Monday, September 21, 2009

Monday September 21 -- Got news or an update?

If you have news or an update, leave it in comments.
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41 comments:

Anonymous said...

Newspapers Have Not Hit Bottom, Analysts Say (The New York Times)

Despite some tentative optimism from Washington, Wall Street and Madison Avenue, people who monitor the newspaper business for a living say it has not yet hit bottom.

Anonymous said...

CNN ad: Fox 'distorting not reporting' (Politico)

CNN anchor Rick Sanchez spent nearly seven minutes yesterday blasting Fox for its print ad claiming that the other networks missed last Saturday's tea party protest, when in fact, NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN all covered it.

In fact, as I noted yesterday, CNN had more than a dozen staffers on hand, including correspondent Lisa Desjardins who was heckled at the protest in a clip that got passed around on YouTube and even played on Fox this past week.

Now the network has fired back in their own ad last night, which claims that Fox is "distorting not reporting."

While some, like Jake Tapper, described Fox's ad as "demonstrably untrue," the Washington Post -- which ran the ad -- told POLITICO that Fox's statement wasn't "false."

While the networks were physically there, it was Fox's opinion that they missed the story.

Anonymous said...

Fox hits the spot. When the networks have to defend themselves against one newspaper ad it says it all.

Sanchez is a slowit script reader. I would love to hear one original thought from that dope. Cnn has become a cartoon . Nbc ( ge ) needs the stimulus cash just to survive.

Anonymous said...

Obama cozies up to MSM -- cowers at Fox (RenewAmerica)

The President apparently does not take seriously the charge to keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer.

Over the weekend September 19, 20, 2009 he will be doing his own sales work for the healthcare plan shunned by millions of Americans and doctors across the board.

He has conspicuously left Fox News out of the media push.

Anonymous said...

Avoiding the frontlines of the battle may be interpreted as cowardice rather than strategy by many Americans, and Barack Obama is gambling against that possible perception and its consequences.

Heck, the CEO of ACORN went on Fox this morning. She has more balls than he does.

But what can we expect from this coward?

Anonymous said...

If it isn't a slant, it's at least a little tilt (Howard Troxler, TampaBay.com St Petersburg Times)

What do these issues have in common: ACORN, ex-presidential adviser Van Jones, last weekend's protest in Washington, claims that President Barack Obama's opponents are racist, and illegal immigrants getting health care?

All of these are evidence for conservative Americans that the "mainstream" news media — excluding Fox News, of course — ignore, downplay or slant coverage of matters that conservatives care about.

And taking all these recent issues together suggests there is a higher bar for conservative issues to get attention, as if the "objective" arbiters of news often say, "Oh, it's just those right-wing nuts again."

Conservatives have been complaining a long time about ACORN's tactics and evidence of fraud.

But not until a good, juicy video emerged — the sting staged by a fake prostitute and pimp — did the story get prominent, mainstream attention.

As for Van Jones, he is a published and quoted authority on "green" jobs, but also a one-time avowed Communist who recently labeled all Republicans in Congress with the a-word. He signed a petition for a group that wants an investigation into whether the Bush administration knew about Sept. 11 in advance.

I can't see any doubt as to whether this was newsworthy.

Last weekend in Washington, D.C., some number of Americans protested health-care reform and, for some, the Obama administration in general.

I do not know if it was a million, as some claimed, but I am reasonably sure it was a lot. This event got a remarkably short shrift.

Another media theme last week was that much of the opposition to Obama's health-care proposals is based in racism.

Former President Jimmy Carter declared it to NBC's Brian Williams; Carter was followed on that broadcast by a think-tank expert who agreed, with no evidence or rebuttal. This theme was recycled by other outlets the rest of the week.

Anonymous said...

Obama and the Crybabies

Chris Wallace: “These guys, everything is personal. I gotta tell you, they are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.”


As Dennis Miller famously said of Barry,

“I worry less about the color of his skin, and more about the thinness of it…”

Anonymous said...

Obama won't win by calling opponents cowards (The Washington Examiner)

During his current media bombardment, President Obama is wisely downplaying the charges of racism his allies have been making.

He told CNN’s John King that race wasn’t “the overriding issue” for the opponents of his health care plan.

Not exactly an exoneration of his critics’ racial attitudes, but at least an acknowledgment that there is more than bigotry at work.

What Obama says is really driving the negative response to his policies is fear. Fear of “big changes.” Fear of “uncertainty.”
The president likes to equate the resistance he’s facing with that met by Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.

Anonymous said...

Obama open to newspaper bailout bill (The Hill)

The president said he is "happy to look at" bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.

"I haven't seen detailed proposals yet, but I'll be happy to look at them," Obama told the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade in an interview.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced S. 673, the so-called "Newspaper Revitalization Act," that would give outlets tax deals if they were to restructure as 501(c)(3) corporations. That bill has so far attracted one cosponsor, Cardin's Maryland colleague Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D).

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had played down the possibility of government assistance for news organizations, which have been hit by an economic downturn and dwindling ad revenue.

In early May, Gibbs said that while he hadn't asked the president specifically about bailout options for newspapers, "I don't know what, in all honesty, government can do about it."

Anonymous said...

Obama makes Sunday talk show blitz (But not "breaking through.")
(Baltimore Sun)

After months of pressing the American public and Congress to support sweeping changes to health care and health insurance, President Barack Obama on Sunday offered a humbling admission: His message is sometimes not "breaking through."

"I think there have been times where I have said, 'I've got to step up my game in terms of talking to the American people about issues like health care,' " Obama said during an unprecedented spree of Sunday morning television news show appearances.

Asked by an interviewer if he had lost control of the health debate at those times, the president said: "Well, not so much lost control, but where I've said to myself, somehow I'm not breaking through."

Anonymous said...

Obama plays dumb on ACORN (Michelle Malkin)

Channeling clueless Charlie Gibson and Nancy Pelosi, President Obama is playing dumb about ACORN. Here’s what he said on ABC’s This Week this morning:

STEPHANOPOULOS: But have your — have some of your allies made it easier for — handed your opponents some ammunition, like ACORN, for example…

OBAMA: Well, look, the — you know, I think that — are there folks in the Democratic camp or on the left who haven’t — haven’t always operated in ways that I’d appreciate? Absolutely.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congress said they should cut off all funding for ACORN.

OBAMA: Is — is — is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: … all funding for ACORN. Are you for that?

OBAMA: Is that true on the other side, as well? Of course that’s true.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?

OBAMA: You know, it’s — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money. (WTF)


It strains credulity — no, it snaps credulity in half — to believe Obama “didn’t even know” that ACORN was “getting a whole lot of federal money” given his extensive legal services on behalf of the group and training for its voter education arm, Project Vote.

Repeat after me: Obama is ACORN. ACORN is Obama. Barack Obama can no more disown ACORN than he could disown his own shadow.

Now that the White House supports an investigation, Congress should make sure to investigate:

1) How Team Obama hid its $800,000 campaign payment to ACORN through front group “Citizen Services, Inc.”;

2) How Team Obama shared donor lists with the president’s old employer, ACORN affiliate Project Vote, a 501(c)(3) organization, which is prohibited from engaging in political activity (Mr. President, meet Anita MonCrief);

3) And how Project Vote and hundreds of myriad entities intermingled non-profit, tax-exempt funding with the national ACORN flagship’s political operations — a buried story Obama would know about if he read NYTimes reporter Stephanie Strom’s report last October before she was muzzled as Election Day drew near.

Anonymous said...

Here's a reminder... Obama and ACORN are connected at the hip.
The Daily Kos reported on this back in 2008:

When Obama met with ACORN leaders in November, he reminded them of his history with ACORN and his beginnings in Illinois as a Project Vote organizer, a nonprofit focused on voter rights and education.

Senator Obama said, "I come out of a grassroots organizing background. That's what I did for three and half years before I went to law school. That's the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize.

So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it.

I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career.

Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."

Anonymous said...

Taxpayer Funded serve.gov Filtering Activists to ACORN (biggovernment.com)

The Obama Administration has placed a large premium on what it calls “national service.”

It has launched a website, www.Serve.gov, that is reported to act as a clearing house for Americans eager to “give back” to their communities.

Unfortunately, Americans looking for an opportunity to volunteer may get something they weren’t expecting.

By typing “ACORN” into the search field entitled “What interests you” at Serve.gov, you’re transported to allforgood.org where you can choose from a list of volunteer opportunities, including “healthcare activist.”

This particular “volunteer” opportunity is with the Tuscon ACORN office:

Anonymous said...

Media Matters' Lie of the Day: "Right-Wingers" Killed Kennedy -- and They're Back
(David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog)

Imagine writing hundreds of words about the death of Abraham Lincoln, without mentioning the name of his assassin.

Or writing about 9/11 but putting the word "hijackers" in scare quotes... (Oh wait: if you endorse that kind of writing, you might actually earn yourself a short lived White House czarship. So scratch that...)

Last night I stumbled upon a post at Media Matters -- or, as I like to call it, the George Soros Steno Pool.

Media Matters is a leftwing "media watchdog" that monitors conservative talk radio and FOX News, then refutes their daily "lies."

“Media Matters’ Lie of the Day: “Right-Wingers” Killed Kennedy — and They’re Back”


Truth of the Day: A Dedicated Marxist Agent Killed Kennedy — and They’re Back

Media Matters is a classic deceitful Communist Front.

Anonymous said...

Prez thinks Paterson must go (But tax-cheat Charlie is still good-to-go) NY Post

The Obama administration, fearing that Gov. Paterson is too embattled to remain at the top of the ticket, has sent a direct message asking him not to run for a full term as governor.

Multiple sources said the White House and national Democrats, fearful about Paterson's performance, low poll numbers and increasing lack of support, had decided to suggest he not run again, accelerating a timetable for their plans after the governor went on a rant claiming his poll problems are thanks to a racist media -- in which he invoked Obama's name.

"The message was delivered," said one source familiar with the events, adding that concern about Rudy Giuliani had helped drive the timeframe.

Anonymous said...

Oh my: Steele plays the race card on Obama over Paterson (Hot Air)

Comedy gold from the RNC chairman, cheekily borrowing Alinsky Rule 4 to rub the left’s face in its own bottom-feeding racial demagoguery.

His argument’s absurd, of course, and deliberately so:

Imagine believing that Obama hates black people … when we all know it’s blind people that he really hates.

Paterson responded this afternoon to the The One’s nudge by kinda sorta telling him to get bent.

Exit question: Is Paterson racist?

Anonymous said...

Obama's Nontax Tax (WSJ)

On a Sunday show, the President offers a revealing definition.

President Obama didn't make much news on his round of five Sunday talk shows yesterday, with one notable exception.

The President revealed a great deal about his philosophy of government and how he defines a tax increase.

It turns out the President thinks a health-care tax is not a tax if he thinks the tax is for your own good.

Anonymous said...

CBS repeated Obama's unrealistic and dishonest claim that his health care program would not raise taxes on anyone in the middle class.

Of course, that is not what Obama said just two years ago.

In a speech he gave in April 2007 Obama said that health care reform "would require tax hikes" and that "savings are just a theory."

But, of course, expecting the state-run media to question the president on his inane promises is asking too much. No matter how ridiculous the president sounds the media swallows it hook, line and sinker.

Anonymous said...

Massachusetts Universal Healthcare a Disaster (WBZ Radio, Boston)

On this morning's news: MassCare has added 488,000 people to the healthcare rolls.

Result: MA now has a serious shortage of OB/GYNs, Urologists, Internal Medicine specialists, Dermatologists, surgeons, and others.

Doctors are fleeing MA's insane politics and taxes. Criminal aliens are choking the system (signs in MA hospitals now have to be in NINE languages, and every illegal gets assigned a tax-paid translator at the hospital).

Just a small taste of ObamaCare, I assert.

Anonymous said...

Opposition to Health Care Reform Plan Hits 56% (Rasmussen)

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters nationwide now oppose the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.

That’s the highest level of opposition yet measured and includes 44% who are Strongly Opposed.

Just 43% now favor the proposal, including 24% who Strongly Favor it.

Anonymous said...

Chicago-area retail sales plunge $5.8 billion, or 11.5%, in first half of '09 (chicagotribune.com)

Retail sales in the metropolitan Chicago area fell a record $5.8 billion, or 11.5 percent, to $44.8 billion in the first six months of 2009 from the same period a year ago, said the report, based on recently released sales tax data from the Illinois Department of Revenue.

The decline ranks as the biggest percentage decrease in local retail sales in at least two decades.

Among the most stunning revelations: The $5.8 billion in lost local sales from January through June 2009 exceeded the $5.1billion drop in Chicago-area sales for all of 2008, at the time a record, said John Melaniphy, who has been collecting Illinois retail sales data for the past 20 years.

The pace of the sales decline accelerated in the second quarter of 2009, suggesting that the retail climate is getting worse, not better, he said.

Anonymous said...

42 states lose jobs in August, up from 29 in July (AP)

Forty-two states lost jobs last month, up from 29 in July, with the biggest payroll cuts coming in Texas, Michigan, Georgia and Ohio.

The Labor Department says 27 states saw their unemployment rates increase in August, and 14 states and Washington D.C. reported unemployment rates of 10 percent or above.

Anonymous said...

California's unemployment rate rises to 12.2% (a record high)
Los Angeles Times

Despite signs an economic recovery has begun in the state, California's unemployment rate inched up in August, once again setting a new postwar high at 12.2%

The state is one of 14 in the nation with an unemployment rate in the double digits, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning.

Only Michigan, Nevada and Rhode Island, at 15.2%, 13.2% and 12.8%, respectively, have higher unemployment rates than California.

The national unemployment rate in August was 9.7%.

California has shed 741,000 jobs in the last year, and the state's unemployment rate has climbed 4.6 percentage points from August 2008

The state's July unemployment rate was 11.9%.

Economists predict that jobless figures will continue to rise for the rest of the year.

Anonymous said...

Lincoln is his idol. So why is Obama starting to talk so much like Jimmy Carter? NYPost

According to the magazine covers, Barack Obama used to be Abraham Lincoln. Now he's starting to sound like his uninvited defender Jimmy Carter.

President Obama isn't stupid enough to play the race card that Jimmy Carter dealt last week. He wouldn't be president today if had presented himself as a victim.

But, like Carter, he confuses sanctimony with persuasion, and like Carter, he thinks the American people are his congregation instead of his boss.

Anonymous said...

Michigan Leads August Unemployment
(Ticker)[Lib run for over 50 years]

Michigan led the unemployment across the nation in August with 15.2% followed by Nevada 13.2% rate and California 12.2%.

The sharp decline in auto sales has devastated manufacturing jobs in the Midwest.

Anonymous said...

What NOT to Wear to Medal of Honor Award Ceremony (GatewayPundit)

This week's fashion don'ts...
You might think a posthumous Medal of Honor award ceremony would be a somber occasion, but not everyone would agree with you...

"For the occasion, Mrs. Obama debuted a new floral frock in a bold, red rose print, accessorized with green kitten heels and chandelier earrings."

Michelle Obama's Mirror's Blog added:

For what it’s worth, I advised MO against wearing this dress. Pattern, style, all inappropriate.

The O’s still don’t seem to get the whole war thing.

Anonymous said...

Obooma is barry skeered of blogs!
---
Obama: We Need To Bailout Newspapers
Or Blogs Will Run The World

Business Insider
by John Carney

Obama yesterday expressed concern at the sorry state of the news industry and said that he will look at a news paper bailout, because otherwise, blogs will take over the world, and that qwould be a threat to democracy, The Hill reports. "I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up...
(Via Lucianne.com)

Anonymous said...

Are the News Media Scared of ACORN?
FrontPageMagazine.com
Floyd and Mary Beth Brown

"Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?" is the title of a July 2009 U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report by Congressman Darrell Issa. The report draws some shocking conclusions: "The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systemic fraud. Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors..." It is a shocking statement to absorb: “to conceal a criminal conspiracy." Yet you won’t see this on your TV unless you happen to be...

via FreeRepublic.com

Anonymous said...

Barry is lying again, he says he didn't know ACORN was receiving government funds.
Bwhahahahaha

Anonymous said...

Obama sure sounds like Jimmah Carter to me.

Anonymous said...

Top stories the old media wants to duck.
-
Planting the Seeds: The Politicized Art Behind the ACORN Plan
How the ACORN expose happened.
-
Pregame Report: The NEA Conference Call
Breitbart teases an NEA firestorm set to roll out at noon today.
-
Sliming James O'Keefe: A Case Study
This is how the Old Media works. It's all in the Marxist handbooks and getting reeeallly tiresome.
-
Ledes at Lucianne.com

Anonymous said...

The old media hates Breitbart, but he has been a journalist for a long time. He is just not their ‘brand’ of journalist. Truthfulness has dropped out of the passé media‘s playbook, and they attack anyone that has not joined their ranks of the corrupt. I am awaiting his noon announcement.

Anonymous said...

Obama takes over NEA thoughts for the day:
Adolf Hitler had "Leni" Riefenstahl, so President Obama has the NEA?
One of the ‘Rules for Radicals’ goals of a communist takeover of America is co-opting the arts to spread their message.

Anonymous said...

Obama dances around the ACORN discussion; says he has more important things on his mind. Like the corruption of the thugs that helped elect him isn’t important. Also, the ACORN question was not supposed to be asked. TOTUS was not programmed, and the correct response was not on screen. On second thought, I doubt corruption would concern Obama, it is the way of his political life, starting in Chicago.
MOO

Anonymous said...

Why would the teachers’ union contributed to ACORN? School teachers are sinking to the bottom of the barrel in public esteem. This is what unions, who protect the worst teachers instead of protecting children, has done to a once honorable profession. Like journalists, teachers sold their souls to elect Obama, but the political results has damaged their professions beyond repair.

Anonymous said...

ACORN: The Corruption is Much Wider Than Pimps and Hookers

Multiple/The Lid

During the last two weeks much of America has been mesmerized by the release of "prostitution sting" videos (except apparently for the White House and Much of the mainstream media). Andrew Breitbart new website, Big Government has done a fantastic job raising questions about the scandal-ridden community organization. The one danger is that people may now think that the Issue with ACORN is a few low-level bad eggs in a couple of offices.
***ACORN is a tangled web that needs to be thoroughly investigated and revealed for what it is, a criminal organization using the money of the United States...

Anonymous said...

Obama steered clear of Fox News because he knew they'd hammer him with questions about ACORN. It would be a major embarrassment for Obama. No way he's going to be able to dance away from ACORN questions while doing a Fox interview. That's why more and more people are watching Fox - they're the only news network asking the tough questions that need to be asked.

Anonymous said...

The ACORN scandal will make the Watergate scandal look like a walk in the park. Journalists’ wishing to become famous for evermore, evermore, just need to follow the money!

Yeah right, that’s going to happen.
Bwhahahaha

Anonymous said...

Obama didn't know ACORN received federal funding? How stupid does he think most people are? On second thought, he did get elected, scratch that question.

Anonymous said...

Fox becomes the scandal

On Friday, Media Matters released a video showing a Fox News producer stage-managing a 9/12 protest crowd.

The video -- which shows a producer waving her arms in the air, encouraging a crowd of 9/12 protesters to make noise for a live shot -- provides some of the clearest evidence yet of Fox's central role in manufacturing anti-Obama dissent.

The video isn't really a surprise: anyone whose watched coverage of protests can see that Fox is sympathetic to the protesters, but this video offered a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of Fox actually fueling the fire of the very same crowds they claim to be covering.

By any sort of journalistic standards, the producer's behavior was unethical in the extreme, yet Fox has refused to fire her. To mitigate any potential damage from the tape's release, Fox did claim that the producer had been "disciplined" -- but she still has a job.

The fact that Fox is willing to keep the producer on their payroll shows that they don't really care that she tried to stoke up the crowd -- what they care about is that she was caught. That, in turn, reinforces what everybody should already know: Fox News has no journalistic integrity of which to speak.

www.mediamatters.org

Anonymous said...

Media Matters right. They are credible. Did Soros do that piece personally?