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CNN's Susan Roesgen has had a rough week, what with all the ordinary American/First Amendment practitioners bashing she so passionately and obnoxiously delivered in her TEA Party reporting.

Perhaps it was the sniping at the place she twice applied in 2005 - Rupert Murdoch's House of Ratings, otherwise known as Fox News - that put her over the edge.

Or whether or not her email box was so overwhelmed with what was undoubtedly an endless stream of love letters and fan mail that it caused a server meltdown. 

Whatever it was, CNN has announced that Miss Roesgen's "tak(ing) a break."

TVNewser gives some of their possibilities for the hiatus:

CNN's Susan Roesgen, whose anti-TEA Party pseudo-reporting made her a legend in her own mind, and a biased Obama-flack hack in ours, is in the news on her own (de)merit again today.

One peculiar line from one of her peculiar rant-filled reports was that the TEA Parties were being "anti-CNN" because they were "highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox."

Well it turns out she wasn't always so anti-Fox.  According to Gawker, Miss Roesgen not once but twice applied to get a gig at the EEE-vile Murdoch machine.

From the Gawker:

CNN reporter Susan Roesgen became a pseudo-"journalistic" anti-hero yesterday for her obnoxiously belligerent interview of one Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party participant and her overall assessment of the more than 750 events around the country as amongst other derogatory things "anti-government." 

But in another segment, she delved into rank hypocrisy the likes of which we rarely find even in the woefully biased liberal media pantheon.

In it she sought out another TEA Party participant who had a mocked-up sign in which President Barack Obama is melded with Adolf Hitler.  She immediately began arguing with this gentleman as well; amongst the things she angrily said were "Why be so hard on the President of the United States with such an offensive message?" and "Do you realize how offensive that is?"

We will admit that portraying President Obama as Der Fuhrer is a bit over the top.  But Miss Roesgen's sensitivity to being "so hard on the President of the United States with such an offensive message" seems only to arise when the Hitler-izing involves Democratic Commanders-in-Chief.

It's Saturday night, which means that our good friends at NBC are getting ready to skewer John McCain and Sarah Palin. As such, here's a little balance from our friend Glenn Beck (h/t NBer GregE):

Is an implicitly mild anti-Michelle Obama comment worse than an overt anti-Catholic remark? According to the CNN Headline News show "Showbiz Tonight" on Monday September 8, they apparently are. While they ignored Joy Behar’s inflammatory remarks comparing the saints to mental patients, they were all over Elisabeth Hasselbeck for revealing that Michelle Obama provided a list of forbidden questions. For the record, Hasselbeck said "unlike the wife of a political candidate who shall remain nameless, she didn't come with a list of topics we weren't allowed to touch."

Reliable Obama supporter and CNN contributor Roland Martin alleged Hasselbeck "gets her information from Sean ‘Little Bowl of Hate Hannity" and drinks "Hatorade." To provide some balance one guest said "she shouldn’t be shot." The one caller, Deborah from Georgia, pleaded for Hasselbeck's firing. Everyone’s complaint with "The View" co-host involved revealing what occurred behind the scenes with Michelle Obama.

Presumptive Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was on "Glenn Beck" in June to discuss things like oil, ANWR, and polar bears.

As media have been bludgeoning voters for the past 48 hours with the Governor not being qualified to be vice president -- this despite Barack Obama's limited accomplishments -- I encourage readers to watch the following video and read the full transcript:

Interesting news today out of Los Angeles. Looks like CNN is going to try and tap the political entertainment market that was formerly served by the departed "Half Hour News Hour." My comments below the fold:

Headline News will be sacrificing newsmakers to the comedy gods with "Not Just Another Cable News Show," a half-hour skein set for the 7 p.m. timeslot Saturdays and Sundays starting April 5. It will re-air at 9 p.m. and midnight. [...]

"News Show" will pull footage from CNN's archives as well as from recent news.The first episode will feature commentators including Time.com's Washington editor Ana Marie Cox, L.A. Times columnist Joel Stein, Republican strategist Amy Holmes, Huffington Post media editor Rachel Sklar and comic Hugh Fink.

NewsBusters Associate Editor Noel Sheppard appeared on the March 10 "Glenn Beck" program on CNN Headline News to discuss the left-wing Web's recent smear of the radio host. Beck was taken out of context for comments he made about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). [See Sheppard's related March 8 blog entry here.]

Video (4:18): Windows Media (15.7 MB), plus MP3 audio (1.94 MB).

Here's the transcript:

GLENN BECK, host: Noel Sheppard is the associate editor of newsbusters.org, a conservative watchdog of the liberal blogs. Noel, you apparently did a Google search on this story. How out there is my bigotry?

NOEL SHEPPARD, Associate Editor, NewsBusters.org: Well, I Googled "Glenn Beck," "Obama" and "Anti-Christ," and I got 744,000 hits. Now, that doesn't mean that there's been 744,000 articles already written about this. That`s a little bit nuts.

BECK: Yes.

NewsBusters has frequently reported the deplorable connection between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and the Clinton front-organizations Media Matters and Think Progress.

On Friday, conservative radio host Glenn Beck marvelously illustrated just how this liberal alliance works, and showed how a few sentences transcribed by Olbermann's minions and taken out of context can easily be used to completely misrepresent their meaning and what the speaker was actually saying.

After being named one of "Countdown's" Worst Persons in the World for comments he made on his CNN Headline News program Tuesday, Beck deliciously explained how Olbermann, Media Matters, and Think Progress worked together to intentionally distort his words (audio available here, liberal website alert!):

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was Howard Kurtz's guest on CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday, and unfortunately, viewers were treated to a litany of hypocrisies from both media personalities, so much so that it seemed like a lengthy advertisement for the controversial "Countdown."

Although Kurtz did present his guest as being mostly liberal and decidedly anti-Bush, he never once mentioned "Countdown's" actual ratings, or how Olbermann is often in last place in his time slot behind "The O'Reilly Factor," "Nancy Grace," and whatever is being offered by CNN.

You would think that since Kurtz works for CNN, he might have mentioned this.

But that wasn't the only hypocrisy Sunday morning, for when Olbermann made clear just how biased he is, Kurtz seemed to be totally oblivious (video available here, liberal website warning):

As NewsBusters reported, CNN aired an advertisement on Monday for its "Nancy Grace" program on Headline News in which a picture of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) was highlighted in a promo about this fall's "incredible crime stories".

Amazingly, the esteemed Senator from Kentucky was sandwiched between shots of convicted Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, OJ Simpson, and other high-profile crime figures of 2007.

NewsBusters has been informed that after a number of CNN producers were sent our article on this subject, a senior CNN official contacted McConnell's office to apologize for the incident.

Apparently, the ad is being immediately pulled, and a full internal investigation is being launched concerning the matter.

What's going on at CNN?

On Monday, the "most trusted name in news" ran an advertisement for its Headline News program "Nancy Grace" dealing with "incredible crime stories" this fall.

In the fast-moving montage, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Kent.) picture was spliced in between what appears to be convicted dog abuser Michael Vick and missing Bolingbrook, Illinois, resident Stacy Peterson. A picture of her husband Drew, who is implicated in her disappearance, followed, with a final shot of OJ Simpson.

Here's the transcript of this highly curious ad (video available here):

As NewsBusters reported last Wednesday, The Weather Channel founder John Coleman published an op-ed at ICECAP in which he called "global warming the greatest scam in history."

Although this was prominently featured at the Drudge Report for almost 36 hours, the major television news media completely ignored Coleman's words with the exception of CNN and Fox News.

Really taking the lead on this matter was CNN Headline News's Glenn Beck who invited Coleman on his program Monday evening to discuss what led him to write this article, and to elaborate on the global warming myth.

Amongst other things, Coleman told Beck (absolutely must-see video availabe here):

Like clockwork, much of the mainstream media quickly jumped to blame the California wildfires on global warming. As CBS’s "60 Minutes" and "NBC Nightly News" jumped on the global warming bandwagon, Headline News’ Glenn Beck offered a different take: government forest mismanagement and environmental pressure groups forbidding California homeowners from clearing flammable brush around their land.

Guests R.J. Smith from the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Chris Horner, author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism)" offered their analysis.

Horner first noted that the facts on the earth’s temperature increase do not add up to devastating wildfires in Southern California:

CNN Headline News wants to know what you think about the question “Do conservative thinkers face a bias on college campuses?” On the October 1 broadcast of “Prime News," correspondent Mike Galanos interviewed “Indoctrinate U” filmmaker Evan Coyne Maloney about the silencing of conservative thought at colleges, and at the end of the segment asked for viewers to email their opinions and personal stories.

Someone in the media is listening and wants to hear personal stories and opinions about conservatives facing a bias in colleges. Take Galanos up on his offer, and email “Prime News” or send a video.

There's a fabulous column by Ed Driscoll (HT to NixGuy in an e-mail) about the evolution of media and reporting from the invention of radio to our current circumstances.

It's the title of Driscoll's work, "Atlas Mugged: How a Gang of Scrappy, Individual Bloggers Broke the Stranglehold of the Mainstream Media," that misses the mark a bit.

Ed has the "stranglehold" part nailed:

By the early 1970s, mass media had reached its zenith (if you’ll pardon the pun). Most Americans were getting their news from one of three TV networks’ half-hour nightly broadcasts. With the exception of New York, most big cities had only one or two primary newspapers. And no matter what a modern newspaper’s lineage, by and large its articles, except for local issues, came from global wire services like the Associated Press or Reuters; it took its editorial lead from the New York Times; and it claimed to be impartial (while usually failing miserably).

Washington Post journalist Howard Kurtz analyzes media issues on his CNN show “Reliable Sources.” But he created a media issue of his own by propping up the false story pushed by the many in the media that Fox censored actress Sally Field during her Emmy acceptance speech for making an anti-war statement.

However, that's not what happened. Instead, as the orchestra signaled her time was up, Fox cut Field's sound after she uttered “G******.” Fox also censored two other speakers for obscenity.

Kurtz was a guest on the September 18 Glenn Beck show to discuss infotainment drowning out hard news in the media. Then Kurtz claimed the story became legitimate once Fox censored what he falsely labeled as Fox silencing Field's anti-war comment (my emphasis):

KURTZ: Well, it's a non-story that became a story because of FOX pulling the plug on her anti-war sentiment. But look, the...

MRC president and NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell appeared on the August 29 "Glenn Beck Live" on CNN Headline News. He discussed the Washington Post's decision to censor the August 26 edition of Berkeley Breathed's "Opus" cartoon mocking radical Islamists.

Earlier that day, Bozell appeared on FNC's "Fox & Friends" to discuss the Post's double standards on religious sensitivity. You can find video of that at this NB post.

Video (2:54): Real (2.14 MB) and Windows (1.79 MB), plus MP3 audio (1.31 MB)

This is the political urban legend that just won't die. On Glenn Beck's August 23 show, longtime Democratic strategist and media advisor Peter Fenn perpetuated the media-rooted myth that George HW Bush was amazed at how regular grocery-store scanners worked, which fed into the media themes that he was in a “bubble” and “out of touch” with how Regular Joes lived.

The problem is that story turned out to be a fabrication started by the New York Times.

Tuesday August 21, Glenn Beck interviewed Ben Wallace (CNN transcript), who profiled Beck in a September GQ article that asked if Beck is “The Most Annoying Man On TV?” After Wallace told Beck that he thinks the talk show host's annoyance factor ranks up there with Michael Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Alberto Gonzales and Criss Angel, the only magician to top David Blaine's creepy-factor, the writer really whipped out his liberal media bona fides by claiming that “there aren't that many on the [left] side of the aisle who have talk shows” (emphasis mine):

In the wake of the Don Imus, Opie and Anthony scandals, one would think a press figure suggesting that killing a dog was worse than raping a woman would draw a lot of media attention.

However, a CNN sports anchor named Larry Smith made such a comment on Thursday, and I would venture to guess that few readers had even heard about it.

Think there'd be such media silence if a well-known conservative made such a remark?

While you ponder that question, here is the partial transcript from Thursday's "Nancy Grace" on CNN Headline News when the topic of discussion was the Michael Vick dog-fighting scandal:

It’s approaching two weeks since an Air Force Airman was shot by an anti-war protestor in Willingboro, New Jersey.

Yet, apart from an Associated Press article which conveniently ignored the apparent motives of the assailant, a New York Post op-ed by Michelle Malkin, and a mention by Glenn Beck on CNN's Headline News, not one major mainstream media outlet has reported the horrific event in print or on the air.

Not one.

To set this up, the Associated Press reported the day after the shooting (h/t NB reader CSM Robert E. Wilson, currently serving in Iraq):

 In yet another example of either Castro-philia or ill-informed gullibility by a member of the press, this time from CNN's Larry King, who fell for the propaganda of Hollywood, leftists and Fidel Castro who portray the oppressive Communist dictator in the media as a Communist--uh, strike that--socialist Sheriff Andy Taylor, who is so beloved by his “constituents,” that he is never challenged and doesn't need to take basic security precautions.

On a June 14 encore of a Glenn Beck show which originally aired May 17, the “Larry King Live” host responded to Beck's question which asked who King wished he could have interviewed. King answered Pope Jon Paul II and Fidel Castro. King didn't seem to want to interview Castro to discuss the brutal hold that he maintained on the island, now supposedly passed on to his brother Raul, or his relationship with Hugo Chavez, another civil rights-crushing dictator, but because he's so popular and, apparently, doesn't need bodyguards (from CNN transcript, bold mine):

KING: And the guy I`d like to do is Castro, because he fascinates me.
BECK: Better hurry on that one.

KING: I know. When you -- we`re getting close. When you can run a country for more years than anybody ever ran a country in this century, the 20th century until now, you`ve got to -- there`s got to -- somebody likes him.

Brent Bozell's culture column this week deals with Opie & Anthony's sick XM shock-jock routine about raping Condoleezza Rice (and raping Laura Bush "to death.") You may not be shocked, but Al Sharpton made no attempt to express his outrage at the XM sickos in defense of this black woman, despite how this routine is so much worse than the Don Imus "ho" comment (video is here):

Rev. Al Sharpton showed up to debate May 15 on the CNN Headline News program “Showbiz Tonight.” But he didn’t say a single word against Opie and Anthony or one word in defense of Condi Rice. He insisted that the Imus gaffe was much more offensive! “I think that these cases are different than Imus. Imus was a repeat offender that stood out, in a different situation...Imus’s situation cannot be compared to other arguments” about free speech, he said.

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):

Set your TiVo to CNN Headline News at 9 p.m. EDT tonight. NewsBusters senior editor/MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham will be on the "Glenn Beck" program to discuss how PBS is politicizing a documentary about World War II.

The controversy centers around how documentary producer Ken Burns and PBS have dealt with pressure from activist groups to include more footage on Hispanic Americans' contributions to the war effort.

For more background, click here. Video: Real (3 MB) or Windows (2.6 MB), plus MP3 (1.2 MB)

As NewsBusters reported Thursday, a goodly number of fallacies about the Kyoto Protocol were identified in Glenn Beck’s “Exposed: The Climate of Fear” special presented on CNN Headline News Wednesday. Not the least of these was that soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore himself stated when he was Vice President that this treaty would not be submitted to Congress for ratification “until there`s meaningful participation by key developing nations.”

However, there are two other important issues that skeptics raise which the media generally ignore:

• If America participated in Kyoto and met the treaty’s targets, virtually nothing would be accomplished as it pertains to climate change
• Moneys and energies allocated to address global warming could be better spent to solve more pressing international maladies.

With that in mind, Beck interviewed Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg, and asked this pivotal question that Gore and his sycophant followers never want answered:

Video Clip: Real (3 MB) or Windows (2.5MB), plus MP3 (1 MB)

If you missed it last night, Glenn Beck’s skeptical program about anthropogenic global warming, “Exposed: The Climate of Fear,” aired on CNN Headline News.

In it, Beck skewered many of the misnomers advanced by global warming alarmists, especially soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore (full transcript available here).

 

Video (3:05): Real (2.28 MB) or Windows (1.90 MB), plus MP3 (2.83 MB).

One particularly delicious segment occurred early in the program as Beck presented the facts about the Kyoto Protocol that few on the left care to recall, especially former Vice President Gore:

That didn't take long at all. A few days after Don Imus' racially-charged remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team, CNN set its sights on Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk radio hosts. On Tuesday's "Paula Zahn Now," host Paula Zahn teased an upcoming segment by noting, "If you think some of the things Don Imus says are insulting, you haven't heard anything yet." She then played Rush Limbaugh's criticism of embryonic stem cell advocate Michael J. Fox from last fall.

Later, in the segment itself, Zahn juxtaposed Don Imus's words with controversial remarks by Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, and Randi Rhodes -- three conservative/libertarian hosts to one ultra left-wing host. Then on his Wednesday evening program, CNN host Larry King gave former Air America radio host and Senate candidate Al Franken (D-Minn.) a platform to attack conservative talkers.