Monday, November 10, 2008
A Statistical Analysis of Media Bias
During the 2008 presidential election, even center-left observers have noted the unmistakable bias of the prestige news media toward Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party in general. As we shall reveal, the bias of the media is pervasive, ideologically motivated, and quantifiable: that is, it has been admitted, measured, and analyzed in statistical terms. Those results reveal a media doggedly out-of-touch with the political center and tilted decidedly leftward. [snip]
These numbers are nothing short of astonishing. It is exceedingly rare to find, even in the most heavily partisan voting districts in the United States, such pronounced imbalances in terms of votes cast or dollars earmarked for one party or the other... [snip]
The most comprehensive investigation of this subject, completed in 2004, found that such outlets cited the views of liberal/leftist organizations at fully 3 times the rate of conservative groups.[47] [snip]
Bias in the news media manifests itself most powerfully not in the form of outright, intentional lies. Rather, media bias is most often a function of what reporters choose not to tell their audience; i.e., the facts they purposely omit so as to avoid contradicting the political narrative they wish to advance. As Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo put it:
“[F]or every sin of commission…we believe that there are hundreds, and maybe thousands, of sins of omission –" [snip]
Unfortunately, there is nothing funny about the distortion our media have unleashed on the American public and the disabling impact it has on national discourse.
[this is a great piece, credible quantification of different components contributing to media bias, all fully referenced - longish, but fascinating stats that carry you through it - for anyone skeptical of how pervasive it is - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED > ]
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Vets, Troops Not in Uniform Now Can Salute Flag
[HT:PW]
A change to federal law allows U.S. veterans and military personnel not in uniform to render the military-style hand salute during the playing of the national anthem. The law took effect earlier this month, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs news release.
“The military salute is a unique gesture of respect that marks those who have served in our nation’s armed forces,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. James B. Peake said. “This provision allows the application of that honor in all events involving our nation’s flag.”
Traditionally, veterans’ service organizations rendered the hand-salute during the national anthem and at events involving the national flag while wearing their organization’s headgear. Otherwise, as with all other Americans, the etiquette is to place the right hand over the heart.
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US forces find footing in Afghanistan's "human terrain"
Khost, Afghanistan - The young Texan woman talking to the Afghan tribesman wears a US military uniform and carries an assault rifle, but she's not a soldier.
Her training is in anthropology, which is proving an effective tool for negotiating the complexities of Afghanistan's honeycomb tribal structure and, according to a senior US commander, significantly reducing the need for 'kinetic,' or combat, operations.
'We describe the environment that the bad guys operate in, build a foundation for units so they can understand their area,' said Audrey Roberts of the seven-member Human Terrain Team (HTT) in the eastern Khost province. 'It's important so our soldiers can ask informed questions and so we don't walk round in circles.'Translated into actions, that means for example that units are able to quickly tap the real powerbrokers as they push into guarded and often fearful rural communities...
[fascinating article, and proof positive of the adaptability of our military when left to do so - Recommended > ]
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Allies Losing Battle to Plug Terrorists' Cash Pipeline
International interest in continuing to comply with U.N. enforcement rules is waning, according to the former officials, and terrorists have shifted from official financial institutions, frustrating government efforts to cut off their money streams.
"Few assets are now being frozen and, in fact, many countries still have not put in place the legal framework necessary to take action," the report states. The arms embargo and travel ban against those on the list have not been enforced.Donors from Saudi Arabia are the chief sources of support for al-Qaida extremist groups, while the Iranian government keeps financing Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups, according to the report. The research is intended as a road map for the incoming Obama administration to tighten the system and crack down on evolving terrorist financing schemes.
An advance copy of the report, "The Money Trail," was provided to The Associated Press.
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British Al-Qaeda enclaves back jihad, according to leaked Government document
The threat posed by 'home-grown' terrorists has been laid bare in a leaked Government report which says thousands of Islamist militants in the UK are actively supporting jihadist activities at home and abroad.
The secret dossier states that Britain will remain 'a high-priority target' for international terrorists linked with Al Qaeda for the foreseeable future.And it warns that a network of extremist cells exists in the UK, with the main concentrations in London, Birmingham and Luton.
[photo HT:DT]MSM Spins Surge in Public's Positive View of War Effort
The Pew Research Center finds there has been a dramatic, double-digit jump in the percentage of Americans who believe that the military effort in Iraq is going well. You are the Washington Post. How do you play the story?:
- a. You run a front-page story headlined "Study Finds Surge in Positive Public View of War Effort"; or
- b. You run a story on page A10 headlined "Military Progress Doesn't Make War More Popular."
Both organizations are marching in the proud MSM footsteps of the New York Times. When earlier this month news came that the US-led MNF had successfully routed al Qaeda completely out of Baghdad, the Times buried the story fathoms deep . . . on A19.
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GCWOT?
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Something wrong when a government lets terrorists become celebrities
The long-delayed execution of the three Bali bombers ends one of the strangest sagas in Indonesia's legal history. It is not unusual that Mukhlas, Amrozi and Imam Samudra were put to death five years after their sentencing; many Indonesians on death row have waited far longer.
What is bizarre is that these Jemaah Islamiah members became celebrities before they died...
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Pilgrim site planned for Bali bombers
A WEALTHY supporter of the Bali bombers wants to create a jihadi cemetery for the three men and other "holy warriors". Cecep Hermawan, a businessman and activist in Indonesia's radical Islamist movement, says he wants it to become a site where "pilgrims" can pay their respects to "those who fought for the existence of Islamic sharia, those that paid with their life". He has offered a hectare of land in the city of Cianjur, West Java.
[GCW: Global Cultural War - are we fighting it?]
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Empowering Lies
What if a major news story is made up? What if it's just Hamas propaganda without being true? And what if this story is repeated around the world? Of course, nowadays it's not hard to imagine such things happening. When one gets to specific statistics, however, it should not be too easy to lie and get away with it.
But it is.
The story in question here is by Ibrahim Barzak, “Israel cuts fuel, electricity to Gaza.” Like all individual articles it might be of limited importance by itself but it is an example of a phenomenon which has grown to be almost daily.
In the version run by the Philadelphia Inquirer it carries the following subheadline: “People have only a third of winter needs, said an official. The intent is to halt rocket attacks.”
It is important to emphasize—do a computer search if you like—that this article has been published and broadcast around the world by huge media outlets, not to mention websites.
And the main point—and impact—of the story is a fabrication...
[read how it's done > READ MORE ]
South Ossetian forces occupy Georgian village
Tbilisi - Georgia accused South Ossetian security forces of occupying a Georgian village outside the borders of the breakaway territory on Sunday, drawing warnings from EU officials monitoring a cease-fire. The Georgian government said two South Ossetian tanks and 50 men had entered the village of Perevi on South Ossetia's western flank after Russian forces pulled back.
[this is Russia - pushing until stopped. by who?]
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Zimbabwe attacks 'kill dialogue'
Renewed violence has ended hopes of negotiating an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis, the country's main opposition party has said. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) blamed President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party for an ''orgy of brutality'' across Zimbabwe.
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China pumps money into Zim
China has further strengthened its ties with Zimbabwe after Chinese mining giant China Jiangxi Corporation for International and Technical Cooperation (CJIC) announced plans to form a joint venture company with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) to mine chrome in Zimbabwe. According to a report carried by The Zimbabwe Guardian on Wednesday, CJIC has agreed to bankroll the development of two chrome mines.
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Good news & bad...
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Iran criticised in new UN report
The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran is continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution. In its latest report, the UN watchdog says it has been unable to clear up questions about a possible military dimension to Iran's nuclear work.
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North Korea bans UN weapons monitors
Vienna - North Korea barred UN monitoring throughout its Yongbyon nuclear complex on in a significant step towards scrapping a deal with five powers to scrap its atomic bomb programme, diplomats said. ''The monitors were told that as of today, they are out, no more access permitted to any facilities in Yongbyon.'' The Yongbyon complex includes the reprocessing plant where bomb-grade plutonium can be extracted from spent fuel rods,...
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[BUT...]
Traditional lightbulbs banned by EU
The high energy filament bulbs are being phased out in order to improve energy efficiency and meet climate change targets. The switchover, which will affect all of the European Union's 500 million citizens, was first ordered at a Brussels summit last year as part of an ambitious energy policy to fight climate change.
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WINDS ARE DOMINANT CAUSE OF ICE SHEET LOSSES
Wind-induced circulation changes in the ocean are the dominant cause of the recent ice losses through the glaciers draining both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, not "global warming," according to two new studies.
The first study, published in Nature Geoscience, found that there has been a rapid acceleration of several outlet glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica; most notably, Jakobshavn Isbræ, a large outlet glacier feeding a deep-ocean fjord on Greenland's west coast, triggered by the arrival of relatively warm water originating from the Irminger Sea near Iceland.
The second study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, focused on the delivery of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) to the inner continental shelf around Pine Island Bay (Antarctica). The most significant result was that temperature changes in CDW related to regional wind, driving seasonal on-shelf flow, while inter-annual changes in the wind forcing lead to inflow variability on a decadal timescale...
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CLIMATE DISTORTING U.S. ENERGY POLICIES
[HT:TO]
Proponents of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) have largely ignored natural climate influences; yet, the evidence is overwhelming that natural factors control the climate and that the greenhouse effect from rising carbon dioxide, while certainly present, is insignificant and as yet undetectable.
Instead of pushing forward the current energy and climate policies floating around Congress, the nation's goal should focus on rational energy policy -- one that accepts that fossil fuels and CO2 present no threat, says S. Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist and professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia. [snip]
- Today's technologies allow us to burn coal and capture almost all the resulting pollution, making coal a "clean" fuel.
- The high capital costs thrust upon nuclear generation should be lowered considerably by streamlining the licensing process and eliminating the delays that arise from litigation against constructing nuclear reactors.
- Considerable cost savings also can be achieved by standardization and, most importantly, by factory production of major components rather than onsite construction.
[sounds like everyone but us has been making fine progress on energy technology...]
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PANIC OF 2008
Will the recent economic turmoil be remembered by the history books as "the panic of 2008?" If Democrats actually adopt the policies they have advocated on the campaign trail, they will be repeating with eerie precision the mistakes made by both parties that gave us the Great Depression
Economists generally have concluded that, in addition to woefully misguided Federal Reserve actions, two policy errors worsened and prolonged the Great Depression: the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 and the rapid expansion of unionization and cartelization that followed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
But perhaps the key negative component was the massive increase in unionization, from 13 percent of the workforce in 1935 to 29 percent in 1939, explains Hassett:
- Then, greater unionization led to a doubling of the number of strikes and an increase in their effectiveness because new rules let workers use "sit-down" tactics that shut plants;
- The key labor policy parallel to the 1930s is "card- check" -- union organizers can forgo standard secret ballot procedures when they receive signed union-authorization cards from a majority of employees.
- Although card-check procedures are legal, current law lets employers reject card-check petitions and require secret- ballot elections instead.
Supporters of card-check are presumably willing to accept the possibility of coercion because they believe the end -- a large increase in unionization -- justifies the means. But if that end is achieved, then it likely will lead to a surge in labor costs and reduction in competitiveness for U.S. companies at just the wrong time.
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Bailout funds being spent in ways Congress never foresaw
WASHINGTON — After a bruising battle to get it through a doubting Congress, the Bush administration's $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan to purchase distressed mortgages and other bad assets has morphed into something else entirely. Today the Emergency Economic Stabilization Plan, signed by President Bush on Oct. 3, involves the government taking direct equity stakes in banks, and at least one bank used the money to buy a rival...
[show of hands: who's surprised?]
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[HT:GC]
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our
liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow
private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by
inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow
up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their
children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'
Thomas Jefferson 1802
[I.e., beware the central bank]
Reason 142 to Homeschool: Obama Teachers Won’t Bully Kids Who Support McCain
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This video captured in a Finnish documentary (filming and American school) is absolutely horrible and the teacher in it should be fired immediately [it starts on street with adults - hang in there]. Not only does she show her bias, she does it in a way that humiliates the students who support McCain. Just moments later the same teacher is interviewed and rants against doing the exact thing she just did. Simply amazing.
Watch the video here.
[Email recipients not receiving embedded video go to > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDEAYgm0Dv8 ]
That huge voter turnout? Didn't happen
Despite widespread predictions of record turnout in this year’s presidential election, roughly the same portion* of eligible voters cast ballots in 2008 as in 2004.
Between 60.7 percent and 61.7 percent of the 208.3 million eligible voters cast ballots this year, compared with 60.6 percent of those eligible in 2004, according to a voting analysis by American University political scientist Curtis Gans, an authority on voter turnout.
In 2004, turnout was 6 percentage points higher than in 2000. But Gans said he believed it did not spike more this year because fewer Republicans went to the polls. While it may be premature to draw conclusions, Gans said, it appeared that Republican voting declined 1.3 points, to 28.7 percent of the electorate, while Democratic turnout rose from 28.7 percent to 31.3 percent of the electorate.
[*again: always suspect cardinal-number statistics; they're usually meaningless in an ever growing country/world]
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New Poll: Palin a GOP Rock Star
Despite some news reports suggesting otherwise, a new poll shows that Sarah Palin was a definite asset to John McCain in his run for the White House.
According to a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, 69 percent of Republican voters say the Alaska governor helped McCain’s bid for the presidency. Twenty percent of GOP voters said she hurt the ticket, six percent said she had no effect, and 5 percent were undecided.
Other results of the poll:
- 91 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Palin.
- 65 percent of Republicans have a very favorable view of Palin.
- 64 percent of Republicans say Palin is their top choice for the GOP 2012 presidential nominee.
- 12 percent of Republicans say Mike Huckabee is their top choice for the GOP 2012 presidential nominee.
- 11 percent of Republicans say Mitt Romney is their top choice for the GOP 2012 presidential nominee.
[HT:DT]
The Pope is visiting DC, and Palin takes him out for an afternoon on the Potomac. They're admiring the sights when, all of a sudden, the Pope's hat blows off his head and out into the water. Secret service guys start to launch a boat, but Palin waves them off, saying "Wait, wait. I'll take care of this. Don't worry." Palin steps onto the surface of the water and walks out to the Holy Father's little hat, bends over and picks it up, then walks back. She hands the hat to the Pope amid stunned silence.
The next morning, the Washington Post, NY TImes, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, and CNN carry a story, complete with photos of the event. The banner headline reads:
"Palin Can't Swim!"
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