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In an article honoring Dallas as "The Lavender Heart of Texas," Time writer John Cloud began with an unusually personal story of his political transformation, "trading movement conservatism for gay libertarianism." When you consider how he stereotypes conservatism as all about J.R. Ewing and an "air of profligacy," you could understand why it was easy to leave:

When I was a kid in Arkansas in the 1980s, we viewed Dallas with something approaching reverence. Mine was a fairly conservative family, aspirational. We passionately golfed and occasionally visited Neiman Marcus, the Dallas clothier that taught the South how to wear Versace and an air of profligacy. I wanted to drive a Mercedes and order bourbon and branch the way J.R. Ewing did. I wanted to go out with a Cowboys cheerleader with marcelled blond hair. The summer I was 13, Ronald Reagan was renominated in Dallas, and I signed up to be a young volunteer.

Update at bottom with video link- 18:10 EST:

Why should a country go to the effort of spying on America when all they have to do is follow the US media? USA Today reported a database of phone calls and the New York Times publically exposed the SWIFT banking transaction database; both were used to combat terrorism.  Now on the May 22 edition of ABC News’ the Blotter, Brian Ross and Richard Esposito revealed another national security-related secret (my emphasis throughout):

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

We reported yesterday about the evolving headline for an AP story on a poll showing a quarter of American Muslim males think that terrorism is sometimes justifiable.

Well now Ace of Spades took it a step further, taking a wider look at how other news agencies are similarly downplaying the alarming statistic with headlines that spin the results positively.

It's worth the read, although I have noticed that at least one headline has changed since Ace's post:

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Tuesday night teased his “Worst Person in the World” segment by plugging “comedian Rush Limbaugh with a strong entry tonight whining that nobody at MSNBC actually hears him on the air. I know this because I heard him on the air.” In the subsequent segment, Olbermann recounted how Limbaugh complained “that the liberal media, particularly MSNBC, never actually listens to him while he's on the air and thus gets things,” like what Olbermann impugned as “his racist Al Sharpton/Barack Obama song, second-hand and out of context.”

Olbermann boasted of how “I happen to know he said all this because today I was actually listening to him while he was on the air.” But far from contradicting Limbaugh's point about how members of the “drive-by media” don't listen to him, Olbermann confirmed it as he explained that he only heard Limbaugh's comments because he “was at ABC Radio in New York where I do the Dan Patrick Show from” and “listening from the perfect venue where they pipe in comedian's show and you can't turn it off -- the toilet!” Nonetheless, Olbermann named “comedian Rush Limbaugh” as “today's Worst Person in the World!”

Video clip (50 secs): Real (1.5 MB) or Windows Media (1.7 MB), plus MP3 audio (300 KB)

On Tuesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric allocated a few seconds to alerting viewers to how a new poll discovered that a significant minority of Muslims in America hold “disturbing” views on the acceptability of suicide bombings and who carried out the 9/11 attacks. Neither the ABC or NBC evening newscasts mentioned the new non-network poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Though Pew headlined its report “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream,” Couric picked up on the AP's spin (“Some US Muslims say suicide attacks OK” on Yahoo; CBSNews.com: “Poll: 26% Of Young U.S. Muslims OK Bombs”), as she reported: “One in four American Muslims under the age of 30 believe suicide bombings are acceptable in at least some cases if they're defending their religion. And only 40 percent of all American Muslims said they believe Arab men carried out the September 11th attacks.”

Over the weekend Chris Matthews asked the panel on his syndicated program to answer Hillary Clinton's call to help find an official song for her campaign and while Matthews and most of the media panel suggested songs that stressed Hillary's perceived positives, NBC's Andrea Mitchell topped them all when she offered Helen Reddy's 70s' feminist anthem: "How about 'I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar?'"

When New York Times columnist David Brooks, the one resident conservative on the panel, suggested a not so celebratory song title, Hall&Oates 80's hit, "Maneater," Mitchell cringed, letting out a painful: "Oooh!"

The following exchange occurred on the May 20th edition of the syndicated The Chris Matthews Show:

Okay, I don't really get this, but apparently Stone Phillips, the just-laid-off "Dateline NBC" anchor, tops the list at "Google Trends" today.

You don't believe me?! I thought you wouldn't. See screencaps below the fold. By comparison, the late Jerry Falwell, whose funeral was today, came in at only #10.

Keep in mind the trend doesn't mean Phillips is the hottest search on the Web, just the "fastest-rising." According to Google:

With Hot Trends, you can see a snapshot of what's on the public's collective mind by viewing the fastest-rising searches for different points of time. You can see a list of the current top 100 fastest rising search queries in the U.S.

"Gay bishop snubbed by Anglican conference" reads the headline for the May 22 Reuters article by Luke Baker. But take a look at the lede and second graf and you'll see there are two bishops to be excluded from the gathering of Anglican prelates:

LONDON (Reuters) - The Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual head of 77 million Anglicans worldwide, has not invited two wayward bishops to a major conference next year, a move likely to stir controversy in the deeply divided communion.

Archbishop Rowan Williams has sent invitations to more than 800 Anglican bishops asking them to attend the Lambeth Conference in July and August 2008, but has not invited two American bishops, Gene Robinson and Martyn Minns.

Last night the rhetorical attack on Avandia was fierce.

"We're starting with a story that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans because a new study out today says a drug they take increases their chances of having a heart attack and dying," warned CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric.

ABC's John McKenzie said, "Some doctors warn this could become one of the country's biggest drug catastrophes in recent memory."

And NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams stated, "A new study out tonight says in effect taking the drug might lead to some fatal consequences."

All those May 21 evening reports were talking about GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia - a drug to treat Type 2 diabetes - and overly emphasized the possible negative side effects found in a recent study.

For the past five years, CBS’s “60 Minutes” has been a safe haven for any Republican to voice his or her displeasure with the Bush administration. In fact, the program has been a walking billboard for such sentiments.

With that in mind, given former Sen. Bob Kerrey’s rather eye-opening op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal (h/t Allah at Hot Air), it seems safe to assume the outspoken Democrat will be on an upcoming installment of “60 Minutes” to share his disagreements with the foreign policy positions of many members of his Party.

I for one am looking forward to seeing the look on the face of whichever “60 Minutes” host gets the assignment when Kerrey says the following (emphasis added throughout):

On Tuesday, "Good Morning America" continued it’s week-long promotion of prominent Democrats with a profile of Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle. Co-anchor Robin Roberts, who in teases for the interview on Monday, glowingly referred to Mrs. Obama as "amazing," "very confident" and "professional," today added "strong" and "warm" to the list of adjectives used to describe the Democrat’s wife.

She also asked almost no tough questions of Michelle Obama. Will the spouses of Republican candidates, such as Ann Romney, be awarded such adulation?

Back in November, GMA’s Diane Sawyer queried Barack Obama as to whether Americans were "secretly" more racist or sexist. Ms. Roberts seemed to be posing the slightly less inflammatory version of that question to Michelle Obama:

Robin Roberts: "With a landmark run of both Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Obama for the 2008 presidential bid, many wonder who has a better shot at making history. Do you think the American public is ready for a woman more so than an African American or vice versa?"

New York Times reporter Kareem Fahim reported on an open house conducted by a New Jersey mosque connected to the Fort Dix Six terrorism investigation in Saturday's Metro section ("Open House At Mosque Of Suspects Proves Tense"). His slant was apparent throughout the story, as the Times once again soft-pedaled the radical Islamic origins behind the terror plot.

"The man sat in the back row of the mosque, his arms folded, unsure whether his hard opinions would change.

"'I'm concerned about the Muslims,' the man, Richard Smekal, 68, said just before an open house at the mosque, the Islamic Center of South Jersey, where four of six men accused of plotting to kill soldiers at Fort Dix had worshiped.

Charles Johnson over at Little Green Footballs has identified a rather interesting phenomenon at Yahoo this morning.

As the website reported on the results of a just-released Pew Research Center survey of Muslim Americans, the headline continued to change:

One hour and 52 minutes ago, the headline was:

Most U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings.

Thirty-five minutes ago, the same story was re-released:

Some US Muslims justify suicide attacks.

Will it change again? The second headline is actually less politically correct than the first, so stay tuned...

And here’s the fabulous punch line:

Imagine for a moment that a high-ranking Republican was accused by a Democrat of violating House rules in order to get a $23 million earmark approved for his district.

Would the media report it?

Probably on front-pages all across the country, and on morning and evening network newscasts for days, right?

Well, last Thursday evening, Politico reported (emphasis added throughout):

(Update below fold)

Rosie cited yet another conspiracy on the May 22 edition of "The View," this one of the Michael Moore variety. The co-hosts of the ladies’ chat show discussed Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and his extravagant lifestyle. Joy Behar stated that she would rather have someone who earned their way up there than inherit it, like the Bush family. Rosie responded likewise implying there is a connection between the Bush family and the September 11 hijackers.

ROSIE O’DONNELL: Where did they make that money?

JOY BEHAR: I’m not sure where they made the money.

O’DONNELL: Oil, yes, deals with the Saudis. 19 of the hijackers were Saudis.

[laughter]

Video (0:25): Real (675 kB) or Windows (756 kB), plus MP3 (336 kB).

Michelle Malkin takes issue with an AP headline that downplays some frightening numbers in a new poll of Muslim attitudes towards suicide bombing. (updates posted below)

"Most U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings," AP reports.

Here's what should be headlined from the article about a new Pew poll (which you can find here):

Headline:

"One in four younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances..."

Headline:

ABC News' Web site carries an excerpt from Al Gore's book, "Assault on Reason."  The Internet's inventor writes of what's known as McCarthyism and cites broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, "whose courageous journalism was assaulted by Senator Joseph McCarthy. . . "

But how courageous was Murrow?  Did he save the Republic from a man whose vicious tactics silenced any criticism?

Not hardly.

There was already massive media opposition to the Wisconsin senator.  Edwin Bayley’s 1981 book, “Joe McCarthy and the Press,” catalogs newspaper coverage after Joe launched his anti-Communism crusade in February, 1950.

For the second time in two days, "Good Morning America" co-anchor Diane Sawyer interviewed Al Gore about his thesis that the media are obsessed with celebrity, while "politicians are heard in sound bites." That point may be undercut by the fact that, by Tuesday, the ex Vice President has received 15 and a half minutes of air time to complain about the subject.

After prompting Gore to compare Americans to chickens on a farm, the co-host allowed herself to be interrogated and challenged over how the media operates. But first, Sawyer and GMA helped Gore along with his analogy that Americans are like frightened chickens in the way they allow themselves to be manipulated:

Sawyer: "You even talk about chickens when, when you were young and on the farm, that you could hypnotize chickens this way."

Clip of 50s instructional video: "It's no trick to keep a chicken from straying through the fence if you know how."

The British showed it in March. The Swedes in April. Now, the Aussies are going to air it.

When will American television?

In this case, “it” refers to the British documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle” (video available here) which presents the other side of the climate change debate the media and folks like soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore don’t want you to hear.

As reported by News.com.au (emphasis added throughout):

It has been over three weeks since the fundamental claim of the "Food Stamp Challenge" was debunked, first by Mona Charen in her syndicated column, then in more detail by yours truly (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog). Yet the "Food Stamp Challenge" has spread.

As noted in this NPR report from April 23, it all started in Oregon. That state's governor, Ted Kulongoski, joined in and put on quite a show, getting plenty of Old Media attention (Associated Press; New York Times [may require free registration]) as he tried to buy a week's worth of groceries with $21, because that was said to be what "the state’s average food stamp recipient spends weekly on groceries."

The Challenge's claim that the average Food Stamp recipient's benefit of $21 per person per week is all that beneficiaries have available for purchasing food is incorrect, as anyone visiting the USDA's web site could have learned very easily.

As I noted in late April, the Food Stamp Program’s "Fact Sheet on Resources, Income and Benefits" provides a table of "Maximum Monthly Allotments" (i.e., benefits), and says the following about benefit levels (bold is mine; I converted the Monthly Allotments to weekly allotments per person by dividing by the average number of weeks in a month [4.345], and then by the number of people):

Catching up with George Stephanopoulos' interview on Sunday's This Week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Stephanopoulos took the opportunity to banter with Pelosi about the possibility of a woman President in front of her on the podium at the next State of the Union. Over video of Congressman John Boehner back in January handing the gavel to Pelosi, Stephanopoulos, one once toiled for the administration of the only woman candidate, marveled: “Seeing you up at the podium, first female Speaker of the House. Do you ever think what it would be like to be standing at that podium as the first female President of the United States comes up to give the State of the Union?” A giggling Pelosi exclaimed: “Wouldn't that be exciting to have the woman as the President and woman as the Speaker of the House? It'd be pretty exciting...” When Pelosi soon contended that “it's harder to become Speaker of the House than President of the United States for a woman,” Stephanopoulos empathized with how “you had to prove you were tough enough.”

If a Republican presidential candidate like Rudy Giuliani or John McCain charged a $55,000 fee to speak at a major university about poverty, would the media be all over it like white on rice?

Well, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Politics blog reported over 16 hours ago that Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards spoke about poverty at a California university last year, and other than Fox News, no major press outlet has considered this newsworthy (emphasis added throughout):

The candidate charged a whopping $55,000 to speak at to a crowd of 1,787 the taxpayer-funded University of California at Davis on Jan. 9, 2006 last year, Joe Martin, the public relations officer for the campus' Mondavi Center confirmed Monday.

Didn’t hear about this? Why would you? After all, this is a Democrat candidate, not a Republican. The article continued:

Discuss, debate, pontificate. Name and town not needed if you wish to opine.

Here's a topic to think about.

Why do the media pay little if any attention to the role that the OPEC oil cartel plays in high oil prices, largely laying the blame at the feet of publicly-traded corporations that the media deride as "Big Oil"?

As America’s media largely gushed over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-California) visit to Syria last month, it would only be fair of them to gauge reaction of the citizens most-largely impacted – the Syrians themselves.

In a rather stunning article published May 15, The New York Observer has gone where few press outlets dare (h/t LGF, emphasis added throughout):

Many Syrian dissidents and pro-democracy activists have privately expressed dismay at Ms. Pelosi’s message of friendship to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They say that Ms. Pelosi’s visit, no matter how well-intentioned, has effectively pulled the rug out from under them, critically damaging their efforts to create momentum for reform from within.

Think you’ll be hearing Charlie, Katie, or Brian utter such words any time soon? Regardless, that was only the beginning of this marvelous exposé:

Back on April 23, as NewsBuster Scott Whitlock noted at the time, ABC’s Diane Sawyer fretted about the supposedly sky-high stock market. “Is this the thrill before the meltdown?” she panicked. “What should you do this morning to protect your money?” ABC's on-screen graphic ridiculously wondered: "Is Unstoppable Market Good or Bad?"

Today, an Investor’s Business Daily editorial mocks Sawyer’s Chicken Little approach. “We’re still waiting for the ‘meltdown’ that ‘Good Morning America’ stock guru Diane Sawyer was warning us about a month (and 600 Dow points) ago, when she devoted a segment to what we should do ‘to protect our money.’”

All three news magazines devoted a page to remembering Jerry Falwell this week, but Time and Newsweek were each obnoxious in their own way. Time ended their article with a dismissive quote from leftist Jim Wallis: "the Evangelicals have left the Right. They now reside with Jesus." Newsweek displayed false generosity in saying sometimes he was a demagogue, and sometimes he was the ringmaster of a circus: "He could be a demagogue, but he was as much a P.T. Barnum as anything else."

Time magazine, in a back-page article titled "Jerry's Kids" -- which could be an insulting reference to Falwell followers, but is probably intended to bless his more palatable, "more moderate" successors -- Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs suggested that Falwell thought party labels were more important than the social issues:

If an illegal immigrant can openly show his face on national television and divulge many details about his life and circumstances, apparently without fear of detention or deportation, how can Americans have any confidence that the government will enforce the proposed new immigration law?

At 6:43 am EDT this morning, CNN ran a segment sympathetic to illegal aliens, suggesting that the proposed immigration law created too many hurdles for them. "American Morning" host Alina Cho narrated the piece, which focused on an illegal Mexican immigrant in New York City. Among the details about him that were, with his obvious cooperation, revealed:

• His name, apparently not an alias, is Juan. He is from Mexico. We saw and heard him in a completely open and undisguised manner throughout the segment.
• He is a cashier in a wine store in New York City, where he earns $400/week. Considerable footage of the interior of the store and the street on which it is located were aired.
• Juan has a "long-time partner," Reina, and two children. Footage of Reina and the interior of his apartment were shown.

After a week of inaccurate reports about the “record high” price for gas when, adjusted for inflation, the price was still below the cost in March of 1981, on Monday night ABC, CBS, and NBC again touted a “record high” price, but at least NBC acknowledged it simply matched the real 1981 price, while CBS alluded to a 1981 comparison. With “Record Prices” on screen, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric reported that “gas is up another 12 cents in just the past week to a nationwide average tonight of $3.22 a gallon. Adjusting for inflation, that beats the all-time high set more than a quarter century ago at the start of the Iran-Iraq war.” In fact, it does not beat it but only “matches” it, as NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams relayed: “For the second week in a row gas prices have hit a record high. The feds say the average price for unleaded regular soared eleven-and-a-half cents over the last week to a new record of $3.22 a gallon. That matches the peak price reached during 1981 during the Iran-Iraq war when the figures are adjusted for inflation.”

ABC anchor Charles Gibson, however, continued to deliver distorted reporting in which he refused to adjust for inflation. “Gas prices hit another all-time high,” he announced in teasing the May 21 World News. He set up the subsequent story: “Another Monday, another record high for the price of a gallon. The government says the price of gas went up 12 cents a gallon from last week, when it was already at a record high.”

Update below.

The left never ceases to amaze and confound an honest man. As we have seen reported on Newsbusters, Jimmy Carter called President George W. Bush the “worst” president in history then lied about it claiming that his words were "careless or misinterpreted.” Carter was seen on the "Today" show trying to get the nation to imagine he didn’t really say what he said attempting to make it seem as if the newspaper that first reported his outrageous, intemperate language had somehow gotten it wrong. In essence, Carter was trying to make it out as if the paper was doing the lying, not him.

The newspaper, however, can prove without the shadow of a doubt that it is Carter who is lying. He did say what was first reported and there is no “carelessness” or “misinterpretation” over his words.

The fact that a former president is caught in a bald faced lie should be big news. You’d think the MSM would be all over the lies of a man who lost his office in one of the biggest landslide elections in history. Yet, here we have Editor & Publisher compounding Carter’s lies by assisting him to avert the subject from his own culpability and to reinforce the “Bush is worst” theme Carter was trying to develop in the first place by obfuscating the fact that Carter was caught in a straight out lie.

Here's another example of how blogs can be a great outlet for objective reporting, even if the outlet in question is traditionally biased to the Left.

[Update (18:26 EDT): NewsBusters' own Warner Todd Huston wrote about congressional travel expenses 10 days ago.]

At the "Anderson Cooper 360" blog, CNN correspondent Drew Griffin took a look at "Spring break travel... Congress-style.":

Flying in military jets is especially important when our leaders need to go to Iraq, or remote parts of Africa, Afghanistan -- places that are hard to get to or dangerous to visit.

But the Virgin Islands, Trinidad, London? At $10,000 a flight hour, those places are where some of your representatives took these military planes over spring break.