- Isn’t it time for the media to: Stop Bullying Monica Lewinsky?

- Oh  that note, you’d think Media Matters would stop trying to bully Right-side pundits, including Dana Loesch. But then, that is what they’re paid to do.

- Did the media inadvertantly expose Obama pushing a dishonest agenda? It must have been by mistake, they haven’t made much news out of it.

During the discussion on the weekend Chris Matthews show, Helene Cooper, a White House reporter for The New York Times, exposed Obama’s hand. She made it clear that he knew the theatrics of his speech to Congress was never intended to result in legislation. Here is part of that discussion [or you can watch it here—scroll to 17:30].

- Coming off the Bush era, during which the media held his foreign policy responsible for everything, it’s interesting how quick some are to infer Obama’s foreign policy is responsible for nothing overseas.

- Of all the things the WaPo’s ombudsman could criticize, one would think the paper’s site load times wouldn’t be high on the list of them.

(more…)

**UPDATE: I missed this earlier, but in another tweet, Kurtz offered the Clinton sex scandal–the one Kurtz’s Newsweek attempted to kill–as an example of unbiased media coverage of a Democrat sex scandal!  The hubris is breathtaking.  Kurtz also suggests that the old media handled the Spitzer and Edwards scandals admirably.  More here.

***

From the NewsBeast/CNN news guy:

According to another tweet, he meant tweeps, not twerps.

A quick response to the guy who defended the HuffPo Breitbart front-page ban and got the Sherrod story wrong:  Even if the infamous Weinergate image was “faked,” that means someone hacked into a sitting congressman’s verified twitter account and posted porn. THAT’S STILL NEWS!  Why not report it as a developing story, just like we have here at the Bigs? If Kurtz truly believes Rep. Weiner is the victim of a hack-attack, why wouldn’t he cover the story for that reason?

Kurtz later walked back this statement by tweeting, “of course reporters should have looked into Weiner hacking controversy.”  To paraphrase Kurtz, sometimes it pays to think a second time.

I know Tina Brown took over Newsweek last year, but if this is the way their top-tier journalists are treating potential Democrat sex scandals (real or “faked”), this invites the question: has anything really changed?  You may recall it was Newsweek which killed Michael Isikoff’s Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton affair scoop over a decade ago.  The Drudge Report picked it up, and conservative new media was born.  So, we who make our livings in the new media all owe a debt of gratitude to Newsweek employees and their rich history of protecting Democrats, but America deserves better.

Chicago (AP) – Appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton spoke publicly for the first time about the 2008 primary campaign, her political ambitions, and their personal relationship.

Representatives for the First Couple insisted the joint appearance had absolutely nothing to do with President Obama’s sagging political fortunes and was just a “total coincidence.”

The show began with Bill and Hillary air-kissing and catching up since they were last together at daughter Chelsea’s wedding in July.

Winfrey began the interview by asking Mrs. Clinton to assess her run for the 2008 presidential nomination.  “I’m not one to second-guess, “Mrs. Clinton said,” but I wish we had played the race card early in the game.”

Winfrey: “But . . . .”

No, not me,” said Mrs. Clinton.  “Bill.  The moment Obama emerged, I should have insisted that our party have a national discussion on who was the more authentic black leader—an inexperienced senator with roots in Indonesia or my husband and mentor, the First Black President.”

Winfrey:  “So, you didn’t go for it because you assumed you had the African-American vote locked up?”

Mrs. Clinton:  “Of course.  Jesse Jackson had agreed to endorse me and become Secretary of Reparations in my Cabinet.  You, Oprah, promised your support if I pushed Congress to make Kenya our 51 state.”

Winfrey:  “Oh.  I forgot about that.” (more…)

Today James O’Keefe and I had the privilege to go on ABC News’ Good Morning America to launch O’Keefe’s new set of undercover videos – the Census. While most of the feedback email of the contentious segment is running negative against George Stephanopoulos for emphasizing long debunked and retracted smears and for using the word “criminal” throughout the piece, what is missing is an acknowledgment of how courageous Stephanopoulos was to put O’Keefe and me on the air in the first place.

ABC NEWS and Stephanopoulos are not immune from partisan propaganda campaigns to ignore points of view that run counter to their already center-left mainstream media line. In fact, Stephanopoulos himself was the person who delayed the mainstream media’s report on the Clinton/Lewinsky story by stopping Bill Kristol in his tracks on ABC News’ This Week in January, 1998. He was also the political operative who internally attacked ABC News brass for booking former White House FBI agent and New York Times bestseller, Gary Aldrich. Twice Stephanopoulos tried to use his political skills to kill a story.

Today was different. (more…)

President Obama’s State of the Union address last night was notable for many reasons.  First, it is not often that you hear such petulance from a sitting president of the United States – complaining about not receiving applause from your political opponents is simply ridiculous.  Second, it is not often that a president directly lectures the American people – it failed when Jimmy Carter tried it in his infamous “malaise” speech, and it failed last night when President Obama told us that we needed to man up and follow him to glory.  Comparing his agenda’s stall to Bull Run, Omaha Beach, Black Tuesday and Bloody Sunday, and calling on Americans to “again … answer history’s call” is foolish and self-aggrandizing.

What’s worse is telling us that he is the spiritual embodiment of our collective strength:

And what keeps me going – what keeps me fighting – is that despite all these setbacks, that spirit of determination and optimism – that fundamental decency that has always been at the core of the American people – lives on.”  I couldn’t help but shake my head in amusement when he told us that “It lives on in the struggling small business owner … it lives on in the woman … it lives on in the 8-year-old boy in Louisiana … it lives on in all the Americans … [it] lives on in you, its people.

Quoting the Broadway version of The Lion King is not profundity.  It is silliness: (more…)