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

Charlie Hall, a Washington Post reporter and copy editor for 20 years, is running for a county board seat in suburban northern Virginia as a Democrat, and as the Post itself reported Tuesday, he gets really upset when his Democratic opponents suggest he has no Democratic credentials: "The issue infuriates Hall, who said that he has voted Democrat his whole life."

Post reporter Bill Turque chronicled the primary fight for the Providence District of the Fairfax County Board, a long-time Democratic stronghold. Hall's a staunch opponent of new real-estate development in the area. The incumbent fighting for re-election on June 12 is Linda Q. Smyth, who is backed by the chairman of the Fairfax County Board, Gerald Connolly:

Yes he leans left. But MSNBC host Chris Matthews was manifestly offended by the Mexican audience at the Miss Universe pageant that booed Miss USA. The Mexicans were adding insult to injury, since the lovely and gracious Rachel Smith of Tennessee had earlier slipped onto her derrière during the evening gown segment of the competititon.

Discussing the matter on this afternoon's Hardball with his panel of NBC political director Chuck Todd, Howard Fineman of Newsweek, and Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Tribune, Matthews unleashed on the Mexicans:

• That's about the worst PR I can think of for this Mexican immigration bill which is mainly helping Mexicans become legal Americans. . . This young woman smiled right through it. That's class, but [the booing] wasn't very classy.
• What is it about immigration though that bothers Mexicans? I mean there are 12 million here illegally. That's fairly benign, even if it is passive, policy. It's hardly predatory. What other country in the world let's 12 million come in there, live there illegally? How can you be mad at that?
  
  • Mark Finkelstein's blog
  • 43 comments
  • Read more

Although Katie Couric began Tuesday's CBS Evening News coverage of Iraq on a downbeat note, pointing out how May has become the “deadliest month” of 2007, with “at least 114” U.S. servicemen killed so far, she moved on to how “in an exclusive interview, Iraq's Prime Minister tells CBS News the security crackdown is working.” From Baghdad, Lara Logan offered more of a glass is half full spin as she relayed how, “in his first American television interview since the U.S. troop surge began in February, Iraq's Prime Minister told CBS News today the additional forces here have prevented an even greater catastrophe.” Logan challenged Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's premise: “When we talk to Iraqi people on the streets of Baghdad, they say security is worse. Murders went down, but they're coming up back up again. There are still bombs every day. What is your sense of the quality of life to Iraqi people?”

Logan, however, also passed along how “despite this month's deadly toll on U.S. forces, Maliki said there have been many victories in breaking up al Qaeda and other militant cells. Although he cautioned it was too soon to do a complete evaluation of the surge, he said he has great hopes for more progress in the next two or three months.”

It never ceases to amaze me to see how ignorant The Washington Post is about Catholic teaching---the latest example being staff writer Peter Slevin's liberally biased slam against Abp. Raymond Burke on p. A2 of the May 29 edition. The ignorance (or anti-Catholicism?) is clear in the very first sentence, which is false, in the first paragraph. "When it comes to expressing his views of church values, Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke has a habit of making headlines, not always to the satisfaction of his flock," writes Slevin. These are not, of course, "his views." They are the views and stipulations of the Catholic Catechism, the Code of Canon Law, and numerous papal encyclicals that often teach definitively on certain matters. Slevin apparently never cracked the Catechism, and he apparently never Googled it because it is online, as is the Vatican, with all the relevant documents.

Abp. Burke has spoken out against abortion; against politicians who support abortion; against entertainers who support anti-Catholic teachings but also want to perform at Catholic functions; against using embryonic stem cells for research; and so on. And this is what apparently ticks Slevin and his editors off: A Catholic Bishop who actually tells his flock the Truth about Catholic teaching and how Catholics must strive to seek holiness and save their souls.

News magazines love to float above the real news and focus on nebulous trends, and perhaps none are more nebulous than the sudden popularity of the "beta male," as represented by Al Gore. The "cultural dispatch" by writer Jennie Yabroff celebrates Gore as "the proto beta male" who’s "having the last laugh as a movie star, an ecosavant, a best-selling author, and a potential dark-horse presidential candidate."

Yabroff’s article in the June 4 edition was headlined "Betas Rule: What do Jim from 'The Office,' Shrek and Al Gore have in common? They're beta males—losers who are winning. Look out, alpha dogs." While the grasping, ambitious "alphas" are out, Gore and Bill Clinton are singled out as the hottest political embodiments of sensitively surrendering men, as if they have no ambitions at all:

"The Anchoress" had an excellent item yesterday about how some news wires are downplaying the authoritarian, anti-free speech nature of Hugo Chavez's move to shut down a private television network that often criticized the Venezuelan thugocrat. She notes that the bland headlines give little reason for the casual reader to sit up and take notice:

The initial headlines are either unclear or they’re working at happy spin:

Chavez launches new Venezuela TV station.

That sounds merry, doesn’t it - as though Hugo Chavez is happily launching a new enterprise and celebrating! The story is a bit different, though:

Better stow all potables, combustibles, and sharp objects, sports fans, because climatologist/environmental consultant Dr. Tim Ball and mechanical engineer Tom Harris wrote an op-ed for the Toronto Sun Monday that is destined to evoke untimely bouts of laughter.

Titled “Prove It! Environmental Do-gooders,” the piece marvelously took aim at governments deciding to prevent the use of consumer products – in the name of saving the planet – without any proof that their recommendations actually will benefit anyone (emphasis added throughout, grateful h/t Rush Limbaugh):

I just thought I'd post this in here, just to note exactly how Newsbusters supports freedom of speech. More and More DUmmies seem to be joining this site, plastering 9/11 conspiracies, leaving "Ron Paul!" at every chance, and spewing 'blame america first' pseudo-news from pseudo-news sources. We've even had the occasional Liberal whine about how Newsbusters censors (I don't see it, but hey, I'm a conservative, I'm stupid, right?). Anyway, I just thought I'd make a comparison of this site to, say, DU, or DailyKos.

At this site, you are free to be a liberal, free to post irrelevant "Ron Paul!"'s where ever you want, without much fear of moderator intervention. Now, the NB Staff COULD do this if they wanted to, as it is a private site and no one is entitled to free speech here, except by the will of the staff. But they don't censor, they don't suppress.

If there was one thing the 'Today' show wanted its viewers to know about comedian, turned failed Air America radio host, turned Senate candidate, Al Franken, it's that he's really "smart." Profiling his Minnesota Senate seat run, the Today show cast went out of their way to prove the Saturday Night Live alum's candidacy was serious by emphasizing Franken was, indeed, "smart."

Not once, not twice, but three times this morning's Today tagged Franken with the "smart" label. First up, 'Today' co-host Meredith Vieira, in her tease of the upcoming Franken piece proclaimed of the creator of Stuart Smalley: "He's a smart guy!" Then later, Franken impressed Today's national correspondent Jamie Gangel with his smartness as he doodled a map of the U.S. from memory:

Jamie Gangel: "What some people may not know, Franken is smart, Harvard smart. A math whiz who aced the SATs and it turns out not bad at geography, either."

Al Franken doodling: "It's a circus trick. I can draw all 48 contiguous states from memory in about two minutes."

Clay Waters, Editor of the MRC's TimesWatch site and a NewsBusters contributor was a guest this afternoon on the Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto," which airs weekdays at 4 p.m. EDT. The topic: New York Times coverage of Venezuela and Hugo Chavez.

TimesWatch.org is dedicated to documenting and exposing the liberal political agenda of the New York Times.

Video (3:39): Real (2.67 MB) or Windows Media (2.23 MB), plus MP3 (856 kB)

Also of interest:

In "The View’s" first live broadcast after Rosie O’Donnell announced her immediate departure, Barbara Walters addressed the issue. After introducing guest co-host Whoopi Goldberg, Walters said she was "very sad" and claimed that Rosie left on her own terms and "was never fired." "The View" creator asserted she has "admiration" and "affection" for Rosie and is "welcome to come back anytime she wants and we hope that will be often."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, whose famous fight was Rosie’s immediate reason for leaving, claimed she was "in communication" with Rosie this weekend and "begun the process" of "forgiveness." However, on Rosie’s blog, Rosie claimed they exchanged e-mails and Elisabeth talked to Rosie’s partner, Kelli, for some time, but stated they never actually talked. The entire transcript is below.

If you've been listening to the news, you might be surprised that the national average for gas is $3.20 - not $4 or more. Media hype of rising gas prices included predictions of $4, $5 and even higher national averages for gasoline.

MRC Business & Media Institute director and Newsbusters contributor Dan Gainor appeared on Fox's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on May 28, 2007 to combat the hype.

"Nobody's saying gas prices aren't high. What we're saying is for the last couple years the media have warned us about $4 a gallon, $5, $6 - even $7 a gallon gas. It's never topped more than $3.22 and it's actually dropped in the last couple days," Gainor told viewers.

Video (0:39): Real (1.05 MB) or Windows Media (1.25 MB), plus MP3 (188 kB).

On Tuesday’s "Good Morning America," the ABC program promised to investigate the "final straw" that pushed Rosie O’Donnell to leave "The View." Yet, somehow, neither anchor Chris Cuomo, nor reporter John Berman managed to mention the comedienne’s obsessive promotion of bizarre 9/11 conspiracy theories.

The segment also sympathetically portrayed O’Donnell. Co-anchor Cuomo even blurted out that Rosie "has to come here," meaning GMA. But first, reporter Berman tenderly noted that a video blog on her website features a picture of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the show’s token conservative and frequent brunt of O’Donnell’s aggression:

John Berman: "As for Rosie O’Donnell, it does seem like she has at least a touch of nostalgia. On her blog, a new music video montage, pictures of her time at ‘The View,’ including one of Elisabeth Hasselbeck."

Well, sports fans, it appears the media have figured out a clever way to report the events surrounding antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan this weekend without insulting the political party they are shilling for.

Looking at the major media outlets that have begun to cover this story, the strategy appears to be to report Sheehan’s Daily Kos post from Monday, wherein she stated that she was resigning “as the ‘face’ of the American anti-war movement,” while totally ignoring her Saturday post when she defiantly declared, “I am leaving the Democratic Party.”

Pretty sneaky, wouldn’t you agree?

However, this certainly appears to be the modus operandi as demonstrated by the following articles on the subject published Tuesday which included absolutely no reference to her statements Saturday:

As global warming alarmists in the media and on tour buses enflame hysteria concerning a nonexistent climate crisis, there is an inconvenient truth they routinely ignore: carbon dioxide emission reductions will hurt economies across the globe while worsening poverty.

This seemingly immutable fact, which continually eludes the deluded such as soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore and his band of not so merry sycophants, is understood by India which has up to this point refused to participate in any emissions requirements set forth by the United Nations.

As reported by Australia’s Herald Sun Tuesday (h/t Benny Peiser):

Is Barack Obama really running for president, or is he not-so-subtly positioning himself to be Hillary's running mate? I seemed to sense that 'subliminable' message on 'Today' this morning. At about 7:10 am EDT, the NBC show kicked off its "Today on the Trail" series, which will join the leading presidential contenders out on the campaign trail, with a feature on Obama. Meredith Vieira spent time with Obama in New Hampshire over the weekend.

Most of the exchanges were predictable: Obama countered suggestions of a lack of experience by positioning himself as an outside-the-beltway candidate. He claimed that "retail" politicking -- talking with voters one-on-one -- was the most enjoyable aspect of the campaign. He let people at one campaign stop know that in deciding whether to run, he "prayed on it," then asked his wife.

But there was one moment that deviated from the typical script of someone considered to have a realistic shot at winning a nomination.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA [D-IL]: It may be at the end of this thing people conclude 'you know, it's not Barack,' and that's OK.

NBC CO-HOST MEREDITH VIEIRA: That would be OK?

OBAMA: I think that's why we have elections.

View video here

http://www.startribune.com/editorials/story/1207436.html

Editorial: This Memorial Day, weep for our failures

We have not supported our troops in the ways that matter most.

Published: May 28, 2007

Today this nation celebrates yet another in a long line of wartime Memorial Days. This one is doubly sad because the war now being waged in Iraq is such an unnecessary, fruitless war. And that makes each death there a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.

Soldiers understand they may die in war; the risk comes with the rifle and boots of military life. But there's a solemn bargain made when young people accept that risk. They put their unrealized dreams and hopes for adulthood on the line for the sake of their nation. They depend on the rest of us to guarantee that when they go as bidden into harm's way, their nation's safety truly is at risk. This is where we, the American people, have failed the troops in Iraq. We have not adequately kept our part in this sacred partnership with them. We have allowed them to be sent to die where they should not.

Creation Museum is an unfunny 'Flintstones'

No, humans didn't have dinosaurs as pets. But, yes, science remains under assault.

FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:

Published: May 28, 2007

The Creation Museum, a $27 million tourist attraction promoting earth science theories that were popular when Columbus set sail, opens near Cincinnati today. So before the first visitor risks succumbing to the museum's animatronic balderdash -- dinosaurs and humans actually coexisted! the Grand Canyon was carved by the great flood described in Genesis! -- we'd like to clear up a few things: "The Flintstones" is a cartoon, not a documentary. Fred and Wilma? Those woolly mammoth vacuum cleaners? All make-believe.

Science is under assault, and that calls for bold truths. Here's another: The Earth is round.

Gustavo Arellano got a book review in the Los Angeles Times that every writer dreams of. With glowing prose they dubbed his book ¡Ask a Mexican! as "hilarious and testy," "insightful," and "witty and fearless." "Arellano ... offer[s] much-needed common sense," added the Times. A nice color photo of Arellano accompanies the review. (See an image of the article here.) Sounds great, doesn't it?

So ... What's the problem? Nowhere in the review does the paper bother to disclose that Arellano is a contributing editor to the Times. For the paper he has penned no less than ten columns in the last 11 months, including a book review that was published only a couple of weeks ago.

In other words, Arellano had about as much chance of receiving a negative review as it snowing in Santa Monica this week.

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