2008 Election coverage snapshot

Here’s a good point-in-time assessment of media coverage of presidential candidates, from Pew Research.  Guess who generally gets more favorable coverage. 

It’s now late in 2007. . .

. . and leading Democrats are just now starting to criticize Hillary Clinton’s soulless triangulation?

(from Politico)

In a debate against six Democratic opponents at Drexel University here Tuesday, Clinton gave the worst performance of her entire campaign.

It was not just that her answer about whether illegal immigrants should be issued drivers’ licenses was at best incomprehensible and at worst misleading.

It was that for two hours she dodged and weaved, parsed and stonewalled.

And when it was over, both the Barack Obama and John Edwards campaigns signaled that in the weeks ahead they intend to hammer home a simple message: Hillary Clinton does not say what she means or mean what she says.

And she gave them plenty of ammunition Tuesday night.

She may have slipped up a little in last night’s debate, but how did her overall performance differ from her usual public persona over the last decade?

Perhaps just as bad was her general tone and demeanor. All of her opponents seemed passionate about one issue or another. But Clinton seemed largely emotionless and detached, often just mouthing rehearsed answers from her briefing book.

How was her appearance last night any different that her usual public demeanor?  For years, she has been described by an admiring press as a passionate citizen, Senator, advocate, representative, wife, woman, layperson, or activist, for a countless number of causes. And now she’s passionless?   Is it only now her Democratic opponents realize–as their counterparts on the right have known for years–that voters actually might have a strong distaste for the cynical maneuvering and poll-driven rhetoric of Clintonian politics?

Truth or Decapitations

This week we heard of a mass decapitation (is that a real word?) in Diyala province, and it appears that the story made its way to all of the main media outlets.

Did anybody check to see if it’s a true story?

(h/t G.P)

Dissertations, anthrax and you

How bin Laden infiltrated DARPA.

Arson rates now directly tied to global warming

Warmer temperatures tied to wildfires, scientists say

Arson suspected in several California wildfires.

** Egregious Update ** Photographic proof that climate “scientists” are openly, er, fanning the flames of climate debate. And with methane, no less!

No C-level executive experience?

Presto! Use “Instant Background“, a CV-enhancer offered by reputable information distributors such as the New York Times.

Wash that secret nuke program outta my hair

Now you see it, now you don’t!

Jena Myths explained

Media myths about the Jena 6 explained by a local reporter.

Yonian offer

Michael Yon on the disconnect between real war reporting and the stale byproduct that passes for reporting from news institutions Americans have trusted for decades:

Clearly, a majority of Americans believe the current set of outdated fallacies passed around mainstream media like watered down drinks at happy hour. Why wouldn’t they? The cloned copy they get comes from the same sources that list the specials at the local grocery store, and the hours and locations of polling places for town elections. These same news sources print obituaries and birth announcements, give play-by-play for local high school sports, and chronicle all the painful details of the latest celebrity to fall from grace.

It’s even worse overseas.

The first declaration of outright victory in Iraq

The honor goes to Greyhawk.  Let the howling begin.

Actually, it will be interesting to see how long it will take this notion to manifest itself in more common media. The first reports of the awakening in Anbar and other surge-related success preceded acknowledgment in the MSM by almost three months.

Can’t they just get it right?

The first sentence in this otherwise normal article in the Times about Rush Limbaugh is completely inaccurate.  Is it that difficult to do basic fact checking and objective analysis?

Bush’s war in Iraq kills more than 100 in Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto returns to much fanfare–and catastrophic attacks. It is a sad day in Karachi.

Oh, sorry about the misleading headline. Probably too late for a correction.

Based on what?

Despite any evidence that the economy is actually in a recession, nearly half polled by CNN-Opinion Research Corporation think we are.

Let the good times roll

Russian soccer hooligans clash in a good, old fashioned dust-up.

Caspian charade

Last I remember, it was Putin himself who offered the shared use of a military installation in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan in an attempt to thwart American plans to build new missile defense stations in the Czech Republic and Poland.  The official reason for these systems is to provide the West with an early warning of any surprise ballistic missile launch from a nuclear Iran.  The United States offered Putin a counterproposal, suggesting the Russians keep their Soviet-era site and instead plug it into a larger, shared defense network that would include the new Polish and Czech installations.

Although the purpose of the missile system is strictly defensive, and no agreement by the Americans to use the Azerbaijani site has yet been publicized, Putin is accusing the US of threatening to use Azerbaijan as a launching point for attacks on Iranian targets.   Let’s get this straight:  Putin says it’s OK for the US to have defensive capabilities at a shared location within a stone’s throw of Iran (and Russia!), but we had better not use it as a launching pad for striking Iran.  Putin has either acquiesced on the idea of shared missile defense (with an increased US presence in Eastern Europe) or is sending a heavily caveated message to a roguish Iran that the depths of Caspian brotherhood are not limitless.

Or both.

Get rich with Santa Kaus

Mickey Kaus proposes a technique guaranteed to make you millions from exploiting moderate-lib MSM news bias.  Soon to be on a late night informercial on CNBC.

Move along, nothing to see here. . .We got it covered.

UN watchdog swoops into action regarding alleged Syrian nuclear activities.

Although specific details may lacking on the extent of the Syrian program, it’s widely believed to be a BIG miss by the UAEA, which apparently relies only on intelligence provided to it directly by interested parties.  Which leaves it easily manipulated.   And pliant.

From Al-Dura to Haditha

With an important finding in the investigation of the mother of all Pallywood scandals looming large this week–the France 2/al Dura case, we just might get a glimpse of the nature of the efforts prejudiced powers employ to shape media to their interests, at the expense of proveable realities (aka truth), quite possibly to the detriment of hundreds of innocent lives. Such manipulation has already been exposed during the conflict in Jenin and in the vidid photographs submitted by “trusty” stringers covering the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

As the case of against the Marines involved with the Haditha incident seems to have fallen completely apart, we have to ask why such an alternate reality–was allowed to dominate the international media narrative to the unquestionable harm to both the accused and to the military mission in general. The answer might surprise you–the whole thing could have been planned as an al Qaeda agitprop mission from the start, and controversy-hungry politicians in America may have been the intended targets. Congressman John Murtha, please step to the stand.

Bush the religious zealot (?)

I’m pretty sure some of the left have dinged President Bush for acknowledging his faith plays an important part of his executive decisionmaking. Will these same critics have the same reaction when leading Dems admit the same?

Barack Obama praises the Lord while Nancy Pelosi fesses up to praying relentlessly for Bush to change his stance on specific policies–all the while denying she prays for a certain outcome (?).

Here come the Blackwater stories

Tell me again that the majority of news media is not written, produced, reported, and disseminated by liberals obsessed with faux scandals.

The fairness doctrine of a desperate people

This from a party that condemned the GOP for sticking their noses into the (private) Terri Schiavo matter.  With the MediaMatters speech torpedoes already in the water,  Senate Democrats needed to show a big kaboom even if no one’s boat got sunk.

Compelling, and rich.

Oh. My. God! Obama Raised $19 Million last quarter

Why doesn’t he simply purchase the nomination, then?  He certainly isn’t qualified to win it based on experience. His overriding trump card to critics?

Obama said his opposition to the Iraq war before combat began shows his experience. Clinton voted to authorize military action in Iraq.

“On the single most important foreign policy issue of our time, I got it right,” Obama said.

This week marks the fifth anniversary of a speech Obama gave in 2002 opposing the Iraq war, and he’ll spend the week revisiting that address and discussing the foreign policy challenges he says it has created.

In fairness, Obama’s speech was more about injecting change into our elected leadership, and he *does* own that zeitgeist.  But his pre-war stance on Iraq shows greater experience?  Sheesh. . . Gov. Richardson is justifiably snickering at this nonsense.

Now is no time to Hsu

Get it?    Why do they always go offline right when things start to get interesting?

Right before our eyes

Some call it a belly guffaw. Some call it the cackle of a witch. What’s behind Hillary’s (earnest?) laugh? I think it’s obvious.

Please listen to the soundfile!