CNN On Potential NY Marriage Repeal

Short answer: Ain't gonna happen.

CNN On New York Marriage

This aired last night and includes an interview with Freedom To Marry's Evan Wolfson as well as some coverage of Obama's fundraiser speech in NYC.

Hypocrisy On Homosexuality

Tracy Morgan & The Ali Forney Center

Clip description: "Continuing to make amends for anti-gay comments he made, comedian Tracy Morgan met with LGBT teens in New York. Randi Kaye talks with Jayden Love (homeless teen), Carl Siciliano (The Ali Forney Center) & Elke Kennedy (Sean's Last Wish)."

MORNING INTELL: SecState Clinton, EnviroCourt, No Beer for America

BLOGOSPHERE NEWS:
December 1 2008



THE SCOOP:
* Clinton Obama's Secretary of State
* Al-Qaida #2: "America, Convert to Islam; Give Up Beer
* Taj Mahaj CEO: Mumbai Terrorists Well-Trained and Prepared
* CNN in Mumbai: Helping the Terrorists Target Victims
* Cock-fighting on Steroids
* Steyn Takes on the Sheep Shaggers
* Shysters Want International Environmental Court
* Google Gags MMalken Videos

---

A WORLD OF NEWS

1. All is not well in the Chinese economy: laid-off workers and those who have lost their jobs--over 7000 factories have closed in South China due to the worldwide economic slowdown--roam the streets and are prone to express their disatifaction with lost wages by rioting. Chinese Economy: Riots at the Nerf Toy Factory
   
   
2. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton: Obama, Clinton Seal the Deal.
   
   "The news conference at a Chicago hotel is scheduled to begin at 10:40 a.m. Eastern."
   
   
3. Clinton passed on a powerful Senate committee chairmanship to take the SecState job.Hillary Clinton passed on Appropriations chair to become Obama's Secretary of State
   
   
4. It could have been worse: The Taj Mahaj Hotel were alerted of a possible terrorist attack. Taj Mahal hotel chairman: We had warning
   

   The Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India, temporarily increased security after being warned of a possible terrorist attack, the chairman of the company that owns the hotel said Saturday.
   
   But Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said those measures, which were eased shortly before this week's terror attacks, could not have prevented gunmen from entering the hotel.

   
   Among the actions taken which lead Tata to conclude that the terrorists were well-trained: they evaded the metal detectors in the front by using a back kitchen entrance; they shot a sniffer dog and his handler; and, the terrorists knew the hotel's layout extremely well.
   
   
5. Melanie Phillips says the Mumbai terror attacks were part of The war against civilisation.
   She gives two things learned from the atrocities: 1) The Islamists want to murder as many Americans, Brits, Hindus and Jews as possible. That is because they are waging all-out war against civilisation; and 2) They singled out Americans, Brits and Indians in the financial heart of India to break the ever-more important strategic alliance between India and the west.
   
   
6. 3 creepy words/phrases appear in the same headline: Lawyers call for international court for the environment.
   For Green Weinie readers, that'd be "Lawyers", "international court" and "environment".
   Of course, there's fines, punishments to be administered by unaccountables.
   
   "A former chairman of the Bar Council is calling for an international court for the environment to punish states that fail to protect wildlife and prevent climate change."
   
   How about a court to punish former UK Bar Council chairmen that propose freedom- and sovereignty-killing environmental courts?
   

---

QUICK HITTERS

• Zogby Interactive: Palin Leads the Pack Of Possible 2012 GOP Candidates
  AllahPundit's theory is that Bobby Jindal is stealing from Sarah Palin, who is stealing voters from Mike Huckabee. He could be right. But, perhaps not.
  
  
• 400 busted in a Dallas roid-rage cock fight: Roosters on Steroids: The Newest Rage-Roid Cock Fighters
  
  
• Your media business is struggling and cutting staff. What do you do? How about offering your dwindling customer base more of the same?: Figures... WaPo Fluff Piece Uses Lib Think Tank to Praise Obama & Bash Bush
  
  
• THE SHAGGED SHEEP: Mark Steyn gives a long, concise account of a "Journalism Doctor" who is neither a journalist nor a doctor. Oh yeah, there's some wacky animal intercourse dos-and-don'ts from the Ayatollah Khomeini. It would be funny if it didn't involve censorship and the equally-wacky Canadian "Human Rights" Tribunal.
  
  
• More uncanny similarities in the writing styles of Obama and Bill Ayers: The Odd Story of Romance in Dreams from my Father
  

  The hypothesis is simple enough, namely that Barack Obama needed substantial help to write his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father, and that this help came from the man who has made "unrepentant" a household word, Bill Ayers.

  
  

---

FROM RED PLANET CARTOONS:



CONTRARY TO WHAT OBAMA SAYS:
When government stays out of the way, Freedom and Abundance are the results: The Real Story of Thanksgiving

---

Hold-Over Headline Dept.
CRACK OPEN THE CHAMPAGNE!
Something else for the losers in the MSM to explain away: Most Consider The Web Most Reliable Source of News

A Zogby Poll, commissioned by IFC, found 37.6% of those asked consider the Internets the most reliable source of news. 20.3% consider national TV news most reliable and 16% say radio is the most reliable source.

---

SEE ALL, KNOW ALL

1. Mr. Obama: Don’t Miss Next Week’s Chicago Tribune, Full-Page Citizenship Challenge To Run Twice,
   December 1st and 3rd.
   

   Our full-page Open Letter to Mr. Obama will be published in the Chicago Tribune on both Monday, December 1, 2008 and Wednesday, December 3, 2008. It will appear in the main news section. Click here to view a copy of the final ad.

   
   More from the Canada Free Press.
   
   
2. FIGHTING WORDS: Al-Qaeda #2 Warns America to Convert to Islam & Give Up Beer.
   
   
3. Google gags Michelle Malkin videos: Inside the world of Google censors.
   Google must think the USA is China. Google actively participates in the censorship of the Internet in China by blocking results that annoy the Chinese government. Maybe if Malken had opened her video with "Allah Akbar!", Google would have let her videos be posted.
   
   
   [ABOVE: Google image search results page for "Tiananmen" in USA and China.]
   
   
   
4. George Will takes time off bashing Sarah Palin to explain why an Obama New Deal will accomplish the same thing as the original FDR 1930s' programs: nada. Same Old New Deal?
   
   
   

---

MEATY LINK FUNK GOODNESS

• Is the LA jury verdict finding creepy mom, Lori Drew, emotionally satisfying but bad law? Lori Drew Verdict: Bad Law that Threatens Us All?
  
  
• PINHEAD ALERT: LA Times' Neal Gabler has a theory: Joe McCarthy was the father of Conservatism. LA Times Pinhead: Joe McCarthy Is the Father of Conservatism
  Another theory: Neal Gabler is a pen-name used by Zippy.
  
  
• Or maybe Zippy's working at CNN?: ‘We thought we were safe... then CNN stepped in!’.
  

  A SOUTH Wales couple caught in the Mumbai terror attacks claimed last night that CNN put their lives at risk by broadcasting where they were. Lynne and Kenneth Shaw, of Penarth, warned that terrorists were listening in to the media to pinpoint Western victims.

  
  
• OOOPS! Rare Fatah Terrorist Video: Hamid Targets Israeli Armor, Blows Up Himself Instead
  
  
• He has a dream: David Axelrod's Project 2016: Electra for America.
  

by Mondo Frazier
images: dbkp file

MEDIA: Freddie Mac Emanuel, CNN Coverage, Bll Whathisname, More Palin Dirt

MEDIA FRIDAY
* Rahm Emanuel Freddie Mac Director During Scandal
* CNN's Election Coverage on a T-shirt
* More Palin Dirt Dishing
* How to Tell Larry King, Bill Maher Apart

---

ABC Scoops the Blogosphere

Emanuel Was Director Of Freddie Mac During Scandal

According to a complaint later filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002.

Emanuel was not named in the SEC complaint (click here to read) but the entire board was later accused by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) (click here to read) of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention."

---

MORE DIRT on Sarah Palin from UNNAMED SOURCES



Unnamed "aides" continue to spin the "Sarah Palin is a diva" line, meanwhile the caribou-hunting governor returns to Alaska.

An unnamed source who’s probably Randy Scheunemann told Politico two weeks ago that Schmidt and Wallace would end up being the ones trying to tear Palin down. Whether that’s because the source had reason to believe they’d leak or simply because he/she knew there was bad blood between them and Palin and expected some post-campaign sniping, no one except Politico knows. Two months later, though, I’m unclear how Palin was “overprepared” for questions about what periodicals she likes to read or why Russia’s proximity to Alaska enhanced her foreign policy credentials, as she suggested to Charlie Gibson. Those are the questions that killed her, not anything having to do with, say, naming the deputy prime minister of Kazakhstan.

The LA Times has new dirt too, related mainly to the shopping expenses, and unsurprisingly it’s linked (indirectly) to Schmidt, Rick Davis, and Nicolle Wallace. Here’s an interview she did today in four parts with local radio in Alaska. She is, more than ever, a woman in demand.

--Newsweek dishes new dirt on Palin and Nicolle Wallace

Nicole Wallace on Today show, November 7 2008: "Sarah Palin is not a diva."

ALSO at DBKP: McCain Aides Attack Sarah Palin: Scapegoating Sarah Palin

---

In case you missed it, CNN has recapped their coverage of Election 2008 so it fits on a T-shirt.
--Obama Inspires Historic Victory

---

Facts finally make it through the MSM Election 2008 narrative.

* News Flash from the AP: No hidden white bias seen in presidential race

* News Flash from CNN: Report: '08 turnout same as or only slightly higher than '04

---

Mary Catherine Ham points out the absurdity of the unnamed McCain campaign hachetmen's claims about Palin.

Disgruntled McCain staffers not only require you to believe that the chief executive of the state of Alaska knew nothing about one of her state's most important trading partners, but that she was equally oblivious to the economic winds affecting the industry that provided her very own livelihood. Perhaps they should head to the NYT next, which has a history of employing anyone who has a penchant for writing slam books about Republicans.

This accusation didn't pass the smell test to begin with, but because McCain staffers are requiring us to defend our popular former vice presidential nominee against NYT-like attacks, there are some facts to consider.
--A Few Things You'd Have to Believe to Believe What McCain Staffers Say About Sarah Palin

What she said.

---

Bill Maher demonstrates to Larry King how hard it is to be fresh and funny when you're repeating what everyone on the Left is saying.

King: Is Gov. Palin the new star of the Republican Party?

Maher: If they're not very bright, she is. I mean, that's going to be the gut check for the Republicans ... what direction are they going to go in now?

Now, I think politicians are usually led by the idea that they want to win elections. And Sarah Palin was a bit of an Alaskan albatross around John McCain's neck -- not that he would have won anyway.
--Maher: There's gotta be something funny about Obama

For those trying to tell the two apart, Larry King wears glasses.

---

by Mondo
image: crapthatticksmeoff

Obama, Bill Ayers: CNN Reports Obama-Ayers Connection Went Deeper

“But the relationship between Obama and Ayers went much deeper, ran much longer, and was much more political than Obama said.”
--CNN Special Investigative Unit Report, October 6 2008

---

"For Obama, the chairmanship of the $100 million Annenberg board helped vault him from Southside Chicago lawyer to political player--and that too, has another connection to Bill Ayers."
----CNN Special Investigative Unit Report, October 6 2008


A CNN Special Investigative Unit ran a report on Barack Obama and Bill Ayers last week and it's conclusion?

Barack Obama was not telling the truth when he said that Ayers was "just some guy in the neighborhood".

Or, as he told Bill O'Reilly, "One of the thousands of people I know."

Even as the New York Times covered up the Ayers connection for Barack Obama, CNN reported that that was not the case.




When it's too big for even CNN to gloss over, there may be a chance of the average Joe finding out the truth.

What is the truth about Barack Obama and Bill Ayers?

Clearly, it is not what the Obama campaign has said, even though their story line is an ever-changing one--as more facts about the Obama-Ayers relationship surface.

Ayers said "I want to puke" every time he thinks about the United States of America.

Jeremiah Wright said, "God Damn America"--and Barack Obama sat in Wright's church for twenty years listening to his "Hate America" sermons.

Obama didn't bomb the Pentagon. Obama didn't say "God Damn America". Obama didn't say that he "was proud of the USA" for the first time this past year--that was his wife, Michelle Obama.

Obama did say that "Fundamental change is coming to this country."

A look at the people Barack Obama surrounded himself with might shed some light on what type of "fundamental changes" he's talking about.




Obama calls any reference to Bill Ayers a "distraction from the issues".

As Obama has no legislative record--beyond ceremonial and party-line Senate votes--and has made his medical, birth, college, and university records impossible to access, we think his associates and their views are an issue.

There is not much left to shed light on who Barack Obama is and what he thinks--except his answers concerning his many questionable connections.

And CNN has reported that, at least on the Bill Ayers issue: Obama has not been telling the truth.


by Mondo Frazier
video hat tip: PUMA08
image: DBKP file

CNN's Handheld Audience Reaction Meters: Entertainment, Not Polling

It's Entertainment; not Polling:
Former Gallop Pollster Lampoons CNN's "Audience Reaction Meters" used in Presidential Debates




Special to Stinky Journalism
by David W. Moore

---

Still wonder what-the-heck those squiggly lines are at the bottom of your CNN screen during the Presidential debates?

David W. Moore, the author of The Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes The Truth Behind The Polls, and former senior editor at the Gallop Poll for thirteen years will tell you the folly of this pseudo-science.

Mr. Moore lampoons CNNs use of live Audience Reaction Meters during the Presidential debates as junk science. He tells you where the 25 year old hand meter technology came from and how its use in the debates, is completely counter to the concept of focus groups. He writes, [focus groups] are designed to obtain in-depth responses from the participants, who actually discuss the issues with each other and arrive at more considered views than what polls normally measure.

Moore argues that CNN has presented a 32 member groups reactions to candidates comments (shown in squiggly lines [0-100 with 0 equaling bad and 100, good]) as representative of American without one scintilla of scientific basis.

Should Americans really care what 32 people from Ohio think?

Continue reading: Latest Journalism News Updates


by David W. Moore
image: Stinky Journalism
Source: Latest Journalism News Updates

Sarah Palin on Obama-Ayers: As Fast as Others Uncover, The MSM Covers Up

Barack Obama, Bill Ayers and the Mainstream Media
Lies, Damn Lies, AP "Analysis" and CNN "Fact Checks"




The AP, which has put in yeoman's work as a mouthpiece of the Obama campaign, will be billing the campaign time-and-half for DOUGLASS K. DANIEL's "Analysis: Palin's words carry racial tinge".

Daniel not only attacked Republican Vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, for bringing up the connection between Barack Obama and domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers--in effect, the AP hack calls Palin a liar.

Then he called, in effect, a racist.

Her reference to Obama's relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were "pals" or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

"Douglass, I tawt I taw a racist!"


After the AP and CNN's (Non-Performance) on the John Edwards Scandal, why would they expect their readers/viewers to trust them?


Daniel might amended his sentence to "no evidence that the AP could uncover".

The AP, readers will remember, is that shining star of investigative journalism that imposed a blackout on John Edwards' scandal news for ten months--in the midst of Edwards running for president. After Edwards confessed, the AP scrambled--not to check out leads or follow the Edwards hush money trail--but to try and excuse its lack of investigation, reporting, ethics, standards and basic human curiosity.

Shorthand for the AP's performance in the John Edwards affair/scandal/cover-up:

CYA + BS = AP

Guess who the AP's chief apologist in explaining why the "news" organization didn't report any John Edwards' news--until he gave them his blessing and confessed?

Why, it was Douglass K. Daniel!

ALSO at DBKP: Click on banner to access 100 DBKP stories and videos on the John Edwards scandal.

First, Edwards confessed. Then Daniel confessed that "Reporters found Edwards' affair tough to prove.

Well, AP reporters found it tough to prove.

Just like Douglass K. Daniel finds that there is "no evidence" that Obama and Ayers were "palling around".

As in the John Edwards affair, it's too tough for the AP to assign a reporter to the Obama-Ayers story: that might result in an AP reporter giving his bosses some unpleasant news.

Better to let others do the heavy lifting, then send in Douglass K. Daniel to apologize later for the AP not doing its job.

"Douglass, come quick! There a racist over there!"

Patterico is sick of Any Argument Against Barack Obama Is By Definition Racist:

I’m sick of the race card being played whenever someone criticizes Barack Obama. Making the Ayers connection is hardly a racist ploy, but that’s what we’re being told by the AP today. There is literally no argument you can make against this man that will not be countered by cries of racism.

IF YOU CRITICIZE BARACK OBAMA OVER BILL AYERS, it's because you're a racist! sayeth Glenn Reynolds.

Well, of course. If you criticize Barack Obama over anything, it's because you're a racist. No doubt that'll hold true if he's elected President, too, which will call for strict anti-racism laws to keep such things under control . . . .

ALSO at DBKP: * Obama’s Ties to 1970’s Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers: Disassociation and Little Condemnation * Bill Ayers, Obama: No Mainstream Media Interest in The Obama Bunch * Vice Presidential Debate: Sarah Palin, Bill Ayers and Burned ROTC Buildings * Obama, Bill Ayers: N. Vietnam Awarded Ayers Ring Made from Downed US Plane * Obama, Bill Ayers: Mainstream Media Explain Away Obama Ties to Terrorists

Hindrocket, Powerline wonders if the Douglass smear piece isn't "The Most Bizarre Journalistic Malpractice Yet?"

When the McCain campaign ran an ad that had a white woman in it, it was denounced as racist. When it ran an ad that had an African-American man (Franklin Raines) in it, it was denounced as racist. Now the McCain campaign links Obama to a white man, the former terrorist, and still anti-American, Bill Ayers. That's racist too. I think we've exhausted just about all the possibilities. The only non-racist thing McCain can do, apparently, is concede the election.

Sarah Palin herself says, "“The Associated Press is wrong. The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn’t been talked about, and I think it’s fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy’s living room.”

Squelching news disadvantageous to Barack Obama, a headlong rush to Sarah Palin, rigged polls, exit polls, declaring Biden and Obama the "winners" of debates, incestuous interviews of other MSM Obama shills: is not all of this not more proof that the MSM is Actively Engaged in Voter Suppression?

Truthteller at NoQuarter slices and dices Daniel, line-by-byline: [Douglass K. Daniel of the AP is NOT a Journalist]

WASHINGTON (AP) - By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is “palling around with terrorists” and doesn’t see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.
And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

[Sarah Palin’s discussion of Obama’s deep and controversial ties to Bill Ayers is not “unsubstantiated,” and it is certainly not an “attack.” Indeed, she offers a factual analysis of the available data, data Steve Diamond and others have made available to readers of No Quarter. And nothing about Sarah Palin’s words contain a “racially tinged subtext,” unless, of course, you are a compromised journalist who must project racism on everything you encounter in order to repress the racist impulses you compulsively disavow in your vain attempt to conceal your racism. I challenge Douglass K. Daniel to cite one sentence Sarah Palin utters that mentions or even alludes to race. Too bad he will fail, as she does not mention Obama’s race at all.]

John McCain, Sarah Palin and thousands
of their racist friends at a recent rally

CNN jumps in and tries to "fact check" Palin's remarks.

Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now "palling around," or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.

"I wish someone would ask [Obama] just once: "Then tell me, would it be ok for a child who was eight years old on 9/11--to then have a friendship with Osama bin Laden later in life as an adult"?
--comment at Free Republic on Obama's friendship with Bill Ayers
[From DBKP's Obama, Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers: The 'Tangential' Bill Ayers]

Readers will also remember how CNN leaped to "fact check" John Edwards: CNN didn't report a word until Edwards gave them permission by confessing.

CNN told viewers/readers what the "news" network thought of them when it was silent on John Edwards' scandal.

NewsBusters unloaded a double-barrel fact-check on CNN's "fact check" [McCain Camp Finally Expose Obama Ayers Connection, Media Quick to the Rescue and CNN Ignores Bernardine Dohrn's Terrorist Past While Defending Obama ].

For good measure, NewsBusters' Todd Warner Huston thinks Douglass K. Daniel's view of Sarah Palin is "idiotic".

Talk about an idiotic assertion, but the Associated Press just claimed that Governor Sarah Palin is a racist for saying that Obama used to "pal around with terrorists." According to the AP's Douglass K. Daniel, Palin is a racist because the word "terrorist" is construed now-a-days to mean a "dark-skinned radical Muslim" so that makes her a "racist" in his blinkered view.

No Links between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers? What are connections between Obama and Ayers? Let us count the ways: * Obama and Ayers worked closely on the Chicago Anneberg Challenge When Obama made his first run for political office, articles in both the Chicago Defender and the Hyde Park Herald featured among his qualifications his position as chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation where Ayers was a founder and guiding force. Obama assumed the Annenberg board chairmanship only months before his first run for office, and almost certainly received the job at the behest of Bill Ayers. During Obama’s time as Annenberg board chairman, Ayers’s own education projects received substantial funding. Indeed, during its first year, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge struggled with significant concerns about possible conflicts of interest. * In November of 1997, William Ayres and Barack Obama participated in a Community Service Center’s monthly discussion series on issues affecting the city of Chicago. The University of Chicago News said, "Ayers will be joined by Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the University of Chicago Law School, who is working to block proposed legislation that would throw more juvenile offenders into the adult system . ." * Obama kicked off his political career by announcing at Ayers home. Stanley Kurtz again: "when Ayers and Dorhn hosted that kickoff for the first Obama campaign, it was not a random happenstance, but merely further evidence of a close and ongoing political partnership." * Hillary Clinton brought up that the Obama-Ayers relationship on the Woods Fund. Clinton is correct that both men served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Ayers joined the board in 1999 and is still on it. Obama left it in December 2002 after nine years. * Obama and Dohrn worked for elite law firm Sidley and Austin and The Obama-Ayers Top Ten: Highlights of the 20 year Obama-Ayers Connection * Obama publicly endorsed Ayers book Obama was perfectly aware of Ayers’ radical views, since he read and publically endorsed, without qualification, Ayers’ book on juvenile crime. That book is quite radical, expressing doubts about whether we ought to have a prison system at all, comparing America to South Africa’s apartheid system, and contemptuously dismissing the idea of the United States as a kind or just country. This is not all: this is only what has been uncovered, despite the best efforts of the Obama campaign and the Mainstream Media to keep the whole issue under control. Fact check this--DBKP has.

The best of the rest responses:
* Little Green Footballs: Associated Press Hits Bottom, Digs
* SARAH PALIN RACIST!... AP Says VP Candidate's Attacks on Obama Were Mean & Racist
* Palin-bashing Associated Press cries “RAAAACISM!”.

Malkin notes that DKD was "Putting the "ass" in 'Associated Press"".

Finally, Jonah Goldberg at NRO, calls the AP "Outrageously Asinine":
"The whole argument ultimately depends on the assumption that Americans are too stupid and racist to make any meaningful distinctions about anything." (See "We the Sheeple" image above.)

Contrast and compare the AP and CNN's responses to Sarah Palin calling out Barack Obama on his unpleasant connections to Bill Ayers with their ten-month hiatus on calling out John Edwards.

CNN, AP, Time, Newsweek, the New York Times and the rest of the MSM were guilty of Missing in Action on the John Edwards story.

On the Barack Obama-Bill Ayers story, they're guilty of something that goes beyond the MSM's normal bias.


The McCain campaign's Tucker Bounds hits the bulls-eye:

"The last four weeks of this election will be about whether the American people are willing to turn our economy and national security over to Barack Obama, a man with little record, questionable judgment, and ties to radical figures like unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers. Americans need to ask themselves if they've ever befriended an unrepentant terrorist, or had a convicted felon help them buy their house -- because those aren't smears, those are true facts about Barack Obama." ---Tucker Bounds, spokesman McCain-Palin 2008

As quickly as those interested in the curious connections between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers--led by Stanley Kurtz and Steve Diamond--uncover information, the Mainstream Media just as quickly covers it up.

Douglas K. Daniel's attack, the New York Times' whitewash and CNN's "Fact Check" of Sarah Palin are only the first of many in this war of Big Media disinformation.



by Mondo Frazier
images:
* law.du
* onion
* aol
* lh5
* dbkp file

First Presidential Debate: Confusing CNN Graphic Showed Audience Reaction?

CNN's "Thingamajig":
"Live Audience Reaction" Graphic
Flat-lined at the Presidential Debates
StinkyJournalism

Can't CNN Leave Gismos Alone? Every time I looked at the "Audience Reaction" meter during the debate, it was flat-lined. Were these candidates dead men walking? The sciencey look of the graphic, you must admit, has an appealing truthiness.

---

The similarity of CNN's "Live Audience Reaction" meter to the vital sign monitors in a hospital is unmistakable. Everyone knows from TV --"Doctor, come quickly. Code blue!"-- that flat lines in wave form graphics spell death for a hospital patients. But what the heck do the same flat lines mean for viewers watching the presidential debates?

The "Audience Reaction" meter – three colored lines at the bottom of the CNN News screen during the debates – combined with the enforced audience silence to provide a surprising effect: I felt slightly anxious and kept looking for signs of life.

Was I watching dying patients in the hospital with the mostly flat-lined and smoothly flowing and colorful wave forms? And what exactly was being measured anyway? My busy CNN television screen did not say.

Even media bloggers had no clue

MyChances.net asked, "Anyone have any idea how the little scrolling ‘Audience Reaction' is measured? CNN has one trend-line for independents, republicans, and democrats, and I'm not sure where they're getting those numbers."

Speculation abounded on the Web. SteveK on Media Bistro agreed that the meter "is fairly difficult to decipher."

At Yahoo! Answers, Austin M said, "CNN has chosen 3 audience members to give their reactions to CNN by giving them through a pulse machine. This is possible by seeing their pulse and looking at how it rises and lowers based on the questions asked. Also, those same people have a handheld device where they press 1 of three buttons meaning plus a little, minus a little, or back to neutral. (Used after each question.) Hope this helps."

Not really, Austin, but thanks.

Dennis left a comment on MyChance.net " with this CNN link which gives a partial answer: ' Voters watch the debate from Columbus, Ohio, and give their reaction to the responses in real-time.' But how this is done is not clear; nor is it stated how they gauge who is republican, democratic, or independent (presumably self-identification)."

Even the Wall Street Journal 's "Numbers Guy" couldn't enumerate--literally. He wrote, "Beneath the candidates, reaction from 32 undecided focus-group members in Ohio was presented graphically rather than numerically...reaction, positive or negative, was displayed as a rising or falling line."



The answer was from Ernanio was the best: "They have a bunch of potential voters from OHIO seated in a room with a dial thingamajig on their hands that when rotated can go from 0 - 100 to show how much they are liking the candidates intervention."

[Photo RIGHT: Some bloggers mistakenly thought the audience reaction meter measured pulse rates of the focus group. Here StinkyJournalism illustrates what a focus group member would look like, had it been true.]

What the heck was the thingamajig? Will CNN keep using it on the next two presidential debates?

So what does CNN News say?

I wrote to Edie Emery, in media relations at CNN, seeking answers. She kindly e-mailed me CNN's press release. It explained (emphasis mine):

Continue reading: CNN's "Thingamajig": "Live Audience Reaction" Graphic Flat-lined at the Presidential Debates


by Rhonda R. Shearer
images: Stinky Journalism
Source: CNN's "Thingamajig": "Live Audience Reaction" Graphic Flat-lined at the Presidential Debates

Mainstream Media: When News Breaks

They want to help.

It's the Mainstream Media way.


by RidesAPaleHorse
image: RAPH

McCain-Palin in PA: Palin a Hit with Everyone but CNN

Palin, McCain a Hit with Crowd
CNN's Story All About "Boos"





John McCain and Sarah Palin appeared in Pennsylvania for the first time as the GOP ticket for November and both were well-received by the overflowing crowd.

Sarah Palin, however, was a hit.

The large and enthusiastic crowd packed Consol Energy Field, located south of Pittsburgh in Washington, PA, and cheer, flags and McCain-Palin "Terrible Towel" knockoffs were the order of the day.

The Alaskan governor spoke after a warm-up by McCain. McCain's enthusiasm for his running mate was evident in his intro: the Arizona senator sounded confident throughout his glowing description of Palin as "the American story".

"She's not part of the American story, she is an American story."





CNN was on the scene, and producer, Peter Hamby, led with "Palin Booed for Mentioning Hillary Clinton".

While that was true, it was the only boos of the afternoon; Palin even got some applause a line earlier when she mentioned Geraldine Ferraro. The 5 seconds of Hillary boos were an anomaly in, what was clearly, a political lovefest.

But what else would CNN have reported? CNN is a flagship of the Mainstream Media and this is one more example of their "unbiased" reporting.

In just her second appearance on the campaign trail with John McCain, newly-minted GOP running mate Sarah Palin was showered with boos on Saturday for attempting to praise Clinton’s trail-blazing bid to become the first female president.

One woman from Penn Hills, holding a "Women for McCain" sign thought Palin was just what McCain needed.

"She's a conservative and she moves the Republicans back to where they need to be."

A brilliantly-sunny afternoon on a Labor Day weekend and an obviously fired-up crowd wouldn't be news for Hamby's regular remaining viewers.






Before the McCain-Palin entourage arrived in the "Straight Talk Express" buses, the crowd was entertained by former Steeler and 2006 PA Republican gubernatorial candidate, Lynn Swann. Swann related about how when he covered the Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska, he was interviewed by Palin, working at the time as a sports reporter for an Alaskan TV station.

Former PA governor and Director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, introduced McCain to the crowd. Swann made a hasty exit to go see his son play in a pee-wee football game.

A few dozen Obama supporters lined the entrance road to the stadium before the event and urged the crowd to support what they called "real change".

MORE pictures to come later this morning.


by Mondoreb
images: DBKP