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After months of what some critics called overexposure, President Obama has of late avoided questions from the White House press corps at large, closing the Oval Office to traditionally informal question-and-answer sessions with reporters and pulling back from the fast pace of news conferences he established when taking office. The president, whose job-approval ratings have been on a steady slide...

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants could receive health care coverage from their employers under the bills winding their way through Congress, despite President Obama's explicit pledge that illegal immigrants would not benefit. The House bill mandates, and the Senate bill strongly encourages, businesses to extend health care coverage to all employees. But the bills do not have exemptions to screen out illegal immigrants, who usually obtain jobs by using false identities and are indistinguishable from legal workers.

BEIJING – Washington's ambassador to Beijing hit out Friday at negative U.S. media coverage of President Barack Obama's visit to China, saying it failed to take into account important progress on many issues. Although producing no breakthroughs on key issues, Obama's first state visit to the Asian giant that ended Wednesday was heralded by both sides as a success. The trip was the top news story in China, drawing strong interest from the Chinese public who, surveys suggest, are largely positive in their view of the American president.

Seinfeld fans should love Harry Reid's health scare plan. Reid wants to spend almost a trillion of your tax dollars over the next decade for ... nothing. According to reports, Reid's plan would leave 24 million people uninsured in 2019. That is approximately the same number of people that some studies show who are currently uninsured because they can't afford health insurance. One dirty, big secret that Dr. Reid, Nurse Nancy, and Orderly Obama don't want you to know is that a significant number of uninsured Americans can afford health insurance; they just choose not to purchase it. Many are...

THE health-care-reform debate is plagued by different num bers on how many Ameri cans lack health insurance, but we actually have excellent data on the question: Ninety percent of Americans are insured, according to the Census -- and even the president more or less concurs. The Census is the source for the much-cited figure of 46 million uninsured. Yet the very same table plainly indicates that 9 million of those are not US citizens. That leaves 37 million uninsured who are Americans. But there's more. In the same document, the Census also plainly states that "health-insurance coverage is underreported" in...

RC-East Media Ground Rules: 1. Media on Bagram Air Field will not take photographs, video or conduct interviews unless escorted by Public Affairs personnel. 2. All interviews will be on the record. 3. During interviews, no questions will be asked about the politics of the military. (e.g. Iraq war, equipment, readiness, funding, etc.) 4. When embedded with a unit, media must remain with that unit at all times. 5. The media is responsible for loading and carrying its own equipment at all times. 6. Media will not carry or possess personal weapons, knives, firearms, pornography or alcohol. 7. Visible light...

As health-care legislation advances through Congress, the young adults who were so vital to President Obama's election are emerging as a significant beneficiary of his top domestic priority, but they are also likely to play a major role in funding any reform. In a campaign-style rally Thursday at the University of Maryland at College Park, Obama will aim to tap his richest vein of support -- voters younger than 30 -- to help sell his reform plan to a more skeptical general public. "We're at an important turning point in our push for real reform," read the e-mailed invitation, "and...

Abortion measure passes, then fails, in House Thursday, July 30, 2009 An anti-abortion amendment to a sweeping health overhaul bill was voted down in a House committee late Thursday — a dramatic reversal just hours after the measure initially was approved. The amendment said health care legislation moving through Congress may not impose requirements for coverage of abortion, except in limited cases. It was approved in the Energy and Commerce Committee after conservative Democrats joined Republicans to support it. But committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., invoked House rules that allowed him to bring up the amendment for a second vote,...

Massachusetts' budget forces retreat from universal coverage15. July 2009 18:40 "The new state budget in Massachusetts eliminates health care coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants to help close a growing deficit, reversing progress toward universal coverage just as Congress looks to the state as a model for overhauling the nation’s health care system," the New York Times reports. The affected immigrants are permanent residents who have had green cards for less than five years and are insured through the Commonwealth Care program, an insurance program created by the 2006 law that brought near-universal coverage to Massachusetts. The cuts would save...

Senate bill fines people refusing health coverageBy RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR – 58 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage....

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Nearly two out of three Americans believe the media gave too much coverage to the death of Michael Jackson and just three percent think it was too little, according to a survey published on Wednesday. Twenty-nine percent of the 1,000 people polled June 26-29 for the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press believe the coverage of Jackson's sudden death on Thursday at the age of 50 was the "right amount." Thirty percent of those polled said they followed the coverage of Jackson's death "very closely" while 28 percent said they followed...

Veterans Groups Protest Proposed Change In Coverage For Injuries, Conditions Related To Military ServiceArticle Date: 11 Mar 2009 - 5:00 PDT Several veterans groups "are lashing out" at the Obama administration over a policy proposal they say would "dramatically alter" how the Department of Veterans Affairs handles health insurance claims for veterans, The Hill reports. Under the policy, which is included in President Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget proposal, VA would bill health insurers for treatment of injuries and conditions sustained as a result of veterans' military service. Currently, VA covers those costs and bills health insurers only for treatment...

Oh, the broadcast cameos and photo ops are magnificent. but surprise: Even Pew Research says the press has turned "bearish" on President. Obama. Grrrr.

Main Entry:lick·spit·tle Pronunciation: \ˈlik-ˌspi-təl\ Function: nounDate:1825 : a fawning subordinate : toady Alternate spellings: ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN... Context Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). Servility Sycophant, parasite; toad, toady, toad-eater; tufthunter; snob, flunky, flunkey, yes-man, lapdog, spaniel, lickspittle, smell-feast, Graeculus esuriens, hanger on, cavaliere servente, led captain, carpet knight; timeserver, fortune hunter, Vicar of Bray, Sir-Pertinax, Max Sycophant, pickthank; flatterer; doer of dirty work; ame damnee, tool; reptile; slave; (servant); courtier; beat, dead beat, doughface , heeler, homme de cour, sponger, sucker, tagtail, truckler.

The Media Research Center has quantified, documented and exposed media bias for its 20 years of existence. But media bias has a new dimension – media garbage, which is false information or unsubstantiated rumors. Media garbage is an outgrowth of the speed and proliferation of 24/7 news, the Internet, the blogosphere and the race to be the first to report a sensational story, sensationalize a non-story or capture the often-desired mantel of journalistic achievement called “gotcha”. Ever since Dan Rather of CBS News was fired for insisting that phony National Guard records about President Bush were true, most media outlets...

Civic Center seems to be turning ugly. According to Metropolitan photographer Dawn Madura police started moving protesters in to the park. They had previously been in the streets. About 100 cops surrounded the park. Traffic had to be diverted. The march that wound through city streets, stopping traffic and causing police to scramble to mediate between motorists and marchers was dubbed "Reclaiming the Streets". The mass was made up of 37 different liberal groups that entered the streets without a permit. A young girl was seen being arrested for being in the street. She resisted arrest and was forced into...

McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis asked Sunday for a meeting with Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, to protest what the campaign called signs that the network is "abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race." Davis made the request Sunday in a letter that is part of an aggressive effort by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to counter news coverage he considers critical. Politico has asked NBC for a response and will post that here when it arrives.

On his program last night Fox News host Bill O'Reilly blasted his cable competitors for their "delight in showing Iraqi violence," a product of an editorial mindset at CNN and MSNBC that "want[s] Americans to think badly of President Bush." "And that strategy has succeeded," he added. O'Reilly's words came in response to remarks made by CNN president Jon Klein who accused FNC of dialing back Iraq coverage as violence in Iraq has increased. "It illustrates the danger of cheerleading for one particular point or another because they were obviously cheerleaders for the war," He told the AP. "When the...

BERKELEY -- By a unanimous vote, the Berkeley City Council took the first step Tuesday night toward including sex change surgery in employee health care benefits. The proposal is modeled after a similar benefit in effect in San Francisco since 2001. The council ordered the city manager to create a feasibility study before the measure comes back to the council in six months for final approval. The vote was cast without comment, in contrast to the media frenzy that broke out last week after the proposal was put on the agenda. Councilman Darryl Moore, who co-sponsored the resolution with his...

For all its firepower, Israel’s military is at a disadvantage fighting Hamas and Hezbollah because internationally accepted rules of military engagement hamstring democratic nation-states battling non-state terrorist groups. This is true even when terrorists show utter contempt for all standards of human decency and engage in wanton killing — a sign of how ineffective the rules of engagement are in today’s era of asymmetrical warfare.

ARE Californians taxed too much, or not enough? Taxes are the central question of how to fund Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's massive $12 billion expansion of government-run health care with its 4 percent payroll tax, 4 percent hospital tax and 2 percent doctor tax. Ironically, Schwarzenegger lambasted Phil Angelides during last year's gubernatorial campaign for wanting to raise taxes by $7 billion to create a new government health care entitlement. Angelides argued mightily that his proposal amounted to fees, not taxes. But the governor called Angelides' "fee" a "tax," so a "tax" it was. Now that Schwarzenegger is proposing a government...

Businesses are wary of a crop of new state health care proposals to reduce the number of uninsured, fearing the programs will drive up their expenses without solving the problem. Dissension already has surfaced: Maine's health insurers and businesses have balked at how the state's program to expand coverage has been funded and have filed several lawsuits over the policy. Smaller companies are especially worried, because they are less likely to provide health insurance than bigger concerns, and some of the proposals call for companies that don't provide coverage to pay into state funds. But experts note that if the...

Seven Days Before Election, TV Networks Give Good Press to Democrats, Smack GOP With Bad Press Media: Treats for Liberals, Tricks for GOP     Appearing on FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor last week, ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin admitted that the media elite have a bias problem. Citing this year’s adulatory coverage of liberal Democrat Nancy Pelosi compared to the mean-spirited coverage the networks dumped on Newt Gingrich back in 1994, Halperin confessed: "If I were a conservative, I understand why I would feel suspicious that I was not going to get a fair break at the end of an...

On Sept. 30, about 100 people carrying protest signs and handfuls of dirt rallied at the Alamo to protest Gov. Rick Perry's massive toll road plan. Perry's feisty challenger, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, spoke at the event, which was not covered by the Express-News. Our no-show wasn't a judgment call. A reporter who was notified about the rally simply did not pass the information on to editors who decide what to cover and who will cover it. It was a flub, primarily by the Express-News, but also by the organizer, the San Antonio Toll Party, which needs to be more effusive...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2006 – A Marine corporal quizzed top leaders at a recent Pentagon employees’ question-and-answer session about what the department can do to counter the reporting of negative news from Iraq and Afghanistan. “Negativity in the press is absolutely detrimental to the morale of our forces and our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Cpl. John A. Stukins said to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Sept. 22 town hall meeting. “What are we doing to confront this problem and to better the morale of our...

Thousands of people on Medicaid in Michigan will not be able to fill their prescription at CVS drug stores. CVS said it will stop filling prescription from Midwest Health Plan starting Aug. 16. The drug store chain said it's taking the drastic step because it was unable to reach an agreeement with the insurer over reimbursement rates. Midwest Health is a Dearborn-based insurance carrier.

The World Cup is generating record television audiences for soccer in the U.S. But some diehard fans think the coverage deserves a red card. Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and ABC have been hit with complaints from soccer devotees that their telecasts are unsophisticated and mistake-ridden. The popular Web site Big Soccer has a thread titled "Pick your favorite insane thing said by the announcers so far."A major gripe: ESPN selected an announcer, Dave O'Brien, who had never called a soccer game before this year to serve as the tournament's lead play-by-play man. Some English-speaking viewers have switched to Spanish-language Univision,...

  For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryMay 6, 2006 President's Radio Address       Audio      In Focus: Medicare      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today I want to talk with you about the new Medicare prescription drug coverage that went into effect at the start of this year. Everyone on Medicare is eligible for this new coverage, but the enrollment deadline of May 15th is just over a week away. For those of you with Medicare who have not yet signed up, it is important for you to review your options and choose a plan. By enrolling before the deadline, you...

An Assembly committee approved a bill Tuesday that would mandate Californians buy health insurance coverage much like drivers are required to purchase auto insurance. Although California voters and politicians repeatedly have rejected forcing individuals and employers to pay for a universal insurance program, lawmakers are seeking to capitalize on the momentum from a new Massachusetts law that will make that state the first in the country to establish mandatory health insurance. "We have a choice about whether we're going to stay stuck in the mud," said Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. "We have a situation where we have 20 percent...

South Korean media protest North Korea press freedoms 1 hour, 28 minutes ago South Korean reporters covering inter-Korean family reunions in North Korea are returning home in protest at press freedom curbs, media pool reports said. North Korean officials prevented two South Korean broadcasters from transmitting stories earlier in the week and asked one reporter from the SBS commercial television network to leave the country on Wednesday. "Because of the North's restrictions on media coverage, a reporter from SBS had to return to South Korea and the principle of press freedom has been breached," the 24 reporters said in a...

"From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey. The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated. The behavior of the Iraqi security forces had been mischaracterized in some instances. And I guess that is to say nothing of the apparently inaccurate and harmful reports of U.S. military conduct in connection with a bus filled with passengers in Iraq. Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as...

Sitting in armchairs waiting for handouts not the best way to get scoops Members of the elite White House press corps this week have acted more like animals that have been kept in captivity for so long that they can’t find news unless it is forced down their open gullets at a daily press briefing. The Cheney hunting accident story embarrassingly revealed this fact, which probably explains the greater-than-normal anger and outrage of White House correspondents over the last few days. “Why weren’t we told?” has been the refrain, not “How did we miss that story?” The White House press...

Isn't nonstop fawning press coverage wonderful? Other than entrenched, well-connected liberals like Al Franken, of course, who exactly would have an idea of how that feels? For the Radio Equalizer, the toughest task is weeding through it, otherwise we'd cover nothing but Frankenfluff (a term we coined to describe the particular level of positive press Al routinely enjoys). Even this mainstream media lovefest can have pitfalls for unsuspecting recipients, however. Why? Because it eventually leads to carelessness and overconfidence. Particularly during recent television interviews, we've already seen that in Franken, who can't seem to understand why anyone wouldn't find the...

NBC did not interrupt its broadcast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade yesterday to bring viewers the news that an M&M balloon had crashed into a light pole, injuring two sisters. In fact, when the time came in the tightly scripted three-hour program for the M&Ms' appearance, NBC weaved in tape of the balloon crossing the finish line at last year's parade - even as the damaged balloon itself was being dragged from the accident scene. At 11:47 a.m., as an 11-year-old girl and her 26-year-old sister were being treated for injuries, the parade's on-air announcers - Katie Couric, Matt...

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." -- Old adage "Well, there you go again." -- Ronald Reagan There they go indeed. And shame on anyone for believing them anymore. I mean, of course, the elite liberal media, who will stop at nothing to topple the Bush presidency. Not even if it means manipulating the news about war and natural disasters. Remember all those New Orleans horror stories, the ones that could've given Attila the Hun goosebumps? An Editor & Publisher headline that screamed, "Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane"?...

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Allstate, the largest publicly traded homeowners and auto insurer in the U.S., said it plans to scale back its exposure to the Gulf Coast homeowner's market following the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita this summer. Speaking at the company's third quarter earnings conference call with analysts earlier Thursday, Chief Executive Edward Liddy said Allstate would continue to provide assistance to those affected by the deadly hurricanes but would curb its exposure, a company spokeswoman confirmed. Liddy didn't provide an estimate of how much the company would scale back in the region. The news came as...

Why haven't the broadcast networks been going wall-to-wall today with Katrina coverage? It's a perplexing question that baffles the Radio Equalizer. Sure, there were plenty of early morning updates, but at 9am it was abruptly cut off for a return to normal programming. Say what you want about Pat Robertson, but his 700 Club had superb Katrina coverage, while Regis and Kelly were doing trivia segments.... ...In the category of "timing is everything" comes word that among the lawsuits filed by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) against another batch of file-swappers are some against individuals living in NEW...

AIR ENRON: NO LETTING UP By Michelle Malkin · August 10, 2005 01:49 PM Al Franken is laughing it off and the elite media is still blowing it off, but the Air America/Air Enron financial fiasco continues to unfold. Ed Morrissey and his legal consultant/reader Eric Costello shine renewed light on the Piquant buyout shell game here and here, previously explored by Leon H. at Macho Nachos. The Washington Times pounds the MSM and race hustlers' blackout in a new editorial today, "Air Scamerica." And in a fascinating little side development, a former Clear Channel official has been hired by...

I don't expect much from the local WB station, but what's the problem at PBS? Do they have the ability to take a live BBC feed? With the big debate about public television's future, why don't become more relevant to the immediacy of global news developments? Did broadcast network anchors seem surprisingly caught off-guard today, considering it's just two weeks later? Or were they simply frustrated at the lack of early details? ... The busy recent news cycle has given Rush Limbaugh a huge boost, as there's lots to talk about and Rush tends to get fired-up at times like...

Complaints about the U.S. military's treatment of terrorists at Guantanamo Bay were once again featured on all three broadcast network evening newscasts Wednesday. Full stories on ABC, CBS and NBC cast the military on the defensive at congressional hearings. CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer — who has likened Guantanamo to the "Hanoi Hilton," the infamous North Vietnamese prison camp — grumped that "Congress asked a lot of questions today" about Guantanamo, but "the problem is, they didn't get many answers." ABC followed up its story on yesterday's hearings with a second full report by ABC's Terry Moran, who zeroed...

Since the inception of controversy over University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, the Rocky Mountain News has led all other media in news coverage, investigation and analysis. Now, that newspaper has published the results of a detailed, exhaustive two-month investigation into multiple allegations against the embattled professor. The five-part series of reports, which began on June 4, constitute remarkable journalism of a kind too rarely practiced, regardless of subject matter. It is thorough; it is careful; it is balanced. It is investigatory and scholarly, analytical and insightful, as clear and as compellingly written as any complicated, contentious story can be....

Did you miss this story from the Guardian (via AP)? BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - About 10,000 opposition protesters chanted "Freedom!'' and carried pictures of President Bush as they marched across Azerbaijan's capital Saturday, urging the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free parliamentary elections this year.... Supporters of several opposition parties chanted "Freedom!'' and "Free Elections!'' while holding placards with such slogans as "Down with robber government!'' Some carried a picture of Bush with the inscription: "We want freedom!''

Newsweek's false account of a Koran being dumped in a toilet caused much damage to U.S. foreign policy. On May 20, the New York Times tried to do more damage. It devoted over 6000 words to the deaths of Afghans who had been in the custody of U.S. forces at Bagram Air Base on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Seven people have been charged for alleged abuse of those described in the Times account. But that didn't stop reporter Tim Golden from including a lot of gratuitous details about the alleged abuse. The article was timed just before Afghan President...

Over the last few weeks, Afghanistan has been in the news again--unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons. The media pack has made a brief reappearance in Afghanistan to report on carefully staged "spontaneous" riots, which briefly erupted around the country, ostensibly in protest over a report in Newsweek (later retracted) about desecration of Koran. Sadly, in the rush of commentary about Afghanistan's slide into anarchy and America's deteriorating position in Kabul, most of the international media again missed or downplayed many other stories, some of them arguably far more consequential than an antigovernment rampage whipped up by opponents of President...

Last week, The Sun, a British tabloid, published a front-page photo of imprisoned former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in his underwear. Predictably, this became news and just as predictably, there were howls of protest that Saddam’s rights were violated and that the photos would further inflame anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East. A USA Today report on the incident suggested that the release of the photos “… were certain to offend Arab sensibilities and heap more scorn on an American image already tarnished. . . .” By contrast, a Fox News report indicated that The Sun said that the unidentified...

It's a given that The New York Times ignored the Holocaust, a sin of omission confessed by the paper itself. Now we have a book that says it ain't so — that from the beginning to the end of World War II, The Times published 1,186 stories about the extermination of the European Jews. It just buried the stories inside. "Buried by The Times" is the title of the book, and it's more damning by far than anything the critics ever said about the paper's coverage of the worst mass murder in history. This book proves that The Times not...

WELL, I'm relieved. I was certain that I was the only person bored to tears over this current batch of faux news, but apparently I'm not alone. Far from it: even the New York Times, which has never in its history run out of glowering fluff to print, has lost all concept of what to do. The Newspaper of Record used space on its website this week to describe one of its op-eds thus: "The recent shootings have changed the way people drive, making them use their turn signals and stay on their best behavior." In keeping with this theme,...

Rosen goes to trial May 3 on charges of falsely underreporting the costs of the August 2000 gala — thus inflating the amount of campaign cash ostensibly raised for Clinton at the event.

The blood is in the water. The sharks are circling. Now it is time for the main course. Lower the tank and drop in the political corpse of Tom Delay. Democrats are whipping themselves into a frenzy — as are their allies in the press — over the impending political death of Tom DeLay. The Majority Leader is helping fan the flames by holding up rifles at NRA rallies while asking for more bullets. But if you are scoring this one at home sports fans, expect to see a flurry of revelations coming out about the Democratic leaders in the...

An AP Story that ran in USA Today said that Weise posted information about his own mental state in the months before he killed nine people and himself. But the story failed to note that his comments included favorable references to using marijuana or MJ. Weise said, "MJ is my gal of choice." A March 25 Washington Post article by Blaine Harden and Dana Hedgpeth said Weise had serious mental problems but ignored the pot connection. A March 24 Post article by Ceci Connolly and Dana Hedgpeth described "a deeply disturbed youth who had been treated for depression in a...