Middle East

A battle of wits between two men named Christopher took place in Berkeley, California, on May 24. Unfortunately, one contestant came embarrassingly unequipped, so much so that by the end, he chose to not even respond.Break out the cashews and your favorite libation, sports fans, because this debate between former New York Times Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges, and the never at a loss for words…

On Monday’s "Good Morning America," ABC co-anchor Chris Cuomo acted as lawyer for the defense when he interviewed the co-authors of a new book that contains critical revelations about 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Cuomo grilled Don Van Natta and Jeff Gerth, the New York Times investigative journalists behind "Her Way," asking if their book was a "sleeper" and an "Ambien substitute…

On Saturday, a NewsBusters headline asked the following question: “JFK Terror Plot: How Soon Before Media Blame Bush For Timing of Arrests?”Well, Sunday morning, ABCNews.com actually went one better by using a statement made by John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania) on “This Week” as the headline for the video of George Stephanopoulos’ interview with the Congressman: “Murtha Ties Foiled JFK Plot to U.S. in…

On Saturday, NewsBusters shared a truly unnerving graduation video from a Hamas kindergarten in Gaza. The point of the article was to demonstrate how the media meme of terrorism being largely a function of poverty and despair is an inaccurate and incomplete representation. Almost serendipitously, Charles Johnson just hours before wrote about a 2006 documentary made by Brooke Goldstein and filmed…

If graduation ceremonies from Israeli kindergartens included dressing children up in full military attire, with machine guns, ammo belts, and knives, and having the kids chant about killing Palestinians, do you think this would be newsworthy?Well, on Thursday, Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV aired a video of the graduation ceremony for the 29th class of the Islamic Association’s kindergarten in Gaza (video…

There’s no way to properly prepare the reader for what follows, and droll remarks about stowing potables and such would be highly inappropriate.Critical Update at end of post!The following almost unbelievable video was posted at YouTube in April. As Charles Johnson described it at Little Green Footballs:It’s a home movie from hell, featuring a group of young girls dressed as suicide bombers and…

"Get the Hint? Wink Wink? Nudge Nudge?" Katie Couric may be many things (don’t call her perky), but she’s not subtle. The "CBS Evening News" anchor touted a new special on Walter Cronkite, a journalist who "stood up to the Commander in Chief" during an "unpopular war." "We Can Dream, Can’t We?" Former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, now the anchor of ABC’s "This Week," took time out of his…

NewsBusters reader Bender messaged me earlier noting that, given an opportunity to explain her views on American troops and terrorism, Rosie O'Donnell made no effort to clear the air on her blog in a posting the evening of May 23 at Rosie.com.Here's the relevant exchange:

Update at bottom with video link- 18:10 EST:Why should a country go to the effort of spying on America when all they have to do is follow the US media? USA Today reported a database of phone calls and the New York Times publically exposed the SWIFT banking transaction database; both were used to combat terrorism.  Now on the May 22 edition of ABC News’ the Blotter, Brian Ross and Richard Esposito…

As America’s media largely gushed over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-California) visit to Syria last month, it would only be fair of them to gauge reaction of the citizens most-largely impacted – the Syrians themselves.In a rather stunning article published May 15, The New York Observer has gone where few press outlets dare (h/t LGF, emphasis added throughout):Many Syrian dissidents and pro-…