Itz News to Me

In an blatantly political attempt to slam the Bush administration days before the mid-term election, the NY Times has made the screw-up of all time (at least from their side of the political aisle): in the course of an article so slanted it practically lies down sideways, they inadvertantly made the case that the Iraq had the know-how to build a nuclear weapon and were in a position to disseminate it to others.

Every Democrat in the country (except Joe Lieberman) has made a living preaching that there was no WMD threat from Iraq, and that Bush made up the war for some kind of blood-for-oil scheme that involved Halliburton, big corporations, and Satan himself. But now comes news that the Iraqis’ nuclear knowledge was so advanced that it might have been used to propel Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Kind of blows the whole “no WMDs” argument out of the water just a few days before the election, doesn’t it? Makes Joe Wilson out to be both a fool and liar, doesn’t it? Makes the Democrats look awfully foolish for making political hay out of what they have always known was a house of cards in an attempt to score some short-term political points at the expense of national security…

Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people…

Popularity: 44%

For all the recent talk about conservative anger at Republicans, the media hasn’t uttered a peep about the civil war breaking out in the Democratic ranks over the Ned Lamont candidacy in Connecticut.

As evidenced by postings of this kind, the failure of the Democratic party elite to back Lamont in a meaningful way is creating a backlash amongst the party faithful which may have implications for voter turnout not only during the upcoming mid-term elections but into 2008 and beyond.

For years the media have turned a  blind eye to these sorts of internecine conflicts between special interest groups within the Democratic Party, but if these conflicts result in Republicans being able to eke out wins in this year’s elections would you say that the lack of media attention to these growing problems have been a net positive or negative for the party they are trying to protect with their silence?

Popularity: 41%

To hear Democrats (and their media cohorts) talk about Iraq and Afghanistan, you’d think we’re getting our butts kicked. But evidently nobody gave Al-Qaeda the party talking points.

The guys at Powerline don’t have any special access to classified documents the way that the New York Times does. They’re just looking at publicly available documents, and they found yet another nugget in the treasure trove recovered from Zarqawi’s headquarters which any reporter interested in the real truth would (and should) have discovered long ago if they were interested in anything other than playing politics with the war.

It’s plainly evident from this letter that: a) our operations in Afghanistan are succeeding at tying down Al-Qaeda leadership, b) our operations in Iraq are succeeding in alienating Al-Qaeda from any popular support in Iraq, and c) the Democratic party is conspiring with its media allies to keep this information from the American public.

There is no way that reporters who have repeatedly put classified information on the front pages of newspapers and at the top of news broadcasts don’t have access to the same information that a couple of pretty regular Joes were able to dig up. But they won’t publish it because were it widely known then George Bush specifically and Republicans generally would be walking to a landslide victory in the upcoming elections.

Thank God the days of Democratic party operatives at the helms of major media corporations controlling the news cycle are coming to an end with the continuing rise of bloggers. For the last couple of decades, they decided what made the headlines and what Americans were told about the state of their country and the world at large. But the explosion of citizen media on the internet is changing that, and they couldn’t be more unhappy about it…

Popularity: 21%

You would think that after the latest photoshopping scandal casting doubt on the ability of the media to report the news honestly that CBS would want to start off their “new era” without the cloud of incredulity….or not…

TV Newser has caught them doing a little photoshopping of Katie Couric in their publicity photos to make her appear to have a much slimmer waistline than she in fact possesses.

It’s not “shake the walls” kind of stuff like Rathergate was, but CBS doesn’t exactly have a great track record of playing it straight with its audience and this isn’t going to help…

Popularity: 5%

Not surprisingly, in the midst of the recent upturn in violence between the terrorist group and Israel the media was all abuzz with the consensus thinking that Israel had blundered badly in its response to the kidnapping of its soldiers. Now that the smoke has cleared, it looks like the media and all its talking heads got it precisely backwards.

The truth is that no matter how Israel responded, it would have been criticized by the media. They tried to crucify Sharon over the wall, yet it has been amazingly effective at preventing terrorist acts inside Israel - and it’s not even completely finished yet. The international media is full of leftists and anti-Semites from the AP and Reuters to such “impartial” sources as Al-Jazeera. The default editiorial slant on every story is that Israel is wrong until it can be conclusively proved otherwise. Even the proof of Hezbollah playing them for stooges by utilizing people like “Green Helmet Man,” isn’t enough to shame them into playing a story straight…

Popularity: 9%