Record turnout for primaries misreported The mainstream media again demonstrates its bias (and activism)

ASSOCIATED PRESS—The AP ran a story about primary races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, by the headline, “Unharnessed Anger: Incumbents Win in NC, OH, IN” you would think turnout was light—and it was—among democrat voters. On the GOP side, turnout was in record numbers, as James Tranato writes in the Wall Street Journal, the National Journal actually included the numbers, showing republican and independents went for conservative candidates.

This is nothing new and an increasingly unmitigated march from reporting news to fashioning news. Compare recent “coverage” of Tea Party rallies where terms like “Birther”, “racism”, and “bigot” are peppered throughout supposedly hard news pieces. Yet the raucous pro-illegal immigrant rallies where dozens of arrests were made for vandalism and the like are buried (if even appearing) in hard news coverage.

Then there’s the case of Faisal Shahzad, where MSNCB’s Contessa Brewer laments the attempted Times Square bombing was the work of a middle-eastern male. When just three months ago, the mainstream media looked for any clue that could pigeon-hole Andrew Joseph Stack as a right-wing nut after he flew a small plane into an Austin office building; his manifesto a cadre of big-government, borderline communist rants.

Perhaps this is why FOX News is dominating the airways and MSNBC and CNN are less viewed than the Cartoon Network.

--Killswitch Politick

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The pot calling the kettle black; the hypocrisy of media bias

Last week, John Stossel wrote a piece entitled, “The double standard about journalists’ bias”. It was an autobiographical piece in which he recounts the blatant hypocrisy of his colleagues.

Stossel said after years of reporting on business crooks at the local level, he was surprised to find a challenge in finding like crooks when he went national on 20/20, “As a local TV reporter, I could find plenty of crooks. But once I got to the national stage…it was hard to find comparable national scams.”

Mr. Stossel deduces the reason for this is simple: free markets are regulators. They reward those companies who put forth a quality product or service and punish those that don’t, “Regulation barely deters cheaters, but competition does.”

Certainly a sound concept but as Mr. Stossel would learn in his move from network news to the most viewed cable news network, suddenly competition isn’t such a good thing – that is, when you’re beating your competition hands-down.

After nearly forty years as a reporter, Stossel has gone from media hero to media zero; why? Because after so many years of championing government regulation, he came to realize it was counterproductive to business and to the American consumer. His 19 Emmy wins would stop, invitations to speak at journalism conferences were no longer extended – all because the veteran consumer reporter had the audacity to change his mind about the good of government regulation.

He titled segments accordingly; “Are we scaring you to death?” analyzed the scare-for-ratings tactics of newscasts and media coverage.

When Glenn Beck was at CNN, not much attention was paid to him, but at FOX News, it’s an entirely different story; as in the amount of stories done about him and not the scandals he uncovers. Mr. Beck drove the Van Jones story at FOX News. He uncovered what the White House vetting process failed to find, a radical, avowed communist.

Beck and Bill O’Reilly have done yeoman’s work in investigating ACORN and have come to uncover scandal after scandal, from millions flowing through a former funeral home in New Orleans to rampant voter registration fraud. Do the mainstream media back them like Deep Throat? No. They accuse them of making mountains out of molehills or fabricating scandals.

When the shoe is on the other foot, the mainstream media is conspicuously silent – Dan Rather used phony documents, aided and abetted by producer Mary Mapes to try and destroy President Bush from being reelected. Jayson Blair made-up entire interviews when writing for the New York Times – his explanation? The liberal news of record expected too much from him.

To quote Mr. Stossel from one of his most popular segments, “Give me a break!”

-- The Editors, Killswitch Politick

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The only war the administration is willing to fight

The Obama administration has finally found a war that it is more-than-willing to fight – and its not in Iraq or Afghanistan, and the enemies aren’t militant Islamic terrorists or warlords – it’s a war of words against FOX News.

While the administration plays Nero’s fiddle as Afghanistan backslides and unemployment creeps up toward 10%, it is pulling out all the stops in battling what it has publicly deemed the most important issues: health care reform most Americans are opposed to, and dirt-kicking a cable news network.

From a strategy standpoint, one wonders what in the name of Pete the administration is doing: since the row began two months ago, FOX News ratings have only gone up. Not to mention the political fallout: republicans who don’t much approve of the president’s policies aren’t being wooed, independents that put Mr. Obama in the White House are left to scratch their heads as his post-partisanship posture expires, and those on the left either already dislike FOX News and/or are concerned about more meaningful issues.

David Gergen, who has served in the White House as an adviser to Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton said, "(White House officials) have gotten themselves into a fight they don't necessarily want to be in. I don't think it's in their best interest…I mean, for goodness sakes – you know, you engage in the debate.”

The fight between the White House and FOX News began in August when FOX News Sunday’s Chris Wallace fact-checked contentious allegations made by VA Assistant Secretary Tammy Duckworth.

Anita Dunn, the White House communications director, has stated that fact-checking an administration official was "something I've never seen a Sunday show do." By her declaration, Ms. Dunn seems to believe that any assertion or statement made by an administration official should be accepted at face-value and the American people don’t have a right to know what is and isn’t true.

FOX News has time and again asked for administration officials to come on the network to correct whatever errors might have been made however, Mr. Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has likewise chimed in and the word is out – no administration official will be made available to FOX News – much like more troops won’t be given to the generals who request them.

-- Killswitch Politick

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