Previewing her questions next week for her “Primary Questions: Character, Leadership & The Candidates” series in which she runs clips of ten presidential candidates from both parties answering the same question, Katie Couric on Thursday night showed herself asking Joe Biden: “With the country fighting a costly war and going deeper into debt should the American people be expected to sacrifice more, and if so, specifically how?” Couric didn't specifically cite raising taxes, and so maybe by some miracle a candidate will suggest cutting government programs, but “sacrifice” is the common media code word for raising taxes. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse in early August, with a logical implication that taxes would have to be increased, Couric set up a CBS Evening News story by wondering “are taxpayers ready to spend the billions, maybe trillions, it would take to fix all the pipelines, tunnels and bridges?”

This website has nothing to do with exposing so-called liberal media bias. It's just a bunch of vomiting heads! What a joke!

Is the New York Times changing? In an article about Old Havana's rebuilding, NYT reporter John C. McKinley, Jr. bucked the media habit of inserting leftist messages into articles about Cuba. Instead, he exposed the average Cuban's poverty, giving the state-run socialist economy as the cause--all without mentioning “free” health care or the US embargo.

The NYT's December 6 article even described Old Havana as a "Potemkin village" seen by wealthy foreign tourists while the average Cuban lives in desperate conditions.

The article described how Havana historian Eusebio Leal Spengler “rebuilt and refurbished more than 300 landmark buildings in Old Havana, from fortresses built in the colonial days to famous nightspots and hotels of the city’s swinging era just before the Cuban revolution.“

McKinley countered that by explaining most Cubans don't have money for drinks at the bars made famous by Hemingway or the upscale inns favored by celebs like Jimmy Carter and Jack Nicholson (bold mine throughout):

Just a half block from the Bodeguita del Medio, another famous eatery favored by Hemingway that is constantly mobbed with tourists, Cubans troop into a sparsely stocked government store to get their monthly rations of beans, powdered milk, cigarettes and soap.

Business & Media Institute Director Dan Gainor appeared on the Fox Business Network December 6 to discuss how the media is choosing sides in the subprime housing problem.

"All throughout this whole year and actually if you go back in the last year and before [the media] have been pointing out that the lenders are the bad guys...CBS News who actually did an okay report last night, then the example they use is someone who has a 6.6% adjustable rate adjusting up to 9.6%, they've got a house the size of a mansion and they've got horses."

Gainor said the important thing that journalists fail to do is to get both the lenders and the home buyer's viewpoints.

What will it take for film critics to be satisfied with movies about young, unmarried pregnant women?

For most, a clever script and outstanding performances will suffice, but not so for Lisa Schwarzbaum, a film critic for Entertainment Weekly. It must also carry a weighty discussion on the "hard-won, precious rights" to choose.

"Juno," the latest film about an unintended pregnancy carried to term, opens nationwide December 14. The movie reportedly depicts Juno, the pregnant 16-year-old lead character, deciding to place her baby for adoption after a chance encounter with a pro-life protester at an abortion clinic.

Schwarzbaum said in her review of the film, "The old-school feminist in me wishes ‘Juno' spent more time, even a tart sentence or two, acknowledging that the options taken for granted by this one attractive, articulate teen are in fact hard-won, precious rights, and need to be guarded by a new-generation army of Junos and Bleekers, spreading the word by text message as well as by hamburger phone."

What is it with Johnny Depp and Victorian Era serial killers?

Six years ago the liberal Hollywood fixture played London police detective Frederick Abberline in "From Hell," a violent conspiracy theory-driven whodunnit about the 1888 murder spree of Jack the Ripper. In his newest big screen release, Depp stars as the title character in "Sweeney Todd," a film about a fictional 19th century London barber who kills his customer-victims using his barber's razor.

Pretty ghoulish stuff, of course, but according to Depp, such a monstrous character is also deserving of some empathy. Reports Tom O'Neil of the Los Angeles Times:

When the widow of the slain police officer killed by Mumia Abu-Jamal appeared on the Thursday "Today" show to promote her new book, NBC's Matt Lauer seemed to take up the cause of the convicted cop killer as he asked Maureen Faulkner mostly skeptical questions like: "Do you ever allow yourself to consider the fact that perhaps he didn't do this?"

Appearing on the December 6, "Today" show, Faulkner, along with her co-author, conservative radio talk show host Michael Smerconish, were subjected to questions about the legitimacy of Abu-Jamal's guilt by the "Today" show host. Lauer repeatedly aired claims from the Abu-Jamal defense team as he displayed new photos meant to prove Abu-Jamal's innocence, repeated charges that Smerconish was helping Faulkner for "personal gain" and even took time out to show pro-Mumia supporters in the "Today" show crowd:

NewsBusters readers are well aware of how American media gleefully reported Kevin Rudd's November 24 victory over Australian Prime Minister John Howard as a huge defeat for President Bush.

Stateside press representatives have also been enamored with Rudd's views concerning global warming, and his proposed deep cuts to Australia's carbon dioxide emissions.

In a truly stunning twist of fate, according to Friday's Herald Sun, Rudd, armed with new information from the electricity industry, has done a very serious greenhouse gas u-turn that will likely be met with silence from America's green press (emphasis added throughout, h/t Benny Peiser):

Sometimes, newspapers bury the lede on purpose. Today’s Exhibit A? The Washington Post Style section profile of Chris Weitz, the director of the new anti-religious movie The Golden Compass. The Post’s anodyne headline was "‘Golden Compass’ Director Seeks True North." David Segal’s story takes eight paragraphs and a sentence before it gets to the point, why the publicity: The trilogy of books behind the movie "attacks the concept of organized religion -- more specifically, any religion that rules by fiat and claims an exclusive pipeline to the truth."

Weitz has done quite the comedy routine in defending the film. In a soundbite on CNN’s The Situation Room on Tuesday, he claimed: "I don’t think the books are a threat to organized religion. First of all, I think organized religion is strong enough to stand on its own. Secondly I don't think that Pullman is aggressively anti-Catholic or anti-religious." Come again? This is like Weitz claiming his American Pie movies weren’t about teenage sex.

Diane Sawyer and other "Good Morning America" journalists offered a surprisingly substantive look into religion on Thursday's edition of the ABC program. The show featured a three part, 12 minute-plus series of segments on Mitt Romney, Mormonism and his faith's relationship with evangelical voters.

The discussion wasn't perfect, certainly. GMA co-host Diane Sawyer simply couldn't let go of her discomfort in regards to Mike Huckabee's use of the phrase "Christian leader" in a recent Iowa campaign ad. On November 27, she wondered if the spot might have "crossed a line" and called it "heavy-handed." On Thursday's program, while talking to the Southern Baptist Convention's Dr. Richard Land, Sawyer pointedly noted that "many people thought [the ad's point] was unmistakable, what he was doing. Do you think that was fair?"

Times Executive Editor Bill Keller delivered the Hugo Young Memorial Lecture in London last week, sponsored by the liberal Guardian newspaper, and said some things to his journalistic friends he might not have felt comfortable telling a more general audience.

In remarks reminiscent of those made a year and a half ago in a college commencement speech by his boss, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Keller unleashed his liberalism, denouncing talk radio and Karl Rove.

Previously in NewsBusters, PJ Gladnick and I have blogged about South Florida newspapers, such as the Miami Herald, that have left out disgraced former Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne's political affiliation. Jenne is a Democrat, and a gun control-friendly one at that (more on that after the page break).

It appears Jenne's party registration remains under lock and key at the Herald. Here's reporter Wanda J. DeMarzo's short December 6 story on Jenne being sent to a prison camp in Georgia:

Tonight (Thursday) at 10pm EST/PST, 9pm CST/MST, ABC will air “Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2007,” with Bill Clinton and Hugo Chavez amongst the honorees. As usual, ABC is withholding the name of the “most fascinating” pick, but a year ago Walters awarded that tribute to then-incoming liberal Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “We picked our most fascinating person on election day this past November. Next month, Congress will get a Speaker of the House unlike any before. Our most fascinating person of 2006: Mother of five and Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi. In January, Nancy Pelosi will become the most powerful woman in America...”

In 1994, however, Walters did not make the then-incoming House Speaker after a party change, Newt Gingrich, her “most fascinating person of 1994.” Gingrich didn't even get into one of the other nine slots.

UPDATE, 10:58 PM EST: The "most fascinating" of 2007 went to author J.K. Rowling and the character she created, Harry Potter.

Barbara Walters did not defend Rosie O’Donnell against Bill O’Reilly’s "Wicked Witch of the East" comment, but laughed and diverted to complimenting Whoopi Goldberg. "Not defending" usually fires up the former "View" moderator as was best exemplified on Rosie’s last live "View."

The veteran journalist and "View" creator appeared on the December 5 edition of "The O’Reilly Factor" to promote her upcoming special "The Ten Most Fascinating People of 2007." After discussing the special, Bill O’Reilly moved on to "The View" and noted that the ratings are up from the "Wicked Witch of the East" era last season. It led to this exchange between Walters and O’Reilly.

Capitalist democracies around the world should be very concerned about the level of socialism being discussed at the United Nations' climate change meeting in Bali.

Not only are international hands being extended to collect funds from countries like the United States in order to help poorer nations deal with a problem that might actually be disappearing since global temperatures peaked in 1998, but climate change is also being used as a means of stripping intellectual property rights from companies that have created new more eco-friendly energy technologies.

If such a power-grab for the so-called benefit of the downtrodden actually comes to pass, capitalism as we know it will cease to exist.

Think that might be a little alarmist? Feast your eyes on the following report from Bali by the Associated Press Wednesday under the headline "Poor Nations Demand Climate Technology" (emphasis added throughout):

Pat Buchanan was very moved. Chris Matthews "heard greatness this morning." Joe Scarborough said Romney "hit it out the park." But with his speech on faith this morning, Mitt clearly didn't make a believer out of Sally Quinn, doyenne of the DC establishment and wife of former WaPo editor Ben Bradlee.

SALLY QUINN: I have to say that I'm really stunned because I think it was an obliteration of the idea of the separation of church and state. He eliminated anybody who was a doubter, an atheist, an agnostic, a seeker. It's like, if you believe in God or Christ, if not, you're not.

View video here.

I keep seeing people (myself included) make statements to the effect of: I KNEW that was going to happen. I would like to put some of my thoughts here so that I can go back later and verify that I really DID KNOW it would happen. These are"off the top of my head", so I may come back and add more...

1. Hillary will blame the VRWC for her loss in the primaries, or General Election. (DUH)

2. The MSM will blame the VRWC for Hillary's loss in the primaries, or General Election. (DUH)

3. It will be shown that warming causes more CO2 in the atmosphere, like boiling water causes steam (not the other way around).

4. MSM and their faithful will try to prove that more steam makes water boil.

5. "Poor" countries will begin suing "Rich" countries (code for USA) in the international courts (?) for AGW reparations (may have already started, but I suspected this all along).

I may add more as I recall them.

Enjoy,

Mike.