Free Republic

Having read the Hutton report and most of what has been written about it, I have reached the following, strictly non-judicial, conclusions: first, that the episode illuminates a wider crisis in British journalism than the turmoil at the BBC; second, that too many journalists are in denial about this wider crisis; third, that journalists need to be at the forefront of trying to rectify it; and, fourth, that this will almost certainly not happen. The reporting of Lord Hutton's conclusions and of the reactions to them has been meticulous. The same cannot be said of large tracts of the commentary...

Gross vs. O'Reilly: Culture Clash on NPR By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin Ombudsman National Public Radio On October 9, Terry Gross, longtime host of NPR's Fresh Air aired her interview with populist political talk show host Bill O'Reilly. The e-mails and phone calls of outrage are still arriving. The interview was taped the day before on October 8. The ostensible reason was to talk about O'Reilly's latest book, Who's Looking Out For You? The book is about, among other things, the claim that America is in the midst of what O'Reilly calls a "cultural war between left and right." And he...

Lou Dobbs Tonight 9-22-2003: CNN becomes more fair and balanced?Instead of watching FOX tonight, I happened to tune into Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN. I wasn’t expecting to stay tuned very long, but found myself watching the entire news show, including CNN’s commercial sponsors, normally the commercial break an opportunity to hop stations for a variety of views, but I stayed on the CNN channel to keep in step with the Dobbs presentation and program. I was surprised. As a conservative, though the program is not my political slant, I have to say that Lou Dobb’s program is indicative of...

Hardly a night goes by when the CBC doesn't run a sneering story about Iraq under U.S. control -- with a heavy emphasis on the shootings and the power blackouts. These reports are broadcast without irony by the CBC from Toronto, a city itself known for its shootings and power blackouts. So let us take a break from the "experts" in the media and hear from ordinary Iraqis . . .

Researchers help define what makes a political conservative By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 22 July 2003 BERKELEY – Politically conservative agendas may range from supporting the Vietnam War to upholding traditional moral and religious values to opposing welfare. But are there consistent underlying motivations? Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include: * Fear and aggression * Dogmatism and intolerance of...

LONDON, July 20 - The BBC said today that Dr. David Kelly, the British weapons expert who committed suicide last week, was the source for a report on doctoring intelligence files that led to a battle between the broadcaster and the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair. The announcement by the BBC's director of news, Richard Sambrook, cast doubt on the network's credibility, because Dr. Kelly had told a parliamentary committee two days before his death that he had not provided the report's central contention - that the government had "sexed up" a government intelligence dossier by incorporating a claim...

NATIONAL BIASED RADIO Two moments stand out for me from a lifetime of listening to taxpayer-funded National Public Radio. The first was a commentary by Daniel Schorr one day before the 1990 elections in Nicaragua. Schorr was certain that the Sandinistas were on the cusp of a historic victory that would crush, once and for all, the arguments of the Reagan and Bush administrations about that tyrannical communist regime. In the event, of course, Violetta Chamorro won a resounding victory. The other NPR moment also stands out. I was driving home from the White House (where I worked for the...

~ The Left Declares Holy Jihad On The Bush Administration ~ By William A. Mayer - Editor & Publisher May 20, 2002 Last week Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton, the New York Times, CBS News and the Washington Post joined forces with al Qaeda, declaring war on the Bush administration and on America by extension. They did so with a concocted, logically twisted argument that the administration had a sufficiently clear warning about September 11 and that they chose to ignore it, leaving the United States wide open to the horror of that day. The New York Daily news which is...