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A curious editorial appeared on the Chicago Tribune website, written by their “senior correspondent”. In keeping with a classic anti-gun-rights gambit, the author claims to be speaking for everybody besides Texas when declaring that a new debate has begun about gun control due to the Virginia Tech shooting, while attempting to stigmatize and ostracize Texans:

HOUSTON -- Much of the rest of the nation might have begun debating whether new gun-control measures are in order in the wake of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history at Virginia Tech last month. But here in Texas, a place where guns seem a part of the state’s very DNA, folks have got some other ideas.1

As NewsBusters reported here and here, CNN’s Headline News last Wednesday broadcast a special on global warming hosted by Glenn Beck.

In it, Beck exposed multiple mistakes in soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore's schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth," as well as identified many of the fallacies and misnomers surrounding the Kyoto Protocol.

For those that missed it, “Exposed: The Climate of Fear” is now up at YouTube.

The links in six parts are (h/t NB member dscott):

The broadcast network evening newscasts, reflecting the focus of the media's approach to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement that he will step down on June 27, framed their reviews of his ten-year tenure around the unpopularity of his decision to join the U.S. in the Iraq war. On CBS, however, Elizabeth Palmer uniquely found time to recall how Blair won in 1997 by “dragging Britain's old left-wing Labour Party to the political center” and she cited a couple of other achievements. Nonetheless, like ABC and NBC, CBS included the obligatory citation of how the British press derided Blair as “Bush's poodle,” a derogatory characterization also highlighted on Thursday's morning shows.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams saw great meaning in Blair's decision as he cited Blair's resignation as one of the “concussions from the war in Iraq” which reflected “the political cost of an unpopular war,” asserting: “There are combat casualties of the war in Iraq, there are civilian casualties. Today we saw a political casualty, Tony Blair stepping down.” NBC's Keith Miller observed that “Tony Blair was perhaps the best Prime Minister America never had. But at home, the press labeled him 'Bush's poodle' and his approval rating plunged.” From London, ABC's David Wright declared: “People here ridiculed him as 'Bush's poodle.' The Iraq war has been albatross for Blair, dragging down his approval ratings and drowning his hopes for a positive legacy.” CBS anchor Katie Couric announced that “Blair's role as the President's ally ended up costing him dearly.”

Al Sharpton, victim?

Yup -- according to Chris Matthews. The MSNBC host suggested that Mitt Romney had landed a "sucker punch" on Sharpton in reacting to the reverend's assertion that "true believers" will defeat the Mormon in the presidential race. Matthews laced his interview with Sharpton on this afternoon's "Hardball" with a number of comments painting Sharpton as the offended, not the offender.

After playing a tape of Sharpton's remark, and Romney's response in which he characterized Sharpton's comment as bigoted, Matthews went off on a riff.

View video here.

 Updated below:

David German, the AP movie writer, reported that notorious liberal bomb-thrower and fact-fudger, Michael Moore “is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department for taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary 'Sicko.' " The May 10 article seemed very matter of fact, but Moore and his movies were presented from the perspective that the filmmaker is controversial but accurate and is persecuted by his “adversaries.”

The AP indicated that the Treasury Department is investigating Moore because he did not follow the law. The AP obtained a copy of a letter, dated May 2, sent by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which informed Moore that it was investigating potential violations of the US trade embargo which restricts US travel to Cuba. According to an unnamed source affiliated with “Sicko,” this past February, Moore took ill Ground Zero workers to Cuba for “treatment” (my use of irony quotes because Cuba used new and unproven procedures. Emphasis mine throughout):

"This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba," Dale Thompson, OFAC chief of general investigations and field operations, wrote in the letter to Moore.

The three major networks covered news of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s resignation with the left-wing "Bush’s poodle" line. On "Good Morning America," ABC’s David Wright demonstrated the most bias stating, "Bill Clinton’s sidekick became George Bush’s poodle, or so they see it here." On "Today" NBC’s Dawna Freisen noted, "he became, of course, America’s closest ally but that came at a price here at home. He was eventually derided here as America’s poodle."

The May 10 edition of "The Early Show" was no exception as CBS’s Sheila MacVicar stated: "But at home, Blair has been labeled Bush's poodle, at too willing ally who led his country into Iraq." In their generally negative story "The Early Show" relied on the expertise of Simon Hoggart of The Guardian, a left wing British publication and hardly an objective source.

In the wake of Don Imus’ firing for his remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, what should happen to shock jocks that actually discuss violent sexual assaults on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura.

With that in mind, Breitbart TV reported that XM Satellite Radio’s Opie and Anthony had a guest on recently (date unknown) with whom such vulgar acts were happily and comically discussed (h/t Glenn Reynolds).

Readers are hereby cautioned that this is really disgraceful, obscene stuff. Enter at your own risk (audio available here).

This raises a few questions:

Every day around lunchtime, CNN.com posts a humorous video as its "Funny Lunch" feature. The link stays on the site for a few hours at mid-day and can be found in the list of "Top Stories."

But today's video, Culture and Media Institute researcher Colleen Raezler noticed, was a gross-out spoof of diamond ads pegged to Mother's Day, which is this Sunday. Raezler informed me the link teased video for a "Mom's Day gem of a gift."

In a fake commercial spot for "Oedipus Diamonds," a young man is shown making out with an older woman as a narrator voices over his concern, disgust, and ultimate approval of a younger man's display of affection with a woman portraying his mother.

The video, entitled "Diamonds," was accessed here but the link will probably take you to a different video tomorrow. The video is permalinked here. A screenshot follows the transcript:

The first Article 32 Hearing for the Marines charged in the Haditha incident started this week.  Capt. Randy Stone, who was the legal advisor for Kilo Co., is charged with violating an order and two counts of dereliction of duty in connection with the killings.  Even though this Article 32 hearing is not related to alleged murder of civilians, testimony related to the events of that November 2005 day has dominated the hearing.

Yesterday Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz testified to the events on the ground in Haditha. Sgt. Dela Cruz testified about the deaths of 5 Iraqi men that drove up to the scene of the IED explosion immediately after the blast. Despite the testimony coming from only one witness, one news source reported the facts from the testimony differently from two others.

"World News" anchor Charles Gibson promoted the costly green lifestyle, but ignored the hypocrisy of his cross-country flight to report on May 9.

Gibson traveled from New York, to San Francisco for the "Going Green" segment, which featured one man who has "no idea how much" carbon he emits; and another who drives a hybrid, uses solar panels and buys "squiggly" light bulbs.

The ABC anchor supported the choices of Peter Boyd (the one with the solar panels), but left out cost information about those lifestyle choices, and his own jet-setting behavior.

In fact, the solar energy situation in California is "a mess," according to the Los Angeles Times.

For weather watchers, the name Joe Sobel should be a familiar one, as he has been with AccuWeather for 35 years, and is a regular guest on radio stations as well as MSNBC.

With that in mind, Dr. Sobel posted an article at the AccuWeather blog Wednesday highly critical of the naming of sub-tropical storms, most recently Andrea.

In his view, this practice – which is only five years old – is exaggerating the number of storms per year thereby adding to global warming alarmism

Sobel began (emphasis added throughout):

George Tenet, the former CIA director who resigned a while ago has been out promoting a new book. Most of the media has spun the book as attacking the Bush administration, however, as Fred Thompson points out, much of what Tenet says is supportive of many of the claims made by Bush and his staff. Naturally, these aren't the kinds of facts you hear reported in the media:

My attention was drawn to Tenet’s statements that al Qaeda is here and waiting and that they wish nothing more than to be able to see a mushroom cloud above the United States.

Naturally, the media emphasis is not on that. Its attention is on any differences Tenet had with the administration. The media’s premise is that Iraq should not have been considered a real threat to us and that the administration basically misled the country into war. While one may take issue with Tenet on several things, I was intrigued that on some very important issues, Tenet did not follow the media script when answering Russert’s questions.

Imagine for a moment that one of the leading Republican presidential candidates said that 10,000 people had been killed by the recent tornado that destroyed Greensburg, Kansas, Saturday.

Do you think this would have been easy fodder for the broadcast television news divisions that always seem fascinated with gaffes made by folks on the right?

If your answer is an unequivocal “Yes,” then why did ABC, CBS, and NBC completely ignore Sen. Barack Obama’s statement Tuesday wherein he accidentally exaggerated the death toll from the Greensburg tornado by 9,988?

As reported by the Associated Press (emphasis added, video available here):

Despite "The View’s" left wing slant, the co-hosts, as previously reported, are no fans of Al Sharpton. The ladies discussed the reverend’s latest gaffe implicitly insulting Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. Joy Behar first mentioned the topic, quoting his inflammatory statement: "those of us who really believe in God will defeat Romney for the White House." Behar did note that Sharpton is now backtracking from the comment.

Guest co-host Marie Osmond, a Mormon, felt Romney’s response was "gracious," and even took a shot at Sharpton.

"Al didn't have a beautiful past himself, so I don’t think that he should necessarily make these statements, you know."

On Thursday’s "Good Morning America," the ABC program touted a liberal New Yorker who is so concerned about the environment that he refuses to use toilet paper. GMA devoted eight and a half minutes of the May 10 show to promoting the cause of Colin Beavan, a man who, in addition to his bathroom stance, refuses to buy anything in packaging, won’t use transportation, even elevators, and insists that all his food be grown within 250 miles.

According to liberal weatherman Sam Champion, who admiringly recounted Mr. Beavan’s story, "The rules may seem a little extreme." A little? Co-anchor Diane Sawyer talked to the environmentalist in a follow-up segment and gushed over Beavan’s bizarre, minimalist lifestyle:

Colin Beavan: "...A lot of the things you can do for the planet are also good for you."

Sawyer: "And so good for you. Yeah. What you were saying about the way it concentrates your mind to be free of concern about a lot of the things in your life. It really makes sense to me."

Video Real (1 MB) or Windows (1.2 MB) plus MP3 (174 KB)

No word on whether Sawyer will be opting to forgo toilet paper.

Rosie O'Donnell rejected Joy Behar's left wing lines. "View" co-host Joy Behar apparently picked up the Sunday Times [of London] story, as reported by Noel Shepperd, "Having a Large Family ‘is an Eco-Crime.’" After guest co-host Marie Osmond discussed her eight children and eight siblings, Elisabeth Hasselbeck alluded to the Duggar family’s 17 children and exclaimed: "I think it’s great." Behar disagreed noting that it would be "ecologically irresponsible" to do so.

"I think it is. I think that you're using more of the resources of the world. You can adopt 17, that would be morally acceptable, but to give birth to 17 children?"

CBS's "Public Eye" editor Brian Montopoli punted yet another golden opportunity to press a CBS News executive (Linda Mason pictured at right*) on why the network won't name the producer it fired in early April for plagiarizing a Wall Street Journal column.

You will recall that the New York Sun reported on April 12 that Melissa McNamara, who also edited CBSNews.com's "Blogophile" blog, was fired for basing her script for a Katie Couric vlog entry on a Jeffrey Zaslow column.

On April 13, I wrote that Montopoli appeared "to have given up the fight with the execs in his network" after he failed to press CBS executives over their secrecy. Montopoli concluded an April 10 entry by merely accepting the company line:

During a debate on atheism in New York City with Christopher Hitchens on Monday, the reliably inflammatory Al Sharpton said: "As for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that.'"

The New York Times responded in Thursday's edition with local reporter Michael Luo's "Romney Accuses Sharpton of a Bigoted Remark."

"Sharpton Accused of Bigoted Remark" would be the equivalent of "Dog Bites Man" for a true "paper of record," but the Times rarely notices.

In atypical fashion, Luo devoted most of his space not to Romney's accusation or to calls for apologies from offended Mormons, but to Al Sharpton's (make that "civil rights activist" Sharpton, as Luo called him in a post on the Times' political blog) defense and rebuttal.

While the liberal media tries to make over a Kansas tornado to resemble their perfect media bias storm over Hurricane Katrina, the floods in Missouri may be a more analogous comparison. But the CBS Evening News wasn't going to allow local residents to blame the federal government without a rebuttal -- if the president was Bill Clinton.

On Wednesday night's newscast, CBS reporter Cynthia Bowers reported that residents were upset the feds didn't shore up the levees, as they failed to do after "the historic flood of 1993, which killed 48 people and did nearly $20 billion worth of damage to nine waterlogged states." But that shouldn't be associated with Clinton, Bowers implied: "Actually, it's not the federal government's responsibility to maintain every levee. Most of the hundreds of levees along the Missouri and Mississippi River are built and kept up by the people who live next to them."

Back in 1993, CBS Evening News reporter Vicki Mabrey didn't use the words "Clinton" or "Democrats" when locals began complaining about the government response, but ended the story on a sad note: "But the government has no way of keeping towns from asking for federal assistance, just like there's no way to guarantee the Mississippi will never flood again."

Liberal tolerance is a wonderful thing. Of course, with tolerance like this, I'd hate to see what an intolerant liberal looks like.

Up in the Baltimore area where our friend Ian Schwartz of Hot Air lives, someone defaced a billboard of radio host Rush Limbaugh. Instead of condemning the act of vandalism, Robert Murrow, a spokesman for the city, said it "did my heart good."

Apparently, somebody in Baltimore isn't a fan of Rush Limbaugh. A large billboard advertising local air times for the conservative radio talk-show host has been defaced.

Robert Murrow, a spokesman for the city's Department of Public Works, saw the vandalism as he drove to work this morning on I-83 near the Guilford Avenue exit. He called The Sun, saying that someone had poured paint on the image of Limbaugh's face.

It certainly should come as no great surprise that anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments are nothing rare at the ultra-liberal website Daily Kos.

It is nonetheless fascinating to read the views of an Israeli member and contributor who has asked for his membership to be canceled due to “plain old Israel Bashing“ and the fact that people there are “advancing ideology that leads directly to Israel being destroyed as a Jewish and democratic [sic], and me dying.”

Eyal Rosenberg’s extraordinarily passionate post began (h/t LGF, emphasis added throughout):

Wedge issues, those subjects on which basically everyone has an opinion and those opinions are hard and fast, are generally something most politicians try to avoid if at all possible. Usually, it's because their party base takes a very strong stand on a subject that most Americans disagree with in part or in whole. If used properly, wedge issues can be used to separate a politician from the general public.

For Republicans the wedge issues tend to be abortion, creationism, and racial politics. Democrats have these issues too, however the left-dominated media almost never focus on them as Ace writes:

The media loves close questioning about abortion. And Bob Jones University. And the Confederate flag. And etc., and etc., and etc. -- every issue that cuts against Republicans, where the wedge divides base from center, always gets an enormous amount of attention from the Washington press corps.

And what about Democrats' wedge issues? Not only does the media refuse to ask such questions, except in the easiest softball way -- allowing candidates to give their carefully-vetted focus-group-tested non-answers without having to survive the scrutiny of a follow-up -- the media is often insistent that even asking such questions is "divisive" and therefore unethical, if not unAmerican.

Discuss the news of the day and anything else...

If you've ever lived in Minnesota, chances are you've heard of one of the state's two major papers, the Star Tribune, often referred to as the Red Star Tribune. The paper is famous for its left-wing bias even to people who've never been to Minnesota. Well, it turns out things actually could have been worse.

In an interview, Jim Boyd, the outgoing deputy editorial page editor for the paper says that he was forced by his old corporate bosses to feature conservative columnists, something he absolutely detested. He hopes that under the new owners this policy will go away. The bias is thick enough to cut with a knife:

If you've ever heard the Star Tribune called the Red Star, you can probably blame Jim Boyd, at least in part. As deputy editor of the paper's editorial page, he's one of a handful of editorial writers who plots out its official stance on issues from Iraq to a statewide smoking ban to political endorsements. This morning, Minnesota Monitor confirmed that Boyd will be taking a voluntary buyout and leaving the paper after nearly 27 years of service, and that the editorial page staff of 12.5 full-time positions will be trimmed by five.