Media On The Run

Between an email via Drudge where a top producer at ABC writes: Bush makes me sick and Hitchens disclosing word of a communication with a major network producer wherein he mentions concern over the MSM's role encouraging the enemy with their coverage of the war ... and the MSM continuing to screw up:

First, it was the story on the man claiming to be (but who wasn’t) the hooded Iraqi in the photo that came to symbolize the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Now, there’s this:

there's only one conclusion to be drawn - it looks like Carl Rove is back in town.

Comments

[AfghanVet]

And Rupert Murdoch confesses his love to all things Bush daily via Fox. Again, you are making a leap of logic without any factual data to back it up.

If you want to prove bias, then first DEFINE bias in terms that can be measured and can be agreed upon by those who can be trusted to be objective. Then, do a survey of news, not on the subject matter, but on the factual content and the use of pejorative adjectives or the lack of inclusion of data and descriptive adjectives. You could also include disclosure.

Then, a simple scan of text or transcripts could develop a measureable means to determine bias. The reality is, that while it may be that the MSM leans left, it does not fall over so and since it would appear that the facts of MOST MSM stories is never challenged, just the author's leanings or the choice of what makes news, we can reasonably conclude that this is just another meme to descredit sources not aligned with the agenda of the right.

Hey up can be down if your hanging upside down, right?

There was a great magazine that lasted about a year called Brill's Content that tracked just this sort of stuff. No one wanted to hear it because it had nothing to do with how to turn news media into a for-profit business.

If selling commercials and making money is the goal of a news organization, you are going to hear what you want to hear, not what you should hear.

[AfghanVet]

What really fascinates me about the frightwing is the cognitive dissonance it takes to believe in the crap you all believe in. Two examples:

- You dismiss Darwin's theory on evolution, yet enlist and utilize a form of social darwinism to justify your cuts to social programs.

- You dismiss relativism in favor of moral absolutism, yet claim that facts are merely a matter of perspective and opinion.

Fascinating to say the least.

[Dan]

You dismiss Darwin's theory on evolution ... You dismiss relativism in favor of moral absolutism

Wrong on both counts as reagrds me. Stop seeing the right wing as Falwell. You'll learn to love us! ; )

[MrsLevy]

I never thought that Chris Hitchens would turn into a Roy Cohn clone.

Moving to the right damages your brain.

MrsLevy

[AfghanVet]

See, there's the rub, the right is no longer defined by rational, fiscal conservatives - evidence clearly shows that. The right is the party of religious fanatics and selfish capitalists (and no, I don't think capitalism is bad) who cannot let facts get in the way of their faith.

So, you may not like being lumped in, but you helped to put the chimp in office and have failed to speak out against some very egregious and very non-conservative actions by this administration, so you get to share in more of the blame then those of us who voted against him and fight to preserve what little is left of American dignity.

Seriously, how many blunders is it going to take for you to realize he is a failure of historic proportions? I swear, if he jumped up naked on the podium, smoked a joint while reading the Koran and jerked off on Ann Coulter you would be like...what great guy. And the right would start firing off memes about how manly he is and decisive.

It took a freakin' blow job for the right to lose its mind and this guy has put us in an unecessary war, run up historic debt, killed off manufacturing, oversaw the worst corruption since the 20s, allowed war profiteering and STILL hasn't caught the ONE guy we KNOW attacked us. What's it going to take?

Cognitive Dissonance.

[splashtc]

If the NYT fact checked all their stories they would become a weekly newspaper. From The Paper with Michael Keaton-print what you believe is true today-print the retraction tmr.

[Steel Turman]

AV ...

You should seriously entertain the notion of franchising your ability with cliches.

I can see it now ...

Anytown, Anywhere USA in any mall ...

'Talking Points', THE Place for TRITE.

GET YOUR CLICHES HERE.

Todays special is all the bullshit you can stuff in a bag for only 2 cents.

[Steel Turman]

Oh. Almost forgot.

Mrs Levy?

GFY.

[Phoenix]

Afghan V,

"- You dismiss Darwin's theory on evolution, yet enlist and utilize a form of social darwinism to justify your cuts to social programs.

- You dismiss relativism in favor of moral absolutism, yet claim that facts are merely a matter of perspective and opinion."

Weren't you talking in some post on this site about the foolishness and stupidity of generalizing?

Maybe not. If there is any one thing that shows ignorance, it is generalizing.

You did a nice job here. You go, dude.

[Phoenix]

MrsLevy,

I changed the sheets on my bed for Alma. Yum. mmmmmmmmmmm.......

[COLUMBO]

"It took a freakin' blow job for the right to lose its mind and this guy has put us in an unecessary war, run up historic debt, killed off manufacturing, oversaw the worst corruption since the 20s, allowed war profiteering and STILL hasn't caught the ONE guy we KNOW attacked us."

hahahaha....I love the new history

[COLUMBO]

wait-is that the history taught by that dude was taped by a student?

[COLUMBO]

from the right wing ABC News.....

"Osama bin Laden Contact With Iraq"

A newly released prewar Iraqi document indicates that an official representative of Saddam Hussein's government met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan on February 19, 1995, after receiving approval from Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden asked that Iraq broadcast the lectures of Suleiman al Ouda, a radical Saudi preacher, and suggested "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?id=1734490&page=1

[annie]

Afghan V,

Re your Darwin's theory of evolution for a start.

I have yet to see a Creationist who is a scientist who can not run rings around the so called Darwin's THEORY of evolution. Even scientists who are not creationists think it is a joke.

Every time they are debated on it, the Dorkin dorks have to back down, 'cause they just don't have an answer.

But I don't think you will bother to check that out, because you have your head in the sand regarding reality, you are willing to take the route of least resistance, and go with the flow, and at the moment the flow is that the liberal left have control of the board and the minds of people like you.

[Phoenix]

AFGHAN VET,

Speaking of cognitive dissonance:

"this guy has put us in an unecessary war, run up historic debt, killed off manufacturing, oversaw the worst corruption since the 20s, allowed war profiteering and STILL hasn't caught the ONE guy we KNOW attacked us. What's it going to take?"

You're an Afghan veteran. You volunteered. You didn't run to Canada. You fought for our country. You were over in bin Laden's yard. But you didn't catch him? Why not?

Come on back with some more of your stuff. Then I'll get to ask you why you use 'AfghanVet' as a name. Patriotic dude, are ya?

[AfghanVet]

We cannot catch a man we are not allowed to pursue and since my mission statements did not concern the capture of OBL, but rather the pacification of areas of operation around A-Teams, it was not in my commander's intent for me to capture OBL. Now, I assure you that it is the intent of Task Force 121, or whatever they are using now as a label.

The fact that we have not capture OBL falls directly on the CINC, the President. We pussy-foot with Pakistan because they have REAL nukes and because if the NON-DEMOCRATIC government falls, it will fall into the hands of the very people who set up and supported the Taliban...Paki intel. Since I have had the unique pleasure of being fired upon by Paki border guards, I can assure you that they aren't really interested in helping us too much.

Phoenix, I fear you are out of your depth here and that is why you fall back on invective and personal attacks. If you care to debate service, yours and mine, or politics then let's do so. But, if you think you're clever or intimidating I can assure you that you are neither.

[AfghanVet]

Annie,

Darwin's theory on natural selection and evolution is one of the most tested theories in science. No biologists worth their weight in water denies the central premise of the theory. Furthermore, Darwin never discounted the concept of "God" as having a hand in the development of life.

Attacking Darwinism is a Red Herring to attack science et al. Creationism is NOT science as it relies ultimately on a leap of faith...that God exists. Something that cannot be proven -OR- disproven. While Darwinism as a theory is not thoroughly proved, it does not limit anyone from working to disprove the ideas of natural selection or any other basic tenets of evolution.

As was decided in the court case in Pennsylvania, the process of scienctific research is completely different from the process of religious conjecture. In the end, one must take on faith, without refutation, in basic principles of a particular religion in order to be considered a believer. Let us not forget that until relatively recently, we thought the Earth was the CENTER of the universe.

Creationism is philosophy. Darwinism is Science. There is no crossover between the two.

What I do KNOW, is that YOU don't KNOW and eiher do I. But, based on the scientific method, I can make predictions of future behavior with a fair amount of confidence that it will happen as predicted. Science investigates HOW...not WHY.

[AfghanVet]

Speaking of cognitive dissonance:

"this guy has put us in an unecessary war, run up historic debt, killed off manufacturing, oversaw the worst corruption since the 20s, allowed war profiteering and STILL hasn't caught the ONE guy we KNOW attacked us. What's it going to take?"

Yeah...and? Where is the cognitive dissonance in those statements? Do you even know what the phrase means?

[AfghanVet]

Columbo,

Wonderful example of how an echo chamber works. Indeed, OBL sent reps to meet with Saddam, and they were rejected. OBL declared Iraq an "apostate" state as it was probably the MOST secular middle eastern country at the time. Basically, OBL targeted Iraq. The reason for contact was that the Sunnis were the minority and the Shia are pretty much the sworn enemy of the Wahabis (A Saudi sect) that are the basis of OBL and the Taliban, so OBL was looking for a way to do Saddam's work for him. Saddam rejected him outright.

Virtually all bi-partisan analysis concludes that Saddam was not actively supporting the Taliban in any way. Sorry, them's the facts as we know them.

Next.

[AfghanVet]

What new history Columbo? Seriously, how many indictments came from the $70 MILLION dollars of tax money spent investigating the Clintons? Oh, I can answer that --- NONE, 0, Nada, Zip. Hell, at least the Repugs got to investigate. I'm trying to imagine what would be found if $70 MILLION were appropriated to investigate THIS administration. Hmmm...

He was impeached for lying about his sex life. Yeah, that's almost as bad as lying to start a war or exposing a NOC agent or circumventing judicial oversight to spy on Americans or incompetently prosecuting a war to the tune of 2300+ dead and 12k+ wounded and $300B spent and NOTHING to show for it. Yeah, get some perspective.

[COLUMBO]

"this guy has put us in an unecessary war, run up historic debt, killed off manufacturing, oversaw the worst corruption since the 20s, allowed war profiteering and STILL hasn't caught the ONE guy we KNOW attacked us. What's it going to take?"

1) history will show that this war was necessary....it is only a matter of time

2) it's not being reported but the treasury is collecting more annual revenues this year than ever...and we actually had surplus during DEC & JAN...its Congress' job to restrain spending....Dems drown out their call for a balanced budget with cries that Bush is making cuts

3) outsourcing is simple math-business 101, and politicians who never worked a day in the private sector have no clue that a company will chose to build things in a country with 1/20 payroll, less regulation, and lower taxes:

John Kerry DEC '03:
"Outsourcing is particularly painful at this moment because we haven't been creating jobs, and we haven't been creating jobs to some measure because of the overhang of the 1990s, the excess capacity that we were left with and the need to sort of burn it up."

John Kerry (campaign mode):
KERRY, 02/19/04: "It makes no sense at all for the American taxpayer to subsidize sending our jobs overseas. We're going to repeal every tax loophole and benefit that rewards any Benedict Arnold CEO or company for exploiting the tax code to export American jobs."

SAME DAY-KERRY AIDE, 2/19/04: "'Outsourcing is a new phenomenon,' a Kerry aide said. 'We don't really have a clue what's going on.'"

4) the culture of corruption is in the media that created it

5) war profiteering? hey-didn't you take money to serve????

6)Not captured anybody????

old list as of 3/1/2003

AYMAN AL-ZAWAHRI, Egyptian, bin Laden's doctor, spiritual adviser: Status unknown, on FBI Most Wanted Terrorist list.

MOHAMMED ATEF, Egyptian, military chief: Killed in U.S. airstrike.

KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED, Kuwaiti, suspected mastermind of Sept. 11 attacks: Captured.

ABU ZUBAYDAH, Palestinian-Saudi, terrorist coordinator: Captured.

ABD AL-RAHIM AL-NASHIRI, Saudi, Persian Gulf operations chief: Captured.

QAED SALIM SINAN AL-HARETHI, Yemeni, Yemen operations chief: Killed in U.S. airstrike.

OMAR AL-FAROUQ, Kuwaiti, Southeast Asia operations chief: Captured.

IBN AL-SHAYKH AL-LIBI, Libyan, training camp commander: Captured.

TARIQ ANWAR AL-SAYYID AHMAD, Egyptian, operational planner: Killed in U.S. airstrike.

MOHAMMED SALAH, Egyptian, operational planner: Killed in U.S. airstrike.

ABD AL-HADI AL-IRAQI, training camp commander: Captured.

ABU ZUBAIR AL-HAILI, Saudi, operational planner: Captured.

HAMZA AL-QATARI, financier: Killed.

ABU SALAH AL-YEMENI: logistics, Killed.

ABU JAFAR AL-JAZIRI, aide to Abu Zubyadah: Killed.

RAMZI BINALSHIBH, Yemeni, planner and organizer of Sept. 11 attacks: Captured.

ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, charged as conspirator with Sept. 11 hijackers: Captured.

[AfghanVet]

1) history will show that this war was necessary....it is only a matter of time -

CONJECTURE with no relevant factual data to back it up.

2) it's not being reported but the treasury is collecting more annual revenues this year than ever...and we actually had surplus during DEC & JAN...its Congress' job to restrain spending....Dems drown out their call for a balanced budget with cries that Bush is making cuts -

SORRY, but we are STILL running at a deficit EVERY year since BUSH took office. That means we are NOT taking in enough money to pay our debts. WHY do you think they just raised the debt ceiling to 9 Trillion dollars? Oh, who do you think owns that debt. See China. Collecting revenue means nothing. And, if the government were compelled to follow the same accounting standards as commercial businesses, do you know how much our deficit would be...700+ BILLION for this past year alone. Damn...read some news instead of web blogs.

3) outsourcing is simple math-business 101, and politicians who never worked a day in the private sector have no clue that a company will chose to build things in a country with 1/20 payroll, less regulation, and lower taxes:

You mean like W? Where exactly has he worked? John Kerry, on the other hand, was Prosecutor and a sailor who actually served in combat instead of an NG stint that someone couldn't even bother to finish. Yes, great math. Export jobs so we can buy things cheaper while providing lower paying jobs to those who are supposed to buy the crap. What business school did you go to?

4) the culture of corruption is in the media that created it

Riiiiiiiight. You mean like all of the guilty pleas, indictments and fines? Yeah, the MEDIA created that. Just ask Jack or Cunningham or the companies that bribed them or they bribed. Whatever, get a clue.

5) war profiteering? hey-didn't you take money to serve????

Do you know what profiteering means? I got paid by the US Government to serve in the military, in combat. I did not PROFIT from my service, I was compensated. Now, since Halliburton/KBR has been shown to have OVER-CHARGED for their services and others as well, THAT is profiteering. Get a dictionary and read a newspaper.

6)Not captured anybody????

I never said we didn't capture anyone. I said we never captured OBL. And, just how many convictions have we garnered? Ummmm....0 so far. And, violence continues to get worse in Iraq and a commanding general stated that the Taliban is stronger in Afghanistan then it has been since 2001. Nice work.

Wow...is that the best you have?

[annie]

AfghanVet

Natural selection, i.e. selection of EXISTING genes and alleles is demonstrable science, however there has been NO demonstration to show how these genes do or can arise in the first place. And THAT is the crux of the argument, not natural selection.

The faith part of evolution is to believe that a series of mystery mutations lead to the vast genetic diversity of the entire biocosm - something which has NEVER been witnessed by anyone.

The only reason evolution is kept in the picture, is that athiests, have only the philosophy of naturalism to fall back on. Let's face it, it takes more faith to believe that we have descended from pond scum, than to believe there is a Creator.

Dictionary defintion: naturalism; Philosophy. The system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws.

The above is the FAITH aspect of evolutionists, whether they realise it or admit it.

As for your comment that there are no proper scientists involved in the biological sciences who deny the central premise of microbe-to-man evolution, this page details many who are willing to stand up and be counted. http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=research&action=index&page=research_biosci

Happy reading, if you choose to pull your head out of the sand for 5 mins!!

[COLUMBO]

What new history Columbo? Seriously, how many indictments came from the $70 MILLION dollars of tax money spent investigating the Clintons? Oh, I can answer that --- NONE, 0, Nada, Zip. Hell, at least the Repugs got to investigate. I'm trying to imagine what would be found if $70 MILLION were appropriated to investigate THIS administration. Hmmm...

How many died.....suicide or otherwise?????

[COLUMBO]

"Virtually all bi-partisan analysis concludes that Saddam was not actively supporting the Taliban in any way. Sorry, them's the facts as we know them."

% Iraqi intelligence documents interpreted: 2.5%.....look on AfghanVet's face when they're done-priceless

Vet-you were in the military but are ignorant to MAR 2003 Navy SEAL operation in Libya that smashed Iraqi Intelligence simultaneous mass casualty attack in USA - 5 teams, cell structure....that sounds familiar, no? All operatives were killed and SEALS grabbed all their docs

[COLUMBO]

Unauthorized warrantless searches:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-steele0324,0,1830557.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

[COLUMBO]

Tax surge gives US budget surplus
Thursday, 12 January 2006, 22:48 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4608106.stm

[AfghanVet]

But with government spending also running at record levels, the tax boost will do little to wipe out the government's overall budget deficit.

The budget deficit of this fiscal year could reach $400bn, officials said.

[AfghanVet]

Please site your source for SEAL raid.

[AfghanVet]

Annie,

Has anyone witnessed God? Absence of proof is not proof of absence.