Use all the sports superlatives you’d like on this one.

Unbelievable!

Unconscionable!

Unthinkable!

Take your pick, this will go into the Hall of Fame for historic racial slurs.

The New York Knicks put together an amazing winning streak with Taiwanese basketball sensation Jeremy Lin when they finally lost a game last week. The ESPN headline;  ”Chink in the Armor” (see screen shot above).

The headline was up on the ESPN mobile website for 35 minutes and actually, it was the second time the network used that phrase with Lin. One of their sports anchors unbelievably used that identical phrase.

ESPN said it is, “conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.”

ESPN has fired the person responsible for the racial slur on its mobile ap and suspended the news anchor for 30 days and the pledged to “be better in the future.”

Never forget, ESPN is the network that takes a holier-than-thou approach to race and sports. They are the arbiters of right and wrong and they will be the first to try to destroy anybody who gets close to saying or doing something they find politically incorrect. Just ask Rush Limbaugh. He was forced to resign from ESPN when he went after the Philadelphia media for their coverage of Donovan McNabb. ESPN thought what he said was politically incorrect and he was gone. The words “controversial” and “racially insensitive” were used in regards to Limbaugh’s criticism of the Philadelphia media. When you set that bar at that level, you’d better be able to live up to it yourself.

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Nearly 50 years after his death, the Activist Old Media is still spinning circles to protect the legacy of John F. Kennedy.

Whatever we learn, JFK will be forgiven. He was a  Democrat and a Kennedy. Once Camelot, forever Camelot.

With the recent news of a 19 year old White House intern having her virginity taken by the 45 year old JFK, the apologists were lined up on NBC’s Rock Center (the show has now moved to Wednesday’s because the Monday ratings were horrible—perhaps they should bring Leno back to do it.)

“John Fitzgerald Kennedy remains a mythic figure in American public life and in the memories of so many of us,” said host Brian Williams. Mythic? Is that the word you use after broadcasting an hour of Mimi Alford’s account of the trysts in the White House that included oral sex with at least one member of Kennedy’s Cabinet while JFK watched? “Mythic”? Perverted might be a better word (Alford also claims JFK wanted her to “service” little brother Teddy, but she said no to that; so at there was some decency here).

Williams brought out a panel of leftists to try to repair the damage done to JFK’s legacy.

“People have already factored in that he had other women in his life… it hasn’t changed their fundamental liking for the memory of John Kennedy,” said Doris Kearns Goodwin (leftist historian).

“They (the Kennedy’s) were beautiful and we like to see ourselves reflected in them and I just don’t think that’s going to change,” Richard Reeves (leftist author.)

“Every guy that’s come up through high school has said, I wanna be Jack Kennedy,” commented Chris Matthews (leftist every man.) Agreed Chris—I wanted to be like him in high school too, except the cheerleaders were busy doing their homework and in this case it was a 45 year old man who was getting the cheerleaders. Were he not your favorite President, you might call this something else.

“With it all, the total picture still arouses the country,” Chris continued. Arouse? Like a tingle up the leg arouse? Great choice of words there, Chris. Let’s hire the the sculptors now to get the bust ready for Rushmore—maybe they’ll do a 2-for-1 with Obama in there.

Forever Camelot in the minds of the left—that can never change.

Oh, there’s more.

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The media is calling the Barack Obama attack on the Catholic Church a “culture war.” Culture War. The words and graphics are everywhere. It was the ABC News headline one morning, “Candidate’s Culture War” is what the graphic said. As if this is some sort of battle between Obama and the Republican candidates. Yes, it is that, but it us much, much more.

This is also a fight much larger than “culture.” Culture is something that defines art and common belief. Culture is something that changes with the times and can actually be defined as you wish. Much of our culture today is not what it was 50, 100, or 200 years ago. What I think is culture, may not be what you think is culture. Yes, there is an “American culture, and I believe I know what it is, but I certainly don’t trust the media or this President (who would probably see me as a “bitter” American who “clings to guns and religion”) to tell me what it is.

The Constitution doesn’t work that way, certainly not the First Amendment which guarantees religious liberty and expression. I would like to think the Constitution would define our culture, but sadly that is not always the case. For the media to call this a “culture war” greatly diminishes its value, this is a battle over the First amendment of the US Constitution. Obama wants the Constitution circumvented to pander to his base, I would hope that most of us would be united with the Catholic Church in wanting it protected.

The new part of the ObamaCare law (that nobody read before they voted on it) says that churches that provide health care and insurance, must also provide contraceptives. The Catholic Church opposes contraception.

“The White House insists this achieves a balanced approach that respects women’s health care and religious liberty, but that’s not how the Republican candidates see it,” said Jake Tapper of ABC this morning. Jake, this does nothing to protect religious liberty. It tries to destroy it.

Thankfully, the presidential hopefuls joined in the fight.

“We must have a president who is willing to protect America’s First right, a right to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. This is a violation of conscience,” said Mitt Romney

Rick Santorum says Obama has been “hostile to people of faith particularly Christians and specifically Catholics.”

Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have also been avid opponents to Dear Leaders actions on this. Not just because they want to be seen as opponents, they all believe what he is doing in inherently wrong.

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“The tea party has dispersed,” Gloria Borger proclaimed on CNN after the Romney victory in Nevada.

Huh? what does that mean?

She concludes, as many in the Activist Old Media have, that a Romney victory in Nevada is a defeat for the tea party.

My conclusion; the media is looking for any reason, any reason, to declare the tea party dead. Plus, a few recent polls show that Romney actually is getting tea party support.

The Super Bowl is a big game so that means the tea party is dead. There is snow in Denver, so the tea party is dead. As long as you say the tea party is dead, you have a spot on a panel with the Activist Old Media.

It just amazes the media that Mitt Romney can run away with a state like Nevada, with a prominent tea party contingent (albeit for the first time in the primaries; it’s too early to say it’s a trend), so they conclude the tea party must be dead.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

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ABC is back at it with their hidden cameras series, “What Would You Do?” They put actors in provocative situations and use hidden cameras to see how people react.

Alan Funt, this aint. “Candid Camera“ was a fun show where people laughed when caught in funny and embarrassing situations. “What Would You Do?” has a clear social agenda where they seek to find and expose people’s racial, sexual and personal prejudices.

I must say this, the reporter, John Quinones is a nice guy. We spent some time on the news set together when he came to Las Vegas while doing a story on a polygamist colony in Arizona. We talked live on air about his segment and then chatted after. You would be hard pressed to find a nicer guy in the business, but he clearly has an agenda here—he is an activist. Fine, it is what it is and that’s how the show is formatted. ABC has chosen which groups to protect and which groups to expose and they will do it in prime time.

Here are some of the recent scenarios where they used actors to get reactions from real people:

A Muslim woman attempts to buy some items from a bakery and a rude and prejudiced cashier makes bigoted comments to her.

Homosexual parents take their children to a restaurant.

Homosexual partners kiss in public.

Racial profiling of Hispanics in a restaurant in Arizona. This segment was done in opposition to Arizona’s Immigration Law (1070) and the scenario they posed would not have been allowed by the law, but not to bother, they did it anyway. They showed the security guard demanding “ID, documentation and papers” without cause. The Arizona law doesn’t allow that and ABC has to know that, but they presented the scenario as permissible under 1070.

The show admits a social agenda, but there is a clear political agenda as well.

Which reminds me, NBC used similar tactics when it sent hidden cameras and  “Muslim-looking” men to a NASCAR race to record instances of prejudice after 9/11. I can hear the producers at NBC sitting in a meeting planning that segment, “Hell, those NASCAR fans are a bunch of  drunk, fat, white guys who hate anybody who’s not like them, we’ll get some great video!” If they didn’t say it, they thought it. I’ve been in those meetings where similar things have been planned. Like the ABC show, you must first come from the position that the prejudice is there, or why would you set up these scenarios in the first place? Does that not show prejudice also?

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This may be an all-time record for a “hit piece.”

If there is a Hall of Shame for journalism, the Reuters piece done on Marco Rubio will be at the front entrance emblazoned in flashing lights next to the Dan Rather forged Bush documents.

A senior staffer at Reuters told Politico that the column on Rubio was a “fiasco” and a “disgrace.” Politico can’t even stomach the article.

The Daily Caller found seven errors in the piece; later, Reuters admitted to three more.

Here’s the initial column–actually, I won’t call it that–here’s the initial hit piece on the Florida Senator and Reuters can now read it let it stand as Exhibit 1 of many in their bias against conservatives.  The column deals with Rubio’s finances and they make so many errors in it that it seems almost silly to repeat them here. A couple errors worth mentioning, Reuters said Rubio voted against ObamaCare and against the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayer. Both votes happened before Rubio became a Senator. Other than that … (more…)

It’s hard for the Activist Old Media to out-do itself with their leftist bias, but the Romney tax returns have them freaked out.

This fits right in their wheelhouse of deception and class envy.

The latest is an ABC story with this headline. “Romney Failed to Disclose Swiss Bank Account Income.”

Sounds serious there. Sounds like they finally busted Mitt and they are preparing the graphics and music for the hour-long prime time special showing him doing the IRS perp walk.

Five paragraphs into the story you find out the amount is $1,700 dollars. Now, $1,700 is more than most recent Democrats candidates for president donate to charity in a year, but on Romney’s tax returns to find a missing $1,700 dollars is like finding a penny in the cushions that you forgot to report. I guess the dollar amount is not important (unless its somebody making too much money,) it’s the headline they were after here.

Better get top terrorist reporter Brian Ross out of the Caribbean and off to Switzerland to uncover this latest Romney plot.

NBC’s Brian Williams called Romney’s wealth “unimaginable.” Unimaginable? How you doing Brian in your luxury Manhattan apartment? Ask your neighbor Beyonce if you can borrow some sugar.

Better send that crew back to Mexico to see how the branch of the Romney family is doing down there and demand they tell you how much money they make off their citrus farms. You left that out of the last story you did on them.

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Let’s call it what it is now, folks. The biggest SuperPAC out there right now is the one working overtime to destroy any Republican wh0 might be so bold as want to take on the media’s Dear Leader in the White House.

Stephen Colbert won’t be parodying this SuperPAC, because he can’t make fun of his friends, but there is plenty of material out there he could use.

The Activist Old Media has two very specific goals in mind here, 1) keep the “horse-race” going as long as possible because it will help ratings and revenue, 2) work to damage whomever becomes the GOP winner. Oh, they call it good journalism, or whatever line they want to use, but the facts show otherwise. They have never been this aggressive towards Democrat candidates. The only time they go after a Democrat Presidential candidate to this degree is when he has been so damaged by his own actions that the candidate is finished and they have no other choice, then they pile on to make it look like they’re doing their job.  See: John Edwards (hey, didn’t the National Enquirer break those stories?)

Take your pick, Mitt or Newt, the media has the long knives out. Mitt Romney has already been called by some in the media, “one of the wealthiest candidates to ever run for President,” like that is some sort of negative. Let’s see here, I believe Jon Carry (intentional mis-spelling, click the link to remember why) was rather wealthy, in fact, he has four times as much money as Romney and his wealth was not an issue in 2004. Of course, Romney made his money on his own (he donated his inheritance to charity) and Kerry married his billion dollar fortune. To the media, Romney is the bad guy here, Kerry the good guy,  and he could not be put on the spot for finding a Heinz flavored Sugar Mama.

Romney has been ripped for donating to his church. 10% of his income, possibly more. Kerry donated 0 dollars to charity on his 2003 tax returns. I guess when you are the media and you are running the Obama SuperPAC you can rip candidates for donating to charity.

Romney has been ripped for paying the required 15% income tax on capital gains, Kerry paid 12%. I don’t recall that being an issue in 2004. BTW, don’t give me this garbage that it matters now because the media says it’s supposed to matter now, they would change the landscape of “what matters now” to whatever they want to fit their needs. They will pull out the class-envy card whenever it needs to be played, and since their candidate is using in now, they will belly-up to the table and unload the entire deck.

With Romney, the media has already stated that his religion will be a major issue and at the same time, Obama’s Media SuperPAC has virtually declared Reverend Wright off-limits. No, they have not vetted this issue already. Of course, now they will say this is old news and they covered it in ‘08, when they did not. NBC has yet to air audio of Reverend Wright—I saw them air video briefly once when they referred to some sort of controversy, but the audio is still too damaging to Dear Leader to have NBC put it on air.

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It’s always fun when media and their analysts tie themselves into knots when confronted with something that destroys their template.

Republican front runner Mitt Romney gives 50 or 60 bucks to one of his volunteer campaign staffers and leftists spin themselves into a self-imposed Ken Shamrock-style submission.

The fact that the volunteer was black is driving the left and their media absolutely nuts. “It galls me, I don’t even like to watch it. I felt like it plays into every sort of patronizing stereotype of what black people are.” That was the line on MSNBC over Romney paying Ruth Williams the cash.

Now, let’s get this straight, Williams felt inspired (by God, she said) to volunteer for the Romney campaign before he paid her. She earned the money. She worked for the money. She never expected it, but she was unemployed, she needed the cash and Romney gave it to her. Sounds like a fair transaction to me. Of course, the problem here is that it was done by an Evil Rich Republican who isn’t supposed to do acts of gratitude and since the recipient was a minority they are angrier than an OWS’er being told to find a job. Listen to the entire MSNBC segment and you’ll learn that it’s government’s job to take care of people like this, not churches or individuals. Seriously, these loons have snapped over this.

What they don’t care to mention is that this is nothing unusual for Romney. He sacrificed two and a half years of his life (beginning at age 19) to serve the people of France on an LDS mission. Hey, he was an unpaid community organizer before it was supposedly cool to call yourself that. You can just begin and end with that act of service, but if they cared to look at the rest of his life, they would learn more.

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The Shell Game is in full swing.

Watch closely; the hands move quickly and it takes a sharp mind, quick eyes and cat-like instincts to keep up with all the movement going on right in front of us.

Much has been written and will still be written about the way the media is covering the Republican candidates, but while that is going on, Barack Obama is destroying the US military and trashing our Constitution … and who knows what else?

The media has eyes wide shut and can only tell us Mitt Romney is unacceptable and Rick Santorum is un-electable. But skip that for now; there are actually much larger issues.

While the world gets more dangerous under his watch, Obama is cutting defense spending by half a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. Oh, the Activist Old Media may give it a passing mention and may even show Obama’s soundbites while saying he is acting in ours, and the worlds, best interest, but if you blink you will miss where the shell is hidden. Obama is now officially more dangerous than Jimmy Carter, and Carter gave us the first “Arab Spring.” (more…)

Nice headline, huh?

Actually, Wolf Blitzer is calling for Presidential Transparency on the leading Republican candidate, not the actual President.

Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday hammered Mitt Romney on why he won’t release his financial records. Seriously, Wolf?

I’ll get to Romney’s financials in a moment, but the same Blitzer, who won’t pressure the current Commander in Chief to release his academic records is attacking Romney on his financials? Yep—Dear Leader must be protected at all costs, while Republican candidates will get the full on anal exam from the activist old media. That will be the template for 2012. Some may say, “get used to it.” Sorry, as a journalist, I find it hard to get used to clear media bias.

Here’s what Wolf had to say: “Transparency; you say you’re not going to release your income tax records … why would you [not] do that?”

Romney answered by saying that at this point in the campaign it’s not a requirement, and he will “follow the law” and release the records when required if he becomes the nominee.

But the badgering over “transparency” continued by Blitzer, “What do you have to hide?”

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A story on horrific poverty oddly gives me hope for local TV news.

As a local TV news/sports anchor for almost 30 years, one of my biggest problems with the business was when young producers or reporters would cut-and-paste a story from the Associated Press and just report it as gospel. I’m sure there were times when I made this mistake as well, but there were also times when I would take information I knew was inaccurate and change it in the script or just change it “on the fly” on set. Then I would spend the next two hours in meetings having to explain why I did what I did. Usually, my answer went something like this, “If I’m the face of this story, I’m not going to report something I know is inaccurate just because the AP says it is.” I would win the battles with facts, but after a while stations prefer to have news anchors who just shut up and read (if that makes sense).

This brings me to the remarkable thing that KNBC in Los Angeles did this week. A recent AP story claimed that 1 in 2 people were poor or low-income. A startling number, certainly. KNBC just flat out said that those numbers may be way off.

“Those figures appear to be wrong, perhaps based on a misunderstanding of the data by journalists who did not go back to the source to doublecheck their figures, said analysts at the U.S. Census Bureau district office in Los Angeles.”

Kudos to KNBC for doing its homework, double-checking the numbers and not just cutting-and-pasting from the Associated Press. Of course, if KNBC is right, you’ve got to wonder why the AP got this so wrong and how many other local stations across the country just reported the story as they got it from the AP. Online that 50% number, that KNBC says is inaccurate, spread like wildfire.

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Brian Williams was as cool as they come as sirens went off in the NBC Studios at Rock30CenterFellerLand–or whatever it’s called these days. Alarms go off and he stays cool and calm and keeps reading that ‘prompter.

I admire a news anchor who can keep his cool while flames may be sweeping across the anchor desk and mess up his hair at any moment, but excuse me if I don’t get all that excited having “been there, done that.” Actually, my suit was on fire. Watch this quick anchoring bit from a few years back (I’m the kid in the video) when a light blew in the studio during a live interview and lit up my suit. Boxing champ Virgil Hill thought I might spontaneously com-bust right in front of him, I did not, but I ruined a good suit. I kept going with the interview and was glad they gave me a clothing allowance.

NBC is hoping alarms go off with their viewers on Williams’ new show Rock Center (how’s that for a transition?) It’s the Monday night replacement for the cancelled Playboy Club, and the failed experiment with Jay Leno in the 10pm time slot. Seems NBC has still not recovered from losing Hill Street Blues, ER, Law & Order, and Texaco Star Theatre. Since Nightly News outdraws NBC’s prime time lineup, they have chosen to take Nightly News to prime time. Not a bad idea and it might even work because, through their programming, the other networks are trying desperately to help NBC get back into the game.

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From the start of the Occupy Freak Street movement the media compared the protests to the tea party.

Based on jealousy over the movement that captured the nation prior to the November 2010 elections and since, the media wanted desperately to have protests they could relate to and promote. The tea party certainly was not that, so protecting #OWS has been their mission.

The protestors are making it harder and harder for the media to do that.

Take the Occupy Oakland protestors who attacked a KGO TV cameraman who was there to “shoot” a murder scene at one of the protests (wait–a murder scene at supposedly peaceful protests?).

Cameraman (or photojournalist, if you wish) Randy Davis was attacked by about a dozen men and he suffered a mild concussion and bumps and bruises.

It has also been reported that the protesters formed a human shield around the victim, possibly keeping the person from getting the medical help needed to possibly save his life if the occasion had been that severe. Accomplices, anyone?

The rap sheet at Occupy Bizarre Street continues to grow. The media has put itself in a pickle. Do they ignore these protests because they have become too embarrassing, do they try to paint them as something they are not, or do they continue to make them seem mainstream–or all of the above? Certainly, that’s what they’ve been doing for most of the time during these protests. (more…)

Hey, I’m stealing the line that Leslie Stahl used in her interview with lobbyist Jack Abramoff on “60 Minutes.” I’m mad at you, Leslie.

To Abramoff, she said, “I’m mad at you” when he confessed to her on camera that he was buying politicians (old news, yes, but it must be brought up again.)

It was classic TV drama, Stahl with facial expressions and comments made it clear that she was angry at how Abramoff was ruining the country.

“I really think that what you were doing was subverting the essence of our system,” said Stahl.

“I’m mad at you, I’m not kidding, I’m not kidding,” as she closed her eyes and shook her head in disdain.

“I’m sick to my stomach…’cuz it’s hurting our country.”

Okay, Leslie, we got it. You’re mad.

I guess I’m mad at you because I wish you would show even a portion of the same anger towards those in power “subverting the essence of our system” as we speak.

First, you go after people who are no longer in power. That’s easy, that’s a layup. How hard is it to be mad at corrupt people no longer in power? I’ll join you. I’m mad a Jack Abramoff too (but since he’s a corrupt Republican selling a book, he gets airtime.) There; we’re all mad at Jack Abramoff. Grrr. I’m going to growl to show how mad I am. While we’re at it, can we get mad at Nixon again?

Second, my theory in reporting is that it is 10 times better to go after the people in power who choose to be “bought” by the lobbyists, than it is to go after the lobbyists. The corruption lies in those who succumb to the temptation, not so much the tempters. The temptation to be a corrupt politician will always be there, no matter how you try to legislate against it (as you suggested at the end of your piece,) let’s focus on politicians who are being bought.

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Protection from the activist old media when scandal hits is a great deal when you can get it.

Political figures know that a Republican who sneezes sideways gets blasted non-stop, and a Democrat can stand on top of the local Clock Tower picking off the public with a high-powered rifle and the people will be blamed for getting in the way of the bullets.

This is the way the game is played, and everybody in the media and in politics knows it. Fortunately, the public is becoming more aware of this all the time.

You think I’m being extreme? Take the case of former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.

Corzine ran MF Global. That company just filed for bankruptcy, meaning investors have lost as much as $700 million dollars. Corzine is a Democrat–a big Democrat. It’s hard to find that fact in the stories being done on the collapse of MF Global, if Corzine’s name is even mentioned at all. Democrat Corzine may have also transferred investors’ funds days before the collapse to avoid detection by authorities. If this were a Republican, Joe Biden would call this a big ‘effin deal.

Good Morning America ran the story this week on the collapse of MF Global. It was all of 14 seconds long and Corzine’s name was left out. Whoops–didn’t have time to fit that in. Forget mentioning he was a big, lib Democrat, he got the luxury of his name being totally ignored. Hey, it’s a great deal when you can get it. (more…)

The media is having a field day right now questioning the late Steve Jobs and his “Reality Distortion Field.” Skipping the fact that the deceased makes for an easy target, I find it hilarious that the media is all that shocked at the concept of reality distortion.

Take this popular statement in its many variations: Occupy Wall Street is just like the tea party. Seriously?  There’s Reality Distortion for ya, right there, by those in the media who have promised to tell us the truth and put it in the proper context. Have they not seen the destruction of property, public nudity, suspected sexual assaults, riots and near riots, numerous arrests for a variety of crimes? Still, they will continue to compare what they are seeing on the streets today with what we saw at tea party rallies? Reality Distortion Field.

I was watching ABC’s Good Morning America recently and George Stephanopoulos was interviewing Joe Biden. They were talking about #OWS and George was making his statement about how similar the protests were to the tea party movement, and while George was talking, the B-roll footage was showing cops arresting OWS protestors. Reality Distortion Field. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt and say he wasn’t looking at his monitor. I know how difficult that can be sometimes with a bunch of different things going on all at the same time, but still, anybody think George hasn’t seen the video of the anarchy and can’t tell the difference between OWS and the tea party?

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News reporters have always loved the reference to those vicious animals that protect the junk yards late at night. Some of the most frightening, realistic scenes from movies depict the bad guy climbing over a chain link fence only to be confronted by a large, nasty looking creature that has been trained to destroy intruders. Once the junk yard dog latches on, there is no letting go and … well …you know how this story usually ends, and it isn’t pretty for the perp.

The best news reporters love the junk yard dog reference. Every news room has at least one of them and they are not just the junk yard dogs, they are the Alpha Dogs in the news room. “I will take you down!” Or something like that, is what the promos usually say.

We have two very clear examples of news stories that need junk yard dogs: Solyndra and Fast and Furious. The list is long on potential scandals here.

Solyndra is the so-called “Green Energy” company that blew more than half-a-billion of our tax dollars in less than two years (stimulus anyone?). Fast and Furious is the gun running operation to Mexico that was approved and perpetuated by the Obama administration and has led to at least two deaths of U.S. enforcement agents. Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder has already been caught in an apparent lie over what he knew and when he knew it. The President stands behind Holder, even after these facts have been reported.

Tell me there isn’t something there to latch on to that might ruin the perfect crease in his pants.

The media has started to cover these stories. Started. Props have been given here on BigJournalism to reporters, like Jake Tapper of ABC and Sharyl Attkisson of CBS who have started digging into these issues. Rush Limbaugh calls them “random acts of journalism.”

So far, groundwork has been laid by these reporters on Solyndra and Fast and Furious and they stand apart from the much larger group of poodles hiding in the corner “covering” this administration. To preserve our democracy we need junk yard dogs covering any administration.

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