Bias in mainstream press? WHAT bias?! (anti-gun vs. pro-life)

The apparently big story right now is about the estimated fewer than 1,000 who marched in Washington D.C. today against the Second Amendment. I understand that this has made all of the major evening new broadcasts: CBS, NBC, CNN etc.

To the very best of my understanding, there was NO such coverage at all of yesterday's March for Life, which many have calculated drew more than 500,000 to the Mall to protest abortion -the premeditated murder of unborn children - on the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Now, applying some logic here, you would think that a story regarding half a million people would dwarf that of an event which drew, at most, several hundred.

But I suppose when it comes to stories and their coverage from big media, some of them just don't fit the expected narrative...

Read More

Kermit and Miss Piggy slam Fox News!

The Muppets opened in cinemas domestically on the week of this past Thanksgiving. The ladyfriend and I saw it and loved it!! I keep hoping and praying that somebody will make an '80s Robot toy so I can put it on my desk: 'twould look so nice next to my chunk of the Berlin Wall, my Darth Sidious figure and other stuff.

Okay well anyway, it turns out that back when the movie first came out, Fox News claimed that The Muppets was a front for some devious liberal agenda! Because the film's villain, Tex Richman (played and rapped by Chris Cooper) is an eeeee-vil oil baron out to acquire the Muppets Theater by any means necessary. Seems that Fox News thinks that little kids are going to be turned off from capitalism.

Ehhhhh... whatever. I saw that movie and the only thing "liberal" is a cameo appearance by James Carville (speaking no lines) as one of several celebrities manning the phone banks during the telethon.

So The Muppets is on the eve of its international release and during the press conference the Fox News matter came up. And Kermit and Miss Piggy addressed it brilliantly! Here's the clip!

Might we be seeing a feud soon between Kermit and Bill O'Reilly? Personally, my money's on the frog.

Read More

Rupert Murdoch to demand pay for ALL News Corp online content

Rupert Murdoch - who I will always think of as "the billionaire tyrant" from that episode of The Simpsons he did a cameo on - has pledged to begin charging for access to ALL of the content on websites run by his News Corp. That includes the websites for the Fox Network, FoxNews.com and others (perhaps even MySpace?).

Apparently the move is to recoup from more than $200 million in lost revenue for News Corp during the previous quarter, including significantly less profit from The Wall Street Journal, which Murdoch now owns.

This might become the biggest blunder yet in the newspaper industry's series of attempts to regain the ground it's lost to online media. That horse departed the barn about fifteen years ago, and it ain't coming back. The New York Times has already tried charging for access to its site: a plan that promptly went down in flames. Murdoch's scheme will likely meet a similar fate.

Read More

ON THE LOT premieres on Fox tonight

On The Lot, the new reality show from Mark Burnett (Survivor and a few other programs) and Steven Spielberg (some movie guy) premieres on Fox tonight at 9 p.m. EST, right after American Idol. This is that "American Idol for filmmakers" show, where aspiring filmmakers have to make one movie a week and in Idol fashion, they get judged by a celebrity panel of judges before going to the American public to be voted on. The last one standing at the end of the summer gets a $1 million contract to work at DreamWorks.

Here are the 50 semi-finalists that came out of a field of over 12,000 entrants. I will not be one of those on the show tonight, although my entry Schrodinger's Bedroom seems to have been enjoyed by quite a lot of people (it had over ten thousand views before a website snafu required it to be re-uploaded, you can also watch it here on YouTube). Even so, I'm going to be watching this with a lot of interest over this coming summer. And who knows: I might already have an idea or two for an entry for next year's show :-)

Read More

Fox News handling of Republican debate shows how screwed-up this country is

Let me see if I've got this right...

Fox News may exclude SEVEN candidates from its Republican presidential debate - including Internet favorites Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter - because they and others are hovering around 1% support in national polls. Fox News doesn't want to give airtime to anyone who is showing just that 1%.

If they had live and unfettered airtime during the debate, they more than likely stand a good chance of seeing their percentage of support skyrocket across the country.

But in order to have that airtime, they have to be well-known enough to the public now, from a considerable amount of news coverage, which Fox News, CNN, CBS, and the rest of the mainstream media will absolutely not afford them. Why? Because candidates like Ron Paul are not the "favored elite" among either party. They're not the ones "picked to win" by their parties' bigwigs and the controllers of corporate media. On a level playing field, someone as intelligent and as articulate as Ron Paul would wipe the floor with George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton.

But we aren't allowed to have sincere brilliance rise into leadership roles anymore. They would upset the apple cart too much in this country. The leaders of both major parties have too much to lose than to let "loose cannons" take away from their power. The mainstream press... well, it wants power too, but it's also terminally lazy and doesn't want to go through the hassle of reporting on people with real ideas. The corporate media only wants people from whom it knows what to expect.

I've very little doubt that we are going to see Hillary or Guiliani or Obama or McCain or someone else among "the anointed" sworn in as President come January '09. And when they do, I'll only be able to close my eyes and shake my head in disgust, just as I have done when George W. Bush was inaugurated and Bill Clinton before him. There are no more adults to lead this country: we are now, and will for the foreseeable future, being led by the delinquent and the insane. All cheerfully brought to you by the network of Fair and Balanced reporting and others of its ilk.

Read More