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18 July 2005

Notorious Christian terrorist Eric Rudolph was sentenced to two life terms on Monday

Of course, you won't see that headline in American newspapers, in regard to the infamous abortion clinic/Atlanta Olympics bomber.
Other things you won't see in the American press about this story (satire alert):

Thomas Friedman will not write an op-ed for the New York Times about what is wrong with white southern Christian males that they keep producing these terrorists. He will also not ask why Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are not denouncing Eric Rudolph every day at the top of their lungs.

No reporter will interview frightened Iraqis about their fears at hearing that there are 138,000 armed Christians in their country belonging to the same faith as the bomber, Rudolph, some of them from his stomping grounds of Florida and North Carolina.

Daniel Pipes will not write a column for the New York Post suggesting that white southern Christians be put in internment camps until it can be determined why they keep producing terrorists and antisemites.

And so on.

Language usage is a powerful device, and while it is easily reasoned that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, here is a vivid example where the same vile perpetrator of religous homicidal rage is described in much different terms than others who've committed the same offenses in the corporate controlled right wing press.

14 July 2005

If only women's votes had been counted in the last two elections, Al Gore and John Kerry would have won hands down

A column on the dearth of women columnists but this blurb is indeed noteworthy.
As the right's mythmakers continue their assault on the so-called "left-wing media" — the attack on public broadcasting being only the most recent example — many media outlets have caved in to the pressure and redoubled their efforts to avoid that liberal taint. Consider this: On CNN and MSNBC, presumably the most liberal cable news channels, conservative commentators outnumbered liberals 10 to 1 (CNN) and 13 to 2 (MSNBC) during the Jan. 20 coverage of President Bush's inauguration.

And if adopting protective conservative coloring is the media's goal, then women might as well toss their keyboards out the window. That's because women aren't necessarily nicer, or less interested in science, or more interested in recipes than men, but we are more liberal. Study after study has documented a persistent "gender gap" in American politics. If only women's votes had been counted in the last two elections, Al Gore and John Kerry would have won hands down.

Liberal media bias my arse…

Bush Operative Commits Felony to Punish Whistleblower

That is what the headline should have read over the story Judy Miller didn't write after being whispered the Plame leak. Of course, she's not protecting a "source", she's protecting "access".
Judy, Karl Rove ain't no "source." A confidential source -- and I've worked with many -- is an insider ready to put himself on the line to blow the whistle on an official lie or hidden danger. I would protect a source's name with my life and fortune as would any journalist who's not a craven jerk (the Managing Editor of Time Magazine comes to mind).

But the weasel who whispered "Valerie Plame" in Miller's ear was no source. Whether it was Karl Rove or some other Rove-tron inside the Bush regime (and no one outside Bush's band would have had this information), this was an official using his official info to commit a crime for the sole purpose of punishing a REAL whistleblower, Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband, for questioning our President's mythological premise for war in Iraq.

Access to official sources and celebratory praise has infected the ranks of the mainstream media.

The great poison in the corpus of American journalism is the lust for tidbits of supposedly "inside" information which is more often than not inside misinformation parading as hot news.

And thus we have Miller sucking on the steaming sewage pipe of White House lies about Iraq and spitting it out in the pages of The Times as "investigative reporting," for which The Times has apologized. Likewise, we had the embarrassment of Bob Woodward's special access to the Oval Office after the September 11 attacks when Woodward reported the exclusive news that the President was a flawless commander in chief in the war on terror -- for which Woodward has yet to apologize.

While reporting from the Potemkin village of decision-making set up for him at the White House, Woodward missed the real story that, in the words of the Downing Street memo, our leaders were losing track of Osama while they spent their time "fixing the intelligence" on Iraq. Even if Woodward learned of it, would he have reported it at the risk of losing his access to evil?

8 July 2005

To call these people nauseating is an insult to nausea

Fox News with their cynical, greedy and disgusting outlook on the world in wake of the horrific London bombing yesterday.
That's right - his first thought after hearing about the awful terrorist attack in London today wasn't "how tragic," or "let's say a prayer for the dead," or "how can I help the victims" - his first thought was, there was a terrorist attack, how can I personally profit off it? In fact, his impulse to use the bloodshed to make himself money was so intense, he actually voiced it on national television (FYI - in case you'd like to voice your displeasure, Brit's email address is brit.hume@foxnews.com and his office number is 202-824-6300).

Of course, this was only the worst example from Fox. Earlier in the day, Fox reporter Brian Kilmeade seemed to cheer on the attack because he said "it works to our advantage." Meanwhile, Fox's Stuart Varney was genuinely excited that the attack will mean other progressive issues will now be knocked out of the public debate. "It takes global warming off the front burner," Varney frothed. "It takes African aid off the front burner. It sticks terrorism and the fight on the war on terror, right up front all over again."

2 July 2005

Rove Blew CIA Agent's Cover

The outing of Valerie Plame was done by that vile, chickenhawk, Nixonian dirty trickster, US President George W. Bush's senior advisor and deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove.
I revealed in yesterday's taping of the McLaughlin Group that Time magazine's emails will reveal that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source. I have known this for months but didn't want to say it at a time that would risk me getting dragged into the grand jury.

McLaughlin is seen in some markets on Friday night, so some websites have picked it up, including Drudge, but I don't expect it to have much impact because McLaughlin is not considered a news show and it will be pre-empted in the big markets on Sunday because of tennis.

Since I revealed the big scoop, I have had it reconfirmed by yet another highly authoritative source. Too many people know this. It should break wide open this week. I know Newsweek is working on an 'It's Rove!' story and will probably break it tomorrow.

Rove has a history of "fighting dirty". It will be interesting to see how this latest development is spun by the Kool-Aid drinkers…