This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about current events, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, politics, anything else that grabs my attention. Take a look around this blog, hope you enjoy it.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Thursday September 24 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
49 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Andersen Book Blows Ayers' Cover on 'Dreams' (The American Thinker)
In his new book, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," Best-selling celebrity journalist, Christopher Andersen, has blown a huge hole in the Obama genius myth without intending to do so.
Relying on inside sources, quite possibly Michelle Obama herself, Andersen describes how Dreams came to be published -- just as I had envisioned it in my articles on the authorship of Dreams.
With the deadline pressing, Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers."
To flesh out his family history, Obama had taped interviews with various family members. Andersen writes, "These oral histories, along with a partial manuscript and a truckload of notes, were given to Ayers."
Andersen quotes a Hyde Park neighbor, "Everyone knew they were friends and that they worked on various projects together. It was no secret. Why would it be? People liked them both."
Andersen continues, "In the end, Ayers's contribution to Barack's Dreams From My Father would be significant--so much so that the book's language, oddly specific references, literary devices, and themes would bear a jarring similarity to Ayers's own writing."
Stephanopoulos asked the candidate: "Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won't be a problem?"
Obama responded: "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from.
He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense, George."
News Consumer Study: Media Helped Elect and Continue to Promote Obama (Poynteronline)
Results from a national Sacred Heart University survey released today reveal that many news consumers believe the media played a significant role in electing President Barack Obama and that the media continue to promote his presidency.
Titled "Trust and Satisfaction with the National News Media," the national survey of 800 Americans renews attention to the issue of liberal media bias and its effect on political coverage.
"A large majority, 89.3 percent, suggested the national media played a very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect President Obama," according to a summary of the findings.
"Just 10.0 percent suggested the national media played little or no role. Further, 69.9 percent agreed the national news media are intent on promoting the Obama presidency while 26.5 percent disagreed. Some, 3.6 percent, were unsure."
And 86.6 percent said they believe the news media try to influence public opinion and that they have their own public policy and political positions.
With former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones gone, along with his views about whites directing poisons to minorities, focus is now shifting to race-based views of "diversity czar" Mark Lloyd, who has suggested "white people" step down from positions of power to allow "more people of color, gays" and "other people" to take those positions.
Lloyd, the Federal Communications Commission chief diversity officer appointed to the newly created position by President Obama in early August, has talked about issues such as a 100 percent tax on broadcast outlets to collect money to provide alternative viewpoints, mandatory diversity in station ownership and the idea of requiring broadcast businesses to cater to the demands of local activism committees.
N.Y. Governor Paterson Fires Back at Obama (Fox News)
New York Democratic Governor David Paterson is firing back at the Obama White House after reports the president does not want Paterson to run for election next year.
The governor said: "They haven’t exactly been able to govern in the first year of their administration the way other administrations have."
Obama Reaffirms Pledge to Wreck US Economy (Canada Free Press)
We have endured his offensive schmoozing with the slave owners’ tour in the Arab states, punctuated by his contemptible speech in Cairo, in which the president spouted flagrant falsehoods about the charms of Islam, while berating the United States for being a bit churlish about radical Muslim ideology after 9/11.
We have been forced to submit to a near daily palaver-fest, a noxious admixture of gibberish and lies.
Congressional Hearing on the Future of Newspapers Set For Thursday (Editor & Publisher)
While the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday takes up the issue of a federal shield law, another congressional committee in the House will be focused on the impact of the newspaper industry's financial problems.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Chair of the House Joint Economic Committee (JEC), will convene a hearing "to examine contraction in the newspaper industry, the economic impact of the changing media landscape, as well as the future of the industry at large," according to an announcement.
The hearing, titled "The Future of Newspapers: The Impact on the Economy and Democracy," will take place Thursday, at 10:00 am in the Cannon House Office Building.
McClatchy Foreign-Coverage Changes Could Close Bureaus (Editor and Publisher)
NEW YORK McClatchy Newspapers is discussing changes in its foreign operations that could see some bureaus closing, with other locations opening and some expanding.
One scenario being reviewed would have bureaus in Jerusalem, Moscow, Nairobi and Caracas closing, while re-opening a bureau in Mexico City.
The chain would then keep current bureaus in Cairo, Beijing and create another Middle East bureau in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. The long-praised Baghdad bureau has remained, but without a full-time McClatchy bureau chief, since April. It is using local staffers.
Part of a change could have Moscow Bureau Chief Tom Lasseter, formerly of the Baghdad bureau, relocating to China and Jerusalem Bureau chief Dion Nissenbaum possibly going to an Afghanistan or Pakistan bureau, sources said.
Little Public Support for Newspaper Industry Bailout, Poll Finds (Editor and Publisher)
CHICAGO Nearly 8 out of 10 Americans would oppose any plan to spend tax dollars to aid failing newspapers, according to a poll on news media trustworthiness released Wednesday.
That reluctance might have something to do with the fact that 38.1% of respondents to the poll by Sacred Heart University said they are reading newspapers less often than five years ago. Or the fact that nearly half, 45%, said they think the Internet is "adequately covering for failing newspapers." Just 35.6% disagreed with that statement.
The third annual Sacred Heart poll found substantial support for the notion that good journalism ensures a healthy democracy, with 64.1% in agreement.
On the other hand, the poll found Americans do not believe they are getting "good journalism." Just under 68% of respondents agreement with this statement: "Old-style, traditionally objective and fair journalism is dead." Just 26.5% disagreed, while 5.6% were unsure.
Much of Sacred Heart poll concerns mainstream television news, which respondents clearly view with jaundiced eyes.
Fully 83.6% said national news media organizations were very or somewhat biased while just 14.1% viewed them as somewhat unbiased or not at all biased.
Overall, just 55.9% of respondents said they expected the media to tell the truth.
"This perception of bias will eventually catch up with the news media outlets -- we found 45.9% have permanently stopped watching a news media organization, print or electronic, because of perceived bias," said Jerry C. Lindsley, director of the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute, which conducted the poll through telephone interviews of 800 Americans in early September.
Magazines: The Other Media Implosion (Newspaper Death Watch)
The newspaper industry’s malaise has spread to the magazine business. Ad pages were off 20.1% in the most recent month, according to Media Industry Newsletter (Min), and those figures are down from an already depressed October last year.
Of the 155 titles tracked by Min, 143 are down for the year. The carnage is worst in luxury titles like Architectural Digest (down 49.4%), Veranda (down 47.4%), W (down 45.5%), Town & Country (down 45.2%), Conde Nast Traveler (down 45.1%) and Gourmet (down 42.7%).
Bucking the trend is Family Circle (up 13.9%) and several fitness titles.
The magazine industry’s troubles can be traced to the alarming trends in newsstand sales, which are off 37% since 2001, according to MediaPost.
Newsstand sales are important because they’re far more profitable than subscription sales and are also a significant source of circulation promotion.
However, it appears that not many people are buying magazines on newsstands any more. Check out these numbers covering total annual newsstand sales: Not that magazines’ troubles are any solace to beleaguered newspaper publishers.
Fitch Ratings says the decline in newspaper ad revenues will continue for at least another year, due to continued weakness in the print advertising market. The forecast is especially dour because it comes off terrible 2008 numbers and because most media markets are expected to enjoy a modest upturn in 2010 off of dismal results this year.
Obama Will Spend More on Welfare in the Next Year Than Bush Spent on Entire Iraq War, Study Reveals (CNSN)
As a candidate for president, Barack Obama decried the financial toll that the Iraq war was taking on the economy, but Obama’s proposed spending on welfare through 2010 will eclipse Bush’s war spending by more than $260 billion.
Exclusive: CBO predicts Social Security cash deficits in 2010-11 (Hot Air)
Four years ago, George W. Bush attempted to reform the entitlement program Social Security, warning that the system was accelerating into collapse and would soon run deficits.
Democrats scoffed and claimed the Social Security system was solid and wouldn’t have problems for at least 50 years, as Harry Reid told PBS’ Jim Lehrer in June 2005.
Just last year, the CBO — under the direction of Peter Orszag, now budget director in the Obama administration — claimed that the first cash deficits in Social Security would not come until 2019
Now, however, the CBO has determined that Social Security will run cash deficits next year and in 2010, and by 2017 will be more or less in permanent deficit mode.
Hot Air has exclusively obtained the summer 2009 CBO report sent to legislators on Capitol Hill but not yet made public, which shows that outgo will exceed income for the first time ever on an annual basis in 2010:
Pres. Obama looked silly trying to deny that forcing people to buy health insurance is not a tax.
Even the Associated Press was not buying it. Pres. Obama was willing to look silly on network TV because taxes are not popular — but the underlying issue is much bigger.
For example, Treasury Department officials think cap-and-trade legislation would cost taxpayers hundreds of billion in taxes, according to internal documents obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute through a Freedom of Information Act request.
At the upper end of the administration’s estimates, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year. Indeed, Obama pal Warren Buffett had already criticized it:
Anything you put in that effectively taxes carbon emissions is — somebody’s going to bear the brunt of it. In the case of a regulated utility, the utility customers are going to pay for it.
I mean, it’s going to become, in effect, a tax which we have decided is needed because the market system doesn’t really appropriately penalize something that hurts the future but doesn’t really hurt us tomorrow morning. But that tax is probably going to be pretty regressive.
Of course, Pres. Obama knows this, too. In January 2008, he openly admitted that his cap-and-trade proposal would make energy prices “skyrocket.”
A Secret White House Power Grab Is In Full Swing (FoxNews.com)
Cap-and-trade energy tax legislation appears stalled, at least for now, in the U.S. Senate. But that doesn’t mean the cap-and-trade energy tax isn’t imminent.
Senate Environment Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer hasn’t even introduced the bill yet; new Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln has declared the House bill dead on arrival; and there are several other cross-cutting controversies that divide Democrats on the bill.
The Obama administration is unfazed. They are moving full steam ahead with an even more costly regulatory scheme in the name of global warming—shoehorning the regulation of greenhouse gases into the 1970 Clean Air Act, a bill passed before anyone had ever thought of global warming and that couldn’t be less suited to the task.
Corruption Cleanup: FBI Busts South Florida Politicions (McClatchy refuses to name DEMOCRAT party affiliation of members arrested) miamiherald.com
Federal prosecutors and the FBI have scheduled a press conference for noon today to announce the results of an investigation into corruption in South Florida, but details and reports of arrests are already making their way onto the Web. Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion Jr. and former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman were both arrested early this morning by FBI agents.
Broward figures charged with public corruption (DEMOCRATS)Biz Journals
Three Broward County public officials have been arrested on public corruption charges stemming from three separate FBI investigations.
Broward County Commissioner Josephus “Joe” Eggelletion, 60, of Lauderdale Lakes, Broward County School Board member Beverly Gallagher and former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman have been arrested as part of a long-term undercover investigation by the FBI, according to a news release from the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Eggelletion is alleged to have been involved with two South Florida businessman and a Bahamian attorney in a scheme to launder some $900,000 in assets through a Bahamian bank. The other men are identified as Ron Owens, 62, of Hallandale Beach, Joel Williams, 54, of North Miami, and Sidney Cambridge, 45, of Nassau, Bahamas. The defendants received 7 percent of the money laundered through the Bahamian account, of which Eggelletion is alleged to have received about $23,000.
They were each charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In the second case, Gallagher was charged with accepting about $12,500 in cash to steer school board business to undercover agents who were posing as construction company representatives looking to get contracts with the school board.
On Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Charlie Crist issued an order suspending Eggelletion and Gallagher from public office.
Obama's Speeches: The 'I's Have It --Nearly 1,200 Times (Fox News)
Obama loves to hear himself talk – about himself. In just 41 speeches so this year, not including this week's big speech at the United Nations, Obama has talked about himself nearly 1,200 times – 1,198 to be exact.
Democrats nix putting pre-vote health bill online(AP)
WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes.
Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal. They also noted that their constituents are demanding that they read bills before voting.
Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks.
The founder of ACORN, the community organizing group embarrassed recently in a video sting, says many of the accusations about the group are distortions meant to undermine President Obama and other Democrats.
In an exclusive interview with the Post, founder Wade Rathke said conservative claims that ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a "criminal enterprise" that misuses federal and donor funds for political ends -- a claim contained in a report by House Republicans -- are a "complete fabrication
Serve.gov Scrubs ACORN Listings from Its Site (biggovernment.com)
Since first reporting that Serve.gov was listing activist positions with ACORN it seems now that all ACORN listings have been scrubbed from the taxpayer-funded site without any explanation as to why they were on it in the first place.
The government was using our taxpayer dollars to advertise for volunteer opportunities to promote the president’s partisan agenda via a corrupt organization under investigation for voter registration fraud, among other things.
The IRS says it is severing ties with ACORN, the community activist group involved in a scandal after employees were caught on video giving advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp.
The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it would no longer include ACORN in its volunteer tax assistance program.
The program offered free tax advice to about 3 million low- and moderate-income tax filers this spring
The Left Only Pretended to Be for the War in Afghanistan PATTERICO
Now they tell us:
Escalation is a bad idea. The Democrats backed themselves into defending the idea of Afghanistan being The Good War because they felt they needed to prove their macho bonafides when they called for withdrawal from Iraq.
Nobody asked too many questions sat [sic] the time, including me. But none of us should forget that it was a political strategy, not a serious foreign policy.
There have been many campaign promises “adjusted” since the election. There is no reason that the administration should feel any more bound to what they said about this than all the other committments [sic] it has blithely turned aside in the interest of “pragmatism.”
In an update published after NRO linked her post, well-respected leftist blogger “digby” defends the honor of Democrats by explaining:
They weren’t pacifists. They were just liars and political opportunists.
Barack at the UN: Was this Obama’s most naïve speech ever? (telegraph.co.uk)
It’s always a bad sign when a US president gets several rounds of heavy applause at the UN General Assembly, as Barack Obama did this morning in New York.
Needless to say, the loudest cheers from the gathering of world leaders came when he condemned the actions of a close US ally, Israel, in continuing to build settlements in the West Bank.
You can always rely on attacks on the Israelis to generate the biggest roars of approval at any meeting of the United Nations, and Obama dutifully obliged.
This came from a Brit reporter in Washington. The American MSM still refuses to criticize the Messiah they put in office.
"There have been [many] campaign promises “adjusted” since the election."
“Many“? Obama has "adjusted" just about all his campaign promises. He lied from the start, and the media did not question him. The fringe media is completely useless as a government watchdog. Without public trust, they are like a dead carcass beside the road, better left to the liberal buzzards.
Why was ACORN listed on Serve.gov in the first place? Obama would probably say ACORN was just a group in his neighborhood. He didn’t hang out with them or anything. Bwhahahaha
-59% Say Americans Angrier Now Than Under Bush- Rasmussen Reports, by Staff
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of U.S. voters believe that the current level of political anger in the country is higher than it was when George W. Bush was president.
Fox News is reporting the GOP offered an amendment that the health care bill and expenses be posted online for three days before the vote, and the Dems shot down the amendment. John Kerry offered that the little people could not understand it! The corrupted Fringe media did not inform him that people at the town hall meeting had a better grasp of the health care debate than the elected officials. Too bad he doesn’t watch Fox News, he would have known better.
Big Government Blog has an excellent comment by Ryan Paul.
*ALERT*
Under Obama:
Takeover – Banking Takeover – Auto Takeover – Energy (pending) Takeover – Healthcare (pending)
Propaganda – NEA Propaganda – Legacy Media (zero scrutiny, free reign to appear on all programs) Propaganda – College & University Faculty (not new, persistently socialist) Propaganda – 9-11 becomes day of “service” / “Serv.gov” indoctrinating, “organizing” youth, poor Propaganda – The Stimulus Bill: a honeypot of goodies designed to preserve Democrat incumbency
DEBT: $11,000,000,000,000 with $10,000,000,000,000 anticipated adds over 10 years
School children chanting BHO, this will be the hottest video today. The BS propaganda by BO to each school was planned, IMO. Geeez! ------ Bernice Young Elementary School (Video): Children's' Obama Chant Post Chronicle (NJ), by Jim Brogan
The B. Bernice Young Elementary School in New Jersey is under fire this morning after video surfaced of the school's children being taught to chant praises of US President Barack Hussein Obama. Video has surfaced of school children being made to sing praises of President Barack Obama. The school's officials, who have been contacted by Fox News and others, have yet to respond to calls about the video and have not given any explanation.
Seeing this video will make you upchuck! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrsl8o4ZPo === Elementary School Students Reportedly Taught Songs Praising President Obama FOXNews.com, by Staff
A video posted on YouTube appears to show a New Jersey elementary school class being taught to sing praises of the "great accomplishments" of President Obama. The video shows nearly 20 young children taught a song overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," repeatedly chanting the president's name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his "great plans" to "make this country's economy No. 1 again.
This blog site used to be such a good place to read about McClatchy corp. It has turned into such a political TIT-FOR-TAT, a place for ousted reporters and writers to spin their craft. Too bad, I used to enjoy it so much better.
Re: Children chant Obama; exposing the leftist NEA and its compliant teachers’ union.
The school will not return requests to explain the video. It seems to me, if it was a hoax video, they would have refuted the video’s validity at once. This is a sad commentary on the rot within the school system today. School teachers have become the tool of socialism.
8:06 writes “a good place to read about McClatchy corp” Isn’t the fringe media giving you any information about MNI? It is mind-blowing that McClatchy isn’t keeping their wonderful staff updated on their trek to Never Never Land. It may be that leftist journalists will never understand the outrage from the general public concerning their corruption, that led to electing a fraud for president. History will show that the leftist MSM were led into their own destruction by a smiling puppet, IMHO.
Obama takes the supplication of America to a disgusting new level Power Line, by Paul Mirengoff
Conservative commentary on President Obama's U.N. speech has correctly taken note of the extent to which Obama once again has apologized for America. What struck me as new, though, was extent to which he begged his audience to award the U.S. brownie points for his good acts. The one form of supplication follows from the other. Obama isn't just saying that the U.S. has been a bad boy in the past; he's also saying that we're a good boy now: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/09/024578.php
No surprise here, Obama continues to try and silence the opposition. There will be a move to silence ‘biggovernment.com’- just wait and see. ***. Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections
biggovernment.com - Don Loos
Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. It’s another Big Government – Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark. Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL’s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion. Semmens discovered that teachers’ union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN...
Obama and his fringe media will fade away, and that can't be soon enough --- Narcissus And Echo: Obama And The Mainstream Media American Thinker Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr.
It is troubling that our president is a pathological narcissist caught up in the thought patterns of Darwin, Marx, and Alinsky. Even more troubling is the fact that the Mainstream Media (MSM), suffering from an Obama-inspired narcosis, shirks its duty, refusing to publish or even explore any aspect of Obama's dark side. There is room for much optimism, however. If the ancient story of Narcissus and Echo plays itself out as Ovid recorded it, and [Obama and the MSM are their contemporary counterparts, both will fade away in the not too distant future.]
Confirmed: Kids' Praising Obama an official public school activity
An important update about the creepy video we posted yesterday. The Burlington Township School District, to which B. Bernice Youngs Elementary School belongs, posted the following Letter to Parents this morning. Dear Burlington Township Families:
Today we became aware of a video that was placed on the internet which has been reported in the media. The video is of a class of students singing a song about President Obama. The activity took place during Black History Month in 2009, which is recognized each February to honor the contributions of African Americans to our country. Our curriculum studies, honors and recognizes those who serve our country. The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized.
Barney Franks was on the O’Reilly Factor talking about the ACORN whistleblowers being prosecuted. He went on and on about the young people being lawbreakers. I was wondering how old Barney feels about all the illegal aliens becoming citizens, they are lawbreakers, but somehow he never mentions that in his zeal to make them citizens. In his world there must be bad lawbreakers, and then good lawbreakers.
RE: This blog site used to be such a good place to read about McClatchy corp-
There are almost always threads about McClatchy jobs etc., but few people post comments. It should be clear by now that the news thread is mostly current events. Odd how the lefties can't get used to unfettered news sources.
“The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized.”
Indoctrination under the guise of Black History Month education? The lesson was in Feb. but the chant thanks Obama for all he has done? Adding this video to the foiled plans of Obama, the US Department of Education, and NEA, to flood himself to all the schools at one time is scary business. These are not the actions of normal educators.
O'Reilly has Barney Frank on often because the guy is such a complete moron. O'Reilly can barely contain his laughter as Frank pontificates on some completely ridiculous line of thought. Frank is the biggest joke in Washington. How did this nut get elected?
49 comments:
Andersen Book Blows Ayers' Cover on 'Dreams' (The American Thinker)
In his new book, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," Best-selling celebrity journalist, Christopher Andersen, has blown a huge hole in the Obama genius myth without intending to do so.
Relying on inside sources, quite possibly Michelle Obama herself, Andersen describes how Dreams came to be published -- just as I had envisioned it in my articles on the authorship of Dreams.
With the deadline pressing, Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers."
To flesh out his family history, Obama had taped interviews with various family members. Andersen writes, "These oral histories, along with a partial manuscript and a truckload of notes, were given to Ayers."
Andersen quotes a Hyde Park neighbor, "Everyone knew they were friends and that they worked on various projects together. It was no secret. Why would it be? People liked them both."
Andersen continues, "In the end, Ayers's contribution to Barack's Dreams From My Father would be significant--so much so that the book's language, oddly specific references, literary devices, and themes would bear a jarring similarity to Ayers's own writing."
Stephanopoulos asked the candidate: "Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won't be a problem?"
Obama responded: "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from.
He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense, George."
News Consumer Study: Media Helped Elect and Continue to Promote Obama (Poynteronline)
Results from a national Sacred Heart University survey released today reveal that many news consumers believe the media played a significant role in electing President Barack Obama and that the media continue to promote his presidency.
Titled "Trust and Satisfaction with the National News Media," the national survey of 800 Americans renews attention to the issue of liberal media bias and its effect on political coverage.
"A large majority, 89.3 percent, suggested the national media played a very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect President Obama," according to a summary of the findings.
"Just 10.0 percent suggested the national media played little or no role. Further, 69.9 percent agreed the national news media are intent on promoting the Obama presidency while 26.5 percent disagreed.
Some, 3.6 percent, were unsure."
And 86.6 percent said they believe the news media try to influence public opinion and that they have their own public policy and political positions.
Diversity boss: Whites must 'step down'
With former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones gone, along with his views about whites directing poisons to minorities, focus is now shifting to race-based views of "diversity czar" Mark Lloyd, who has suggested "white people" step down from positions of power to allow "more people of color, gays" and "other people" to take those positions.
Lloyd, the Federal Communications Commission chief diversity officer appointed to the newly created position by President Obama in early August, has talked about issues such as a 100 percent tax on broadcast outlets to collect money to provide alternative viewpoints, mandatory diversity in station ownership and the idea of requiring broadcast businesses to cater to the demands of local activism committees.
N.Y. Governor Paterson Fires Back at Obama (Fox News)
New York Democratic Governor David Paterson is firing back at the Obama White House after reports the president does not want Paterson to run for election next year.
The governor said: "They haven’t exactly been able to govern in the first year of their administration the way other administrations have."
Obama Reaffirms Pledge to Wreck US Economy (Canada Free Press)
We have endured his offensive schmoozing with the slave owners’ tour in the Arab states, punctuated by his contemptible speech in Cairo, in which the president spouted flagrant falsehoods about the charms of Islam, while berating the United States for being a bit churlish about radical Muslim ideology after 9/11.
We have been forced to submit to a near daily palaver-fest, a noxious admixture of gibberish and lies.
Congressional Hearing on the Future of Newspapers Set For Thursday (Editor & Publisher)
While the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday takes up the issue of a federal shield law, another congressional committee in the House will be focused on the impact of the newspaper industry's financial problems.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Chair of the House Joint Economic Committee (JEC), will convene a hearing "to examine contraction in the newspaper industry, the economic impact of the changing media landscape, as well as the future of the industry at large," according to an announcement.
The hearing, titled "The Future of Newspapers: The Impact on the Economy and Democracy," will take place Thursday, at 10:00 am in the Cannon House Office Building.
McClatchy Foreign-Coverage Changes Could Close Bureaus (Editor and Publisher)
NEW YORK McClatchy Newspapers is discussing changes in its foreign operations that could see some bureaus closing, with other locations opening and some expanding.
One scenario being reviewed would have bureaus in Jerusalem, Moscow, Nairobi and Caracas closing, while re-opening a bureau in Mexico City.
The chain would then keep current bureaus in Cairo, Beijing and create another Middle East bureau in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. The long-praised Baghdad bureau has remained, but without a full-time McClatchy bureau chief, since April. It is using local staffers.
Part of a change could have Moscow Bureau Chief Tom Lasseter, formerly of the Baghdad bureau, relocating to China and Jerusalem Bureau chief Dion Nissenbaum possibly going to an Afghanistan or Pakistan bureau, sources said.
Little Public Support for Newspaper Industry Bailout, Poll Finds (Editor and Publisher)
CHICAGO Nearly 8 out of 10 Americans would oppose any plan to spend tax dollars to aid failing newspapers, according to a poll on news media trustworthiness released Wednesday.
That reluctance might have something to do with the fact that 38.1% of respondents to the poll by Sacred Heart University said they are reading newspapers less often than five years ago. Or the fact that nearly half, 45%, said they think the Internet is "adequately covering for failing newspapers." Just 35.6% disagreed with that statement.
The third annual Sacred Heart poll found substantial support for the notion that good journalism ensures a healthy democracy, with 64.1% in agreement.
On the other hand, the poll found Americans do not believe they are getting "good journalism." Just under 68% of respondents agreement with this statement: "Old-style, traditionally objective and fair journalism is dead." Just 26.5% disagreed, while 5.6% were unsure.
Much of Sacred Heart poll concerns mainstream television news, which respondents clearly view with jaundiced eyes.
Fully 83.6% said national news media organizations were very or somewhat biased while just 14.1% viewed them as somewhat unbiased or not at all biased.
Overall, just 55.9% of respondents said they expected the media to tell the truth.
"This perception of bias will eventually catch up with the news media outlets -- we found 45.9% have permanently stopped watching a news media organization, print or electronic, because of perceived bias," said Jerry C. Lindsley, director of the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute, which conducted the poll through telephone interviews of 800 Americans in early September.
Magazines: The Other Media Implosion (Newspaper Death Watch)
The newspaper industry’s malaise has spread to the magazine business. Ad pages were off 20.1% in the most recent month, according to Media Industry Newsletter (Min), and those figures are down from an already depressed October last year.
Of the 155 titles tracked by Min, 143 are down for the year. The carnage is worst in luxury titles like Architectural Digest (down 49.4%), Veranda (down 47.4%), W (down 45.5%), Town & Country (down 45.2%), Conde Nast Traveler (down 45.1%) and Gourmet (down 42.7%).
Bucking the trend is Family Circle (up 13.9%) and several fitness titles.
The magazine industry’s troubles can be traced to the alarming trends in newsstand sales, which are off 37% since 2001, according to MediaPost.
Newsstand sales are important because they’re far more profitable than subscription sales and are also a significant source of circulation promotion.
However, it appears that not many people are buying magazines on newsstands any more. Check out these numbers covering total annual newsstand sales:
Not that magazines’ troubles are any solace to beleaguered newspaper publishers.
Fitch Ratings says the decline in newspaper ad revenues will continue for at least another year, due to continued weakness in the print advertising market. The forecast is especially dour because it comes off terrible 2008 numbers and because most media markets are expected to enjoy a modest upturn in 2010 off of dismal results this year.
Obama Will Spend More on Welfare in the Next Year Than Bush Spent on Entire Iraq War, Study Reveals (CNSN)
As a candidate for president, Barack Obama decried the financial toll that the Iraq war was taking on the economy, but Obama’s proposed spending on welfare through 2010 will eclipse Bush’s war spending by more than $260 billion.
Exclusive: CBO predicts Social Security cash deficits in 2010-11
(Hot Air)
Four years ago, George W. Bush attempted to reform the entitlement program Social Security, warning that the system was accelerating into collapse and would soon run deficits.
Democrats scoffed and claimed the Social Security system was solid and wouldn’t have problems for at least 50 years, as Harry Reid told PBS’ Jim Lehrer in June 2005.
Just last year, the CBO — under the direction of Peter Orszag, now budget director in the Obama administration — claimed that the first cash deficits in Social Security would not come until 2019
Now, however, the CBO has determined that Social Security will run cash deficits next year and in 2010, and by 2017 will be more or less in permanent deficit mode.
Hot Air has exclusively obtained the summer 2009 CBO report sent to legislators on Capitol Hill but not yet made public, which shows that outgo will exceed income for the first time ever on an annual basis in 2010:
Obamanomics: Hidden Regressive Taxes PATTERICO
Pres. Obama looked silly trying to deny that forcing people to buy health insurance is not a tax.
Even the Associated Press was not buying it. Pres. Obama was willing to look silly on network TV because taxes are not popular — but the underlying issue is much bigger.
For example, Treasury Department officials think cap-and-trade legislation would cost taxpayers hundreds of billion in taxes, according to internal documents obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute through a Freedom of Information Act request.
At the upper end of the administration’s estimates, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year. Indeed, Obama pal Warren Buffett had already criticized it:
Anything you put in that effectively taxes carbon emissions is — somebody’s going to bear the brunt of it. In the case of a regulated utility, the utility customers are going to pay for it.
I mean, it’s going to become, in effect, a tax which we have decided is needed because the market system doesn’t really appropriately penalize something that hurts the future but doesn’t really hurt us tomorrow morning.
But that tax is probably going to be pretty regressive.
Of course, Pres. Obama knows this, too. In January 2008, he openly admitted that his cap-and-trade proposal would make energy prices “skyrocket.”
A Secret White House Power Grab Is In Full Swing (FoxNews.com)
Cap-and-trade energy tax legislation appears stalled, at least for now, in the U.S. Senate.
But that doesn’t mean the cap-and-trade energy tax isn’t imminent.
Senate Environment Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer hasn’t even introduced the bill yet; new Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln has declared the House bill dead on arrival; and there are several other cross-cutting controversies that divide Democrats on the bill.
The Obama administration is unfazed. They are moving full steam ahead with an even more costly regulatory scheme in the name of global warming—shoehorning the regulation of greenhouse gases into the 1970 Clean Air Act, a bill passed before anyone had ever thought of global warming and that couldn’t be less suited to the task.
Corruption Cleanup: FBI Busts South Florida Politicions (McClatchy refuses to name DEMOCRAT party affiliation of members arrested) miamiherald.com
Federal prosecutors and the FBI have scheduled a press conference for noon today to announce the results of an investigation into corruption in South Florida, but details and reports of arrests are already making their way onto the Web. Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion Jr. and former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman were both arrested early this morning by FBI agents.
Broward figures charged with public corruption (DEMOCRATS)Biz Journals
Three Broward County public officials have been arrested on public corruption charges stemming from three separate FBI investigations.
Broward County Commissioner Josephus “Joe” Eggelletion, 60, of Lauderdale Lakes, Broward County School Board member Beverly Gallagher and former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman have been arrested as part of a long-term undercover investigation by the FBI, according to a news release from the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Eggelletion is alleged to have been involved with two South Florida businessman and a Bahamian attorney in a scheme to launder some $900,000 in assets through a Bahamian bank. The other men are identified as Ron Owens, 62, of Hallandale Beach, Joel Williams, 54, of North Miami, and Sidney Cambridge, 45, of Nassau, Bahamas.
The defendants received 7 percent of the money laundered through the Bahamian account, of which Eggelletion is alleged to have received about $23,000.
They were each charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In the second case, Gallagher was charged with accepting about $12,500 in cash to steer school board business to undercover agents who were posing as construction company representatives looking to get contracts with the school board.
On Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Charlie Crist issued an order suspending Eggelletion and Gallagher from public office.
Obama's Speeches: The 'I's Have It --Nearly 1,200 Times (Fox News)
Obama loves to hear himself talk – about himself. In just 41 speeches so this year, not including this week's big speech at the United Nations, Obama has talked about himself nearly 1,200 times – 1,198 to be exact.
Nar-cis-sism – noun 1. inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity --Dictionary.com
In mythology, Narcissus was the guy who fell in love with his own reflection. In 2009, he’s the president of the United States.
Democrats nix putting pre-vote health bill online(AP)
WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes.
Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal. They also noted that their constituents are demanding that they read bills before voting.
Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks.
ACORN Founder Calls Conservative Attacks 'Complete Fabrication' (Washington Post)
The founder of ACORN, the community organizing group embarrassed recently in a video sting, says many of the accusations about the group are distortions meant to undermine President Obama and other Democrats.
In an exclusive interview with the Post, founder Wade Rathke said conservative claims that ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a "criminal enterprise" that misuses federal and donor funds for political ends -- a claim contained in a report by House Republicans -- are a "complete fabrication
Serve.gov Scrubs ACORN Listings from Its Site (biggovernment.com)
Since first reporting that Serve.gov was listing activist positions with ACORN it seems now that all ACORN listings have been scrubbed from the taxpayer-funded site without any explanation as to why they were on it in the first place.
The government was using our taxpayer dollars to advertise for volunteer opportunities to promote the president’s partisan agenda via a corrupt organization under investigation for voter registration fraud, among other things.
IRS severs ties with ACORN over scandal (AP)
The IRS says it is severing ties with ACORN, the community activist group involved in a scandal after employees were caught on video giving advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp.
The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it would no longer include ACORN in its volunteer tax assistance program.
The program offered free tax advice to about 3 million low- and moderate-income tax filers this spring
The Left Only Pretended to Be for the War in Afghanistan PATTERICO
Now they tell us:
Escalation is a bad idea. The Democrats backed themselves into defending the idea of Afghanistan being The Good War because they felt they needed to prove their macho bonafides when they called for withdrawal from Iraq.
Nobody asked too many questions sat [sic] the time, including me. But none of us should forget that it was a political strategy, not a serious foreign policy.
There have been many campaign promises “adjusted” since the election. There is no reason that the administration should feel any more bound to what they said about this than all the other committments [sic] it has blithely turned aside in the interest of “pragmatism.”
In an update published after NRO linked her post, well-respected leftist blogger “digby” defends the honor of Democrats by explaining:
They weren’t pacifists. They were just liars and political opportunists.
Barack at the UN: Was this Obama’s most naïve speech ever? (telegraph.co.uk)
It’s always a bad sign when a US president gets several rounds of heavy applause at the UN General Assembly, as Barack Obama did this morning in New York.
Needless to say, the loudest cheers from the gathering of world leaders came when he condemned the actions of a close US ally, Israel, in continuing to build settlements in the West Bank.
You can always rely on attacks on the Israelis to generate the biggest roars of approval at any meeting of the United Nations, and Obama dutifully obliged.
This came from a Brit reporter in Washington. The American MSM still refuses to criticize the Messiah they put in office.
"There have been [many] campaign promises “adjusted” since the election."
“Many“? Obama has "adjusted" just about all his campaign promises. He lied from the start, and the media did not question him. The fringe media is completely useless as a government watchdog. Without public trust, they are like a dead carcass beside the road, better left to the liberal buzzards.
REF: Serve.gov Scrubs
ACORN Listings from Its Site
Witness the power of the internet.
(biggovernment.com) rocks!
Why was ACORN listed on Serve.gov in the first place? Obama would probably say ACORN was just a group in his neighborhood. He didn’t hang out with them or anything.
Bwhahahaha
-59% Say Americans Angrier
Now Than Under Bush-
Rasmussen Reports, by Staff
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of U.S. voters believe that the current level of political anger in the country is higher than it was when George W. Bush was president.
Fox News is reporting the GOP offered an amendment that the health care bill and expenses be posted online for three days before the vote, and the Dems shot down the amendment. John Kerry offered that the little people could not understand it! The corrupted Fringe media did not inform him that people at the town hall meeting had a better grasp of the health care debate than the elected officials. Too bad he doesn’t watch Fox News, he would have known better.
Big Government Blog has an excellent comment by Ryan Paul.
*ALERT*
Under Obama:
Takeover – Banking
Takeover – Auto
Takeover – Energy (pending)
Takeover – Healthcare (pending)
Propaganda – NEA
Propaganda – Legacy Media (zero scrutiny, free reign to appear on all programs)
Propaganda – College & University Faculty (not new, persistently socialist)
Propaganda – 9-11 becomes day of “service” / “Serv.gov” indoctrinating, “organizing” youth, poor
Propaganda – The Stimulus Bill: a honeypot of goodies designed to preserve Democrat incumbency
DEBT: $11,000,000,000,000 with $10,000,000,000,000 anticipated adds over 10 years
What is even left to absorb?
Make that,
*RED ALERT
Anon 6:13 "fringe media." Say it again brother!!!
School children chanting BHO, this will be the hottest video today. The BS propaganda by BO to each school was planned, IMO. Geeez!
------
Bernice Young Elementary School (Video):
Children's' Obama Chant
Post Chronicle (NJ), by Jim Brogan
The B. Bernice Young Elementary School in New Jersey is under fire this morning after video surfaced of the school's children being taught to chant praises of US President Barack Hussein Obama. Video has surfaced of school children being made to sing praises of President Barack Obama. The school's officials, who have been contacted by Fox News and others, have yet to respond to calls about the video and have not given any explanation.
Seeing this video will make you upchuck!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrsl8o4ZPo
===
Elementary School Students
Reportedly Taught Songs Praising
President Obama
FOXNews.com, by Staff
A video posted on YouTube appears to show a New Jersey elementary school class being taught to sing praises of the "great accomplishments" of President Obama. The video shows nearly 20 young children taught a song overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," repeatedly chanting the president's name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his "great plans" to "make this country's economy No. 1 again.
This blog site used to be such a good place to read about McClatchy corp. It has turned into such a political TIT-FOR-TAT, a place for ousted reporters and writers to spin their craft. Too bad, I used to enjoy it so much better.
Re: Children chant Obama; exposing the leftist NEA and its compliant teachers’ union.
The school will not return requests to explain the video. It seems to me, if it was a hoax video, they would have refuted the video’s validity at once. This is a sad commentary on the rot within the school system today. School teachers have become the tool of socialism.
8:06 writes “a good place to read about McClatchy corp”
Isn’t the fringe media giving you any information about MNI? It is mind-blowing that McClatchy isn’t keeping their wonderful staff updated on their trek to Never Never Land. It may be that leftist journalists will never understand the outrage from the general public concerning their corruption, that led to electing a fraud for president. History will show that the leftist MSM were led into their own destruction by a smiling puppet, IMHO.
Obama takes the supplication of America to a disgusting new level
Power Line, by Paul Mirengoff
Conservative commentary on President Obama's U.N. speech has correctly taken note of the extent to which Obama once again has apologized for America. What struck me as new, though, was extent to which he begged his audience to award the U.S. brownie points for his good acts. The one form of supplication follows from the other. Obama isn't just saying that the U.S. has been a bad boy in the past; he's also saying that we're a good boy now:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/09/024578.php
No surprise here, Obama continues to try and silence the opposition. There will be a move to silence ‘biggovernment.com’- just wait and see.
***.
Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections
biggovernment.com - Don Loos
Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. It’s another Big Government – Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark. Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL’s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion. Semmens discovered that teachers’ union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN...
Obama and his fringe media will fade away, and that can't be soon enough
---
Narcissus And Echo: Obama And The Mainstream Media
American Thinker
Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr.
It is troubling that our president is a pathological narcissist caught up in the thought patterns of Darwin, Marx, and Alinsky. Even more troubling is the fact that the Mainstream Media (MSM), suffering from an Obama-inspired narcosis, shirks its duty, refusing to publish or even explore any aspect of Obama's dark side. There is room for much optimism, however. If the ancient story of Narcissus and Echo plays itself out as Ovid recorded it, and [Obama and the MSM are their contemporary counterparts, both will fade away in the not too distant future.]
Confirmed: Kids' Praising Obama an official public school activity
An important update about the creepy video we posted yesterday. The Burlington Township School District, to which B. Bernice Youngs Elementary School belongs, posted the following Letter to Parents this morning.
Dear Burlington Township Families:
Today we became aware of a video that was placed on the internet which has been reported in the media. The video is of a class of students singing a song about President Obama. The activity took place during Black History Month in 2009, which is recognized each February to honor the contributions of African Americans to our country. Our curriculum studies, honors and recognizes those who serve our country. The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized.
http://exurbanleague.com/2009/09/24/confirmed-kids-praising-obama-an-official-public-school-activity.aspx
The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized.
That says it all. Yes, we're indoctrinating your children, but you were not supposed to find out about it.
Barney Franks was on the O’Reilly Factor talking about the ACORN whistleblowers being prosecuted. He went on and on about the young people being lawbreakers. I was wondering how old Barney feels about all the illegal aliens becoming citizens, they are lawbreakers, but somehow he never mentions that in his zeal to make them citizens. In his world there must be bad lawbreakers, and then good lawbreakers.
RE: This blog site used to be such a good place to read about McClatchy corp-
There are almost always threads about McClatchy jobs etc., but few people post comments. It should be clear by now that the news thread is mostly current events. Odd how the lefties can't get used to unfettered news sources.
“The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized.”
Indoctrination under the guise of Black History Month education? The lesson was in Feb. but the chant thanks Obama for all he has done? Adding this video to the foiled plans of Obama, the US Department of Education, and NEA, to flood himself to all the schools at one time is scary business. These are not the actions of normal educators.
O'Reilly has Barney Frank on often because the guy is such a complete moron. O'Reilly can barely contain his laughter as Frank pontificates on some completely ridiculous line of thought. Frank is the biggest joke in Washington. How did this nut get elected?
WSJ has a must read in Best of the Web. A real eye opener.
What Is Yosi Sergant?
Even his NEA colleagues don't know what his new job is. That's "transparency" for you!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574431070030286050.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Hmmm...try again...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574431070030286050.html
Ok, there is more than one way to out fox blogger....
http://tinyurl.com/yb6wk8z
11:42 thanks, I'm going to link to that one.
2:48 PM
You're welcome. A very telling read.
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