Archives

Why Are Cartoons Harder on Clinton Than ABC's 'Good Morning America'?

On Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) got a "town hall" meeting with a hand-picked audience on "Good Morning America."

But the royal treatment Clinton receives in the mainstream media isn't shared by even some staunch liberals who make ink in the nation's newspapers everyday. Including at least one who pays the bills with the cartoonist's pen, generally liberal artist and blogger Darrin Bell, creator of "Candorville."

It's not the first time Bell has lampooned Clinton, but check out the March 30 installment, where he makes fun of Hillary's penchant for trying to be all things to all constituents, envisioning Clinton trying to pander to a Palestinian-American and an Israeli-American at the same time.

Bell's cartoon follows two days after the March 28 "'South Park," in which Clinton was portrayed unflatteringly, sporting rather large hips (calling to mind radio host Mark Levin's label "Her Thighness" ) and speaking in a faux Southern drawl.

TownHall Vlogger's Take on the 20th Anniversary Gala

TownHall blogger/vlogger Mary Katharine Ham and trusty sidekick Katie Favazza attended our 20th Anniversary Gala and DisHonors Awards ceremony last night. They produced a special MRC Gala edition of the HamNation vlog showing the highlights of the evening.

You can find Ham's blog post with video here.

You can visit Ham's YouTube page for video here.

AP Hits Giuliani on 9/11, Fails to Note Sources' Motives

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in for a world of hurt from his former constituents should he center his 2008 campaign on his handling of 9/11 and its aftermath, the Associated Press is reporting. But in his March 30 article, reporter Larry McShane left out some crucial facts about two people he cited in his story to bolster that point: Sally Regenhard and Hank Sheinkopf.

Let's begin with Regenhard. She's portrayed merely as the angry, distraught mother of a NYC firefighter who perished on 9/11.:

"If Rudolph Giuliani was running on anything but 9/11, I would not speak out," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was among the 343 FDNY members killed in the terrorist attack. "If he ran on cleaning up Times Square, getting rid of squeegee men, lowering crime _ that's indisputable.

"But when he runs on 9/11, I want the American people to know he was part of the problem."

Weekend Captionfest

Actual caption:

White House Senior Advisor Karl Rove (R) performs a rap dance alongside NBC White House correspondent David Gregory during the entertainment section of the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner at a hotel in Washington.

Soledad O'Brien Blasts TJX Instead of Criticizing Criminals Who Stole Credit Info

Never ever blame the victim, isn't that what people say about crime victims?

Apparently no one told CNN, because this morning on "American Morning" Soledad O'Brien and Stephanie Elam attacked TJX Cos., the parent of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls among other stores, accusing the company of dishonesty after the company suffered massive data theft by hackers.

"None of these companies are ever forthcoming about it," O'Brien said in a huge generalization. "You always have to uncover it, investigate it, dig and dig and dig and then eventually they come up with a number which is probably a little on the low side."

"Minding Your Business" reporter Stephanie Elam agreed, complaining about the length of time it took TJX to disclose that 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers had been stolen affecting nearly 500,000 customers.

Excerpts of Limbaugh's Acceptance Speech

Below are some excerpts from Rush Limbaugh's acceptance spech given March 29, 2007, as he received the first annual William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for Media Excellence. You can watch the video at MRC.org. I took the liberty of putting some items in bold for emphasis:

Thank you all very much. I know it's late. Brent told me to cut my speech to forty-five minutes, rather than the hour and a half I was going to go. I, there have two references tonight to my humility, and I'm sorry the cover's blown.

Cal Thomas had to leave. He had to catch a plane, but he came by and told me he wasn't going to be able to hear my humble remarks. Brent has referred to it.

I, I, I'm a little stunned by it, because it's, it's been referenced also tonight I think by Cal that I do satire. And the humility that, that, that I, I think I bring to what I do is borne of really the roots of this award.

When, when Brent called me and said we've, we've got this new award, the William F. Buckley, greatest conservative in the world award, and you've won, won the first one. I think that's what he said when he first posed it. And I said, 'well, that fits.' A little humility there.

I said that is amazing, I, you know, we conservatives don't get many awards, but we actually have an audience. These PBS people and NPR people give themselves all these awards, but nobody's ever seen the shows that get awarded.

We actually have an audience, and so we are a threat, and we don't get awards. It's an honor to get an award. It really is.

What Bloggers Are Saying about MRC's 20th Anniversary Gala

MRC's Gala is the "conservative Oscars," the MRC is a "important resource," and Keith Olbermann is about as popular as Haman at a Purim celebration. Those are just some of the observations from conservative bloggers about the MRC's 20th Anniversary Gala.

Media strategist David All called our Gala featuring the DisHonors Awards the "Conservative Oscars" and added these observations right after the dinner:

UPDATE 11:03 PM: A few quick random thoughts…
…Wheel…of…fortune… Pat Sajak, yes, that Pat Sajak, totally owned (PWN3D?) the audience. He made a joke about YouTube, which of course grabbed my attention. And he made quite a few tasteful fat jokes about Al Gore. Honestly, tough to believe, but the guy had us all rolling.

Blogging Bloggy Bloggers …Lots of YouTube references throughout the night, though oddly, not a single reference to a blog. There was however practically a standing applause when Neal Boortz said that, “thanks to alternative media, we don’t need [the mainstream media] anymore.”

MRC DisHonors Awards Recap

Last Night the MRC hosted its 20th Anniversary Gala, featuring the ever-popular DisHonors Awards. The DisHonors mockingly award liberal media fixtures for the worst incidents of bias or buffoonery in the mainstream media from the year prior. This year was no exception.

Below are a list of the award categories and their winners. They link to the MRC pages containing the worst of the worst in media bias from 2006.

God, I Hate America Award

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., New York Times publisher, for his May 21, 2006 graduation address in which he apologized to SUNY-New Paltz graduates that they were "graduating into an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land."

Honoring Two Conservative Media Icons, William F. Buckley Jr. and Rush Limbaugh

Editor's note: The following post is adapted from a speech given by Brent Bozell at last night's MRC gala where Rush Limbaugh was awarded our first-ever William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence.

An awful lot has been said, and should be said, about this thing we call the New Media — that healthy, enlightening, inspiring, and simply refreshing Arctic blast of fresh air that has done so much to bring perspective, and simple common sense to the American public conversation.

In a very real sense, William F. Buckley Jr. started it all. His was the first television show dedicated to the proposition that the conservative position on the issues of the day mattered, and deserved a hearing, and for 33 years his ‘Firing Line’ delivered unlike any show of its kind, before or since.

Then there was National Review, the flagship publication of the movement founded 52 years ago, and which has delivered the intellectual sustenance for so many, including the man who went on to become the greatest president of the 20th century.

Where would the conservative movement be today without this alternative media? I shudder to think, which is why it is high time this movement recognize, formally, the extraordinary accomplishments of so many extraordinary people who day and night deliver our message to millions.

Open Thread Friday

After our big party, I found this joke pretty appropriate for this week's joke:

One night a man got really drunk one night in his local pub. The barman refused to serve him any more alcohol and told him he should be heading home. The man thought this was a good idea so he stood up to leave but fell over straight away. He tried to stand up again but only fell over again. He thought if only he could get outside and get some fresh air he'd be grand.

So he crawled outside then tried to stand up and fell over again. In the end after falling over lots more he decided to crawl home. When he got back to his house he pulled himself up using the door handle but as soon as he let go he fell over again. He had to crawl up the stairs and managed to fall over onto the bed and fell asleep. When he finally woke up the next morning his wife asked him what he was doing at the pub last night. He denied it but she thought differently...

WaPo's Milbank: Gonzales Aide 'Pudgy and Jowly,' Speaks 'In a Nerdy Voice'

In today's Washington Post, Dana Milbank strikes a blow for objective journalism in his "Taking One for the Team, When He Could Remember."

Kyle Sampson, former aide to Attorney General Gonzales, testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cutting to what genuinely matters, Milbank writes: "Sampson was indeed a bit pudgy and jowly, and he spoke in a nerdy voice that sounded strange coming from a man whose combative e-mails had been released by the Justice Department in recent weeks."

This isn't the first time Milbank felt the urge to call a Republican a nerd. He said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was one when Alito was nominated. As I pointed out at the time, it's not likely Milbank himself would be confused for James Bond.

Milbank also highlighted how many times Mr. Sampson's memory failed him during the seven hours of testimony: "He used the phrase 'I don't remember' a memorable 122 times."

That may be memorable, but it's hardly a Washington record. Former President Bill Clinton, in his Paula Jones' deposition, couldn't remember 267 times. Of course, Clinton didn't say "I don't remember" that many times, only 71. He offered some variety with not recalling, not recollecting, not having any memory, not having direct knowledge and not having any idea. Clinton, who in high school was a drum major and won first chair in the state band's saxophone section, could never be accused of nerdiness.

Yale Research Survey: Majority Of Americans Don't Trust Major Newspapers

Majority also believe there is too much sex on television, that the world was literally created in six days as stated in the Bible and that the government should encourage school prayer.

Got you. I just demonstrated a common tactic of today's activist media. The play book is simple, hook you in with a leading headline/byline combo and use that as foundation to present poll results within the limiting confines of my own personal agenda. While the headline and byline are technically correct you will soon see that those touting the Yale poll completely ignore these "less than liberal" results while spicing up the responses about global warming through the use of definitive sounding catch phrases such as "tidal wave of public sentiment". (yeah that makes it true)

Billionaire Bidding for Tribune Company a Friend of Bill, Former Black Panther Supporter

Just in time for the 2008 presidential race, a certified "Friend of Bill" is bidding to acquire the Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. As reported in this New York Times article , FOB Ronald W. Burkle and Eli Broad sumbitted their bid yesterday to Tribune management.

According to his Wikipedia entry:
  • Burkle is a well-known political contributor and longtime Democratic fundraiser.
  • He supported the Black Panthers in the Sixties.
  • Burkle has supported California State Treasurer Phil Angelides and employed former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
  • Burkle is a close friend of former President Bill Clinton, who calls Burkle's Boeing 757 private jet "Ron Air."
  • Clinton, who is a senior adviser to Burkle's company, Yucaipa, wrote in his memoir, "My Life", that Burkle "became one of my best friends."

AP and the MSM's Willful Ignorance of American History, More Anti-Southernism

A rather small section, one small paragraph, in a pretty straight forward story reveals the sheer absurdity and incomprehension that prevails in the Media today and serves to show the emptiness of what passes for thinking and logic about American history in what some feel are our cultural elites. It also shows the bias against things Southern in certain circles these days.

The story, "Confederate General's Painting Sold", is mostly a simple retelling of the facts around the $400,000 acquisition by Colonial Williamsburg of a painting painted by Robert E. Lee's wife to be in the 1830s.

Today's Gaggle: March 30, 2007

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