"Mulligan - A golf shot not tallied against the score, granted in informal play after a poor shot especially from the tee."
- The American Heritage Dictionary
A Mulligan is where you act like what just happened didn't really happen even though everyone really knows what really happened. The following, in my opinion, are the 8 worst Mulligans the collective media took in 2005. They are areas of failure in the media that we are supposed to pretend don't exist.
1. UN
The UN is a failure. While the United States pays the biggest portion of the tab, the UN makes backroom deals with our enemies. In 2005 UN diplomats lounged around on what looks like a 1970s Merv Griffin set by day and double parked their cars by night. "Peacekeepers" of the UN raped those they were sent to help, including children, across the world. In the 10 years since Black Hawk Down, 9 million more Africans have been killed from conflict. The last time that many people died, we held people accountable. What, if not this, is the UN for?
Where are the editorials condemning the current state of the UN? The media was too busy in 2005 trying to scuttle the John Bolton nomination because he might be hard on the UN. Had the media spent the broadcast time and column inches on UN reform that they spent chasing moonbat scandals, they could have made a difference in lives.
2. Hillary Clinton
If there were ever a question that the media is predominantly leftists, just watch how a socialist in an oversized conservative suit chock'full'o wrong ideas gets a complete pass.
No judgments, no accountability, no questions. Every interview is conducted sitting on a powder puff -- orchestrated minutia dancing upon journalists' woolgathering.
What does Hillary want to do differently in the war in Iraq? What does she really want to do with health care? Will everyone be covered? How much will it cost? What does Hillary want to do about Iran's nukes?
Where does Hillary stand on border policy? Susan Estrich, author of "the case for Hillary," claimed on The O'Reilly Factor that Hillary wants to prosecute illegal aliens, but the media doesn't think this is worth a single follow-up question.
All part of the modified Clinton "don't ask don't tell" policy. And the media will help write her straight into Election 2008. They justify it to themselves by saying "it's a great story", but they do it because they are as left as she is.
Get ready for a 30 year 2-family dynasty in America just because it makes a good story. of course, if you really want a good story ask what another Clinton administration will mean for China.
3. Bordero Problemo
The media spent the year arguing against using mean words like "illegal aliens" in favor of more accepting, less stigmatizing words like "undocumented workers."
The kid across the street that I pay to wash my truck, that's an undocumented worker. He didn't have to commit a crime to get to my truck.
With no editorial outrage against illegal immigration, politicians on both sides were able to ignore it. Federal agencies were able to openly ignore the law while citizens suffer.
It took a group of Americans going out to protect the border on their own to get the media to pay attention, and even then they were presented as red state gun nuts.
Asbury Park Press blew out the year arguing that illegals deserve constitutional protections.
4. Iraq
I can't wait for the 150,000 troops in Iraq to get home so they can tell everyone how accurate - or inaccurate - the reportage in the media has been. Newspapers may wake up to the concept that ideology has done more to hurt circulation than the Internet.
I think the whole year can be summed up with one little paragraph from a story buried in the back of a single San Francisco Chronicle.
Friday June 3, 2005
U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors said in a report obtained Thursday.
I'll assume those are the same biological and chemical weapons that never existed.
5. The New York Times
The New York Times is a syndicated cancer whose message runs through hundreds of newspapers across the country every day. Even as empty promises were made to be more transparent to the public, with every scandal the wall grew until December when Bill Keller finally refused to answer any questions at all on the spy story.
There is no question the newspaper has aberrated from the vast majority of the country into a vendetta tome for the left, rife with anonymous sources who blossom into internal scandals. The media keeps defending The Times and asks readers to quit questioning the messenger and carry the messages, but that boy probably cried wolf for the last time during Rathergate.
2006 should be the year newspapers break up with the Gray Lady.
6. The Fair Tax
A radio talk show host and a United States congressman spent a good chunk of 2005 at the top of The New York Times Best-Seller List with a book on tax reform but you wouldn't have a clue about fairtax from listening to the media. Sunday talk shows found it more important to talk about every little shift in gas prices than a reform that could revitalize the US economy for the 21st century. 
Free speech got a lot of press in 2005. The freedom of terrorists to talk about terrorism with terrorist friends in terrorist countries. The free speech right to burn a US flag. The free speech right for kids to shoot a hooker for her money. The free speech of Muslims to raise money for islamic jihad.
The free speech that didn't get much media play is the brownshirt tactics used against conservatives speakers, mostly on college campuses. David Horowitz, Bill Kristol, Ann Coulter, all physically attacked with pies. Pat Buchanan hit with a bottle of salad dressing.
Taxpayer-funded institutions that once were open forums for ideas are quickly becoming indoctrination camps of conservative bigotry.
If reporters were physically attacked for the things they said, you would damn well read it in a newspaper.
8. The Economy
I've mentioned before how the economy is a charging bull fighting a media bear attack. The year may be ending with a successful campaign by the media to spook home buyers, while moonbat bloggers dance with glee. Consumer confidence is soaring and every economic indicator is running hot: stocks are up, homeownership up, net worth is up, the only thing in a dip are bonds. Leave it to Time Magazine to close out the year with "A Warning from the Bond Market?"
