Underreported Stories of 2009

Most news outlets end the year with extensive reviews of their top headlines and scoops. But the stories they didn't cover deserve much greater attention. Journalistic sins of omission are often far more damning and more telling than sins of commission.

Let's start with President Obama's ongoing radical czar problem. Until Bay Area Marxist agitator-turned-green-jobs-czar Van Jones resigned in September, most Americans hadn't heard of him. Mainstream newspaper readers and network news viewers were left in the dark about his cop-killer-supporting activism, his endorsement of nutball Sept. 11 conspiracies and his advocacy of using capitalism-sabotaging environmental policies as "the engine for transforming the whole society."

Fox News, talk radio and conservative blogs pounded Jones' embarrassing public record for months until the White House and its press corps enablers were forced to acknowledge the firestorm. Only after Obama threw Jones under the bus did New York Times editor Jill Abramson confess that the Fishwrap of Record suffered from "insufficient in-tuned-ness." She promised better coverage of Obama scandals.

Obama has appointed unaccountable czars by the mile whose statements and policies have yet to hit national media front pages. The "safe schools czar," Kevin Jennings, is a far-left activist whose organization, GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) is infamous among parents' groups for promoting explicit, outrageously age-inappropriate sexual lessons in the classroom. GLSEN's recommended reading for teens includes pamphlets promoting leather bars and public sex in parks and lurid books describing incest, rape, adult-child fantasies and essay collections in which one author recounted playing "sex therapist" at the age of 6 with a 5-year-old friend, and exploring "our sexuality to its fullest."

GLSEN's corporate sponsors include Eastman Kodak, Ernst & Young, PepsiCo and Time Warner. Eastman Kodak defended its sponsorship as an expression of its commitment to "diversity." Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also said he stood by Jennings earlier this year, before this material was exposed in-depth on Fox News, talk radio and conservative blogs. Where are the vaunted watchdogs of the Fourth Estate to follow up now?

Liberal journalists were also AWOL on the Obama White House's U.S. attorney nomination debacle in Denver. What, you hadn't heard of it? You're not alone. Nominee Stephanie Villafuerte withdrew earlier this month after Colorado Republicans, immigration enforcement activists, Denver Post investigative reporter Karen Crummy and Denver talk show host Peter Boyles raised bright red flags about the culture of corruption in her office.

Villafuerte is entangled in the railroading of Denver Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis -- whom federal prosecutors tried to punish after he blew the whistle on sweetheart deals for criminal illegal aliens during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. A jury acquitted Voorhis of all federal charges. He's trying to get his job back. At least one of his supervisors has admitted lying.

Villafuerte served on then-Democrat gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter's campaign team while on leave from the Denver District Attorney's office, and from all Denver Post news accounts was deeply involved in the witch hunt against Voorhis.

Villafuerte and the Justice Department evaded critics as long as they could, but when U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for answers on Villafuerte's meddling, the stonewall crumbled. There's still a raft of unanswered questions about the cover-up and the feds' dangerously lax policies toward criminal illegal aliens.

Speaking of the corrupted DOJ, where's the heat on crime-coddling Attorney General Eric Holder for his continued obstructionism in the New Black Panther Party Election Day voter intimidation case? In a highly unprecedented move, Holder and his political appointees dropped default judgments against the NBPP's billy-club-wielding thugs who threatened white poll workers and voters in Philadelphia last November.

The nonpartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has demanded answers and issued subpoenas to find out why the cases were abandoned after the George W. Bush administration had won them. The DOJ has ordered its employees not to comply or cooperate. And over the holidays, the DOJ veteran voting rights section chief who originally handled the case was unceremoniously evicted from the Washington, D.C., office and moved to South Carolina.

One of the NBPP bullies was a local Democratic official. Another of the defendants, NBPP head Malik Shabazz, has decried the probe as a racist "political witch hunt" against Holder.

Grievance hustlers are counting on liberal journalists to give them cover. A nation of cowards, indeed.

Biggest Misreported/Unreported Stories of 2009

6. Van Jones Resignation

Appointed the Green Jobs Czar by Obama, Van Jones came under attack (mostly by Glen Beck) for being an advocate for Marxism and signing a petition that suggested the US government was involved in the 9-11 terrorist’s attacks. After several weeks and numerous controversial tapes, Van Jones resigned at midnight on a Saturday. The mainstream media barely touched the story, which was only a blip on some of the Sunday news shows after his resignation.

5. ACORN Tapes

James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, investigative journalists, posed as a pimp and a prostitute to see how ACORN will react. Even when explaining the prostitution will involve underage girls, ACORN staffers across the country don’t raise an eyebrow. Instead ACORN workers offered advice on what they can and can not say in order to obtain loans and skirt tax laws. Even as Congress was outraged and removed all funding for ACORN, it was not even on the mainstream media radar. The day after the vote in Congress, Charlie Gibson when asked about the tapes stated he hadn't heard about them. The mainstream media only starts to report on the story months later when ACORN is 'cleared' of engaging in illegal activity by a Congressional report headed by the ultra-liberal Congressman John Conyers.

4. Walpin Firing

After uncovering misuse of funds by former NBA star and Obama friend Kevin Johnson, AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin was fired by the White House before his final report could be made. The inspector general is a position that is supposed to be immune from political influence. A 2008 law that was co-sponsored by then Senator Obama prohibits such firing of an IG without giving a 30 day notice to Congress, but Walpin was fired on the spot. Obama’s explanation for violating his own law is that Walpin was ‘confused’ and ‘disorientated’ and questioned ‘his capacity to serve’. However the law is clear that such loss of confidence is insufficient justification for such firing, and in interviews Walpin clearly demonstrated the charges were baseless.

3. Climategate

Leaked emails from Climatic Research Unit revealed an apparent conspiracy to keep skeptics from getting published, keeping data and computer code secret, and manipulating the data to suit the global warming agenda. These embarrassing emails were released just weeks prior to the huge summit in Copenhagen in which a major international agreement on carbon caps was supposed to occur. Despite climate change being a major news topic, mainstream media in the US ignored the climategate story. Copenhagen ended up being a huge disappointment with only some non-binding caps on carbon emissions.

2. Obama’s Broken Promises Health Care.

Usually when a president breaks campaign promises, it is front-page newsworthy such as the read my lips promise made by G.H.W. Bush. But Obama has broken numerous campaign promises concerning health care and it is goes unreported by the lapdog media. Obama made campaign promises to call for open debates televised on C-Span, ending the influence of Big Pharma, having everyone at the table, rejecting the need for mandates, not raising taxes on anyone earning less than $250K (‘not one dime’), wanting a public option, and allowing the reimportation of prescription drugs.

Instead we have a bill which was debated behind closed doors with no republicans input. We have special interests like Big Pharma protected from cuts. We have individual mandates complete with fines and penalties. We have numerous fees and taxes everywhere, including silly things like a tanning tax affecting those at all income levels. The Senate bill contains no public option. Reimportation of drugs is not allowed. And millions of Americans will still not be covered. And somehow Obama can look straight in the camera and proclaim he got 95% of what he wanted in health care reform. This must be the same math he used in figuring he earned a B+ in his first year.

1. Tea-party Protests

First there was the town hall meeting where congressmen across the country received a much bigger earful than expected as the masses became upset over the runaway expansion of federal deficits and increasing reach of the federal government. Several congressmen even tried to bus in supporters in an unsuccessful attempt to shut down the voice of the people. Soon town hall meeting became a thing of the past and Congressmen bunkered up and became largely inaccessible to the general public. Ordinary citizens took the streets and the Tea Party movement was born. Millions of people across the country protested as the media did their best to belittle the movement by under estimating crowd sizes and highlighting only the most extreme aspect of the movement. The media even stooped to using derogatory language calling them tea-baggers and suggesting the movement was largely motivated by racism.

Holdover from last year....Obama's Birth Cerificate. The media still is covering for Obama here. The media still acts ignorant of the difference between a Certification and the actual Certificate. Did grandma record a birth certificate in Hawaii to cover for a foreign birth? We may never know until Obama is out of office.

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