O'Reilly Calls Rosie 'Wicked Witch of East;' Barbara Walters Laughs

Barbara Walters did not defend Rosie O’Donnell against Bill O’Reilly’s "Wicked Witch of the East" comment, but laughed and diverted to complimenting Whoopi Goldberg. "Not defending" usually fires up the former "View" moderator as was best exemplified on Rosie’s last live "View."The veteran journalist and "View" creator appeared on the December 5 edition of "The O’Reilly Factor" to promote her…
Justin McCarthy

Intellectual Property Rights Stripped to Stop Global Warming

Capitalist democracies around the world should be very concerned about the level of socialism being discussed at the United Nations' climate change meeting in Bali. Not only are international hands being extended to collect funds from countries like the United States in order to help poorer nations deal with a problem that might actually be disappearing since global temperatures peaked in 1998,…
Noel Sheppard

Sally Quinn: Romney Speech 'Obliteration' of Church-State Separation

Pat Buchanan was very moved. Chris Matthews "heard greatness this morning." Joe Scarborough said Romney "hit it out the park." But with his speech on faith this morning, Mitt clearly didn't make a believer out of Sally Quinn, doyenne of the DC establishment and wife of former WaPo editor Ben Bradlee.SALLY QUINN: I have to say that I'm really stunned because I think it was an obliteration of the…
Mark Finkelstein

Paintball for Terrorists? BBC Paid for Islamic Radicals' Amusement

If you thought media bias was bad in this country, flip around the international channels on your cable/satellite box and you'll see it could be much worse: The BBC funded a paintballing trip for men later accused of Islamic terrorism and didn't pass on information about the 21/7 bombers to police, a court heard yesterday. The organisation gave Mohammed Hamid, an Islamic preacher accused of…
Matthew Sheffield

Euro Trade Official Hits Hillary Clinton for Dangerous Drift into Prot

Here's a substantive critique of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), from the international stage no less, that I've seen unreported in American media thus far.The Democratic presidential candidate is under fire from a European trade official who suggests that her hinted support for more trade protectionism would prove harmful to the global economy. The December 6 Financial Times reported the comments…
Ken Shepherd

Open Thread

NB Staff

NYT's Cohen: Hugo Si! Jorge No

After the Venezuela referendum, I 'd been waiting for the first MSMer to make an invidious comparison between Hugo Chavez and George W. Bush.Didn't take long:"[D]emocracy was alive and vital in Venezuela on Sunday in a way foreign to President Bush’s America."That's Roger Cohen writing in today's New York Times, reacting to Chavez's apparent acceptance of the referendum results that turned thumbs…
Mark Finkelstein

CNN Tries a Gotcha: 'Thompson Has No Hunting License'...So What

Warner Todd Huston

Movie Reviewer Not Satisfied by Presence of 'Choice

Entertainment Weekly film critic bemoans the absence of pro-abortion propagandizing in Juno, even though the pregnant protagonist seriously considers abortion.
Colleen Raezler

NBC Showcases Tehran Newspaper's Caricature of Bush as Pinocchio

Checking in Wednesday night from Tehran with Iranian reaction to what anchor Brian Williams described as the new intelligence assessment that “Iran is not developing nuclear weapons after all,” NBC correspondent Ali Arouzi held up a newspaper to show how it portrayed President Bush “as Pinocchio.” Arouzi described crowds cheering President Ahmadinejad's railing against lies spread by the U.S. and…
Brent Baker

Media Very Selective As to When They Choose to Believe the NIE

Thomas Fingar, the Deputy Director of Analysis for the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), is the media rock star of the moment. Why? For the just released NIE assessment he co-authored that proffers with "high confidence" that Iranian nuclear weapon development came to a halt in 2003. This lands him myriad press plaudits because it affords them yet another opportunity to bash President George…
Seton Motley

Tucker Guests: Bush 'High on Jesus'; Romney Wants Religion in Politics

Following the recent GOP debate in which CNN chose to air a YouTube question putting candidates on the spot as to their belief in the literal truth of the Bible, there was much breast-beating as to the inappropriateness of religious tests for office.But that didn't stop Tucker Carlson's two liberal guests this evening from taking potshots on religious grounds at President Bush and Mitt Romney.…
Mark Finkelstein

Helen Thomas Can't Think Of Her Mistakes, Unlike Bush's Whoppers

Tim Graham

A Victory for George Soros

Bill Hobbs