The Times newspaper in the UK, in typical MSM style, labels US Envoy to the UN, John Bolton, a "right-winger" while UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown is just called a "former journalist" in a report about Bolton's reply to Brown's disparaging of "middle America's" citizens in a speech the later made a few days before.

Malloch Brown told a meeting of New York Democrats that there was “too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping” by "Rush Limbaugh" and "Fox News". He also said that the role of the UN was a "mystery in Middle America" in an apparent criticism of the ability of average Americans to understand what it is the UN does or is supposed to do.

On a day when many in America are rejoicing at the death of the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a man who is responsible for countless deaths in Iraq and who made it his mission to spark civil war, CBS brought in a long time Bush administration critic to discuss its implications on this morning's "Early Show." Co-host Harry Smith, utilizing spin that would make "Baghdad Bob" jealous, attempted to portray Zarqawi’s death as being bad news for America, and his guest, CBS News Terrorism Analyst Michael Scheuer, was happy to back his assertions even going so far as to claim Zarqawi’s death was good for Al Qaeda.

At today's White House press briefing, some reporters wondered if the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was actually planned by the terrorists.

QUESTION: Let me ask you this, because I suppose another way of looking at this is if somebody hadn't flipped, if somebody hadn't tipped off everybody, Zarqawi would not have been targeted. So a lot of this is dependent on another terrorist, perhaps, wanting to see Zarqawi dead so that they could move into the created vacuum.

TONY SNOW: That would be a really stupid terrorist, because the life expectancy of people who have been succeeding these guys, and the life expectancy of being Zarqawi's number two has not been very good. So if somebody was trying to tip off Zarqawi in sort of a Machiavellian attempt to re-jigger things, I think they ought to think twice because what is happening -- and we've seen this and we've heard reports of it, but I think this dramatizes it -- the Iraqi people are saying, we've had it with these guys. We've had it. We're not going to take it anymore. And that is an important step. And this is the kind of thing that can reinforce those who want to go ahead and stand up against terror in their midst.

The US media continues to downplay the importance of the killing of Zarqawi by US forces. The headling on NPR's website:

Terrorist Zarqawi Is Dead; Iraq's Insurgency Is Not

A symbolic strike by U.S. forces may change little about the situation on the ground.

I'll bet Zarqawi and his aides found the strike a little more than, "symbolic."

From an online Q&A with Rita Braver of CBS News.

Who is the most fascinating person you've covered...

Bill Clinton is probably the most fascinating person I've ever covered ... because he is both brilliant and flawed. I have never met anyone more charming ... or more exasperating.

If you could change one thing about the profession of journalism, what would it be?

I'd like to see everyone who claims to practice journalism be held to the same standards of accuracy and fairness that broadcast network news divisions and major newspaper are held to.

Oh, that's precious. Don't ever change a thing, CBS News.

As they do every weekday at noon, CNN’s American viewers were switched over to the CNN International network’s “Your World Today,” a show so far to the left that it makes the rest of CNN look like a Norman Rockwell tribute to the greatness of America. Today, during coverage of the U.S. military’s successful elimination of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the CNNI caption referred to him as a “top Iraqi insurgent.”

Al-Zarqawi, as everyone (including CNN's foreign bureaus?) surely knows by now, was not an Iraqi, but a Jordanian who spent most of the past three years instigating the deaths of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians. Was CNNI trying to falsely paint the self-appointed leader of “Al Qaeda in Iraq” as some sort of nationalist freedom fighter, or are they just sloppy with their choice of words? Either way, it seems like an insult to the people of Iraq to have their worst foreign enemy listed as one of their own.

Reporter Dexter Filkins has an exceedingly strange take on the death by air strike of terrorist leader Zarqawi, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Iraqis: “By finally eliminating Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the American military and its Iraqi allies have killed the man who put a face on the Iraqi insurgency. The question now looming over Mr. Zarqawi's death is how large a blow it deals to the guerrilla movement he helped drive to such bloody limits.

The MRC has been following the media’s reaction to the death of terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi all day. Much of the coverage has been focused on downplaying the significance of the event. Now we have a new angle. MSNBC anchor Milissa Rehberger hosted First Look, the early morning coverage of Zarqawi’s death. At 5:45AM EDT, in an attempt to give her audience a full picture, this is how she described the life of a brutal murderer:

Milissa Rehberger: " I just want to take a pause for just a second to bring everyone up to date on who Abu Musab al Zarqawi really was, other then the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in an air strike this morning. We are told that he had a troubled childhood where he grew up in Jordan, that he dropped out of high school, that when he was 20-years-old, he went to Afghanistan and joined Al Qaeda."

Steve Lopez of the LA Times wants a cookie from conservatives after [his claim] the newspaper "both gutted and fileted" two democrats.

I'm just wondering why the paper hasn't gotten huzzahs from the professional gas bags who worked themselves into a frenzy three years ago over our equally tough reporting on a candidate named Arnold Schwarzenegger.

First, the reason might have something to do with the fact that there were no republicans running in that race for the LA Times to "gut and filet." This was a primary. Let's see the Times do that when an election is at stake. Second, if you have to write an article pointing out that you finally took a pair of democrats to task, and beg for praise because of it, what does that tell us about your conscious and previous reporting?

Have John and Ken of radio fame weighed in on The Times' coverage? To be honest, I wouldn't know. I'd rather stick my head in a kettle drum and beat it with a soup spoon than listen to these guys... I called Ken Khachigian, my favorite GOP consultant, even though he worked with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, to ask if he'd heard any Republicans complimenting The Times' tough coverage of Westly and Angelides.

So conservative pundits are "gas bags," you'd rather stick your head in a kettle drum and beat it with a spoon rather than listen to a conservative on the radio, and you called someone despite the fact that they worked for conservative Presidents. And with this dripping distain that flows newspaper-wide for anything right of MoveOn.org, you're looking for fairness accolades?!?!

When President Bush spoke live on the networks around 7:30 AM Eastern this morning, NBC News packaged its coverage as a "Special Report," meaning its NBC affiliates in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones that hadn't started airing "Today" yet were showing this segment. The report ended only after Lauer had exchanged the latest liberal conventional wisdom with Tim Russert, appearing from the West Coast, who was pouring out pitchers of cold water.

Will it change things? "Probably not." Russert highlighted a piece of conversation with a White House aide cautioning that one day's euphoria over the capture of Saddam didn't change much. (Left out of that: whether Russert prodded the aide into saying it.) The "sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites continues, and, almost like clinging to a life preserver, that we've learned "things can turn dramatically worse in Iraq...within a moment's notice."

Good news on initial jobs claims gets discounted, sliced, and diced in this unattributed article by the Associated Press:

The number of laid off workers filing claims for unemployment plunged last week by the largest amount in eight months, but it might have been a statistical fluke.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 302,000 Americans filed for benefits last week, down by 35,000 from the previous week. Analysts had been expecting a much smaller decline of around 6,000.

..... Analysts cautioned against reading too much into last week's improvement, noting that it occurred during a holiday-shortened week when residents of many states would have had one less day to file their applications for benefits.

With Rick Kaplan out at MSNBC (fired, just as I surmised), TV news observers are wondering what's next for the third-place cabler.

Word has it that Phil Griffin, a veep at the network's broadcast parent NBC, might be given the MSNBC healm. Previously, he was MSNBC's primetime veep.

During his tenure, Kaplan tried his hand at a number of new projects, none of which succeeded particularly well. He also seems to have stubbornly clung to things that less ideological (Kaplan is outspokenly liberal) president would've canned, such as the retaining the increasingly unhinged Keith Olbermann. Observers also say he gave host Chris Matthews too much latitude over his show "Hardball."

Al-Zarqawi Tracked By Iraq Informants!

This is a great moral victory for the USA. We have eliminated one of the most active and high profile Al Qaeda terrorists in operation today. Yet, some in the MSM are already downplaying this victory and attempting to make it seem as if this is no big deal. We have already seen several of these instances recorded right here on Newsbusters, so I will not rehash them here.

But, one of the most important aspect of this situation is that Zarqawi was tracked and killed because of information from Iraqi informants.

"Tips from senior militants led U.S. forces to follow al-Zarqawi's spiritual adviser to the safe house, 30 miles outside Baghdad, for a meeting with the terror leader."

The AP reports:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq who waged a bloody campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings, was killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on his isolated safehouse, officials said Thursday.

It would have been more correct for the AP to report:

“…when U. S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on what al-Zarqawi thought was his isolated safehouse.”

Anyway, well done and thanks to everyone who helped take out al-Zarqawi.

I hope Osama watches the news tonight.

In May of 2004, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi participated in the beheading of Nicholas Berg, a businessman working in Iraq. His father, Michael, emerged in the aftermath of that crime as an outspoken liberal activist and is now running for Congress in Delaware on the Green Party ticket. So who better to bring on for a discussion about Zarqawi’s death? Michael Berg appeared on all three cable channels this morning to spew hatred towards the United States Government and George W. Bush. Interestingly, only one network, MSNBC, found the time to mention that Mr. Berg is now a political candidate. Rather then cover the successful elimination of a significant terrorist threat, CNN, FNC, and MSNBC all gave time to someone who would make statements such as this one on CNN’s American Morning at 7:50AM EDT:

Michael Berg: "Well, you know, I'm not saying Saddam Hussein was a good man, but he's no worse than George Bush. Saddam Hussein didn't commit the rapes, neither did George Bush, but both men are responsible under their reigns of, of terror....I don't get it. Why is it better to have George Bush be the king of Iraq rather than Saddam Hussein?"

Don Surber has a faux New York Times story (more faux than usual) about how the Times would cover a New York Yankees game in the manner they cover Iraq.

Bias? In the NYT? What if John F. Burns were recalled from Baghdad to cover this week's Yankees-Red Sox series? Wouldn't that be fun? Here is how I imagine that report of Game 1 at Yankee Stadium would go:

Fans came trickling into Yankee Stadium amid fears that their hometown team would implode. Only 55,246 fans attended the game.

Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina was in trouble early as Covelli "Coco" Crisp opened the game with a double for the Sox of Red.

The higher paid Yankees were futile as they tried to deal with the insurgent Crisp. Their battle plan was wrong, and coaches in the field admitted as much off the record. Although the next three batters each struck out, Mussina was a tired, overpaid pitcher, ill-equipped to deal with the flexibility of the speedy Crisp.

As has been documented at NewsBusters here, here, here and here, the predictable MSM response to the killing of Zarqawi has been to downplay its signficance. But there was one surprising bright spot late this morning. CNN host Carol Lin gave pull-out-now John Murtha a surprisingly rough run for his money.

Lin: "A very big day for this administration. Is it fair to say that this attack and the killing of Al-Zarqawi wouldn't have happened if US troops were not on the ground?"

Murtha was unwilling to concede the point: "I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure they couldn't have done it from the outside. If it's as portrayed, it was a bomb that killed him from the air, so I'm not sure about that."

The Washington Post reports that "insurgent" leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in Iraq. Not only that, the group he is a member of, al-Qaeda in Iraq, is labeled an "insurgent group."

There are other groups in Iraq who would fit the label of "insurgent," but by applying them to al-Qaeda, the Post is elevating them to the status of freedom fighters.

-Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the mastermind behind hundreds of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq, was killed early Wednesday by an air strike -northwest of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.

Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born high-school dropout whose leadership of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq made him the most wanted man in the country, was killed along with several other people -- including a woman and child -- near the city of Baqubah, the officials said.

At 7:12 this morning, NBC's Today was already turning the Zarqawi victory into a Republican-Democrat spitting match, inviting on Senator Joe Biden (Democrat from Television, I mean, Delaware). When co-host Ann Curry asked: "Do you think, talking about politics for just a moment, that the President might be able now to use this to gain momentum, to improve the chances of, of improving his approval ratings and helping in the midterm elections coming up this November?" Biden said yes, because Bush has been "crippled" by "incompetence" at home and abroad:

Well, I hope it does improve his ratings. Look, I’m a Democrat. We get one president at a time. This election in November is not going to be for president of the United States, and he has been basically crippled at home and abroad because of the incompetence of the way his administration has operated at home and abroad, and that’s not good for the country. He fails, America ends up getting hurt. And so, I hope it does improve his standing. I hope it does embolden him then to take bolder moves in terms of changing policy in Iraq. He’s made some significant changes in Iran. That’s helpful. But we have a long way to go. His low ratings and his inability to rally any support is a very difficult position for the United States internationally.

Republican Brian Bilbray won the special election in California's 50th Congressional District to replace Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, beating Democrat Francine Busby by four points. Yet just as he did in yesterday’s online filing, chief political reporter Adam Nagourney’s off-lead story on Thursday’s front page hails the result as a victory…for the Democrats.

How on Earth would the networks work in the alleged Marine massacre at Haditha today? Oh, don't worry. Matt Lauer was on that six minutes into the show, MRC's Geoff Dickens reports. Oh, the timing was very political, we at NBC would like to underline:

Matt Lauer: "And Mik, let me just talk about the timing of this. The, the U.S. military has been rocked over the last couple of weeks by headlines suggesting an alleged massacre in Haditha. So clearly this comes at a very important time for the Pentagon."

Has Ann Coulter become the left’s public enemy number one? After all, it’s been quite a feeding frenzy this week following the release of her new book. It’s almost like the title was “Mein Kampf” instead of “Godless: The Church of Liberalism.”

The most recent member of the left to take shots at Coulter was Pulitzer Prize winning author Jane Smiley in a blog post at HuffnPuff. Smiley took a different tact than most by never actually naming the target of her attack. Maybe most despicably, Smiley also went after Coulter's parents for doing a poor job of child rearing.

The animus in this piece began early:  “American history is filled with people who have used hateful words to enrich themselves and to destroy others who were quite often weaker or more vulnerable than themselves."

Smiley mercilessly continued (emphasis mine):