“When we take over the media, when I become your boss, I will hug you, we will do pilates together.”

The left-driven media in these final days before the election is making every last ditch effort they can to discredit one of the largest political movements in American history, the Tea Party. Meredith Vieira on the Today Show did her very best to throw Michele Bachmann off of the “you’re a social conservative bigot by association” cliff.  Vieira first tries to get Bachmann to denounce the Tea Party as “losing their way” because they supposedly took a stance on some social issues. Bachmann corrects Vieira so Vieira tries to play the “guilt by association” game with Bachmann. It’s interesting how conservatives are constantly forced to answer for all comments that all conservatives make but no one held Harry Reid accountable for Howard Dean’s view on the mosque. When the liberals disagreed over the Ground Zero Mosque nationally, where were the interviews asking them to denounce the each other’s positions?

Joy Behar later references the Vieira interview and shows total ignorance when it comes to Bachmann. Again, Behar tries to hold Vieira to the same standard that Vieira held Bachmann and it still didn’t take with Behar’s guests. Behar then goes off on Bachmann’s opposition to Obamacare and completely loses all form of sanity. She maniacally proclaims over and over again that Bachmann is against children. Behar really tries to argue that Bachmann, the woman who has had at least 23 foster children as well as children of her own, is anti-children. Behar not only insults her viewers by her lack of research on criticizing a candidate but she also insults and diminishes the children that Bachmann has cared for. I suppose it’s too much to expect a reasonable interview from Behar when on The View Behar shows she isn’t even familiar with one of the most cited CNN polls concerning the Ground Zero Mosque. Not to mention the fact that she stormed off stage in pseudo disgust on national television. (more…)

Having done video coverage of almost 50 Tea Parties in over 45 cities in 25 states, it’s safe to say I know the Tea Party well. And as a 23-year-old coming from a generation primarily influenced by mainstream media, I believe the mainstream media’s lampooning and stigmatizing of our movement, while nefarious yet somewhat successful, has not been achieved entirely without some cooperation on our part. I believe in our movement, and believe we will win in November, but if we lose, here are five reasons why.

First: Let’s not overdo it with the 18^th century costumes. While festive and somewhat thematically appropriate, it doesn’t speak to my generation, and often begs the mainstream media to caricaturize us as Halloween-padded fringe throwbacks. We can all agree on restoring the constitutional vision of our founding fathers, but restoring their fashion sensibilities? You will have to call me a progressive on that one.

Second: A convenient Tea Party mantra has been the presumptuous, and seemingly amnesiac notion that President Obama “betrayed the American people,” that “We the People have spoken and never wanted Obama’s policies.”

Obama made his agenda clear during his campaign: He promised to socialize health care, to push for cap and trade, to implement tax policies that would “spread the wealth around,” he equated redistribution of wealth with “neighborliness,” supported the 2008 Wall Street bailouts, demonstrated his faith in Keynesian economics, his class warfare mentality, his distrust for the free market… (more…)

It’s been 50 years since the famous Nixon/Kennedy debates first hit the airways, and Democrat Harry Reid hasn’t seemed to learn much about being on TV.

Two nights ago, Reid, with his 24 years of experience in the US Senate, squared off against his Republican challenger Sharron Angle. Reid looked dazed and confused at times, Angle, a relative political novice and grandmother looked confident and poised. Reid would never look at Angle–except for at their introduction, not once that I saw did he look over to even give a glance to his opponent. She addressed Reid, looked at him often and told him exactly what she thought and what the people of Nevada thought. Like the debate of 50 years ago, if you watched it on TV I’m sure you got one impression, for the few who may have listened here on radio in Nevada you may have gotten another impression. Either way, Sharron was impressive.

Reid was also seen often fumbling with his papers and taking notes. Angle spoke from her heart. There were nerves, but did I mention this was a Reno grandmother taking on the most powerful person in the Senate?

As for the substance, the two could not be more clearly divided. Angle made it clear that this is a battle between larger, more intrusive government and smaller government dedicated to liberty for the people. At times she got specific and direct.  “Man up Harry Reid, we have a problem with Social Security,” quipped Angle at one point. Reid played the typically evasive lifelong politician who could not defend his foolish comments of the past, like, “this war is lost,” when talking about a pre-surge Iraq while soldiers were still fighting and dying in the battlefield. (more…)

It’s 16 days until November 2nd and the left is out of ideas. Scared of a country run by businessmen, scientists, nurses,  momma grizzlies, and a few lawyers, the left’s commentary is dripping with fear laced with insanity. The Chile miner rescue is a story that has fascinated the world. Reports that over a billion people tuned in to watch the heroic effort to bring those men to the surface. If there is a story out there that could be completely devoid of any partisan or political commentary it would be this one.

But it’s 16 days until the election, and that means the left cannot take a break from pounding the conservatives because every second counts! They are losing their own Democrat candidates by the day and losing supporters by the minute. It’s left up to the media, the gatekeepers of information, to inform the public that something terribly wrong is going to happen on November 3rd if the left loses and these crazy Tea Party people make it into power. (more…)

“Allah honored wives by instating the punishment of beatings.” So said Cleric Sa’d Arafat earlier this year. Last month, a Wellesley, Massachusetts public school took a trip to a mosque, where the school children were taught to pray to that same Allah.

The result is stunning: an unabashed exercise in Islamic dawa, the “call to Islam” and the manner by which the Brotherhood’s spiritual guide, Yusuf Qaradawi, promises that Islam will “conquer America” and “conquer Europe.” Qaradawi — wonder of wonders — is a trustee of the Roxbury mosque (although he is banned from the U.S. for sanctioning terrorism). As the video relates, “Dawa Net,” one Islamic organization that instructs on how to use the schools to inculcate the young, explains that public schools in America are “fertile grounds where the seeds of Islam can be sowed inside the hearts of non-Muslim students.”

Well, except for the icky girls. Cooties, and all. They were not allowed to take part in the “tolerance” indoctrination. Have to teach these girls how to show respect! And teach them a little about  the benefits of misogynistic subjugation in the Muslim world, right? See, they were shockingly told – as they were shuttled off to an area away from males – that Islam is “pro-women” and “Islam was actually very advanced in terms of recognizing women’s rights.” They were also told this:

At the time of the Prophet Muhammad, women were allowed to express their opinions and vote. In this country, women didn’t gain that right until less than a hundred years ago.

Of course. Blame America and try to make some sort of sick moral relativism argument. What’s the matter with you rube Islamophobes? Muhammad let women vote and express their opinions. Of course, they were then beaten for them, but still. In Islam, it is an honor to be beaten by your husband! There is even etiquette and stuff. We honor women by beating the crap out of them. Sheesh!

I mean, just let the cleric S’ad Arafat explain further:

By now I’m sure everyone is familiar with Democratic congressional candidate Krystal Ball’s reindeer games (NSFW photos here). Now Ball has a missive up at the Huffington Post comparing herself to Hillary Clinton and bastardizing history on why Bill Clinton was impeached in the first place.

(Hint: it wasn’t because he was serviced by a Gap fan in the Oval Office. Lying under oath in a sexual harassment case is illegal.)

Politics is a nasty game. I knew that coming in. I thought I could take it.

Facepalm.

The left is having more of a tantrum in pushing this issue than the right. They used this tactic successfully to knock the path clear for then-Senator Barack Obama. For a party that loves to preach about Uncle Sam not turning the bedroom into a federalized threesome, progs love gossiping about the sex lives of married people. Honestly, who CARES what you did at a Halloween party with your husband years ago? So what, the photos made it to the press, if I were working Ball’s campaign I’d release the photos, Demotivational-style and titled them: “KEEPING THE LOVE ALIVE.”

This isn’t politics. This is Ball embarrassed and freaked-out and trying to boost her campaign by crying wolf. She could have easily said: “So what? My husband and I had some racy photos on Facebook. And? We were married at the time and I was pretty young. What does this have to do with the issues?” (more…)

For some reason, many people still contend that Politico “has no politics” or is “politically neutral.” If that’s the case, someone please point out its right-of-center equivalent to Ben Smith. The JournoListo über-blogger is back at it today trying to “Joe the Plumber” William Kelly.

For those of you unaware, earlier this week Big Journalism posted video of the Chicago-based conservative talk-show host pursuing an aggressive line of questioning at a Rahm Emanuel media junket, when this happened:

But when you run this story through the JournoList Spin-o-Matic, what comes out is a Ben Smith blog post smearing Kelly Alinsky-style. Politico’s super-sleuth went to the trouble of finding Kelly’s 1995 book on Amazon, and you’ll never believe what he found: Kelly is a fan of noted white supremacist Norman Mailer (the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who contributed to Democrats until his death in 2007) and thinks “criminals should be made to pay for their crimes through hard work.” Busto! How is Kelly going to live this down?

No one sums up the back-asswardness of Smith’s post, and the left’s penchant for the politics of personal destruction, better than a commenter on Smith’s own blog:

Left wing “Reporters” threaten conservative. Ben Smith investigates–the conservative!

Watch out William Kelly, you’ve just been JournoListed. (more…)

Over at Townhall, Guy Benson is calling out Congressional Quarterly reporter John McArdle and the mainstream media in general for not reporting on Mike Flynn’s scoop from earlier this week that Dem. Rep. Charlie Wilson repeatedly abused his ex-wife during their 27-year marriage. Benson points out that McArdle was quick to report on sealed divorce records of a Republican candidate in Georgia, but is mum on Wilson’s checkered past:

What’s really interesting about the spousal abuse allegations against Congressman Wilson, John, is that they’re fully chronicled in unsealed files–and all the documentation you’d need to verify this possibly game-changing development is conveniently provided by the source that originally reported the story.  As a reporter, I’m sure you’d agree this represents substantially more persuasive sourcing than quotes from a political candidate’s opponent about scuttlebutt he’s supposedly heard from nameless third parties regarding nasty details of a sealed file he hasn’t seen.

Read the whole thing here.

To paraphrase Bill O’Reilly, “When they start calling you names, you know you’ve won.” To take it a step further, when they leave the conversation in the middle of an interview in disgust, you know who are the real professionals and who aren’t. In any other profession, if you leave your job during the time of executing its functions because you can’t emotionally handle the stress, you are fired or reassigned. But if you’re on The View and interviewing a Fox News commentator, the audience cheers for your emotional incompetence.

WATCH VIDEO HERE.

Bill O’Reilly was making the case about why the Ground Zero Mosque has such a large opposition against it. In the midst of all the woman trying to strangle him with their words he declares, “Muslims killed us on 9/11.” His comments were met with yelling and cussing from Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg. O’Reilly, unfazed by their antics, pressed them, “Are you saying Muslims didn’t kill us on 9/11?” That comment was met with Behar raising herself off the couch with faux righteous indignation saying, “I don’t want to sit here next to you.” Goldberg followed suit and the two marched backstage. (more…)

Last year blogger 24thstate did some excellent reporting about the structure of a little-known blog heavily linked to the Democratically dynastic Carnahan family of Missouri. The blog is a clearinghouse of all things anti-anti-Carnahan, with special attention on Roy Blunt (challenger to daughter Robin Carnahan, most recently of voter fraud fame) and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, whose health care lawsuit appeals too much to all the independents and Democrats who overwhelmingly voted for Prop C, a.k.a. the Health Care Freedom Act during the primaries.

One of the things I’ve noticed about the left is their inability to recognize balanced journalism and mistake (a term I’m not sure of as it implies innocent motive) objectivity for bias. As was clearly proven with study after study on leftist media bias (hence the public’s distrust of media), they’ve benefitted greatly from the uneven playing field for some time. However, facing fewer subscriptions, ratings drops, et al., media is catching on: people don’t want endless editorializing. They want the facts, Jack. If you’re going to be op/ed, at least be up front about it.

Having enjoyed media preference for so long, the folks at the Carnahan-linked blog were shocked and dismayed when they discovered that the honeymoon may be over.

(more…)

Imagine the following scenario taking place on the world stage:

Scene 1: Employees of one of the world’s largest oil companies are found to be in league with a right-wing film producer in an effort to produce a documentary aimed at helping the company fend off a lawsuit in a third-world country’s court that, if lost, could cost the company more than U.S. $100 million.

Scene 2: New York-based lawyers, said to be working on behalf of thousands of poor plaintiffs in their suit against the oil company, ask a U.S. federal court judge to order the right-wing film producer to provide his court with outtakes from the documentary, and the judge says, “Yes.”

Scene 3: Recognizing that the outtakes are now part of the official court record, members of the news media request copies of them. In turn, the federal judge orders that copies of the outtakes should not only be provided to members of the media requesting them but to members of the general public.

Scene 4: After obtaining the outtakes, members of the media spend countless hours airing video snippets, painting the “Big Oil” company in the worst light possible and, in so doing, aiding and abetting the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Unfortunately, a real-world scenario diametrically opposite the one described above seems to be taking place now. Below is a list of the players involved: (more…)

As important as it is to point out moments of bias in the mainstream media, it’s also important to point out moments when the mainstream media gives us a glimmer of – dare I say – “hope” that someone out there wants to do their job. Anderson Cooper has certainly had moments of blatant bias. A good example is when he did an investigative report on Planned Parenthood. Cooper came to the table with the belief that abortion clinics, as they are now, are a necessity and that they should be covered by insurance. But recently Anderson Cooper has shown on more than one occasion that he is capable of giving a hard interview to the normally unchallenged left. It started with Shirley Sharrod. When Sherrod went on AC360, Cooper let her claim that Andrew Breitbart wanted to take us back to a time of slavery unchallenged. Cooper later apologized to his viewers and since then has found a new vigor in interviewing controversial guests.

The left uses CNN as their crutch for “brave” interviews. If you go on MSNBC it’s just too obvious that you’re not interested in having an interview with any real challenge. When Rep. Bernice Johnson went on Anderson Cooper a few weeks ago, she got way more than she bargained for and we applauded Mr. Cooper for that. It’s time once again to give credit where credit is due to Mr. Cooper.

On October 6^th, Representative Alan Grayson went on AC360 to give what he hoped to be an easy interview about his very controversial – and frankly sickening – Taliban Dan ad. (more…)

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t find this move from a government-funded media entity a surprising one, but kudos to NPR for drawing a line in the sand. Of course, there isn’t a directive about objective coverage, but barring presence beyond reporting is a huge step.

NPR brass sent out an email yesterday reminding their staff about their non-political activity policies going into the election season, with emphasis on the forthcoming John Stewart/Stephen Colbert rallies:

From: [NPR chief executive] Vivian Schiller
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 8:58 AM
To: AllStaff
Subject: FW: NPR Journalists and political activity

To ALL NPR staff,

Please see Ellen Weiss’ note to her staff below (and in particular, the reference to the upcoming Jon Stewart rally). In addition to News, the other divisions that are required to abide by the NPR News Ethics policy are digital, programming/AIR, legal and communications.

However, no matter where you work at NPR you should be very mindful that you represent the organization and its news coverage in the eyes of your friends, neighbors and others. So please think twice about the message you may be sending about our objectivity before you attend a rally or post a bumper sticker or yard sign. We are all NPR.

(more…)

WATCH VIDEO HERE.

They were outraged over Mr. O’Reilly’s suggestion that the 9/11 attacks were executed by Muslims. Barbara Walters immediately chastised her colleagues for their behavior.

The editors of Big Hollywood add, “Funny how no one bothered to storm off the set while Whoopi defended fugitive child ‘not-rape-rape’ rapist Roman Polanski.” As uncomfortable as it may be for people on the multiculturalist left, O’Reilly was speaking the truth, unlike Behar when she said mother-of-28 Michele Bachmann is “against children.” Remarkably, conservative pundit S.E. Cupp managed to keep her composure and stay on stage in that instance

How has the increasingly marginalized demand for Internet regulations been dramatically amplified, despite the American people’s clear disapproval of just this kind of federal government overreach? You guessed it, the liberal media, who can always be depended upon to do whatever they can to promote and legitimize the latest bad idea coming from the left.

Armed with the freshest copy of the far left’s talking points, outlets like NPR, the Seattle Times and the Washington Post Business Section have concluded that the Internet will only be safe if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates it under Title II of the Communications Act – designed for monopoly Bell telephone companies in the 1930s.

NPR recently ran a story on broadband policy and the leadership of FCC Chairman and Obama friend Julius Genachowski. Reporter Joel Rose interviewed two people for the story: a professor from the University of Pennsylvania, who reminded the FCC that “they have to adopt something that is enforceable,” and the president of Free Press, who warned about the end of “the Internet as we know it” and whined about how “terrified” Genachowski is of following Free Press’s reckless demands to regulate the Internet.

Quotes from Congressmen Henry Waxman and Jay Inslee, both liberal Democrats who openly support the FCC unilaterally – and probably illegally – imposing Title II regulations, were also included in the report.

What did NPR leave out? At no point did NPR’s Rose interview or quote one – not one – expert or advocate who opposes Internet regulations. Neither did he quote one member of the bipartisan majority in Congress who publicly opposes an FCC takeover and Title II regulations. (more…)