Mary Katharine Ham

ABC's Rick Klein: Obama Wants Fight with Gay Activists to Prove He's Moderate
By Ken Shepherd | December 18, 2008 | 3:57 PM EST

Barack Obama doesn't mind a fight with gay activists over selecting Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration because the President-elect is bound and determined to govern as a centrist.

That according to ABCNews.com's Rick Klein as posted to The Note blog (emphases mine):

President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration has ignited a firestorm of criticism from the gay-rights community, where Warren is considered something of a sworn enemy.

Yet Obama’s response to a question about his selection of Warren seems to confirm one perception: that this is a fight that the president-elect isn’t necessarily sorry to be having.

Townhall Blogger Leaves on High Note with Humorous Obama Parody
By Ken Shepherd | June 6, 2008 | 11:17 AM EDT

Mary Katharine Ham from screencap of Townhall.com, June 6, 2008 | NewsBusters.orgMary Katharine Ham, a friend and fan of NewsBusters and the Media Research Center, is working her last day at Townhall.com today.

'Campaign Operatives Are People Too': CNN's Cooper On Debate Questions
By Ken Shepherd | November 27, 2007 | 1:02 PM EST

Mary Katharine Ham briefly chatted with CNN's Anderson Cooper and David Bohrman about tomorrow's CNN/YouTube debate and concerns about the agenda of questions that will be picked. For the whole thing, go here, but I just had to share this priceless gem (my emphasis in bold). First Ham's question, then Cooper's answer:

Q: There’s been a bit of scandal about the screening that CNN did on its “undecided voters” for the last Democratic debate. The diamonds-and-pearls question was attacked by the questioner herself. There were some allegations that several of the voters were in fact liberal activists on quite a few issues (and one Democratic Party operative). What’s the process for checking these YouTube questioners and their affiliations?

AC: “Well, campaign operatives are people, too. We don’t investigate the background of people asking questions…that’s not our job...