Animal Rights

PETA Asks Virginia to Sponsor a 'Fishing Hurts' Road Stop on Interstate 81
By Tim Graham | April 3, 2011 | 11:12 PM EDT

The Roanoke Times has discovered that opening Virginia's highway rest stops to sponsors might not mean just more advertising for fast food. It could lead to  requests from opponents of the mainstream ideas of food and leisure activities:

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced an initiative last week that would allow for sponsorships at Virginia's highway rest areas to help offset the cost of operating the facilities.

And now the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants in on the action. PETA has sent a letter to the Virginia Department of Transportation expressing its interest in sponsoring the Interstate 81 rest stop at mile marker 158 near Troutville and renaming it the "Fishing Hurts" rest area. It also would like to get a reduced sponsorship rate as a nonprofit.

New CBS Talk Show Promo: Julie Chen 'Very Smart;' Despite Thinking Hawaii in Atlantic
By Kyle Drennen | October 4, 2010 | 3:30 PM EDT
During Monday's CBS Early Show, a promo ran for the network's new daytime show, 'The Talk,' based on ABC's 'The View.' The show features former Early Show co-host Julie Chen and five other well-known women chattering about topics of the day.

At one point in the ad, fellow host and actress Leah Remini declares of Chen: "Julie, very smart. Makes me feel stupid." On the May 22, 2008 Early Show, Chen mistakenly placed Hawaii in the Atlantic Ocean.

The promo begins with Chen claiming another show co-host, Sharon Osbourne, wife of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, to be "the most real person I know."

Given the left-wing and bizarre 'views' given on ABC's broadcast, 'The Talk' on CBS should be interesting to watch.
Nutty Professor Pleads for Extinction of All Carnivorous Animals
By P.J. Gladnick | September 21, 2010 | 8:43 AM EDT
Better enjoy the Lion King while you can. Flipper could also be gone soon. If a certain nutty professor has his way, all lions, dolphins, as well as all other carnivorous animals on this planet would be selected for controlled extinction for the "high crime" of eating meat and causing suffering in other animals. I kid you not.

In a long, rambling, seemingly endless opinion piece in the New York Times that comes off like a bizarre mixture of Dr. Strangelove and Professor Irwin Corey, Rutgers philosophy professor Jeff McMahan makes the case for playing God in the animal kingdom because of his assertion that God was flawed for allowing animal suffering in the wild:

Viewed from a distance, the natural world often presents a vista of sublime, majestic placidity. Yet beneath the foliage and hidden from the distant eye, a vast, unceasing slaughter rages. Wherever there is animal life, predators are stalking, chasing, capturing, killing, and devouring their prey. Agonized suffering and violent death are ubiquitous and continuous...

...Suppose that we could arrange the gradual extinction of carnivorous species, replacing them with new herbivorous ones.  Or suppose that we could intervene genetically, so that currently carnivorous species would gradually evolve into herbivorous ones, thereby fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy.  If we could bring about the end of predation by one or the other of these means at little cost to ourselves, ought we to do it?

World Spinning Again After Clinton Wedding
By Nathan Burchfiel | August 2, 2010 | 2:04 PM EDT

Did you hear Chelsea Clinton got married over the weekend? If it seems like that's all the media talked about, you're not alone.

The broadcast networks - ABC, CBS and NBC - aired 87 stories about Clinton's July 31 nuptials between July 25 and August 1. Four major newspapers - The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today - printed 21 stories during the same time period.

Coverage of Clinton's wedding was decidedly enthusiastic. The "CBS Evening News" July 31 reported it at the top of the broadcast, ahead of the oil spill. Anchor Jeff Glor announced the "wedding of the century" that "has clearly captured the nation's attention."

NBC's "Saturday Today" show brought in "celebrity wedding planner" Colin Cowie and US Weekly Editor Lindsay Powers to dish on all the gossip surrounding the event. The show mentioned Clinton's wedding in seven stories on July 31.

NewsBusters 5th Anniversary: A Look Back at Some of Our Top Posts on Media Flubs
By NB Staff | July 29, 2010 | 5:35 PM EDT
As our readers know, to celebrate the 5th anniversary of NewsBusters, we have started a weekly Five for Five feature to countdown the blog'
Schultz’s Confused Logic: Rips Bachmann’s Public Visibility; Features Her 71 Times on His TV Show in Past Year
By Jeff Poor | July 29, 2010 | 1:38 PM EDT

Perhaps it's the proximity of North Dakota, Ed Schultz's home state, to Minnesota but the MSNBC host has an identifiable fixation on a certain conservative Republican congresswoman from Minnesota.

On his July 29 program "The ED Show," Schultz once again attacked Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. This time this wizard of smart attacked her for loving to get "her mug out there." But if that's a crime then Schultz is an accomplice. 

"Well, that's Michele Bachmann said, she wanted to create a ‘receptacle' for the Tea Party and so, this might be the first thing in the ‘receptacle,'" Schultz said. "I think she is doing it to stay visible. She loves getting her mug out there, she loves the visibility. She was rather an obscure congresswoman until she made an asinine comment on ‘Hardball with Chris Matthews' about investigating members of Congress. That pretty much put her on the map, Roy."

N.Y. Times Not So Keen on Human Safety? '400 Park Geese Die, for Human Fliers' Sake' (Updated)
By Tim Graham | July 14, 2010 | 8:00 AM EDT

Update: I should have noticed that the "Stop the Goose Holocaust" page on Facebook is an animal-rights parody. (Just see the "yum yum" cooked goose photo. ) 

"Animal rights" groups often suggest that animal lives are just as precious as human lives, or even that innocent, instinctual animals are morally superior to arrogant reasoning humans. That view came through on the front page of The New York Times on Tuesday, in the headline "400 Park Geese Die, for Human Fliers' Sake." Times reporter Isolde Raftery channeled shock and disgust that authorities would euthanize Canada geese in Prospect Park for the sake of human air travelers -- even as the nation still recalls pilot Chesley Sullenberger's heroic Hudson River landing of a jet that failed after hitting geese.

Raftery left out the animal-rights partisans at the "Stop the Goose Holocaust" page on Facebook, which declares "This is a group devoted to stopping the Holocaust of New York area Canada Geese by that Nazi psycho Michael Bloomberg, who mocks and jests about it. He claims to be pro-immigrant but obviously hates Canadians, and especially Black Canadians, which the geese are."

In this case, the euthanizers were the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which have spurred goose memorial services in other states with their population-limiting actions. USDA spokeswoman Carol Bannerman offered the federal line:

The Latest Animal Rights Cause in Wisconsin: 'No Pig Wrestling'
By Tim Graham | July 11, 2010 | 11:08 PM EDT

My hometown of Viroqua, Wisconsin, has become statewide news because a left-wing group called The Alliance for Animals is protesting the annual Wild West Days -- in particular, its popular "Hog Wrasslin" contest. The LaCrosse Tribune had the story:

VIROQUA — A Madison-based animal rights group has taken a public stand against one of the biggest attractions for Viroqua’s Wild West Days — pig wrestling.

The Alliance for Animals wrote organizers of Wild West Days in late May, saying it had conferred with two attorneys who are of the opinion that pig wrestling “is in clear violation of the Wisconsin Statutes.”

The Alliance notes in particular Chapter 951, titled “Crimes Against Animals,” which outlaws cockfighting, dogfighting and any other similar fighting between animals or animals and humans.

MSNBC's Contessa Brewer Complains About Blogs Pointing Out Her On-Air Gaffes
By Kyle Drennen | July 7, 2010 | 10:43 AM EDT
In part two of her interview with TVNewser editor Kevin Allocca on MediaBistro.com's Media Beat, MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer discussed a incident last year in which she mistakenly introduced Reverend Jess Jackson as Al Sharpton: "...those things make me crazy.... I really hate that something like that can paint your whole career."

Brewer specifically called out blogs for reporting the gaffe: "...when I was younger in my career, if I had made a mistake like that, there were no blogs to keep it perpetuity." Allocca replied: "Are you looking at me? I do have a blog that keeps things in perpetuity." Brewer responded: "Whether you do or not, there will be someone else to pick up that slack, so I won't hold it against you in particular." The TVNewser blog did indeed report the incident on October 21, 2009, as did NewsBusters.
                        
Brewer explained: "...the best thing I can do at the point is just to apologize and the Reverend has been very gracious and accepted my apology." She then added how the gaffe "turned into a great opportunity to develop a relationship with someone that I admire," referring to a subsequent meeting with Jackson.
Actor Pierce Brosnan Harpoons Obama for Voting 'Present' on Whaling
By Jill Stanek | June 11, 2010 | 1:43 PM EDT

Actor and environmental activisit Pierce Brosnan has taken the cause of whales to heart. He does not want humans to kill them, period.

www.SaveTheWhalesNow.org has just released a PSA featuring Brosnan, taking President Obama to task for apparently reneging on a campaign promise to support an International whaling moratorium...

(Video after jump)

CBS's Chip Reid Snubbed by Obama...Again, Network's Broadcasts Still Mum
By Kyle Drennen | May 20, 2010 | 4:17 PM EDT
Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon, CBS At the end of a joint press conference between President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Wenesday, CBS White House correspondent Chip Reid attempted to ask Obama a question about Tuesday's electoral results but was given the brush off for the second time in a week.

Later that afternoon, Reid described the incident on CBSNews.com's Political Hotsheet blog: "As he [Obama] and President Calderon turned to walk back toward the Oval Office I asked, loudly enough for him to hear, if he had any comment on the elections. No response. I then shouted 'Do you have any plans for a real press conference?' No response, not that I expected one."

On Monday, the President refused to answer a question from Reid moments after signing the "Press Freedom Act" into law.

CBS morning and evening news broadcasts have ignored both the Monday and Wednesday snubs by Obama, with Reid only making his displeasure known online.
HuffPo's Ryan Grim: ObamaCare 2.0 Really A 'Conservative' Plan
By Kyle Drennen | February 24, 2010 | 5:09 PM EST
Appearing in the 3PM ET hour on MSNBC on Wednesday, Huffington Post writer Ryan Grim claimed that President Obama's latest version of health care reform was actually a conservative approach: "We actually already have a Republican bill, and it's the one that Obama has proposed....It's all about choice. Everything in it is a Republican kind of free market-based idea."

Speaking to anchor David Shuster, Grim continued his bizarre argument: "The idea that this is a Democratic bill, you know, that this is some left-wing plot, some government takeover that they're going to ram through the Senate, is the part that's the problem. This is a very centrist, leaning conservative health care reform bill."

The segment also featured Sally Pipes, author of "Top 10 Myths of American Health Care," who dismantled Grim's assertions: "I disagree with Ryan that this is a conservative blueprint that the President has put forward. It's very much not what the Republicans are talking about in terms of changing the tax code, portability, reducing mandates. What this is about is getting government more involved in our health care industry."