The Official Media bias thread ptIII

[TheBigDave]

I'm late? You're the one trying to push a phony clip that was discredited 2 days ago.

[Ky-Fi]

This just came out---I think it's legit. This is undercover video from the same guy who did a similar video of the ACRORN people---this time it's NPR execs. Pretty much what you'd expect from NPR bigwigs, IMO

[mosquitobite]

The racist claim is so tiresome.

Tea partiers are racist because they want to cut the size of the federal government?

Lame argument. You (a general "you") lose. Try again.

[slop101]

It's not so much racism as it is classism.

[mosquitobite]

Originally Posted by slop101

It's not so much racism as it is classism.

if that ain't irony...

[Navinabob]

That footage is filled with so much fail. If you look at just the edited version with the bold print you are getting a story forced down your gullet. The fundraiser (NOT an executive with any editorial, programming or reporting clout) clearly states that these opinions are his and not that of NPR. "Muslim Brotherhood" is printed on the screen many more times then it is really spoken... The guy from NPR turned down the fictitious 5 million dollar check he was trying to push on the person! O'Keefe's editing act is identical to the comedy reporting done on The Daily Show and by radio shock-jocks every day. Why do Republicans seemingly ditch all reason out of their heads and embrace this guy as gospel.

The guy has repeatedly been shown to manipulate footage and then lie about the context of his stunts and forget any details that don't agree with the agenda he is pushing when paraded around FOX news like a God. How this guy has any credibility left is astounding.

If you hold up a photo of a spray-painted pie tin to a bunch of UFO believers they magically loose the ability to spot the string holding up the prop. Setting ideology aside, the fact that so many people can't spot O'Keefe's string just depresses the hell out of me.

[Ky-Fi]

Whoah, serious shock waves from that video:


Vivian Schiller Resigns as Head of NPR

National Public Radio President and CEO Vivian Schiller resigned abruptly Wednesday morning amid challenges to NPR's public funding and a new controversy involving an embarrassing sting operation.

In a statement posted on the NPR website, Board of Directors Chairman Dave Edwards said Schiller's resignation was accepted "with understanding, genuine regret, and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past two years."

He added that Joyce Slocum, a senior vice president of legal affairs and general counsel, has been appointed to the position of Interim CEO. "The Board will immediately establish an Executive Transition Committee that will develop a timeframe and process for the recruitment and selection of new leadership," he said.

Vivian Schiller is no relation to Ron Schiller, another NPR executive who stepped down Tuesday after a video surffaced showing him and a colleague making candid, awkward comments about the Republican Party -- and also talking bluntly ousted commentator Juan Williams.

The sting operation, produced by conservative activist James O'Keefe, involved two men masquerading as wealthy Muslim donors and offering NPR $5 million. In the video, Ron Schiller says to the men: "The current Republican Party, particularly the tea party, is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian -- and I wouldn't even call it Christian." In answer to a question about the tea party movement, he adds, "Basically, they believe in white, middle America, gun toting -- it's pretty scary. They're seriously racist."

Schiller, who until Tuesday was NPR Foundation's senior vice president for development, went on to say that he was proud that the radio network fired Juan Williams after the commentator said on Fox News he would be concerned if he boarded a plane with fellow passengers in Muslim garb.

The NPR announcement of Vivian Schiller's departure noted that she "quickly condemned Ron Schiller's comments."

Commenting on the CEO's resignation, Edwards' statement acknowledged "the magnitude of this news – and that it comes on top of what has been a traumatic period for NPR and the larger public radio community. The Board is committed to supporting NPR through this interim period and has confidence in NPR's leadership team."

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/03...s-head-of-npr/

[wmansir]

NPR's blog covering this story has updates indicating the board asked for her resignation after some discussion with her. It seems the main reason, according to the board, was to get new leadership that wouldn't have the baggage of this latest episode or the Williams firing.

link

[brayzie]

I have to watch the video fully, but is one of the issues that the exec showed personal bias off camera?

I can imagine trying to be objective when putting out a program or news, but now you can get fired if you are caught on video having an opinion?

[JasonF]

Originally Posted by brayzie

I can imagine trying to be objective when putting out a program or news, but now you can get fired if you are caught on video having an opinion?

Not if it's a conservative position.

[Mabuse]

I'm willing to bet that in NPR's eyes the worst thing the guy said in that video is that NPR would be fine without federal money. That alone is the reason for the shake up. They need that money like heroine.

[Groucho]

Originally Posted by Mabuse

They need that money like heroine.

[Navinabob]

Federal money makes up about 2% of NPR operating budget. It's the fringe stations out in rural areas that get as much as 20% to 30% subsidized funding to keep them going.

I'm sure many in corporate would love to ditch federal money as they'd lose that additional level of oversight and restrictions. I believe that's what the guy was talking about.

[wmansir]

Originally Posted by brayzie

I have to watch the video fully, but is one of the issues that the exec showed personal bias off camera?

I can imagine trying to be objective when putting out a program or news, but now you can get fired if you are caught on video having an opinion?

I don't know if the totality of his statements amount to a fireable offence, but this is more than just expressing a private opinion. He was on the job, representing NPR in an official capacity.

PS. O'Keefe has said there are more videos coming. A spokesman for PBS said their senior VP of development had a lunch with the fake donors.

[TheBigDave]

MSNBC's Ed Shultz talks about how he used fake callers on his radio show. Some of them were coached by Dem congressional staff.

[PopcornTreeCt]

This thread is funny.

Do people really not think that the Tea Party is not rooted by racism?

[Hank Ringworm]

Originally Posted by PopcornTreeCt

This thread is funny.

Do people really not think that the Tea Party is not rooted by racism?

In the same way we think that your posts are not rooted by (sic) stupidity.

[JasonF]

In other news, David Broder has died.

[Sean O'Hara]

Originally Posted by PopcornTreeCt

This thread is funny.

Do people really not think that the Tea Party is not rooted by racism?

Is the double-negative intentional?

[orangecrush]

Originally Posted by JasonF

In other news, David Broder has died.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...0905053_2.html

[VinVega]

Originally Posted by Hank Ringworm

In the same way we think that your posts are not rooted by (sic) stupidity.

mod warning - Discuss the topic not the poster and stop the personal attacks.

[Chrisedge]

The problem isn't with the tea party. It's that a lot of bigoted racists who think the tea party will eliminate illegal immigration and then they show up at their events and make stupid comments. Not that much different than the idiots that thought electing Obama would get them free homes and gas.

[grundle]

This New York Times article on the gang rape of an 11 year old blames the victim, and sympathizes with the rapists.

Here's the New York Times article, followed by a criticism of the article from the left wing, progressive Mother Jones:



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/us...ault.html?_r=1

March 8, 2011

Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

CLEVELAND, Tex. — The police investigation began shortly after Thanksgiving, when an elementary school student alerted a teacher to a lurid cellphone video that included one of her classmates.

The video led the police to an abandoned trailer, more evidence and, eventually, to a roundup over the last month of 18 young men and teenage boys on charges of participating in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in the abandoned trailer home, the authorities said.

Five suspects are students at Cleveland High School, including two members of the basketball team. Another is the 21-year-old son of a school board member. A few of the others have criminal records, from selling drugs to robbery and, in one case, manslaughter. The suspects range in age from middle schoolers to a 27-year-old.

The case has rocked this East Texas community to its core and left many residents in the working-class neighborhood where the attack took place with unanswered questions. Among them is, if the allegations are proved, how could their young men have been drawn into such an act?

“It’s just destroyed our community,” said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.”

The attack’s details remained unclear. The police have declined to discuss their inquiry because it is continuing. The whereabouts of the victim and her mother were not made public.

The allegations first came to light just after Thanksgiving, when a child who knows the victim told a teacher she had seen a videotape of the attack on a cellphone, said Stacey Gatlin, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland Independent School District.

The school district’s security department interviewed the girl, 11, who is a student at Cleveland Middle School, and her mother. The security department determined that a rape had taken place, but not on school property, and then handed the matter over to the police, Ms. Gatlin said.

On Dec. 9, the police obtained a search warrant to go through a house on Travis Street and a nearby trailer that had been abandoned for at least two years. An affidavit filed to support the search warrant said the girl had been forced to have sex with several men in both places on Nov. 28 and cited pictures and videos as proof, according to The Houston Chronicle.

The affidavit said the assault started after a 19-year-old boy invited the victim to ride around in his car. He took her to a house on Travis Street where one of the other men charged, also 19, lived. There the girl was ordered to disrobe and was sexually assaulted by several boys in the bedroom and bathroom. She was told she would be beaten if she did not comply, the affidavit said.

A relative of one of the suspects arrived, and the group fled through a back window. They then went to the abandoned mobile home, where the assaults continued. Some of those present recorded the sexual acts on their telephones, and these later were shown among students.

Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands — known as the Quarters — said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said.

“Where was her mother? What was her mother thinking?” said Ms. Harrison, one of a handful of neighbors who would speak on the record. “How can you have an 11-year-old child missing down in the Quarters?”

Cleveland, a town of 9,000, lies about 50 miles northeast of Houston in the pine country, near the picturesque Sam Houston National Forest. The town’s economy has always rested on timber, cattle, farming and oil. But there are pockets of poverty, and in the neighborhood where the assault occurred, well-kept homes sit beside boarded-up houses and others with deteriorating facades.

The abandoned trailer where the assault took place is full of trash and has a blue tarp hanging from the front. Inside there is a filthy sofa, a disconnected stove in the middle of the living room, a broken stereo and some forlorn Christmas decorations. A copy of the search warrant was on a counter in the kitchen next to some abandoned family pictures.

The arrests have left many wondering who will be taken into custody next. Churches have held prayer services for the victim. The students who were arrested have not returned to school, and it is unclear if they ever will. Ms. Gatlin said the girl had been transferred to another district. “It’s devastating, and it’s really tearing our community apart,” she said. “I really wish that this could end in a better light.”

.

http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/...mes-texas-rape

The New York Times' Rape-Friendly Reporting

By Mac McClelland

Wed Mar. 9, 2011 11:25 AM PST

From today's New York Times:

The police investigation began shortly after Thanksgiving, when an elementary school student alerted a teacher to a lurid cellphone video that included one of her classmates.

The video led the police to an abandoned trailer, more evidence and, eventually, to a roundup over the last month of 18 young men and teenage boys on charges of participating in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in the abandoned trailer home, the authorities said.

This story from Cleveland, Texas, is beyond horrifying. Obviously. Unfortunately, further injustices have now been heaped on the victim (and the movement to end rape culture) by the article's writer and editor.

"Gang Rape of Schoolgirl, and Arrests, Shake Texas Town," the Times article covering the atrocities, is a collection of one perpetrator-excusing, victim-blaming insult after another. It starts right after the lede and some further information about the suspects, who include middle schoolers and a 27-year-old. Then:

The case has rocked this East Texas community to its core and left many residents in the working-class neighborhood where the attack took place with unanswered questions. Among them is, if the allegations are proved, how could their young men have been drawn into such an act? [Italics mine.]

Hmm. My editors let me get away with passive voice, too, but in this case it seems inappropriate, as does the peculiar verb choice, which gives the suspects a little bit of a pass. If the allegations are proved, then the young men of Cleveland, Texas, committed these dreadful acts. However, by the story's semantics, they didn't allegedly do anything. They were coerced into it by some unnamed influence or entity.

But okay, maybe how 18 young men were allegedly drawn into gang-raping a child is truly the question on Clevelanders' minds. The article was written by a reporter, not a pundit, so perhaps it can't be helped that some of the reported content is wildly insensitive. For example:

"It's just destroyed our community," said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. "These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives."

You can't blame a reporter for reporting uncomfortable facts, like this evidence of a culture that places more responsibility on victims and has more sympathy for rapists. You can blame a reporter, though, for not using the tools available to him to provide a basic balance of information and opinions. A transition like this could follow that last quote: "But others have different concerns, like…" Now insert a quote from a person wondering what it's going to be like for the victim to have nightmares, post-traumatic stress, depression, possibly crippling intimacy issues for a very long time. Instead, the only other people quoted are saying things like this:

Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands—known as the Quarters—said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said.

"Where was her mother? What was her mother thinking?" said Ms. Harrison, one of a handful of neighbors who would speak on the record. "How can you have an 11-year-old child missing down in the Quarters?"

This is the point at which, as the writer's editor, I would send him an email. "Dear James," it would say. "Thanks for getting this in! I have some concerns that we've only got quotes from people who are worried about the suspects ('The arrests have left many wondering who will be taken into custody next') and think the girl was asking for it, especially since, even if she actually begged for it, the fact that she is 11 makes the incident stupendously reprehensible (not to mention still illegal). We don't want anyone wrongly thinking you are being lazy or thoughtless or misogynist! Please advise if literally no other kinds of quotes are available because every single person who lives in Cleveland, Texas, is a monster."

It seems such a message never happened, because the story ends with the school district spokeswoman, whose primary concerns appear to be as screwed up as the rest of the community's.

The students who were arrested have not returned to school, and it is unclear if they ever will. Ms. Gatlin said the girl had been transferred to another district. "It's devastating, and it’s really tearing our community apart," she said. "I really wish that this could end in a better light."

You know what I really wish? After wishing that this had never happened, and didn't happen all the time? That major media organizations would stop sneakily, if unintentionally, promoting rape-friendliness. It doesn't help the cause of keeping our youth from getting drawn into such acts.

[wmansir]

The Times printed this letter to the editor criticizing the article. And a spokesman responded here with this:

"Neighbors' comments about the girl, which we reported in the story, seemed to reflect concern about what they saw as a lack of supervision that may have left her at risk," said Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for the paper. "As for residents' references to the accused having to 'live with this for the rest of their lives,' those are views we found in our reporting. They are not our reporter's reactions, but the reactions of disbelief by townspeople over the news of a mass assault on a defenseless 11-year-old. ... We are very aware of and sensitive to the concerns that arise in reporting about sexual assault," Rhoades Ha said. "This story is still developing and there is much to be learned about how something so horrific could have occurred."

I also found this article that says the crime/arrests are causing racial tension because the suspects are all black and the victim is hispanic.

Quanell X, leader of the Black Panther movement in Houston - a mere 45 miles away - told ABC News: 'Every adult male that had sex with this child should go to prison, I don't care what the colour is.

'But I do not believe black males are the only ones that had contact with this young child. It appears to me there's only been the selective prosecution of one community, which is African-American.'

He said he planned to host a town meeting tonight, called What's The Real Truth Behind The Rape Allegations? ....

[JasonF]

This is from a liberal blog, so you can all ignore it:

Madison Rally Bigger Than Biggest Tea Party Rally
By Alex Seitz-Wald on Mar 13th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Madison Rally Bigger Than Biggest Tea Party Rally

Police estimated up to 100,000 people turned out in Madison, WI yesterday to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) assault on unions, making it bigger than any protests the city has witnessed, even those during the Vietnam War. The Madison rally is part of a much larger Main Street Movement of average Americans demanding fairness in labor laws, social spending, and taxation that has emerged in Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, and elsewhere. But yesterday’s rally in Madison is noteworthy because at 85,000-100,000, it was bigger than the biggest tea party protest, the September 12, 2009 rally in Washington, D.C., which turned out only an estimated 60,000-70,000. A photo of the Madison rally yesterday:



For two years, tea party activists and their allies in the GOP have claimed that the hard-right movement represents the true beliefs of the American people. But the crowd in Madison and numerous polls tell a different story.

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/13/...han-tea-party/

Question: Assuming that more people are participating in the pro-labor rallies than participate in the tea party rallies, why did the latter get so much more media coverage than the former?