Ironically, an episode the other day was about the evils of judging by appearance.

As with those that claim they read Playboy for the articles, I suppose he became smitten by this tramp
through her personality.

For those charmed by the puny, ditzy model type, be warned. They don't strike me as the kind that will do much housework or happily as they are told like a proper wife should.

Any satisfaction to be derived from having such a showcase bride based upon contemporary standards of beauty idolizing malnutrition and an emaciated look will no doubt be eaten up by divorce settlement costs a few years down the road.

Glamour wenches seldom make good companions and hardly the best selection as mothers.

At the premiere party Wednesday night in Beverly Hills for ABC's new drama debuting on Tuesday, Commander in Chief, in which Geena Davis plays the President of the United States, actress Sara Rue told USA Today reporter William Keck for a Friday article: "In my mind I'm pretending that Geena Davis is actually running the country because it makes me feel a lot more secure." Keck asserted that Rue, who stars on ABC's Less Than Perfect, summed “up the opinions of the mostly Democratic Hollywood crowd” when she declared: “We all thought of Hillary Clinton when we heard they were making this show. I hope it takes off!"

Davis herself, however, who Keck reported will be “a Democrat playing an independent,” had “clarified: 'We're making this as entertainment. But God willing, if this show stays on and people see a woman in that office for a while, I think it will help people become more used to it. It's certainly about time that we had a few female presidents.'"

TV Week reports Fox chief Rupert Murdoch told investors that his company is moving forward with plans to launch a business cable news channel to compete with CNBC. The launch apparently has been delayed, though, as Fox News chairman Roger Ailes wonders whether or not the startup could so easily thrash the competition like FNC has.

From the AP:

LONDON — A former ABC News correspondent accused the network of dropping his contract because he refused to go to Iraq and other war zones, and he sought $4.2 million in lost earnings at an employment tribunal Friday.

ABC says war zone assignments are voluntary and argues that the decision not to renew Richard Gizbert's freelance contract was motivated by budget pressures.

Mimi Gurbst, ABC's vice president of news coverage, said at the hearing that Gizbert was one of many staffers dropped after she was ordered to cut costs by 10 percent over two years. She said those laid off included many who regularly accepted assignments in conflict zones, and Gizbert's refusal to do so was not the reason for his dismissal.

On CNN's "American Morning" today, anchor Soledad O'Brien played part of a taped interview with former President Clinton. Ms. O'Brien raised what she thought would be an impediment to Clinton and President Bush getting along: "I mean you raised tax cuts and that's sort of a good issue because when people talk about, OK, how do we pay for Hurricane Katrina when you're talking about an atmosphere where it's clearly going to be very expensive. We have troops in Iraq. We have troops in Afghanistan. We have promised tax cuts. We've got Social Security reform. We have prescription drug plans. I mean, the list goes on and on and on."

Yes, the list - and the Democratic talking points - do go on and on. It was thoughtful of Ms. O'Brien to remind viewers of the "good issues" Democrats want the American public to focus on.

A day after NBC's Matt Lauer asked on Today, "why are there so many hurricanes this year and is global warming to blame?" and Robert Bazell ominously concluded an NBC Nightly News story by asserting that "many experts say" hurricane-fueling global warming "results partly from humans releasing greenhouse gases possibly creating even more violent storms in the future," ABC and CBS aired stories which largely dismissed global warming as a culprit. On Thursday's World News Tonight, ABC's Ned Potter featured a soundbite from National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield, who in little-reported congressional testimony Tuesday, discounted global warming as a factor. CBS's Russ Mitchell, on The Early Show, featured a scientist who "says hurricane activity comes in cycles that can last several decades. It seems Mother Nature has mood swings." Mitchell explained that "hurricane cycles are primarily driven by rainfall patterns in Africa and the Amazon basin." As for hype about hurricanes on the rise, Mitchell admonished: "The experts will tell us back in the '50s and '60s we saw some monster hurricanes, but we just have very short memories."

(Viewers of ABC's PrimeTime Thursday, however, heard more hyperbolic lunacy on global warming as Barbra Streisand exclaimed to Diane Sawyer: "We are in a global warming emergency state and these storms are going to become more frequent, more intense, there could be more droughts, dust bowls, you know it's amazing to hear these facts, I mean, the Andes have no ice caps on the mountains in winter. The glaciers are melting. I mean, for the United States not to be part of the Kyoto treaty is unforgivable.")

Full transcripts and CBS's 1950-'60s hurricane graphic follow.

Sigh. The day after Times Watch gave the paper an "attaboy" for delivering a somewhat balanced front-page story on the battle over a proposed left-wing museum at Ground Zero, comes a Friday editorial, "Freedom or Not?" It accuses those who don't want anti-American sentiments enshrined at the site of being "censors."

"The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will soon decide whether ground zero will continue to include an International Freedom Center, or whether families of some 9/11 victims will be able to censor those plans. Yesterday, the Freedom Center submitted a report that specified in greater detail how it would be run and what it hoped to present in the way of programming. This became necessary when Gov. George Pataki capitulated to a misguided outcry from critics who fear that the center's main task will be to present anti-American views of 9/11."

The Times huffs: "But since late June the Freedom Center has been caught up in a vitriolic protest called the Take Back the Memorial movement, whose leaders claim for themselves the right of deciding for the rest of us what we should know and think about 9/11."

Take Back the Memorial's blog points out: "Some in the media, namely the New York Times, continue to write off Take Back the Memorial as a 'small number' of 9/11 family members. That is simply not the case, as evidenced by those that now stand with us," including the 20,000-member Uniformed Firefighters Association and three local congressmen threatening hearings on the matter.

See TimesWatch for more New York Times bias.

In an op-ed in today’s New York Times, former president Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James Baker answered their critics – one of them being the Times itself – concerning voter reforms they have proposed.

As reported by NewsBusters on Tuesday, the Times came out strongly against Carter and Baker’s proposals largely due to a requirement for voters to have proper identification to cast ballots.  The Times’ contention was that this would have a discriminatory impact on the poor, the elderly, and minorities. 

Carter and Baker don’t agree:

Dozens of readers were horrified when The Patriot-News decided to run a front page picture of a man convicted on drug charges sticking up his middle finger at the camera.

How do you justify running this picture where nearly every child at a breakfast table will see it?

Executive Editor David Newhouse: "We believed that this photo powerfully drove home the true impact of drugs."

So there you have it, kids, keep off the methamphetamine or you too might end up throwing the bird.

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post newsroom forced the Post to back out of sponsoring a "Freedom Walk" on September 11 sponsored by the Pentagon, since that would compromise their appearance of neutrality. (On the bright side, the controversy actually caused the Post to give that event front-page coverage, rare for a perceived "pro-war" rally.) But the Post newsroom has no protest when they publish stories on "anti-war" rallies that are nothing but press releases -- especially when they trot out the two common protest publicity angles: that (1) the war's so unpopular that there will be protest rookies/newbies/virgins; and (2) the protesters come from all political ideologies. These are both attempts to rebut the skeptical reader's question about the newsworthiness of these protests: Isn't it just the same motley crew of America-bashers, and are they really representative of America as a whole? But the Post carries major protester water today with the top of the Metro section carrying a story/press release with the headline "Antiwar Rally Will Be First for Many: Focused Message Draws Protesters of All Stripes."

In its Katrina coverage, the MSM made hay at President Bush's expense in suggesting that the government's sluggish response was the result of racism.

Given the early and energetic preparations of government at all levels for Rita, you might think that it would impossible for the MSM to recycle the racism canard. But that didn't stop the Today show from giving it the old college try this morning.

Lester Holt normally strikes me as a solid professional. In footage from yesterday aired on this morning's show, Holt reported from Galveston, covering the last of the evacuees, largely poor people it seemed, being put on school buses "who had no other way to leave."

Holt asked what appeared to be a poor black man sitting on a school bus about to be evacuated: "were you afraid that you could be left behind here?"

The elitist mainstream media’s coverage of the Galveston and Houston area pre-Rita hurricane evacuations illustrates perfectly how determined the anti-Bush liberal media is to cover-up the incompetence of Louisiana Governor Blanco and the "overwhelmed" Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin.

Both Galveston and Houston had pre-existing evacuation plans that were put into place almost as soon as authorities were alerted to hurricane Rita’s impending onslaught on their communities. Both communities used BUSES and other city vehicles to evacuate residents who could not otherwise evacuate themselves. Special shelters were set up so evacuees could BRING THEIR PETS. Shelters were set up that had -- gasp! -- FOOD and WATER for the people, and -- wow! -- adequate security to ensure no violence would erupt.

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.

There will be a new Gaggle strip, fully colored, every weekday.

Click here for previous strips.

There are some who would argue journalists don't do serious stories about religion. The respect for a higher power cherished by the majority in this country is not a voice represented in the newsroom. Some might think that even when religion is approached in a story, it is treated like wacky antics of the criminally insane.

Well that just isn't true. You obviously don't care about black people and want to send the children of others to die in Iraq funded on the lunch money of the poor if you believe that.

Take this local CBS News story from the network's San Francisco affiliate. Sure it didn't bump Cindy Sheehan off the front page, but it did pay respect to religion with this hard hitting investigation titled "Interview with a Vampire".

• It starts off with the US military purging evil spirits from a New Orleans building with holy water, in the name of Jesus Christ.
• It has a US soldier talking about New Orleans being "ingrained in voodoo, cannibalism, and witchcraft."
• The reporter herself sees a ghost, but apparently doesn't consider it worthy of getting on tape.
• US soldier says "We're bringing the light. Wherever soldiers go, there goes the word of God."
• US soldiers cite Hurricane Katrina as prophecy from Revelations. Twice.

Is it sweeps already, or are the haunted houses, crusades and voodoo just the 'diversity' angle of religion coverage?

Watch the whole segment here.