Labeling

ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday again investigated the issue of whether sexism has handicapped Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. To do so, reporter Claire Shipman featured a video from the Women's Media Center, a group partnered with the left-wing organization Media Matters. The video featured clips of various journalists harshly attacking Clinton. Shipman didn't mention the…

New York Times legal reporter Neil Lewis's Wednesday filing was headlined "Stark Contrasts Between McCain and Obama in Judicial Wars." But the truly "stark contrast" was how Lewis treated the respective camps with regard to their hypothetical Supreme Court nominations. Lewis painted an uninvolved McCain as paying "fealty" to "the conservative faithful," while an engaged Obama would be merely…

Identity theft, defrauding the federal government, and illegal immigration are serious criminal matters.But if you're the Web editor for MSNBC.com, stolen Social Security numbers are merely "shared" with "undocumented workers" stuck in a web of "federal employment laws." From the subheadline for the front page tease to the May 27 edition of "Red Tape Chronicles" (see screencap above at right):…

Also see the compare-and-contrast example in the final paragraph. A city councilman in Lorain, Ohio, a city of about 75,000 west of Cleveland, was arrested during a prostitution sting on Friday. Of the six stories I found covering the event (the Google News search is for May 22-26), only one referred to the political party of councilman Dennis Flores, who is a Democrat (scroll down to "Second…

Guess Which Party, and What Label? Here are Old Media excerpts relating to recent presidential contenders you might find interesting. First, here's the Associated Press from May 15 (fourth short item at link): The United Steelworkers union endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president Thursday, giving the Illinois senator a powerful advocate in attracting blue-collar voters. The endorsement…

The Cold War wasn't really a war per se but a decades-long struggle with the Soviets and their proxies, yet it was not and is not tagged dismissively in print news media as the "Cold War." Yet the same convention was not followed recently in the pages of the Washington Post when it comes to the Global War on Terrorism in the Washington Post.From Dan Eggen's May 23 article, "Bush Tours Once-…

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is a drug-trafficking terrorist group that has vexed Colombia's government and citizenry for years. Yet the T-word was missing from a May 19 CNN.com article regarding the surrender of FARC Force 47 commander Nelly Avila Moreno, although Colombia's recent military pressure was cited by Moreno as the cause of her surrender:[Moreno] said she and her…

Riots in the street or no, Denver might be the place to be this August, if only for August Ritter's sweet Convention after-parties.DenverPost.com has an article, complete with photos, delving into Gov. Bill Ritter's (D) son reveling with friends at a December 2007 boozefest in the Governor's Mansion. The only rules of said party, the Post noted citing an invitation, were "no throwing up" and "no…

Los Angeles Times reporters Phil Willon and Patrick McGreevy want you to know that yesterday's "Same-sex marriage ruling adds a volatile new issue to the presidential race." But to the Times staffers, the issue poses more dangers for Republicans than Democrats:Although a November ballot measure could encourage higher turnout by conservatives who are not naturally aligned with McCain, it also…

The future of conservatism is something which has become something of a hot topic. It's become evident to many that the historical moment that made the so-called Reagan coalition possible has passed, raising the inevitable question: where do we go from here? Has the right lost its way? Should conservatism be dependent upon the Republican party? What sorts of ideas should 21st century conservatism…

Along with racist, the word fascist is one of the most common epithets you hear tossed around. Has the constant repetition of the word made it lose its meaning? Does anyone really know what it means? These are questions that Jonah Goldberg seeks to answer in his #1 best-selling book "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning." If you haven…