An Unbiased CNN Host?
There’s nothing wrong with being biased. In fact, visit almost any blog in the sphere and there will likely be some sort of bias, either in terms of content or ideological slant. The difference -the blogs don’t lie about their bias. Or do they claim to have no bias at all.
Yet the Old Media continues to assert some sort of non-existent journalistic impartiality that hasn’t existed for ages, if ever. Witness these two recent segues by CNN Lou Dobbs.
From the CNN Transcript:
DOBBS: Turning now to the war on the middle class in this country, the 60,000 American auto workers losing their jobs over the next three years don't appear to be a concern for this White House.
Next, the unbiased Dobbs moves on to a story on China:
DOBBS: We're taking a closer look tonight at yet another complete U.S. policy failure...
Now go with me here. Asserting as a prequel to a story that the White House doesn’t appear to be concerned over the story coming up is not exactly reporting “just-the-facts-ma’am.” To do such a thing right up front is a blatant attempt to prejudice the viewer.
Then in the same show Dobbs moves on with yet another biased prequel, asserting that the story about to come is yet another policy failure. Two things going on here: one) ”yet another” indicates that there’s a long list of such policy failures; two) the story about to come is just one of those policy failures.
Why can’t Dobbs just give the details and let the viewers decide?
The big print media organs across the fruited plains are dropping like rocks in the stock market and laying off many employees. Readers with brains got a bit tired of these hoary institutions giving a version of events that at best, provides one side of the story, at worst, are outright lies. Bloggers started reporting the facts, with a bias sure but right up front, and the grand old dams of the print world began tumbling down.
Now there’s such a podcasts and soon enough, citizen journalists will start delivering their own news programs. CNN has lost in the ratings race to Fox long ago. CNN had once been the premiere news program of the cable news sphere.
Lou Dobbs’ insult to the viewer’s intelligence that only he is astute enough to analyze the news he is about to report is part of the reason CNN began that long decline.
I have not one ounce of respect for the man.
Well It Is a Conundrum
Richard Cohen is the most liberal of columnists for the Washington Post. He is not, insert smile here, considered a person of great humor. But his quote below, culled from Chuck Muth’s News and Views, is a real hoot.
Before, let me say that I too am surprised that John Wayne is considered one of America’s most beloved movie stars. Not that Wayne wasn’t a fine actor in his day. Still, it is perplexing. We’ve got the wonderful Sean Penn and goodness George Clooney, both handsome actors and political activists of sorts. Then there’s Bono out and about and telling us to forgive third world debt that the African Poobahs can have their fine cloths and gold jewels. Hey, how about Jennifer Anniston, always showing those breasts, always caught unawares? Which leads to Brad Pitt, of course, and the mother of his child-to-be, Angelina Jolie.
My oh my, all of this current talent and Americans consider John Wayne their most beloved of actors?
Some might suggest the John Wayne choice to be a reaction to the Brokeback Mountain success.
But I won’t go there.
LEMME TELL YA, PILGRIM
"The latest poll is not good for the Democrats. . . . I'm talking about the recently released Harris Poll showing John Wayne one of the most popular movie stars of 2005 among Americans. The one thing he and the Democratic Party have in common is that they are both dead."
- Columnist Richard Cohen
Barack Obama, the Dems’ New Super Star
I saw the show referred to in this American Thinker analysis. Yes, I too thought Obama’s words were the stuff of common sense.
“We need to recognize, because Judge Alito will be confirmed, that if we’re going to oppose a nominee that we’ve got to persuade the American people that, in fact, their values are at stake. There is an over-reliance on the part of Democrats for procedural maneuvers.”
He added
“There’s one way to guarantee that the judges who are appointed to the Supreme Court are judges that reflect our values. And that’s to win elections.”
…with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week
The American Thinker goes on with this:
he voted to sustain this pointless filibuster against Judge Alito’s confirmation? I guess he should have said “There is an over-reliance on the part of Democrats for procedural maneuvers, and I’m no exception, but don’t let that fact stop you from thinking that I am dispensing lofty pearls of wisdom, sharing insights only a preternatural being like me can see.”
It’s true. The new Democratic Super Star pontificated from his throne on Stephanopoulos TV. Then he went and did the exact opposite of his wise words!
Talking out of both sides of one’s mouth must be a requirement for Democratic super stardom.
Another, More Sincere Take on the Matter
From the mighty Captain at Captain’s Quarters:
Bush won two elections and the Republicans won ever-growing majorities in the Senate based in large part on their views of the judiciary. People want judges like Alito confirmed, and that's the point of saying that elections have consequences.
One More Good Snort
From News and Views:
FOOLS ON THE HILL
"And of course the filibuster (against Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito) cannot succeed. Seven Democratic senators are on record as renouncing the filibuster except in 'extraordinary circumstances,' and it's hard to think of a circumstance more ordinary than Kennedy and Kerry behaving like fools."
- James Taranto of Best of the Web, 1/27/06
No Snorts, Just Smiles
"I bought some batteries, but they weren't included." - Steven Wright
"I read part of it all the way through." - Samuel Goldwyn
"Common sense is genius dressed up in work clothes." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Leaving With a Sweet Truth
…Because I are one.
When grandparents enter the door, discipline flies out the window. ~Ogden Nash
More Notable/Quotables HERE
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A Poignant Reminder to All of Us
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How Many School Children Today Could Pass This 8th Grade Exam of Yore?
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal. 8th GRADE FINAL EXAM Grammar (Time, one hour) 1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters. 2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications. 3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph. 4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of lie, lay and run 5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case. 6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation. 7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. for tare? 4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter? 8 Find bank discount on $300 for! 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt. U. S. History (Time, 45 minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which U. S. History is divided. 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus. 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States. 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas. 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe? 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865. Orthography (Time, one hour) 1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication? 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals? 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'. 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.  Geography (Time, one hour) 1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America. 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall &Orinoco. 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth. |
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