Category Archives: Media

The Grey Lady Shakes Off A Flea Or Two

Barack Obama, Media, Technology, Terrorism

The “august” NYT EDITORIAL BOARD has finally taken a slightly less reverential, more cynical tone toward its godhead Obama, in light of “the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation.”

Wow. And what next? Will the NYT acknowledge that centralized power everywhere and always leads to tyranny?

Nah. Rest assured, the Grey Lady might have shaken off a flea or two, but the New York Times will continue to lie down with dogs (with apologies to dogs).

By the way, I already told you weeks back that there was absolutely nothing new about state snooping. “From Sexting To Snooping In Surveillance-State USA”:

A pesky detail has eluded all those invincibly stupid special interests who’re piping up for the privacy of the press, as opposed to fighting for the privacy of all Americans. Have the various tele-lawyers, the director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and protesting members of the House Judiciary Committee forgotten the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, whose provisions were extended until December 31, 2017, by the people’s representatives?

There is nothing new about warrantless wiretapping—other than that the American people haven’t been particularly exercised about them. They’ve trusted Uncle Sam to go about this activity judiciously. Peeping Sam had promised, after all, that covert surveillance would never be executed against “United States persons.” Were a “United States person” to fall under suspicion, he or she would not be subjected to surveillance without “judicial and congressional oversight,” puled the same perverts.
It’s not as if the National Security Agency (NSA) under George Bush was not accused of bypassing the courts to spy on the 43rd president’s many critics. It was! Sideshow “O,” however, has done Bush one better. Obama is using the FISA provisions against “friendlies.”

UPDATED: Obama’s The Sinner; Holder His ‘Sin Eater’ (Media in Mutiny)

Barack Obama, Bush, Democrats, Journalism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Republicans

“Obama’s The Sinner; Holder His ‘Sin Eater'” is the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

“BIG media have been willing, even eager, to pass the buck for Barack for the past five years. But the Fourth Estate rose as one on its proverbial hind legs when the president made the mistake of going after their own: members of the media.

For doing their jobs, Associated Press journalists were spied on and had their telephone records and other personal information seized by the head of Barack Obama’s Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder. For doing his job, Fox News Channel’s James Rosen was framed by the same department for the crime of conspiracy to leak classified materials.

IRS bloodhounds Douglas Shulman and Steven Miller, likely in charge of hounding conservative organizations unsympathetic to Obama, had practically taken up residence at the Big Dog’s House. Yet, curiously, conservatives have largely avoided linking Barack Hussein Obama to this and to the other scandals reverberating throughout his administration.

Republicans have eddied around the issue, merely describing the president’s stance with respect to the Rosen, AP, Benghazi and the Internal Revenue Service affairs as “disconnected,” “lacking focus.” An “absentee presidency,” surmised the conservative bloggers at Powrline. “The Spectator President,” pronounced Patrick Buchanan. Judge Andrew Napolitano’s brief was equally narrow. He avoided so much as hinting that Holder had likely been carrying out the wishes of his bosom buddy.

Although it’s hard to know what to make of it here, Republican rigor mortis is par for the course. Fortunately, for every mealymouthed Eric Cantor—the House majority leader is responsible for the “disconnected” description—there are progressives like Salon’s Joan Walsh [and professor Jonathan Turley], who, spittle flying, are tying the president to the infractions liberals consider unforgivable. …”

The complete column is “Obama’s The Sinner; Holder His ‘Sin Eater.'” Read it on WND.

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UPDATE: Let’s be clear, the media schmooze Eric Holder has attempted to hold, only to be rebuffed by most news outlets, originated with our original sinner, Obama. Via HuffPo:

President Obama announced last week that Holder would meet with media executives to discuss guidelines concerning journalists caught up in leak investigations. There has been growing concern among journalists and lawmakers about the DOJ’s tactics following the seizure of Associated Press phone records in one investigation and the accusation in court documents that a Fox News reporter may have committed a crime in the course of reporting in another.

The “meeting this week between Attorney General Eric Holder and the Washington bureau chiefs of several media outlets [was ostensibly] to discuss guidelines for journalists in leak investigations.”

Please. Obama wishes to restore the privileges he enjoyed before the media mutinied. A little access, a wink and a nudge; why doesn’t the magic work any more? He also wants surreptitiously to “set conditions” on how reporting is to be done in The Great leader’s America.

And he wants this meeting (ostensibly) about the freedom of the press to take place off the record!

Following Abramson’s announcement, Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse tweeted that President Obama had asked the attorney general “to review how leak investigations are done but some in the media refuse to meet with him. Kind of forfeits your right gripe.”
Journalists would argue that the issue is not about simply refusing to meet with Holder, but that the government shouldn’t set conditions that would prevent news organizations from reporting on what takes place

Shaping The News By Omission; Passing The Buck For Barack

Barack Obama, Ethics, Journalism, Media, The State

CNN, as you know, often veers into the business of shaping the news, rather than simply reporting it. It does so both by commission and by omission.

Thus has CNN steered clear of the scandals that have enveloped The Beloved, Barack Hussein Obama.

Over the past few days you were able to relive the manhunt for Bin Laden and the Boston bombers; watch the neurotic network doctor hype his latest health scare, hear about the collapse of a bridge in Skagit County, in my neck of the woods, learn of a baby born during the tornado; cry to “Emotional Stories of Survival,” “Examine Sexual Assault in the Military,” marvel at the audacity of Jodi Arias, hackers, but never BHO.

Look at the “CNN Transcripts for the entire day of May 24, 2013” (a service I appreciate). Buried in the links is a small notice, “IRS Non-Profit Chief Placed On Leave.” I was unable to find a fleshed-out report.

The “CNN Transcripts for May 23, 2013” are not much better.

Finally today, May 25, the network editorial board must have determined that it was time to mentions that “the Justice Department’s decision to seek a warrant to search a FOX News reporter’s private e-mail went all the way to the top. A Justice official tells CNN that Attorney General Eric Holder vetted the application himself and then the application was approved by a federal magistrate.”

CNN was likely shamed into news reportage by MSNBC, which is generally the worst offender, but seemed to have decided that indicting a journalist for doing his job was where passing the buck for Obama would stop, at least for a now.

Never know when the guy will sic his zealots on me.

UPDATED: Obama Dissociative Disorder (The Slumbering New Yorker Awakens)

Barack Obama, Government, Journalism, Liberty, Media, The State

Obama has a lot of brazen habits. One of them is to discuss government as though he somehow were not a central part of it; as though the president were not the filthy fulcrum on which everything pivots.

“President Obama, responding to mounting criticism of his Justice Department’s seizure of reporter records, said for the first time Thursday that the administration would be reviewing its guidelines in response to the controversy. Obama said he’s ‘troubled’ by the developments and that journalists should not be ‘at legal risk’ for doing their jobs.”

(Via Fox News.)

“Attorney General Eric Holder,” reports The Huffington Post, “personally signed off on the warrant that allowed the Justice Department to search Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal email, NBC News’ Michael Isikoff reported Thursday.”

UPDATE (5/24): The Slumbering New Yorker Awakens: “Obama Denies Role in Government.”