On Friday's World News with Charles Gibson, ABC anchor Gibson ran a one-sided story on the lingering dangers to civilians of cluster bombs that were used by the Israeli military in Lebanon. The story, filed by correspondent Wilf Dinnick, promoted the complaints of a UN worker named Jihad Samhat without mentioning his history of vitriolic bias against Israel. As can be seen on his blog, Samhat has referred to the "Israeli terror machine" that is "sponsored by the West," accusing Israel of "barbaric aggression," the "murder of innocent civilians," and committing a "massacre" at Qana. Samhat's blog even charged that Israel "targeted and killed many innocent civilians in their attempt to escape," as if the Israeli military deliberately killed civilians. ABC did not inform viewers of Samhat's history of bias against Israel, instead bolstering him as a "former American soldier" who "works for the UN's Mine Action Center." (Transcripts follow)

Brian Maloney at the Radio Equalizer blog reports the latest in the Air America stealing-from-the-children financial scandal: New York officials have indicted two execs at the Gloria Wise Community Center. Will the flurry of news coverage Brian recounts ever make its way to the mainstream media? The local CBS affilate reported:

Two former executives at a government-funded youth organization whose finances were scrutinized after it diverted money to the liberal radio network Air America were charged Thursday with misappropriating $1.2 million of the non-profit's funds.

Charles Rosen, a former executive director at the Gloria Wise Community Center, and his former assistant director, Jeffrey Aulenbach, face charges of grand larceny and obstructing governmental administration. Rosen was also charged with forgery.

TVNewser notes "Dan Rather Reports will still be coming soon to Mark Cuban's HDNet. Just not as soon," Ed Bark reports. The program was to launch in October. But in an e-mail, Cuban now says: "We are moving Dan back to after the elections so there won't be as much going on." Perhaps it's because the last weeks of an election season, he looks a little like Captain Ahab, "reckless, arrogant, and ideologically blind in his pursuit of Moby Bush."

The New York Times adds to its list of "Times Talks" events promoting homosexuality by sponsoring remarks by gay ex-Gov. Jim McGreevey promoting sales and signings of his new memoir book "The Confession." The event is scheduled for next Saturday, October 14 in San Francisco, co-sponsored by the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center. The conversation will by moderated by Dudley Clendinen, described by the Times as "New York Times contributor and author of Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America."

At the CBS Public Eye site, Vaughn Ververs reported that a CBS employee (a tape archivist they claim somehow doesn't count as a news gatherer, just a tape gatherer) sent a nasty Foley-related note to the RNC:

SARASOTA, FL (NS) -

You could see the Vice President's plane coming in for a landing at SRQ International Airport. Blue and White colored with an American flag on the planes tail, known by its code sign "Air Force 2"...

From there, Vice President Dick Cheney came off the plane and made his first official visit to Sarasota in support of Florida's 13th Congressional District candidate Vern Buchanan...

The Vice President spoke to a crowd of about 200 people at a fundraiser for Vern Buchanan that "voting for Democrats in November threatens the economic and military security of the country."

Poeple had paid $1,000 per person to attend the event. The purpose of this visit by the Vice President was fund raising...

Vice President Cheney, told the group at the Sarasota Hyatt, “President Bush’s tax relief plan was right for America and it is working,” Cheney said. “If Democrats take control and the tax cuts expire, American families will face and immense tax increase and the economy will sustain a major hit.”

In times past, no public figure would want to be associated with dirty political tricks. Nowadays, however, Lawrence O'Donnell is enthusiastically flaunting the fact that the Democrats have stooped to the sleazy tactic of outing gays as a campaign tactic. The McLaughlin Group panelist and former producer of The West Wing has no qualms about his party engaging in sleaze as he pointed out in his October 5 Blog in The Huffington Post:

The LA Times has outed Kirk Fordham today. He will not be the last closeted gay Republican outed by this scandal.

In Foley Case Upsets Tough Balance by Capitol Hill’s Gay Republicans, the New York Times describes the plight of gay Republican staffers in DC. According to the Times, things are so tough for them that a group gets together every week to "commiserate." The longish article makes an interesting read, but I was particularly struck by these two items. First, the article's author, Mark Leibovich, writes:

"Even though the G.O.P. fashions itself as 'the party of Lincoln' and a promoter of tolerance, it is perceived as hostile by many gay men and lesbians."

Open for comment this Saturday afternoon.

Just in time for the November elections, a new MSM theme is emerging: Iraq's not the only mess - Afghanistan's in trouble too. Just a couple days I described here the Pentagon's systematic rebuttal of Newsweek's hyper-negative portrayal of the situation in Afghanistan in its article "The Rise of Jihadistan."

One of Newsweek's "news partners" just happens to be NBC, and sure enough, NBC's 'Today' show ran a segment this morning recycling many of the charges contained in the Newsweek piece. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda were depicted as resurgent, with violence up, the opium trade flourishing, and President Karzai's influence largely limited to Kabul.

In a discussion on Inside Washington about the situation in Iraq and Bob Woodward's book, Colby King, Deputy Editor of the Washington Post's editorial page and a weekly columnist, made clear his disgust with President Bush -- to the point of rejecting Bush as Commander-in-Chief and arguing Bush is more deserving of impeachment than was President Clinton. “If we had a draft today and my sons had to go in the service under this Commander-in-Chief and his military advisors, I'd be hard-pressed,” King revealed, “to say serve under them." Citing how too many are being killed in Iraq “because of dumb decisions made by these people in the Pentagon,” an exasperated King recalled how “they impeached the President...for having some relationship with an intern. What about the people who got us into this mess?"

A bit later in the program aired Friday night on Washington, DC's PBS station, NPR reporter Nina Totenberg predicted: “When the history books are written, we will not be proud of this country or this President.”

Nancy never lost a case when she was a prosecutor.  Maybe she has a keen eye in determining who is and who isnt guilty.

hmmmmmmm.