Dallas Morning News

Media Continues to Smear Sarah Palin Without Apology
By Rusty Weiss | January 6, 2009 | 10:39 AM EST
The main stream media is continuing a fervent assault on Sarah Palin, covering the mundane, the non-existent, and the factually devoid news stories of the day.  Problem being, when those dramatic news stories become less sensational due to the latest revelations, the media is not as excited to report the correction.

There's been no secret that the media has been salivating over the chance to link Palin to the Sherry Johnston drug arrest.  The latest opportunity came in the form of an e-mail from Kyle Young, an Alaskan drug investigator, in which he insinuates that the investigation and arrest of Johnston were stalled for political reasons.  Young wrote that the case ‘...was not allowed to progress in a normal fashion, the search warrant service WAS delayed because of the pending election.' 

And the media ran with it - to the tune of 417 articles on a Google news search of the terms ‘Kyle Young and Sarah Palin' this morning.  Coverage of this unsubstantiated allegation can be seen at MSNBC, CBS News, the New York Times, Newsday, the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Dallas Morning News, mostly via the tabloid liberal news agency known as the Associated Press.  And that is just to name a few. 

Dallas News Religion Blogger: Did You Hear the One About the Priest...
By Ken Shepherd | December 22, 2008 | 11:37 AM EST

...who pulled President-elect Obama's books from a Catholic school library? "Hey, at least he didn't burn them!" goes the punchline.

Wocka, wocka, wocka!

That was Dallas Morning News religion blogger Bruce Tomaso's take on a Missouri Catholic priest's decision to yank Obama's tomes from the shelves of St. John LaLande Catholic School's library (see screencap at right).

Tomaso noted that Fr. Ron Elliott describes himself as "very pro-life" but that after reviewing the books in question "he didn't find anything objectionable" and will hence return the books to the shelves "in February or March" as Elliott noted, "after the dust kind of settles."

At that point Tomaso couldn't refuse the impulse to add an editorial quip:

Dallas Morning News Virtually Ignores Criminal Nature of School District's Persistent Social Security ID Fraud
By Tom Blumer | November 15, 2008 | 8:22 AM EST

Those who don't understand why paid circulation at major metro newspapers has been declining steeply for at least the past five years need look no further than yesterday's disgraceful reporting by Tawnell D. Hobbs in the Dallas Morning News (DMN).

The Dallas Independent School District (DISD) has been committing crimes that would cause private companies performing similar acts to be raided and/or shut down: issuing fake Social Security numbers to foreigner with visas and/or illegal immigrants to get them on the payroll.

This is serious stuff. Yet Hobbs and her paper did everything they could to minimize the impact of the story, as seen in these excerpts:

Elite Media Give Big Bucks to Gay Journalist Group
By Brian Fitzpatrick | August 28, 2008 | 12:19 PM EDT

Rarely do the media put their institutional political bias on public display, but this past weekend, America's news industry titans left no doubt that they're fully behind one of the nation's most radical cultural and political movements. 

ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the corporate owners of USA Today, the Miami Herald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Sacramento Bee, The Dallas Morning News and many other newspapers, all spent thousands of dollars sponsoring the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association convention in Washington, D.C.  Many journalists from these Big Media mainstays attended or spoke at the convention. 

In the name of "diversity," all the organizations listed above ran recruiting booths, as did NPR.  Thus, the nation's major news providers demonstrated that they have bought into the central proposition of homosexual activists: that people engaging in homosexuality or bisexuality, along with transsexuals, are a historically oppressed minority group deserving the same preferential treatment and legal protections that society provides to ethnic minorities and women.

Mrs. O to Meet Military Families, Mr. O to Skip Military Town Hall
By Noel Sheppard | August 4, 2008 | 3:28 PM EDT

The Obama campaign appears to have come up with a neat way to deflect criticism of the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee's failure to visit wounded American troops while visiting Germany last month: have wife Michelle sponsor a meeting with military families.

As CNN.com reported Monday (emphasis added): "Days after a television spot from John McCain’s campaign suggested Barack Obama did not hold enough respect for members of the military, the presumptive Democratic nominee’s campaign announced Monday that Michelle Obama will host a roundtable discussion with military spouses highlighting the launch of a military families advisory group."

UPDATE AT END OF POST: OBAMA MISSES THE FOLLOWING TOWN HALL MEETING FOR A VACATION AND FUNDRAISER IN HAWAII!

I guess the campaign felt this was a better idea than the junior senator from Illinois attending a presidential town hall meeting to be held next Monday in Fort Hood, Texas, the largest active-duty military installation in the country (photo courtesy NY Daily News). As the Dallas Morning News reported Monday, much like in July when he couldn't find the time to visit our wounded soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Obama is also too busy to meet with families at Fort Hood (emphasis added):

Pets - Another Victim of a Turbulent Economy
By Rusty Weiss | July 21, 2008 | 8:10 PM EDT
Gas prices and an alleged recession have many in the media thinking the economy is going to the dogs.  Little do they know exactly how much is going to the dogs - and cats, hamsters, and goldfish.

The Dallas Morning News ran an interesting article on the perseverance of pet owners ‘despite an economic downturn.'  In fact, according to the article, owners are expected to spend a record $43 billion on their pets this year.

But how can this be?  Surely these owners can skip their doggy wellness exam and save for a tank or two of gas instead.

London Times On War- We're Winning (Despite Western Media)
By Richard Newcomb | June 27, 2008 | 12:27 PM EDT

The NewsBusters staff noted yesterday that the increasingly good news in Iraq was not being covered by the US media. And it is good news. Contrary to the wishes of much, if not most, of the American media and their fellow believers in the Democratic Party, the United States and its allies are winning the war against Islamic aggression on the battlefields, although our courts and our media seem determined to do their utmost to turn this victory into defeat (see the New York Times coverage and the Supreme Court's decision in Boumediene).

Newspaper Circulations in 3-Year Plunge, with Four Exceptions
By Tom Blumer | May 1, 2008 | 10:27 AM EDT

Old Media business reporters have a definitionally-incorrect habit of labeling single industries or economic sectors as being "in recession," when the term, as defined here, can only describe national economies or the world economy. Two examples of this are New York Times reporter David Leonhardt's description of manufacturing as being in recession in February 2007 (laughably incorrect, in any event), and the Times's employment of the term "housing recession" 25 times since October 2006, as seen in this Times search (with the phrase in quotes).

But if I wanted to be consistent with this routine form of journalistic malpractice, I would characterize the newspaper business -- at least in terms of the top 25 in the industry's food chain -- not as being in recession, but instead as going through a deep, dark, painful, protracted depression.

Three Exceptions to E&P's '4-Year Circ Plunge' at Major Papers; I Wonder Why?
By Tom Blumer | March 15, 2008 | 12:18 AM EDT

Ken Shepherd of NewsBusters posted Tuesday on Editor and Publisher's March 11 article listing the four-year circulation changes at the nation's top 20 newspapers, concentrating on the 20% loss at the Los Angeles Times during that period.

What's also compelling is that the Top 20 really has three winners and 17 losers during that four-year time frame, as the chart that follows demonstrates:

Matthews 'Worried' Hillary Could Get Good Headlines?
By Mark Finkelstein | February 18, 2008 | 7:23 PM EST

Slip of the tongue, or was the man who gets a thrill up his leg from Barack Obama's rhetoric voicing his innermost apprehension at the prospect of Hillary Clinton regaining the upper hand?

On this afternoon's Hardball, host Chris Matthews was discussing the March 4th Texas primary with Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News, John Heilemann of New York magazine, and Norah O'Donnell. The MSNBCer made the point that under the arcane Texas rules in which the race is a hybrid of caucus and primary, it's possible for one candidate to win the popular vote and the other to walk off with more delegates.

That seemed to trigger Chris's anxiety reflex at the prospect of Hillary getting good publicity . . .

Religion Blog: NYT Reviewer Didn't Bother to Do Homework on 'Veggie Tales'
By Ken Shepherd | January 11, 2008 | 3:54 PM EST

A new "Veggie Tales" movie is hitting the silver screen and, as may well be expected, the New York Times doesn't like it much.That's not so surprising coming from the hallowed pages of the broadsheet bible of the secular left. But as Jeffrey Weiss of the Dallas Morning News's Religion Blog notes, it appears the hostile NYT reviewer is wholly unfamiliar with the Veggie Tales franchise and so may hardly have been the best reviewer for the assignment in the first place:

The New York Times has a bad review today of the new VeggieTales film, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." It's a bad review, in the sense that it slams the movie. But it's also a badly written review in that it seems to be written by someone who has never heard of or seen any of the VeggieTales previous cartoons or movies. Here's the top of the review, by Neil Genzlinger:
USA Today and WSJ Mask Serious Circulation Problems at Most Other Major Papers
By Tom Blumer | November 8, 2007 | 5:34 PM EST

It is understandable, but not forgivable, that business reporters at Old Media newspapers might think that the economy is in bad shape. They first have to get past how poorly most of their employers are doing. The industry as a whole has not been doing well, and it's been that way for quite some time.

This table illustrates that point (September 30, 2007 figures are at this post, which originally came from this Editor & Publisher article, which will soon disappear behind its firewall; March 31, 2005 figures were estimated in reverse using annual percentage changes reported as of March 31, 2006, because older data I thought would remain available no longer is):