The Los Angeles Times readily admits that Gov. Mitt Romney is "one of three top-tier candidates" for the GOP nomination. However, when Romney made his official announcement of his presidential bid this past week, the paper did not shower the candidate with the same love they did his Democratic counterparts. "Romney officially launches campaign," from the Wednesday, February 14, 2007, edition of the Times, was shuttled to page A17 with a moderate 747 words. Two medium-sized color photos accompanied the piece.

The Times managed to squeeze the word "conservative" into the coverage on Romney three times, noting that the former governor "hewed closely to conservative orthodoxy in his announcement speech."

On this afternoon's Tucker Carlson show, an MSNBC consultant flatly called President Bush a recovering substance abuser. Guest host Joe Scarborough took things a giant step further, seeming to analogize evangelical Christians with such substance abusers.

Joe Scarborough substituted for Tucker Carlson on the latter's MSNBC show today. Discussing President Bush's upbeat mood, despite congressional opposition and the tough slogging in Iraq, Scarborough asked MSNBC consultant Craig Crawford "what's this guy got to be cocky about?"

Crawford: "I would point to the history of anyone recovering from substance abuse. No, seriously. There is a body of thought that those in recovery, like he is, become very absolute about blacks and whites. There's no middle ground. You either take that substance or you don't."

View video here.

Scarborough: "As a guy who has grown up in an evangelical church, you could also say that about certain people of faith. A lot of people are more pragmatic, but there're some people that go in those church pews, and it's black or white, right?"

Crawford: "Sure, yeah!"

UPDATE 02-20-07: Joe Scarborough has contacted NB to express his very strong objection to this item, which he described as "deeply offensive and intellectually dishonest," claiming it suggested that he is anti-Christian. Said Mr. Scarborough: "the fact that I mocked Craig Crawford with a laugh for suggesting Bush was a substance abuser and then suggested it might be his faith instead that makes him see the world in black and white does not mean I compared the two. Seeing things in black and white is not a negative [in Christianity]." Added Mr. Scarborough: "The fact I am writing a book about how Christians are slandered by the mainstream media and American culture makes your remarks all the more maddening."

It didn't have much to do with liberal bias, but I found it interesting in Meredith Vieira's CNBC interview when Michael Eisner asked her in the first few minutes about how hard it was to referee the differing opinions on "The View" on ABC. He even asked about how Vieira would have handled Rosie:

Eisner: "How would you have done it if you had been in that same position and Rosie O'Donnell just came in to replace Star Jones. Could you control her?"

Vieira: (Laughs) "I was gonna say I would have gone out into the alley with a gun –" (Laughs more)

I'm just getting to the February 19 editions of the news magazines today. The objective? Did they report on the vulgar anti-Christian and anti-Catholic blogs of the now-retired feminist John Edwards bloggers? Not with any specifics. Each papered over the controversy.

Time's Massimo Calabresi devoted his story to the trouble with campaign bloggers and how their "bravado can backfire." In reporting on bloggers for McCain and Hillary as well for Edwards, Calabresi quoted Amanda Marcotte's snarky comments about how guilty the Duke lacrosse players were, but not her giggling over the idea of aborting Jesus after she was filled with the "hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit" so Christians would have to find another "ancient mythology" to excuse their hatred for women:

You would think an anchor for a network morning news show would relish the opportunity to tag Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton with hard-hitting questions but that wasn't the case for NBC's Meredith Vieira. On CNBC's Conversations with Michael Eisner, Vieira revealed that before her interview with the former First Lady she was "nervous." The Today co-host said "everybody" warned her she was a "tough" interview, so when Vieira first met Clinton backstage she felt the need to disarm the presidential contender with the following "tough" question: "My son probably will go to Georgetown are you prepared to take care of him when he's down there?"

A look back at the December 18th interview shows Vieira asked mostly softball questions like: "Why wouldn't you run for President? I mean, the polls indicate that if you did run, you're the front runner." However Vieira did manage to overcome her nervousness when it came to challenging Hillary from the left on her Iraq war vote: "You refuse to say it was a mistake. Why?"

Cancer is truly a tragedy in every case, but that was no excuse for ABC "World News Tonight's" shoddy shell game during the February 15 broadcast.

In a segment on reduced federal funding for cancer research, anchor Charles Gibson introduced the story by stating that the National Cancer Institute has seen funding decreases in the past two years and the Bush budget is promoting a third cut.

But by the time reporter Lisa Stark actually did any math she was using the budget cuts from one non-profit organization, but hadn't bothered to explain why. And that wasn't the only thing Stark left out of the segment.

You can find the entire Business & Media Institute story here.

Joining the media ranks of Helen Thomas and Keith Olbermann, in his regular Friday column in USA Today Al Neuharth, the founder of the nationwide daily, proclaimed George W. Bush to be the worst ever President. Announcing a “mea culpa,” Neuharth recalled how “a year ago I criticized Hillary Clinton for saying 'this (Bush) administration will go down in history as one of the worst.'” At the time, he declared her “wrong,” explaining: “I rated these five Presidents, in this order, as the worst: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, [Herbert] Hoover and Richard Nixon. 'It's very unlikely Bush can crack that list,' I added. I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, but he is planted firmly at the top.” Neuharth fretted that “Bush didn't learn the value or meaning of mea culpa (acknowledgment of an error) during his years at Yale,” but “Bush admitting his many mistakes on Iraq and ending that fiasco might make many of us forgive, even though we can never forget the terrible toll in lives and dollars.”

As already reported on NewsBusters, Friday’s "Good Morning America" used the pretext of the 2008 presidential election to wonder just how bigoted America is. In a segment that aired in the 7:30 hour, Diane Sawyer talked to former NBA star John Amaechi about his new book, the revelation that he’s a homosexual, and an anti-gay diatribe delivered by ex-Miami Heat star Tim Hardaway.

This is the second time in five days that the ABC program has promoted Amaechi’s book. And just as with the piece on Senator Obama and his candidacy, Sawyer used isolated incidents to draw conclusions about all of America:

Diane Sawyer: "All right, as we said now, we're going to give you a story that wades right into this country's secret prejudice against gays in America. The former pro basketball player who revealed he is gay is with us. His name is John Amaechi. He has been the target of an anti- gay tirade by a former NBA all-star, Tim Hardaway."

And no, I don't mean the cloud of smug from all the Toyonda Piouses.

Benefit concerts, even ones held to save the planet, generate lots of trash and traffic, and eat up plenty of electricity, half of which is generated in this country from coal-fired power plants. Just don't expect the liberal media to make those points as they cover former Vice President Al Gore's "Live Earth" concerts.

Dan Gainor writes about that today over at the MRC's BusinessandMedia.org Web site today.

UPDATE (16:50 EST, 2/17/2007): Reprogram your alarm clocks (or TiVo), Dan is scheduled to appear on "Fox & Friends Sunday" on February 18 but they moved it up to 7:50 a.m. EST.

Actual caption:

Diane Sawyer (R) talks to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an exclusive interview on "Good Morning America" in Tehran, February 12, 2007.

It's one thing to call the war in Iraq tough and a struggle but it's quite another to say our brave fighting men and women in the region are facing "humiliation," and "annihilation," yet those were the words MSNBC's Chris Matthews used on last night's Hardball as he opposed the surge policy. During a discussion with the National Review's Kate O'Beirne and Democratic strategist Steve McMahon, Matthews once again threw his hands up in defeat as he depressingly declared the following on the February 15th edition of his show:

Chris Matthews: "I will repeat what I've said 100 times and will say 100, a 100 times more. The worst thing this president did in terms of U.S. policy was put our country, which we are in now, a situation where there are no good alternatives. That is not good leadership, to lead you into a blind canyon when all you can do is face complete humiliation over there, or continued annihilation over there and horror over there or this weird sort of redeployment stuff. I don't know what the great alternative is now. That's the failure of this policy, we done have any alternatives now."

As America’s elected officials debate non-binding resolutions to rebuke President George W. Bush over his troop surge in Iraq, news comes from that country’s prime minister of “dazzling successes” in Baghdad.

Anyone care to wager whether this will get any attention from the media this evening?

As reported by Agence France-Presse (h/t Drudge, emphasis mine throughout): "Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told US President George W. Bush by videolink that the first few days of their countries' joint security plan in Baghdad had been a great success."

The article quoted Maliki's office directly:

What’s that about a consensus concerning anthropogenic global warming? Well, regardless of the assertions by such experts as Al Gore and Ellen Goodman, more and more professionals actually involved in the climate industry are speaking out against this man-made myth.

The most recent announcement by skeptics came during a panel discussion Tuesday evening in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. As reported by the Plain Dealer (emphasis mine throughout):

On Friday’s "Good Morning America," Diane Sawyer, who has previously asked Senator Barack Obama if America is secretly ‘more racist or sexist,’ introduced a story on the issue of the 2008 presidential election and race. The ABC co-host prefaced the issue by mentioning that some African American leaders are not supporting the Illinois politician because they think the U.S. isn’t ready to vote for a black candidate.

According to Sawyer, this is creating a spotlight on questions about race and "what Americans really feel inside." Correspondent Jake Tapper continued this "Is America racist?" theme by citing a vague statistic, which was given no attribution, that 15 percent of white voters say they’d vote for a black person, but, in truth, "never, ever would":

Diane Sawyer: "Well, the 2008 presidential race turns out to be turning a spotlight on questions about race and what Americans really feel inside. Senator Barack Obama is watching black political leaders throw support to Hillary Clinton. And why? They have said publicly, they don't think America is ready to elect a black candidate. ABC's senior political correspondent Jake Tapper has more on this counter-intuitive event. Jake?"

Jake Tapper: "Good morning, Diane. Well, 84 percent of Americans say a candidate being black would not effect their vote one way or the other. But, the dirty little secret, what some experts call the 15 percent lie, the 15 percent of white voters who tell pollsters they'd be willing to vote for a black candidate, but in the privacy of the polling place, never, ever actually would."

Here is a refreshing change of pace. According to Editor and Publisher, New Mexico Radio station KSFR has made a new policy to eschew usage of newswire stories based on quotes from "unnamed officials" or other unattributed sources.

News director Bill Dupuy sent the following message to his news staff:

Effectively immediately and until further notice, it is the policy of KSFR's news department to ignore and not repeat any wire service or nationally published story about Iran, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia or any other foreign power that quotes an "unnamed" U.S. official.

What we have suspected and talked about at length before is now becoming clear. "High administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity," "Usually reliable Washington sources," and others of the like were behind the publicity that added credibility to the need to go to war against Afghanistan and Iraq.

Comment on the news of the day and anything else.

This one is going to require all potables, combustibles, and sharp objects to be safely stowed – trust me!

Many computer users are familiar with an e-card company called Blue Mountain. If you haven’t received such an electronic show of affection from a friend or relative, well, you must not be a very nice person (/sarcasm).

Anyway, for Valentine’s Day, the company apparently offered customers a rather racy card that disparaged Democrats. As reported by the liberal website Raw Story (e-card video available here h/t NB reader HumanEvents):

What happens when a noted politician announces he’s running for President? Well, in the case of conservative Republican Mitt Romney, CBS’ "Early Show" gives the story a scant ten seconds. But what if that candidate is Democrat Barack Obama? Well, then the same program devotes over nine minutes of coverage! (For those keeping count: A 54: 1 advantage for the Democrat.)

Over on ABC, "Good Morning America’s" Diane Sawyer continued her Dictator ‘07 tour. She portrayed the authoritarian Syria as a pro family, welfare paradise.

Later in the week, Sawyer asked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, noted Holocaust denier, how often he cries.

This came in my e-mail from CNN just after the markets closed on Wednesday:

Historic day on Wall Street. Dow industrial, transportation and utility averages all hit record highs for 1st time since 1998.

I've been pretty busy, but I think I would have caught coverage of this news somewhere else had it occurred. If it did, it was quite muted.

Mark Hulbert, in a column time-stamped early Friday morning, details just how significant the news is:

The last time prior to Wednesday that this happened was March 17, 1998, nearly nine years ago. During the previous 70 years prior to 1998 in which all three Dow averages existed, it happened just 18 times.

If the most bullish thing that a bull market can do is go up, Wednesday was evidence of a very powerful bull market, indeed.

Thursday, the Dow went up again, while the transportation and utility averages pulled back a bit. The NASDAQ closed within a few points of 2500. The Greatest Story Never Told continues.

The coming out of gay former NBA player John Amaechi was boosted on Monday by an interview on CNN's afternoon show Newsroom, where anchor Don Lemon framed the interview as a question of social progress and tolerance: "do you think that the NBA now is ready for a player who may be out, while they're playing? Do you think the league is mature enough to handle that?"

Amaechi responded that the NBA may soon be "clean" on this issue, regardless of how the "clean" word's been politically dangerous in the last few weeks: "I think that [NBA Commissioner] David Stern is mature enough to handle that. I think he wants an organization that is pristine, and part of that, if you want, cleanliness will be to have a league that accepts all types, as long as they do have the ability."

Click here for instructions on running Gaggle daily on your own site. There's also an archive of previous toons available here.

A few moments ago on the February 16 "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," NBC's Natalie Morales shared a story with the late night host of actor Alec Baldwin's attempt to score a lunch date with the "Today" show talent.

I'll update later in the morning with video, but basically, a few years ago, according to Morales, Baldwin called her on the phone and told her he was working on a movie about cable news. Was Morales available for say, lunch sometime to help Baldwin with his, well, research.

Morales wasn't born yesterday, so she kindly told the "30 Rock" star that she's married.

Morales also discussed her own minor wardrobe malfunction in the same interview.

UPDATE (17:19 EST): Sorry guys, been busy all day. Just clipped the video in Real Media, no time for WMV and MP3.

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz gives readers of today's Style page a look at conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, and his portrait, at least to my eye, painted conservative blogger and author as paranoid, vindictive, obsessive and shrill.

Read and judge for yourselves.

This line was particularly annoying to me:

Over lunch at a Filipino cafe at Union Station, Malkin, who has two young children, is charming one moment and pugnacious the next.

I'd argue her charm as a blogger and author is entwined in her pugnacious personality.

What's more, can you imagine Kurtz or another media critic saying the same of feisty liberal pundits, like say Maureen Dowd?