JaBbA's Hut - Media

Olbermann in trouble?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:20:22 -0400

I've been cheering Keith Olbermann's honest take on the Bush Administration. I was wondering how he got away with it, but assumed he felt comfortable.

Perhaps it's more that he just feels he has to speak out. And now others are fearing for his job.

They found an excuse to cancel Donahue.

The only way to keep the single independent voice on the air is to speak out. Make sure that GE knows that if Countdown is cancelled, we will know why and will not be silent.

Link to his commentaries. Speak out, praising his courage. Worry publicly that his voice may be suppressed. Make sure that GE knows that we are watching.

And perhaps the powers-that-be will hold off, fearing our voice.

Are they desperate? Or just stupid?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 23:12:17 -0400

I got in my car and turned on the local talk radio station, to see if they were still talking about the Browns victory (yay!). Instead, I got Matt Drudge. And what he said was on the order of the king of all crazy freepers, Michael Savage:

[Paraphrasing]

These 17-year-olds were not innocents! I've seen the emails! They led him on!. They would be talking about masturbating and whether they got any from their girlfriends that weekend, and this poor congressman is sitting as his computer typing "what about me"!

Yes, he said "poor congressman sitting ... and typing". Really. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the freepers have been reduced to defending politicians who sexually proposition underage boys!

Sick. Sick. Sick.

See also Gingrich's explanation of the GOP reaction and of course, the MOST important political ramification: Denny Hastert knew MONTHS ago.

Al Jazeera - Fair and Balanced?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 10:58:55 -0400

This is an amazing clip. Al-Jazeera apparently decided to allow a secular Arab-American come onto a talking heads show to debate a Mulim Cleric - and she speaks out.

Thanks to Steve for the link:

Subject: Al Jazeera television

Here is a powerful and amazing statement on Al Jazeera television. The woman is Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychologist from Los Angeles. I would suggest watching it ASAP because I don't know how long the link will be active.

http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null

Skewering Ann

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 10:53:02 -0400

Ann Coulter's book Godless is the #1 Non-Fiction book on the NYT best-seller list.

Fiction, Non-Fiction. Whatever.

However, it appears that professional journalists and experts have some problems with her work. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists have awarded her a "Sitting Duck" Award

The award, typically doled out in an ironic fashion, came with a statement from the society that Coulter received the prize "for cheapening political discourse in America."

"We award the Lame Duck reluctantly, because we know Ms. Coulter is desperate for any kind of attention," the society added.

According to a celebrity newsgroup, "Ann Coulter was mentioned and criticized several times by speakers at the National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) conference here. Then she received the NSNC's ultimate mention and criticism -- winning the annual Sitting Duck Award for easiest column target."

Also, the NY Post hired John Barrie, inventor of the plagarism detection software iThenticate, to evaluate her book and the last 12 months of her column. He found what he has called "textbook plagarism" in both her columns and in her book - whole passages stolen from LA Times, Planned Parenthood and the Heritage Foundation, among others.

Ironic, considering Coulter's public excoriation of the New York Times in 2003 during the Jayson Blair scandal

UPDATE Media Matters did more research, and listed how Ann Coulter used the plagarism scandal at the Times to score points.

TEST Not really an update. Just installed new trackback SPAM filters, and want to be sure trackbacks really work if they're legit. Just ignore this.

Colbert's Correspondent's Dinner Monologue

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Wed, 03 May 2006 09:39:50 -0400

Daily Kos has transcribed the entire Monologue, plus the script of the video with Helen Thomas, and made it available.

The video was shown on the Colbert Report last night, pretending that it was his application video for the Press Secretary job. It doesn't seem to be online yet, but when it is, watch it. It may be one of the funniest things I've ever seen - 80ish journalism legend Helen Thomas pursuing Colbert across the Eastern Seaboard.

Colbert was given Buzzflash's Wings Of Justice award for his guts in "speaking truth to power".

JaBbA says check it out.

UPDATE Video is at Democratic Underground

Dingle's Christmas Poem

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 10:06:54 -0500

Rep. John Dingell read the following poem in response to a call for a vote upholding the "spirit and traditions of Christmas" in the house. It has been taken out of context on O'Reilly's show, to suggest Dingell was attacking Christmas. This is the entire poem:

'Twas a week before Christmas and all through the House,
no bills were passed 'bout which Fox News could grouse.
Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer,
so vacations in St. Barts soon should be near.

Katrina kids were all nestled snug in motel beds,
while visions of school and home danced in their heads.
In Iraq, our soldiers need supplies and a plan,
and nuclear weapons are being built in Iran.

Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell.
Americans feared we were in a fast track to ... well.
Wait, we need a distraction, something divisive and wily,
a fabrication straight from the mouth of O'Reilly.

We will pretend Christmas is under attack,
hold a vote to save it, then pat ourselves on the back.
Silent Night, First Noel, Away in the Manger,
Wake up Congress, they're in no danger.

This time of year, we see Christmas everywhere we go,
From churches to homes to schools and, yes, even Costco.
What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy
when this is the season to unite us with joy.

At Christmastime, we're taught to unite.
We don't need a make-up reason to fight.
So on O'Reilly, on Hannity, on Coulter and those right-wing blogs.
You should sit back and relax, have a few egg nogs.

'Tis the holiday season; enjoy it a pinch.
With all our real problems, do we really need another Grinch?
So to my friends and my colleagues, I say with delight,
a Merry Christmas to all, and to Bill O'Reilly, Happy Holidays.

Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas.

The Clinton Defense

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:27:37 -0400

So now that we know that Karl Rove is Matt Cooper's source on outing Valerie Plame, Rove is now using a variation of the Clinton Defense. Clinton said "I never had sexual relations with that woman" and then claimed he didn't lie. Rove said "Joe Wilson's wife works for the CIA on WMD" and then kept saying "I didn't know her name. I didn't leak her name".

Clinton got publicly pilloried for some hanky-panky in the Oval Office.

Rove outed a CIA undercover operative and possibly compromised the safety and effectiveness of other agents.

Sorry, Karl. "Joe Wilson's Wife" is enough to identify her.

Still waiting for the video of the frogmarch on CNN, replacing any commentary by Bob Novak.

Again, the question is, Why is Novak immune?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 12:34:36 -0400

Doc Searls pulled together the relevant info. And I agree - How can Robert Novak continue to be tolerated in print and on the air, while Judith Miller sits in jail?

I'll be happy when we see the Rove frogmarch instead of Novak on CNN.

Washington Times - Why let the facts get in the way of a good story?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 09:35:40 -0500

The Gadflyer has a great article pointing out how the Washington Times, The Rev Sun Myung Moon's right-wing mouthpiece, can make up a story out of whole cloth and get it injected into the mainstream media, creating an impression that furthers it's agenda. In this case, riling up it's "base" against the U.N., at a moment when 100,000+ people have been killed in the greatest natural disaster in centuries.

And this was better?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:18:44 -0500

I tuned in last night to see 'Saving Private Ryan' - and got Matlock instead. Our local ABC affiliate, here in 'blue' Cuyahoga County, OH, decided to pre-empt the movie to avoid FCC sanctions.

No, no 'chilling effect' here.

And they replaced it with....'Batman Forever'. Yeah, that's right. The one with the 'enhance-o-costume' with the 'flex-o-buttock', codpieces and erect nipples. Oh, and Nicole Kidman in a sheet, and a nice 'chick in bondage' scene. Yeah, that's more wholesome.

First Time for Everything

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 15:04:56 -0500

How about Drudge and the Raw Story agreeing?

Will these numbers hold up?

Maybe. "Conventional Wisdom" holds that numbers always favor republicans early. If so, we're looking at a Kerry landslide.

But CW may be completely out the window today.

Palast has got it again

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 08:40:46 -0400

But this time before the election. Trust Greg Palast to dig deep and get the info on what's happening with dirty tricks in the elections. In case you didn't know, Palast works for the BBC (because he doesn't trust American Media) but he's an American Citizen, born and bred in LA.

This time he has obtained Bush Campaign memos outlining how they are going to supress the African-American vote by challenging a large list of voters, forcing them to submit provisional ballots, which has the effect of causing many of those voters not to bother turning in a ballot at all.

Want more? Check out Palast's web site and pick up his book (JaBbA recommended) and new documentary (On JaBbA's list).

PD Punts

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 13:53:05 -0400

Well, after the PD Editorial Board voted 5-2 to endorse Kerry, and Machaskee overruled them and insisted that the paper endorse Bush, it appears there's been a settlement. Some reports say the Editors threatened to walk out, so the paper punted, and will have NO endorsement.

Since Machaskee is a die-hard Republican and has deep-rooted hatred of Richard Holbrook over the bombing of Serbia, this has to be considered a victory for the Kerry campaign.

I'll vote for the Funniest Smart Guy....

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 14:19:52 -0400

'Cause calling Jon Stewart the "Smartest Funny Guy" really doesn't do him justice.

Begala wasn't sure which one he was when he introduced him on Crossfire. Clearly, this is the last time that JS will appear on that show, because he did 2 things they just didn't expect:

#1 - He wasn't funny. Didn't even show his naked Supreme Court pictures, which is what they wanted him to do

#2 - He spanked them. Hard. He sat between them, looked them in the eye and told them that they had completely wasted the opportunity they had to do something good, and were instead "hurting America". And he wasn't kidding. He spent 13 minutes of airtime telling them that they were complete and utter failures, and when they tried to turn it around, he told them "It's really bad when CNN is looking for an example of journalistic integrity from Comedy Central...My lead-in show is puppets making crank phone calls".

There are far too many blogs pointing this out. Wonkette has a list of places you can see the video, I'd suggest using BitTorrent if you can.

Conspiracy Theory? Or Reality?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 11:49:11 -0400

I was pretty much ignoring the "Bush was wired" blog headlines, figuring that the bulge on Bush's back was a result of a bulletproof vest under his jacket.

There's something clearly there in both debates so far.

But the fact that the White House continues to deny that he was wearing anything is giving this one legs. If they simply said "We cannot comment in the interests of national security" then we'd just assume that the Secret Service put it there and there's not a lot we can do about it.

But the continuing denials do 2 things. #1 Keeps the story going.

And #2: Once again, if they're willing to look the American People in the eye and tell a bald-face lie about a little thing, what else are they willing to lie about?