Along with playing dumb on the rhetoric of Rep. Allen West in a recent speech (no one believes he was suggesting Democrats should actually leave America when he said they could take their message elsewhere), CNN’s Soledad O’Brien played fast and loose with food stamp usage increases under Bush versus Obama to put Rep. Allen West on the spot.

O’Brien falsely asserted that the number of food stamp recipients rose more under former President Bush than Obama. Not only are her numbers off, but according to The Daily Jobs update, she failed to acknowledge that the respective increases took place over eight years for Bush and only three years under Obama. That alone is hardly an accurate comparison. And it gets worse.

Yes, usage went up by 11 million in eight years of Bush, but O’Brien claims that under Obama, the number of recipients went up 13 million, from 33 to 46 million. That’s incorrect. Obama’s baseline was 28 million, and usage has risen by 18 million to 46 million in just 3 years. (more…)

- This is now beyond stupid and ridiculous. Progressives are now angry at Roland Martin because he was making jokes during the Super Bowl. There is a scary, fascist trend developing here in the United States where people too sensitive to apparently participate in society are holding everyone else responsible for meaningless remarks. It’s victimhood chic.

- Wrong: it’s the third time hyperventilating progressives were willing to freak out for nothing only to go back to their man caves with no scalp.

Dylan Byers notes that criticism of Roland Martin for a comment he made about a Super Bowl commercial — “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!” — marks the third time this year that CNN contributors have caused some kind of controversy. The fact that CNN keeps finding itself in this position, he writes, says something about its editorial strategy

It’s a symptom alright, a symptom of progressives so antsy to drum out speech or thought with which they don’t agree that they’re willing to embarrass themselves in an all-out witch hunt.

- A FYI: Making fun of David Beckham’s underwear and soccer is now apparently “gay bashing.” Hands to heaven I’m not making this up. Who in America doesn’t make fun of soccer? Who doesn’t laugh at the giant David Beckham bollocks billboards? What does that have to do with being gay?

- WSJ: Disney, Univision In Talks to Launch 24-Hour English Language News Channel.

- Did the Freepers have enough of the Romney surrogates calling everyone who didn’t vote Romney “bigots?” Seems so. Much in the same way that Obama supporters called conservatives “bigots” for not supporting Obamacare (or just disagreeing with Obama on anything), some Romney supporters borrow language of the left and call those who don’t get in line behind Romney ‘anti-Mormon bigots.’

(I’m sure it’s completely coincidental that I followed a piece about progressives freaking out over Roland Martin with conservatives freaking out at other conservatives over Mitt Romney.)

Evangelicals went for Romney hand over fist in the Florida primary, as well as in Nevada where Mormons did, too. Did you hear non-Romney supporters calling Romney’s Mormon supporters “bigots” for not voting for a Catholic or Evangelical? No. Because that language is best left to progressives. Knock it off, people.

- Now Gingrich wants more debates.

- That WHRRR WHRRR WHRRR sound you hear is the BS meter going off: “Listening to Rachel Maddow is like listening to Walter Cronkite.”

- AOL is trying desperately to get people other than your grandparents and that aunt who sends you videos of cats to care about its services.

“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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Right off the bat C-SPAN should have aired this hearing. There is absolutely no excuse not to air it on TV. Since I had to stream it online I kept my TV on DirecTV News Mix to keep an eye on the news. The only network that had consistent coverage of the testimony was FOX News. I’m not shocked at all. I didn’t see anything about the testimony on the other channels. Jeff Poor from The Daily Caller helped me keep an eye on MSNBC and he didn’t see anything. He said they were hung up on Donald Trump all day. I was informed by a friend on Twitter, Doug Mataconis, that the hearing was discussed on The Situation Room on CNN for about 15 minutes. “Special Report” and The FOX Report both started off with Mr. Holder’s testimony.

Before I continue I noticed some friends on Twitter growing upset that headlines were partisan. The MSM was right: This was a partisan fight and every single Democrat coddled Mr. Holder. The Republicans were the only ones to demand withheld documents and answers from Mr. Holder.

Right after the testimony ended I began searching for coverage of the hearing on Google. First stop was Associated Press. Remember: If the AP doesn’t write anything on Fast & Furious more than likely the rest of the media won’t mention it. Pete Yost did write about the testimony, but hat’s where the excitement ends. Again, he distorts information to favor Mr. Holder and the Department of Justice. Mr. Yost fails to mention the subpoena was issued October 12, 2011. That’s 4 months ago. That is plenty of time to go through the hoops to release the documents. Mr. Yost says, “Though neither side said so, negotiations are almost certain to be the next step.” If you watched the testimony do you honestly think Mr. Issa or Mr. Holder will negotiate? Didn’t think so. Mr. Issa won’t accept anything less than the documents he needs. Then Mr. Yost describes a few dialogues, but doesn’t bother to get down to nitty gritty of the testimony.

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On Monday Representative Darrell Issa threatened Attorney General Eric Holder with a contempt of Congress if he does not fulfill Mr. Issa’s subpoena from October 12, 2011. Hardly anyone reported it. But then when I went to Google “Issa Eric Holder” this evening and a bunch of results came up. Unfortunately it was not about Mr. Issa’s statements. Instead it’s all about Mr. Holder and the Department of Justice’s remarks.

I’ve mentioned before it’s unusual for the Old Media to run any Fast and Furious news if the AP didn’t run something first. Same thing with this story. AP didn’t bother to post a story about Mr. Issa, but as soon as Mr. Holder says something they’re all over it. It’s quite pathetic and reminds me of Pavlov’s dog. This is the explanation of Mr. Issa’s letter:

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., made the accusation in a letter threatening to seek a contempt of Congress ruling against Attorney General Eric Holder for failing to turn over congressionally subpoenaed documents that were created after problems with Fast and Furious came to light. Holder was to testify Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Issa chairs.

That’s it. No mention that this is a response to his subpoena on October 12, 2011. No mention of the emails sent Friday night. But the media goes crazy and reprints this article.

Not every outlet used the AP story though. The Washington Post again had an original piece written by Sari Horwitz! Weird, isn’t it, that she writes original posts when the DOJ and Democrats are on the defense. Surprise surprise! The story is on the front page of the website.

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It’s been over 25 years since radio shock jock Howard Stern went national and in his own way helped to define today’s AM radio. So, it’s amazing to see the liberal media now suddenly discover a mean puritanical streak in what looks to be an effort to silence voices on the Right. And I thought it was the Christian right that seeks to enforce some moral order on the population?

With cross-over media and careers being so much in vogue today, should it really be a surprise that what may work, or be fine in one medium, could be interpreted as inappropriate on another? And why is it that only conservative voices seem to suffer this guilt by association, generated by the Left, to try and get them kicked off the air? This despicable political tactic deserves to be called out for what it is, the modern day equivalent of book burning.

Call it a Vast Left-wing Conspiracy, or some interesting connections if you follow New Media. It seems that not long after former Politico staffer Ben Smith moved to Buzzfeed, Politico may now be linking up with Buzzfeed to put some distance between itself and ideologically-biased media outlet Media Matters.

The most aggressive would be book burner at Politico these days appears to be Dylan Byers. After going after Big Journalism editor, Dana Loesch, he’s now targeted Erick Erickson for comments made on his AM radio show.

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- Branded Twitter pages are here! But only, apparently, if you’re a progressive news outlet. Seriously, Al Jazeera? What’s next, RT/ Russia Today / Komrade Kommuniqué? Rhetorical question.

- Real headline: Barack Obama controls media more than presidential predecessors.

President Obama grants many more media interviews than his predecessors, but holds far fewer impromptu question-and-answer sessions, according to data compiled by a professor who studies presidential interactions with the press.

By doing so, Mr. Obama and his administration have more control over who asks questions and where they are answered …

… However, Mr. Obama has comparatively avoided Q.&A.s with scrums of reporters, according to Ms. Kumar, answering questions at 94 photo opportunities and other such sessions in his first three years. Mr. Bush had spoken at 307 such sessions after three years in office, and Mr. Clinton, 493.

Of course. Interviewers submit questions to the President and his team, who then choose what they want to answer. If the questions go unvetted, they don’t get asked. This is why he avoids those impromptu Q and As — and interesting how his predecessors welcomed them.

- Compare the above to this from Newsbusters: Obama’s Been Skipping the White House Press Corps for Network and Social Media Softballs.

- Interesting: NYT reporter asks for readers’s help in identifying bomb.

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Oh look! The Justice Department decides to dump 500 pages on Congress on a Friday night! If they really want to be secretive or different they’d choose to dump documents on a Tuesday night. We’re almost looking forward to Friday nights because that’s when we can expect anything about Fast and Furious from the Justice Department.

Attorney General Eric Holder is set to testify on Thursday, February 2 in front of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee so it’s no surprise there was a dump last night. I was looking through my timeline when I saw Michelle Malkin’s tweet about the documents. The link led to NPR, which shocked me they would be the ones to have it plus they included nine pages of the documents. They beat the AP! I have found unless the AP writes about Fast and Furious the majority of the Old Media won’t touch it.

I went to sleep around midnight central time and at that time the only major outlets that covered it were AP, CNN, Washington Post, FOX News, and ABC News. This morning I woke up and saw USA Today posted the AP article. The story was the main story on the front page of their national section, but has since been replaced. It’s not even on the front page anymore. I’d give them props, but it appeared before 6AM and taken down before 9AM CDT. Sorry guys, it doesn’t count when you have it up and taken down before the majority of the country wakes up. It’s also nowhere on the FOX News home page and it’s buried in the politics section. Shame on them since they’ve been consistent with Fast and Furious coverage. CNN does receive credit because it’s still on their home page.

At The Washington Post and ABC News you have to go a search for Fast and Furious in order to find their AP article. The New York Times also buried the AP article. In order to find it you have to go to the bottom of their home page and find the tiny cube for “More News From AP and Reuters.” Click on AP and it’s under AP Politics. But you have to click AP Politics and scroll to the bottom. Even if you search “Fast and Furious” it doesn’t bring up the article. I consider this as NOT covering it New York Times! I’m very disappointed The Washington Times hasn’t even mentioned it. I haven’t seen anything on CBS News either. MSNBC buried the AP article.

Here’s the thing. I know these outlets have investigative reporters. The emails gave me more questions than answers and I’m wondering why no one in the Old Media is pointing this out. I receive Google Alerts for Eric Holder and Operation Fast and Furious. This morning a blog post from Stop The ACLU popped up addressing the same questions I had. NPR brings up this part in the emails, but ignores it and doesn’t realize the importance. Right after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry passed away Monty Wilkinson, Mr. Holder’s deputy chief of staff,  emails Dennis Burke (bold my emphasis), “Tragic. I’ve alerted the AG, the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”

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Media outlets didn’t cover March For Life while it happened, despite knowing it was going to happen and hundreds of thousands of people there. News outlets do have stories on it now, but of course the number of people there are distorted and the stories are pretty bland. Again, remember how much effort went into Occupy Wall Street coverage. Reporters were at the scenes. News stations were always on them. Also if they had anyone on the scene at March For Life they’d have a more accurate number of people.

Photo Credit Michelle Fields from The Daily Caller

The best coverage belongs to Judge Andrew Napolitano on his show  ”Freedom Watch” on FOX Business Network. Judge Napolitano is a fierce pro-life advocate and doesn’t shy away from the issue. At the end of every show he signs off with “The Plain Truth” and yesterday it was about abortion.

His guest was Rep. Renee Ellmers who discussed the defense of life. This was the most coverage by anyone in the media. Thank you, Judge Napolitano.

I then went to FOX News and I’ll admit, I was disappointed. The article was written by Shannon Bream and just like C-SPAN she called the protestors anti-abortion. Yes they are anti-abortion, but why doesn’t anyone ever call them pro-life? Why do they have to be constantly addressed as anti? When pro-choice protesters march they’re referred to as pro-choice, not anti-life. She did, however, give a reasonable estimate of people there, tens of thousands. Trust me, that’s much better than some of the others.

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When John King opened the last CNN-hosted GOP debate with a question regarding Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife, Newt lit into him, putting King on the defensive early. In fact, King remained defensive during CNN’s post-debate report.

“This story did not come from our network,” King contended. “As you also know, it is the subject of conversation on the campaign. I get your point, I take –”

Since the debate, King hasn’t let the issue go. He’s been making media appearances –after the fact–to bolster what many believe was a poor decision. Frankly, it’s hard to envision any mainstream media moderator opening up a Democrat debate with that type of question. They’d be more likely to claim it shouldn’t be asked, as it was the candidate’s personal life, none of our business, and didn’t impact on their ability to govern. (more…)

From Newsbusters, via Fox Nation:

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The March For Life took place yesterday in Washington, DC despite the cold, dreary weather. But unless you tuned into C-SPAN2 for a few hours this morning or EWTN (the Catholic station) all day you wouldn’t have known it happened. Other stations, including FOX News, glossed over this march while it happened.

Credit Elizabeth Avis @Beth_Avis

Before the march Michelle Malkin wrote a post about the media’s lack of attention. It got me interested and I decided to tune into DirecTV News Mix and the C-SPAN coverage all afternoon. Some people on Twitter, especially Sharon Cabana, helped me out by keeping an eye on CNN and MSNBC. There were a a few seconds of coverage on FOX News & MSNBC, but didn’t see anything on CNN. I’m not shocked, but it doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed. The Old Media was on hand to cover OWS at all times. They knew this was happening and yet no one on stand by. It’s awful how these peaceful, clean, and civilized people were completely ignored by the Old Media while the disgusting and uncivilized people of Occupy Wall Street received so much attention.

Thank goodness for social media like Twitter. Since I knew I wasn’t going to receive anything from the Old Media I knew I had to use the New Media. I reached out to people on the #MarchForLife hash tag and people have been tweeting me pictures. Here are a few:

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The other day on CNN Jimmy Carter accused Newt Gingrich has that “subtlety of racism.”

This isn’t a new argument for Jimmy Carter. He argued Rep. Joe Wilson’s charge that Obama was lying about illegal immigrants receiving health care under ObamaCare was motivated by racial animus:

I think it’s based on racism…. “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”

But Jimmy Carter is one of the most racist politicians in the history of the modern South as Steve Hayward perceptively argues in The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry.

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This was pretty amazing to behold. This is how you deal with the media.

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Ari Fleischer calls out Cornell Belcher with a smile.

BELCHER: “What Herman Cain said was a racist, bigoted statement and should be treated like a racist and bigoted person who makes racist and bigoted statements.”

FELSIECHER: “Questioning people’s motives who are trying to help is ionly going to divide people. And I think there’s too great a sensitivity about people who just say Republicans are evil, Republicans are racist, Republicans are wrong. That’s hurtful and that’s just as wrong.

BELCHER:  ”Well, you know, I, I , I, agree with my friend Ari, I wish I had the confidence, by the way, I never called Herman Cain a racist

[CROSSTALK]

FLEISCHER: “You sure did, you sure did.”

BELCHER: “No, I said his language was bigoted, I never called him actually a racist, but I understand the difference between racism and bigotry.”

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Buried in the middle of this article posted at ABC’s The Note, you will find, in my humble opinion, the real news in this story, and it’s likely buried because it’s horrible, terrible, not-so-very good news for the MSM’s Precious One:

CNN/ORC poll asked voters who they saw as best able to “get the economy moving.” Just 40 percent chose Obama, while 53 percent picked Romney.

This is major news for two reasons. First, Barack Obama sits at a lowly 40% on what is going to be the most important question of this campaign. Secondly, Mitt Romney, the GOP frontrunner, is polling over 50% on this question. 

What else is 2012 going to be about? I know the MSM is going to try and sell what’s left of their souls to make it about anything else, but good luck with that.

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People don’t evolve over only four decades, certainly not leftists. During the Vietnam War, the left was pretty sure that trashing the United States Military as “baby killers” and the like would win them supporters. Instead, they felt a public relations blowback that exists to this day. As a response, the left didn’t stop hating our troops; they simply changed their tactics. Today, these leftists carefully hide their hatred and contempt for the military, because they know that that opinion is an unpopular one. I’m not saying this is true about about everyone on the left, but the extreme way in which some in the media have intentionally over-reacted and overblown a story about a few Marines caught urinating on the dead bodies of the Taliban has finally revealed who these people are.

Should those young Marines have done what they did? Of course not. Is what they did worthy of a story? Yes, it is. But is it the kind of behavior worth the media storm that’s been brewing for going on for a week now? Absolutely not.

This is simply the leftist MSM’s way of smearing the troops by pretending they’re not smearing the troops. We’re just reporting, donchaknow.

You see, over time, those on left who are currently obsessed with this story probably got tired of posing as outlets and individuals who revere America’s fighting men and women. The pent-up pressure of living this lie and all the frustration that goes along with that finally let go, and now we have mountains built from molehills and a nothingburger turned into an international scandal. The pressure valve burst and the troop-hatred came forth thinly disguised as “reporting.”

There comes a time when legitimate reporting turns into a ginned-up narrative, and some in the MSM crossed that line days ago.

Moreover, some MSM troop-haters have gone even further by attacking Dana Loesch over her defense of these same Marines. Loesch says something  on a local St. Louis radio station, and the MSM generates story after story after story about it — once again turning a nothingburger into something international. But again, this is the leftist MSM feeding their bigotry with what they see as a two-fer.  First off, the trumped up Loesch story keeps the story about the Marines alive and secondly, those in the MSM have an excuse to release all that pent-up hate and aggression they hold towards the one thing they hate more than the troops: strong, independent women who reject the left.

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Yesterday on my radio show I discussed the topic of the Marines videotaping themselves urinating on dead Taliban fighters. The usual mob of progressive haters started campaigning on Twitter and complaining to CNN.

Video still

The first source of “outrage” was “Nicole Gennette,” a liberal sockpuppet on Twitter who has adopted the name of one of Anthony Weiner’s alleged love interests–and who is likely a man anyway. Yet Mediaite dutifully quoted him/her.

Politico this morning attempted to elevate the trumped-up controversy over my remarks to a serious journalistic story, and didn’t bother reaching out to me for comment prior to publishing. It’s the kind of hit job Politico does best–and likely payback for all the times their journalistic malpractice has been pointed out here.

There is a difference in advocating for the Marines to break the law, which I didn’t do, and defending them from overly-dramatic hysteria. I was using absurdity to highlight absurdity. It’s absurd to desecrate corpses but it’s not wrong to hate terrorists who are trying to kill our troops–and us. And I’m not in uniform–so I am free to express what a lot of Americans feel about the controversy, even if it makes some pony-tailed academics feel uncomfortable.

The progressive left chose to include CNN in their attack because they don’t like that the network–any network–features conservative voices and have been throwing everything at the wall to get me removed since the very beginning.

My entire point of the past two days was to highlight the absurd reaction from militant troop-bashers to these Marines. In my Twitter timeline yesterday progressives called our military “killers, kids, barbaric trash, murderers …” The only time soldiers are celebrated by the left is when they engage in protests like OWS. The rest of the time they’re demonized. They get the red carpet rolled out for them, too.

And let’s not forget how lefty bloggers like Markos Moulitsas feels about dead American military contractors. His excuse for his “screw them” comment? He was angry about soldiers getting killed. You know what? So am I. But I blame the people who are trying to kill them–not the people they are trying to protect. And I won’t condemn American soldiers on the battlefield. (more…)

- CBS studio team “Tebows”: After a miracle finish on the first play of overtime to give the underdog Denver Broncos a stunning win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, the analysts and anchors at CBS Sports had only one response.

- CNN “Early Start” tries to prank Chuck Nice by calling him at 3am Pacific time, calls and wakes up wrong person. MEanwhile, Nice watched the whole thing happen on television, live.

- Charles Payne drops an F bomb on Fox!

- Bill O’Reilly defends Gateway Pundit, as does Rush. Our previous piece on the subject: What Is More Racist®?

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- CNN debuts new morning show:

- Megyn Kelly vs Kent Sorensen. Point Kelly. I adore how at 1:45 in a Bachmann for President truck drives by in the background.

- Rick Santorum vs Al Sharpton. Point Santorum.

If Sharpton is trying to stay positive so that he can attract more guests, which is part of the double-edged sword of political shows, it would show that he’s actually grown a bit as a media figure (he’s not a broadcaster). However, I think it may stem from his reluctance to allow Santorum to defend himself against Sharpton’s wild accusations. Sharpton doesn’t stay positive: he continues alluding to some sort of smack talk for the duration of Santorum’s appearance. Lame.

- Andrew Malcolm’s sharp piece on the NYT’s subscription gaffe:

A worker for the New York Times was preparing a pleading missive to several hundred disgruntled subscribers noting that they had recently canceled their paper deliveries …

… The Times worker, who will shortly be informed that he/she has accepted the next buyout offer, pushed the button. And off the email went — to nearly 9 million people on the wrong list …

… So, according to Associated Press, in true Anthony Weineresque fashion, someone rushed out an urgent company Tweet suggesting spam: “If you received an email today about canceling your NYT subscription, ignore it. It’s not from us.”

Read what happened next here.

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