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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1747605/posts Communication Professor Examines Media Bias in President's Speeches Virginia Tech News ^ | 11/30/06 | Jean Elliott Posted on 12/02/2006 5:28:58 PM CST by LS BLACKSBURG, VA., November 30, 2006 -- Jim A. Kuypers, assistant professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, reveals a disturbing world of media bias in his new book Bush's War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2006). Convincingly and without resorting to partisan politics, Kuypers strongly illustrates in eight chapters “how the press failed America in its...

(2006-09-08) — Top Senate Democrats, outraged over inaccuracies in the upcoming ABC mini-series The Path to 9/11, today said that in addition to yanking the network’s broadcast license, if the show airs Democrats might also withhold from ABC News the daily distribution of Democrat talking points. A spokesman for Disney-owned ABC News said that while the network could weather the revocation of its broadcast license, thanks to the proliferation of cable and satellite TV, the loss of the Democrat talking points would force the news division to hire dozens of new reporters to fill the void in its newscasts. Meanwhile,...

SEATTLE - An Army officer who refused to serve in Iraq because he believes the war is illegal was steadfast in his resolve ahead of a military court hearing, saying the decision was "my obligation to this country." "I made this decision a long time ago," Watada said during a telephone interview. "It is my obligation to this country. I‘m not happy about it and I didn‘t want to do it, but I had to." His lawyer, Eric Seitz, said he has lined up two witnesses to support the soldier‘s claim that the war violated domestic and international law: University...

There they go again. Hoping for a reprise of the 2002 and 2004 elections, when they rolled over Democrats by claiming they were soft on terrorism, leading Republicans are once again portraying the invasion of Iraq as brilliant, denouncing their critics as traitors and claiming anything less than enthusiastic support for "staying the course" is tantamount to saddling up with al-Qaida. Recently, GOP heavyweights used the victory of anti-war political novice Ned Lamont over three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) in last week's Democratic primary — Lieberman remains a staunch defender of the war — to portray the Democrats...

Calderon wins Mexican presidential race By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes agoMEXICO CITY - The ruling party's Felipe Calderon won the official count in Mexico's disputed presidential race Thursday, a come-from-behind victory for the stiff technocrat. But his leftist rival refused to concede and said he'd fight the results in court.Calderon, a conservative who preached free-market values and financial stability during the campaign, was already reaching out to other parties to build a "unity government". His opponent, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, blamed fraud for his narrow loss in the vote count and called on his supporters to fill...

Washington -- Democrats will introduce a domestic agenda for the 2006 campaign this week, confident that their opportunity to pick up seats is the best in a generation, yet divided over how much an agenda will matter. The Democratic program will consist of bread-and-butter priorities: increasing the minimum wage, cutting costs of prescription drugs, reducing interest rates on student loans, rolling back subsidies for oil companies, and pay-as-you-go budgeting, according to party officials. Party strategists hope the timing will contrast favorably with the Republicans' recent push on social legislation such as constitutional bans on gay marriage and flag burning. With...

Mr George Bush, President of the United States of America For sometime now I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictions that exist in the international arena -- which are being constantly debated, specially in political forums and amongst university students...There are prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that have not been tried...Lies were told in the Iraqi matter...September eleven was not a simple operation. Could it be planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security services – or their extensive infiltration? Of course this is just an educated guess. Why have the various aspects of the attacks...

I don't know if this will interest anyone, but I had an e-mail exchange yesterday with a former co-worker now working for a different company out in New York City. He was a major lib. when he worked for the company I'm with and he and I use to get into some heated exchanges. I'm providing this not to pat myself on the back, but to provide something you can use when you get similar boilerplate attacks from your liberal friends since they're all basically reading off the same script. Anyway, after first e-mailing me yesterday saying he doesn't know...

I've been around FR for 9 years. I've never posted a Vanity before. But I've had a bellyful of the dangerous rhetoric I hear and read every day. The letter below is a shout out to Republicans who purport to represent me on TV and in the press. It's probably ragged and long, but I think it's imperative for you to read it and consider it when you're developing your daily "talking points".

From Kofi Annan's press briefing today.... Q: On the tapes purporting that Saddam Hussein had warned the Americans that a WMD terrorist attack was coming, but not from Iraq. Do you take that seriously, or do you think it's water under the bridge and the whole thing should be forgotten? SEC.-GEN. ANNAN: I really haven't read in detail all these comments. At this stage, I think we should move on. We have a very challenging situation in Iraq which should be of interest to all of us to do whatever we can to stabilize. I would want to focus on...

I created this little video the other day, in honor of Kerry and Bin Laden's almost identical statements... It was spawned of my disgust at the Washington Post calling Pat Robertson and Ahmadinejad a "duo", etc. a few weeks back, and ignoring all the Bin Laden tape quotes that sound like they were ripped right out of the Dems playbook. I'm to lazy to copy everything over, so just read my post for the history, that also links to other old posts for more background, and then watch the video. This was my first attempt at using "Windows Movie Maker",...

We don't know whether the latest and much-discussed Osama bin Laden tape was recorded recently. But the harangue is still a valuable reflection of the current Al Qaeda hierarchy that broadcast it to the world. First, things must be going very badly for the terrorists to propose a cease-fire: "We don't mind offering you a long-term truce." In truth, the winning side does not ask for a reprieve. Losing autocrats--whether the officers of the German army in the summer of 1918 or Hitler's cadre in the spring of 1945--always "don't mind" sending out peace feelers in the 11th hour to...

Next Tuesday, President Bush is scheduled to deliver his annual State of the Union message to the nation. Not surprisingly, Democrats are already reveling in their plans for a rebuttal, in which they will no doubt repeat the pattern of past years and simply contradict everything the president says. Word is out that they intend to field Virginia's newly elected Governor, Timothy Kaine, for this task. Among Democrats, Kaine is considered to be a "rising star" (they seem to have many) with possible presidential potential. Sadly for liberal Democrats in the media and on Capitol Hill, their best talking points...

Terror - Islam Monday, January 23, 2006 - Omega Letter Editor In his first message in more than a year, Osama bin Laden made a return appearance on al-Jazeera to dictate what were, in effect, terms of surrender to the United States. Not Osama's surrender. AMERICA's surrender. The CIA has since authenticated the voice on the tape as Osama bin Laden's and time references contained within the body of the message confirm that Osama was alive in mid-December when the tape was made and is probably still alive today.Intelligence authorities were examining why bin Laden would be speaking out after...

MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews got himself into some hot water Thursday evening when he suggested that Osama bin Laden in his recently released tape sounded “like an over-the-top Michael Moore here, if not a Michael Moore” (video link to follow). On last night’s installment, Matthews invited on MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to discuss this issue in greater detail (video link to follow). After being asked by Matthews if bin Laden was playing politician, Scarborough moved the discussion in a media direction: “You look at, like, for instance, him saying that George Bush went to war because of -- because he...

As reported yesterday by NewsBusters’ Mark Finkelstein, Katie Couric of NBC’s “Today Show” wondered aloud on yesterday’s program if Osama bin Laden might be getting information from the New York Times. It turns out that Couric isn’t the only media representative asking this same question. A just released Editor and Publisher article reported on more such media opining. First, MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson said the following on that network’s “Scarborough Country” Thursday evening (full transcript to follow): “By the merchants of war who financed Bush's presidential campaign, in the words of Osama bin Laden and many on the left...

Published: January 21, 2006 12:10 PM ET NEW YORK While much of the liberal blogosphere, and political figures such as Sen. John Kerry, remain inflamed over comments by MSNBC's Chris Matthews on "Hardball" on Thursday--in which he suggested that Osama bin Laden, in his latest video tape, sounded an awful lot like fillmmaker Michael Moore--The New York Times has also now been linked to Osama by another cable news pundit. On Friday night, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough weighed in on the subject, going beyond Moore to claim that bin Laden was also borrowing language or ideas from the likes of Howard...

Bob Schieffer: Osama bin Laden Used John Kerry's Talking Points 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden may have borrowed some of Sen. John Kerry's talking points for the audiotaped message he released on Thursday - veteran CBS newsman Bob Schieffer said Saturday. Asked whether bin Laden had expressed "almost the same" sentiments that Kerry did during an appearance on Schieffer's "Face the Nation" broadcast in December, the CBS anchorman told WABC Radio's Mark Simone: "Well, he did. That's exactly right." Back then, Kerry complained to Schieffer: "There is no reason that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes...

Suppose a Democratic strategist wrote an open letter to colleagues and clients analyzing this week’s election returns. “Republicans have very little to cheer about this election,” he said with some satisfaction. “But off-year elections are rarely harbingers of future performance. Democrats actually did quite well in 2003, to little effect in 2004.” Suppose further that the Democratic strategist signed his name to the letter and distributed it widely.And then suppose one more thing: that the Democratic strategist had not actually written those words but had lifted them wholesale from a liberal blog. (In fact, those words do come from such...

White House urged to 'come clean' in CIA leak case Maryland Democrat tells Bush to honor pledge to fire officials Saturday, November 5, 2005; Posted: 3:32 p.m. EST (20:32 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush should "come clean" about any White House officials involved in the leak of the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame and "honor his pledge to fire all those involved," Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland said Saturday in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "It's been one week since the vice president's chief of staff was indicted, and there are still very serious questions about how...