Combs Spouts Off

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Posts Tagged ‘media bias’

MSM fiscal cliff reporting jumps the shark

Posted by Richard on December 29, 2012

In the last few days, the mainstream media’s “reporting” of the fiscal cliff negotiations has gone from somewhat biased to totally beyond the pale. For instance, NBC Nightly News in the past fawningly reported Bill Clinton’s defense of the tax rates during his administration. And for years, they’ve talked disapprovingly about the “Bush tax cuts.” The other night, they described the consequences of going over the fiscal cliff as the restoration of the “higher Bush-era tax rates.” Not the “higher Clinton-era tax rates,” but the “higher Bush-era tax rates.” That is, the rates Bush inherited from Clinton and subsequently cut. 

Another news story I saw recently (I think it was CBS) stated as fact that with time running out, the only option left is to give the President what he wants. Why isn’t the only option to give the House Republicans what they want? Why is the intransigence of Obama an immutable given, while the intransigence of House Republicans is irrelevant?

I think the President is willing — perhaps eager — to go over the fiscal cliff. He may object to the domestic discretionary spending cuts, but he has no problem with the defense cuts (neither do I, by the way). And he likes the general idea of higher taxes and more government revenue. Plus, he’s confident that, given the GOP’s messaging incompetence and the complicity of the MSM, the blame for middle-class tax increases will fall on the Republicans.

I just hope that the utterly incompetent GOP mishandling of this issue will lead to the dumping of Boehner as House speaker and possibly the dumping of McConnell as Senate minority leader. It’s far past time for a major shake-up in the GOP that kicks to the curb the “ruling class” inside-the-beltway, politics-as-usual leadership that has served the party so poorly for so many years.

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McCain: “one of the dumbest questions I’ve ever heard”

Posted by Richard on November 14, 2012

The Blaze:

Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C), and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H) during a press conference on Wednesday called for an deeper investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans. But During the “Q&A” portion of that press conference, a reporter asked Sen. McCain whether he thought David Petraeus’ sex scandal posed a greater threat to national security than the Benghazi attack.

“Senator,” the reporter began, “do you think there’s a potentially greater national security threat in, apparently, nearly thousands of pages of classified documents ending up on the personal computer of a Tampa socialite … do you think that’s a potentially greater national security threat than what we’re talking about?”

“Well, I say with great respect,” Sen. McCain answered, “that’s one of the dumbest questions I’ve ever heard. Okay? There’s four dead Americans. Four dead Americans. Not a socialite.”

It’s not such a dumb question if you’re an Obamamedia reporter whose goal is not to report what’s most newsworthy, but to divert attention away from the terrorist attack on the consulate. It’s not such a dumb question if you want the nation to focus on the salacious details of a stupid extramarital affair by someone who might, if not discredited or intimidated into toeing the administration line, reveal embarrassing information about Benghazi-gate.

Remember the 90s, when extramarital affairs by high-ranking officials were “just sex” and unworthy of our attention?

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Sickening media gloating

Posted by Richard on November 6, 2012

After a bit of flipping around the network election coverage, I’m just disgusted by what I see in the wake of the Obama victory. The expressions of the “objective reporters” on the broadcast networks range from jubilant to smug to gloating. Tonight they know that, despite the information revolution and the growth of new media, they’re still able to shape the debate, filter the news, and influence a significant portion of the population.

One example: In the last seven weeks, the MSM actively and successfully abetted the Obama administration in the Benghazi-gate coverup. One of the recent examples is CBS withholding until this past weekend of the fact that it had an unaired portion of Obama’s 60 Minutes interview that proves Obama lied in the foreign policy debate  — and that moderator Candy Crowley was factually wrong in backing Obama’s claim (as well as being totally out of line).

Another example: The exit polls suggest that a lot of the last-minute deciders were persuaded to vote Obama because of how well he “handled” Superstorm Sandy. In reality, he did nothing — nothing! — to “handle” Sandy. The federal government’s response was no better than it was during Katrina — and such as it was, the President had no hand in it whatsoever. He was preoccupied by fundraisers and campaign appearances. But a few well-staged photo ops and tons of fawning and supportive media coverage created the opposite impression.

Many years ago, Ayn Rand argued that restoring the United States to its pro-freedom, individualist, capitalist roots would require not just a political change but a philosophical change — a change in cultural values, if you will. In the wake of the Reagan Revolution, and again after 9/11 starkly illustrated the difference between the advocates of reason and the Enlightenment and their enemies, Rand’s argument was ignored or forgotten. But neither political change proved to be lasting. Rand was right. And she was right in saying that, to change the values of the mass of the American people, you first have to change the values of the intelligentsia. A good place to start would be the nation’s journalism schools.

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Benghazi-gate updates

Posted by Richard on November 1, 2012

Yesterday, Walid Shoebat reported that one of a “treasure trove of documents” obtained from a source in Libya indicates that the interim government put an al Qaeda ally in charge of security in Tripoli, including all embassies, apparently with US approval.

UPDATE: In case you’re wondering — yes, the al Qaeda ally, Abdel Hakim Belhaj (or Belhadj), that this document says was in charge of our embassy’s security is the same former associate of Osama bin Laden and former fighter in Afghanistan whom I posted about on October 2. It was his jihadist militia that the US armed during the Libyan non-war, it may have been his jihadist militia that attacked the consulate, and it may have been those US-supplied weapons that were used in the attack.

This morning, Fox News reported on a secret August 16 cable leaked to them. Almost a month before the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Benghazi consulate, the cable  notified the Secretary of State’s office about an emergency meeting called by the US mission in Benghazi. The cable reported that the city was home to about ten Islamist militias and al Qaeda training camps, that the Libyan government had no control over the region, and that the consulate was in danger:

“RSO (Regional Security Officer) expressed concerns with the ability to defend Post in the event of a coordinated attack due to limited manpower, security measures, weapons capabilities, host nation support, and the overall size of the compound,” the cable said.

The details in the cable seemed to foreshadow the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. compound, which was a coordinated, commando-style assault using direct and indirect fire. Al Qaeda in North Africa and Ansar al-Sharia, both mentioned in the cable, have since been implicated in the consulate attack.

In addition to describing the security situation in Benghazi as “trending negatively,” the cable said explicitly that the mission would ask for more help. “In light of the uncertain security environment, US Mission Benghazi will submit specific requests to US Embassy Tripoli for additional physical security upgrades and staffing needs by separate cover.”

In an outstanding, must-read editorial today, the Las Vegas Review-Journal declared Obama an “unworthy commander in chief.” Here’s a portion, which outlines much of what we know about events in Benghazi and Washington on 9/11 (emphasis added):

 U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in a well-planned military assault on their diplomatic mission in Benghazi seven weeks ago, the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. So why are details surfacing, piecemeal, only now?

The Obama administration sat by doing nothing for seven hours that night, ignoring calls to dispatch help from our bases in Italy, less than two hours away. It has spent the past seven weeks stretching the story out, engaging in misdirection and deception involving supposed indigenous outrage over an obscure anti-Muslim video, confident that with the aid of a docile press corps this infamous climax to four years of misguided foreign policy can be swept under the rug, at least until after Tuesday’s election.

Charles Woods, father of former Navy SEAL and Henderson resident Tyrone Woods, 41, says his son died slumped over his machine gun after he and fellow ex-SEAL Glen Doherty – not the two locals who were the only bodyguards Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration would authorize – held off the enemy for seven hours.

The Obama administration was warned. They received an embassy cable June 25 expressing concern over rising Islamic extremism in Benghazi, noting the black flag of al-Qaida “has been spotted several times flying over government buildings and training facilities.” The Obama administration removed a well-armed, 16-member security detail from Libya in August, The Wall Street Journal reported last month, replacing it with a couple of locals. Mr. Stevens sent a cable Aug. 2 requesting 11 additional body guards, noting “Host nation security support is lacking and cannot be depended on,” reports Peter Ferrara at Forbes.com. But these requests were denied, officials testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier this month.

Based on documents released by the committee, on the day of the attack the Pentagon dispatched a drone with a video camera so everyone in Washington could see what was happening in real time. The drone documented no crowds protesting any video. But around 4 p.m. Washington received an email from the Benghazi mission saying it was under a military-style attack. The White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA were able to watch the live video feed. An email sent later that day reported “Ansar al-Sharia claims responsibility for Benghazi attack.”

Not only did the White House do nothing, there are now reports that a counterterrorism team ready to launch a rescue mission was ordered to stand down.

The official explanation for the inadequate security? This administration didn’t want to “offend the sensibilities” of the new radical Islamic regime which American and British arms had so recently helped install in Libya.

The official explanation for why Obama administration officials watched the attack unfold for seven hours, refusing repeated requests to send the air support and relief forces that sat less than two hours away in Italy? Silence.

If this were a Republican administration, ABC, CBS, and NBC would each have aired at least one hour-long primetime special report on Benghazi-gate by now, and the cable news networks would all be reporting on it 24/7. The New York Times, Washington Post, and numerous other papers would have published countless editorials expressing outrage over the mishandling of the Benghazi situation and even more outrage over the subsequent cover-up. The Democrats would be helping keep the story in the news by calling back to Washington all the congresscritters from safe districts, empaneling a special committeee, and holding Benghazi-gate hearings non-stop, with subpoenas for the Secretary of State, White House chief of staff, head of the CIA, and a score of other administration officials.

But this isn’t a Republican administration. And the mainstream media aren’t just “a docile press corps,” as the Review-Journal politely puts it — they’re accomplices in the cover-up and an active arm of the Obama re-election campaign.

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The Solyndra of Colorado

Posted by Richard on October 26, 2012

During one of the debates, in the context of green energy company subsidies, Romney said to Obama, “You don’t pick winners and losers, you pick losers!” The feds have repeatedly loaned large sums to companies that couldn’t stay in business even with a government crutch (I think the last count I saw was 19).

But it’s not just that government guarantees attract the uncompetitive and incompetent. This kind of crony capitalism (the only kind of capitalism the Obama administration seems to like) also inevitably attracts crooks and scoundrels. We may have an example here in Colorado. David Harsanyi has the story:

It was one of Barack Obama’s favorite green-energy companies. And green-energy companies, according to the president, are one of the best ways to facilitate economic growth.

Well, yesterday, The Denver Post detailed the criminal investigation of Abound Solar, a defunct solar-panel manufacturer in Colorado that was run on taxpayer “investments,” for securities fraud, consumer fraud and financial misrepresentation.

Abound shuttered its Colorado plant during the summer and filed for bankruptcy, leaving “125 workers without jobs and taxpayers holding the bag for up to $60 million in defaulted loans.” …

The story of how the Denver Post finally came to report the Abound Solar story is itself quite interesting. It took a billboard across from their offices to shame them into reporting this important local story. Check out:

 

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Romney picks Ryan, shocking revelations begin

Posted by Richard on August 11, 2012

This morning, Mitt Romney introduced Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate. A few hours later, a Jaynesville, Wisconsin man declared that Ryan was responsible for the death of his wife when, as a college student, Ryan was driving the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. “She was so distracted by the sight of that Wienermobile that she hit a telephone pole,” Adelbert Goopooch explained. “She was incapacitated for quite some time, had to give up her job, and took to drinking. Seven years later, while inebriated, she slipped in the bathtub, hit her head, and drowned. She’d be alive today if it weren’t for Paul Ryan.”

Early this afternoon, Sen. Harry Reid, an alleged pederast, announced that he’d received a phone call from someone who once attended a Ryan campaign event who assured him that Ryan had never in his life paid his taxes.

ABC News and MSNBC have launched independent investigations into rumors that Ryan once hired a lawn service that employed undocumented workers and that Ryan once owned stock in Staples and thus is connected to Bain Capital’s death squad money.

There is of course absolutely no evidence supporting any of these claims, but the seriousness of the allegations requires the mainstream media to treat them seriously.

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Bully, wimp, whatever…

Posted by Richard on July 30, 2012

The narratives of the left:

The strategy of the left: Throw whatever excrement you can come up with against the wall and hope something sticks.

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Exploiting a tragedy

Posted by Richard on July 20, 2012

It’s hard to say which was more contemptible this morning, before the corpses had even been carried to the morgue: New York Mayor Bloomberg waving the bloody shirt and beating the drum for gun control, or Brian Ross and ABC News scouring Tea Party web pages looking for someone with the same name as the Dark Knight shooter so they could attempt to tie that group to the killings.

I guess I’d give the nod to Ross and ABC’s Good Morning America. Although it was crass and exploitative, Bloomberg was openly advocating for an agenda he’s never made any secret of. Ross and ABC, on the other hand, pretended to be reporting news while actually attempting to harm the Tea Party movement, which they see (rightly) as the enemy of their secret leftist agenda (not that they’ve done a very good job of keeping it secret lately).

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“You’re struggling, Andrea, you’re struggling”

Posted by Richard on July 11, 2012

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell “interviewed” John Sununu (“debated” is more accurate) and once again revealed herself to be an Obama administration shill pretending to be a journalist. But this six-minute video clip isn’t just another ho-hum example of media bias. Sununu cleaned Mitchell’s clock, and on several occasions, the expression on her face is a hoot. Must-see TV.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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More doctoring by NBC/MSNBC

Posted by Richard on June 19, 2012

The NBC “news” organization, which doctored the tape of the George Zimmerman 911 call to make him appear to be a racist, has done it again. This time, they doctored video of Mitt Romney to make him appear to be out of touch with the ordinary, day-to-day experiences of average Americans like ordering a sandwich at a sub shop.

It was a blatant attempt to reprise the Bush supermarket scanner story (which was declared false by Snopes, by the way), and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell explicitly compared it to that incident.

In fact, Romney was simply comparing how private businesses, thanks to competition and innovation, make things easier and easier for their customers while the federal government makes things harder and harder. So he contrasted the ease of ordering a sub from a touch-screen with the difficulty an optometrist faced when trying to change his address (a 32-page form!) and get paid money the federal government owed him (a multi-month process). You can see the whole segment at NewsBusters (link above).

But you’d never know any of that context from seeing the carefully edited MSNBC clip. Or the slightly longer clip (still omitting all the context, and also at Newsbusters link above) that Mitchell showed in response to criticism.

Expect more of this between now and November. Much more. Especially from NBC/MSNBC, but from other MSM outlets also. They’re totally in the tank for Obama and willing to do virtually anything to manipulate public opinion on his behalf.

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Fact-checking the Denver Post

Posted by Richard on January 1, 2012

A December 28 Denver Post story contained bogus statistics about children and guns. Ari Armstrong called the lead reporter on it. He responded with bluff and bluster, revealing himself to be a total jerk. Ari turned to the Post’s news director. The Post issued a correction, and then a corrected correction.

Interestingly, while they posted an “editor’s note” with the corrected statistics at the bottom of the online story, in the story itself they “corrected” the falsehoods by simply removing the paragraph that contained them.

It’s an amusing and enlightening read, especially the email exchange between Ari and reporter Joey Bunch. Check it out.

HT: Walter in Denver, who has resumed posting after an even longer dry spell than mine. Glad to see you back, Walter! :-)

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Compare and contrast: Libya and Wisconsin

Posted by Richard on March 18, 2011

Like me, Daffyd was struck by the irony of public employee union protesters and their bused-in supporters in Madison, Wisconsin, using the slogan "This is what democracy looks like!" Unlike me, he thought to draw a parallel with events in Libya (and Egypt, and Iran), and to formulate a test for determining whether a protest movement is furthering democracy (emphasis in original):

I see a very simple test, derived from the rule enunciated by Ann Coulter anent the potential need for a union. Last month, the hot-right chick wrote:

The need for a union comes down to this question: Do you have a boss who wants you to work harder for less money? In the private sector, the answer is yes. In the public sector, the answer is a big, fat NO.

I understand the distinction the blonde bombard is making, though I still disagree with her formulation; if you have a boss who wants you to work harder for less money, your best bet is still Capitalism: Get some "hand" in the game by making yourself a more valuable employee, then negotiate a raise or promotion.

Still, the Coulterism is succinct and full of pith, easily adaptable to the distinction between Libya and Madison. Let's phrase it thus:

  • If you're protesting because neither election nor even dissent is allowed, then what you have is an uprising of freedom.

  • If you're protesting because you lost the election — then what you have is an anti-democratic, totalitarian front.

See? Politics needn't be abstruse or recondite. Betimes the most basic rules are best.

Just a reminder: Gov. Walker campaigned on the bill that the union protesters protested against, and he won. The Republicans elected to the legislature (in a massive state-wide wipe-out of Democrats) promised to support Walker's bill, and they won. So "what democracy looks like" is exactly what the union thugs objected to.

As Daffyd noted, the union protesters' effort was anti-democratic. In fact, given the numerous death threats against Republican state legislators — totally ignored by the MSM, of course — I'd call it fascism.

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NPR lied

Posted by Richard on March 11, 2011

From the beginning of the NPR-gate story, it bugged me that NPR's critics were so focused on what Ron Schiller said about the Tea Party and Jews controlling the media. To me, the big story was that NPR executives were eager to schmooze with and accept funding from a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas. (Although I can certainly understand why ADL is upset and demanding an apology. I don't know if Tea Party Patriots has asked for an apology.)

NPR, of course, insisted that they'd repeatedly turned down the $5 million contribution. But now that Project Veritas has released its second NPR-gate video, that claim has been shown to be a lie. And the focus is now where I think it belongs — on NPR's knowing collaboration with a Muslim Brotherhood front group, the fictitious Muslim Education Action Center, and its willingness to not only accept the donation, but help make sure the source remains anonymous.

In her conversations with MEAC's "Ibrahim Kasaam," Betsy Liley, Senior Director of Institutional Giving, suggested more than once that the donation could be directed to a specific purpose, such as supporting NPR's foreign desk or religious coverage. And she revealed that she had checked out the MEAC website, which states that the organization is dedicated to spreading Sharia "across the world."

Big Journalism's Larry O'Connor thinks it's time for a Congressional investigation: 

While taking great pains to isolate Mr Schiller (who had already tendered his resignation to the publicly-funded broadcaster) NPR also suggested to the American public that they had no intention of accepting the proposed donation from MEAC and had, in fact, “repeatedly refused” the donation.  Only later in the day did NPR reveal that they had been vetting the group as recently as last week with hopes of obtaining their 501(c)(3) credentials.  We continue to ask:  Why vet a group you have repeatedly refused to take money from?

What we are witnessing is NPR’s ‘Modified Limited Hangout’ made famous by the engineers of the Watergate cover-up.  NPR is attempting to admit guilt and beg forgiveness for the lesser “crime” of making intolerant remarks about conservatives and supporters of Israel as a means to misdirect from the much larger and odious crime of being willing to accept blood money from a Muslim Brotherhood front group.

These two conflicting accounts could very well have paved the way for CEO Vivian Schiller’s ouster as her forced resignation was announced twelve hours after our article exposing the contradiction.  Now, with today’s video showing an active engagement from the NPR development team with the journalists posing as Shariah advocates and “All Things Considered” aficionados, NPR’s attempt at deception is clear for all tax payers to see.

MEAC: “It sounded like you were saying NPR would be able to shield us from a government audit, is that correct?”

Liley: “I think that is the case, especially if you are anonymous. I can inquire about that.”

And in a subsequent e-mail from Liley to MEAC, Liley wrote that she’s “awaiting a draft of a gift agreement from our legal counsel and will share it when I have it.”  That sure is a funny way of “repeatedly refusing” a donation.

This should be the long-overdue death knell for taxpayer funding of NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which amounts to about half a billion dollars a year.

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Shocker! The New York Times employs a double standard!

Posted by Richard on November 30, 2010

This isn't really news, now is it? It's been clear to many of us for years that the New York Times' real, but unspoken, motto is "All the news that fits our agenda, we print." In the latest example, here's how the Times explained their decision to publish a series of articles based on the stolen documents released by WikiLeaks:

The articles published today and in coming days are based on thousands of United States embassy cables, the daily reports from the field intended for the eyes of senior policy makers in Washington. … The Times believes that the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match.

And here's how they explained their decision just over a year ago to ostentatiously ignore the ClimateGate documents:

The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here. 

Compare and contrast. Extra points for explaining how the Hadley CRU's leaked documents illuminated the goals, successes, compromises, and frustrations of the anthropogenic global warming proponents in a way that the fawning media coverage they receive cannot match.

PowerLine's Scott Johnson didn't want to belabor the point, simply noting that "the two statements are logically irreconcilable." James Delingpole, on the other hand, thought it important to belabor the point, and he helpfully offered a few other examples of the Old Gray Lady applying its peculiar situational ethics to promote its ideological agenda.

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Olberman in memoriam

Posted by Richard on November 6, 2010

OK, let me start by saying I think MSNBC's suspension of Keith Olberman is stupid and unfair. It's not that I feel sorry for this annoying POS, who is perhaps the most obnoxious poltroon ever to grace the airwaves. But, despite the fact that MSNBC allowed this clown pretending to be a journalist to actually anchor what they call "hard" news, the fact that he was a rabid left-wing partisan was never a secret to anyone with an IQ above room temperature.

To think that three donations to Socialist Democrat candidates would somehow damage Olberman's "credibility" as an "objective journalist" is just laughable. Olberman, the sports reporter with pretensions of grandeur? The pompous blowhard with the ridiculous Edward R. Murrow impersonation? The sneering, self-righteous windbag who routinely spewed forth the most vitriolic, mean-spirited, leftist commentary of anyone ever given access to a microphone?

Forget Olberman's history for a moment. This is the network of Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Contessa Brewer, and Ed Schultz, for cryin' out loud. Are we supposed to believe that they're all still pure, unbiased, objective journalists because they haven't been caught contributing to Socialist Democrat candidates? Do the MSNBC execs really think they can maintain the illusion of impartiality by banning contributions to the cause their network pimps for every hour of the day? It is to laugh. 

Anyway, this "Keith Olberman – In Memoriam" video from Reason.tv is pretty funny. And despite the unfairness of his fate, I'm sure not shedding any tears for the a$$hole.


[YouTube link]

HT: Instapundit

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