Did You Spot These Clues to How a Reporter Skews a Campaign Story?

PJ Media    "One of the things I learned early in my journalism training at Penn State is that a reporter can manipulate the meaning of events through word choices and source choices while appearing to remain an objective chronicler of the world as it is.

"Case in point: Washington Bureau Chief Dan Roberts reports for The Guardian on the importance of Obamacare in this year’s U.S. Senate race in North Carolina between Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis.

 

"I’ve done a seminar for high school students on how to read the news, so let’s have a little journalism clinic right now, to discover how a reporter’s word and source choices subtly sculpt your perception of the campaign, the healthcare issue and the respective politicians and their parties."...
...
"For example, you’ll find no pejorative associations for Sen. Hagan — no mention of George Soros, MSNBC, NARAL, or the Occupy Wall Street movement to parallel Mr. Tillis’ ties to the Koch Bros., NRA, Right to Life, Chamber, Romney and Tea Party. I don’t know if Hagan has any such links, I just noticed that the reporter doesn’t tell us anything about her ideological confederates."

Full article..

Our world in 'toons

Crowded border crossings a good indicator that it's election year in the U.S.

 

 

 

 

zappatrust

Life under liberals; June 19th, 2014

N.J. threatens to seize, place boy for adoption for twirling pencil 'like a gun'   ... "Ethan Chaplin was suspended and subjected to a five-hour battery of physical and psychological tests after a bully yelled out “he’s making gun motions, send him to juvie.” Chaplin was twirling a pencil in class. According to Fox2, blood and urine samples were also taken to determine why the boy was twirling a pencil." ...

Wayne Dupree: Liberals are Afraid of Black Conservatives Because It’s A Doorslam on their Rhetoric   "Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman are my heroes. Their strength and conviction to free blacks from slavery are a testament to what happens when individuals think more of their community than themselves and are willing to risk everything for a cause greater than themselves.

 

"In comparison, modern black “leaders” like Jesse Jackson Jr. and Al Sharpton are tiny and self-serving." ...Also in this article: Wayne Dupree quoting Democrat Lyndon Johnson:

“I’ll have those ‘Ni**ers’ voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” 

Apartment complex says U.S. flag a 'threat to Muslim community'    "An apartment complex in Webster, Texas, has reportedly told a man that an American flag flying from his balcony presents a “threat to the Muslim community" and needs to be taken down. But, Houston's KHOU reported Wednesday, Duy Tran is not giving up without a fight and intends to continue displaying the flag."

A Cold Dawn Coming

When she and Pandolfi project their curves into the future, they show low!r average temperatures from now through the mid-1980s.  “Then,” Dr. Libby added, “we see a warming trend (by about a quarter of 1 degree Fahrenheit) globally to around the year 2000.  And then it will get really cold—if we believe our projections.  This has to be tested.” 
How cold? “Easily one or two degrees,” she replied, “and maybe even three or four degrees.”

"Three or four degrees! That would be worth confirming wouldn’t it? " ...

Gore Blames Civil War In Syria On Global Warming…  

 Though the hellish and ongoing civil war in Syria has multiple causes – including the perfidy of the Assad government and the brutality on all sides – their climate-related drought may have been the biggest underlying trigger for the horror.

Video: Four Former EPA Chiefs Asked If They Agree With Obama’s Claim Global Temperatures “Increasing Faster Than Predicted” … Not A Single One Raises Their Hand…


Seattle Times Says It Will No Longer Use “Offensive” Redskins Name In Its Paper…

Mike Adams; Who Won't Wear The Cord?

 

"Some readers have written questioning my series of columns lampooning the lavender graduation at UNC-Wilmington. That is the ceremony where UNCW graduates are given purple cords to show that they are gay and lavender cords to show they approve of homosexuality. Students then wear these cords when they get their degrees at the university-wide graduation ceremony. " ...

...

"I know that for my readers this all seems a little ominous. But you should have seen it coming. The words "optional" and "inclusiveness" should have tipped you off."

ISIS in Iraq seizes control of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons facility. What? Wait!

"Officials don’t believe these Sunni militants will be able to create a functional weapon from the material. Are these the same officials who said there were never any WMD’s in Iraq?"

Bare Naked Islam   Quoting The Wall Street Journal:

Sunni extremists in Iraq have occupied what was once Saddam Hussein’s premier chemical-weapons production facility, a complex that still contains a stockpile of old weapons, State Department and other U.S. government officials said. The capture of the chemical-weapon stockpile by the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS or ISIL, the militant group that is seizing territory in the country, has grabbed the attention of the U.S.

 

Forces Battle Over Oil Refinery as Iraqi Government Requests U.S. Airstrikes

Should the radical Islamists take over the Middle East, keep this article filed away in a timeline of how this all came about.

Fox News  " 'The militants have managed to break in to the refinery. Now they are in control of the production units, administration building and four watch towers. This is 75 percent of the refinery," an official speaking from inside the refinery in Beiji told Reuters on Wednesday."

http://brianlangis.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/iraqs-oil-fields-and-pipelines/

 

Foreign Policy   ... "On Thursday, a government spokesman said its forces were in "complete control" of the refinery, however a witness noted ISIL fighters were still in the area and that clashes were continuing. On Wednesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshya Zebari appealed to the United States "to launch air strikes against militants." General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said incomplete intelligence in Iraq would make "an air campaign more difficult" meanwhile Gen. David Petraeus, who served as the top commander in Iraq, said, "This cannot be the United States being the air force of Shia militias or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight." Washington is indicating that it wants Iraq to form a new inclusive government without Maliki, however a spokesman for the prime minister said he would not resign as a condition for U.S. airstrikes." ...

This all sounds good and proper, but shouldn't our concern be how it threatens our faithful ally, Israel? This government's first priority should be to make America energy-independent: allow the Keystone pipeline and get off this ridiculous global warming schtick. If you determine your foreign policy by what Hollywood celebrities want, you in a heap o' trouble, boy.  TD

Harry Reid says he won't attend Redskins game until team changes name

http://cartoonsbyhenry.com/

 

Fox News   "In a letter late last week to the team's president, Reid called the Redskins name a racial slur that disparages the American people. The Nevada Democrat, who said he represents 27 tribes in his state, rejected Bruce Allen's invitation to a Redskins home game until the team does "the right thing" and changes its name.

 

" 'I will not stand idly by while a professional sports team promotes a racial slur as a team name and disparages the American people," Reid said in the letter. "Nor will I consider your invitation to attend a home game until your organization chooses to do the right thing and change its offensive name."

Reid said the matter is "personal" for him." ....

And the downside to that is...?

Lerner on missing emails: 'Sometimes stuff just happens'

 

Rick Moran   "The two years of missing emails from the account of Lois Lerner may be a problem for most people but for Lerner, it's just part of life.

"Sometimes, stuff just happens," Lerner wrote to an IT expert in 2011 who was trying to retreive the emails that were lost in her "hard drive crash." And no doubt, she's glad that's true.

"In a letter to Congress, the IRS tried to explain the steps they took to retrieve the missing emails." ...

Mr. Moran links us to this article from Power Line:

The Latest on Lois Lerner’s “Lost” Emails, With a Bombshell At the End

Jordan Could Be the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant's Next Target

Then guess who will be Israel's next-door neighbors.

STRATFOR

 

"The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, buoyed by its recent successes in Iraq, wants to expand its regional reach. Reports that Iraq has withdrawn forces from western towns close to its 180-kilometer (110-mile) border with Jordan have left Amman feeling vulnerable, and the Hashemite kingdom, certainly a target of interest for the jihadist movement, has deployed additional security personnel along the border.

"However, taking on Jordan would be tough for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The group has the ability to stage terrorist attacks in the country, but significant constraints will prevent it from operating on the levels seen in Iraq and Syria."  Read more:

Chuck Todd to Obama: Essentially the Public is Saying Your Presidency is Over

American Glob    
"Is Chuck Todd of NBC auditioning for a real news outlet?

"How else can this be explained?
 

 

"Read more at the Washington Free Beacon.

"I’m completely baffled by all of this. If Chuck Todd worked for FOX News instead of NBC, wouldn’t his comments be considered racist?"

Rush looks at this much differently: Don't Panic, Drive-Bys! The Obama Presidency is Just Getting Started
... "But the take-away is, this administration, this presidency is not cratered, it's not over, it's just now really beginning.  I mean, the things that have happened up 'til now I was worried would happen, predicted they would happen, knew they would happen.  That's why I warned everybody about it back in January of 2009.  But what is happening now is essentially really intensifying in the last six months, and what is going to continue to happen from now 'til the end of this administration, it's really only just beginning." ...
...
 "The president is releasing mass murdering terrorists and replenishing the enemy from Guantanamo Bay.  That doesn't sound like a presidency which is over.  The president's hell-bent on shutting town coal plants.  And just today, a story coming up, the haughty John Kerry, who once, by the way, served in Vietnam, has declared that 10% of the world's oceans will now be placed off-limits.

"The destruction of the oceans, you don't know how bad it is.  They're gonna set up the equivalent of wildlife reserves for marine life.  Marine life reserves.  You're not supposed to go in there and touch 'em.  You can't sail across.  I want to know what 10%.  Anyway, with all this going on, this is John Kerry shutting down 10% of the oceans again on a hoax.  Remember it was Ted Danson in 1989 who said, "We only got 10 years if we don't quit the oceans are all dead."  That was 1989.  These people are just beginning, is my point.  There's nothing over here. " ....

 

Patent & Trademark Office cancels several Washington Redskins trademarks

Volokh Conspiracy  " ... Blackhorse v. Pro Football, Inc. (USPTO TTAB June 18, 2014). A quick excerpt:

[T]hese registrations must be cancelled because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered, in violation of Section 2(a) of the Trademark Act of 1946, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a) [which bars, in relevant part, registrations of marks that "may disparage ... persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute"]. This decision concerns only the statutory right to registration under Section 2(a). We lack statutory authority to issue rulings concerning the right to use trademarks.

"The last two sentences are important: Even if the decision holds up on appeal (and I don’t know whether it will), the Redskins remain free to use those marks, and even sue over unauthorized use of the marks by others; they just don’t get the special protections against such uses by others that are offered by statutory registration. To quote the Patent & Trademark Office fact sheet on the case, those lost protections include:" ... Full article

Eugene Volokh teaches free speech law, religious freedom law, church-state relations law, a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic, and tort law, at UCLA School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy. Before coming to UCLA, he clerked for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (4th ed. 2011), The Religion Clauses and Related Statutes (2005), and Academic Legal Writing (4th ed. 2010), as well as over 70 law review articles. Volokh is also an Academic Affiliate for the Mayer Brown LLP law firm.

Awesome! Redskins Not Backing Down, Vow To Defend Name…

 

 

"Gotta love the backbone on these guys."

...The professional football team added that in the meantime, the ruling would have “no effect at all” on its trademark rights while the case is on appeal. The press release even put that in boldface and underlined it.

Hail to the Redskins Fight song since 1938. History of the song

http://www.haruth.com/RedskinsHailtotheRedskins.html

 

You Bet This is Swiftboating

Ann Coulter

 

... "The Democrats' only concept of how to support the troops is to treat them like their other constituent groups -- single women, blacks and the poor -- and offer them more government benefits.

"I'm fairly certain what the troops would really prefer is to be left alone by liberals.

"How about no free college tuition -- and not forcing the military to accept open homosexuality? How about fewer increases in military pensions -- and no Defense Department-funded transgender operation for gay traitor Bradley Manning? How about skimping on PTSD therapists -- and no girl generals?

"The military doesn't ask for a lot. Soldiers just want to do their job, which is to kill people and break things, not to be nurturing to women, gays and traitors.

"The troops don't complain much, but when they do, there is nothing more devastating than a real "swiftboating.' "

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2ecasPqhgk

Gore: Obama Has “Signaled” He Will Reject Keystone Pipeline…

Weasel Zippers

 

"One thing is for sure, if Obama does reject it, it won’t be until after the midterm elections." So, I'd say for the Republicans to campaign as if he has already rejected the pipeline.

Via Politico:
Al Gore says President Barack Obama has “signaled” that he will kill the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, though the former vice president didn’t cite any evidence for his claim.

“[Obama] has signaled that he is likely to reject the absurdly reckless Keystone XL-pipeline proposal for the transport of oil from carbon-intensive tar sands to be taken to market through the United States on its way to China, thus effectively limiting their exploitation,” Gore wrote in a Rolling Stone story published online Wednesday.