Saturday, November 01, 2003
YES, IT'S A LIBERAL MEDIA...
One good thing has come out of the upcoming CBS movie about Ronald Reagan, the one that even its screenwriter admits is full of historical inaccuracies: more irrefutable proof that the mainstream media is run by liberals.
As part of the attention given to the Reagan movie, which fabricates quotes to make the President out to hate AIDS sufferers and ignores the good economic times of the 1980s, more and more news storys are pointing out that the Chairman of CBS is a known liberal. As the Wall St. Journal noted:
The man who green-lighted the Reagan project, CBS Chairman Les Moonves, is already somewhat exposed on the issue of liberal bias. He allowed himself to be seen sitting next to Hillary Clinton at the 2000 Democratic convention in Los Angeles. Last year, he was ridiculed by David Letterman on his own network for a four-day junket to Cuba with other media moguls. During the trip he hobnobbed with Fidel Castro and he returned with the dictator's autograph on a cigar box..
I wonder how liberals, who claim that the mainstream media cannot be liberal because it's owned by millionaires (and who apparently assume all millionaires are Republicans), will explain Moonves...not to mention Ted "CNN" Turner, Michael "Disney/ABC/ESPN" Eisner and all the other wealthy Hollywood democrats.
A LITTLE FUNA story from NC State about a particularly activity that most women claim not to enjoy can actually be good for them. Here's a
pdf file, and here's
the text of the story alone. The
pdf file shows the version that got CNN and AP lawyers upset.
Really, CNN doesn't like parody or satire or the fair-use doctrine, apparently. Federal Review was the proud recipient of a letter from a CNN lawyer a few years back.
IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPIDMaybe the Democrats have been right to not focus on the economy and to instead complain about Iraq, contrary to the pundits' and strategists' suggestions. Gross Domestic Product was
up 7.2% in the third quarter. That's huge and is the best since the first quarter of 1984, right before Reagan buried Mondale in a landslide -- and Mondale wanted to raise taxes and complained about middle east policy. Sound familiar?
It will be interesting to see how this brings down projected deficits -- news that should arrive in the thick of Primary season. Everything seems to be turning Bush's way on the homefront. There's less now for the Democrats to complain about.
SEA TURNS REDI just don't buy it. Check out this picture from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society:
The sea has turned red with the blood of slaughtered Dolphins. That red is awfully bright, and looks like a bad photoshop job to me, but I guess I could be wrong. To see what can be accomplished with photoshop, check out
Worth1000, where people compete at image fakery.
If not fully faked with photoshop, the color was clearly pumped up for release. Here's a Sea Shepherd photo carried by the AP.
Now see this similar picture from the Sea Shepherd website.
Notice how the fisherman's pink shirt turned red for the AP photo. At the very least, someone has manipulated the color for dramatic effect. I suspect that there has been even more manipulation than that. Wouldn't you expect such bright red water to cast a pinkish glow on the white boat and the grey rocks? The water just seems out of place. And I surely don't know what to make of the water color in this picture, also from the Sea Shepherd website.
Wanna see how big this cove is? The one that turned so red? Go to the
Sea Shepherd site for all the pictures.
CLARK PULLS A BIDENLooks like General Clark has
ripped off John Edwards' health care plan. No surprise. Since he's new at being a Democrat, he's got to learn the rhetoric of the left somehow. I guess
Hugh Shelton was right about the General.
Also, remember Edwards' pre-campaign PAC called
New American Optimists? Now, it seems that the General has
New American Patriotism. Found through
Stinging Nettle.
CLINTON BUDDY DOES REAGAN BIOPICNikita Demosthenes sits in on the script conference for CBS's
The Reagans:
WRITER BOB: Here's your angle, sir: Reagan was an ultra-conservative, Republican, Nazi, Fascist, evil genius. And he was really dumb. And he used his illegitimately-obtained power to to kill people with AIDS. Oh yeah - and Nancy was a druggie - just like Rush!
LESLIE MOONVES: Yes! Yes! That's our story! We have to be honest!
WRITER JIM: But Mr. Moonves, you're a liberal Democrat - and a major supporter of the Clintons. Don't you remember how you compared President George W. Bush to Hitler?
Read the rest.
BIAS IN BROADCASTING, HOW IT WORKSFoxNews has just hired
Chris Wallace to anchor Fox News Sunday. Chris says that he previously thought Fox News had a "right-wing agenda", saying "I'm a straight-newsman -- I plead guilty." Translation, traditional industry journalists believe that Fox News has a conservative bias by the mere fact that they are with traditional news outlets. To the left, the middle does appear to be on the right.
But Wallace watched FoxNews and found out that his prejudgment, or bias, against the Fox News Channel was unfounded. "Its reporting is serious, thoughtful and evenhanded. . . . If they wanted someone to push a political agenda, they wouldn't have hired me." OK, maybe he still thinks Fox News is biased and he's just putting the best light on things because he gets his own show, which he takes over from Tony Snow, "who is stepping down as host of the Sunday show, had been a conservative columnist and worked for President George H.W. Bush" -- says Howard Kurtz. This would have been a good time to remind readers that Wallace's Sunday morning competitors, George Stephanopolous and Tim Russert, used to work for Democrats (Clinton and Moynihan), and Bob Sheiffer, who wrote a book entitled
The Acting President: Ronald Reagan and the Men Who Helped Him Create the Illusion That Held America Spellbound. But alas.
So, why did Wallace decide to take over Fox News Sunday? "[O]ne thing that intrigued me was the idea of having my own broadcast. There's something exciting about having your own show that you can put your own signature on . . . to help set the agenda for what people are talking about at the dinner table." This is what all hosts do, and their "signature" that helps "set the agenda" is informed by their own personal values, beliefs and, yes, biases. So, Russert and Stephanopolous will highlight issues that interest them, which may be different than what interested Tony Snow. With time, we will see what issues Chris Wallace wants us to discuss at the dinner table.
THOSE SNEAKY FRENCHSurprise,
French-made missiles were used to attack the Al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad. The missiles were made after the U.N. embargo imposed in 1990. More insight into France's coddling of Saddam.
