The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation released results of a new study yesterday indicating that the number of sexual scenes on television has nearly doubled since 1998.  A Google search indicated that there have been upwards of 400 articles and Internet postings on this subject. For the most part, these articles have been at least moderately disturbed by these findings, while trying to offer some explanations for the increase. As a perfect example, please see how the Los Angeles Times’ Jube Shiver, Jr. reported this.

By contrast, Lisa de Moraes’s article in today’s Washington Post seemed to express disappointment that more acts of sex aren’t shown more regularly on television. For example, her second paragraph (which I won’t copy here in respect for those like myself who have children that frequent this site to get informed about the news of the day) used the word “sex” nine times while graphically describing such acts to the reader. In three sentences.

After informing the reader about the increase in sexual scenes on television since 1998, de Moraes made a joke about it:

Rene Syler on Wednesday interviewed former President Jimmy Carter yesterday in the 8:30 a.m. EST half hour of the Early Show, tossing him softball after softball which he hit out of the park while plugging his book, Our Endangered Values. In the transcript of her questions below, you'll see her setting up Carter on the "separation of church and state" theme which Carter used to pontificate about conservative dominance of American politics, particularly by the religious right.

Syler might have found it instructive, however, to visit The Living Room Candidate (click on photograph in Carter column entitled "Bible") to see a 1980 television ad for Carter's reelection campaign in which Carter played the faith card in an electoral battle against Reagan.

Ted Olsen in a posting today to the Christianity Today weblog provides a detailed fisking of Los Angeles Times coverage of an IRS investigation of the Rev. George Regas, a liberal Episcopalian priest. Regas, the former rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, delivered a sermon which was sharply critical of President Bush the Sunday before election day, October 31, 2004.

Olsen finds it remarkable that the Times found this particular IRS investigation worthy of coverage, given the flood of complaints filed from both sides of the political spectrum from election season 2004:

http://www.localblack.com/arnold.cfm

First off, I am not defending or accusing anyone in this post. Just stating facts as I see them with the information available.

There is a much ballyhooed committee meeting right now concerning the profits make by the oil companies, but if we look at this a bit differently it might appear tainted. An industry-wide study in the late 1990s showed that oil industry profits amounted to an estimated 7.3 cents on each gallon sold and is now probably between 9 and 10 cents per gallon sold. The oil companies are making quarterly profits in the rage of 2 to 9 billion dollars. I have no idea if that is after all operating cost or not, but nevertheless that’s a bunch of money. The public expects a lot from the oil companies, and for the most part, they deliver the products expected. The aspect of a reasonable price depends on your outlook of the companies.

Do the votes in New Jersey and Virginia signal a "Republican unraveling," as the Times suggests, or is the paper just promoting wishful Democratic thinking?

Thursday's "House Shelves Plans for Alaska Drilling" by Carl Hulse is ostensibly about the issue raised in the headline, but much of it harps on the Republican losses in Tuesday's elections (even though the party didn't actually lose any seats). The text box argues: "A concession adds sting to Republican election losses."

Actually, if current returns hold up, Republicans actually made gains in the two contested states by unseating Virginia's Democratic Lt. Governor and narrowly retaining the Attorney General slot.

Fox News Channel on Sunday will air, albeit with a disclaimer, a one-sided documentary on global warming featuring liberal environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

A Fox News Channel documentary on "global warming," set to air Sunday night, provides only the liberal take on the controversial issue and was approved after environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reportedly "dragged" Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes to a lecture by former Vice President Al Gore, "kicking and screaming."

The media have repeatedly given air time to charges that the oil companies are taking advantage of consumers and earning unfair profits. Throughout the year reporters have alleged "oil companies...are making massive profits," "oil companies have watched their profits soar" and "record profits for the oil producers." But how do these oil profits compare to those of the media companies, themselves?

On November 9^th, Congress held hearings and demanded that oil company executives, as ABC’s Jake Tapper said, "explain themselves as to why they’re experiencing record profits." Using Yahoo! Finance, I looked up the profit margin numbers for five of those oil companies and for five of the major media companies.

Gaggle is a daily comic strip about the Washington press corps and Larry the press secretary. Larry deals with the shenanigans of reporters who couldn't imagine anyone voting for a Republican.

Click here for instructions on running Gaggle daily on your own site. There's also an archive of previous toons available here.

CNN’s Bruce Morton filed a report today wherein he compared the impact of yesterday’s election results on President Bush to the title of the children’s book “Alexander, George, and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day.” He went on to suggest that Tim Kaine’s victory in Virginia was big because it “showed that a moderate Democrat can win in a very red state.” Morton neglected to inform the viewer that Kaine was replacing a Democrat as governor.

Morton then depicted Kaine’s victory as “a big boost for outgoing governor Mark Warner, a 2008 presidential possibility. And it was a rejection of the president who came to Richmond on election eve to campaign for Republican loser, Jerry Kilgore.”

Finally, Morton suggested that as a result of these elections, President Bush now has less clout with Republicans in Congress, as well as with Republican governors.

What follows is a full transcript of this report, and a video link.