Bias and the Media
Ask any leftist and odds are that they think that Fox News is “far right wing” and just repeats what the RNC tells them.
If you ask a few more questions, you’ll find out that these same people think CBS/ABC/MSNBC/CNN & the New York Times are “centrist” and not pushing any agenda.
Then they will tell you that they get most of their “news” from Jon Steward, that Olbermann really is continuing in the footsteps of Morrow, and that Michael Moore makes documentaries.
They passionately believe all of this,even though none of it has any basis in reality.
…Fox News showed more structural bias toward Democratic candidate John Kerry than any other network, and that its bias was stronger than that on other networks. This was true contrary to criticism cited by Fico in which former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite labels Fox News as a “far-rightwing organization.”
That means Kerry and his supporters received more air time on Fox and were more likely to receive primary placement in stories. The four determinants of structural bias were the number of supporters quoted or given a chance to speak, the candidate whose supporters spoke first, the time they spent speaking, and whether there were visuals of both candidates or only of one. Neither the tone of the quotes used nor talk and commentary were analyzed, but only packaged news stories and segments.
Not quite what you would expect from a “far right wing” news organization.
Let us look at another example. The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University had this to say on bias and coverage of the News media.
“…Fox News Channel’s evening news show provided more balanced coverage than its counterparts on the broadcast networks.”
Wow! Balanced coverage from Fox News? Point this simple and verifiable fact out to a leftist and it’s a safe bet that they will deny it.
The CMPA goes on:
Fox News Channel’s coverage was more balanced toward both parties than the broadcast networks were. On FOX, evaluations of all Democratic candidates combined were split almost evenly – 51% positive vs. 49% negative, as were all evaluations of GOP candidates – 49% positive vs. 51% negative, producing a perfectly balanced 50-50 split for all candidates of both parties.
On the three broadcast networks, opinion on Democratic candidates split 47% positive vs. 53% negative, while evaluations of Republicans were more negative – 40% positive vs. 60% negative. For both parties combined, network evaluations were almost 3 to 2 negative in tone, i.e. 41% positive vs. 59% negative.
If the leftists are getting a simple and basic fact about media bias wrong, it begs a couple of questions. One, are they seeing MSNBC, the self proclaimed “Obama network”, as “centrist” because they are personally skewed to the Far Left? Two, what other simple and basic facts are they getting wrong?
BHO’s rhetoric hits Reality
Filed under: Barking Moonbats, Global War on Islamofascism, Our Dear Leader, Politics
The far hard left extremist barking moonbats who supported our Dear Leader are not going to be happy with him. They wanted Camp X-Ray at Gitmo shut down and the terrorists released.
Well, once in the Oval Office, the leftist barking moonbat rhetoric ran straight into the brick wall of reality. First, BHO stopped calling the terrorists “enemy combatants”, so in the left’s “it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is” world, there were no more “enemy combatants” at Camp X-Ray.
Now, our Dear Leader is planning on continuing the military courts to try the terrorists. A policy of GWB that drove the leftist extremist moonbats out of their trees
Obama has embraced many of the same positions that liberals and Obama himself criticized. For example:
* Obama and members of his administration have embraced the use of rendition. Many of Obama’s most ardent defenders blasted progressives who criticized Obama on rendition as jumping the gun. Today, their arguments look even more problematic than in the past.
* Obama has invoked the maligned “state secrets” defense as a complete bar to lawsuits challenging potential human rights and constitutional law violations.
* Obama has argued that detainees at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan do not qualify for habeas corpus rights, even though many of the detainees at the facility were not captured in the war or in Afghanistan.
* Even though it no longer uses the phrase “enemy combatants,” the Obama administration has taken the position that the government can indefinitely detain individuals, whether or not they engaged in torture and whether or not they fought the United States on the “battlefield.” This logic combined with the denial of habeas to detainees in Afghanistan could make Bagram the functional equivalent of Guantanamo Bay.
If the New York Times article is accurate, then the use of military tribunals issue will join the list of policies that Obama has endorsed, despite the loud liberal criticism that Bush received when he did the same things.
Yup, that smell in the air is left hypocrisy. As one commenter accurately put it, “What you are really saying is that the Democrats used National Security as a political weapon strictly for gaining power.”
Friday B-Movie Pick: Rapid Fire
The late Brandon Lee and Powers Booth in a good old fashioned action movie. Bad guys, good guys, gun fu, and Kung Fu. Fire up the popcorn for this one.
No recession at the White House
Our Dear Leader & his wife are not feeling any pinch due to the current economic downturn (Thank you very much Barney Frank).
This is made quite clear by our Dear Leader‘s wife venturing out casually wearing $540 sneakers.
Way to show that our so called “leaders” are completely out of touch with the problems of everyday Americans.
Update:Smell the hypocrisy as we recall the left’s ranting over Senator McCain’s shoes, and complete lack of outrage from the DNC/MSM over our Dear Leader‘s wife wearing $540 designer sneakers from a Paris line. The only sound from the leftist media is the fawning over her ‘fashion sense.‘
What Americans are Reading
Just to check the pulse of America and see how things are trending, let’s take a look at what Americans are reading.
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin is currently holds the #1 position in sales ranking for all books at Amazon.com.
The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World is a very respectable #19 in the Amazon sales ranking.
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning comes out in Paperback in June. I’m expecting a jump in sales then.
A Teaparty Mom Speaks out
Kristin Tant is a single mom and a small business owner.
She has a few things to say to our Dear Leader.
It’s worth the read.
Massachusetts Legislature to Citizens: Screw You.
Filed under: Culture of Corruption, Politics, Taxes, The Peoples Commonweath
In state well know for out of control government spending, corruption, and general inefficiency, our completely out of touch reality and massively democrat majority legislature has decided to raise the sales tax from 5% to 6.25%.
Even our clueless “Cadillac of Governors” has figured out that this is a bad idea and threated to veto it. So his democrat allies in the State House responded by passing the bill with a veto proof majority.
The shifting morals of Arlen Spector
Let us go back to 2001. Squishy lefty RINO Arlen Spector condemned Vermont Senator Jim Jefford’s cowardly move to the democrat party. According the the LA Times:
Specter said then- Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords’ decision to become an independent was disruptive to the functioning of Congress. He proposed a rule forbidding party switches that had the effect of vaulting the minority to majority status in the middle of a congressional session.
“If somebody wants to change parties, they can do that,” Specter said at the time. “But that kind of instability is not good for governance of the country and the Senate.”
Let us also look at Arlen Spector’s own word from earlier this month:
“A vote for Specter is a vote for denying Harry Reid and the Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate.”
The bottom line is that Spector looked at the polls for the Republican Primary in Pennsylvania and saw that he was going to loose big time. Given that Pennsylvania went for our Dear Leader in 2008, and that most of those votes came out of Spector’s base of Philadelphia, he decided that he had a better change of re-election as a democrat in the general election.
Arlen Spector’s party switch isn’t about Republican or democrat policies. It’s all about Arlen Spector.
Update: Spector’s switch isn’t being praised by everybody on the left. Rachel Maddow is now calling him a DINO.
Carrie Fisher roasts George Lucas
Bloody fornicating brilliant. I’m betting she wrote this herself.
Monday Book Pick: Princess of Wands
Filed under: Baen Books, Martial Arts, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
Princess of Wands by John Ringo
A slightly different hero than the genre usally sees in this modern day horror/adventure tale by NY Times best selling author John Ringo.
Barbara Everett is a Christian soccer mom from the southeastern United States. Who just happens to an expert in martial arts and combat shooting. Which comes in handy when Lovecraftian evil comes a calling on her quiet vacation spot. This book is actually a collection of several stories, including one that takes place mostly at a SciFi/Fantasy con. A lot of industry inside baseball in that one, which makes it way cool.