media – Page 3 – commonplacebook.com

Conservatives were cry-baby children

Post author:HFM
Post published:March 22, 2006
Post category:Current Events Politics

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.
At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.
…
In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids’ personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There’s no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it’s unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.
A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.
The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.

Media Matters calls the mainstream media on their Bush Cheerleading

Post author:HFM
Post published:March 22, 2006
Post category:Media

Jamison Foser nails the mainstream media, who seem to always call in favor of Bush, even when the average person on the street strongly disapproves of him:

Think about that for a moment: Lauer suggests that Bush’s low approval rating is a good thing for Republican candidates, because now, they can run away from him. We assume Lauer would agree that it would be a positive for Republican candidates if Bush had a high approval rating. What, then, is left? Can anything be bad news for Republicans?

How about this: the latest Pew poll, which found only a 33-percent approval rating for Bush, asked participants to describe their impression of him. The most frequently-used word? “Incompetent.” “Idiot” and “Liar” also came in near the top of the list. And tied for the 10th spot were “Leader” and “Ass,” just beating out “Jerk.” That’s right: as many people described Bush as an “ass” as called him a “leader.” Keep that in mind the next time some pundit (we’re looking at you, Matthews) praises Bush’s leadership abilities.

For some reason, no matter how many polls show that, to put it bluntly, people don’t like much of anything about George Bush, journalists can’t help overestimating his strength and support.

…

It’s about time media stop portraying every new controversy as a danger to Democrats, and start recognizing that these things are threats to Republicans: they’re the people in charge of a government widely seen as incompetent and corrupt; they’re the party led by a horribly unpopular president; and they’re the people who pushed a soundly rejected Social Security privatization scheme. And yet, media see everything as an opportunity for them, and a danger for Democrats. Osama bin Laden may be dead? Good news for Republicans: They got bin Laden! New tapes prove bin Laden is still alive? Good news for Republicans: It reminds people of the threat of terrorism! Democrats don’t criticize Bush? Good news for Republicans: Democrats are timid! Democrats do criticize Bush? Good news for Republicans: Democrats are shrill!

Enough.

Advance Indiana, Carson’s Challenger, and Ted Fleischaker

Post author:HFM
Post published:March 6, 2006
Post category:Current Events GLBT Issues Indiana Media Politics

Julia Carson is facing a democratic challenger to her office — a gay man, Kris Kiser, with very little political experience. Much of the GLBT community supports Carson, who has been a friend of ours politically and gone to bat on gay issues with no hesitancy whatsoever. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) both support Carson over a challenger with little experience.

However, local sleazeball gay “newpaper” publisher Ted Fleischaker endorsed Kiser over Carson in an editorial in his “newspaper” (the only part of that term that is accurate is that the trash he publishes gets printed on paper), generating some controversy in the gay community and a great deal of discussion over the issue on the Advance Indiana website, which has done a decent reporting on the details.

I can’t say much about Kiser or whether he’d be a good candidate, although I think he can’t have very good judgement, since he’s trying to create a schism in the community by running against one of the best elected officials Democrats have, rather than running against a Republican incumbent. And if I were him, I wouldn’t count an endorsement from Fleischaker as a positive thing. I’d be running as far away from that as I possible could.

After a heated discussion of the issues on the Advance Indiana site, along with commentary on the validity of Ted’s paper, someone hacked the Advance Indiana site and deleted the related posts. Gee, that’s an awful striking coincidence. I remember back in the day when I was libeled on the gayindy mailing list by an “anonymous” source for expressing opinions Mr. Fleischaker disagreed with.

Chris Matthews suggests that gay people are burning churches

Post author:HFM
Post published:February 6, 2006
Post category:GLBT Issues Media Religion

What the hell? Chris Matthews suggested that gay people are responsible for a series of church burnings that occurred last Thursday in Alabama. See the video of his suggestions (made with out any proof).

MATTHEWS: Is there anything in the papers down there where a Baptist church has taken a position on some social issue, gay marriage, something that’s hot, where that would have aroused somebody?

ATF AGENT CAVANAUGH: I haven’t seen that Chris, but it’s very viable because we had an arson at a Unitarian church in rural Virginia, back in the summer, and it was right after the church at a national level had embraced gay members. There was an attack on this church in Staunton (?), Virginia, so things like that can happen.

MATTHEWS: That’s why I’m thinking like that because the more liberal churches would drive some people on the right crazy and maybe a more liberal person, who’s gay for example, would feel that they’ve been terrorized by the beliefs of another church too. We don’t know.

Way to demonize gay people, Chris.

NBC’s partisan double standard

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 23, 2006
Post category:Media

Last week, NBC allowed Chris Matthews to say, on the air, that Osama bin Laden sounds like Michael Moore.
This week, though, when Rachel Maddow made a much more apt comparison on Tucker Carlson’s show, saying:

This is a global war on terror. This is a war for you or for us to win. You need patience…He sounds like Ken Mehlman when he’s saying that only less gay. I mean this is ridiculous.

NBC chose to scrub the transcript. Ken Mehlman, for those who don’t know, is the closeted gay head of the Republican National Committee. Here’s the transcript that NBC put online:

MADDOW: He sounds like Ken Mehlman when he‘s saying that. This is ridiculous.
CARLSON: I‘m going to blow by that comment. But I will say—you…

Apparently you’re allowed to dis Democrats but not tell the truth about Republicans.

Chris Matthews is also a homophobe

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 21, 2006
Post category:Current Events GLBT Issues Media Politics

Chris Matthews also had this to say about the movie Brokeback Mountain on the Don Imus radio show:

MATTHEWS (1/18/06): Have you gone to see it yet? I’ve seen everything else but that. I just—
IMUS: No, I haven’t seen it. Why would I want to see that?
MATTHEWS: I don’t know. No opinion on that. I haven’t seen it either, so—
IMUS: So they were—it was out when I was in New Mexico and—it doesn’t resonate with real cowboys who I know.
MATTHEWS: Yeah—
IMUS: But then, maybe there’s stuff going on on the ranch that I don’t know about. Not on my ranch, but you know—
MATTHEWS: Well, the wonderful Michael Savage, who’s on 570 in DC, who shares a station with you at least, he calls it [laughter]—what’s he call it?—he calls it Bare-back Mount-ing. That’s his name for the movie.
IMUS: Of course, Bernard calls it Fudgepack Mountain…

Notice he called Michael Savage wonderful? That’s really frightening.

Osama bin Laden still alive, Chris Matthews is a jerk

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 21, 2006
Post category:Current Events Politics

I’m sure you’ve all heard that a tape has surfaced of Osama bin Laden’s voice, indicating that he’s still alive. That was probably quite a blow to the Bush White House, because they’ve been quietly planting the story about that he died in December…

(original link, no longer active – http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1221/dailyUpdate.html) Christian Science Monitor, 12/21/2005:

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday that he doubts Osama bin Laden is in any position to command the worldwide operations of Al Qaeda. The BBC reports that Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters on a flight to Pakistan that bin Laden could still be hiding along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, but it was hard to know since the terrorist leader had not been heard from in more than a year…

And the (original link, no longer active – http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200601090808.asp) National Review, January 9, 2006:

And, according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Nice attempt to tie bin Laden to Iran so we can invade there, huh?

Some news people, though, seemed to think it was less important to talk about what it means that bin Laden’s alive, and more important to play politics, thus prompting outrage. Chris Matthews on Hardball: “I mean he sounds like an over the top Michael Moore here, if not a Michael Moore. You think that sells…”

And Chris Matthews sounds a lot like Joseph Stalin. I’m just saying.

John Kerry responds to Chris Matthews:

“You’d think the only focus tonight would be on destroying Osama Bin Laden, not comparing him to an American who opposes the war whether you like him or not. You want a real debate that America needs? Here goes: If the administration had done the job right in Tora Bora we might not be having discussions on Hardball about a new Bin Laden tape. How dare Scott McClellan tell America that this Administration puts terrorists out of business when had they put Osama Bin Laden out of business in Afghanistan when our troops wanted to, we wouldn’t have to hear this barbarian’s voice on tape. That’s what we should be talking about in America.” — John Kerry

2022-03-15 Update:
Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 a.m. PKT. Chris Matthews denied ever saying he was dead prior to that date.

IndyStar’s “In Touch” Blog

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 6, 2006
Post category:GLBT Issues Indianapolis

Read this blog entry from Jocelyn-Tandy Torkwase Adande:

An individual’s sexual preference should be a private matter. Recently, the Democratic caucus of the City-County Council attached an ordinance relating to sexual orientation to a human rights bill that also allows 15 percent of all business contracts with the city of Indianapolis to be awarded to minority-owned businesses.
To gain acceptance, a faction within the party, Stonewall Democrats, agreed to support this ordinance. The majority of African-American council members voted in favor of it and against the opinion of the religious community and its constituents. These council members wrongly allowed homosexuals and their supporters to identify their struggle with the plight of African Americans during the civil rights era.
Federal and state laws address acts of discrimination in employment and housing. Sexual harassment in the workplace is a type of employment discrimination. Such acts are prohibited by the 1964 Civil Rights Act and commonly by state statutes.
Passage of the ordinance was a mistake. To compare the plight of homosexuals to that of African Americans is an insult to my race.

I take issue with the very first line — my sexual orientation isn’t a matter for the bedroom, any more than any heterosexual couple’s is. When take your spouse to the company Christmas party and introduce them to people, you say “this is my wife, Christine” or “this is my husband, John.” You’re pointing out your sexual orientation and making it a part of your relationships with your co-workers and friends.
I do the same with mine. My girlfriend, someday wife, isn’t only that in my bedroom but in every aspect of my life. Our relationship may include sex, but it’s not solely about that — it’s also about love, loyalty, companionship, support, friendship, family, compassion, commitment and faith. Our relationship not a “sexual act.” It’s a beautiful, gracious gift from the universe, and I celebrate it every day.

Why the media can’t get Wikipedia right

Post author:HFM
Post published:January 3, 2006
Post category:Media

I recently had a short conversation with a woefully misinformed person about Wikipedia, wherein they claimed that “It’s going to be shut down!” and “They’re getting sued!” Nope, on both counts. They were discussing, without much understanding, John Seigenthaler Sr.’s USAToday op-ed piece about the popular online open-source encyclopedia.
David Weinberger analyzes the “controversy” and identifies what the media is not getting about what wikipedia is, and does, and why the hysteria is unfounded.

Newspaper Names

Post author:HFM
Post published:May 26, 2004
Post category:Indianapolis Media

For a brain-storming session on a name for a new local Indianapolis paper, these were some of our ideas. Apparently, I’m the only one who thinks the name “Naptown Argus” as a Indianapolis newspaper is laugh-out-loud funny. Hmmm. Too much Greek Mythology as a child, not enough playing outside.

(edited to add suggestions from reader comments):

Acorn
Advance
Appeal
Argus
Banner
Beacon
Beaver (Bakersfield Beaver!)
Brief
Bee
Breeze
Bugle
Bulletin
Bumble Bee
Call
Camera
Chronicle
Citizen
City Press
Constitution
Courier
Current
Daily Home
Daily Mail
Daily Star
The Derrick
Discovery
Dispatch
Eagle
Echo
Enterprise
Examiner
Exponent
Express
Eye
Forum
Free Press
Gazette
Globe
Guardian
Guide
Herald
Humbug
Islander
Inquirer
Intelligencer
Journal
Juggernaut
Leader
Ledger
Life
Mercury
Messenger
Meteor
Monitor
Mosquito
Observer
Oracle
Pantagraph (Bloomington (IL) Daily Pantagraph)
Picayune
Pilot
Pioneer
Planet
Post
Radio
Rag
Record
Recorder
Reflector
Repository
Republic
Review
Sentinel
Sentry
Standard
Statesman
Sun
Telegraph
Today
Tribune
Union
Universe
Vanguard
Vindicator (Youngstown, Ohio)
Voice
Watchmen
Whigs
World
Zephyr
Zeitung (Zeitung = newspaper in German)