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Beckel to Geller: You’re a Woman, You Better Be Careful

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Beckel to Geller: You’re a Woman, You Better Be Careful

Eric Bolling’s new show on the Fox Business Channel, Money Rocks , saw a significant display of fireworks this evening.  During a discussion of some already controversial statements made by Democratic strategist, Bob Beckel, a very heated exchange developed involving Beckel and Atlas Shrugs publisher, Pamela Geller. The controversy started when Bolling played a clip of Beckel’s previous appearance on the show in which he stated: “Look, at some point, I know it’s sensitive here in New York and probably New Jersey, but we have to get over 9/11.” What did he mean by ‘we have to get over 9/11′?  According to Beckel, this was simply an expression of frustration for a variety of things, such as extra security at airports and a few other minor inconveniences designed to catch “a bunch of non-existent terrorists.”  The short list of ‘non-existent terrorists’ since 9/11 that Mr. Beckel must be referring to, include the Madrid train bombers, Russian train bombers, Shoe Bomber, the Lackawanna Six, Fort Hood assassin, the Virginia ‘Jihad’ Network, Christmas Day bomber, Fort Dix plotters, and the Times Square bomber. Beckel might have been feeling the stress of trying to defend such a blatantly insensitive statement, by providing a blatantly inaccurate defense, as he experienced a misogynistic meltdown directed at Geller in the middle of the segment in which he said: “You’re a woman, you better be careful about saying who I carry water for.” Clip and partial transcript below… Over at Atlas Shrugs , Geller asserts that Beckel’s sexist rants were not limited to the on-air conversation.  Prior to the show, she claims: “I was the only female on the panel and as we were prepping (getting mic’ed etc) for the show, Beckel was regaling his victims (Bob Hemmer, David Webb and Bolling) with sordid tales of pole dancers and the like.  Grotesque and deliberate.” Geller states that the confrontation continued after the break: “When we cut to break, Beckel chided Bolling for not bringing ‘Jewish slumlords’ on the show (referring to Bolling’s segment on Imam Rauf’s status as a New Jersey slumlord, so named in a lawsuit against Rauf by Union City.)  When I heard Beckel’s Jew hating belch, I said ‘and you’re an anti-Semite.’  He told me to ‘kiss his ass’ to which I responded that he would never get anyone anywhere in the world to get with that.” Beckel’s appearances on FNC have been infuriating at times, but mostly for ideological reasons.  He is, after all, a liberal.  But he clearly crossed a line tonight with his uncharacteristically aggressive attacks on Geller.  Even Arlen Specter knows that you don’t start any argumentative statement with the words ‘you’re a woman.’ For your added nauseating pleasure, please watch the lead-in 11 minutes to this incident, in which the ever-bigoted Ahmad Rehab defends radical Islam by calling everybody else (particularly Geller) a bigot.  That’s what racists do though; they refer to everybody else as the racist. Racists, and bigots, and radicals.  Oh my! Enjoy… Relevant clip at (11:00 – 11:45) Geller:  I would like to address Mr. Beckel’s point.  I don’t know why you’re carrying water for the most radical, intolerant ideology in the world today.  There have been 20,000 documented radical Islamic attacks since 9/11.  Each one with the imprimatur of a Muslim cleric… Beckel:  You better be very careful.  You’re a woman, you better be very careful about who you say I carry water for, because you have no idea what you’re talking about.  (Points emphatically at Geller).  And don’t start putting me in the middle of your crap! Geller:  Don’t you point to me! Beckel:  I’ll point to you all I want! Geller:  Don’t you point to me.  You’re a misogynist. Beckel:  You’re getting yourself fifteen minutes, you get yourself fifteen minutes of fame because you’re (Bolling) picking on a bunch of Muslims. Geller:  You’re picking on a bunch of women.  You’re a woman hater. Beckel:  A woman hater?  A woman hater? Geller:  Look how you’re talking to me.  It’s outrageous. Beckel:  You are nuts. Geller:  Yea, I’m nuts. Please contact Rusty at The Mental Recession , or on Twitter @rustyweiss74

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Beckel to Geller: You’re a Woman, You Better Be Careful

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Times Watch: Obama, Bringing His Hope to the Paris Slums

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Times Watch: Obama, Bringing His Hope to the Paris Slums

His poll numbers over here may be falling, but the New York Times found a place where Barack Obama is still very popular and bringing the hope: The slum-like “banlieues”outside Paris dominated by Muslim immigrants, in Thursday’s “ Feeling Slighted by France, And Respected by the U.S. ” by France-based reporter Scott Sayare. The residents of this poor, multiracial Paris suburb say they have been abandoned. For 30 years, they say, the French authorities have written off Bondy and neighborhoods like it, treating their inhabitants as terminal delinquents and ignoring their potential. Obama evidently has the French slum vote locked up: Begun in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks as part of an effort to bolster the image of the United States within Muslim communities across the globe, American outreach in these hard neighborhoods — often referred to collectively as the “banlieues,” or suburbs — has grown in scale and visibility since the election of Barack Obama. France is home to five million to six million Muslims, Europe’s largest Muslim population, and the banlieues have long been considered potential incubators for religious extremism. But anti-American sentiment, once pervasive in these neighborhoods, seems to have been all but erased since the election of Mr. Obama, who has proved to be a powerful symbol of hope here and a powerful diplomatic tool. Many suggest the Americans’ warm reception is a measure of these communities’ sense of abandonment. Others say it is the presence of Mr. Obama in the White House. Whatever the case, the United States is now more popular in the banlieues than at any other time in recent memory, say French and American officials. And as the banlieues go, so go the banlieues! In contrast, Times reporters had extremely harsh words for tough-on-crime French President Nicholas Sarkozy , who dared to criticize the violent behavior of the slum residents: Mr. Sarkozy has often taken a ruthless us-against-them attitude…He also struck a conciliatory note, reaching out to the huge swath of French people who seem to fear him, especially in the country’s ethnically and racially mixed suburbs, where he is accused of fueling tensions with his provocative language and an aggressive police presence.

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Times Watch: Obama, Bringing His Hope to the Paris Slums

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ABC’s Bianna Golodryga Goes Undercover to ‘Expose’ Secret Muslim Bias in America, Doesn’t Find Much

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on ABC’s Bianna Golodryga Goes Undercover to ‘Expose’ Secret Muslim Bias in America, Doesn’t Find Much

ABC on Friday did its best to find secret discrimination against Muslims, sending Good Morning America’s Bianna Golodryga undercover in a hijab (Islamic head covering). Yet, despite the misleading graphic, ” Life Under the Veil: TV Experiment Exposes Bias ,” the morning show didn’t find much bigotry. Late in the segment, Golodryga admitted, “Overt discrimination is the exception.” When an ABC producer tried the experiment in New York, the correspondent acknowledged, “Everywhere, people went out of their way to be friendly.” [MP3 audio here .] Yet, Golodryga kept trying. Going to the red state of Texas, she explained, “But it was different in my hometown of Houston. At the airport, I could feel all the eyes on me.” Wearing a burka, she narrated, “In a nearby mall, I wanted to see what would happen if I wear wore a more striking version of Islamic dress, which covers everything but the eyes and is less common here in the states. The stares increased.” If something is uncommon, wouldn’t it be likely that stares increase? After a man walked by and offered a muffled comment, Golodryga deciphered, “It sounds like he said, ‘Islamic queen.’ I couldn’t tell if he meant it in a friendly way or not.” To build the case for rampant anti-Muslim sentiment in America, Golodryga asserted, “According to the FBI, hate crime incidences against Muslims soared from 28 in 2000, to 481 in 2001. And still remain well above pre-9/11 levels.” However, as Michael Doyle of the Sacramento Bee reported on August 28, 2010, hate crimes against Muslims are rare and occur less often than violence against Jews and gays: Jews, lesbians, gay men and Caucasians, among others, are all more frequently the target of hate crimes, FBI records show. Reported anti-Muslim crimes have declined over recent years, though they still exceed what occurred prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks. In 2008, 105 hate crime incidents against Muslims were reported nationwide. There were 10 times as many incidents that were recorded as anti-Jewish during the same year, the most recent for which figures are available. (For more, see a NewsBusters post.) But, Good Morning America has yet to do a segment featuring someone wearing a yarmulke or Kippah to see if they suffer anti-Semitic bias. Golodryga concluded by marveling of her undercover experience on the subway: “People didn’t even pay attention to me as I walked around like a normal American. My religion didn’t matter.” One might wonder, then, what was the point of this segment on bigotry and “bias”? A transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:18am EDT, follows: ABC GRAPHIC: Life Under the Veil: TV Experiment Exposes Bias GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: In the final part of our special series, “Islam in America,” we look at what it’s like to be Muslim in America today. Bianna Golodryga went undercover to find out how people respond to women wearing the traditional Muslim head scarf. And she joins us now. And this was definitely a first for you. BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Yeah. It was quite an eye-opening experience, George. Good morning. The Council of American-Islamic Relations has noted a spike in hostility toward Muslims, including bomb threats at mosques, physical threats on Muslims. Even an advertising campaign telling Muslims to change their religion. So, I wanted to find out what it felt like to be a Muslim in America. And I talked to American women who are doing just that. I donned the hijab myself. AYESHA BUTT: I think the hijab, is one thing that makes it a little different. Makes a Muslim woman different from a non-Muslim woman. GOLODRYGA: A hijab is a head scarf that women wear in public, a symbol of their faith visible to all. Do you notice people looking at you? RUGIATU CONTEN: I’m randomly checked. At a specific airport, I just stand aside because I know I’m going to get randomly checked. And then when I go in the room, I see five other Muslim women, I say As-Salamu Alaykum and do the, you regular, you know, procedures. BUTT: Definitely, things changed a lot after 9/11. Before 9/11, you weren’t called a terrorist. It was after 9/11 that people stop to let you know that you were a terrorist. Or they called you, like, Osama’s wife or something like that. And then, recently, things I would say have been very similarly hostile. GOLODRYGA: According to the FBI, hate crime incidences against Muslims soared from 28 in 2000, to 481 in 2001. And still remain well above pre-9/11 levels. The most recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission figures showed complaints of workplace discrimination against Muslims are up 20 percent. So, what would happen if your daughter came home and said she wanted to wear a hijab? RUBINA AHMAD: As a mother, as long as she stayed in big cities and cosmopolitan- where people are more tolerant, people are more knowledgeable of different cultures, religions, I would be fine. But, I would be concerned about her safety. GOLODRYGA: I decided to see what it would be like to wear a hijab in lower Manhattan, not too far from the proposed community center and mosque. Our hidden cameras followed me into a swanky restaurant. And a department store. And on to the subway, where New Yorkers took the hijab in stride. [Video footage of Golodryga walking around.] But it was different in my hometown of Houston. At the airport, I could feel all the eyes on me. And our cameraman overheard one man tell his companion that he hoped I wasn’t on his flight. In a nearby mall, I wanted to see what would happen if I wear wore a more striking version of Islamic dress, which covers everything but the eyes and is less common here in the states. The stares increased. And so did the comments. [Muffled comment from passerby.] It sounds like he said, “Islamic queen.” I couldn’t tell if he meant it in a friendly way or not. Finally, we went to Orleans County in western New York, where five teens were arrested after allegedly harassing Muslims outside this mosque. Our producer went to a gas station, supermarket and hardware store. Everywhere, people went out of their way to be friendly. WOMAN #1: You’re welcome. You have a great day. WOMAN #2: Did you find everything okay? GOLODRYGA: Our three-day experiment reflects what these women report. Overt discrimination is the exception. BUTT: There are a few that will be hostile. You know, whether you’re in the grocery store or driving on the highway, someone’s going to cut you off and say something about being a terrorist. There are those rare, few people out there. But I don’t think the majority is like that. GOLODRYGA: Today, many young Muslim-American women embrace the hijab, rejecting the notion that traditional dress is somehow repressive. AHMAD: It’s part of their Muslim identity. They are true American-Muslims. And they exercise their right as an American-Muslim and they decide to wear it. CONTEN: Now, I’m wearing the hijab. And I realize that people see me for who I am, more than what my hair looks like or what I’m wearing or how pretty I am. Definitely, that’s the plus-side. And also, the sisterhood, like Aysha to talk about. BUTT: Nobody forced me to do it. I we were the cool people. Like- GOLODRYGA: So, it’s cool to wear a hijab? BUTT: Oh, it’s awesome! Like, you know, You had the matching hoodies. You had the matching hijab. Like, you can see my little toy here. [Points to her hijab.] You can play around with it. GOLODRYGA: Accessorize it up. BUTT: Like, you can have a lot of fun with it. CONTEN: Hijabs, they are very wild. But people just don’t see it. At our parties- BUTT: Yeah, it’s kind of special. CONTEN: Yeah. GOLODRYGA: Some believe this generation is paving the way forward for all Americans. AHMAD: They are really helping, not only Muslim girls. But they’re also helping Americans to learn about Islam. And making other people see them the way they are. You know, as part of maturity of a nation. They have educated the masses of the nation. GOLODRYGA: Quite an impressive group of women. Many Americans see the hijab as something that restricts women, hiding their individuality. What these women told me is that when they wear the hijab, they feel liberated. It frees them from some of the pressures they feel. And, actually one of the girls, Ayesha, that you saw talking about stylizing her hijab, she said she conducted an experiment when I told them about what we did. And she went out without the hijab, in American, western clothes. And she wore that for a week. And she felt more liberated as a woman wearing the hijab. Because people talk to her as a woman and they didn’t- in a sexual sort of- STEPHANOPOULOS: Oh, that’s interesting. Just fascinating stuff. And I guess it confirms something that I’ve believed. Americans tend to show greater respect for anyone who seems to be taking their faith seriously. GOLODRYGA: Yeah. Especially here in New York. You saw that on the subway, right? People didn’t even pay attention to me as I walked around like a normal American. My religion didn’t matter. STEPHANOPOULOS: Not at all.

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ABC’s Bianna Golodryga Goes Undercover to ‘Expose’ Secret Muslim Bias in America, Doesn’t Find Much

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Completely Bizarre: NPR Speculates If Historic Cardinal Is Gay, Admitting There’s No Evidence

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Mollie Hemingway at the religion-news analysis blog Get Religion caught how the taxpayer-funded liberals at National Public Radio cover momentous events for the Roman Catholic Church: by speculating that a historic Cardinal might have been a homosexual, even though they admit there’s no proof: On the final day of his United Kingdom trip, Pope Benedict XVI formally beatified English theologian and apologist Cardinal John Henry Newman. Let’s look at some of the stories about Newman. NPR’s excellent religion reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty had a piece speculating that Newman was gay. I thought it a completely bizarre approach for the main story the news outlet chose to report on the man. The piece itself acknowledges, eventually, that there’s no actual evidence for the claim. But that comes after the large point headline asks: “Was Cardinal John Henry Newman Gay?” There’s lots of passive voice and two sources — one who has been accused of writing false things about historical figures before — saying that the close friendship Newman had with a man makes it not unreasonable to speculate about his homosexuality. He concedes there’s no evidence of a sexual relationship. This isn’t new. The fact is that there has been a great deal of speculation, in recent years, about the close friendship Newman shared with Ambrose St. John. Now, my main question about this story is the simple angle. Why this angle over all the others? There are so many interesting things to explore about Newman, his writings, his life, his legacy. NPR chose, instead, to speculate about his sexual orientation. Personally, I find it bizarre that so-called historians would read minds and guess that two Catholic priests who’ve taken a vow of celibacy living together — and helping each other through all the mundane details of daily life — adds up to great odds of a sexual relationship. Isn’t NPR here committing exactly what liberals hate if it was applied to Barack Obama, speculating that he could be secretly Muslim? Could Hagerty do that story, admitting she doesn’t have any proof? Or would that be seen as more National Enquirer than NPR?

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Survey Shows Arabs More Opposed to GZ Mosque Than American Media

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

Here’s a fact you’re not likely to see on tonight’s evening news broadcasts: According to a recent poll, Arabs living abroad are more likely to be opposed to the “Ground Zero Mosque” than the American media are. According to a recent survey by the Arabic online news service Elaph (Arabic version here ), 58 percent of Arabs think the construction should be moved elsewhere. And according to a Media Research Center study released last week, 55 percent of network news coverage of the debate has come down on the pro-Mosque side. The MRC study also found that on the question of whether opposition to the mosque demonstrated a widely held “Islamophobia” among Americans, 93 percent of network news soundbites answered ion the affirmative. In contrast, when asked whether the United States is a “tolerant” or “bigoted” society, 63 percent of Elaph respondents chose the former. So the Arab world has a more favorable view of Americans than our own media elite, and sides with the American people over the network news broadcasters on the hot-button issue of the day. Faoud Ajami highlighted the Elaph poll in his Wall Street Journal column on Monday: From his recent travels to the Persian Gulf-sponsored and paid for by the State Department-Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf returned with a none-too-subtle threat. His project, the Ground Zero Mosque, would have to go on. Its cancellation would risk putting “our soldiers, our troops, our embassies and citizens under attack in the Muslim world.” Leave aside the attempt to make this project a matter of national security. The self-appointed bridge between America and the Arab-Islamic world is a false witness to the sentiments in Islamic lands. Deputy Editorial Page Editor Bret Stephens and Editorial Board member Matthew Kaminski on the plan for a ‘Mosque at Ground Zero,’ and Senior Editorial Writer Joseph Rago reports on the Missouri results. The truth is that the trajectory of Islam in America (and Europe for that matter) is at variance with the play of things in Islam’s main habitat. A survey by Elaph, the most respected electronic daily in the Arab world, gave a decided edge to those who objected to the building of this mosque-58% saw it as a project of folly. Elaph was at it again in the aftermath of Pastor Terry Jones’s threat to burn copies of the Quran: It queried its readers as to whether America was a “tolerant” or a “bigoted” society. The split was 63% to 37% in favor of those who accepted the good faith and pluralism of this country. So a larger proportion of Arabs believe in that notion than American journalists. That is a sad indictment of the press in this country.

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UK Press Finds Possible ‘Muslim,’ ‘Islamic’ Plot to Kill Pope; AP Finds ‘Street Cleaners’

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Check out the following headlines in the British press about the arrest of six men who may have been planning to kill the Pope during his visit to England: “Muslim Plot to Kill Pope” (Daily Express) “Pope visit: Five suspected Islamist terrorists arrested over assassination plot” (Telegraph) “Police question six street cleaners held over plot to attack the Pope” (Daily Mail) (2nd paragraph: “Armed officers detained the men, all believed to be Muslims of North African origin, as they prepared to go on shift at a cleaning depot in Central London.”) Yet in neither of two separate articles by the Associated Press ( Nicole Winfield and David Stringer/Victor L. Simpson ) do the writers mention a possible extremist Muslim/Islamic connection. The writers simply identified the suspects as “London street cleaners.” Why is the mention of at least a possible Muslim connection warranted? Because if these men are indeed Muslims who had a lethal plan, it would not mark the first time that Islamic extremists have sought to kill the Pope. Only by sheer luck did Philippine police thwart a terrorist plot to kill Pope John Paul II during a visit to Manila in 1995 . If Ramzi Yousef did not accidently set some explosives on fire in a Manila apartment, the deadly plan, which was less than a week away , likely would have gone forward undiscovered. In addition, the Daily Express reported that the “alleged plot is believed to be the second planned assassination on the Pope recently . In April, Moroccan students Mohamed Hlal, 26, and Ahmed Errahmouni, 22, were deported from Italy, strengthening fears that Al Qaeda were seeking recruits there.” (This also refutes Stringer’s and Simpson’s claim in their article that “there have been no known plots against Benedict in his five-year papacy.”) Like other media outlets, the AP has downplayed the seriousness of the plot. However, the Daily Express quoted a Vatican source , “Publicly the incident is being played down but privately the arrests verge towards the serious side and came as a result of intelligence work .” The two articles by the AP follow dreadful coverage by the AP’s Nicole Winfield earlier this week. In an error-ridden and slanted piece on Monday (9/13/10), she falsely claimed that Pope Benedict XVI had “broken his own rule” in his plans to beatify 19th century Anglican convert John Henry Newman. (Read more about that here .) — Dave Pierre is the author of the heralded new book, Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic Church .

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Howard Kurtz, White House Mouthpiece? Article Rains ‘Fact’ Fire on Forbes

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

On Friday, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz wrote a “White House rips Forbes” article . Dinesh D’Souza has drawn a “torrent of criticism” for writing that President Obama is motivated by his African father’s “anti-colonial” views, Kurtz wrote, but emphasized how the White House is training its fire on Forbes magazine for publishing it, suggesting it’s un-factual. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs asserted “It’s a stunning thing, to see a publication you would see in a dentist’s office, so lacking in truth and fact.” (Has he read Newsweek?) This isn’t about “facts,” it’s about spins. D’Souza can be accused of putting the president on a psychoanalyst’s couch about his father. (As if the media never did this for George W. Bush.) D’Souza shot back to Kurtz that it’s simply a fact that the president had a Kenyan father. But Kurtz went into Gibbs-echoing rebuttal mode:  The facts are also these: Obama Sr. abandoned the family when his son was 2, and the future president saw his father only one more time, during a visit in Hawaii when he was 10. Obama Sr. died in 1982. Gibbs says the Forbes attack comes at a time when there is “no limit to innuendo” against the president, including baseless charges that he is a Muslim and was not born in the United States. Forbes, he says, “left the facts on the cutting-room floor.” D’Souza acknowledges one error. He wrote that Obama “is a man who spent his formative years — the first 17 years of his life — off the American mainland, in Hawaii, Indonesia and Pakistan, with multiple subsequent journeys to Africa.” Obama visited Pakistan once, as a college student, when he was older than 17. (Hawaii, of course, may be off the American mainland, but it is hardly out of the American mainstream.) This is again, not a “fact,” but a spin. Hawaii is clearly more than 2500 miles form the mainland. As much fun as reporters make of hicks in Kentucky or Alabama, suggesting they are out of the mainstream, it’s just as fair game to question the “mainstream” cultural viewpoint of Hawaii. If the red states are “less than cosmopolitan,” the blue states are “less than nationalistic.” D’Souza’s article borrows heavily from Obama’s own fact-challenged memoir “Dreams From My Father,” so it would be just as fair for Kurtz to suggest to Gibbs that getting elected to office (and becoming a multimillionaire) off a gooey grew-up-fatherless memoir carrying a huge factual disclaimer doesn’t grant you the higher ethical ground on “fact twisting.” Even if Howard Kurtz thinks it does.  Obama’s introduction admits that his quotes in the book are an “approximation,” and “some of the characters that appear are composites of people I’ve known, and some events appear out of precise chronology. With the exception of my family and a handful of public figures, the names of most characters have been changed for the sake of their privacy.” Kurtz put an exclamation point on the liberal argument at the end, without labeling it as liberal: Columbia Journalism Review this week called the D’Souza article “a fact-twisting, error-laden piece of paranoia” and “the worst kind of smear journalism — a singularly disgusting work.” The Columbia Journalism Review is a left-wing rag. The Forbes-bashing writer, Ryan Chittum, also thought Rick Santelli’s 2009 on-air outburst that started the Tea Party movement was comical. His article was headlined “CNBC Editor: The People Are Revolting. Santelli Plays Mel Brooks Playing Louis XVI.” Chittum began:  In the annals of CNBC cluelessness, this morning’s outburst by the channel’s Rick Santelli is up there with the worst….The segment couldn’t more clearly illustrate the disconnect between the financial-services sector, certain financial journalists, and, you know, “reality.” So how is this magazine some sort of nonpartisan, independent arbiter of political writing, as Kurtz implied?

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Katy Perry Disses Shane Lopes: Her High School Crush (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Katy Perry disses former crush added by: Dannistarr

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AUSTRALIA: Pool visitors told to cover up for Ramadan

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

FAMILIES in Victoria are being ordered to cover up before attending a public event to avoid offending Muslims during next year's Ramadan. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has approved a ban on uncovered shoulders and thighs for a community event to be held at the Dandenong Oasis, a municipal pool. “Participants aged 10 and over must ensure their bodies are covered from waist to knee and the entire torso extending to the upper arms,” a request by Dandenong City Council and the YMCA states in an exemption application to the Equal Opportunities Act. “Participants must not wear transparent clothing.” The request has been approved by VCAT and applies to a family event to be held at the pool next August. “The applicant intends this to be an event where people of all races and religions and ages may attend, use the Centre's facilities and socialise together,” VCAT notes. “The holy month of Ramadan has a particular focus on families and the applicant wishes to encourage families to attend and socialise together with others. “The minimum dress requirements are set having regard to the sensitivities of Muslims who wish to participate in the event.” The ban on skimpy clothes will apply between 6.15 and 8.15pm on August 21 next year, a time when the pool is closed to the public and normally used by a Muslim women's swimming group. The ban was yesterday compared by the Human Rights Commissioner Helen Szoke to a ban on thongs in a pub. “Matters such as this are not easy to resolve and require a balance to be achieved between competing rights and obligations,” she said. “Dress codes are not uncommon: eg singlets, jeans, thongs etc in pubs/hotels.” Sherene Hassan, vice-president of the Islamic Society of Victoria, said she didn't support the dress restrictions. “My preference would be that no dress code is stipulated,” Ms Hassan said. But Liberty Victoria said the ban was reasonable because the event was to be held out of hours. A spokeswoman for the City of Greater Dandenong said the ban would help Muslims feel part of the community. added by: eden49

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MRC Study: ABC, CBS and NBC Tilt Ground Zero Mosque Debate by Smearing Americans as ‘Islamophobic’

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

By a wide margin — 66 percent to 29 percent, according to the most recent ABC News/ Washington Post poll — the public is opposed to building that proposed $100 million Islamic cultural center near the site of the destroyed World Trade Towers. This is not a lightly-held opinion: more than half (53%) told ABC news they are “strongly opposed” to building it near Ground Zero, vs. only 14 percent who report being “strongly” in favor. (Scroll to Question 30 .) So in the face of such obvious public sentiment, are the big broadcast networks reflecting such public sentiment in their coverage? Or are journalists implicitly repudiating their viewers by touting accusations that opposition to the mosque is motivated by America’s supposed “Islamophobia”? To find out, MRC analysts reviewed all 52 stories about the Ground Zero mosque on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from August 14 through September 13 — the first month after President Obama propelled the issue into the headlines with his remarks at a White House dinner. The results show that the networks have tilted in favor of mosque supporters and against public opinion, with more than half (55%) of all soundbites or reporter comments coming down on the pro-mosque side of the debate, vs. 45 percent for opponents. Even those overall numbers fail to show how the debate has grown increasingly tilted over time. During the first week (August 14-20), the networks actually provided more visibility to mosque opponents — 55 percent of soundbites, vs. 45 percent for mosque supporters. But in the following weeks (August 21 to September 13), the networks’ coverage lurched in the other direction, with mosque supporters receiving a 63 percent to 37 percent advantage. (See chart.) Our analysts tallied as “pro-mosque” all statements and soundbites that either: supported the idea of building the Islamic center on its currently proposed site; defended or praised the project’s organizers (mainly the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf); or criticized the other side as bigoted or “Islamophobic.” Anti-mosque statements/soundbites presented the other side: criticized the plans to build the center and/or the project’s organizers, or defended mosque opponents from charges of bigotry. The shift in coverage occurred after mosque proponents began tarring their opponents as bigots. A pair of protests on Sunday, August 22 — one in favor of the mosque, one against — drew coverage on all three network newscasts, and all three highlighted the accusation from pro- mosque demonstrators that a contrary stance was evidence of what Time magazine’s cover story that week dubbed “Islamophobia.” What had been a relatively even-handed debate about balancing the sensitivities of 9/11 families with America’s tradition of religious freedom morphed into a one-sided story about beleaguered Muslims facing hardship at the hands of bigoted Americans. On the August 23 Nightly News , for example, NBC’s Ron Allen picked up how “many Muslim-Americans insist this debate is more evidence of religious intolerance.” On the August 25 CBS Evening News , fill-in anchor Jeff Glor linked the stabbing of a cab driver to the mosque debate: “That alleged hate crime took place in the shadow of a heated and divisive debate over whether a mosque should be build near Ground Zero….Other controversies over new mosques in Wisconsin and Kentucky have led some to question: Is America becoming Islamophobic, a prejudice against Muslims?” Four days later, on ABC’s World News, correspondent Steve Osunsami cited “a string of recent incidents suggesting that many Americans don’t care for Muslims — the back and forth over the Islamic center near Ground Zero, the cab driver who was stabbed simply for being Muslim.” “Critics say all the rhetoric is fueling anti-Muslim violence,” ABC’s Dan Harris chimed in on the September 5 World News . ABC and CBS both touted exclusive interviews with organizers of the Ground Zero mosque project, but never gave the same privilege to mosque opponents. These interviews were hardly probing. CBS’s Scott Pelley interviewed Sharif el-Gamal, the real estate developer who bought the property two blocks from Ground Zero, excerpts of which were shown on the August 27 and August 30 Evening News . “This facility that is being debated all around the world is universally known as the Ground Zero mosque,” Pelley told el-Gamal. “What do you call it?” “It should be universally known as a hub of culture, a hub of co-existence, a hub of bringing people together,” el-Gamal enthused. ABC’s Christiane Amanpour interviewed Abdul Rauf for the September 12 This Week , with excerpts shown on the September 9 World News . She quoted Abdul Rauf as arguing that failing to proceed with his mosque concept would “strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment. This will put our people, our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens, under attack in the Muslim world. And we have expanded and given and fueled terrorism.” Seemingly deaf to what she just heard, Amanpour characterized Abdul Rauf’s statement this way: “So, he said he wasn’t making any threats or predicting any terrible worst case scenario.” Alone among the three evening newscasts, ABC’s World News also offered soundbites to Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to propose that Americans were prejudiced against Muslims. (NBC’s Today on September 9 also featured a CAIR representative to speak out against Americans as bigoted.) CAIR is currently listed by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in their investigation of funding for Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Hamas. “I’ve really never seen the level of Islamophobia that we’re experiencing today,” Hooper blasted on the August 16 World News , a soundbite that was repeated on the August 29 broadcast. A week later, on the September 5 World News, Hooper was back to condemn the “hysterical atmosphere we’re in right now.” Parsing the numbers a different way provides some insight into how the networks seem to conceptualize the issue of balance: Debate about the Islamic center itself and/or its organizers was almost perfectly balanced (57 soundbites arguing against the project, vs. 54 soundbites in favor, or a 51-49% split). But the “debate” about whether opposition reflected Islamophobia was almost perfectly one-sided: 27 soundbites (93%) leveling that accusation, with just two soundbites (7%) offering a defense. In other words, the networks permitted a balanced debate about a proposed real estate project, but allowed mosque supporters to attack the majority of Americans as “haters” and “bigots” without adequate debate. That’s yet another sign that the liberal, elite media are hopelessly out of touch with the public they ostensibly serve.  

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MRC Study: ABC, CBS and NBC Tilt Ground Zero Mosque Debate by Smearing Americans as ‘Islamophobic’

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