Free Republic

In his Monday chat with Charlie Rose on PBS, Ted Koppel played armchair general or armchair Secretary of State and explained why he would not have gone to war with Iraq, didn't see the urgent need to remove Saddam, saw no connection with terrorism, and worst of all, smeared Ronald Reagan as not caring about the gassing of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988. This is, as a matter of historical record, untrue. Reagan went and denounced the gassing from the podium of the United Nations. Secretary of State George Shultz also denounced it in no uncertain terms. The ironic...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, says that before airing an hour-long special, titled "The Heat Is On: The Case of Global Warming," the FOX News Channel informed its viewers they were about to be misinformed on the science of global warming, and then proceeded to do just that. Said Robert Ferguson, Executive Director for CSPP, "Presenter Rick Folbaum and a cast of mostly non-scientists, celebrities and lawyers employed a transparent form of deception: telling only one side of a story or situation with intent to mislead. Worse,...

CNN's Carol Lin and the French "African-Americans" The Paris riots have highlighted more than any other issue in recent years not only the bias, but the ignorance of the "old media." Internet readers have studied the situation in Europe for years. Numerous writers, from Mark Steyn to Ba'at Yeor to Debbie Schlussel, have long predicted the decline of Europe and the jihad that we have seen over the past few weeks. But the "old media" personalities still have no clue as to what is going on. And their reporting and commentary has taken on an almost comical quality as a...

A while ago, Freeper tgsltakoma pinged me to a bit of stupidity on the Time magazine website where they displayed this photo. (direct link here: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050425/gallery/8.html) She and I laughed about how clueless they were when they captioned the photo as anti Coulter protesters when they are really anti Kerry protesters. (Notice the "Communists for Kerry" part of the sign.) They have since wised up and put on their website the following: "Pro-G.O.P protesters at the Republican Convention in New York City last year Correction: The original caption incorrectly stated that these protesters were blasting Coulter" In the April 25,...

In reporting on a Chinese company marketing condoms under the brand names Clinton and Lewinsky, USA Today notes that Clinton "was accused of having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern." Accused? Clinton himself ultimately admitted he "did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong." Moreover, a Federal judge fined Clinton more than $90,000 for providing ""false, misleading and evasive answers" about his relationship with Lewinsky. No, Clinton was not just "accused" of intimacy with a White House intern. Simple justice requires an accurate account of what he...

Former presidents, Bush and Clinton gave a news conference today. Towards the end, as Bush and Clinton were walking off the stage, at about 10:20 am EST, I heard a female reporter shout a last question that went "how do you respond to rumors that the levees were intentionally opened ?"

As I sit watching DHS Secretary Chertoff hold a press conference, something has clarified itself that has been teasing the back of my mind for days now: The problem with the press corps, national and international, cub reporter to senior editor, is that the vast majority of them have never been responsible for something truly worthwhile in their lives. As a result, damn few of them can fathom the least complexity involved in the least element of this massive disaster relief effort that is going on, let alone fathom the vast complexity of the combined elements themselves. This is classic...

Here is the lede paragraph from a Washington Post Editorial today (3 September), entitled “Left Behind”: “THE LACK OF National Guard troops because of the war in Iraq; the Bush administration's failure to protect coastal wetlands; the reorganization of the Federal Emergency Management Agency: All have been blamed, somewhat arbitrarily, for the stunning scenes of chaos at the New Orleans Superdome and convention center, for the unprecedented floodwaters in the city, and for the huge numbers of people without food or water. But if blame is to be laid and lessons are to be drawn, one point stands out as...

Newspaper Apologizes to Bo Jackson for Reporting He Took Steroids The Associated Press Apr 10, 2005 ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) - A newspaper being sued by former pro football and baseball star Bo Jackson apologized to him Sunday and retracted part of a story saying he used steroids. "Jackson has stated publicly he has never used steroids," the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin said on its Web site. "We retract the quote and the further statement that the speaker personally witnessed this damage to his life. We apologize to Mr. Jackson, without reservation." In a story published March 24 under sports editor...

Covering a big story, live, is hard, and journalists will make mistakes. When Christiane Amanpour of CNN described John Paul II in the hours after his death as "the first non-Catholic to be elected pope in more than 455 years," she provided some much-needed levity to the day. Nobody will hold it against her. What is more problematic is the media's unconscious tendentiousness in describing the teachings of this pope and his Church. The Pope, nearly everyone said, was a complex man: He was progressive on economics, war, and the death penalty, yet took doctrinaire and divisive positions on moral...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants' statements, included a photo of what appeared to be an American soldier in desert fatigues seated with his hands tied behind his back. A gun barrel was pointed at his head, and he is seated in front of a black banner emblazoned with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is...

DUBAI (Reuters) - A little-known Iraqi insurgent group said on Tuesday it was holding a U.S. soldier and threatened to kill him within 72 hours if Iraqi prisoners were not released, according to an Internet statement. "Our mujahideen ... have managed to capture the American soldier John Adam after killing a number of his colleagues," said the Mujahideen Squadrons in the undated statement. It carried a picture appearing to show a U.S. soldier sitting in front of a black banner with a rifle pointed at his head. The authenticity of the claim, which did not say where the man was...

Betsy Newmark wrote us to point out that her daughter's blog had reported on an error committed on Friday by the Washington Post: an error that resulted in this anti-administration headline: "Change Means Fewer Students Will Be Eligible For Pell Grants". The article claimed that 80,000 to 90,000 low-income students would be knocked out of the Pell program on account of new regulations issued by the Department of Education. Yesterday, the Post issued a correction. Actually, the new regulations, which are based on updated government data, will expand the number eligible for grants, even though some will become ineligible at...

MOSUL (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday took a delighted dig at the media after troops he was visiting in Iraq complained their good works were ignored by the press while disasters grabbed the headlines. A soldier at his first stop in Mosul asked Rumsfeld how the "propaganda" worked? Rumsfeld, under attack since he appeared to brush aside a question about poor equipment from a U.S. soldier in Kuwait that later turned out to have been composed with help from a reporter, jumped at the opportunity to turn the tables. "That doesn't sound like a question placed...

An unfortunate byproduct of George W. Bush's political strategy is that his success has depended on moving the base of the Republican Party down into a demographic that should by all rights be Democratic. That's right, I'm talking about the moron vote. This was best illustrated by that recent incident in Fallujah in which a cameraman caught on tape the shooting of an Iraqi prisoner by a U.S. Marine. The Marine apparently presumed the Iraqi was pretending to be dead for the purpose of preparing a later ambush. Now the Marine has been removed from duty and may be court-martialed....

"America is a strange country. All of its best generals are journalists," quipped Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith in the middle of an interview Thursday. Touché, as fencers say. I never served in the military, haven't been to Iraq and don't know if the criticism that the Bush administration has not put enough troops in Iraq is accurate or not -- although I pay attention when veterans who return from Iraq say as much. So I'll pass on what Feith said to me and you can decide. Columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in the New York Times Thursday that more troops...

I was just watching Wolf Blitzed on CNN yakking away about CNN's wondrous, marvelous, stupendous, scintillating, extraordinary wall-to-wall election night coverage. They even have a screen for each state! Goody! Now if they only knew what they were talking about. Wolf pointed to the Florida screen and talked about polls closing there at 8 PM Eastern time. This is the BIG mistake they made in 2000 that cost Bush who knows how many votes in the western most part of the state. In the Florida panhandle, conservative GOP country, polls are open an hour later due to time zone difference....

Let's imagine it's August 2001. And let's pretend that the Clinton Justice Department never erected the procedural war that, to borrow the words Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick wrote in 1995, went "beyond what is legally required" in obstructing communications between the FBI's intelligence division and its criminal investigators. As a result, let's say the FBI connects its dots. When an intelligence agent realizes terrorists Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi (two of the eventual 9/11 hijackers) are in the country and asks the Bureau's criminal division for help in locating them, headquarters encourages a cooperative effort instead of turning him...

Reporters Aren’t Biased, Just Stupid!!! Let’s face it; most of the crop of reporters running around in the media today is Uneducated. The local beat reporters are 22-30 years old and don’t know much about history or about life. Here is my anecdotal evidence. Every time I see a reporter at an event I ask, “Where is Guadalcanal?” The most common answer, “I just moved here.” I ask “Who is Tojo?” The most common answer is a blank stare. Ok, so they don’t know World War 2 history. They don’t know Stalin, Chairman Mao or Pol Pot and they think...

A Study of Headlines Says Yes Economists have been puzzled this year by the persistence with which perceptions about the economy have lagged the economic data. For the most recent 12-month period for which we have data, for example, the economy grew almost exactly as fast as it did during the best 12-month period during President Clinton's two terms. But the economic mood of the country has been much different. It isn't just the economy that influences people's perceptions. In research we just released, we find that media coverage is also an important determinant. We found that newspaper headlines reporting...

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40699 Thursday, September 30, 2004 The media that couldn't shoot straight Posted: September 30, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Larry Elder © 2004 Laurence A. Elder Can Americans now purchase assault weapons? If you listen to some pols and mainstream media, you probably cannot answer that question. In 1994, Congress passed and President Clinton signed a 10-year ban on so-called "assault weapons." In reality, the bill outlawed certain semiautomatic weapons with cosmetic features that made them look, well, military. The law banned the manufacture and...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. Sept. 30, 2004 — After a deluge of campaign speeches and hostile television ads, President Bush and challenger John Kerry got their chance to face each other directly Thursday night before an audience of tens of millions of voters in a high-stakes debate about terrorism, the Iraq war and the bloody aftermath. The 90-minute encounter was particularly crucial for Kerry, trailing slightly in the polls and struggling for momentum less than five weeks before the election. The Democratic candidate faced the challenge of presenting himself as a credible commander in chief after a torrent of Republican criticism...

http://www.aol.com/ Click the link and go to the area where they let you "discover" who you need to vote for. Go through the Q&A section. Towards the end it has a tricky little question about how important it is to you that a candidate has served in the military. Kerry is "yes". Bush is "no". National Guard isn't service to our country?!

BELLEVUE, WA— For the second time in less than a week, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings has erroneously reported on an aspect of so-called “assault weapons,” claiming in an ABC Radio report broadcast Monday afternoon that the husband of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) was killed with an assault rifle. “That is not true, and even the slightest research effort by Jennings or a research assistant would have shown that Dennis McCarthy was killed with a 9mm pistol, purchased legally in California by a racist lunatic named Colin Ferguson,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). “With this...

In a report on the AWB at the top of the recent hour, the report stated that banned rifles would go on sale TOMORROW. In fact, the ban expired at midnight. This is verified by the Official ATF fact sheet, which states: "As of September 13, 2004, the provisions of Public Law 103-322, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, covering semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices are no longer in effect. The regulations implementing these provisions also are no longer in effect." http://www.atf.gov/firearms/saw-factsheet.htm

Cincinnati Post ^ [This is the previous thread I am referring to] Posted on 09/13/2004 7:44:09 AM PDT by HawaiianGecko "This tripe is in today's Cincinnati Post. " ~snip~ [This is part of the Post article] "What's new in the documents CBS has obtained is information that he had a direct order to show up -- and just plain did not. Other documents make it sound as if there were efforts from on high to have Bush's superiors do unearned favors for the young man. None of this reflects well on Bush, and those opposed to his re-election say the...

This tripe is in today's Cincinnati Post.  They don't even mention that the documents are in question. They just ramble on.  There should be something legal that somebody can do to shut this disinformation down.  This country is slowly being taken over by a lying media and a bunch of punk activist judges/lawyers."What's new in the documents CBS has obtained is information that he had a direct order to show up -- and just plain did not. Other documents make it sound as if there were efforts from on high to have Bush's superiors do unearned favors for the young...

'KEY CHALLENGES TO NATIONAL GUARD DOCUMENTS ANSWERED' Fri Sep 10 2004 19:03:11 ET The biggest challenges to the authenticity of the documents featured in the 60 MINUTES segment on President Bush's Texas National Guard service are answered in a report to be broadcast on the CBS EVENING NEWS tonight (6:30-7:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. The report states that the type style, typewriter and the superscript function critics claim did not exist at the time the memos from President Bush's former Texas National Guard commander were typed were indeed all available. In fact, similar raised "th" superscripts have...

<p>President Bush’s Vietnam-era military service returned to the forefront of the race for the White House on Thursday after a host of media outlets reported details about the president's suspension from flying in the Texas Air National Guard.</p>

Nothing shocking here, of course, but notable still, on this historic day in the blogosphere.

I suggest a letter to the editor is in order! editpage@seattlepi.com

Can anyone please explain to me how the headline of this article, obviously only what most ignorant Americans will read, reconciles with the last two lines (my red)?   Am I missing something or is this not absolutely amazing?  It's one thing to mislead in an article assuming readers won't question the source, but it's an absolute insult (or validation of) their readers' ignorance to have a headline that is directly contradicted two paragraphs later.   Stewart   Abu Ghraib Probe Points to Top BrassBy Josh White and Thomas E. RicksWashington Post Staff WritersFriday, August 20, 2004; Page A01 An...

Poland demands Ottawa censure CTV over 'insult' OTTAWA - Poland has asked the Canadian government to take action against broadcaster CTV for refusing to apologize to viewers for referring to a Nazi German concentration camp in Poland as a "Polish camp."

Fox news just ran a segment stating, "With congress going on recess, the assault weapons ban is set to expire. What can, if anything be done to renew this law, and will it have any effect?" The sad thing is, they showed an Iraqi weapons turn in point showing Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) with mortars in the background and a large 12.7mm(.50 cal) DsHK tripod mounted machine gun with several PK, RPKs, and other belt fed weapons.

I just called the KRON-TV news department in San Francisco because at the top of the hour, the news babe (Wendy Tokuda) said that Barack Obama (D-IL), almost guaranteed election by Jack Ryan dropping out, could be "the first African-American male elected to the Senate." In fact, the first black man to serve in the Senate did so in the 19th century, Hiram Revels of Mississippi. He served one year (1870). Blanche Bruce, a former slave, served in 1875, also in Mississippi. But the first black man ELECTED to the Senate was a REPUBLICAN from, of all places, Massachusetts! Edward...

7/25/04 NY Times Editoral quotes in promotion of their ideology that "40 million people in Iraq are between the ages of 18 and 30."

I sent this letter to WLS radio in Chicago in response to an afternoon broadcast. I was alarmed during your newscast this afternoon when you said that Mr. Berger’s absconding with and losing classified documents was a misdemeanor. Years ago I was a classified document custodian in the army and recall vividly my concern that I might lose or mishandle documents. My understanding was that this breach under Uniformed Code of Military Justice would lead to my breaking big rocks into little rocks at the Federal Military Prison for several years. I distinctly recall hearing warning stories during my basic...

I sent this to a Chicago radio journalist who reported that Sandy Berger might be subject to a "fine" for the "Misdemeanor" of losing accountability of classified documents. I did a rapid search and found the applicable paragraphs of USC Title 18. We may need this. I was alarmed during your newscast this afternoon when you said that Mr. Berger’s absconding with and losing classified documents was a misdemeanor. Years ago I was a classified document custodian in the army and recall vividly my concern that I might lose or mishandle documents. My understanding was that this breach under Uniformed...

Freudian slip The Chronicle has since corrected the problem in this story, but a google news search currently confirms an alert from a reader earlier: John Edwards a good and expedient choice Houston Chronicle, TX - 12 hours ago ... President Kerry overlooked Edwards' slim political experience because the son of a mill worker is an effective campaigner who excites the party faithful and ... We know that's your preference guys, but maybe you should at least wait until the election. ------- What liberal media? By Kevin Whited The Chronicle made OpinionJournal's Best of the Web today, although "worst" of...

.....Bush said Kerry would eliminate tax increases that have helped mend the economy.....

July 2, 2004 -- IRAQ veterans often say they're confused by U.S. news cover age, because their experience differs so greatly from what journalists report. Soldiers and Marines point to the slow, steady progress in almost all areas of Iraqi life and wonder why they don't get much notice — or in many cases, any notice at all. Part of the explanation is Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post. Chandrasekaran's crew generates a relentlessly negative stream of articles from Iraq. Last week, he had a Pulitzer-bait series called "Promises Unkept: The U.S. Occupation of Iraq." The...

A recent front-page story in the Wall Street Journal told of rising hunger and malnutrition amid chronic agricultural surpluses in India. India is now exporting wheat, and even donating some to Afghanistan, while malnutrition is a growing problem within India itself. This situation is both paradoxical and tragic, but what is also remarkable is that the long article about it omits the one key word that explains such a painful paradox: Price. There can be a surplus of any given thing at any given time. But a chronic surplus of the same thing, year after year, means that somebody is...

The quiet and orderly transfer of authority in Iraq from U.S. Administrator Paul Bremer to Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi reminded MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann of...the U.S. pulling out of Vietnam in panic with helicopters taking off packed with fleeing people. On his program Countdown, Olbermann suggested to Washington Post reporter Robin Wright that “the behind-the-doors kind of thing and the immediate exit of Ambassador Bremer today, might look a little like the helicopters taking off out of Vietnam in 1975.” Wright rejected the comparison. Olbermann proposed to Wright, as taken down by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: "If Secretary Rumsfeld could...

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 11:26 p.m. EDTBrokaw Raps Iraqi PM for Linking Saddam to 9/11 NBC "Nightly News" anchorman Tom Brokaw was so dismayed Tuesday night when Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi linked Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks that he actually reprimanded him during his interview. When Brokaw asked the new Iraqi leader if he could "understand why many Americans feel that so many young men and women have died here for purposes other than protecting the United States?" Dr. Allawi responded: "We know that this is an extension to what has happened in New York. And the...

When the commission studying the 9/11 terrorist attacks refuted the Bush administration's claims of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, we suggested that President Bush apologize for using these claims to help win Americans' support for the invasion of Iraq. We did not really expect that to happen. But we were surprised by the depth and ferocity of the administration's capacity for denial. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have not only brushed aside the panel's findings and questioned its expertise, but they are also trying to rewrite history. Mr. Bush said the 9/11 panel had...

June 19, 2004 Show Us the Proof hen the commission studying the 9/11 terrorist attacks refuted the Bush administration's claims of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, we suggested that President Bush apologize for using these claims to help win Americans' support for the invasion of Iraq. We did not really expect that to happen. But we were surprised by the depth and ferocity of the administration's capacity for denial. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have not only brushed aside the panel's findings and questioned its expertise, but they are also trying to rewrite history.Mr....

Yesterday the NY Slimes blared the headline: Panel Finds No Qaeda-Iraq Tie. Yet in 1998 the New York Slimes was reporting a different finding. The Clinton administration had just indcted bin laden and as part of the inditment's background had referenced bin Laden and al Qaeda's relationship and agreement to work together on weapon's development. The indictment was from the Clinton Justice department, under Janet Reno's authority and also State Department officials took part in the news conference announcing the indictment. Here is the Slimes article, Novemeber 8. 1998. The New York Times November 5, 1998, Thursday, Late Edition -...

On CNN's website, Bill Clinton is listed as a VP Contender with the ending sentence in his credentials as follows: CNN: While federal law prohibits a person from seeking a third presidential term, the Constitution does not specify whether or not a former commander in chief can become vice president. U.S. CONSTITUTION: But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.