UPI

White House Veteran Reporter Helen Thomas: 'I Will Be a Liberal Till the Day I Die'
By Clay Waters | November 6, 2006 | 9:16 AM EST

The liberalism of White House eternal Helen Thomas isn't exactly a state secret, and she readily owned up to it in a sympathetic profile in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday.

The White House bureau chief for United Press International since forever (until she quit when it was acquired by the company that owns the conservative Washington Times) at 87 she's now a syndicated columnist for Hearst News Service. She tells the Inquirer:

"I'm a liberal, I was born a liberal, and I will be a liberal till the day I die. That has nothing to do with whether or not this administration is telling the truth. Nor does it have anything to do with the way I presented my stories when I was a news reporter. When I was reporting news, as a person I never bowed out of the human race -- I felt my feelings and had my opinions about things, just as anyone does -- but it never got into my copy. I was never accused of slanting my copy."

The Skinny On Those Political “Military Magazines” Calling For Rumsfeld's Resignation
By John Stephenson | November 4, 2006 | 3:57 PM EST

The UPI and many other news sources are headlining “Military mags to call for Rumsfeld ouster”. 

Zarqawi a Victim?
By Michael Rule | June 9, 2006 | 12:39 PM EDT

There has been some buzz in the email this morning about a question Pam Hess of UPI asked General William Caldwell in a briefing this morning. In her question, Hess referred to those who died in the air strike that killed the most wanted man in Iraq, including Abu Musab al Zarqawi himself, as victims. Her full question was:

The O'Reilly Guest Who Once Called America "A Brutal Occupier, Humiliating Iraqis"
By Dave Pierre | May 12, 2006 | 12:39 AM EDT

A journalist named Nir Rosen appeared as a guest on tonight's edition of The O'Reilly Factor (Thu. May 11, 2006). He has a new book out called In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq. To write the book, Rosen "gained an impressive measure of access to both the Sunni and Shia resistance" and probably obtained "more sources in the insurgency than any other American reporter" (emphasis mine, sourced here). So O'Reilly began his interview with the obvious question:

"How did you do that? Very few people, journalists, particularly writers, have been able to get in there without getting their head cut off. How did you do it?"

Rosen responded (emphasis mine),

Helen Thomas: Press Corps Has "Played Dead," Rumsfeld's All "Baloney"
By Tim Graham | March 1, 2006 | 3:58 PM EST

Former UPI White House reporter Helen Thomas gave an interview to Campus Progress, the campus project of the liberal Center for American Progress. Her theme, unsurprisingly, was that the Washington press corps is a bulk pack of weenies:

Stem Cell 'Breakthrough' Stories Covered Very Differently
By Tom Blumer | December 14, 2005 | 3:10 PM EST

Two "breakthoughs" in stem-cell research announced at roughly the same time have, based on Google News searches, received very disparate treatment in news coverage.

Click here to view the Google News screen shot. Note: the "hours ago" indicator is only for the lead item listed. Both stories originated in news coverage in the early AM on December 13.

Associated Press/USA Today Focus on the Negatives in New Poll From Iraq
By Noel Sheppard | December 12, 2005 | 12:49 PM EST

As reported yesterday by NewsBusters, a brand new ABC News/TIME poll depicted Iraqis as being very optimistic about themselves and the future of their country. The Associated Press via USA Today is sharing this information with its readers by focusing attention on the negatives first. The article, entitled “Most Iraqis Oppose U.S. Troops, Poll Says,” began:

“Most Iraqis disapprove of the presence of U.S. forces in their country, yet they are optimistic about Iraq's future and their own personal lives, according to a new poll.

“More than two-thirds of those surveyed oppose the presence of troops from the United States and its coalition partners and less than half, 44%, say their country is better off now than it was before the war, according to an ABC News poll conducted with Time magazine and other media partners.”

Then the article addressed the positives:

Rep. Dicks Does a "Murtha" Assisted by the Same Revisionist Media Tactics
By Noel Sheppard | November 25, 2005 | 7:29 PM EST

The Associated Press and United Press International are reporting that another Democratic hawk, Norm Dicks (D-Washington), has changed his position on the Iraq war. They are both quoting from and referencing a Seattle Times article first published about 16 hours ago entitled “Defense hawk Dicks says he now sees war as a mistake.” Yet, they are conveniently ignoring previous statements made by Dicks concerning the war that were also reported by the Seattle Times.

Today’s article stated:

Media Disconnect in Covering Catholic Church Versus Public School Sex Abuse?
By Ken Shepherd | October 17, 2005 | 5:51 PM EDT

James O. Clifford, Sr., a retired reporter and editor with UPI and the Associated Press, has an interesting guest column, "Cardinal Law Was Looking For Media Sin In The Wrong Places," in this month's edition of the conservative Catholic magazine, New Oxford Review.