QUICK! Get me the smelling salts!
08-11-2008, 06:18News / Sports, PoliticsPermalinkA columnist with the Washington Post has admitted and detailed the lack of balance in her paper's coverage of the recent election!
Will any other papers follow suit??
The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.
The count was lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories. The Post was deficient in stories that reported more than the two candidates trading jabs; readers needed articles, going back to the primaries, comparing their positions with outside experts' views. There were no broad stories on energy or science policy, and there were few on religion issues.
The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on Sen. John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces (58) about McCain than there were about Obama (32), and Obama got the editorial board's endorsement.
Stories and photos about Obama in the news pages outnumbered those devoted to McCain. Post reporters, photographers and editors -- like most of the national news media -- found the candidacy of Obama, the first African American major-party nominee, more newsworthy and historic. Journalists love the new; McCain, 25 years older than Obama, was already well known and had more scars from his longer career in politics.
The number of Obama stories since Nov. 11 was 946, compared with McCain's 786.
Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago. The Post did nothing on Obama's acknowledged drug use as a teenager.
One gaping hole in coverage involved Joe Biden, Obama's running mate. When Gov. Sarah Palin was nominated for vice president, reporters were booking the next flight to Alaska. Some readers thought The Post went over Palin with a fine-tooth comb and neglected Biden. They are right; it was a serious omission.
Will any other papers follow suit??
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It's Not Abnormal At All from the album BBC1 John Peel Session by Yazoo.Comments
Charlie Rose & Tom Brokaw: "Who is Obama?"
06-11-2008, 10:15News / Sports, PoliticsPermalinkROSE: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.
BROKAW: No, I don't, either.
ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.
BROKAW: We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.
ROSE: I don't really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?
BROKAW: Yeah, it's an interesting question.
ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational (sic) speeches.
BROKAW: Two of them! I don't know what books he's read.
ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
BROKAW: There's a lot about him we don't know.
[Transcript from RushLimbaugh.com.]
BROKAW: No, I don't, either.
ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.
BROKAW: We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.
ROSE: I don't really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?
BROKAW: Yeah, it's an interesting question.
ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational (sic) speeches.
BROKAW: Two of them! I don't know what books he's read.
ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
BROKAW: There's a lot about him we don't know.
[Transcript from RushLimbaugh.com.]
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Who Am I from the album Ultimate Petula Clark by Petula Clark.Understanding the Presidential Election
06-11-2008, 09:14News / Sports, PoliticsPermalinkNewsweek has a lengthy (7 chapter) piece on the recent presidential election called Secrets of the 2008 Campaign. The article includes the following paragraph that totally sums up the phenomenon of Obamamania:
If this information had been released prior to the election, do you think the headlines would have read "OBAMA ADMITS TO BEING A FRAUD"? Nah, I don't think so, either.
iTunes is currently playing: BEHIND THE MASK from the album Faker Holic - YMO World Tour Live by Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Obama understood that he had become a giant screen upon which Americans projected their hopes and fears, dreams and frustrations. Maybe such a person never really existed, couldn't exist, but people wanted a savior nonetheless. As a bestselling memoirist he had created a mythic figure [emphasis mine], a man named Barack Obama who had searched and quested and overcome travails, who had found an identity and a calling in public service. Obama recalled that he often joked with his team, "This Barack Obama sounds like a great guy. Now I'm not sure that I am Barack Obama, right?" He added, pointedly, "It wasn't entirely a joke."
If this information had been released prior to the election, do you think the headlines would have read "OBAMA ADMITS TO BEING A FRAUD"? Nah, I don't think so, either.
iTunes is currently playing: BEHIND THE MASK from the album Faker Holic - YMO World Tour Live by Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Brainless ObamaHead ...
04-11-2008, 09:53News / Sports, PoliticsPermalink... who is in for a rude awakening when she has to pay her own mortgage in January.
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Outta Mind from the album Angels In The Crowd by Wendy Woo.Hey, Barry, call off your THUGS in Philly!!!
04-11-2008, 09:35News / Sports, PoliticsPermalinkiTunes is currently playing: Go Where You Wanna Go from the album Up-Up And Away by The 5th Dimension.
Jack Bauer is back ...
01-11-2008, 05:10TV/MoviesPermalink... and if the trailer is any indication, it was worth the wait!
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Stand And Fight from the album Dad Loves His Work by James Taylor.Socialism for Dummies - Lesson One
30-10-2008, 16:02PoliticsPermalinkPolitical satirist Paul Shanklin explains "redistribution of wealth" on The Rush Limbaugh Show:
[audio:ObamaHalloween.mp3]
[audio:ObamaHalloween.mp3]
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They Can't Take That Away From Me from the album Portrait: Past Perfect (Disc 3) by Billie Holiday.I have the best family ever!!
27-10-2008, 15:44Family / Misc. PersonalPermalinkThanks for putting up the Halloween decorations. [Aunt Ann? Nancy?] You guys rock.
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Lost Child (String Quartet Remix) from the album Moto.Tronic by Ryuichi Sakamoto.Fun-loving liberals celebrate Halloween in West Hollywood ...
27-10-2008, 14:10News / Sports, PoliticsPermalink... by hanging Sarah Palin in effigy.
If I were to "celebrate" Halloween by hanging Obama in effigy in my front yard, I believe I would be arrested for a hate crime. I guess those laws don't apply when the hate is directed toward a white woman instead of a black man.
I'm waiting for Senator Obama to express his outrage ... and waiting ... and waiting ...
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) ― A Halloween decoration showing a mannequin dressed as vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hanging by a noose from the roof of a West Hollywood home is drawing giggles from some passers-by and gasps of outrage from others. The mannequin is dressed in brunet wig, glasses and a red business suit. Another mannequin dressed as John McCain emerges from a flaming chimney.
Chad Michael Morisette, who lives in the house, told CBS 2 News that drivers and bus passengers have been stopping to snap pictures of the macabre scene. Morisette says the effigy would be out of bounds at any other time of year, but it's within the spirit of Halloween.
He says "it should be seen as art [emphasis mine], and as within the month of October. It's Halloween, it's time to be scary it's time to be spooky."
If I were to "celebrate" Halloween by hanging Obama in effigy in my front yard, I believe I would be arrested for a hate crime. I guess those laws don't apply when the hate is directed toward a white woman instead of a black man.
I'm waiting for Senator Obama to express his outrage ... and waiting ... and waiting ...
iTunes is currently playing:
Gone Too Far from the album Windows and Walls by Dan Fogelberg.I love our pet deer.
19-10-2008, 18:23Family / Misc. PersonalPermalinkOkay, so they are not really pets. I know that. But they are so tame they are almost like pets.
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From My Window from the album A Drop Of Water by Keiko Matsui.