Media Bias Debate

From Beirut, Chawki Freiha reports* on a provocative editorial that appeared in the Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper on November 3 written by Abdelbari Atwan, the first journalist to have met with Osama bin Laden. Titled “Obama’s Historic Intifada,” Atwan praises the probable election of Barack Obama to the White House and claims that with Obama installed in Washington, Islam will be able to “impose…

Matthew Vadum (Right) Speaking Truth to Flower PowerAs Bill Cosby said via Fat Albert and the Gang, it's like school on Saturday: No class.NewsBusters.org Contributor, the estimable Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center, made an October 30th appearance on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, during which he discussed the many illegal activities of the community organizing group Association of…

When Katie Couric was trying to pin Sarah Palin down on examples of John McCain having promoted increased government regulation of business, the CBS anchor, after her initial inquiry, posed no fewer than three follow-up questions, even breaking out the old "not to belabor the point" line as she did just that.But when the man perhaps poised to become the most powerful person on the planet, with…

In reporting the speech by Gov. Sarah Palin in Ohio today, CNN’s Political Ticker tried to spin her question about Obama’s coal comment as old news when it clearly isn’t. Palin asked why we are just now finding out about the interview where Barack Obama said he had hoped to bankrupt the coal industry but CNN termed this interview and Obama’s startling admission as “months-old coal comments” in an…

It's hard to tell whether this is a reaction to "It's about time!" complaints that would tend to come from the center-right, or to "How dare you!" protests from the left (my money is on the latter), but pollster John Zogby took an unprofessional turn in his Saturday report (to be replaced in 24-48 hours) that was released in the wee hours this morning.The substantive news is that Barack Obama is…

**Update** 4PM 11/01/08 Like Obama, the folks that run The Stranger "newspaper" in Seattle are all about tolerance... as long as you believe the same things they believe. If you don't, well, then you deserve intimidation and a good "outing." just as Obama has tried to intimidate radio talk show hosts, just like he has tried to use the office of the Attorney General to quash political free speech…

Yet another writer from a lefty paper is here to tell us all that McCain and all his followers are racists. You see, if McCain wins, Steve Kraske imagines in his latest column that all blacks will feel that Jim Crow is back and the rest of the Democratic Party will be "angry at the world." So, a McCain win will be the return of Jim Crow? Isn't that an awfully irresponsible lie to promulgate, Mr.…

But Why Does The AP Report Ignore Key Part of Story? Remember when you were a young school kid and you drew a vampire during the week of Halloween? Remember how the blood was always dripping down from his menacing, pearly white teeth? Remember how it was all in good Halloween fun? Well, you can just forget THAT mister, at least if you are a 5th-Grader in the Savannah-Chatham school system in…

Give them credit for noticing. Pass out demerits for incompleteness.Friday's USA Today carried a slightly inaccurate Page 1A tease ("Iraq is safer for US troops; October is on track to tie July for the month with fewest combat deaths"). It went to a top of Page 7A story ("US Deaths in Iraq on track for record low") that noticed how relatively well the month of October has gone for our troops in…

Political cartoonist Sam Ryskind with his idea on the perfect journalist costume for trick-or-treating: You can find more of Ryskind's work at Human Events and at his Web site, The Ryskind Sketchbook.

Al Neuharth's Friday mini-column in USA Today should have been in a section the paper doesn't have: the comics.Neuharth claimed that today's newspapers play the news straight, while in the "olden days" they didn't.Put down all drinks before reading (bolds are mine): Fewer newspapers try to dictate votesPlain Talk by Al Neuharth More newspaper bosses across the USA have wised up to the fact that…