The Attack on Gov. Palin's Daughter
Topic: Media Watch
I am not a parent, but I was a teenager once and am not stupid.  I know that children do not always do as they are told, that teenagers tend to rebel, that teen girls in love will often "give away the store" to their boyfriends in order to keep them, that teen boys can be very aggressive and manipulative, that traditional mores and parental authority have been undermined by Liberals since the radical 1960s, and that our youth are taught every day in pop culture and every night on TV that pre-marital sex is not only normal but expected, and virgins are "losers."

If Gov. Palin is blamed, think about this first:  What if it were reported, conversely, that she had forced her daughter to come straight home from school, forbidden her to date boys or to have a boyfriend, and otherwise tracked her in all her movements?  That is what it would take to absolutely prevent the pregnancy, but Gov. Palin would now be cast as some kind of mean, controlling ogre.

As for subjecting her children to media scrutiny, that is ultimately the media's fault, and they are selective.  They never touched Chelsea Clinton, and are not widely reporting about Obama's relatives or the fraud cases against Hunter Biden.  They covered up FDR's disability and JFK's adultery, and helped turn the Lewinsky Scandal against the GOP.  They are currently grasping for any dirt they can get, including wide reporting of wild rumors such as Palin's daughter being the "real mother" of her special-needs infant, and that Palin was once active in an Alaska secession movement.

AP's Terence Hunt Is No Journalist
Topic: Media Watch

I first saw it as a headline on my main Yahoo page.  I could not believe what I was reading:  "Bush tries to blame Congress for high energy costs."

What is wrong with this picture?  Terence Hunt of Associated Press wrote what amounts to an opinion editorial (Op-ed) masquerading as a bonafide news item.  It was also published in Newsweek at:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/81348

Journalism is reporting news objectively.  What Hunt has done is inject his opinion of the news, and what he thinks the public should think about it, even in his headline.  He could have appropriately enough said, "Bush Blames Congress for High Energy Costs," but no!  He has to smear the President.

Mr. Hunt, you call yourself a journalist?  Is this what you call objective journalism?   Have you no shame?  Is Newsweek now your private blog?

Shame, shame, Mr. Hunt. 

 

Media Distorts Iraq News
Topic: Media Watch
Columnist Austin Bay knows first-hand that U.S. forces have been winning in Iraq all along.  He writes,

"Collect relatively isolated events in a chronological list and presto:  the impression of uninterrupted, widespread violence destroying Iraq.  But that was a false impression.  Every day, coalition forces were moving thousands of 18-wheelers from Kuwait and Turkey into Iraq, and if the 'insurgents' were lucky they blew up one.  However, flash the flames of that one rig on CNN and, 'Oh, my God, America can't stop these guys,' is the impression left from Boise to Beijing.

". . . .  [Terrorists'] strategic power was based solely on selling the false impression of nationwide quagmire -- selling post-Saddam Iraq as a dysfunctional failed state, rather than an emerging democracy."

He continues, "The Jan. 30 election provided the broad and deep perspective the police blotter obscures:  This is a war of liberty against tyranny, and it's a war we are winning."

[Austin Bay, "Chapter and Verse Prove Why We're Winning in Iraq," Houston Chronicle, March 26, 2005, p. B11.]

Media Negative Toward President Bush
Topic: Media Watch
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted from November 3 to 6, almost 50 percent of Americans say the media is unfair toward the Bush Administration.

In July, the Center for Media and Public Affairs noted that during the first 100 days of Bush's second term, media coverage had been twice as negative as it was positive.

"World News Tonight" (ABC) was 78 percent negative.

[Source:  Newsmax.com, Nov. 10, 2005]

Copyright 2005