Tag Archives: Cnn

Pentagon Destroys Thousands of Copies of Army Officer’s Memoirs

Washington (CNN) — The Department of Defense recently purchased and destroyed thousands of copies of an Army Reserve officer's memoir in an effort to safeguard state secrets, a spokeswoman said Saturday. “DoD decided to purchase copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security,” Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. In a statement to CNN, Cunningham said defense officials observed the September 20 destruction of about 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's new memoir “Operation Dark Heart.” Shaffer says he was notified Friday about the Pentagon's purchase. “The whole premise smacks of retaliation,” Shaffer told CNN on Saturday. “Someone buying 10,000 books to suppress a story in this digital age is ludicrous.” Shaffer's publisher, St. Martin's Press, released a second printing of the book that it said had incorporated some changes the government had sought “while redacting other text he (Shaffer) was told was classified.” From single words and names to entire paragraphs, blacked out lines appear throughout the book's 299 pages. more at link… Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer was a member of “Able Danger” a group on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden years before 9/11. Problem is, they found him numerous times and were told to stand down. Unlike Pat Tillman, they weren't able to kill him before blowing the whistle, just censoring his book. Definitely listen to some interviews of his; I'll post one in the comments below. added by: rodstradamus

Jonathan Klein’s ‘Pajamas Moment’ Accelerated Alternative Media’s Growth

News consumers of America owe a debt of gratitude to Jonathan Klein. Really. Yesterday, NB’s Noel Sheppard  noted the ignominious end of Klein’s nearly six-year term as head of CNN/US. If there is an example of anyone who has overseen a bigger audience decline and loss of competitive position and survived so long, I don’t know who he or she is. Fox News, which first passed CNN in total viewers in January 2002 (interesting how this basic factoid is not at Fox’s Wiki entry ), now routinely trounces CNN and CNN Headline combined by a factor of 1.5 to 1 or more. On Thursday , Fox’s primetime audience of 574,000 was 75% greater than the CNN pair’s combined total of 329,000. But before he arrived at CNN to do his damage, Klein inadvertently did the nation a service. Klein’s accidental good deed took place during the Rathergate controversy in 2004. The “story” was that President George W. Bush had somehow received favorable treatment as a member of the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s. A commenter at FreeRepublic questioned the legitimacy of story-related documents he was seeing on a CBS “60 Minutes” segment, and it snowballed from there. Ultimately, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs reproduced exact replicas of the documents involved in Microsoft Word using technology that could not conceivably have been accessible to the controversy’s players on typewriters existing at the time, proving beyond any reasonable doubt that the crew at “60 Minutes,” including producer Mary Mapes and host Dan Rather, had either been duped or were knowingly promoting falsehoods. In the meantime, a swarm of center-right blogs found a wide range of other evidence poking other holes in the story and questioning the motivations of many who were pushing it. The episode quickly ended the CBS career of Mapes, and eventually led to Rather’s departure from the network. In the midst of all of this, Klein, who worked for CBS from 1982 to 1999 , appeared on Fox’s O’Reilly Factor as a “Former CBS News Executive.” He defended his former employer’s work thusly: It’s an important moment, because you couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances, and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing what he thinks. Klein was right of course, but not in the way he thought. The guys in pajamas were right, and CBS, despite its “multiple layers of checks and balances,” was wrong. Klein’s appearance brought further visibility to an already-growing blogosphere, helping to spur further interest in alternative media, thus accelerating its growth. To name just one example: In August 2005, the Media Research Center started NewsBusters.org with the help of Matt Sheffield, who had been running RatherBiased.com. Without doubt, something like NewsBusters would have eventually appeared, but it’s pretty clear that the Rathergate episode, Klein’s arrogant and embarrassing statement, and other blogospheric debunkings of establishment media stories during the 2004 presidential campaign hastened NB’s arrival. There’s also little doubt that what happened in the fall of 2004 inspired thousands of others to try their hands at blogging. Many of them, to Jonathan Klein’s sure chagrin, have since become key alternative media contributors. That’s why today, as I blog (in street clothes), I say to Mr. Klein: “Thanks, big guy. We couldn’t have done it as quickly without you.” P.S. It’s also interesting that Mr. Klein’s “Pajamas Moment” is “somehow” not present at his Wiki entry . Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

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Jonathan Klein’s ‘Pajamas Moment’ Accelerated Alternative Media’s Growth

Iska River Disappears Overnight

The Iska River in Slovenia vanished overnight after residents reported hearing loud crashing sounds. ::..::.. On Tuesday, the Iska River was bubbling past the village of the same name. On Wednesday… it was gone. Residents say they heard crashing and drumming sounds during the night. When they went to the river the next morning, they watched what was left of it disappear before their eyes. Geologists believe the water disappeared into the porous limestone riverbed and is now flowing under ground. It's said the same thing happened to the river before during World War II. It's not clear when or if the water will resurface. ::..::.. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6898039n added by: vancitysage

Colbert (Briefly) Breaks Character in Testimony before Congress

Stephen Colbert mostly yucked it up during his congressional testimony today, but towards the end, Democrat Judy Chu actually got him to break his faux-pundit facade. After relating the story of a worker overcome by heat stroke, but unable to find medical help, she asked Colbert why he had chosen to tackle the migrant worker topic. Colbert took a moment to collect himself, and then, with a stammer he said, “I… I like talking about people who don’t have any power.” (See video from CNN.) “This seems like one of the least powerful groups of people in the United States are migrant workers who come and do our work and don’t have any rights as a result.” Then the comedian actually quoted the Bible non-ironically saying, “You know, whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers—and these seem like the least of our brothers right now. … Migrant workers suffer and have no rights.” Full testimony video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6kKlnVl3UE added by: Future_America

Enjoy Your Lunch: The Trailer for The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence Has Arrived

Are you enjoying that sandwich? Maybe you should put it down for a few minutes. IFC announced today that it had acquired the rights for the “much anticipated” The Human Centipede sequel and simultaneously released a teaser trailer for director Tom Six’s sure-to-be vomit-inducing classic. Is it 2011 yet?

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Enjoy Your Lunch: The Trailer for The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence Has Arrived

Yes, Larry King Wants to Be Your Next Saturday Night Live Host

Saturday Night Live has been parodying Larry King poorly for years and now the 76-year-old television personality wants to get in on the action by hijacking Studio 8H for a night. In fact, King so believes that he can be the next Betty White that he skipped over the grassroots Facebook campaign and marched down to Rockefeller Center to audition in person.

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Yes, Larry King Wants to Be Your Next Saturday Night Live Host

Ed Schultz Falsely Claims GOP ‘Pledge To America’ Doesn’t Address Jobs

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz on Wednesday falsely claimed the newly released Republican “Pledge to America” doesn’t address job creation. Speaking with Ohio Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown on “The Ed Show,” Schultz said, “This was just released a few moments ago from the Associated Press. They’re calling it the ‘Pledge to America.'” He continued, “The ‘Pledge to America’ is to cut taxes, cut federal spending, repeal healthcare, and ban federal funding for abortion. Nothing in there about job creation…Those are the four main points.” Actually, there are five main points in this 21-page document, the first of which is titled, “A Plan to Create Jobs, End Economic Uncertainty, and Make America More Competitive” (video of Schultz’s remarks follows with transcript, commentary, and full text of the Pledge): ED SCHULTZ, HOST: This was just released a few moments ago from the Associated Press. They’re calling it the “Pledge to America.” Back in the ’90s it was the “Contract With America.” This is the big Republican story this week. They are vowing to, and this is being circulated on Capitol Hill amongst the lawmakers and the GOP. The “Pledge to America” is to cut taxes, cut federal spending, repeal healthcare, and ban federal funding for abortion. Nothing in there about job creation, nothing in there about saving Social Security, nothing in there about public education. Those are the four main points in the “Pledge to America.”   As you can see, Schultz claimed his source for this was the Associated Press. For the record, the first piece the AP released concerning the Pledge was published at 4:58 PM EDT, a full hour before Schultz went on the air. It was a brief piece by Julie Hirschfeld Davis with only four paragraphs. Here are paragraphs one and three: House Republicans are vowing to cut taxes and federal spending, repeal the health care law and ban federal funding of abortion. It’s all part of a new campaign manifesto designed to propel them to victory in midterm elections Nov. 2. It emphasizes job creation and spending control, as well as changing the way Congress does business. As you can see, Schultz got his “four main points” from the first sentence in the first paragraph.  However, once again proving how many Americans never get beyond the first paragraph, the third paragraph made it quite clear that the “Pledge” emphasizes job creation. Got that, Ed? Can’t you or anyone on your staff read beyond the first paragraph of a four paragraph article? Or was there not enough time to do that in the 62 minutes before you want on the air? Now, if Schultz’s crack staff had actually done just a little bit of homework simply using any search engine on the Internet, they could have found – as I did – that at 5:38 PM EDT, fully 22 minutes before he went on the air, CBSNews.com published the entire text of the Pledge. Readers should be reminded that MSNBC considers itself to be a cable news network, and, therefore, should have some people available to actually uncover the facts rather than allow their hosts to completely misrepresent a breaking story. This is especially important as the following PDF clearly shows “A Plan to Create Jobs, End Economic Uncertainty, and Make America More Competitive” is prominently addressed as the very first agenda item in the Foreword to the Pledge on page four, and then is detailed in pages six through nine: GOP Pledge to America That’s some nice work there, Ed. Your employers at MSNBC, NBC, and parent General Electric must be so proud of you and your staff.

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Ed Schultz Falsely Claims GOP ‘Pledge To America’ Doesn’t Address Jobs

Jack Cafferty Lumps in Christine O’Donnell in New Attack on Palin

On Wednesday’s Situation Room, CNN’s Jack Cafferty revisited his anti-Sarah Palin obsession and somewhat predictably, grouped U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell with the former Alaska governor, stating it ” feels like Sarah Palin all over again ….O’Donnell has some big question marks on her resume, just like…Palin.”  Most of the viewer e-mails Cafferty read bashed the two politicians. The commentator devoted his 5 pm Eastern hour commentary to the two Republican women. After his “feels like Sarah Palin all over again” line, Cafferty recounted O’Donnell’s emergence on the national political scene, and wasted little time in outlining her negative similarities to Palin: “Suddenly, everybody can’t seem to get enough of her. This is despite the fact that O’Donnell has some big question marks on her resume, just like Sarah Palin. She’s come under fire for allegedly misusing campaign funds for personal expenses-just like Sarah Palin .” The CNN personality briefly touched on the Delaware Republican’s eleven-year-old “dabbled in witchcraft” remarks and her traditional stance on sexuality before returning to his attack: CAFFERTY: O’Donnell has also been in the spotlight for saying that years ago, she ‘dabbled in witchcraft,’ and had one of her first dates with a witch on a satanic altar- she really said that. And she’s used her views on abstinence to rule out masturbation. After her last-minute cancellation of two Sunday show appearances this past weekend, O’Donnell suddenly announced that Sarah Palin has advised her now not to do any more national media interviews, and instead, focus just on local media. Based on Sarah Palin’s interviews with Katie Couric, that’s probably not bad advice. Those were disastrous, remember? I wonder if it means that O’Donnell is as poorly informed on the issues as Sarah Palin was . It all sounds so very familiar, doesn’t it? Palin’s resume [is] littered with goofy comments like saying that she could see Russia from Alaska, or not being able to name a single newspaper that she read on a daily basis. Sarah Palin quit as governor of Alaska midway through her first term. She often refuses to talk about a lot of the issues with the media, unless, of course, it’s with the F-word network- they pay her . But none of that seems to matter. Sarah Palin has become this huge celebrity who is seriously being talked about as a possible presidential contender- which is just what we need. Remember the McCain campaign? Cafferty concluded the segment with his “Question of the Hour” on the two women: “So here’s the question: why do people like Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell attract so much attention? Go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile, and please enlighten me, because I don’t have a clue .” Unsurprisingly, only two of the viewer replies which he read just before the top of the 6 pm Eastern hour could be characterized as leaning neutral, with the rest going in full liberal rage mode against the politicians. The CNN personality, along with anchor Wolf Blitzer, also made light of O’Donnell’s witchcraft remarks after he concluded reading the replies. CAFFERTY: Carlos in Pasadena [California]: ‘The popularity of the Tea Party lies with the media because the media loves the anomaly, the weird, the extreme, and the immediate . This, coupled with the quick solution, the sound bite, and an audience that has a brief attention span, makes the Palins et al popular.’ Andy says, ‘ Palin and O’Donnell represent the ideal Stepford housewives. The older conservative white men can fantasize about them, and the older white women can emulate them. It’s scary to think that candidates no longer have to talk about the issues, and can hide behind slideshow bullet points. Once again, beauty reigns in the white man’s world and intelligence is a negative .’ Professor writes, ‘I don’t think the majority of Americans like either one of them, Jack. We simply like watching train wrecks occur. These two whackos are foolish people who think the rest of us are stupid enough to fall for rhetoric and populism .’ Nick writes, ‘It’s because their rhetoric is in the right place. The country is still going through a rough time, economically, and while they have shown time and time again that they do not have the qualifications to fix our problems, much less debate them , they still provide an accurate mouthpiece to vent frustration and anger among Americans. They’re using the current situation for their own political and personal gain.’ Jean writes, ‘Three words: pretty white women- looks and no brains. Who was more famous than Marilyn Monroe? And, they don’t have to be blond to be ditsy .’ Tom in Texas writes, ‘Harken back to some of Palin’s old video, plus Ms. O’Donnell’s recent admissions. You’ve just gotta know, as the song goes, it’s witchcraft.’ If you want to read more on this- got a lot of e-mail- go to my blog, CNN.com/CaffertyFile. WOLF BLITZER: Jack- CAFFERTY: Have you ever been on a date at a Satanic altar? BLITZER: Missed that one. (unintelligible) CAFFERTY: Missed that- me too. (unintelligible) My life has got some voids in it. That’s one . BLITZER: That’s certainly one I have (unintelligible) (both Blitzer and Cafferty laugh) Jack, thanks very much. The CNN commentator has targeted Sarah Palin since the autumn of 2008, devoting 35% of his Cafferty Files segments over a month period to bashing the former governor. Since then, Cafferty has derided Palin as “lame” and referred to her as ” Caribou Barbie .” Just over two months ago, he hypothesized that the Republican’s popularity was a good omen for Democrats: “”If anything could overcome the increasingly sour view of the Obama presidency, it might be this. Why, the Democrats should be positively euphoric .”

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Jack Cafferty Lumps in Christine O’Donnell in New Attack on Palin

CNN’s Tuchman Hints O’Donnell is a Totalitarian Due to Anti-Media Remark

CNN’s Gary Tuchman blasted Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell on Tuesday’s AC360, suggesting that the Republican was like the leader of a totalitarian regime, after she dared to say that the media should be left out of certain campaign events: ” I think, for most Americans, that gives you a little chill. When we go to places like Cuba and Iran and North Korea and China, we’re often kept out ” . Anchor Anderson Cooper led the 10 pm Eastern hour of his program with the latest on O’Donnell’s candidacy, particularly her interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity the previous hour. Tuchman, who was reporting live from Wilmington, Delaware, raised the issue of her finances, and after reporting on two recent local events which the Republican attended, went into his lamentation over her stab at the media: TUCHMAN: One final thing we should mention is that, during this program, she said that the media was pushing and shoving at that particular event. I will tell you- I have been covering politics for almost 30 years, and it was nothing out of the ordinary. They were coming up to her. That’s what happens with any high-profile political campaign. And she also mentioned that, perhaps, it would be good if the media was kept out of certain events. And frankly, I think, for most Americans, that gives you a little chill. When we go to places like Cuba and Iran and North Korea and China, we’re often kept out. The media is kept out. There’s no free reporting, and it’s just something that we really don’t like to hear in the United States of America- to keep the media out . Here we have the CNN correspondent attacking a candidate who hold no office at the moment, when highest officeholder in the country, President Obama, and his Democratic allies in Congress, teamed up to break his campaign promise to “broadcast health care negotiations on C-SPAN.” Even Tuchman’s own colleague, Jack Cafferty, attacked Obama and the congressional leaders for their lack of transparency during a January 6, 2010 commentary . One wonders if he would have held those politicians to the same standard he’s holding O’Donnell. Just under two minutes later, Cooper raised the Senate candidate’s slam on the media with guest Erick Erickson. The conservative called out Tuchman for his remark: COOPER: I get the hatred of the media and stuff and stuff , but to hear a major candidate for U.S. Senate saying like- well, you know, they’re hurting my campaign by asking me questions, and they’re taking pictures of my dad on the lawn- I’m certainly sympathetic to that. ERICKSON: Right. COOPER: Someone’s family shouldn’t be bothered and stuff. But if she actually made herself available to the media, rather than run away and refuse to ask questions – ERICKSON: You know, Anderson- COOPER: I mean, it just seems odd . ERICKSON: Frankly, that’s the issue there. She doesn’t care about the national media, and she doesn’t really need to. It’s kind of the Rand Paul strategy in Kentucky. He’s raising a lot of money. He’s up on the air in Kentucky. He’s now 20 points ahead- although, admittedly, she’s behind. But they’re focused on local media, and the national media attacks- to have Gary bring up the point about Christine saying maybe there’s some events that the media shouldn’t go to, and then jumping to this is like in China and Korea and Cuba- I mean, when you hear- conservatives hear that, they’re thinking, obviously, this is biased, whether it is or not. I mean, she’s playing to her base, and the media’s just helping her .

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CNN’s Tuchman Hints O’Donnell is a Totalitarian Due to Anti-Media Remark

Bozell Column: Still More Carter-Coddling

Jimmy Carter is out with his 26th book, so that means he is on his 26th round of slavish liberal-media interviews hailing him as a genius and a peacemaker. No wonder we’re so tired of him. While the Bushes have remained dignified and largely silent as ex-presidents, Carter and Bill Clinton just cannot resist venomously attacking Republican presidents and conservative politicians, perhaps because whenever they do this, TV anchors bow and scrape before them and hail their “achievements” and compassion and generosity of spirit toward mankind. And so we have to put up with this megalomaniacal failure, along with his tired, angry opinions yet again. On CNN, Larry King asked if the Tea Party was racist. (That question is as insulting as King is old, and CNN irrelevant.) Carter answered that it is only a tiny minority, but then added that it’s goaded by Fox News and Newt Gingrich. “I think that Gingrich five years ago would be embarrassed at what Newt Gingrich is saying today and doing today.” He said because Gingrich is running for president, he has to “go hard right and appeal to the extreme.” But Carter feels poor Obama is “suffering from perhaps the worst Washington environment of any president in history, and I would even include Abraham Lincoln as we led up to the war between the states.” Amazing, isn’t it? Carter can sit there and say ridiculous junk – failing to get one or two Republican votes on liberal bills is a darker and more divided political environment than the prelude to the Civil War? – and Larry King just nods. No wonder he’s been put out to pasture. Speaking of ludicrous claims, on “60 Minutes,” CBS reporter Lesley Stahl asserted that Carter was the most successful president in modern times, more successful than even Ronald Reagan. “But when all is said and done, and many will be surprised to hear this: Jimmy Carter got more of his programs passed than Reagan and Nixon, Ford, Bush 1, Clinton or Bush 2.” And many would most certainly not be surprised to hear that Lesley Stahl would try to rewrite history this foolishly on national TV. Passing a number of “programs” isn’t a measure of success. Doesn’t it matter if those programs worked? Did Carter’s legislation succeed in whipping inflation and bringing full employment? Or did he preside over the most disastrous economy since the Great Depression? Did he get the hostages home? Or were they sent home out of fear of incoming President Reagan? Stahl wasn’t done, fortunately for this column, which is writing itself: “A lot of critics of yours, when you were President, say that you’ve been a fantastic ex-President. You hear that all the time.” Click. Change channel. On “Today,” NBC’s Matt Lauer inquired how Carter might be evaluated today by people who were born after 1980. (In other words, people who didn’t live through the misery of Carter’s incompetence.) If they read Carter’s book, would they think his presidency was a success or failure? Naturally, said Carter, “I think success.” He claimed to advance peace and human rights – despite troubling facts like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the communist takeover of pretty much every damn country they wanted  on his watch. Carter also took a turn with NBC anchor Brian Williams, who worked as a White House Fellow during Carter’s presidency. (He didn’t mention that.) Williams lauded Carter’s “brutally honest” book, and noticed a recent photo of assembled presidents showed Carter a little off to one side. He asked sympathetically: “What is it about you, you think, the way you’ve decided to conduct your life in post-presidency? Do you feel listened to? Do you feel that you received your due, or do you feel, in fact, apart from the crowd?” Carter was brutally honest, all right – about his own inflated self-importance. “No, I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents, primarily because of the activism and the injection of working of the Carter Center into international affairs, and to some degree domestic affairs.” Williams did note that after the taping, this statement “raised tension and eyebrows,” but Carter could only retort, not retract: “What I meant was for 27 years the Carter Center has provided me with superior opportunities to do good.” Like King, Williams wanted Carter’s commentary on how “such high numbers of people believe that this American-born Christian president is either foreign-born or a Muslim or both?” Carter obliged by slamming Fox News for “totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts.” This, from the man who thinks it’s factual that he was better for America than Ronald Reagan.

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Bozell Column: Still More Carter-Coddling