Under the MSM radar

[sirs]

So-Called Electability and MSM Bias

It is open season for the liberal media on any GOP presidential candidate who displays the audacity to surge in the polls, the latest targets being Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich. A reasonable case can be made for some of these criticisms, and conservatives often concede the weaknesses, but there is no justification for this same media's ongoing cover-up for the current White House occupant.

Can you imagine how differently our political climate would be if the mainstream media had the slightest inclination toward fairness and balance? The liberal media have never, to my knowledge, shined the spotlight on Obama's many embarrassing gaffes. They have rarely called attention to his deceit, broken promises and policy failures.

Part of the reason is their presupposition that because he's a credentialed left-winger, he is brilliant, and any departure from that is a mere aberration, an exception that couldn't possibly detract from his presumptive brilliance. And as a bona fide "progressive," he is imbued with superior moral standards, and his misdeeds must be excused in exchange for his dedication to policies the liberal media deem are ethically unassailable.

From the mainstream media's perspective, conservatives, on the other hand, are presumptively dimwitted or morally bankrupt, because you can't be intelligent and conservative unless you're morally depraved. Ronald Reagan was an amiable dunce, despite his unparalleled ability to communicate; Dan Quayle was irredeemably simple because he misspelled "potato." George W. Bush was too stupid to tie his shoes (but inexplicably cunning enough to con erudite liberal congressmen into supporting him in his devious plot to depose Saddam Hussein).

GOP candidates magically become less competent or more corrupt the instant they show any signs of electability. Meanwhile, the MSM continue to ignore, defend and lie about Obama's abundant gaffes, policy failures, deceptions, divisiveness and extremism. 

(sirs disclaimer excerpt......MSM is manifested most offten by what's not reported vs what is)

Think how different our discussions of electability would be if the liberal media were to:

--Dan-Quayle Obama for his "57 states" and Navy "corpse-man" gaffes.

--Play a video loop of his brain freezes and verbal stutter-steps.

--Showcase his shoutout to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow during what was expected to be a solemn expression of sorrow for the victims of the Fort Hood murderer. 

--Air a montage of his bellicose attacks against Republicans, followed by clips in which he bitterly complained of their partisanship.

--Remind him of his immodest pledge to be a post-racial president while having ushered in an acutely race-conscious climate.

--Call him out for wasting $868 billion on a "stimulus" that Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf admitted would have "a net negative effect on the growth of GDP over 10 years."

--Refuse to ignore his cynical admission that he hadn't been altogether honest in claiming there were abundant "shovel-ready" jobs waiting in the wings.

--Point out that he promised to improve America's international image but has turned out to be even less popular in the Muslim world than President George W. Bush and has repeatedly offended our allies and their leaders, the most recent being Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

--Highlight that Obama expressed solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters, many of whom have been arrested for criminality, but demonized law-abiding tea partyers.

--Challenge Obama on his disingenuous commitment to make abortion "safe, legal and rare" while his administration has actively promoted the proliferation of abortion domestically, through its unswerving support for Planned Parenthood and its 900 abortions per day and through its taxpayer-funded lobbying for pro-abortion policies in Kenya and other nations.

--Report that Obama crammed through Obamacare on the false representation, aided by fraudulent accounting, that it would bend the health care cost curve down, even though it actually will greatly increase costs.

--Provide even the most rudimentary scrutiny of the twin scandals of Solyndra -- and its many green cousins -- and "Fast and Furious."

--Tell even part of the sordid tale of Obama's symbiotic relationship with ACORN and the Service Employees International Union.

--Ask Obama how he can be so high and mighty in condemning enhanced interrogation techniques on moral grounds despite knowing that with the implementation of those techniques in just three instances, many American lives were actually saved.

--Press him to explain his shaming Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primary race for proposing a health care insurance mandate and then brazenly making such a mandate a foundational component of Obamacare.

--Underscore his phony, though tepid and "evolving," opposition to same-sex marriage while he unleashes a full-frontal assault on traditional marriage through his extraconstitutional refusal to enforce it in court and his active effort to repeal it legislatively.

I speak of an imaginary world, but imagining it should serve to illustrate the extent to which the liberal media conspire to perpetuate a lingering illusion, to the immeasurable detriment of the nation

[Plane]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201103090022

NPR bias? Nonono!
This article was persuasive and reasonable untill the very last line.

I suspect the relentless drive to defund NPR has very little to do with how the network has covered conservatives. Instead, it has much more with the conservative contempt for serious, independent journalism.

Hahahahahahaha!

[Plane]

NPR does this double take toon.

Opposing toons every time.

Neat.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/19/142512757/double-take-toons-appealing-opportunity

[sirs]

I heard last week, that its apparently LEGAL for congress critters to get away with insider trading.....stuff that would be ILLEGAL if you or I were to try pulling it....stuff like that that put Martha Stewart behind bars.....stuff that the OWS twits are all up in arms with....Wall Street

Where's there outrage at Congress??

Where's the MSM scrutiny, outside of 1 60 minutes episode??  Hell, even some Republicans have pulled this stuff.  You'd think that would be an open invitation to reporting on the blatant double standard that DC seems to get, that private citizens and companies don't

[Plane]

quis custodiet ipsos custodes?




http://www.npr.org/2011/11/20/142511369/double-take-toons-capitol-investments








quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases:_Q

[sirs]

     Priceless

[sirs]

Again, just imagine if this were a Republican Administration.  Remember when Pelosi came in, as Speaker, with the montra of supposedly cleaning out the DC corruption?  That it takes a woman?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi fired back Sunday at a CBS News' "60 Minutes" report that highlighted several instances of what it suggested could be "soft corruption."

The show looked at the investments of various lawmakers -- including Pelosi, House Speaker John Boehner and Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama -- who reportedly bought stocks around the same time legislation involving those investments was being discussed.

Pelosi and her husband participated in an initial public offering of Visa in 2008, according to CBS. They bought 5,000 shares at the initial price of $44; two days later, shares were trading at $64, CBS said.

The network reported the investment came at the same time a piece of legislation that was opposed by credit-card companies was making its way through the House.

"Congress has never done more for consumers nor has the Congress passed more critical reforms of the credit card industry than under the Speakership of Nancy Pelosi," Pelosi spokesman, Drew Hammill, said in a statement soon after the report aired Sunday night.

"It is very troubling that 60 Minutes would base their reporting off of an already-discredited conservative author who has made a career of out attacking Democrats," he added.

CBS said it used as a starting point for its story the research of Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University.

About a year ago, he began work on a book about "soft corruption" in Washington, CBS reported. The network said it had independently verified the material it used.

Pelosi's spokesman criticized the CBS story for failing to note that the "legislation in question was reported out of the Judiciary Committee on October 3, 2008 -- the day the House was consumed in passing TARP and also the last day the House was in session before the November election."

It also failed to note that in September 2008, the House passed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, Hammill said.

"In the next Congress, the House and Senate passed and President Obama signed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights and the Dodd-Frank legislation, which included a stronger, more direct approach to addressing swipe fees," the spokesman said.

(Notice the artful tactic?...."look at all the good we (supposedly) did.  You can look pass the other 'stuff'" (that would put anyone else behind bars).  It's just those evil Republicans/conservatives trying to cause more division.  Move along, nothing to see here")

In addition to Pelosi, the CBS report took a look at the investments of of Bachus and Boehner.

In mid-September 2008, Bachus, then a ranking member on the House Committee on Financial Services, met with then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and lawmakers about the imminent collapse of the global economy, CBS reported.

At the same time, Bachus bought options funds, betting markets would go down, CBS said. He also traded General Electric stock, and roughly a third of GE's business is in financial services, CBS reported.

Bachus declined to talk to CBS, but his office provided a statement that said the representative never trades on non-public information, or financial services stock.

Meanwhile, Boehner, who in 2009 was the House Minority leader, bought health-insurance stocks during the health care debate, all of which increased in value after the so-called public option was killed, CBS reported. Boehner was very much against the public option.

He also declined to be interviewed, but spoke to CBS' Steve Kroft at a press conference.

"I have not made any decisions on day-to-day trading activities in my account -- and haven't for years. I don't -- I do not do it, haven't done it and wouldn't do it," he said.

A senior House GOP aide told CNN that Boehner's financial adviser bought a range of blue chip stocks around the same time -- not just health care stocks -- after he closed out the retirement account from his small business.

"The idea that the Republican leader in the House opposed the public option -- policy favored by the left of the left -- for personal profit is, frankly, stupid," said the aide.

(I don't think that's the claim here Mr GOP Aide.  It was the personal profit that was achieved by way of his position of knowing what was going on behind the scenes, that again, would put me or Martha Stewart behind bars.  Couldn't help but also notice that 60Min managed to use just 1 Democrat, while using 2 Republicans.  I'm stunned, I tell yas)


Shhhhhh, nothing to scrutinize here........move along.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Congresspeople should be subject to the same penalties as anyone else regarding insider trading. I favor forcing them to put their assets in a blind trust on the day they register to run for office until the day their terms expire.

[sirs]

But they aren't.  They wrote the law, that allows them to get away with that, which would put us behind bars.  That's the issue.  Where's the outrage??  Where's the MSM on this??

[Xavier_Onassis]

It was on Sixty Minutes. It was mentioned on the PBS business show. It was in the Miami Herald. There is a bill before Congress to make congresspeople come under the same laws as everyone else.

Are you waiting for Beck or Hannity to deal with it?

[sirs]

No, I'm waiting for everyone else to do more than 1 or 2 places merely mentioning it.  Cain got 24/7 coverage over a mere allegation.  This is FAR more insidious than that

[Amianthus]

There is a bill before Congress to make congresspeople come under the same laws as everyone else.

That bill was initially introduced in 2004. I think at this point we can safely assume it will never pass.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Sex sells. Everyine knows what sex is and how it works.

Someone profiting from insider trading is not sexy, and if it harms anyone, it is rather hard to identify whom it has harmed and what it has cost them. Most Americans do not know the difference between a "hot tip" and insider trading. The distinction is not always clear even to the experts.


I agree that congressmen should be banned from insider trading.

[Plane]

The Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter, who was aided by Newt Gingrich, Robert Walker, Richard Armey, Bill Paxon, Tom DeLay, John Boehner and Jim Nussle, and in part using text from former President Ronald Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address, the Contract detailed the actions the Republicans promised to take if they became the majority party in the United States House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America


Item One  >require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress

[sirs]

Someone profiting from insider trading is not sexy, and if it harms anyone, it is rather hard to identify whom it has harmed and what it has cost them. Most Americans do not know the difference between a "hot tip" and insider trading. The distinction is not always clear even to the experts.

I agree that congressmen should be banned from insider trading.

Folks on Wall Street making money, isn't sexy either.  Especially when its made legally. But the MSM is promoting these OWS twits, 24/7 as well, as if their protests have some basis of illegality at work here, because these people make too much, so something must be wrong.  Yet THAT gets scrutiny, as if there's a fire, with no smoke.  Here we have actual flames, and the best you have is some mention of a political/legisalative fire extinguisher may be in order, somewhere down the road??