To those of us who attended college in the late sixties and early seventies, the killings at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 remain indelibly fixed in memory.  They came at a particularly turbulent time in the country’s history, following the annus horribilis of 1968 and the murders of Martin and Bobby; the student strikes and uprisings, not only in the U.S. but in Europe, particularly France; the Cuban airplane hijackings, the rise of Middle Eastern terrorism and the tumult of the Nixon Administration.

For years, the media narrative has been fixed: that a skittish and undisciplined National Guard fired unprovoked into a crowd of student protesters, killing four.  Now comes Fox News’s James Rosen with a revisionist take:

Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970.

As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode.

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For those who may not know, Santelli has been a CNBC on-air editor since 1999, reporting a dozen or so times a day live from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade whenever the exchange is open. To this casual viewer, Santelli’s genial, down-to-earth Midwestern persona always seemed a refreshing homespun relief from the high-voltage, East Coast, guru-on-steroids style of CNBC superstar Jim “Booyah!” Cramer.

Full disclosure: I am a modest-earning playwright, not a rich hedge fund manager, and currently have no money in the stock market. I merely began following the market about 10 years ago out of theatrical curiosity—it seemed like the next best form of drama after Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams. I never imagined names like Larry Kudlow, Maria Bartiromo, and Bertha Coombs would mean a damn thing to me, but soon like Miranda in The Tempest I found myself exclaiming “O brave new world, that hath such people in it!”

Back to Rick.

Rick Santelli delivered his now famous “Shout Heard ‘Round the World”—his impromptu suggestion that America needs a Boston Tea Party redux—on February 19, 2009. As a full-fledged CNBC geek, I happened to be watching “Squawk Box” that morning, my alternative to “The View.” (Not to take anything away from Babs and her bevy, but when it comes to looks and smarts, nobody can top CNBC morning money-honeys Melissa Francis and Trish Regan.) (more…)

Who knew that George W. Bush had such powers over the natural world? According to some pundits, Hurricane Katrina was Bush’s fault, as was the tsunami in Indonesia and now – if you believe James Ridgeway in Mother Jones – that Bush’s policy is responsible for the devastating effects of the 7.5 earthquake that decimated the poor country of Haiti.

But during the eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency, we could depend on such ridiculous musings as Mr. Ridgeway displayed. I haven’t done enough research to determine if Bush was the most reviled president in our nation’s history – that might well have been Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President — but it’s not that hard to figure out that his coverage by the media was historically the most relentlessly hostile.

I first started writing my op-ed columns during the Clinton administration and while I may have disagreed with most of his policies I never stooped to the insulting, vitriolic language routinely leveled at President Bush. What also amazed me was the lack of outrage by the president and his administration officials. There is always the possibility that I might have missed their fury because the mainstream media was unlikely to report anything other than leftist propaganda. But I was a columnist for the only New York newspaper that covered Bush honestly and without bias from 2002 to 2008, when we died as a print publication. (more…)

Surging Massachusetts Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown has served more than thirty years in the Army National Guard, but to commentators like the Boston Globe’s Joan Vennochi, this is merely “pretty packaging” and part of how “Brown’s glossy veneer conceals [a] misleading campaign.”

It’s sad, but not surprising that the liberal media – and it is hard to find any newspaper more liberal than the Martha Coakley-endorsing Boston Globe – would want to minimize and denigrate Brown’s three decades of service to our country.  After all, when a liberal politician has actually served it’s so unusual that it becomes the centerpiece of his campaign.

But, of course, Coakley has served, too – not in the Army, but in a comfortable office with many minions to get her coffee and knock over pesky reporters who dare to ask hard questions.  She has “served” as the Bay State’s attorney general and, as Vennochi helpfully points out, she has prosecuted scam artists, child molesters and murderers (although even that claim is dubious).  Presumably, this distinguishes her from all those other attorney generals out there who strongly support the work of scam artists, child molesters and murderers. (more…)