, can get Revolutionary War history wrong but such is the degraded state of the Old Media.

In Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19, 2010, reenactors of the Rev War celebrated the 235th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. The Boston Herald reported on the event later that morning and made a mash of its allusions to history.

Re-enactors took to Lexington Green today to recreate the opening moments of the Revolutionary War in front of a crowd of thousands, who gathered for the early-morning ritual.

…The battle that produced the “shot heard ’round the world” was the result of a confrontation between Lexington militia men and British “red coats” on Lexington Green, which escalated into a daylong fight involving 3,500 militia men and 1,500 red coats.

Notice that the Herald called the battle at Lexington between Patriot militiamen and the British Red Coats as the one that, “produced the ‘shot heard ’round the world.’” As any first year history student knows, however, the battle that is identified as the one that produced the “shot heard ’round the world” was the Battle at Concord, not the Battle of Lexington.

The phrase comes from the famous poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote the lines for the 1836 unveiling of the Obelisk erected in Concord, Massachusetts commemorating the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
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Washington Post Ombudsman Misses Point

April 12, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Capitalism, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media Bias, Newspapers, Republicans, Taxes, Tea Party, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today, in his guise as the Washington Post’s ombudsman, Andrew Alexander posted a discussion about the recent misreporting by the Old Media about the various “incidents” that supposedly occurred between the admittedly raucous tea party protesters and members of Congress in Washington, D.C., during the healthcare fight. But while Alexander finally makes some admissions on how the Old Media dropped the ball on these exaggerated reports, he still missed the point of the whole mess.

Alexander starts his report off with an interesting rhetorical style. He writes about incidents as if they actually happened even as he admits later down the page that either they didn’t or might not have. He recounts the supposed incidents in affirmative language instead of using qualifiers. “The Post and other news organizations had reported a series of incidents so ugly,” Alexander says, “they were denounced by congressional leaders of both parties.” Notice how he didn’t use qualifiers like “alleged incidents”? No, he said “reported on incidents” as if they were actual incidents that have been proven. If someone were to stop reading after the first few paragraphs they’d go away thinking those “incidents” were confirmed and true.
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Left-Winger’s ‘Coffee Party’ Huge Success in Belleville, Illinois

April 12, 2010 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Media, Newspapers, State Government, Taxes, Tea Party, Warner Todd Huston | 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, you really could knock me over with a feather… and a red colored one at that. This coffee party thingie was much more successful than I imagined.

You may have heard of this coffee party idea that an Obama operative in Virginia tried to start? It’s called Coffee Party CCCP… sorry, I always get that wrong, it’s Coffee Party USA and it was started by one Ann Park, an Obama operative and employee of the New York Times.

The diminutive Mz Park has deep ties to the Obama campaign and her coffee party effort is classic astroturf and that is why I assumed it would fail miserably. After all, the only reason the tea party movement is so wildly successful is because there is real passion behind it, passion that the left currently does not have behind it.
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Liberals Value Good Intentions Above Both Truth and Outcomes

March 24, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, President, Race, Republicans, Socialism, Taxes, Tea Party, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Amusingly enough the Washington Post has a blog called PostPartisan. I say amusing because it is obvious that there is nothing “post” partisan about it if a rant against tea partiers by Jonathan Capehart is any indication. He thinks that Obama was speaking to the tea partiers in his latest healthcare address and so posted his titled, “A message from President Obama to Tea Party America.”

In an effort to come rushing to the aid of the president and in an effort to castigate all those racist tea partiers he so dislikes, Capehart excerpted a segment of Barack Obama’s recent healthcare speech (what is this one, like number 200 or so?) and pointedly asked tea party activists what was wrong with it — or rather what is wrong with them for not being in thrall to this president?

Capehart is mad at those tea partiers that think Obama is a “Manchurian candidate sent here to destroy the United States” and found the following segment of Obama’s millionth healthcare address particularly inspiring, claiming that it spoke to the “true character of this nation.”
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Publius Podcast: And the New York Times Never Mentions the Word Islam

March 22, 2010 | Filed Under Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Christianity, Foreign Countries, Foreign Policy, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Islamofascism, Israel, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Society/Culture, Taxes, Terrorism, The Law, UN, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | 1 Comment

Nicholas Kristoff does a review of a book about the oppressed life of a young Muslim girl that was married off at 10-years-old. Kristoff laments this poor girl’s plight but not once mentions that she was from an Islamic culture. How can he discuss the evils of these sort of arranged marriages without mentioning Islam? You tell me…

The Left Turning Western Civilization into Alice’s Wonderland

March 17, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Britain, Education, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see”
–Alice of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Clearly the left are Aliceites. They are aficionados of Alice viewing the world through the looking glass. They want a world of nonsense, a world devoid of meaning so that everything can be molded and morphed at will into anything that appeals to temporary desires. It is called situational ethics, which are, of course, no ethics at all.

Today we have two examples of this, one in America and one in England. We’ll focus on England first.

The UK Telegraph is reporting about the new it, the new thing assuming a status of “personhood,” a genderless human. That’s right the Telegraph is purporting that a British citizen is “officially” a genderless human, neither male nor female.

Norrie May-Welby, we are told, was born a man but had a sex change operation in 1990. For a time this “person” lived as a woman. But now she-he-it has decided that, “The concepts of man or woman don’t fit me. The simplest solution is not to have any sex identification.”

And so, the Aliceites in British government decided to comply and make May-Welby an “official” person of “no specific gender.”
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Publius Now on Chicago Tribune’s ChicagoNow blog Network

March 15, 2010 | Filed Under Chicago, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

As of today, the Chicago Tribune has agreed to include my blogging among its growing network of Chicago area bloggers. It will be Publius Forum on ChicagoNow.com!

I know, I know, here I beat up on the Old Media nearly every day yet here is one of the nation’s biggest newspapers is adding me to its online news community!

Hilarious, I think!

So, look for Warner Todd Huston (that’s ME folks) on the Chicago Tribune’s ChicagoNow.com network.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/

AP Conflates Fake ‘Catholic’ Group With Catholic Church

March 15, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Christianity, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Religion, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 6 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is one of the sneaky tricks that the Old Media plays in order to support a cause. In this case it’s the Associated Press coming to the aid of Obamacare with “news” that a “Catholic” hospital group is coming out in support of Obamacare. Of course, the AP does not inform the reader that this purported Catholic group is not associated with the Church and is not authorized to speak for Catholics but it conflates this “Catholic” group with Catholics as if they do anyway.

With a headline that screams, “Catholic Hospitals Support Health Care Bill,” the AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports that the Catholic Health Association has come out in support of Obamacare despite the federal funding of abortion.

Naturally this report of Catholics in support of Obamacare is meant to fool readers into thinking that the Catholic Church itself, or some important segment of Catholics, are in support of Obamacare. If all you read is the headline and the first two paragraphs you might come away thinking that “Catholic Hospitals” support Obamacare.
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A Mess of a Column, Cuz News papers are Raaaacist

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Capitalism, Chicago, Illinois, Media, Newspapers, Race, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Laura Washington laments the degraded state of American newspapers. She says that “hard news” has been replaced by “fluff and titillating trash.” Washington also cries that real news is an “endangered species.” But if newspaper writing has been laid low, Laura Washington’s column is an example of that wretched state as opposed to an example of the opposite as this is one of the messiest columns I’ve seen in a while. And naturally it’s all because of raaaacism according to Washington.

Washington starts her piece scolding the news media for missing the Scott Lee Cohen story. Cohen, the winning Democrat Lt. Gov. candidate, had a strange history of violence and prostitution that no media operative seemed to ferret out before Illinois Democrats nominated him in February’s primary. Washington also laments all the many job cuts in the media landscape.

Worse, according to Washington, is that the reporters that are left are “being diverted to cover meaningless fluff and titillating trash.”
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Tea Party ‘Extremists’ Take Center Stage

March 3, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Conservatives, Economy/Finances, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Republicans, Taxes, Tea Party, TV News, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The liberal media’s newest meme is to claim that the tea party movement is made up exclusively of John Birchers, militia types, racists, and “birthers.” Politico, for instance, had an extensive story about how legitimate conservatives are coming to realize that they’ll have to conduct a Buckley styled purge of the extremists if they expect the tea party groups to be taken seriously. Of course, the left has had its extremists for decades, unlike the right has never conducted any such purges, and has also benefited from a news media that has never highlighted the left’s worst nuts.

The whole idea that conservatives have to purge their wackier, more fringe members is something that at one level is obvious but at another is proof that the left and the Old Media are nothing but hypocrites. At still a third level there is part of the attitude exhibited by some of these far right elements that is a root motivation of the tea party movement, fringe or no.

As clownish left-wing commentators such as Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, John Stewart or Stephen Colbert point fingers and guffaw at the fringes of the right and as the New York Times and Politico stroke their chins and look down their noses at the unruly tea party movement, it must be noted that none of these folks ever uttered a cross word against the Code Pink wackos, the communist infiltrators, anti-war hippies, Stalinist apologists, pro-abortion extremists, Euro-trash half-wits, eco-terrorists, and outright anarchists that have filled the left’s ranks since the birth of the new left after WWII.

At every lefty protest representatives of these hatemongering groups abound. They can be found on the campus of every American college and university, as well. But are these dangerous extremists ever discussed in our Old Media outlets when they highlight lefty movements? Never. The left’s extremists are simply never mentioned. It is as if every left-wing group in America is filled with conscientious old grandmothers and idealistic young folks innocently avowing their rights as citizens of the world. Never are the violence prone, the hateful nutcases, or the drugged out losers that fills the American left ever highlighted.
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Southtown Star Mad that Candidate is Against Socialism?

March 2, 2010 | Filed Under Chicago, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, House of Representatives, Illinois, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Republicans, Socialism, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

- By Warner Todd Huston

Southtown Star columnist Phil Kadner tried on his high dudgeon at 11th District GOP Congressional candidate Adam Kinzinger in his March 2 editorial headlined, “A different battle for Adam Kinzinger.”

Why was Kadner so upset at the 32-year-old candidate? What caused Kadner’s tsk tsking to fly? What low-end sort of campaigning evil did candidate Kinzinger perpetrate?

Well, it seems at a recent rally Kinzinger held up a T-Shirt given to him by a member of the audience. And on that T-Shirt was, *gasp*, the word “socialism” with a circle and a line through it.

That’s right, folks, Phil Kadner is upset with Republican Adam Kinzinger because the candidate held up an anti-socialism T-Shirt at a rally. Imagine, an anti-socialism T-Shirt at a tea party styled rally… with Republicans around and about… held up by a Republican candidate! And imagine any American standing against socialism! It’s just all so unheard of.
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Congress? Who Needs ‘Em? Let Obama Pack the Supreme Court

March 2, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Federalism, Government, Corruption, Judges, Law, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Supreme Court, The Law, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Philadelphia Inquirer published a reader feedback opinion editorial from reader Stan Isaacs that is as outlandish as it is indicative of the disregard for the American process that liberals all too often exhibit. It is proof once again that tradition, law, and any effort at legitimacy is wholly outside a liberal’s field of interest. Winning is all they care about, voters opinions and the rule of law be damned.

What sparked Mr. Isaacs’ interest is when he somehow stumbled upon the fact that the number of U.S. Supreme Court Justices is not set in stone in the Constitution. We now have nine justices but in the past have had fewer. What intrigued him is that the number of justices fluctuated because of politics. “Political issues accounted for the changes,” Isaacs gleefully reported.

In keeping with these “political issues,” Mr. Isaacs lit upon the ideal way to help Obama finally push his left-wing agenda. He advised President Obama to add three new justices to the SCOTUS, justices that will mindlessly adhere to the grand vision of the age of Obama and will rule accordingly. This is necessary, Isaacs thinks, because the court has proven an impediment to Obama’s grand socialist design. Worse, Congress has balked at Obama’s wholesale destruction of America and has resisted his attempts to turn America into a weaker, less free version of Europe. Issacs, you see, demands a recount.

Sadly, Isaacs doesn’t seem to have the first clue why Obama’s re-design of the United States hasn’t already barreled ahead unhindered. Worse, he doesn’t seem to care.
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Media’s Obsession With ‘Multicultural Britain’

February 28, 2010 | Filed Under Britain, Government, Corruption, History, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

On February 27 the Times Online from Britain published what it hailed as amazing proof that 4th century Britain was “multicultural” and “diverse” during the Roman occupation of the island nation. This “new” revelation came from a recent scientific investigation into the burial in York of an African woman. The problem with this whole report is that it does not at all show that Britain was “multicultural” in the 4th century. The truth is the newspaper misapplied the word “multicultural” to this burial in an effort to celebrate the politically correct ideal of multiculturalism as it exists today.

There is nothing as ahistorcal as applying today’s standards and ideas to the past, but The Times falls headlong into this trap in an effort to show that the Romans were somehow just like us today in their acceptance of “multiculturalism.” The problem, of course, is that Rome did not accept other cultures in the same way that Britain’s modern, self-destructive dalliance in “multiculturalism” does.

The story of the 4th century burial is very informative and interesting, to be sure. Originally found in 1901 in Bootham, York, the grave was buried in what was a Roman fortress and settlement named Eboracum, founded in AD71. The researchers found that an African woman (or one of mixed-race, they couldn’t be sure) was buried in a stone sarcophagus and laid to rest with several of her possessions proving that she was a person of wealth and station in life. The medical examination of the skeleton also seemed to show that the woman did not live a life of strenuous labor. A Latin inscription on one of her possessions indicates that she may have been a Christian, too.
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IRS Plane Attacker Part of ‘Right Wing,’ Christmas Bomber Just a ‘Lone Wolf’

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Islamofascism, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Radio, Religion, Taxes, Tea Party, Terrorism, TV News, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

No clearer difference can be seen in how the Old Media and its left-wing compatriots treat mass killers, terrorists and nutjobs than the way Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab and Joe Stack have been portrayed by the Old Media and the left. Abdulmutallab, the jihadi Christmas Bomber, was treated as an aberration unconnected with any larger group — despite that he trained with al Qaeda — and Joe Stack, who flew a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, has been held up as the epitome of the “teabaggers” and the “anti-government right” despite that not a single tie to those folks has been yet discovered.

Immediately after Abdulmutallab tried to blow himself and a plane full of passengers into martyrdom on Christmas Day 2009, President Obama’s administration declared this guy an “isolated extremist” and said he had no connection to our Islamofascist enemies. Obama was helped along in this by many Old Media news sources.

On Dec. 26,for instance, CBS reported that Abdulmutallab was a loner. “As of now, he appears to be a lone actor with no conspirators. A report the following day said of the jihadist bomber, “’We’re not aware of anybody else,’ one official told Orr. No further arrests are imminent.”
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Photojournalist Mad at RightWeb’s Use of His Photo

February 18, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Florida, Foreign Policy, Government, Government, Corruption, Japan, Newspapers, Saudi Arabia, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

A photojournalist from the St. Petersburg Times in Florida is very upset at you people. He wants you all to know that you should be ashamed of yourselves for misusing his photo.

Ed Fountain is the photog that took the famous picture that the right-o-sphere guffawed at a few weeks ago showing President Obama strangely bowing to Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.

In light of the many times Obama has bowed to the floor in supplication before several of the world’s leaders — making himself look like a weakling to the world — conservatives made light of this photo saying that it shows that this weakling president will bow to anyone. After all, why the heck would anyone supplicate themselves before the Mayor of Tampa, Florida? He’s the president, fer cripes sakes!
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Obama The Pro-Gun President?

February 15, 2010 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Government, Government, Corruption, Guns, Liberals, Media, Newspapers, Rights, Security/Safety, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is President Obama a surprising gun rights supporter? He might be if the Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman is correct. And Chapman isn’t the only one. It seems to be shaping up to be the lefty complaint du jour this week. Reality, however, might say something different.

Chapman makes a classic mistake that many people make when discussing matters political. He mistakes Washington’s inaction on an issue as some sort of statement on the ideology on that issue. While there are times when this is true, inaction is not necessarily a statement of support or opposition to an issue, but often just a matter of merely not having gotten to it yet or even not being able to.

In this case Chapman is talking about guns. Is Obama for them, against them, indifferent to them? Chapman has a sneaking suspicion that President Obama is for our rights and only supports modest gun control measures. This is because the president hasn’t launched into all sorts of left-wing attempts to curtail our Second Amendment rights in his one year in office. But I think Chapman is reading too much into Obama’s inaction.
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Oh Lord, Bill Brady Goofs American History

February 15, 2010 | Filed Under Chicago, Constitution, Education, Elections, Founders, GOP, History, Illinois, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Republicans, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Greg Hinz, the lefty columnist from Crain’s Chicago Business, has a quick post on our presumptive GOP nominee for Governor that doesn’t put him in the best light. It seems that Mr. Brady is a tad sketchy on American history, sadly.

After being asked by the media if his running mate, the 27-year-old Jason Plummer, was too young to be a proper Lt. Governor candidate, Brady said this:

“How old was Thomas Jefferson when he wrote the Constitution?” Mr. Brady asked. “Age isn’t the only barometer of qualification.”

Ugh. Brady needs to read a few history books as there are several things wrong with this statement.

First of all Jefferson was 33 when he penned the first few drafts of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Secondly, the Constitution was written in 1787, just over ten years later and by then Jefferson was in his 40s.

Thirdly, Thomas Jefferson had precisely zip to do with the Constitution. It was written while he was an Ambassador to France. Jefferson wasn’t even in the country at the time!

Columnist Hinz missed that third fact, as well.

Sigh. It’s such a shame that so many Americans just plain have no clue about American history. In this case a man who would be Governor and another in the media that thinks he’s in a position to critique him.

Maddening. Simply maddening.
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Amnesty Inat’l Am Nasty for Supporting Taleban

February 11, 2010 | Filed Under Amnesty International, Anti-Americanism, Anti-Semitism, Britain, Civil Rights, Crime, Foreign Countries, Freedom, Islam, Islamofascism, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Terrorism, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

If it’s anti-west, anti-British, Anti-American, Anti-Israeli… well, be sure that Amnesty International supports it. Here’s another bit of proof for that bromide with AmNasty International’s suspension of human rights specialist Gita Sahgal. Why was Sahgal removed from her AI position? Because she criticized AI for supporting Moazzam Begg, Britain’s biggest supporter of al Qaeda, the Taleban and religious oppression against women.

Interesting to see the clash of political correctness here, isn’t it? They’ve booted a female, minority civil rights worker from her position because she came out against an Islamofascist that AI is in love with.

I am sure this had the PC heads at AI roiling in a tizzy. Their dilemma was do they support, a). the female, minority, civil rights worker, or b). the aggrieved Islamofascist that was once held at Guantanamo. What a dilemma for the politically correct, eh?

Tellingly Amnesty International chose to support the fanatic Muslim that supports al Qaeda and the Taleban.
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How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias

February 9, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Journalism, Media, Media Bias, Newspapers, Pensions, SEIU, Senate, Socialism, Taxes, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Politico had a story about Big Labor penned by Jeanne Cummings, the reporter famed for going after Sarah Palin’s Party purchased wardrobe during the 2008 presidential campaign, that was an object lesson in Old Media bias. Her piece headlined “Labor helps kill its own top priority” is a great example of using language to subtly shade the arguments, in this case those of Big Labor, to elicit a positive view of the ideology contained in the issue. Her piece very subtly shades the goals of Big Labor in a positive light easily giving the reader a feeling that Big Labor’s goals are good and noble and is a perfect example of how the media creates emotional appeal for the left’s actions.

Because it is such masterfully crafted example of subtle bias, it deserves to be studied closely.

Cummings Begins her propping up of Big Labor by saying that Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts is “bad news for health care” and will mean that Republicans can “block the Employee Free Choice Act,” and so she immediately casts the possible actions of the GOP in a negative light at the outset. “Bad news for health care”? It is said as if the GOP was against “health care.” It isn’t. And of course “block” is certainly a negative action. In any case, she started by shrouding the GOP in negativity right away.
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