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- Keith Olbermann cannot keep his ego in check, clashes with Current:

The latest developments: Olbermann’s lawyer, Hollywood power attorney Patty Glaser (who repped Conan O’Brien during his battle with NBC) is negotiating with Current TV, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Exactly what those negotiations entail is a mystery for now.

The New York Times reports that the issue at hand is one of control. When Olbermann joined Current, he was given equity in the channel, as well as the title of chief news officer. Since then Current added a president in David Bohrman, and Joel Hyatt took over as CEO. In addition, Olbermann’s “Countdown” has suffered from technical snafus, issues beyond the control of him or his staff.

Hollywood Reporter has more, a statement from Olbermann:

“I was not given a legitimate opportunity to host under acceptable conditions,” Olbermann said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. “They know it and we know it. Telling half the story is wrong.”

- Meghan McCain is a tease.

- Chevy Volt named one of the Worst Products of the Year by Yahoo Finance.

- Univision wages war on Latino conservatives:

A giant TV network has effectively admitted to blackmailing Florida’s GOP Sen. Marco Rubio over his immigration stance. It’s Exhibit A of the kind of sludge being hurled at Latino leaders who won’t toe the open-borders line.

Bigfoot Spanish-language television network Univision unwittingly revealed it’s got a mafia-style hit-equivalent out there waiting for any conservative leader of Hispanic descent who won’t tout their open-borders line on immigration.

So much for reporting the news. Univision’s top honchos behind this are all about politics — and are running their news organization like a cult mafia leader wielding power based on groupthink and fear.

Last October, the Miami Herald broke news that Univision executive Isaac Lee threatened to make public a story about the arrest of Rubio’s brother-in-law 24 years ago — that is, unless, in an offer he couldn’t refuse, Rubio agreed to go on Univision’s Jorge Ramos show, presumably to be savaged by the TV host, known as a loud advocate of open borders.

- Hacktivist group Anonymous targets contributors to Germany’s neo-Nazi paper, those who purchase neo-Nazi literature, shut down 15 websites. Laws protecting individual freedom from government don’t exist to protect easy thoughts with which all agree, but thoughts with which all do not agree. People have the right to their own thoughts, regardless how insanely far left their ideas are; targeting people for thought or purchasing written works is a form of thought police. When people have the freedom to wear their crazy on the outside, society gets to see it for the ugliness that it is and public rejection is an organic deterrent and form of societal control. Removing that freedom and forcing such thoughts underground creates a resentment towards the entity oppressing it and removes the deterrence of organic public embarrassment while at the same time infringing upon free speech and thought. You then have evil neo-Nazi believers and evil practitioners of censorship, nothing accomplished, both entities just as disgusting as the other.

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Meghan McCain is turning into the female Al Sharpton. MSNBC must feel proud, the same pride a father feels when he first realizes that his son sucks at sports.

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Oh my.

“I famously said a statement earlier where I said Michele Bachmann was the poor man’s Sarah Palin. I am completely wrong. This is the thinking man’s Sarah Palin.”

Yes, Meghan McCain “said a statement” earlier which was given prominence by the position of her father’s coattails.

” … and on her foreign policy things there are things that I agreed with, I just don’t understand why this woman that I met with yesterday hasn’t been coming across.”

I’m glad that Meghan McCain agrees with some of Bachmann’s “foreign policy things.”

MEGHAN MCCAIN: “For me as a Republican woman, character is a big part of how I vote for someone … she answered it very politically and referenced our Founding Fathers.”

ALEX WAGNER: “It’s always good to reference the Founding Fathers.”

I’m glad that candidates can score points with Meghan McCain by answering “politically” and “referencing our Founding Fathers.” Her analysis is mentally on par with a show-and-tell presentation, though age-wise, she is not.

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- Wonder if this occupier will get the Scott Olsen treatment from the media.

Via The Brigade. Click image for credit.

- Regis Philbin says goodbye.

- Fox hires two Democrat contributors, Ed Rollins.

- Hillary Clinton surprised by daughter’s new high profile job with NBC.

- Herman Cain now requires a Secret Service detail due to MSM reporter aggressiveness:

Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said Thursday night that the campaign asked for the protection after The Washington Post posted an article online that morning detailing a series of physical skirmishes involving journalists at Cain rallies.

The Cain campaign asked for the security and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and congressional leaders approved the request Thursday, said a government official, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

From WaPo:

Lately, another common element has emerged from the fever-pitch of the Cain road show: physical skirmishes involving the press.

One incident on Wednesday involved journalists jostling among themselves for position. Another featured a local police officer aggressively blocking a video journalist. In at least two instances, Cain’s own private security guard physically blocked reporters, including one from The Washington Post .

There were two confrontational incidents on Wednesday, prompting Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon to touch base with the reporters involved and also to acknowledge in an interview that the campaign needs to address the issue.

- Setting the record straight on the media narrative “Gingrich left his wife on her cancer deathbead.”

- Meghan McCain tired of being addressed in the manner which she deserves. Meanwhile, most are just tired of Meghan McCain.

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There was a time, probably before you were born, that the NBC News brand was the standard bearer for quality news. Granted, that bar was always low, but there was a time when they cleared it with ease. Now they have to jump up to reach it … they usually miss.

Two weeks ago news came down that MSNBC had hired Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Daily Beast “columnist,” as a contributor. That means she would now be paid to give her opinion on TV, an opinion no thinking human being has ever sought out even when offered for free online.

It was a move so puzzling that the liberal website Gawker.com titled their piece on it “‘Lean Stupid’: MSNBC Hired Meghan McCain.” In her first appearance on the payroll, McCain said “she “bets [her] career” that Newt Gingrich won’t win the GOP nomination.” Gawker added, “What career?”

To that point her “career” had consisted of saying and Tweeting embarrassing things, complaining when people pointed them out, and authoring a book so poorly written and painful to read as to make “Everyone Poops” read like Hemingway. Now she’s MSNBC’s insight offerer on Republican politics, bring to that position all the wisdom being her father’s daughter and an “art history” degree has to offer … none.

But NBC wasn’t done building up their stable of members of the “Lucky Sperm Club,” people whose greatest (or only real) accomplishment is to be born to the right people.

It used to be mostly confined to Hollywood, when children of famous parents would miraculously find themselves cast on TV shows and movies regardless of talent because someone made a phone call or a producer saw an opportunity to kiss the right butt. No more.

As network “news” bleeds from objective reporting to an agenda-driven extension of corporate entertainment divisions, more and more “golden children” find themselves with positions that were once, not so long ago, reserved for those who earned them.

Enter Chelsea Clinton.

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- More than 25 million watch the Cardinals’ epic World Series win over the Rangers on Friday.

- Newt Gingrich says what we all think about Meghan McCain: “How does she have a clue?” More importantly, how can we cure her suffering from the disillusionment that we care?

- The Guardian vs Reuters:

“Wow. Thanks to @Reuters for at least changing a few of the words from my story,” Miriam Elder, The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, tweeted Thursday, suggesting that Reuters had either plagiarized or borrowed heavily from her work without crediting her.

- Something about Rainn Wilson and his Twitter mishap over tacos. I forgot everything in this story when I read this:

Either way, I’d never heard of Del Taco before this, so PR success.

How can you like tacos and not have heard of Del Taco? Sure, I’m presupposing that everyone likes tacos, but egads man! There is nothing like sitting in the drive-thru of a Del Taco at 2 a.m. for some chicken soft tacos and secret sauce because everything else is closed. The moral of the story: Twitter is instant marketing.

- Dahlia Lithwick gives a half-exerted effort at spinning the complete lack of cohesive message from OWS into a “they don’t want the corporate media” defense. For a movement that doesn’t want corporate media attention because it’s corporate, they sure do whine about it a lot on all of their corporately produced devices via corporate-developed social media sites. She says to judge them by their signs.

They are holding up signs that are perfectly and intrinsically clear …

OK. If you say so.

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I usually email and post an article after I’ve done all the research on a show about Operation Fast and Furious, but Rachel Maddow will be a two-parter because of her May 6th 2011 episode. In this episode Ms. Maddow attends the NRA convention with Meghan McCain, Senator John McCain’s daughter and she speaks with Rev Ricky Burgess, Pittsburgh City Councilman, in two segments. Ms. Maddow and Rev Burgess were making the case for more gun control. Ms. Maddow used Tuscon and the shooting of Representative Giffords as her prime example while Rev Burgess used his part of Pittsburgh as the reason for more gun control. One thing that came up in both conversations were assault rifles. I bet you can guess what was NOT mentioned:Operation Fast and Furious or Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Before I say more here is the email I sent to Ms. Maddow. Of course I attached a picture of Brian Terry.

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While speaking during his “Hardball” show earlier this week, Chris “Thrill Up His Leg” Matthews waxed poetic about how wonderful the universe would be if only Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012.  Well, almost — what he really said was how lousy things he would be if a Republican were elected. He created a paranoid litany of inevitable consequences to a Republican electoral victory:

Tea Partiers and neocons… celebrating the death penalty, elevating torture, ending environmental protection as we know it, breaking unions, punishing gays, starting more wars, and enacting one more giant tax cut for the rich – or worse.

Maybe Matthews has a point. While the list of horrors he mentioned are close to our agenda, Matthews is a bit off on every item he listed, but he has spurred me think maybe it’s time for the tea partying neocons like me to admit what we really have in store for this country should our candidates get elected in 2012. Since no one else is willing to do it, I guess it will be up to me to let the world know. Below is the secret Tea Partier’s list of what we will get done in the first year after we take over.

• The Death Penalty- Matthews is wrong to insinuate conservatives celebrate death; we celebrate life and those who believe in a death penalty feel it is a necessary evil.  That being said, we plan to add two crimes to the Capital Punishment list:

–Wearing too much perfume. You know those people who always plop down next to you on a train or bus who smell like they’ve basted themselves is “aire de cheapo perfume?” Sorry ladies (and fellows with cologne), but that is a crime against humanity.

–Cell phone abusers. You’re on the 6 a.m. train into Manhattan catching a precious few extra moments of sleep when suddenly, two rows in front of you a guy disturbs your slumber by talking loudly into his cell phone about his “conquest” the night before. Under a GOP/Tea Party administration, DHS agents will be on each and every bus and train car with orders to shoot and kill the loud public phone talker.

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I have always believed that Meghan McCain was upset that the 2008 election produced a female superstar that wasn’t her. Since Sarah Palin’s ascendancy to the upper echelon of conservatives, McCain has been running hard, nipping at her ankles, in an effort to catch her. Every single PR roll out that McCain has done, including the launch of her book, was centered on Palin.

It’s a harsh truth to realize that no one is interested in you, your book, your website, or anything else remotely McCain unless you can promise them you’ll gab about Palin.

It’s also a harsh truth to realize that it isn’t Meghan McCain paying her bills, its her banking on Palin’s name that is paying her bills. Score one for the independent women!

All that aside, McCain’s latest novelty column for the Daily Beast focuses on … who else? Sarah Palin! McCain calls her a tease:

She’s more than happy to stay in the spotlight, as she teases and distracts the media from the other politicians who have announced their candidacy and are actively campaigning.

The irony of a woman who posted this photo on Twitter (and then got all self-righteous and angry when people responded negatively) calling Palin a tease is humorous.

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Newsweek magazine has brought the subject of media bias to the forefront with this week’s cover photo and headline.  It features a photo of Republican congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann with a crazed look behind the intentionally nasty headline, “Queen of Rage.” Even the most naïve reader could not believe the article would be anything close to an evenhanded look at who Ms. Bachmann is and what she stands for.

This might surprise some journalists, but readers/viewers are much smarter than most of them think they are. They can spot media bias a mile off even when members of the media think they are getting away with it. Here are seven transparent ways media bias is detected by readers/viewers and what journalists can do about it.

Context: A journalist might edit down a 25-word comment into five-words to make someone they don’t like look foolish.  What to do about it: Be honest and keep quotes and themes in context.

Facts: Recently MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow played a quote by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh which she said was “made earlier this week.”  It wasn’t. It was made over a year earlier, and it is highly likely the host knew it when she played it. What to do about it: Report the facts even if they are not as you want them to be.

Freaks and fringers: Media bias is spotted immediately when a journalist seeks out the most ridiculous representation of a subject or group they are covering. It happened many times with the media coverage of the tea party rallies as well as the Wisconsin state legislature’s battle over union issues earlier this year. What to do about it: Get your information from serious representatives and not freaks and fringers. (more…)

I don’t mind that Meghan McCain wants to redefine RINOism or, conservative liberalism, as “Republican” because no actual conservative takes it seriously. I do mind that she talks about the tea party without actually knowing the scorecard.

“I think the tea party is dying out a little bit, I think in the last election a lot of their candidates weren’t elected.”

If Meghan is such a Republican why is she parroting baseless progressive talking points on the effectiveness of the tea party?

She has said of the movement:

“These people are not as relevant as they say they are,” she said. “I think my father would be president if they were really that powerful.”

No, your father isn’t president because the same people who opposed his nomination later came together to form the tea party (yours truly included). This why she bears it so much hostility. John McCain couldn’t even get enough Republicans to vote for him, to say nothing of independents.

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Consider this your moment of facepalm. Honestly, Cenk Uygur makes me pine for the days of Keith Olbermann, because while he was a pretentiously shrieky socialist shill, he was a terrific broadcaster, even if he did take cues from Dramatic Chipmunk.

Now they have This Guy. A.K.A. Cenk Uygur cut his teeth on Youtube and the hysterical failure of Air America to MSNBC, filling in the hole left behind by Olbermann. His new show preceeds Lawrence O’Donnell’s who this week received attention after guest (as Iowahawk so graciously put it, the “poor man’s Shelley Winters” – my favorite was cable truck stop lot lizard) Meghan McCain siphoned more fame off of Sarah Palin (like her father did throughout the ‘08 campaign) by attacking Michele Bachmann.

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Michael Gerson became the latest former Bush operative to escalate the post election war on the tea party and Sarah Palin in his Washington Post column “The GOP’s Sarah Palin Problem.”  He mangles the facts terribly, even blaming Palin and Senator Jim DeMint for Sharon Angle’s ill-fated nomination in spite of the fact neither endorsed Angle until after she won the nomination.  Doug Brady dismantled effectively the rest of Gerson’s specious argument at Conservatives4Palin.  But most ironic was his closing statement that “the leading figure of the Tea Party movement seems increasingly indifferent to Republican fortunes and increasingly tolerant of disturbing extremism.”

I wonder how it comports with President Bush that just as he comes forth from seclusion to begin his book tour and rehab his image with the public and perhaps with conservatives, a number of his former operatives like Gerson have been reminding everyone of their war on the tea party and Sarah Palin.  While Bush’s big government policies might be excused, generously, given his wartime presidency and small mandate as the best conservatives could have hoped for at the time, those who once believed he was only compromising conservatism out of circumstantial necessity have become rapidly disabused of such notions.  The risk for the president is that conservatives become much less generous in those presumptions and excuses the more his operatives refuse to allow the Republican Party to move on.

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You can dump only so much manure on a plant before it has to thrive on its own, and the same principle applies in journalism. An initiative that lacks grass roots can wither in the sun despite liberal doses of mainstream media Miracle-Gro—which explains why Air America found a more receptive audience in the press than in the public, and why Martha Burk’s protest against the men-only membership policy at Augusta National Golf Club drew fewer demonstrators (a couple dozen) than the total number of New York Times stories hyping her who-cares crusade (more than 100).

Having enjoyed seedling-of-the-month treatment in the MSM greenhouse since late February, Coffee Party USA—the supposedly less strident alternative to the Tea Party—designated Saturday its National Coffee Party Kick-off Day. With gatherings in “more than 350 coffee shops in 44 states,” according to its Web site, the fledgling political organization was hoping to make a statement. Instead, it merely raised questions, exposed truths and, worst of all, inspired ridicule.

So, Coffee Kiddies, you want to be like the big boys and girls in the Tea Party treehouse? Sit down and have a cup of reality. Here are 10 reasons why your Coffee Party Kick-off didn’t amount to a hill of beans: (more…)

It’s quite a stretch to call The Nation’s Max Blumenthal a journalist.

A real journalist is free to have an opinion and even to express it, but he doesn’t fabricate things to make his subject look bad. A real journalist tries to understand his subject and help his audience understand it instead of just subjecting it to abject ridicule.

Blumenthal, who leaped to conclusions in his since-corrected Salon.com article to slander Andrew Breitbart and James O’Keefe, is an ethically challenged agitprop creator and self-indulgent performance artist. His slurring of O’Keefe, who helped to expose the criminal inclinations of ACORN, as a racist is the same thing that ACORN does when it’s attacked. If you disagree, you’re a racist. Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!

This left-wing extremist, who wrote the book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, is so consumed by his hatred of the other side that he can’t think straight. His work is littered with factual errors, non sequiturs, selective use of evidence, glittering generalities, and hyperbole.

Blumenthal hates the Christian right, evangelicals, supporters of Israel, tea party activists, conservatives, and Republicans. This is not an exhaustive list. To him, conservatives are a “movement that’s filled with people who can’t handle individual freedom and the pressures of democracy.” Conservatives also are needy losers seeking redemption, according to Blumenthal: (more…)

Bow-wow. You can call me Bo. I’m President Shoutout’s family mutt, a Portuguese water dog with curly black hair. My real name isn’t Bo, but I’m not telling you my real one. Bo is fine. It’ll do anyway. Took the White House brain trust four months to come up with it — you wouldn’t believe the names they actually considered. Let’s just say that “Alinsky” was a contender until Axelrod said “why don’t you just name it ‘Arafat’ and kiss off flyover country for 2012?” Yeah, he called me “it.” Axelrod’s a real sweetheart. Barry’s chief political advisor, which means he spent the whole presidential campaign sending candygrams to the press corps so they wouldn’t do their job. He could have accomplished the same thing with a Hershey bar stolen from an orphan’s Halloween bag. I got his number. Axelrod smells like cabbage and tries to kick me when Barry’s not looking.

Right now, I’m sitting in the Oval Office with Barry, Axelrod and Chief of Staff and resident kneecapper, Rahm Emanuel, while the three chumps cool their heels in the waiting room. Barry’s staring out the window, going JFK on us, trying to figure out which precise upward angle of the chin registers that weary-but-resolute toughness that the press corps laps up. If he sticks that jaw up any higher he’s going to drown in a drizzle if you ask me, but the pose does seem to bring a flush to the freshly sculpted cheeks of Andrea Mitchell. (more…)