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In a report on Monday’s "The Situation Room" purporting to clarify how Barack Obama "really voted on abortion" (as the graphic on-screen at right stated), CNN correspondent Carol Costello misconstrued the Democrat’s stance on legislation during his time in the Illinois state senate that would have protected infants that survived abortions.Besides the two votes specifically mentioned by Costello in the report, Obama also voted against it at the committee level, and when he was committee chair, denied a simple up or down vote on the legislation. The CNN correspondent also misrepresented the apparent pro-life stance of pro-abortion senators like...

The nine august justices of the United States Supreme Court — or at least the five conservative Republicans — chose the wrong time to make a sea change in constitutional law, admitting the Second Amendment to our pantheon of civil liberties. By demonstrating how willing they are to toss aside decades of jurisprudence in pursuit of a conservative agenda, they sent a chill into the souls of women all across the nation and resurrected fears that Roe v. Wade is next on the chopping block.

When Barack Obama asks us to believe in one of his changes, it is never quite clear whether the rubes to be fooled are the Great Unwashed who agree with the Flop or the naifs who agreed with the Flip. The eternal question always is, "who are the rubes"? Well, in what is obviously a gust-busting turn, the editors of the New York Times are beginning to worry that they are the rubes. In this morning's lead editorial ("New and Not Improved"), they detail and denounce many of Obama's post-Hillary pivots to the center. As their irritation builds, I'm thinking...

A detailed account of the character assassination leveled by the Associated Press against an Ohio teacher.

One of the hardest things for reporters to do is to distance themselves when they become part of a story. That's precisely the problem with journalists covering the U.S. economy.We're a long way from it being what NBC claims is "a bust." We're not in another "Depression" either, despite dozens of network stories to that effect. But many journalists think things are that bad because their own industry is in chaos. Ad sales have plummeted and online sales aren't making up for it. Media outlets are closing or laying off staff. There are at least 4,000 fewer jobs for reporters...

'It's been described as the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. And it brings with it grave dangers for all American families," said Martin Bashir on "Nightline." "Recession looms ..." On the "Today" show June 20, David Faber referred to "the recession ... these tough economic times." Yet that very day first-quarter gross domestic product was revised upward again to 1%. America is not in recession, and who knows — maybe we'll be less likely to have one if my compatriots would just chill. A recession is defined as two quarters of negative economic growth. We haven't even...

...Los Angeles Times writer Peter Nicholas claimed that Clark "didn't pay proper homage to McCain's greatest sacrifice: five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam". In the New York Times, Jeff Zeleny uncritically repeated comments by McCain supporters that the comments by Clark "impugned McCain's patriotism"... ... the response of the American print media was a veritable debutante cotillion compared with the dark alley mugging Clark would face on America's cable television news networks. Led by Fox News, but with CNN and MSNBC nipping enthusiastically at its baying heels, Clark was said to have been guilty of...

Jeff Randall argues that a combination of corporate imperialism and institutional self-regard stops the broadcaster seeing where its future lies Few British institutions are capable of generating more storm and stress than the BBC. Find someone who has no view at all on the corporation and I'll show you a caveman. Auntie's salad days are long gone, yet she remains an aphrodisiac of debate. From alleged bias and method of funding, to presenters' pay-packets and quality of output, the BBC is a reliable energiser of lacklustre dinner-parties. The blogosphere is clogged with comment about it, much of it from extremes....

In some ways, the Supreme Court term that just ended seems muddled: disturbing, highly conservative rulings on subjects like voting rights and gun control, along with important defenses of basic liberties in other areas, including the rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The key to understanding the term lies in the fragility of the court’s center. Some of the most important decisions came on 5-to-4 votes — a stark reminder that the court is just one justice away from solidifying a far-right majority that would do great damage to the Constitution and the rights of ordinary Americans. The Supreme...

The unnecessary refrigeration of America has become a chronic disease. It seems to have gotten worse over the past few years, with thermostats routinely set at 68deg.F, and sometimes even 65 deg., in the (far too many) hotel rooms I've suffered on the campaign trail. "Americans seem to keep their houses cooler in summer than they do in the winter," muses Edward Parson, an environmental expert at the University of Michigan Law School. But it's hard to know for sure, since there are no comprehensive studies that measure air-conditioning trend lines...

First, here is a link to my post yesterday about this article: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039487/posts To Whom It May Concern: When I first heard that Findlay, OH been chosen for an article by such a prestigious paper like the Washington Post, I was glad for our community to get the exposure. Then I read with disgust the article by Eli Saslow in our local paper. It is obvious to me that Mr. Saslow came to our city with an agenda - one to show how only unenlightened, racists believing wild and untrue stories about the candidate could possibly be against Obama. He...

Media: Four years ago this week, we noted how negative coverage of the Iraq War had become. But that was when things weren't going well. This is now, when things are going much better. So coverage must be much more positive, right? (with asterisks indicating page-toppers): • June 11: "Going to War Not Worth It, More Voters Say"* "NATO Not Expected to Send Force to Iraq" • June 13: "Retired Officials Say Bush Must Go"* "Insurgents and Islam Now Rulers of Fallujah" • June 14: "At Least 20 Killed in Baghdad (Car) Bombings" • June 15: "Iraq's Foreign Contractors in...

As pointed out by this representative of the Florida Attorney General's office, it is impossible to separate national security issues from illegal immigration, and one of the most important illegal immigration issues in Florida is the issue of human trafficking. And as Jake at Freedom Folks notes (thanks for the tip), this story doesn't appear to have been covered by the news wires. Here, a horrifying story is described of a little girl who, after being taken to the Florida panhandle from Mexico, resisted while being raped, and was subsequently made an example of by being beheaded in front of...

The guest list for the funeral mass for “Meet the Press” anchor Tim Russert was an “A list” of politicians and media mentionables. Real reporters mixed with the television personalities and the network executives who control their lives. It was a black day for journalism in NBC: Russert’s death released one of the last brakes slowing NBC’s descent into political activism and journalistic irrelevance. NBC was once the proud home of real journalists. People such as Chet Huntley and David Brinkley brought its standards to -- and above -- the level prevalent in most news organizations. But now, it’s an...

For the second week in a row, CNN's Howard Kurtz, while hosting Sunday's "Reliable Sources," seemed absolutely befuddled by the media's lack of interest in reporting presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign flip-flops. Last week, it was the junior senator's change of heart concerning public campaign finances. This Sunday, it was Obama's curious reversal on handguns. After two weeks, Kurtz finally got his answer: the press think flip-flopping makes Obama a great politician. I kid you not: HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Let me move on to the Supreme Court decision this week knocking down as unconstitutional the D.C. handgun ban....

SOURCES: BUSH ANGER AT COMING NEW YORK TIMES STORY DETAILING HUNT FOR BIN LADEN... The newspaper is planning to expose a 'highly classified Pentagon order' authorizing Special Operations forces to hunt al-Qaida leader in mountains of Pakistan... DEVELOPING....

A bunch of anti-Obama blogs were apparently shut down on Google’s Blogspot as suspected spam. They say that Obama fans reported them as spam to get rid of them. I have no idea what the truth is. The fear online has been that false information could be spread. It’s another fear that speech can be silenced. (I suppose I should make clear that I don’t think any official Obama campaign effort is remotely behind this if it’s true. The point, instead, is that rogues can cause trouble. This would seem to be a variation on Swiftboating but rather than try...

When you're poor, it can be hard to pay the bills. When you're rich, it's hard to keep track of all the bills that need paying. It's a lesson Cindy McCain learned the hard way when NEWSWEEK raised questions about an overdue property-tax bill on a La Jolla, Calif., property owned by a trust that she oversees. Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona. Shortly after NEWSWEEK inquired about the matter, the McCain aide e-mailed a receipt dated...

Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe. Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked,...

Diagnoses of H.I.V. and AIDS in men who have sex with men rose significantly between 2001 and 2006 while declining in other demographic groups, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday. The increase in diagnoses was especially high among males between the ages of 13 and 24, with an annual increase of 12.4 percent, compared to 1.5 percent for men overall. The annual increase was still higher among young African-American men who have sex with men, nearly 15 percent. Among African-American men of all ages who have sex with men, the annual increase in diagnoses was 1.9 percent. Experts...

On Oct. 6 at its National Convention in Seattle, the Society of Professional Journalists passed a resolution urging members and fellow journalists to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism...

Everyone remembers the death of Muhammad Al-Dura. France 2 accused the IDF; the Israeli media went along. One Frenchman dared to doubt and began a kulturkampf; the Israeli media was silent. It has now become clear that he was right. Israel is still silent. The Muhammad Al-Dura affair refuses to die. In Israel, it is mainly the first part that is recognized. In France, in recent weeks, there are those who are already calling it a new Dreyfus Affair.

A well-known Republican research firm argues that the voter pool tapped for the new L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll was too skewed toward Democrats -- a challenge that causes the GOP strategists to question the double-digit lead the survey gave Barack Obama over John McCain. The case against the poll, laid out in a memo sent out today by Public Opinion Strategies, in turn sparked a response from survey director Susan Pinkus, who stood by its methodology and findings. (snip) Pinkus, like most nonpartisan pollsters, rejects that notion. Discussing the current survey, she says, "The poll was weighted slightly, where necessary, to...

Media Try to Cool Down Oil Drilling Fever: Journalists ignore public support for offshore oil drilling and mislead with criticisms of dormant oil fields. By Julia A. Seymour Business & Media Institute 6/25/2008 3:21:01 PM Recent polls from Reuters/Zogby, Gallup and Rasmussen revealed that a majority of Americans support increased domestic oil drilling and refining, yet many in the news media have continued to find fault with that approach. Instead of reporting the issue in a neutral manner, the media have promoted the views of environmentalists, complained that it would take “years” until more oil is available, and misled the...

Commentary School Fact Fudging by: Cliff Kincaid, June 24, 2008 What happens when the “fact-checkers” don’t check facts and the “watchdogs” don’t watch? Consider the case of those who claim to be watching politicians for lies and deceptions and pretend to analyze Senator Barack Obama’s new patriotic “Country I Love” television ad, airing in 18 states. The Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz have written analyses of the Obama ad. But they are as flawed as the ad itself. The Obama TV...

Mistake That is Fake by: Cliff Kincaid, June 24, 2008 If Barack Obama wanted to dispel doubts about his national security credentials, he hasn’t done so with the announcement of a new “Senior Working Group on National Security” that includes Dr. Tony Lake, a former national security adviser to Bill Clinton. Lake became a laughingstock for expressing doubts as to whether Alger Hiss, the founder of the United Nations and a top State Department official, was a communist spy. Lake’s doubts led to a controversy that caused him to withdraw his nomination as Clinton’s CIA director. Interestingly, Lake had expressed...

There is a reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention. It isn't that Americans are "bored" or "tired" or have "moved on" or "don't care" or "have already made up their minds that the war was a colossal mistake." All of these are variations on themes articulated by certain liberals, Bush-haters, Barack Obama supporters (but I repeat myself) inside and outside the big media. The main reason progress in Iraq is not receiving more attention is that the progress is considerable and the big media are not paying attention because they don't like the new story line. They...

Members of the media, by a 4-to-1 ratio, self-identify as political liberals. This does not fully explain why Sen. Barack Obama received prefer ential treatment in his campaign against Hillary Clinton. However, it could explain why they are ignoring his flaws and untruths. The term “mainstream media” is really a misnomer. It is unfair to call the news media “mainstream” when you com pare them to America. Only 6 percent of journalists identify themselves as conservative compared to over one-third (36 percent) of the public classify ing themselves as such. Only 19 percent of the public consider themselves liberal according...

Whatever Became of Scott McClellan? by: Rachel Paulk, June 23, 2008 Scott McClellan’s book What Happened spans a range of events that occurred during the Bush years, including the 9/11 and Katrina catastrophes, the Plame scandal, and the controversial Iraq War. McClellan also provides scathing profiles of the star-studded White House, criticizing Karl Rove, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush, among others. McClellan joined the Bush team when George W. was governor of Texas and planning on running for presidential office. Following Bush’s ascent to presidency, McClellan worked under Ari Fleischer as the principal deputy press secretary; after...

Someone please tell CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan that her reaction is precisely the reaction her peers are shooting for: "If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts," Ms. Logan said. Logan admits here a common complaint about the kind of news reported out of Iraq for the duration of the war, which is a macabre focus on blood-soaked sensationalism to the near exclusion of any other sort of story. The newsworks (to perhaps coin a phrase) have...

LifeNews.com Note: William Beckman is the executive director of the Illinois Right to Life Committee. Opinion articles like this one do not necessarily reflect the views of LifeNews.com. The June 19, 2008 headline reads “US doctors kill skin cancer with cloned T-cells.” Does this suggest that human cloning of embryonic stem cells has been successful in treating skin cancer? Absolutely not! The details of the New England Journal of Medicine report that generated this news coverage reveal that adult stem cells obtained from the patient were used. As reported in ScienceDaily, researchers “removed CD4+ T cells, a type of white...

In an astonishing stroke of irony, the New York Times has outed the name of the CIA operative who interrogated 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, over the objections of CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and a lawyer representing the operative. Agency officials and legal counsel told the Times that publishing the agent's name would "invade his privacy and put him at risk of retaliation from terrorists or harassment from critics of the agency." In an Editor's Note linked from the story on KSM's interrogation, the Times defended its decision by stating that "other government employees" had been "named publicly in...

As bloggers on the Left celebrated the arrest of Larry Sinclair, the man who alleges he used drugs and had sex with then-State Sen. Barack Obama in the back of a limousine in Chicago in November, 1999, I couldn't help but think back to the 1988 presidential election when it was Indiana Senator Dan Quayle who was put on the hot seat by a convicted terrorist bomber and perjurer over Quayle's alleged drug use with the man. Sinclair had just concluded a press conference at the National Press Club this past Wednesday, which was packed with reporters and where he...

Has Press Stopped Drinking Obama's Kool Aid? Over the course of this too long campaign the press as been so very enamored with Senator Barack Obama that you would think that they were taking some mind control drugs. It looks as if the Senator's broken promise about federal matching funds has the press moving a little "baby step" back toward sanity. The liberal press is very upset with their Messiah: Obama alienates the editors By: Kenneth P. Vogel For most voters, Barack Obama’s shift away from public financing is not as big a deal as the mounting death toll in...

This could be perhaps the most bizarre application of James Carville's worn out expression, "It's the economy stupid." "CBS Evening News" linked the economy to the famed pregnancy pact that has received national attention. The June 19 broadcast of "Evening News" faulted the ailing economy for 17 Massachusetts high school students agreeing to get pregnant intentionally around the same time so they could raise children together.

Obama alienates the editors By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 6/21/08 7:07 AM EST For most voters, Barack Obama’s shift away from public financing is not as big a deal as the mounting death toll in Iraq, surging gas prices—or even what they’re going to make for dinner tonight. But Obama’s Thursday announcement that he would become the first candidate to opt out of the public financing program for the general election was a big deal for some of the nation’s most influential newspaper editorial boards that have long been ardent champions of campaign finance reform, and who’d thought they’d found...

But in 2005, Noonan broke with President George W. Bush's administration over the Iraq war, among other things, and it gave her an air of cross-partisan credibility going into the current presidential season. Then, as Clinton stumbled in the Democratic primaries, Noonan found herself being embraced by an unlikely coalition of Obama supporters and disaffected Republicans to whom she was no longer a boilerplate conservative, but an iconoclast who'd turned on President Bush and been vindicated by anti-Clinton sentiment that was growing among Democrats. What's more, being a woman gave Noonan a freedom to write critically about Clinton with little...

Barack Obama's decision yesterday to become the first presidential candidate of the modern era to opt out of public financing flies in the face of that tradition. It also happens to contradict his own past assurances. And it poses a real test for the media.... Are the media going to call Obama on the reversal?

THERE IS A SURE-FIRE WAY to make the news these days: Just issue a press release beginning with the words, "New scientific study shows," and have it assert a conclusion that the MSM fervently want to believe--especially if the resulting story would serve to debunk or refute a Bush administration policy. Slam-dunk! Your press release will become news! You are skeptical, you say? But what other explanation is there for the decision by CBS and MSNBC to post on their websites a ridiculous story about a new scientific "finding" that global warming is causing an increase in the world's earthquakes--an...

An unbylined Associated Press report yesterday, at least as carried at MSNBC, acknowledges improvement, and then explains why it's not going to get much future coverage from the wire service as long as things stay that way: BAGHDAD - Signs are emerging that Iraq has reached a turning point. Violence is down, armed extremists are in disarray, government confidence is rising and sectarian communities are gearing up for a battle at the polls rather than slaughter in the streets. Those positive signs are attracting little attention in the United States, where the war-weary public is focused on the American presidential...

"All the news that's fit to print." Remember that slogan? It used to...most likely still does...grace the masthead of the New York Times. Little did fools like me suspect that the word "all" wasn't to be the universe, modified only by "fitness" [as in decency, respect for victims, etc.] ...no...no....NO! It turns out the word "Fit" is the universe...as in propaganda...political correctness...yes, even cultural suicide, the word "all" simply describes what's "fit"...not "news". Take one of the more recent examples. In "Paper Cuts", the Times' book blog, Alan Dershowitz'new "novel" [you'll pardon me if I've already forgotten its title] is...

"I was struck when I got to Iowa and New Hampshire in January," said Joan Walsh, editor-in-chief of the liberal Web site Salon.com, "by how our media colleagues were just swooning over Barack Obama. That is not too strong a word. They were swooning. The downside, though, is that they hate -- hate Hillary Clinton, most of them. Hate is not too strong a word." What, media bias in favor of Obama, a leftist Democrat? Yet the same left-leaning media "hates" Hillary Clinton? Really? How about a little evidence? From January 2007 through May 2007, Harvard, along with the Project...

The day after Al Gore endorsed Barack Obama in Detroit, MSNBC kept repeating the allegedly big news with the on-air question "Will Gore Help or Hurt Obama?" Left out of that question: Who cares? Does Gore's endorsement matter at all? Pundits usually declare in today's media-saturated world that endorsements from major politicians or movie stars just don't have much impact. A Who's Who of the Beautiful People in Hollywood endorsed and actively campaigned for John Kerry -- and had no impact. With Al Gore it's the same thing. He doesn't bring a single vote Obama doesn't already have. He could...

Simple mistake, or wish fulfillment? Appearing on MSNBC this afternoon, a Washington Post reporter claimed the paper's latest poll results showed Barack Obama with a "big lead" over John McCain on the issue of handling Iraq. The only problem: the poll actually shows McCain with a small lead. David Shuster interviewed Ed O'Keefe of WashingtonPost.com at 3:03 PM EDT. DAVID SHUSTER: Ed, when asked who do you trust on the economy Barack Obama is ahead by 16 points. On women's issues he's ahead by 32 points. So where's John McCain making up the difference. ED O'KEEFE: Terrorism. He's ahead of...

I noticed this photo accompanying an unrelated and relatively straightforward AP story at MSNBC.com about Barack Obama's electoral strategy. As you can see, it falls into the Obama-as-messiah mold, albeit a little more subliminal and requiring more biblical literacy than previous still shots:

Even financial journalists have found a way to promote a liberal social agenda, as CNBC’s "Squawk on the Street" showed in a June 16 segment praising the California Supreme Court for legalizing same-sex marriage. "This time around, one study expects over 100,000 gay couples will tie the knot, providing a boost to California’s ailing economy hit hard by the real estate foreclosure meltdown," CNBC Silicon Valley Bureau Chief Jim Goldman said. Goldman cited data from the pro-gay Williams Institute, a division of the University of California Los Angeles School of Law. According to its Web site, the Williams Institute "advances...

Inland auto dealer and Republican activist Mark Leggio and three employees were named today in a 37 count grand-jury indictment alleging political money laundering. The indictment was unsealed during a brief hearing this morning in Superior Court in downtown San Bernardino. Leggio is the owner of Mark Christopher Auto Center in Ontario. Leggio and the three other defendants are scheduled to be arraigned July 11. They were each released on their own recognizance. Leggio is charged with money laundering by reimbursing the employees for contributions they made to Republican candidates, said Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons. The indictment alleges...

there was another chapter in Mr. Russert’s career that is less known, and that offers another insight into his personality. And it is one which he arguably thrived at nearly as much as he did sitting behind his desk at NBC News: as a political strategist and operative in one of the most brutal political environments in the country. Mr. Russert worked in the early 1980s as a counselor to Mario M. Cuomo, the Queens Democrat who had just been elected governor of New York; I was covering the new administration for The Daily News. Albany was a political roughhouse,...

Miami Herald columnist, Andres Oppenheimer, is like a high school football player who just scored a touchdown. You can spot him in the end zone triumphantly spiking the football and performing his over the top victory dance. However there is something a bit too overenthusiastic about Oppenheimer's self-celebration as if he knows there is a huge caveat to his "victory." You can read his not quite convincing "celebration" in his Miami Herald column, "About time! Reckless TV anchors put on spot:" Bravo! A new study has found widespread fear-mongering and reckless journalism by cable television hosts such as CNN's Lou Dobbs and...

HAMPTON, Va. (AP) - If not for "Meet The Press" and its host, Tim Russert, Jim Webb figures he may not be a United States senator. And a debate moderated by the NBC newsman who died Friday was a turning point in Democrat Timothy M. Kaine's campaign for governor. Both candidates fondly recalled Russert on Saturday at the Virginia Democratic Convention and acknowledged his role in pivotal moments in their 2005 and 2006 campaigns. Webb said his September 2006 appearance alongside Republican Sen. George Allen on "Meet The Press" was the turning point in his narrow, come-from-behind victory over Allen...