Josh White’s article in today’s Washington Post concerning the Army meeting its August recruitment goal, but being off track to reach its yearly target, seems to miss or understate some of the positives expressed by the Army’s chief of staff yesterday:

Should the Army meet its goal of recruiting about 10,000 new active-duty troops this month, it will be the third consecutive month in which the service succeeded after several months of significantly missing its mark. Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker told reporters yesterday that he expects the Army to miss its annual goal of 80,000 new active-duty recruits by "a couple thousand," adding that he expects recruiting in September and during the next fiscal year to be "difficult."

To begin with, it appears that some of Mr. White’s numbers don’t match those of the Department of Defense.  For instance, as the article moves forward, Mr. White suggests that the Army’s recruitment goal in 2004 was 72,000.  In fact, according to this DoD report, the goal was actually 77,000, and was bested by 587 recruits.

As such, if the General is correct, and the Army misses its 80,000 goal by a couple of thousand recruits, it would still roughly duplicate its 2004 performance.  Given the casualties, the strength of the economy, and the constant negative press about this incursion, this appears to be quite an achievement.

Mark Matthews, political beat reporter for KGO-TV, an Disney/ABC owned station in San Francisco, has filed a report from Crawford about the well-financed, well-organized goings-on with Cindy Sheehan's ongoing protest.

Even if you have dial-up, it's worth the wait for download to see Matthews speak briefly with a Gold Star Mother who is clearly uneasy about how thoroughly everything is managed, and the priceless reaction (at 2:10) of a Gold Star mother who is asked point blank if they received financial assistance to fly to Idaho to protest the President's VFW speech and then down to Texas.

As a lifelong resident of San Francisco, a news junkie going back to my single-digits, and someone who is so frustrated by the overwhelming bias in local newscasts I sometimes turn them off, I can only think of one word that could adequately describe Matthews' job in this piece: "Courageous."

The left-wing crusade against mercury appears to have been deadly. ABC’s August 26 “Good Morning America” focused on a “controversial autism treatment that may have killed a child.”

According to reporter Lisa Stark, the child went into cardiac arrest during the procedure known as chelation. It “is used to remove heavy metals like lead and mercury from the body. Some parents and researchers believe autism is mercury poisoning. Caused partly by a mercury preservative once routinely used in vaccines,” she explained. The medical community across the board state that there is no link between mercury and autism, but that hasn’t stopped left-wing activists.

Stark described the child’s death: “The Pennsylvania boy was receiving the intravenous form of chelation when he went into cardiac arrest. C.P.R. was administered but the boy died at a local hospital. An autopsy was inconclusive. More tests are planned.”

This is my first shot at this forum. Cut me some slack please.

My Talking Points...starting with the new top dog in the cable networks.

Yes, I watch the Factor, it's a fast moving, no nonsense, quick look at hot button topics. Bill is an enigma of sorts. He spouts off about being balanced and fair, no slouch when it comes to tooting his own horn. He a braggard and a hot tempered Irishman. But I watch him because he does manage to give some liberals, not all, enough time for them to hang themselves, making at least an attempt at no-spin. But it's really just enforced for his opponents.

But he has an agenda just like everyone else, but he maintains his no-spin mantra because he won't let the opposing views have time enough to counter his talking points before he cuts them off with his shouting. He's a bully, no doubt about it, but I like the fast pace and I learn more in a shorter time than any other program. I thought the editor of the NH newspaper did a credible job of countering his classic put-down of people who refuse to face up to his harangues... "He/she is hiding under his/her desk." An over-the-top slap at anyone who doesn't come on his show. I am no admirer of Michael Moore, but I thought he gave Bill more than he could handle, although I doubt if Mr. O'R sees it that way.

Over at MediaChannel, they have a study that says 51 percent of journalists use blogs, but only one percent "believe in their credibility."

Of those who use blogs, 70 percent "use blogs for work-related tasks: they use blogs to find story ideas, researching and referencing facts, finding sources and uncovering breaking news."

Ironically, few journalists claim to post on blogs of their own because they don't want to "be seen as compromising objectivity and thus credibility."

Looks like journalists have decided that it's still best to put their opinions in stories, not blogs.

The headline of a Cindy Sheehan piece in today's Washington Post by staff writer Sam Coates grabbed my attention. "Standoff Continues in Crawford: As Bush, Sheehan Return, Both Sides Plan Rallies," read the headline. The lede picked up the "standoff" terminology:

WACO, Tex., Aug. 25---The standoff between President Bush and antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan escalated Thursday with emotional appeals from both sides, each invoking sacrifices made by Americans after Sept. 11, 2001, to bolster their case.

Standoff certainly is a politically loaded term, even for the Post, so I did a search on Nexis of Washington Post articles from August 1-26 for "Cindy Sheehan" and the terms "vigil," "protest," and "standoff." After tossing out editorial and op-ed hits, I found there were 13 pieces describing Sheehan's actions as a vigil, 15 as a protest, and only one, today's story by Coates, labeling it a standoff.

NB: I wrote this after David Limbaugh's post on the same matter, but unaware of his post.

The Washington Post's Jo Becker uses Judge John Roberts preference of the term "War Between the States" (WBTS) to title the American Civil War as a jumping off point to subtly accuse the Supreme Court nominee of being sympathetic to Southern secession. File this bias under scraping the bottom of the barrel.

While no one that Becker quotes openly accuses Roberts of bigotry or of harboring the view that the 1861 secession of Southern states was legal and the Union's prosecution of war as unconstitutional, hints are dropped that the use of WBTS by Roberts could be a harbinger of a separatist ideology or pandering to opponents of civil rights legislation from the 1960s.

This technically not "Broadcast Media", but I felt compelled to post this.  It involves NTN Communications makers of interactive game units found in restaurants like TGI Friday's and Buffalo Wild Wings.  While viewing a trivia game I saw a list of answers that included Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln was ultimately the correct answer.  I did not see the original question.  In this game, once the correct answer is displayed, it is usually accompanied by additonal information elaborating on subject.  The additional information for the Abraham Lincoln answer went something like this (paraphrasing only slightly):

When expedient, the Republican Party refers to itself as the "Party of Lincoln".  This is most often used during campaign speeches and public relations crises.

I find these daily investigative forays into Judge Roberts' decades-old work product amusing, until I consider that those writing these stories must truly be serious.

Check out this story in the Washington Post today titled, "In Article, Roberts' Pen Appeared to Dip South." It seems that when Roberts was "ghostwriting" an article for President Reagan for the National Forum journal on "The Presidency: Roles and Responsibilities," he left a handwritten, self-editing trail, as I suppose he frequently did -- as did Reagan himself, as we know.

Now, here's the big scoop. In one section of the draft, he began a sentence with the words, "Until about the time of the Civil War." Then, according to the Post, he "scratched out the words, 'Civil war' and replaced them with 'War Between the States.'"

Fresh from his performance on ABC’s This Week this past Sunday, the New York Times economic writer, Paul Krugman, has a new op-ed today filled with more delicious economic distortions: 

But although many people say "four million jobs in the last two years" reverently, as if it were an amazing achievement, it's actually a rise of about 3 percent, not much faster than the growth of the working-age population over the same period.

Nice factoid, but not altogether relevant.  After all, not everybody that is of working age is actually looking for a job, correct?  Some of these folks may have retired early, or are housewives/househusbands or students.  As such, the more appropriate measure of employment is how many jobs are being created compared to the growth in the labor force. 

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the MSM water, up pops Cindy Sheehan.

The Today show’s pretext for bringing back Cindy was her return to Crawford.

It seems that Sheehan’s media consultants have been hard at work, grooming a more media-savvy, less over-the-top image for Sheehan.  She managed to avoid charging W, as she has in the past, with being the world’s biggest terrorist, or engaging in thinly-veiled anti-Semitism as when she previously spoke of neo-con Paul Wolfowitz making her “skin crawl.”

Yet one sensed that not far beneath the buttoned-down exterior, the demons lurked.

Lucianne.com’s home page subhead probably caught the attitude of most conservatives best when Pat Robertson said the U.S. ought to assassinate Venezualan President Hugo Chavez: "Rev. Pat’s off his meds again." Of course, the MSM didn’t see it that way, trumpeting the TV preacher’s stupid remark far and wide as emblematic of conservatism as a whole.

National Review Online’s Byron York has an interesting essay on Robertson’s actual influence here http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200508250914.asp, making the point that Robertson’s 700 Club TV show reaches an average audience of 863,000.

The Rev. Pat episode reminded me of political conversations I’ve had with my old college roomie, sweetest guy in the world, very liberal. Virtually the only "conservatives" he can name are Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell. He might throw in Bob Novak in a pinch. He watches CNN.

Jack Kelly has a great story at Jewish World Review about how good news in the real world becomes bad news in the New York Times. The basics of the story go something like this:

The Army has greatly improved the body armor soldiers are wearing over the past 15 years. It's lighter and tougher.

There are some types of ammunition that can penetrate it, but no evidence that the "insurgents" are using that ammunition.

"...though the specifications weren't set until early in January, new plates were being manufactured — and delivery begun to U.S. troops — in March. Those familiar with the Pentagon's procurement process recognize this as lightning speed. "

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

There will be a new Gaggle strip, fully colored, every weekday. Stay tuned for a list of characters.

Click here for previous strips.