On The Surface of Things

Howard Nemerov

Upgrade Update

Author pictures, as you can obviously see, are back again. I had to rewrite the code from scratch and am testing them in the blog posts only.If I feel confident in the code, user avatars will come back in the comments but a two restrictions: 1) pics can be no bigger than 3kb in size, 2) they must be exactly 85 pixels high if you don't want them to appear stretched out. Private messaging is…
Matthew Sheffield

Buying Meat Worse For Environment Than SUVs

Forget about carbon credits. SUV owners should just stop buying meat, and all their enviro-guilt will disappear faster than a Big Mac placed in front of former President Bill Clinton. Such was the finding of a Japanese study published by Blackwell Synergy's Animal Science Journal, and reported at New Scientist Wednesday (emphasis added throughout): A kilogram of beef is responsible for more…
Noel Sheppard

Politics Imitates South Park. Will Media Cover Obama's Sex Ed for Tots

A Democratic presidential contender has hinted that he thinks some form of sex ed is appropriate for the nation's five-year olds.I'm not exactly holding my breath for media outrage or at least interest in the topic, but I though Good Lt. at the "Jawa Report" has some good observations about how yet again, life seems to be imitating South Park:Amazing. Simply amazing. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,…
Ken Shepherd

Another NY Times Leak - JK Rowling Rails Against Potter Review Spoiler

Terry Trippany

WashPost Leaves Out Party Label of Pol Charged with Running Brothel

Say you write for or edit the metro section of a major metropolitan newspaper and you have a juicy story of a local ex-mayor who was arrested for running a brothel. It's right on the heels of the Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) prostitution scandal and the politician in the local story in question was once a sheriff's deputy, clearly no stranger to anti-prostitution laws.Party affiliation is just…
Ken Shepherd

Yet Another Rupert Murdoch Hit Piece

It seems you can't swing a dead cat these days without whacking a Rupert Murdoch hit piece. It must have been the New York Times' turn at the plate so to speak Thursday, and writer Richard Perez-Pena was more than up to the challenge. After an introduction of Peter R. Kann, the Chairman and CEO of Dow Jones, the company Murdoch is trying to buy, Perez-Pena appeared loaded for bear (emphasis…
Noel Sheppard

Rush Limbaugh Cites BMI 'Fire & Ice' Study

Julia A. Seymour

NPR Blogger: 'I'm Sorry, But Chick Fights Are Sexy

Paul Detrick

Terry Moran: Freedom Makes Men Terrorists

The day after Independence Day, ABC reporter Terry Moran jotted down his thoughts on what makes some people become terrorists. His answer: freedom.Rather than explore religious fanaticism or just plain depraved human wickedness, Moran insisted in a July 5 blog posting that modernity and the freedom of association it fosters is causing many a young Muslim male to descend into the hellish depths of…
Ken Shepherd

NBC to Cut Fred Thompson from ‘Law and Order’ Reruns

Without much fanfare, NBC made an interesting announcement Tuesday: if Fred Thompson becomes a presidential candidate, his episodes of "Law and Order" will no longer be rerun. As reported by the New York Daily News Wednesday (emphasis added throughout): "If Fred Thompson formally declares his intention to run for President, NBC will not schedule any further repeats of 'Law & Order'…
Noel Sheppard

Sun-Times Writer 'Harassed by Irate Republicans' Over 'Staunch Republi

Jennifer Hunter, the Chicago Sun-Times writer and wife of Sun-Times publisher John Cruickshank, who wrote the recent story skewered here on Newsbusters revealing a supposed "staunch Republican" from Philly who has suddenly decided to support the Democrats in 2008, has written a new piece today claiming she is being "harassed by a group of irate Republicans" because of her badly researched column…
Warner Todd Huston

Open Thread

If it's Thursday, it must be NewsBusters...
NB Staff

Rather: 'I'm Big on Personal Responsibility

Say what you will of Dan Rather, but don't deny he's got a great sense of humor . . .Most of Rather's pontifications on today's "Morning Joe" rolled off my back, as I flipped between his performance and that of Tiger Woods over the closing holes at Carnoustie.But something made me sit up and take notice. At 8:34 A.M. EDT, Rather suddenly blurted out: "I'm big on personal responsibility." And yes…
Mark Finkelstein