NB Extra

"Seven years after it arrived in the U.S., Al Jazeera is putting up its sign," Martha Moore began her February 20 USA Today story, "Al Jazeera makes major U.S. expansion," a 20-paragraph item lacking any critics of the Qatari-government backed network which has a history of anti-Americanism.

"With the $500 million purchase of Current TV from former vice president Al Gore and other investors last year, Al Jazeera bought a place on cable boxes in 41 million homes. Now the network plans to grow from a news operation of 13 people to 200 people working in cities across the country," Moore noted, quoting a "psyched" Bob Wheelock "a former ABC executive now in charge of setting up Al Jazeera America" in the preceding paragraph.

Matt Vespa reported yesterday that NPR listeners received a very different "Week In Review" segment last Friday night on All Things Considered, with conservative columnist Mona Charen sitting in for pseudo-conservative columnist David Brooks. Liberal NPR devotees are some of the most closed-minded people you will ever come across. They don't want any feisty conservatives on the taxpayer-subsidized network, disagreeing with partisan liberal E.J. Dionne instead of just going along.

They weren't shy in the comments underneath the transcript. They really don't want all views considered. “Its [sic] all well & good to gather diverse viewpoints but please spare us any more wingnuts. Charen stunk,” wrote James Anderson. That was one of many:

David Letterman seems more concerned with President Obama's drone program than most of the media.

On CBS's s Late Show Monday, the host aired a mock video of Obama using a drone strike to help him sink an errant putt while playing golf with Tiger Woods (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Syndicated columnist George Will appears all for Congress allowing sequestration to reduce spending on March 1.

Appearing on ABC's This Week Sunday, Will said it would be appropriate given the "utter contempt with which Washington treats taxpayers' money."

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich made a statement on ABC's This Week Sunday that will turn heads on both sides of Capitol Hill and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

"An Obama immigration plan is not going to pass the House" due to "the level of hostility towards the president and the way he goads the hostility." 

As Carnival Triumph passengers began to deboard their crippled ship late Thursday night, CNN's Martin Savidge decided to compare their "isolation factor" at sea to that of Hurricane Katrina victims. Passenger Rob Kenny quickly put the cruise fiasco in perspective.

"Katrina was a major devastation. We're on a friggin' cruise ship and we're just all having a good time," he told Savidge. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

According to a new study by the George Soros-funded Center for Economic Policy and Research, minimum wage should be $21.72 an hour to keep up with the increase of worker productivity.

Highlighting that study, The Huffington Post bemoaned President Barack Obama’s call for a higher minimum wage as a “far cry from what workers really deserve,” in a Feb. 13 blog post.

Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) looks mighty good for a woman who has to be at least 148 years old.

My take on her age is based on a statement the Congresswoman made today while objecting to impending spending reductions relating to sequestration  in which she characterized herself as "a freed slave." Slavery as a legal institution ended in the U.S. in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. Here is what Ms. Jackson Lee said, in context (HT Rush Limbaugh):

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer didn't have much sympathy for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) claim that Thursday's failed cloture vote on the Chuck Hagel Defense Secretary nomination "is one of the saddest spectacles I have witnessed in my 27 years in the Senate."

Appearing on Fox News's Special Report, Krauthammer said, "Perhaps he needs an antidepressant. I'd be happy to give him one."