ABC’s Brian Ross claimed that Michele Bachmann’s staff pushed him around on July 19 at a campaign appearance. I know, I know, you are waiting for the pity party to start.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

In a fit of wild hyperbole, Ross called his treatment by Bachmann similar to the treatment he’s received “mostly by Mafia people.” The left-o-sphere has taken up Ross’ banner, of course, but one can only laugh at Ross considering the ho hum treatment that the media gave back in January of 2010 when a Democrat accosted a different reporter.

In truth, what happened to Ross is fairly mild and all his fault. Bachmann’s staff told the press that she was moving on and would take no further questions but Ross, being the uncouth sort of fella he is, broke away from the other reporters and ran pellmell at the candidate screaming questions anyway. He tried to follow Bachmann into the parking area and at that point her aides stepped in and blocked him even pushing him away a few times.

ABC claims it has video of this altercation, but has yet to post it.

If you listen to the silly hyperbole from the far left blogrags, the media is being treated like the Egyptian protesters in Tahrir Square by Bachmann’s campaign staff. Another lefty site says that Bachmann is indulging in “open conflict” with the press. Neither characterization is even close to the truth.

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It’s not unusual for me to have the TV turned on when I’m working around the house and when the news comes on, it’s like liberal bias dressed up as white noise.  But there was one story last Friday that really caught my ear because the editorializing was even worse than the white noise I usually hear on the news. The story was from Brian Ross of ABC News reporting on a jet engine for a new fighter jet called the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Normally a subject like this would be far from my usual portfolio of junk science but I have been hearing a ton of ads about this on Washington, D.C., radio lately. And since I have family members that work in defense, my curiosity was piqued and I started poking around.

Let me set this up very quickly.  The Ross piece focused on what amounts to a fight between a couple of different corporations that each want to produce the engines for this new fighter jet.  The Pentagon seems happy with one particular engine – made by Pratt & Whitney – while there’s pretty strong sentiment in Congress to have two vendors for this engine, the second being a joint effort between General Electric and Rolls Royce.

I visited the ABC News website to check out the Ross piece in full and was immediately struck by the headline for the video package:

Pentagon Chokes on Pork

Aside from the gross imagery evoked by the headline, the sheer audacity of this naked editorializing really caught my attention.  Since when does ABC News get to decide what is and isn’t pork, not to mention the whole choking thing?  Within seconds of beginning to watch the story, the editorializing increased: (more…)