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Notes About Competition All of us who care about journalism will be watching for any sign that news coverage at The Wall Street Journal is being slanted to curry political or economic favor.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement,...

This is my suggestion to Rush Limbaugh on critiqueing the arrogance of liberalism: Your 9/14/06 rant about liberal "arrogance" was of course dead on . . BUT. Why can they be SO VERY arrogant? How can they get away with it? The DriveBy Media is "their willing accomplices," of course..But WHY? Remember, Friedman pointed out a year or so ago that the media don't follow liberals but rather, LIBERALS FOLLOW THE MEDIA. Specifically, "objective" journalism - the DriveBy Media.. The DriveBy Media constitute an entity because although they are many organs - CBS, ABS, NBS, NYTimes BS, etc - it...

A reporter's take on the Anglican battles http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=RELIGION-FAITH-06-21-06 http://tinyurl.com/g47pt By TERRY MATTINGLY Scripps Howard News Service 21-JUN-06 Anyone who follows what Ruth Gledhill has to say at her "Articles of Faith" Web site knows that she has strong religious opinions. This is especially true when it comes to Anglican battles. Here is her take on the challenge facing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams after U.S. Episcopalians elected Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori as Anglicanism's first female archbishop and then refused to retreat on homosexual issues. Will the Anglican Communion shatter, with Third World conservatives pitted against modernists in Europe and America?...

THOMAS MITCHELL: Obliterating objectivity with a single verb Objectivity is abnormal. It goes against all natural human proclivities to observe, organize, conclude and choose sides. Yet journalists hold up the concept as holy writ. For a newspaper that is trying to reach as broad an audience as possible, objectivity is a worthy and laudable goal. Advertisement But I'll be the first to concede it is one we do not always achieve.

Is Abortion and Illegal Migrationm Linked? Accidents do not happen, because every physical event has a physical cause. The birth of a galaxy or a human being, does not happen without cause. Whatever the phenomenon, nothing happens without some "retrospective coherent" event. The actual cause may be obscure or unrecognizable, but the principle of cause and effect is always operative. Still, lacking total knowledge, we will attempt to remedy our problems even when the quality of our information is imprecise and superficial. Because we are constantly adding to our store of knowledge, the "retrospective coherent" events become less chaotic and...

Only a few weeks before the 1964 election, a powerful presidential assistant, Walter Jenkins, was arrested in a men's room in Washington. Evidently, the president was concerned that Barry Goldwater would use that against him in the election. Another assistant, Bill Moyers, was tasked to direct Hoover to do an investigation of Goldwater's staff to find similar evidence of homosexual activity. Mr. Moyers' memo to the FBI was in one of the files. When the press reported this, I received a call in my office from Mr. Moyers. He was outraged; he claimed that this was another example of the...

Ask believing Christians – probably from as young as 8 years of age – what their mission as Christians is, and it is overwhelmingly likely they will answer, "to bring people to Christ" or "spread the Gospel." Ask any non-Christian what the Christian mission is, and you will get the same answer. Just about everyone, Christian or non-Christian, knows the Christian mission. Now ask any Jew, religious or secular, "What is the Jewish mission?" and the most likely response will be: "What do you mean?" Most religious Jews rarely talk about a Jewish mission. Rather, they are preoccupied with survival:...

Passover, now upon us, apart from being an occasion for family reunions and indigestion is the right time for a more serious activity: I mean, reflecting on the claim that our religion is highly rational and even the claim that Judaism is “true.” Far from being ethnic chest thumping, this assertion of truth can be defended with a straight face. I realize I’m inviting controversy, not least among Jews. We live in a funny world, as I’m frequently reminded when speaking to audiences at bookstores and synagogues about my book, “Why the Jews Rejected Jesus.” The book addresses Christian proofs...

I get email from people who say they wish that journalists would engage in objective coverage of the war in Iraq. They are always indignant and often bitter, but they mean opposite things. Those against the war assert that the fascist press is slanted in favor. Those in favor assert that the leftist press is slanted against. All agree that reporters are reprehensible. I wonder whether either group has any idea what it is talking about. When people say that they want the press to be objective, they usually mean that they want reporters to cheerlead for their point of...

Do the media give aid and comfort to terrorists by giving their violence maximum exposure and impact at times while sanitizing the perpetrators and tainting their victims at others? It is standard procedure for many media outlets to describe the perpetrators of terrorist acts - the premeditated slaughter of civilians - with a range of euphemisms, "militants" being the most common. Thus, The New York Times can headline a report on the killing of a hostage as "Iraq Militants Said to Behead a Truck Driver From Bulgaria." Similarly, terrorists killed in a military strike can be described in another as...

Judaism is perhaps the most universally acknowledged religion. At least two other religions admit that G-d Himself once spoke to the Jewish Nation on Mt. Sinai and entered into a covenant with it, and one of those two religions actually includes the Book of that Covenant in its own scriptures. Even a Catholic book in my possession which purports to "prove" the truth of Catholicism by its founder (J*sus) vis a vis the various Protestant churches by theirs (Luther, etc.) lists the founder of Judaism as "G-d." Since the truth of Judaism is so widely acknowledged, what is it that...

The BBC appears to realize that it has serious problem with its left-wing bias. Regrettably, the Beeb is not publicly acknowledging the problem, and is keeping secret its internal response. Even more regrettably, the action it is taking to remediate the problem is likely to be completely ineffectual. As reported by the Sunday Times (UK) today, the BBC is secretly sending all their news journalists on courses to learn “impartiality”. "Those who have attended say that the aim is to encourage reporters and producers to think outside the “left-leaning liberal” mentality with which many associate the corporation and to make...

I have established a new thread concerning this article at the request of other Free Republic members wishing to continue its discussion. See the original post at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1063034/posts?page=1,50

In this essay I shall be implementing an orthografic innovation: at all instances in which the combination “ph” is part of a word and is pronounced as “f,” it shall be spelled as “f.” (For example, “phenomenon” shall become “fenomenon.”) Where the “p” and “h” sounds are actually pronounced, they shall be represented as such (For example, “uphold” shall remain spelled as formerly). This adjustment shall apply to all words other than proper names and components of titles of other men’s written works. Rationally speaking, this reform can dispel considerable confusion. For example, what, in the status quo, can prevent...

When I was in college, I was often doing what I wasn't supposed to. Do you know people who need to study for a test and can sit for four hours straight, methodically reviewing one fact after the next, never taking their mind off their notes? Their attention never wavers. My attention always wavered. Whenever I went to the library to get the book I needed, I was fascinated by the book next to it, or a few books over. Suddenly they seemed much more important than the book I was supposed to read. When I was supposed to be...

The headline across the front page of The New York Times on what was for Jews, their Day of Atonement, told its readers all they needed to know about the Arab-Israeli conflict. "Israel Attacks What It Calls a Terrorist Camp in Syria," the gray lady screamed on Monday, Oct. 6. By using the phrase "what it calls," the Times left no doubt about its opinion of the credibility of the claim, and the rights and wrongs of the conflict. The same article could have been headlined something that was actually neutral about the story, like "Israel Attacks Syrian Base" or...

Would it be too controversial to disagree with Rush Limbaugh on one small point? Last Thursday, Rush was talking about a conversation he had with Robert L. Bartley, editor emeritus of the Wall Street Journal. Bartley apparently repeated his view – which he recently expressed in a WSJ editorial, titled "The Press: Time for a New Era?" – that the recent journalistic scandals at the BBC and the New York Times have demonstrated that "objectivity is dead." That may be true, insofar as the BBC and the Times is concerned, but he went on to suggest in his column and...

Unfair, unbalanced, and afraid. Oxford, EnglandEVERY YEAR, every household in Britain with a color television set has to pay a licensing fee of approximately $187. The resulting $4.3 billion constitutes 90 percent of the annual $4.8 billion domestic broadcasting budget of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Inspectors from the TV Licensing Agency patrol neighborhoods using wireless detectors to attempt to pick up the "local oscillator" signal from a television in use. Anyone caught using a TV without a license is subject to a fine of up to $1,600. It doesn't matter if you watch TV once a month; it doesn't matter...

Within the rarified ranks of the nation's public editors -- you can count us on a full complement of toes and fingers, with a few extra digits for good measure -- a major player is about to arrive. After years of contending such a position was not necessary, The New York Times announced last week it is about to hire its first public editor. The search is on, the Times said, for the right person to perform the job on a one-year, "experimental" basis. Thank you, Jayson Blair, for the Times' epiphany on the road to renewed credibility. It couldn't...