Mithridate Ombud's blog

USA Today has an interesting article from Washington Journalism Center's Terry Mattingly.

"At times, the mood turned hostile toward the lawmakers in the stately white building behind the stage," wrote The Washington Post in its coverage of the event. Then, without explanation, the story offered this on-stage quotation from a religious broadcaster: "Let's pray that God will slay everyone in the Capitol." Clearly, the reporters didn't know about the experience that Pentecostal Christians call being "slain in the Holy Spirit," in which they believe they are transformed by a surge of God's power. The result was a journalistic train wreck...

After the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the International Herald Tribune described his vestments and added: "Tucked under his left arm was the silver staff, called the crow's ear, that he had carried in public." Actually, that ornate shepherd's staff is called a crosier (or crozier), not a "crow's ear." And did a BBC producer really write a subtitle that said "Karma Light" nuns were mourning the pope (as opposed to Carmelites)?

"Newsweek misquoted Falwell as referring to 'assault ministry.' In fact, Falwell was referring to 'a salt ministry' — a reference to Matthew 5:13, where Jesus says, 'Ye are the salt of the earth.' We regret the error."

Bias is a problem. But, in my experience, apathy and ignorance cause most of these laugh-to-keep-from-crying gaffes. It would help if newsroom executives spent more time thinking about intellectual, cultural and even spiritual diversity, in addition to focusing on gender, race and class.

It's no surprise that journalists by default assume Christians are militant crusaders, as opposed to the fundamentalist "freedom fighters" who chop off heads throughout the Mideast.

15 People Who Make America Great
Newsweek Magazine
#4 Brad Pitt
"If it wasn't for Brad Pitt, most Americans would never have heard of Namibia. They might not know about AIDS orphans in South Africa, or the plight of children in Haiti, or what transpired at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland."

Google News: "Brad Pitt Namibia World Economic Forum Davos Switzerland"
Results about "what transpired at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland": ZERO. (lots of Newsweek award mentions though)

Google News: "Brad Pitt plight of Haitian children"
Results: ZERO

Google News: "Brad Pitt AIDS orphans in South Africa"
Results besides Newsweek award mentions: 1 anecdotal sentence.

You may remember my report yesterday about the gay feature writer who was marshall of the gay pride parade that his newspaper helped sponsor. You may remember how his newspaper supported him even though it clearly destroyed the impartial view of both him and his newspaper.

Well he still isn't happy. He isn't showing up for work and he's got a lawyer.

Mayk stressed the dispute did not get Whelan fired from his role writing the "Ask Frank" history column and a society-watch column. "We had never planned to fire him about this issue and have no plans to do so," Mayk said. She added later, "He's a valued member of our editorial staff, and we look forward to his return."

Whelan, 56, said he has been unable to bring himself to face co-workers because of the dispute. He said he received "some communication" Wednesday from the newspaper that he declined to discuss. He said he has a meeting scheduled Friday with an attorney. Whelan said he told Hilliard he felt the dispute violated his civil rights. "I kept saying, 'I'm a minority. Don't you understand that this is important to me as a member of a minority group?'" he said.

Tim Chadwick, vice president of Pride of the Greater Lehigh Valley... said "I think that's absolutely ridiculous. I think it's a conjured up excuse for The Morning Call to cover up their homophobia... This is a civil rights matter and human rights matter. It has nothing to do with some kind of agenda. People are just trying to be who they are and live without oppression."

I'm not sure what more he wants, the newspaper supported him, sponsored the event and the publisher said he supports "a diverse community." Well, so long as that diversity doesn't include the newspaper supporting the events of gun owners, the religious, or pro-life supporters.

The Vice President of the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee, has the solution to the problem of MASSIVE declining newspaper circulation all figured out:

LEHRER: Do you think that the newspapers, faced with this decline in circulation, should reexamine what they're doing?
BRADLEE: They're examining, reexamining it. Boy, that's topic A. Every, every paper you go to, they've just had a meeting and they're discussing what to do about falling circulation. And there's one word is the answer.
LEHRER: What is it?
BRADLEE: Stories.
LEHRER: Stories?
BRADLEE: Good stories.
LEHRER: So, when you say stories, what stories are they not doing, kinds of stories that they're not doing?
BRADLEE: Well, I mean, they're just well written stories, some story that makes you, you know, say I'll be damned, that's a good story.

Actually, the average newspaper story already makes me say "I'll be damned" but probably not for the reason Ben is talking about. Here's a suggestion for all you newspaper VP's. Why don't you get rid of the bias, the America-hating columnists, the socialist editorials, and the reporters pushing a gay/lesbian/transgendered/illegal alien/pro-abortion/anti-God/anti-gun agenda?

Ever thought of that in one of your falling circulation meetings? No. Probably not.

The Morning Call has an article about Allentown's gay pride parade. Just in case you thought the paper was going to treat the spectacle fairly, you should know that the paper's feature writer and weekly columnist was the parade's grand marshall... along with his man. And the paper, as a non-partisan observer and reporter of fact, helped fund the event.

Don't think for a minute the newspaper doesn't know how wrong all of this is.  Vicki C. Mayk, Morning Call director of community relations released a statement saying: "The highest duty of journalists in a democratic society is to provide credible information devoid of favor toward or obligation to any group or agenda." But that doesn't mean they would actually stop their reporter from... leading the train.

With all the fairness they could muster, the article takes a shot at point out how tragic it is that we don't accept gay marriage.

''They're normal and they do the same things as straight people do,'' Chadwick, who is not gay, said as a choral group sang the national anthem. Many gays and lesbians would like the list of ''normal'' things they do to extend to marriage... ''It's not for everyone,'' said Enrique Reid, 21, of Allentown, who sported a wide rainbow-patterned scarf around his waist and nothing else. ''As long as I am happy with that man. I don't need to put a ring on his finger.''

Walking around in nothing but a scarf? Oh yeah, that's normal, just like what straight people do.

There's a loose rule in journalism about not running every rumor you hear as hard news without at least making some attempt at checking it out. From the Miami Herald:

Team owners Micky Arison (Heat) and Mark Cuban (Mavs) didn't arrive by limo, helicopter or Range Rover. The millionaires both came by boat and docked on opposite sides of the arena. Cuban's Utopia II is nice enough -- if a bit modest, at 60 feet. Arison's Sirona III is a Shaq-sized monster, well more than 100 feet long. 'I think there's a little bit of boat envy goin' on,'' said Brad Morris, director of operations at the arena. ''I mean, compared to Arison's, Cuban's boat is pretty piddly.'' Morris said he heard Cuban had draped a ''Go Mavs'' banner across the boat earlier in the day and caused such a stir that the police were summoned. Oops. It wasn't there at game time.

From Mark Cuban:

How difficult is it to see what is or isnt right in front you ? Well guess what guys. I dont own a boat. Never have. Never will. I rented one once. Rowed one a couple times. Thats it. My apologies to the real owner of that boat who is getting pestered with helicopters and people trying to corner them.

Oops indeed.

According to Drudge, the checkbook journalism practiced by People Magazine extended to another Time Warner property; Anderson Cooper.

There's loud chatter among industry insiders that the $4 million deal PEOPLE Mag's editor Larry Hackett cut with Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt for their baby pictures extended to CNN, also part of the TIME WARNER family. A rep for CNN denies any TIMEWARNER deal secured the interview. "Angelina Jolie's representative approached Anderson Cooper's senior executive producer David Doss because Angelina is an admirer of Anderson's work, especially his commitment to covering Africa and the plight of refugees."

There is one sure way of finding out. It is imperative that Time Warner immediately release the original contract with Angelina to determine if anything other than People Magazine is mentioned. If it were any other organization implicated in an unethical practice, wouldn't CNN demand the same of them?

Their actions over the weekend will speak directly to the ethics, transparency, and values of the news operation. (i.e. don't expect much more than more denials, obfuscating the facts, and refusing to expose the contract.)

I'm reading the text of the document that al-Zarqawi was caught with and I have to say it's a more accurate portrayal of what is really going on in Iraq than the average New York Times article.

The situation and conditions of the resistance in Iraq have reached a point that requires a review of the events and of the work being done inside Iraq. Such a study is needed in order to show the best means to accomplish the required goals, especially that the forces of the National Guard have succeeded in forming an enormous shield protecting the American forces and have reduced substantially the losses that were solely suffered by the American forces. This is in addition to the role, played by the Shi'a (the leadership and masses) by supporting the occupation, working to defeat the resistance and by informing on its elements.

So in private, al Qaeda is saying that America is winning. Hear that New York Times?

However, here in Iraq, time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance for the following reasons:
3. By undertaking a media campaign against the resistance resulting in weakening its influence inside the country and presenting its work as harmful to the population rather than being beneficial to the population.

Wait a minute. Is al Qaeda saying that the U.S. led stories inside Iraq (the same ones the LA Times chastised and the New York Times tried to stop) were working? Don't worry, al Qaeda has a plan still, they know where their strengths are:

To use the media for spreading an effective and creative image of the resistance.

The liberal American news media have your back. Er... what's left of it.
Also see: al Qaeda and Mainstream Media Hug It Out Together

I'd like to revisit the comedic styling of one Jason Leopold. Now, maybe you haven't heard of Leopold, or maybe all that comes to mind is the Bugs Bunny cartoon ("Leopold, LEOPOLD, leopold") but Jason is a hero to journalists. He writes the stories that other journalists won't touch, for websites other journalists won't admit to reading, like CounterPunch, Common Dream, Truthout.org, you know, your typical moonbat hangouts. Sure he's had some anti-Bush stories retracted by Salon.com, he may have dabbled in plagiarism, and he has the average liberal reporter's issues with drug addition, mental illness, suicide, and lying to employers, but he's still a journalist's journalist.

Let's take a moment to look back and enjoy the journalism excellence of Jason Leopold.

Rove Informs White House He Will Be Indicted
By Jason Leopold
Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources confirmed Rove's indictment is imminent.

At a fundraiser (the only place you'll likely find a Clinton in an election year) Bill Clinton told how he and Al Gore "were right about global warming" to a crowd shouting "four more years." It is undertermined why the crowd, ignorant of the 22nd Amendment, wants four more years of doing nothing about global warming.

In the short Associated Press article by Brendan Farrington, he writes: "as Tropical Storm Alberto threatened to strengthen into the ninth hurricane in 22 months to affect Florida..." What he fails to mention is that:

• 10 hurricanes per year is normal, and Florida is the biggest target. In 1933, there were 21 hurricanes, apparently this was the height of global warming.
• "Global warming" actually causes hurricanes to be less powerful.
• In 1965, there was a decrease in hurricanes, at the time scientists claimed this was because of the coming "global cooling."

The Capital Times ran a front page story on Memorial Day that was the perfect way for a newspaper to celebrate our military heroes; the cookie cutter foreign war vet who "can't get a job" despite 4.6% unemployment story. Oh yeah, and of course he's homeless.

Well, actually he made the story up. And the checks and balances of the editorial process in today's skeptical journalism climate meant they ate up his story without so much as a phone call to confirm it. The paper says "We've been snookered" with a line suggesting it slipped past due to a holiday weekend. I guess that's what you get for waiting until the weekend before Memorial Day to do your homeless vet story.

At least they observed Memorial Day. [FYI: For more information about how to fight Google censorship, see the comments.]

Medill School of Journalism has concluded a survey that attempts to get some benchmarks on bad journalism. While thousands of examples have been documented by MRC and Newsbusters on a daily basis, the report tells us that we don't know the half of it.

...how much internal misconduct [can] a paper reasonably be asked to uncover on its own... maybe 50 percent.

The report, “Newspaper Reporter and Editor Attitudes Toward Credibility, Errors and Ethics,” claims that reporters are in denial.

assistant dean Ellen Shearer... told Helfrich the journalists complained about Jayson Blair, TV news, and “agenda-driven media,” saying they undermined public confidence in their papers’ credibility. But most felt unethical behavior was “not an actual problem at their newspapers—it’s more other people,” she went on. “That’s a little concerning to me.”

CNN reporter Ben Wedeman got to spend some quality time with terrorists who get their kicks trying to kill Israeli children as he spent the day hanging out at a rocket factory. Nowhere in the story will you read a derogatory word about the terrorists, or even the word "terrorist" at all, and he closes the piece by calling it "a good story."

You might think, as an American or even as a decent human being, that if you knew people who knew bomb-making terrorists, or you had the means to get to where the bombs are being made, you would tell authorities. Not CNN reporters. They bend over backwards to protect these murderers:

I got to the rocket makers through an old acquaintance in Gaza. To protect his identity, I'll call him Majid. A journalist, Majid has the numbers of all Gaza's factions, parties, politicians, warlords, thugs, crooks and freelance gunmen... I didn't mention what I was trying to arrange to anyone -- not CNN's assignment editors, not our Jerusalem bureau, not even Adil, my cameraman who was hoping for a day off after two weeks in Gaza covering clashes and chaos. Gaza is crawling with informants, collaborators and spies, so the less anyone knows about your plans, the better.

The higher CO2 levels that inherently come with global warming are actually a good thing if you're starving in a third world country. Plants breathe CO2, and higher levels means faster plant growth and higher crop yields.

But that isn't the story you want to paint if you're a big media operation like USA Today. Instead, you want to frame it like this:

Study: Global warming boosts poison ivy
WASHINGTON (AP) — Another reason to worry about global warming: more and itchier poison ivy. The noxious vine grows faster and bigger as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, researchers report Monday... Compared to poison ivy grown in usual atmospheric conditions, those exposed to the extra-high carbon dioxide grew about three times larger — and produced more allergenic form of urushiol, scientists from Duke and Harvard University reported. "...the shift toward a more allergenic form of urushiol have important implications for the future health of both humans and forests," the study concludes.

There you have it. That means I can expect to get stricken with poison ivy three times more than I have in the past, which is currently a consistent zero times. This coupled with inch higher water must be part of the end of civilization that Al Gore anticipates. Remember, folks, all of this global warming nonsense you're reading about is just part of the 2008 Democratic platform as delivered by big media.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Tom Hallman apparently has a hard time nailing down the truth. In a profile of math guru Mark Provo, Hallman took vast liberties with the truth without actually picking up a phone to verify any of it. The subject of the story has listed about 30 facts that are not actually factual.

Hallman paints wild pictures of non-existent hills, phantom hotel rooms, even the thoughts that run through people's heads. He writes about the subject "glancing at the clock" and how "in that moment the turmoil of his past would disappear" which were both complete fabrications. As Provo correctly points out, these are the things of screenplays and novels. These are not accurate representations of the truth.

You can still win a Pulitzer Prize for writing a fictional play, so why do these reporters even bother with journalism? And why do newspapers fail to mention that falsities and fabrications paint their pages?

Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, following are some of the Chicken Little writings of the New York Times and Time Magazine over the years.

Time, Sept. 10, 1923: "The discoveries of changes in the sun's heat and the southward advance of glaciers in recent years have given rise to conjecture of the possible advent of a new ice age."

NYT, Sept. 18, 1924: "MacMillan Reports Signs of New Ice Age."

NYT, March 27, 1933: "America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise."

Time, Jan. 2, 1939: "Gaffers who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right ... weather men have no doubt that the world at least for the time being is growing warmer."

Time, June 24, 1974: "Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age."

NYT, May 21, 1975: "Scientists Ponder Why World's Climate is Changing; A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable."

Time, April 9, 2001: "(S)cientists no longer doubt that global warming is happening, and almost nobody questions the fact that humans are at least partly responsible."

NYT, Dec. 27, 2005: "Past Hot Times Hold Few Reasons to Relax About New Warming."

Anyone who says the Earth will get (circle one) hotter/colder is right, given enough time. We've had ice ages, little ice ages, as well as warming periods. None of them were caused by humans.

Why is this any different?

LegalTimes.com has a problem with Alberto Gonzales saying: "It has been estimated that, at any given time, 50,000 predators are on the Internet prowling for children."

Where did it come from? NBC's "Dateline" used it in their reporting of online predators. What's the problem? The source of that number is about as tangible as the black smoke on the TV show "Lost."

Hansen’s source, according to the “Dateline” report: unnamed “law enforcement officials.” Asked who those law enforcement officials were, Hansen told Legal Times that “this is a number that was widely used in law enforcement circles,” though he couldn’t specify by whom or where... “Was it just a WAG — a wild-assed-guess?” he says. “It could have been.”

In April I wrote about the opening of the Democrats' Election 2008 Talking Points Tour. It kicked off with Barack Obama preaching the certainty of fossil fuels heating up our planet while conveniently neglecting to mention what is heating up Mars and Jupiter.

The media has turned the tour up a notch with a twisted fascination over Al Gore, coverage excuse provided by his new movie on global warming that is certain man is heating the planet with SUV usage while conveniently neglecting to mention what is heating up Mars and Jupiter. Al ensures full media coverage by bringing the war into it.

"I also believe that after 9/11 if, in addition to rallying the country and wisely invading Afghanistan to pursue Osama bin Laden, that if the president of the United States had said 'Let's become independent of oil and coal', that people would have responded to that."

Yeah, we responded to that in the 70's. It would have been nice if he had done something about it when he was sipping iced tea with the Red Chinese. But Bill Clinton can't run for President again so he comes right out and says what other Democrats won't:

"Climate change is more remote than terror but a more profound threat to the future of the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren I hope all of you have...

A quick note to drive-by journalists about NSA illegally collecting telephone records without first obtaining a warrant.

U.S. Supreme Court
SMITH v. MARYLAND,
442 U.S. 735 (1979)
No. 78-5374.
Argued March 28, 1979.
Decided June 20, 1979.

The telephone company, at police request, installed at its central offices a pen register to record the numbers dialed from the telephone at petitioner's home.
Held: The installation and use of the pen register was not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and hence no warrant was required. Pp. 739-746.

Not that this story is any newer than the last go-round. Also a quick note to the drive-by journalists complaining about more "tax cuts for the rich."

Breitbart
April Tax Revenue 2nd-Highest in History
It marked the largest one-month receipt total since the government collected $332 billion in revenue in April 2001

See that? Tax cuts = more tax revenue. So the only logical reason to complain about "tax cuts for the rich" is that you really want the economy to tank or that you don't really care about getting the most tax money you can but rather you hate that others are doing so well and want to punish them.

Hey Big Media, don't punish others just because you chose a profession that doesn't pay squat. In fact, you should go after your CEOs who take food out of your mouths with multi-million dollar retirement packages (that sounds familiar.)

World Net Daily points out that the Associated Press drove by a Swedish study that finds lesbians react differently to sex hormones than heterosexual women. Evidently, the desire of the AP was to claim that homosexuality is genetic, that it can't be helped. This, presumably, would make homosexuals a protected class affording special legal protections. Specifically, the AP made claims like "the findings add weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behavior."

The problem is that the study says no such thing. In fact, Dr. Ivanka Savic of the Stockholm Brain Institute and the author of the study said: "This is incorrect and not stated in the paper."

As WorldNet points out, "the Swedish study merely found that lesbians respond differently, not that their brains were hardwired that way before any sexual activity."

It is unknown whether the lesbian nose is trained or bred, at least to everybody except the AP.

The latest Hubble images show that Jupiter has a new storm brewing, one that signals "a global change that can modify temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit on different parts of the globe." Get ready for the New York Times to blame Republicans.

This coming exactly a month after I wrote about the global warming that is occurring on Mars.

But don't take the universe's word for it. Media maven Barack Obama says man caused all of our problems. Even the once not-so-partisan magazine Nature is getting in on the game with a new study that definitively proves that man is killing the world with a junk science study that apparently paid no attention to the recent twenty most active years of the sun ever recorded.

The answer [to the cause of global warming], says Vecchi, is pretty much all of it. "At least 80% of this is attributable to human activities," he says.

What say you, New York Times?