Unlike the mainstream media (especially Politico), I believe in context. So below this poll, you will find any and all background information needed to answer questions 1 – 3.

Question number four speaks for itself.

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On February 5, 2012, the Associated Press (AP) reported that an Occupy DC protester slammed a brick into the face of a law enforcement officer. Yahoo! News then reposted and promoted the piece.

Nonviolent brickbats? (Source: comicvine.com)

The article and its reposting by another prominent left-of-center news site does not indicate that the mainstream media is willing to cover Occupy’s violence. Rather, further examination reveals another example of the media’s efforts to cover up and spin Occupy’s violence as nonviolent protest.

The obvious strategy, as was the case in the media’s response to the ACORN scandal, is to bury the key details, reporting the news but lacing it with false disclaimers in order to frame the issue to the left’s advantage.

In this example, though the AP/Yahoo News story does acknowledge the Occupy violence, it makes clear and concise efforts to frame the issue falsely as one of a lone wolf/isolated incident in a “mostly peaceful” and “nonviolent” Occupy movement.

The article reads as follows (my emphasis):

Police: 11 arrested at Occupy DC site
AP – Sun, Feb 5, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities say 11 people have been arrested in Washington’s McPherson Square since Park Police began clearing away tents from one of the nation’s last remaining Occupy sites.

David Schlosser, who is a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said Sunday that one of those arrested was charged with felony assault on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon. That person is accused of hitting an officer in the face with a brick Saturday evening. The officer was treated at a hospital.

Three others were charged with assault on a police officer.

Schlosser says officials are continuing to clear the park of unsanitary conditions, though so far Sunday things had remained mostly peaceful.

On Saturday night, the protesters vowed to continue their movement and urged followers to remain nonviolent.

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It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the Obama Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder is not just politicized and biased – it’s a hit squad for Obama’s enemies.

Remember when President Obama’s Department of Justice shut down investigation of the New Black Panther Party in the aftermath of their taped voter intimidation in 2008?  J. Christian Adams, author of the book Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department and former DOJ attorney, exposed the DOJ’s corruption in dropping the case altogether.  Or how about when the DOJ stonewalled investigations into Fast and Furious, the gunwalking operation that ended with weapons in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels – weapons used to kill American citizens?

Well, the DOJ is on the warpath again.  Not against the New Black Panthers or the Mexican drug cartels – against Rupert Murdoch.  According to Reuters, “U.S. authorities are stepping up investigations, including an FBI criminal inquiry, into possible violations by employees of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire of a U.S. law banning corrupt payments to foreign officials such as police, law enforcement and corporate sources said.”  What’s the evidence on which they’re basing the investigation?  Says Reuters, “U.S. investigators have found little to substantiate allegations of phone hacking inside the United States by Murdoch journalists, the sources added.”

So why, then, is the DOJ so intent on finding wrongdoing about Murdoch?  It couldn’t have something to do with Murdoch’s ownership of Fox News – the same network the Obama White House tried to exclude from inside administration interviews, according to papers uncovered by Judicial Watch – could it? (more…)

“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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You would think that a media “analyst,” like Politico’s Dylan Byers, would be one of America’s primary defenders of free speech, especially political speech. But rather than defend political speech and satire, Byers is nothing more than a left-wing book burner, a politically correct speech-enforcer who wants certain speech chilled and specific individuals silenced. His blacklisting attempts might be disguised as passive-aggressive concern and requests for comment from employers, but when the outcome desired is obvious — to get people fired and/or reprimanded for something they’ve said — it’s still blacklisting.

Lately, Byers has been on a rampage to get two conservative CNN contributors in hot water, our own Dana Loesch and Red State’s Erick Ericson. Today Byers joined forces with GLAAD — an organization notorious for its bullying, speech policing, and un-American use of “re-education” camps – to target CNN’s Roland Martin:

Roland Martin has now become the third CNN political analyst to cause controversy this year.

Last month, Dana Loesch celebrated U.S. Marines who had urinated on Taliban corpses, announcing, “I’d drop trou and do it too.”

Last week, Erick Erickson celebrated the tasing of an Occupy D.C. protester, saying, “Watching a hippie protester get tased just makes my day.”

Now, the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is calling for Martin’s removal from the network for a comment he made on Twitter about H&M’s Super Bowl ad featuring a near-naked David Beckham: “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!”

In Dylan Byers’ world, the obvious political humor Loesch and Erickson used to make a point, and a silly joke tweeted by Martin, is a “CNN political contributor problem.”

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Former Maryland Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is teaming up with Media Matters for America founder David Brock to form a new group to raise big bucks for Democrats in an effort to compete with Republicans.

Kennedy Townsend is remembered by conservatives for her role in pursuing Linda Tripp, the whistleblower in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. She has long since joined forces with Media Matters, the book-burners of our day, who seek to drive all shred of conservative political opinion out of public discourse.

Of course, Brock and Kennedy Townsend know how marginal their views are: they fully expect 2012 to be a “disaster” without more big money on the Democrat side:

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is positioning herself to be a major player in the Democratic Party’s 2012 fundraising efforts, pledged that a new group she is forming will help Democrats “compete dollar to dollar” with Republicans over the next two years. Townsend has teamed up with David Brock, founder of the liberal media watchdog Web site, Media Matters, to form American Bridge, a group that aims to be a counterweight to right-leaning organizations such as American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which spent millions to support conservative candidates and causes in 2010.

Brock is known for his willingness to go to any lengths to pursue Fox News, while Media Matters has also been trying to become a partisan force by having its often dubious content picked up by outside media outlets. MMfA’s war on Fox has caused some to question the outlet’s tax-exempt status, according to the Washington Examiner: (more…)

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw is featured prominently in a new ad from the Romney campaign focusing on Newt Gingrich’s House ethics violation in the mid-1990s.  The ad, entitled “History Lesson,” is a 30 second excerpt from NBC Nightly News the day Gingrich was found guilty by House Democrats and Republicans in an ethics investigation.

In an unprecedented move, lawyers for NBC News have demanded that the Romney camp remove the ad.  In a statement, Brokaw himself writes:

“I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad. I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign.”

Really, Tom?  Big concerns over your “role as a journalist compromised for political gain”?  Take another look at that video and listen to the condescending, judgmental way the Gingrich story was framed by Brokaw back in 1997.  He and his teleprompter feeders went out of their way at the time to make Gingrich appear to be the biggest hypocrite and crook in American political history.  Check out the way the ethics committee’s wrist slap was framed:  (more…)

Apparently, not much.

The pressing issues of the day according to NBC: Terri Schiavo, sugar subsidies, the Everglades Project, the over-asked “Will you run as a 3rd party candidate?” question, English as the official language, and the very pressing issue of deciding what to do when Fidel Castro dies. There were a few moments that allowed for internal bickering and foreign policy. Most of the time, the candidates were fighting the moderators to get in policy talking points so that the American people might be slightly more informed of what the candidates actually plan to do should they be elected President. (more…)

Stoking the Fire: Despite the fact that the comment was taken out of context, opportunities still abound to seize on Romney’s ‘I like to fire people’ gaffe.

• Cue Vice President Biden and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
• Out in far left field, Huffington Post reports that Romney Likes ‘Being Able to Fire People’ for Being Gay.
• Meanwhile, GOP candidates Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich speak out in defense of Romney’s comment.

MTV Pretends Poetry Night Was Ron Paul Event: MTV’s website gushes, Ron Paul Inspires Poetry In New Hampshire.  But not so fast, says Newser, which reports that the event’s organizers say it wasn’t a Paul rally at all.  Newser reports: “organizers tell the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that it wasn’t a Paul rally, and estimate that in a crowd of 50-70 people, only four or five were Paul supporters. They say MTV even took lines from poems out of context to make them appear pro-Paul.”

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The Internet doesn’t kill newspapers. Publishers do.

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth emailed her year-end thank-you memo to a bunch of WaPo swells on New Year’s Eve (her first mistake). Before the electrons were even dry, the must-read Jim Romenesko posted her email in its entirety with the breaker that Weymouth blew air kisses to almost everyone at the Post—except executive editor Marcus Brauchli.

Image Credit: Washington Post

A C-Suite semaphore? Perhaps. But the real news wasn’t the errant Post Toasties. The real news was the unintentional candor with which Weymouth described how she is driving the paper straight into a digital tar pit.

If you care a whit about real journalism (in any medium), this memo will irk you, and not because of the grammar issues.

I can overlook the dozen or so typos—it was New Year’s Eve, after all. And I can ignore the “they’re-their” slip-up. Spell check doesn’t always catch that one. I can even see past the occasional subject-verb-agreement lapse.

No. No, actually, I can’t. She’s the publisher of the Washington Freakin’ Post, fer chrissake! Doesn’t she have people to catch that??

But what really gives me eye-bulge is watching the Sacagawea of the Fourth Estate instruct her expedition to press on after they’ve reached the Pacific. (more…)

After the fall of the Soviet Union, most Leftists in the US at least had the decency to mourn quietly over the demise of the Evil Empire. Being sympathetic to murderous communists became somewhat of a joke manifested in “CCCP” t-shirts worn ironically, for the most part. Slowly a real nostalgia started cropping up and now, as evidenced by the Occupy Movement, there are people who are wondering out loud whether the world is a better place post-USSR. There’s a serious anti-capitalist mood in the Left’s echo-chamber.

The Nation magazine is about to publish – in print, a couple of the articles are available online here and here – three articles where the authors ponder whether the world is safer, etc. without Soviet Russia. Here’s how The Nation’s editorial board introduces the series:

Virtually all American commentary about the end of the Soviet Union extols what the West is believed to have gained from that historic event. On this twentieth anniversary of the breakup, The Nation presents three writers who focus instead on what may have been lost. Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader and first constitutional president, argues that a chance for a more secure and just world order was missed. Stephen F. Cohen, a historian and longtime Nation contributor, reminds readers of the political, economic and social costs to Russians themselves. And Vadim Nikitin, a US-educated Russian journalist, presents a new interpretation of pro-Soviet nostalgia. —The Editors

Yeah. Now go read the magazine’s “founding prospect.”

The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred.

That was written in 1865 when the magazine was founded. Let’s just say they’ve come a long way–and considering that they’re clearly feeling the absence of the Soviet Union, one of the most violent and deceitful regimes in history, the irony is thick. (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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- Politifact defends its lie of the year:

We’ve read the critiques and see nothing that changes our findings. We stand by our story and our conclusion that the claim was the most significant falsehood of 2011. We made no judgments on the merits of the Ryan plan; we just said that the characterization by the Democrats was false.

- Who owns a Twitter account: the employee or employer?

- Michael Medved deconstructs a wonky poll used by media to declare that marriage is dead.

- Only Jay Carney could make an enemy of the media.

- China jails blogger for 10 years:

A Chinese court has handed down a 10-year jail sentence to Chen Xi, the second dissident in four days to be convicted of inciting subversion through online essays …

… The intermediate people’s court in Guiyang, in south-west China’s Guizhou region, tried Chen Xi, 57, on charges linked to more than 30 political essays he published online.

“The judge said this was a major crime that had a malign impact,” his wife, Zhang Qunxuan, told Reuters by phone after the trial. The judge said Chen was a repeat offender who deserved a long sentence, she added.

Chen has insisted he was innocent, but will not appeal. “The court ignored all the points raised by the defence lawyer at the trial, so what point is there in appealing?” said Zhang.

- Google to unveil an “iPad killer” in six months. Yes! Another device upon which to run the clunky, fragmented Android OS! Any hope of an “iPad killer” died when HP screwed the pooch when it tanked its WebOS mobile devices after buying out Palm. So no, save your iPads and media-reading apps. (Steve Jobs disliked unions and was a capitalist, so I feel justified.)

- As Argentina seizes newsprint, freedom of the press suffers:

What’s the oldest trick in the dictator’s handbook? Why, to seize the newsprint. Fresh from a big electoral win, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez has pulled that hoary stunt, topping even Hugo Chavez.

By a vote of 41-26, Argentina’s Senate passed a law to nationalize all newsprint, of course in “the national interest.”

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WaPo:

The White House’s relationship with the reporters who cover it has blown hot and cold throughout history. And this year, some reporters say, things have taken a decidedly frosty turn.

When a reporter gets something wrong or is perceived as being too aggressive, the response is often swift and sometimes at top volume, reporters say. …

Glenn Thrush, who is a reporter for a Web site and Capitol Hill newspaper, Politico, said his encounters have been far more mild than what he experienced as a reporter covering New York City politics for Newsday.

“Coming from a New York tabloid background, having a flack speak to me in an elevated tone does not make me crawl under my desk,” he said. “It does not terrify me to have someone raise their voice occasionally. The expectation in covering the White House is that it’s always going to be about using the good china. Sometimes this is about paper plates.”

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Courtesy of Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer, former CNN host Bill Press demonstrates what a tolerant, class act he is … not!

BILL PRESS (15 DECEMBER 2011) (29:45): Oh yeah, all right all right yeah first of all I just have to thank my lord and savior Jesus Christ and you know what I want to say, S.T.F.U. [shut the f*** up]!

I’m tired of hearing Tim Tebow and all this Jesus talk….

Tim Tebow, everybody wants to make him a hero. I think he’s a disgrace! I think he’s a disgrace! I think he’s an embarrassment!

Press is the author of a book called TOXIC TALK: How The Radical Right Has Poisoned America’s Airwaves. (more…)

The mural below, by Obama iconographer and “OBEY” designer Shepard Fairey, appears on the side of a shopping center in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts:

Source: Casablanca Soldier blog

Though the word “peace” appears at bottom, and there is a tulip in the barrel of the gun, the tulip is also a symbol adopted by Iranian revolutionaries in 1979, and adorns the regime’s flag.

As in much of Fairey’s work, the themes of “hope” and liberation are connected in the Harvard Square mural with fantasies of totalitarian violence and domination.

For Time’s “Person of the Year” cover, celebrating the “protester,” Fairey recycled the Harvard Square image–without the gun, and with a kerchief that is not a hijab, but rather a militant mask (Update: Big Government notes that a photograph of an Occupy protestor is Fairey’s likely muse for the Time cover):

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NPR ran a story this morning entitled, “Florida Charter Schools Failing Disabled Students.” From the headline, you might guess that disabled students in charter schools were showing poor test results, perhaps as a result of neglect. You might also draw the conclusion–one favored by the teachers’ unions at the core of the Democrat political machine, whose interests NPR promotes–that public schools are doing a better job.

NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya visits a Florida charter school for children with special needs (Source: jpmontoya.com)

In fact, the story is not about “failing” performance, but about access. The vast majority of charter schools in Florida do not have disabled students–and that’s no surprise, given the fact that charter schools are still a new phenomenon, opposed by teachers’ unions and Democrat politicians at almost every turn. The NPR story, produced in cooperation with a hostile Miami Herald investigation, admits that the primary problem is funding, and that many traditional public schools do not enroll students with disabilities:

Even in the traditional public schools, not every school is expected to provide every service. About half don’t serve a single child with a severe disability. Instead, they’re sent to neighboring schools with specialized programs.

That does not stop NPR from accusing the Florida charter schools of “segregation,” which the story explicitly–and erroneously–compares to racial and gender segregation. (more…)

- Do some fact-checking organization confirm liberal bias?

- Chelsea Clinton’s NBC debut:

- Roger Ailes is writing an autobiography.

- The ABC debate brought in big number for the network: 7.5+ million viewers.

- Journalists have the vapors and say that NYPD treats them unfairly, like in the video below.

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This Sunday morning, on CNN’s State of the Union, Candy Crowley attempted to “fact-check” Sen. Rick Santorum for his statement to the Republican Jewish Coalition on Dec. 7 that President Barack Obama had pursued a foreign policy of “appeasement.”

Her apparent intent–as with other so-called “fact-checking” efforts–was to attack what has been, and remains, an accurate and effective summary of Obama’s approach to hostile regimes.

Crowley must have thought she had Santorum cornered. After all, President Obama’s stern response to Santorum on Dec. 8 had provided a frisson of delight to liberals like Chris Matthews of MSNBC, who declared: “President Obama’s fierce defense against Republican charges of appeasement proves once again that if you underestimate this president, you may do so at your peril.”

But Santorum stood his ground–and then some.

The video and full transcript of their exchange is below. What emerges is Crowley’s adherence to pro-Obama talking points and her eagerness–like much of the rest of the mainstream media–to be impressed when Obama talks tough against his opponents, regardless of whether or not his response is true or complete. She is surprised when Santorum turns the tables and “fact-checks” her false assertions about Obama’s record.

CROWLEY: Let me move you along to something that you said last Wednesday at a Republican Jewish conference, talking about the President, his foreign policy. I’m going to play that for our viewers as well as something that the President said in response.

SANTORUM (VIDEO): This president, for every thug and hooligan, for every radical Islamist, he has had nothing but appeasement.

OBAMA (VIDEO): Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top Al Qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement.

CROWLEY: Appeasement? I mean this is a president who has killed more terrorists than were killed in the Bush administration. He took out Osama bin Laden. He has launched more drone attacks against terrorist targets than the Bush administration did, and yet you accuse him of appeasement–which is a very loaded word, as you know, toward terrorists.

SANTORUM: It’s a very accurate word. What President Obama was doing was continuing existing Bush policies with respect to Al Qaeda and respect to Afghanistan. I was talking about the new threats that have come up under his [Obama’s] administration. And at every single turn the President has appeased those who would do us harm. Let’s talk about President Ahmadinejad and the Iranians who are the biggest threat to Israel and to our national security. He has done nothing but appease the Iranians to say that he will negotiate, in fact did negotiate, tried to negotiate without preconditions–

CROWLEY: He imposed sanctions, did he not?

SANTORUM: He imposed weak sanctions. He opposed tough sanctions– (more…)