Dustin Hawkins's blog

Mr. In Denial himself, Eric Alterman, is set to debate with Tucker Carlson over media bias. Alterman's take: "There’s no question that television leans rightward rather than leftward" and that "liberal points of view are underrepresented on national and cable news television."

Some other comical quotes from Alterman about this "bias":

“I would say that right-wingers, like Bill O’Reilly, like Rush Limbaugh, like Sean Hannity, definitely dominate the discourse on television.”

While Bill and Sean may "dominate the discourse" on FOX News, I hardly doubt that they dominate the discourse on CBS News, ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The A.P., Reuters, USA Today, and every other media outlet, which Alterman fails to find an example of conservative bias coming from them. And even then, Alterman is comparing political talk shows to the Media that is supposedly presented in an unbiased fashion. Also, I wonder how Rush Limbaugh dominates discourse on T.V., unless Alterman was taking Rush's "show prep for the media" really, really seriously.

It appears the Sudanese government doesn't much like being considered a state that sponsors terrorism. In fact, the Minister of Information and Communication, Alzahwi Ibrahim Malik, is blaming the international media for being biased against them:

He said a good example of this distortion was the inclusion of Sudan in the infamous list of countries supporting terrorism, or countries which discriminate against other religions and minorities.

"These allegations are far from the truth. We in Sudan live as equal citizens and we do not discriminate between people because of their religion, colour or ethnic origin.

"We are a multi-colour, multi-cultural and multi-religious society, but we are equal citizens who have the same rights and obligations," he said.... "

The AP proves once again that it can take a poll and create any conclusion about the findings that it wants.

So naturally, it was all doom and gloom for recent Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito in the latest AP-Ipsos poll. The headline: "Poll: Early Public Support for Alito Weak." (Via Times Argus.) Adding that "The survey put public sentiment for Alito closer to the level of early backing for the failed nomination of Harriet Miers." Interestingly enough, the AP Could have also run the headline "Early Public Opposition to Alito Weak - Fewer People Opposed to Alito than were opposed to Roberts, Miers." Obviously, the AP did not go that route.

In wake of the Harriet Miers withdrawal of her nomination to the US Supreme Court, the Associated Press wasted little time in releasing an article trashing conservatives. Terrence Hunt found plenty of people to quote in regards to how "extreme" the Republican party is, but could find no one with any reasonable counter-arguments.

He quotes Democrats as saying: Bush has bowed to the "radical right wing of the Republican Party."

He found Ted Kennedy: "The president has an opportunity now to unite the country. In appointing the next nominee, he must listen to all Americans, not just the far right."

He found Democratic Leader Harry Reid: "The radical right wing of the Republican Party killed the Harriet Miers nomination. They want a nominee with a proven record of supporting their skewed goals."

In an attempt to downplay the scope of the communist infilitration into our government in the 1950's and the true role Joseph McCarthy played during the era of so-called "McCarthyism", George Clooney stated on the Early Show that: "Yes, there were communists infiltrating some areas of government. Not many, a couple of guys" in promoting his new movie.

A couple of guys? As I pointed out in my most recent column, there were more than just "a couple" of Soviet spies in various levels of our government and society. (See the end of this posting for a brief list).

But CBS wouldn't challenge this claim of downplaying McCarthy against famed CBS reporter Edward Murrow. After all, as they note: Clooney's "latest project falls firmly into the latter category and is very close to Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith and those working at CBS News." Why would CBS challenge anything positive that is said about one of its own reporters?

The October 28, 2005 Print Edition of Entertainment Weekly features a column entitled "Good Witch? Narnia gets a double-edged endorsement." (Pg. 16)

Writing for EW, Michelle Kung notes that a religious endorsement by James Dobson's group "Focus on the Family" can hurt the upcoming movie Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, giving the group the introduction as being a "controversial conservative group led by Dr. James Dobson that's known for a staunch anti-gay marriage platform."

Kung states: "Sure, the prospect of 2 million ticket buyers is alluring. But is the endorsement of a potentially polarizing political/religous interest group worth it?... Aggressively publicized thumbs-ups from groups like FOF could turn off secular audiences."

Bernard Goldberg never got on CBS' Early Show, but that's because he was not supporting MSM dominance.

CBS Political Analyst Craig Crawford recently released a new book entitled Attack The Messenger: How Politicians Turn You Against The Media and it was very well-received at CBS, which helped launch the book on The Early Show on Wednesday. Among the book's claims is that it is politicians and their supporters who are making it seem as though the Media is biased, and not that the media actually is biased. People claiming Media Bias are merely "attacking the messenger" instead of the message.

Tonight on CBS's 60 Minutes, former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh will be on to talk about his new book, "My FBI", which will apparently include a charge by Freeh about Bill Clinton, Saudi Arabia, and funding for Clinton's Presidential Library.

Amusingly, it is Sandy Berger who will be coming to Clinton's defense tonight in a written statement to be read by CBS. Sandy Berger is best known for being Clinton's National Securoty Adviser who was recently given a $50,000 fine, ordered to do 100 hours of community service, and placed on probation for stealing Classified Government Documents and stuffing them in his pants. Berger eventually admitted to sneaking out the classified documents in various parts of his suit, and then of later destroying them (and lying about the whole thing). Also, this past week, Berger was in court again after being charged with reckless driving by going 33 miles over the posted speed limit (88 in a 55), a violation of his parole which could land him in more trouble.

Newsweek's Howard Fineman and Eleanor Clift could hardly contain their excitement over the "Power Outage" of the Republican Party. (Oct. 10 Issue). Indeed, by the time the first paragraph was finished, the GOP "Leadership" (put in quotes by Newsweek) was described as one that supposedly promotes a feeling of "awe and fear" by the "flock," the members not in the "Leadership." The meeting of "The Leadership" was dark and secretive enough to be analogously compared to the Baath Party:

"In the Tom DeLay era—now at least temporarily ended—a meeting of the House Republican Conference usually was a ceremonial affair, at which "Leadership" (always a single word, spoken with a mixture of awe and fear) clued in the flock on Done Deals. The proceedings had the spontaneity of a Baath Party conclave."

The print media is set to have a field day with William Bennett's comments regarding an outlandish book. (Touched on earlier on Newsbusters by Brent Baker and Dave Pierre.)

Reuters leads off with: "The White House on Friday criticized as 'not appropriate' a comment from former Education Secretary William Bennett that aborting black babies would reduce the U.S. crime rate."

ABC News (running an AP article), leads off with the title: Bennett: Black Abortions Would Lower Crime."

The Houston Chronicle hits a home-run with this sap-fest on Illegal Immigration, delivering one sympathetic story after another on how mean the US border control policies are to people breaking the law.

So, we get to hear about a "Mexican youth who washes windshields for tips on Brownsville streets," and a "group of men who waded the Rio Grande." One public defender quoted in the Chronicle complains that "you have a guy who washes car windshields, and now he's facing a (potential) felony." Certainly he isn't facing a felony for washing windows, and probably for illegall entering the country, but I guess that is a different point for a different day.

The Chronicle then seems shocked to learn that enforcing the border will, in turn, need an increase in people actually enforcing the border:

In keeping with trying to figure out which Republican is to blame for Katrina, TIME has launched an in-depth "investigation" into FEMA Chief Mike Brown's online resumes. While accusing Brown of both padding his resume and having no emergency management expience prior to becoming FEMA head, TIME simply doesn't acknowledge his work as having "served as FEMA's Deputy Director and the agency's General Counsel. Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Mr. Brown served on the President's Consequence Management Principal's Committee, which acted as the White House's policy coordination group for the federal domestic response to the attacks." Nor does TIME mention his handling of some 150+ handling of other declared disasters and emergencies prior to Hurricane Katrina and the job he did. But on to what TIME does find important:

That's the title you will see on the mainpage of AOL News section if you are one of AOL's 21+ million subscribers. AOL, a Time Warner Company (which notably also runs CNN), suggests that Bush is on nothing more than a vacation, even opting out on using the more popular "working vacation" title. Rick Moore previously pointed out the highly suspect questions asked of AOL subscribers.

AOL Headline: "Should He be on Vacation?"

Body: "President Bush's vacation is a polarizing issue. Some complain it's too long. Others say he shouldn't take time off during a war. Still others say he deserves a break. As this debate continues -- along with Bush's vacation -- see what others say and give us your take."

Also highlighted are four quotes from "experts" of different fields, and apparantly of presidential vacations.

CNN's American Morning was all about "Troubling News for President Bush." On the top of the list, a new poll showing a 40% approval rating and, of course, Cindy Sheehan. President Bush is in Idaho meeting with military families.

CNN Anchor, Bob Franken: "The audience will be family members of people who have been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. The president will be meeting with a group of them afterwards. Of course the one he's already met with who he has heeded the call for another meeting, Cindy Sheehan. She's coming back to Crawford, Texas today. As the president arrives. She is sort of the symbol of a growing unrest in the United States, as reflected in that poll. Unrest in the U.S. that is showing dissatisfaction with the Iraq policy the president is now assertively defending. And when it comes to talking about Cindy Sheehan, he has to walk a very fine line between sensitivity and an aggressive defense."

This week, officials from some two dozen countries met to discuss "global warming."

The AP reports (via WaPo) that "The meeting in the Arctic town of Ilulissat came at the end of a three-day trip by the officials through Greenland's spectacular but shrinking expanses of ice and snow. The vast island is one of the prime spots for assessing whether global warming is worsening."

The article continues to imply that everyone agrees with the AP's declaration that global warming does in fact exist, including the anti-Kyoto treaty United States: "The officials came from both sides of global warming controversy's fault lines - from countries that have signed the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to counter global warming by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, and those that reject it, including the United States."

Recently exposed here by numerous blog posts on Newsbusters is the media's obsession with Military-mom-gone Anti-Bush in an attempt to portray a mass movement of military families turning against our fight in Iraq. Most past evidence indicates that military families and the military believe in our cause and in President Bush despite not receiving non-stop media coverage. (Probably because they would not want it in the first place.)

Some Blasts from the Past are regarding the military, their families and President Bush. (Families who are never spotted except in polling data.)

(Oct. 15, 2004) AP (Via CBS) military election polling:

The constant coverage of recently indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is less based on interest regarding his activities and more in the interest of slimy-ing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other Republicans.

The AP release about the indictement gives some detail about Abramoff, but also less-than-subtly throws in a few other names. (Questions that linger: Was Abramoff connected to Democrats?)

After dropping a DeLay mention in the very first sentence, the article later continues:

"DeLay has asked the House Ethics Committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay has denied knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff, whom he once described as 'one of my closest and dearest friends.'