Bias-Based Briefs (081308)
Since they come so fast and furious, I’m thinking that maybe a somewhat daily group of short shots noting examples of media bias might be useful to compile.
We’ll see. Let’s go:
- Only the New York Times (HT NaugBlog) could “cover” late July’s Cuyahoga County, Ohio raids by calling a law enforcement exercise involving 200 G-men an “inquiry” (yes, they used “investigation,” too, but give me a break), and “somehow” overlooking the fact that the county building was raided, not just the homes of Democrats Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo.
- In an Alice in Wonderland-like report, The Associated Press’s Angus Shaw treats Morgan Tsvangirai, the person who beat Robert Mugabe in a March election, as the guy who’s the barrier between humanitarian basket case Zimbabwe’s current mess and a semi-legitimate power-sharing government with Mugabe. It’s clear that Tsvangirai’s “problem” is that, well, he wants real power. South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, who has cut Mugabe way too much slack for at least a decade and gotten a free media pass virtually the entire time, says that Tsvangirai needs “more time to reflect.”
- Prediction: Almost no one in traditional media will report Charlie Rangel’s disgraceful and stereotyping remarks about those who oppose amnesty and those who want to actually, like, enforce the immigration laws.
- I’ll bet there could be reports like this one from Chicago all over the country that the Al Gore-loving media won’t do much with, at least not prominently — “August is the wettest and often the muggiest month of the year. Yet, summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century’s opening decade. There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer at Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That’s by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930.” The Windy City suffered a disastrous heat wave in 1995, when the temps reached 98 degrees or higher four days in a row, including consecutive days within that period of 106 and 102. An estimated 600 heat-related deaths occurred. There’s still a few weeks left of serious potential heat, but so far this year, That Toddlin’ Town’s highest temperature has been 91.
- Has anyone in traditional media outside of the UK, which thanks to intense competition still has a vibrant press (TV, that’s another matter), ever told us what a joke wind power is (HT Michelle Malkin; original heads-up from e-mailer Dan Scott)? I mean, this would be funny if it weren’t so financially misguided:
James Oswald, an engineering consultant and former head of research and development at Rolls-Royce Turbines, who led the study, said: “Wind power does not obviate the need for fossil fuel plants, which will continue to be indispensable.
“The problem is that wind power volatility requires fossil fuel plants to be switched on and off, which damages them and means that even more plants will have to be built. Carbon savings will be less than expected, because cheaper, less efficient plant will be used to support these wind power fluctuations.
“Neither these extra costs nor the increased carbon production are being taken into account in (UK) government figures for wind power.”
I’ll betcha they aren’t being taken into account here in the US either. T. Boone’s windy idea looks pretty T. Boneheaded.
- Tom Maguire’s nomination for Items Traditional Media Will Ignore: Anything and everything, other than going after a precious a few mistakes (out of what, maybe 5,000 factoids?) in Jerome Corsi’s “The Obama Nation.” Corsi’s book has basically done the work traditional media should have done during the past two years. Complaining about the fact that it’s in essence 99.8% or so accurate is just poor sportsmanship.