MRC's Times Watch man and NB blogger Clay Waters appeared again on FNC's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on Friday afternoon to discuss the New York Times and its unhappiness with the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein. Substitute host Stuart Varney began: “In an op-ed piece entitled ‘The Rush to Hang Saddam Hussein,’ editors questioned if the trial was legitimate, and if Iraq would be better off with him dead. Clay Waters is disgusted, but not surprised. He is director of Times Watch….Clay, to you first, I read this editorial and they called, the Times called the trial flawed, politicized, and divisive, and a lost opportunity. What do you make of all this?”

Waters replied: “Well, obviously, the Times is not going to be sad to see him go, but at the same time, it is clear just from the preview that Bush is not going to get a positive story out of this, as you can see. It’s started already. It’s going to be like the Zarqawi thing. Bush got half a day of positive coverage and then the media went back to their usual template of  doom and gloom, Iraq equals Vietnam. And even today, online  they said the trial might be ruined by, quote, "politically driven haste" to execute Saddam after a deliberative trial." Of course, this editorial makes the opposite case, they said this was a lousy trial, so they shouldn’t hang Saddam. The only consistency is don’t hang Saddam. That’s the only thing the Times is consistent about.”

Democrats Will Allow Buchanan to Be Seated January 4th...

Friday, December 29, 2006...

SARASOTA, FL. (NS) -

Democrats will not kick off the 110th Congress by refusing to seat Rep.-elect Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), despite pending lawsuits and a House Administration query into his November 7th election...

The Buchanan campaign released the following statement today regarding Leon County Florida Judge William Gray's finding that defeated congressional candidate Christine Jennings' lawsuit is based on "conjecture" and "speculation" and that her claims are "not supported by credible evidence."

"In his ruling, the Judge has reaffirmed that there is no merit to Christine Jennings' baseless allegations that the voting machines malfunctioned," said Buchanan spokeswoman Sally Tibbetts. "As noted by the Judge in today's ruling, two parallel tests conducted by the state revealed '100% accuracy of the equipment in reporting the vote selections'. The state last week concluded that the machines used in
the election accurately recorded every vote."

MRC’s Michelle Humphrey passed along an example of CNN already feeling the pain of Saddam Hussein. On Thursday night’s "Anderson Cooper 360" – re-aired Friday in the 9 AM hour – CNN reporter Randi Kaye did a whole story suggesting the idea that hanging Saddam was a cruel and outdated mode of execution. This is the same program that recently focused on the coldly efficient killers of American troops without focusing any sympathy on their suffering. Instead, they focused on how insurgents supposedly tried not to slaughter innocents as they shot at American troops.

Kaye began: "This is what is Iraq's government calls the death chamber. Soon, Saddam Hussein will be here to meet the same fate as these men. This is what his final moments will look like. But we wanted to know what hanging will feel like. Will Saddam suffer in death?"

NBC began its Friday Today broadcast with the grim-sounding news that Saddam Hussein will be executed soon. Why grim? Isn't this a moment, at least a day, showing some good news from Iraq, and reminding the country that it did something in deposing Saddam that pleased the Iraqi people? For NBC, this is merely a short interruption in the non-stop bad news from Iraq. It's an event they are predicting will be quickly overshadowed by increased violence. Lauer concentrated on the fears of our government, and Russert declared violence was a "huge fear" of the administration. Russert went on to predict that the Bush team would try to justify the war on Saddam around the execution of the dictator, but any echo of celebration "could in fact be very short term, depending on what level of violence follows his death."

An uptick in violence might happen. But it also seems that this prediction helps prevent a single news cycle from sounding any kind of positive note. Lauer began the Saddam part of his chat with Russert this way:

Both ABC’s "Good Morning America" and NBC’s "Today" picked up where they left off yesterday, and promoted a new "Washington Post" story detailing how former President Ford and ex-President Nixon were closer friends than previously believed. Both networks used the opportunity to once again highlight Gerald Ford’s dissatisfaction with the Iraq war, and both networks portrayed Mr. Ford as being more anti-war than he in fact was.

ABC and NBC for the most part played the same audio clips from both the Woodward tapes and a Nixon tape from 1973, including playing the exact same shortened audio clip of President Ford as evidence that the former Republican president strongly disagreed with the war in Iraq:

"I think Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq."

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell claimed:

"Gerald Ford believed the Iraq war was a mistake...Gerald Ford told [Bob] Woodward that he strongly disagreed with the president’s decision to go to war..."

Open for comment on any particular topic. Here's a few:

Coverage of Gerald Ford too positive? Try taxpayer-supported Pacifica's "Democracy Now" radio show, with this classic headline: "President Gerald Ford Dies at 93; Supported Indonesian Invasion of East Timor that Killed 1/3 of Population."

Greg Sargent of the lefty American Prospect complains that the media's failing to remember fondly and aggressively Gerald Ford's "Vietnam is so over" comments, and their relevance for getting Bush to acknowledge defeat today.

Rosie O’Donnell racist? She should have learned Chinese and tried the joke again, says a San Jose Mercury News critic.

Was it just good-natured joshing, or did some MSM elitism creep into Matt Lauer's interview-ending question to Tim Russert on this morning's "Today"?

"What's up for the New Year for you? Same thing as usual: keg of Old Milwaukee and a noise-maker?"

What's this? Condescension to Russert's blue-collar image leavened with a dab of drunken-Irishman humor? The camera crew burst into guffaws, but check the video - was Russert's laugh a bit more strained?

Headline:

Marines deny airstrikes used against insurgents in Ramadi

The corrected headline should be:

No Airstrikes Occurred at Ramadi, and We Don't Have the Integrity to Acknowledge Our Original Error in Reporting Them

Patterico has noticed ("L.A. Times (Almost) Admits Ramadi Airstrike Didn’t Happen") and promises much more later. Also, Hot Air has weighed in.

Here's a reminder of original LAT headline and subheadline in its original Nov. 15 story:

Iraqi residents say US airstrike kills 30

Victims include women and children, witnesses in Ramadi say. The military has no immediate comment.

The current LAT story claims that even more civilians were killed:

Before we ring in 2007, it's worth taking a look back at some of the liberal media's goofiest or most outrageous moments, courtesy of the Media Research Center's Best Notable Quotables of 2006: The Nineteenth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting. The awards were determined by a panel of 58 distinguished media observers, including radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, editorial writers and informed media observers. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was a big "winner" this year, winning two categories (the "Damn Those Conservatives Award" and the "Cranky Dinosaur Award for Trashing the New Media") and placing in two others (the "Tin Foil Hat Award for Crazy Conspiracy Theories" and the "Madness for King George Award for Bush Bashing").

In the wake of the Dem victory of November, Paul Krugman isn't merely doing a victory dance. He brings to mind one of those ardent football fans up in the stands after his team scores the winning touchdown. Stripped to the waist, painted in team colors, getting up in the face of an opposing fan to taunt "na-na-na-na, goodbye" followed by a rousing chorus of "start the bus."

In his pay-per-view opus of this morning, "A Failed Revolution," Krugman proclaims that not merely has the Republican revolution of 1994 failed, but that it "was always based on a lie."

Just what is that lie? According to Krugman it was the belief expressed by Dick Armey at the time that: "most government programs don’t do anything 'to help American families with the needs of everyday life . . . and very few American families would notice their disappearance."

And how does Krugman prove that Armey was lying? By noting that "more than a few families would notice the disappearance of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid." No doubt. There's only one problem. The leaders of the Republican revolution never called for the abolition of any of those programs. So who's lying now?

At the absolutely Bush-loathing website Buzzflash.com, there are Olbermann for President buttons. He is, they say, "the first-tier reality-based, progressive cable commentator" who has walked on "the path to becoming the contemporary heir to the courageous, succinct truth-telling of Edward R. Murrow." The love letter continued:

Olbermann's commentaries on the Bush Administration and America's promise are so succinct, articulate, and withering that they leave you breathless. You keep thinking, "How did the corporate media poobahs let someone so straightforward, eloquent and truthful on the air?"

In an age of media stenographers, Olbermann doesn't pull any punches. And he's not just hard hitting; he connects the dots too. In short, he puts the insane failure and duplicity of the Bush administration in context, a rare thing indeed on television and in the media in general.

For you to enjoy....this guy should be in jail

Happy Black Man

From Jihadi Du Jour

This little piggie went to market, this little piggie went...

KATY, TEXAS - While Kamel Fotouh makes plans to build a mosque on 11 acres of pasture here, neighbor Craig A. Baker is making plans of his own - plans to hold pig races.

Baker figures he'll need a tent, souvenirs and a track for the pigs to race on, all in full view of the Muslims next door, for whom pigs are forbidden as food.

As a bonus, Baker will host the competition on Friday - a Muslim holy day.

This is not meant as a slur on Islam, Baker said. It's a dispute between two neighbors. "A lot of people are making this into a racist situation, a redneck guy from Texas saying 'We're going to put on pig races,' " he said. "But I'm standing up for property rights."

I guess we will see how the Constitution reads on this one.

Meanwhile the Association of Pig Enthusiasts and the Property Is God-given rights advocacy group (aka APEs and PIGs) have published a joint publication of Law Enforcement Official's Guide to Pig Racing.

Suggestions include:

It is offensive to call pigs swine. As we do not call police "pigs", so similar restraint is requested.

You must be very sensitive during feeding times. Do not disturb a pig while it is facing the trough eating slop. This occurs at least 5 times daily.

Pigs refuse to be eaten by Muslims. So don't even ask.

The last paragraph of their Wednesday editorial (my bold) makes the point that the wire service, its defenders, and those who want to see the whole to-do as being about "just one incident," won't see, or won't admit to seeing:

What is clear about all this is that nothing is clear. Maybe there's a Jamil Hussein with the Iraqi police, but he's a sergeant, not a captain. Maybe there's a police captain whose first name is spelled Jamail, not Jamil. Both possibilities have been floated in the blogosphere, but neither has withstood scrutiny.

Editor & Publisher summed it up best when it reported that Jamil Hussein had been lost, then "found," then lost again. Amazing.

Last summer, Reuters, the media outlet that refuses to label terrorists as terrorists, was jolted by the "fauxtography" scandal. Adnan Hajj, a freelance Lebanese photographer, allegedly doctored images of the Israel-Hezbollah war and photographed what appeared to many to be staged scenes of victim rescue and recovery efforts in Qana, a Lebanese village where Israel attacked Hezbollah terrorists. Both were clearly an effort to further inflame a world that had already cast Israel as the villain.

Just as we asked in August if Reuters was "a patsy or collaborator," we wonder the same about the AP. We also wonder if we can trust any AP report from the Middle East. If it can't show us Capt. Jamil Hussein, we're not sure it has anything else we want to see.

This goes to the credibility, and ultimately the business viability, of the entire AP operation.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com, along with previous entries.