Tag Archives: media bias debate

AP’s Elliott Looks for Post-Delaware Primary ‘Expert’ Commentary From Lincoln Chafee

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on AP’s Elliott Looks for Post-Delaware Primary ‘Expert’ Commentary From Lincoln Chafee

This goes back eleven days, but the entertainment value is too good to let it slide by without notice. On the Thursday after Christine O’Donnell defeated Mike Castle in the GOP primary for Delaware’s open U.S. Senate seat, the Associated Press’s Philip Elliott apparently felt the need to seek out an one-time Republican (or at least that’s what he said) — one of only a very few Republicans whose positions were or have been to the left of Castle’s. That would of course be former Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chafee (pictured at top right). To pick just one example to demonstrate Chafee’s liberalism, during 2006 and 2005, his final two years as a Senator, his grades from the Club for Growth came in at 27% and 26% , respectively. Castle’s grades in the House during those same two years were 48% and 43% . Gosh, Phil, was there any doubt over how Chafee would feel about Castle’s defeat and O’Donnell’s win? Is this news? Here are a few paragraphs from Elliott’s brief report , including a Chafee prediction that may be disproven in 5-1/2 weeks: Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a one-time Republican, says GOP Rep. Mike Castle should have seen the tea party challenge to his Senate bid coming. Chafee, running for Rhode Island governor as an independent, said his former party’s leaders have been forced to the right and have scared moderates out of the GOP. He pointed to Castle’s loss Tuesday as the latest example of a competent lawmaker losing his seat in an unrealistic purity test. “These primaries, they’re destructive beasts,” Chafee said in an interview with The Associated Press at his campaign headquarters. “If those people are going to control the Republican Party, good luck. You’ll have a tough time getting into the majority. Ever.” It’s still early of course, but Real Clear Politics is showing the House races at 206-191 in favor of the GOP, with 38 races undecided. If the “sure” count holds, Republicans would have to win less than a third of the still-undecided races to gain a majority (a shaky one to be sure, but Chafee was talking about any majority — “Ever”). RCP’s take on the Senate is that it is at 50-46 in favor of Democrats, but that counts New York’s Kirsten Gillebrand and California’s Barbara Boxer as “Leans Dem,” which given recent polls is open to some dispute. It would appear that Chafee’s predictive abilities might be about as reliable as his vote for sensible conservative bills and initiatives while he served in the U.S. Senate. Surely Philip Elliott could have found a more informed interview subject somewhere else. But does anyone believe that his was really his goal? Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

Originally posted here:
AP’s Elliott Looks for Post-Delaware Primary ‘Expert’ Commentary From Lincoln Chafee

Comments Off on AP’s Elliott Looks for Post-Delaware Primary ‘Expert’ Commentary From Lincoln Chafee

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Media Bistro’s Shister: CNN Under Klein Failed Despite ‘Non-Partisan Programming’

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Media Bistro’s Shister: CNN Under Klein Failed Despite ‘Non-Partisan Programming’

At Media Bistro on Friday, Gail Shister transcribed Jonathan Klein’s post-mortem spin on why he was let go from CNN/US. You see, Klein’s problem was that he “was unable to stop the prime-time bleeding with non-partisan programming.” In case any readers here might be tempted to take Klein’s contention or Shister’s transcription seriously, here are NewsBusters links to posts about Rick Sanchez , Larry King , CNN Headline’s Joy Behar , Christiane Amanpour ( before she went to ABC ), and Aaron Brown , who left CNN in late 2005. Here are several paragraphs of Shister’s schtick (bolds are mine), which you’ll see at least has an inadvertently accurate title: CNN Shift: Jon Klein on his dismissal: ‘It came out of left field’ Getting shot as a way of being fired isn’t always a bad thing, says Jonathan Klein. “It’s like a sudden ’Sopranos’ ending to your job,” says Klein, who earlier today had compared his sudden departure as CNN/U.S. president to getting shot. “There’s something to be said for quick and painless. It was surprising, but certainly quick. There was no rancor associated it.” During his six-year run, Klein was unable to stop the prime-time bleeding with non-partisan programming. Conversely, his replacement, HLN’s Ken Jautz, found great success by wrangling big-buzz opinion-makers Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Klein says it is still possible for a cable news network to succeed in prime time without having a political spin a la Fox (right) or MSNBC (left). The key is in finding the right talent. “Other networks might be amusing or entertaining, but how many are truly essential viewing,” Klein says. “The challenge is to be interesting when you follow that non-partisan path and you really nail it. Then you become essential, like ’60 Minutes.'” “You need the right people in the right format. When CNN was at its best, we were essential viewing.” … CNN remains committed to non-partisan programming, Klein says. Otherwise, management would have made its move earlier, before the new schedule was locked in, he explains. Klein’s citation of ’60 Minutes’ as ‘non-partisan’ is about as ridiculous as it gets ( here’s a link to previous NewsBusters posts about “60 Minutes,” which contains over 200 entries, the vast majority of which are not complimentary), and Klein of all people should know it. In September 2004 , shortly before he joined CNN, Klein, who left CBS after 17 years in 1999, went on Fox’s O’Reilly Factor to defend a ’60 Minutes’ report on George W. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard (TANG) service. During that interview Klein criticized bloggers and others in the alternative media who had exposed clearly fraudulent documents used in that report, saying that “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’s reference to “60 Minutes” in the above excerpt would appear to indicate that he hasn’t gotten the message that the guys in pajamas were proven right, CBS was proven wrong, and the substance-free Bush-TANG report was a blatantly partisan pre-election hit piece. That kool-aid Klein is drinking must be really powerful stuff. A commenter at Shister’s Media Bistro post responds to Klein’s claims of non-partisanship thusly: “Just saying it over and over has never made it true and saying it now as you’re walking out the door is hilarious.” Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

Read more here:
Media Bistro’s Shister: CNN Under Klein Failed Despite ‘Non-Partisan Programming’

Comments Off on Media Bistro’s Shister: CNN Under Klein Failed Despite ‘Non-Partisan Programming’

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , ,

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

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on 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 .

The rest is here:
Jonathan Klein’s ‘Pajamas Moment’ Accelerated Alternative Media’s Growth

Comments Off on Jonathan Klein’s ‘Pajamas Moment’ Accelerated Alternative Media’s Growth

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Former Washington Post Editor Len Downie: Huffington Post a ‘Parasite’

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Former Washington Post Editor Len Downie: Huffington Post a ‘Parasite’

It appears that the Huffington Post isn’t just upsetting people for its often uncouth and liberal take on the day’s news. Now people are getting irritated with its willingness to reprint other outlet’s content while offering minimal credit. And so goes the view of former Washington Post editor Leonard Downie, Jr., author of “ The Rules of the Game.” During his remarks at the James Cameron Memorial Lecture at London’s City University on Sept. 22, Downie gave his view of “the new news” and offered a harsh critique of the Huffington Post. He explained operations like HuffPo operate on the cheap. “This follows, in a way, the model of national Internet news aggregators like Huffington Post,” Downie said. “They confine their costs to minimal staffing necessary to operate the websites and edit content.” He maintained that the site co-founded by editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington would take from national and local sources and fill in the holes with content from unpaid bloggers. The aggregators fill their websites with news, opinion, features, photographs and video that they continuously collect – some would say steal – from other national and local news sites, along with mostly unpaid postings by bloggers who settle for exposure in lieu of money,” he continued. And this sort of use of media is a parasitical approach to journalism, luring an audience through the use of “titillating” content. “Though they purport to be a new form of journalism, these aggregators are primarily parasites living off journalism produced by others,” Downie said. “They attract audiences by aggregating journalism about special interests and opinions reflecting a predictable point of view on the left or the right of the political spectrum, along with titillating gossip and sex. Revealing photos of and stories about entertainment celebrities account for much of the highly touted web traffic to the Huffington Post site, for example.” Even Downie himself, back in 2008 said there would be a time when the print edition of some newspapers wouldn’t exist. But he said local papers would likely survive. But he said that he was unsure how outlets like the Huffington Post would fare going forward. “It is not yet clear whether many – or any – of the aggregators will become profitable – or, more importantly, whether any of them will become sources of original, credible journalism,” he said.

View post:
Former Washington Post Editor Len Downie: Huffington Post a ‘Parasite’

Comments Off on Former Washington Post Editor Len Downie: Huffington Post a ‘Parasite’

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

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

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on 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 .

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

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

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Time Interviewer Timidly Questions Daily Kos Founder’s Extremist Rhetoric About Conservatives

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Time Interviewer Timidly Questions Daily Kos Founder’s Extremist Rhetoric About Conservatives

In his 7-question September 22 Q&A with Markos Moulitsas , Time magazine’s Ishaan Tharoor timidly challenged the left-wing blogger on his extremist rhetoric about how conservative Americans, particularly religious ones, are the “American Taliban.” Moulitsas was interviewed as part of his publicity tour for his new book, “American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right” which “takes aim at what Moulitsas thinks is animating this right-wing revival,” Tharoor noted.   “You refer to a whole swath of U.S. conservatives as American Taliban. Is that really helpful?” Tharoor began meekly.    Moulitsas, of course, cranked it up to eleven and let loose with a boilerplate screed about how evil and subversive American conservatives are: Since 9/11, I’ve been hearing accusations over and over again that liberals like me want the terrorists to win. I have no love for fundamentalist Muslims — I think they’re basically hard-right Christians. There’s a shared intolerance. Liberals like me don’t want the terrorists to win just like we don’t want the American Taliban to win. I don’t think there’s any reason to say it nicer. It’s a two-word way to bring home just how dangerous these people are. In response, Tharoor then asked: But we don’t see these Americans blowing up statues of the Buddha or riding around in pickup trucks with AK-47s. More importantly, you don’t see Americans stoning adulterers or gays, but I see what Tharoor is getting at. Nonetheless, Moulitsas doubled down on his harsh rhetoric: The fact is that their movement is predicated on the notion that violence is a viable alternative. Abortion doctors have been killed; there’s an ammunition shortage across the country because some of these people are hoarding stores for the coming apocalypse. Sharron Angle [a Republican running for the Senate in Nevada] has warned that if voters don’t elect the right candidates, they may have to resort to “Second Amendment remedies.” The American Taliban may be more constrained by American society and laws than their Middle Eastern counterparts, but that’s not a function of tactics, more just the society they live in. Their goals are the same. This time Moulitsas gave a concrete example, fair enough, but one loopy statement by one candidate is hardly an accurate picture of the entire conservative movement. What’s more, Moulitsas unfairly associated all pro-lifers with the tiny violent fringe who are not representative of the peaceful pro-life movement.    All the same, Tharoor failed to suggest that Moulitsas might be more interested in writing a best-selling leftist screed than giving an accurate critique of his political opponents. Indeed, for the rest of the interview, Tharoor treated Moulitsas as a qualified expert to write on the conservative movement, including how Ronald Reagan would allegedly be treated as an apostate from conservatism were he alive and running for office today.    Complained Moulitsas: I also think it’s laughable that they keep on talking about Ronald Reagan as the patron saint of modern conservatism. I have sections of the book where I discuss how he would now be drummed out of the Republican Party because he was pro-amnesty, he met with our enemies, he wasn’t rabidly anti-gay, he raised taxes. He was a downright left-wing radical compared to the current bunch. Of course, various other lefty bloggers have been making similar complaints, namely Cenk Uygur, a recurring guest host on left-leaning cable news network MSNBC. But Tharoor failed to raise any skeptical notes about these talking points.   Photo credit: Alex Wong of Getty Images via Time.com website.

Read more:
Time Interviewer Timidly Questions Daily Kos Founder’s Extremist Rhetoric About Conservatives

Comments Off on Time Interviewer Timidly Questions Daily Kos Founder’s Extremist Rhetoric About Conservatives

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

CNN’s American Morning, Fixated on O’Donnell Charges, Played Down Biden’s Fine

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

At CNN, it’s all Christine O’Donnell all the time.  News readers there seemingly can’t get their fill of Delaware’s Republican senatorial candidate. Today, the American Morning program covered in each of its three hours allegations from a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint that O’Donnell misused some campaign funds.  Yet when Vice President Joe Biden was fined $219,000 in July for actual FEC infractions, not allegations, American Morning didn’t devote anywhere near as much air time to the story. At 6:00 AM (ET), co-anchor John Roberts kicked off American morning with: “Checks and balances. Questions for the suddenly silent rising star of the Tea Party.  Where does Christine O’Donnell get her money? Is she using campaign cash as her personal credit card?”  Co-anchor Kiran Chetry chimed in with, “We’re going to have a lot more on Christine O’Donnell in just a few minutes.”  And they did, playing a clip of CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman telling O’Donnell she didn’t answer his question as well as part of an interview with a woman representing the organization lodging the complaint.  Roberts noted that group claims O’Donnell is “clearly a criminal and should be prosecuted because of this spending.” After thanking viewers for watching and mentioning the transition from summer to fall, the 7:00 AM segment began: CHETRY: I’m Kiran Chetry. We have a lot to talk about this morning. We’re looking for answers from the tea party candidate for Senate in Delaware. Christine O’Donnell’s past spending raising some legal and ethical questions. We’re going to show you what the complaints are about, who’s behind them, and how she responded last night at a Delaware campaign forum. By the 8:00 AM segment, the team showed some self-restraint, waiting until about midway before: CHETRY: And Delaware GOP nominee Christine O’Donnell is denying she misused money from her last Senate run. She did though shy away from statistics when our Gary Tuchman caught up with her at a campaign forum last night. They then went to a video, afterwards noting that the “O’Donnell campaign has not responded to our phone calls this morning.” On July 19, the American Morning program reported on another story about the FEC looking into allegations of improprities.  It’s entire coverage: CHETRY: Well, his presidential bid failed. Now, Joe Biden will have to pay a $219,000 fine for violating campaign spending rules. The Federal Election Commission says Biden’s 2008 campaign accepted contributions above the legal limit. A Biden spokesman says that the ruling is, quote, “commonplace” and that a repayment check to the Treasury Department will be in the mail. And that, in total, was American Morning’s coverage that day of Biden’s $219,000 fine. The O’Donnell overkill must be obvious to even the Flavor Aid drinkers of the mainstream media.  Still, they just can’t get enough.  Even if it ultimately backfires as I think it may.        

Read more:
CNN’s American Morning, Fixated on O’Donnell Charges, Played Down Biden’s Fine

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Eight Dems Arrested in Bell, CA ‘Corruption on Steroids’ – Not a Single Mention of Party Affiliation From Media

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Today, eight city council members were arrested in Bell, California for what Los Angeles County District Attorney labeled “corruption on steroids.” Thus far, every major news outlet that has reported on the story has omitted the fact that all eight individuals arrested are Democrats. These glaring omissions come only weeks after NewsBusters reported that of the 351 stories on the then-brewing controversy, 350 had omitted party affiliations, and one had mentioned they were Democrats only in apologizing for not doing so sooner. Reports today from ABC , CBS , the Los Angeles Times , the Associated Press , Bloomberg , USA Today , CNN , MSNBC , NPR , and the San Francisco Chronicle all reported on the arrests without mentioning party affiliations. One commenter at CNN’s online story got it spot on: “I notice there is no mention of the party affiliation of the accused. I can find no mention of it in any story on the internet. This must mean they were all Democrats.” Give the man a cigar. Together, the eight city officials “misappropriated” $5.5 million in municipal funds. Robert Rizzo, the chief culprit, was arrested on 53 counts of various brands of corruption. Before the scandal came to light, Rizzo had been making roughly $1.5 million per year, even though the per capita income in Bell is roughly half the national average. Pedro Carillo, Bell’s interim city manager, released a statement on the arrests today: Given the sheer volume of charges levied against former Bell Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo and former Assistant CAO Angela Spaccia by the district attorney, it is clear that Rizzo and Spaccia were at the root of the cancer that has afflicted the City of Bell. Also, it is a sad day for Bell that four current and two former members of the council also have been arrested. I am prepared to double down our efforts to continue to restore order, establish good government reforms, and to ensure that Bell is providing needed services to its residents. Despite arrests in one of the most massive cases of municipal corruption in recent memory, no media outlet could bring itself to mention the officials’ party affiliations, a fact that has been widely reported since the scandal entered the national spotlight.

Read this article:
Eight Dems Arrested in Bell, CA ‘Corruption on Steroids’ – Not a Single Mention of Party Affiliation From Media

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

NBC’s Brian Williams Gives Jimmy Carter a Platform to Denounce Fox News: ‘No Regard for the Truth’

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In selecting which excerpts, from his sit-down with former President Jimmy Carter, to showcase on Monday’s NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams began with the not so humble boast from Carter that “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 the Carter Center into international affairs,” but also decided to highlight Carter’s blast at Fox News for “totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts” and having “no regard for the truth.” Williams cued up Carter, who is making the rounds of friendly media to promote his new book, White House Diary: “How do you think it came to be that such high numbers of people believe that this American-born Christian President is either foreign born or a Muslim or both?” Carter answered: I think the number one factor is Fox News. It’s totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts. And I think their constant hammering away at these false premises about our incumbent President has a major impact on the consciousness of America. A lot of well-meaning people, including many of those in the Tea Party movement, believe what is said in this constant hammering away by Glenn Beck and by others who have no regards for the truth. Video of full 31-minute interview on MSNBC.com . Earlier: From Sunday night : “CBS Begins Media’s Rehabilitation of ‘Fantastic’ Jimmy Carter, ‘Cursed’ Presidency Actually More Successful Than Reagan’s” From Monday morning : “On Today: Jimmy Carter Defends Record, Hopes Tea Party Fades in 2012”

Read this article:
NBC’s Brian Williams Gives Jimmy Carter a Platform to Denounce Fox News: ‘No Regard for the Truth’

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Helen Thomas to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Council on American-Islamic Relations

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Disgraced former White House correspondent Helen Thomas will be receiving a lifetime achievement award next month from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Coming roughly three months after Thomas was forced to resign from Hearst Newspapers for disgustingly telling Israeli Jews to move back to Germany and Poland and “get the hell out of Palestine,” this is clearly going to raise a lot of eyebrows especially with all the media’s recent hyperventilation over so-called Islamophobia. Consider how the following report from The Hill is going to play in an environment where the press are accusing Americans of being anti-Muslim (h/t Hot Air headlines ): The longtime White House correspondent who resigned from Hearst newspapers in June in the wake of comments she made about Israel will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is honoring Helen Thomas, who is of Lebanese descent and now 90 years old, at its  Leadership Conference and 16th Annual Fundraising Banquet  on Oct. 9 in Arlington, Va. Speakers will also include Oxford Islamic studies scholar Tariq Ramadan.  What does this tell us about CAIR’s sensitivities concerning the current debate over supposed anti-Muslim sentiment in this country, especially with the announcement coming while America is involved in hopefully fruitful peace negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians? After all, this Islamic organization is giving a lifetime achievement award to a woman with a history of anti-Semitic remarks who was just months ago forced to resign for doing so. Do they know what this says to Jews and supporters of Israel in this country? Doesn’t it give the appearance that all you have to do as a journalist in America is bash Jews and Israel and you’ll be given an award from our nation’s leading pro-Islamic organization? This certainly doesn’t seem to be the message you’d like to be sending while America tries to negotiate peace in the Middle East and struggles with religious tensions within its own borders. As for Thomas and all of her former employers as well as supporters, we hope you’re proud of yourselves.  

Read the original post:
Helen Thomas to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Council on American-Islamic Relations

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Hollywood, Hot Stuff, News

Tagged , , , , , , , ,