By now, we've all heard about Hillary Clinton's bombastic "plantation" remark at an MLK Day event at a Harlem church yesterday (Monday, January 16, 2006).

One place you won't hear about it is in today's print edition of the Los Angeles Times, who failed to find room for even one word about the statement.

Remarkably, earlier this month, the Times was able to find room for three items on Pat Robertson's bizarre Ariel Sharon remark (Jan6: here, Jan12: here, and Jan13: here).

Apparently even Chris Matthews has his limits when it comes to swallowing Dem BS.  The proof came on tonight's Hardball, when Matthews clearly wasn't buying Al Sharpton's transparently lame defense of Hillary Clinton's allegation, at an MLK Day event, that "the House of Representatives has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about."

Sharpton's theater of the absurd reached its apotheosis when he claimed that Hillary "did not make the comments at a Harlem church".  Even the New York Times had to admit that she had spoken in "at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem," and Hardball rolled footage of her speaking at a lectern in the church draped with fabric decorated with a cross.

Earlier today on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, contributing correspondent Bruce Morton hosted a  list of "political  gaffes." Noticeably missing from the list was former President Clinton and VP Al Gore, as well as Al Sharpton and a long list of other Democrats.

While CNN set up the piece with the latest outlandish comments from Hillary Clinton and Mayor Nagin, I do find it telling that they picked on Pat Robertson while they had only a millisecond of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Highlighted gaffes included: Republican Trent Lott on Thurmond, Bush Sr. - No New Taxes, Rev.  Pat Robertson, Jesse Jackson calling Jews hymies, former VP Dan Quayle on Murphy Brown, and James Watt, former Secretary of Interior under Reagan.

Today (Tuesday) the San Francisco Chronicle ran an editorial entitled, “Why Alito is the wrong choice.” Instead of demonstrating what it says, it demonstrates why the Chronicle has failed to do its homework as reporters, in preparing its editorial. Here’s why:

The editorial begins with this statement:

In some ways, Alito's taciturn approach to questions about the great constitutional issues of our time was similar to that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. But the distinction between the history of the two judges -- and the role of the justice they were nominated to replace -- are important.

First, this fails to note that the “taciturn approach” followed by Judge Alito was exactly the same as Justice Ginsberg’s. It is a gross violation of judicial ethics for any judge on any bench to comment publicly on any issue likely to come before him/her in a case.

According to Ellis Henican, the "I-word [is] even being mentioned on Capitol Hill." Henican, a Fox News analyst and Newsday columnist, appeared on the January 17^th edition of Fox and Friends at 6:18AM EST. He excitedly referenced an impeachment mention during Arlen Specter’s January 15th appearance on ABC's This Week. Henican described Arlen Specter as "a Republican, incidentally, who doesn’t want the President to break the law." It might be helpful to know what Specter actually said. George Stephanopoulos did ask the senator, at 9:07AM EST, what would be the remedy if the President broke the law. Specter replied:

"Well, the remedy could be a variety of things. A president, and I’m not suggesting remotely that there is any basis, but your asking, really, theory, what’s the remedy, impeachment is the remedy. After impeachment you can have a criminal prosecution. But the principal remedy under our society is to pay a political price." (Emphasis added)

Last Friday I noted Roger Keith Coleman was proven guilty of murder through DNA testing and wondered if Time would note that fact, since back in 1992 they featured him as their anti-death penalty cover boy. Well in this week's Milestones section of Time they in fact did mention it. "DNA testing--which last week confirmed the guilt of Roger Keith Coleman, executed in Virginia in 1992 for the murder of his sister-in-law--did not exist at the time of his 1982 trial."

After that 35-word update, Time went on to excerpt a portion of the original article. The excerpt doesn't really do justice to how adamant they were in their defense of Coleman but in the end Time gets credit for their notice.

Up front in the "Periscope" section of Newsweek, it's reported that Sen. Joe Biden, stung by all the arrows about his blah-blah-blah at the Alito confirmation hearings, suggested that perhaps Supreme Court nominees should face a murder board of liberal media inquiries instead. He suggested confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee should just be junked:

Critics point out that such a plan deprives nominees like Alito the chance to speak in their own behalf. But Biden, who notes that Judiciary Committee hearings haven't always been part of the confirmation process, says ditching hearings would leave nominees to make their cases in the media, where holding back and being boring won't necessarily fly. "Then [the press] would actually write about how they're not answering the questions," Biden says. "You people might get some answers out of them."

The Times commemorates Martin Luther King day in its usual way, making it a Bush-bashing holiday.

Back in 2004, reporter Jeffrey Gettleman lit into Bush for going to Atlanta to mark the day. Here are some excerpts from his January 15, 2004 report:

"Many of Atlanta's civil-rights leaders are outraged about Mr. Bush's planned visit to commemorate Dr. King's 75th birthday and are using the occasion for protests. Already, they have marched with bullhorns, signs and thumping drums, shouting for the president to stay away....Many demonstrators asked how Mr. Bush, who pushed for war in Iraq, could champion Dr. King, who stood for nonviolent resistance....When President Clinton came in 1996, he received a standing ovation. But this presidential visit will be different. It seems to have lifted the lid on long-simmering anger many blacks feel toward Mr. Bush. Some Bush policies, including tax cuts mainly benefiting those with higher incomes and cutting back on welfare-type programs, have alienated black voters, analysts say."

The media, okay really just another reporter who hates O'Reilly, finally discovered that we aren't going to swallow everything they shovel on us without question. Another journalist admits there is plaigiarism in "every newsroom in America." The WashPost ombud admits their Abramoff coverage hasn't even begun to mention all the Democrats involved (very end of article) but that might change any minute now. Consider me holding my breath. The U.S. military saved a reporter who had been kidnapped in Iraq before anyone even knew he had been missing for 5 days (no need to thank them, they know you owe them your life.) And the media is taking heat for actually doing what the military asks of them, but only when it comes to saving one of their own.

90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association love gay cowboys and transvestites far more than American movie-goers do. Chalk up another 7500 articles. Meanwhile one of the cowpokes claimed the rural bans on the movie were due to "racism". Calls to determine what part of the world the "gay race" migrated from went unreturned.

Wishy washy mayor Ray Nagin said hurricanes are messages that God is mad at us for being in Iraq, and that New Orleans will be "chocolate" again (is that what you call it?) Don't worry, the media will only portray Pat Robertson as crazy for purporting to know what God is thinking.

Al Gore is on a rampage claiming that George Bush is a criminal for

There were no Democrats involved with the Abramoff probe? After reading the latest online NYT assesment of the facts, you'd think that.

Ladies and Gentlemen - we have entered the twilight zone. In their ongoing efforts to obscure the depth and bipartisan nature of the congressional corruption scandal, the New York Times shows itself to be little more than a public relations organ of the Democrat Party. Committing the sin of omission once again, a piece on the Abramoff probe by Anne Kornblut neglects to implicate any Democrats in the scandal, instead focusing on slicing and dicing Bob Ney. The Grey Lady accomplishes this by dumping every allegation made in Abramoff's plea agreement all over the pages, mixed with the filtered responses of anyone who might support him (including his lawyer, who is quoted once with two sentences).

On "Good Morning America" today, the 8 AM newscast had a few embarrassing errors. News anchor Kate Snow stumbled as she explained that today's NASA mission to Pluto will be powered by "24 pounds of plutonium" -- "I'll have to check that," she said as she read through it. (Doesn't she read through the news a time or two before taking the newscast on air?) At newscast's end, she said my bad, yes, it's 24 pounds. Obviously, Kate Snow is literally not a rocket (or nuclear) scientist. At least she didn't highlight the liberal angle of anti-nuke protesters.

Then entertainment critic Joel Siegel arrived on the Golden Globe beat, noting that Philip Seymour Hoffman, Reese Witherspoon, and Joaquin Phoenix all won awards last night for playing real people whose last name starts with C. He then suggested it could mean Oscar magic for the actors, since Jamie Foxx won last year for playing, he claimed -- "Johnny Cash." Oops. That would have been a real actor's challenge. But he didn't correct it to Ray Charles. ABC whistled past it.

The demonstrators' signs read "Withdraw the Terrorist US Army", so naturally I assumed it was a DNC event, perhaps with John Kerry and Al Gore leading the way. But no, turns out that for the second day running the Today show devoted an extended first segment to the attempted strike on Zawahiri and the harm it might have done to our relations with Pakistan.

Katie Couric introduced the piece, labeling it "collateral damage in the war on terror," and noting "one thing is for sure, the attack killed women and children and has put a strain on the relationship between the US and this key ally."

FNC’s Brit Hume on Monday night picked up on how, in trying to smear Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito as a bigot, Senator Ted Kennedy, in a quote showcased by many media outlets, read from what was really a satire. Hume noted how at the hearings last week Kennedy read this from a magazine published by Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP): “People nowadays just don't seem to know their place. Everywhere one turns, blacks and Hispanics are demanding jobs simply because they're black and Hispanic.” Hume informed his viewers: “But the magazine's editor at the time says the article was pure satire, a send-up of what liberals think conservatives think. He added quote, 'I think left-wing groups have been feeding Senator Kennedy snippets and he has been mindlessly reciting them,' unquote." As Tim Graham noted in a Friday NewsBusters item, in his ABCNews.com blog that day, Jake Tapper first reported how Dinesh D’Souza, the editor to whom Hume referred, had let him know that the 1983 piece in Prospect magazine was satire.

Last week, NBC, CNN and the Washington Post -- amongst many other outlets -- highlighted Kennedy’s reading of the quote, which he displayed on a board behind him, yet none, as far as I’ve observed, have offered any clarification. NBC’s Pete Williams featured the Kennedy soundbite on Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News and Thursday’s Today; CNN’s Bob Franken recited it himself on Thursday’s American Morning; and two Thursday Washington Post stories quoted Kennedy’s citation of the quote. (Rundown follows.)

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NBC and ABC on Monday night gave time to short items on Al Gore's charge, leveled during a morning speech, that President Bush's “domestic surveillance” means he “has been breaking the law repeatedly and insistently." And MSNBC's Countdown led with it as host Keith Olbermann showcased a clip of Gore with his allegation before Olbermann insisted: "Just more old-fashioned partisanship? Not when it's Bob Barr joining Gore in the same complaint about NSA spying. Not when it's Arlen Specter calling for a full investigation." Seeing great import in the Gore-Barr alliance, Olbermann ruminated about how “the creations of the last two serious third political parties in this country define the cliche politics makes strange bedfellows.” Seemingly suggesting a potential repeat scenario, Olbermann recalled how in 1854 Republicans “started as a third party with disaffected Democrats abandoning their own sitting President and the Whigs, who had been in office until a year earlier, deserting en masse, putting aside their personal hatreds to create a one-issue party against slavery.”

NBC anchor Brian Williams relayed how “Gore made some of the toughest charges yet from a prominent Democrat. He called for an independent investigation of the NSA spy program which he called a threat to the very structure of our government." After a clip of Gore's declaration, “What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law [rising applause] repeatedly and insistently," Williams offered no contrary view and then passed along how "Al Gore noted that he gave the speech on Martin Luther King Day because Dr. King himself had been a victim of illegal domestic spying by the FBI." But in holding the FBI accountable for the “spying,” Williams obscured who was behind it: Liberal heroes Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy. ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas at least pointed out that while “Gore called for an independent counsel to investigate the program,” it's a policy “which the administration has said is, in fact, legal." (Transcripts follow.)