you don’t succeed, pull, poll again…

After pulling the poll the first time, ZDF reset it to zero votes and placed it back online. But that still did not get them the results they wanted and the results they expected: John Kerry did not have an overwhelming lead. So instead of just letting the poll run, ZDF silently removed it…AGAIN.

hat tip – Flea

Via Kathy Shaidle at the Shotgun;

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters has told the CRTC that Fox News should not be granted a spot on the eligible satellite list for digital distribution in Canada…

(Original article)
I smell fear.

Dean Esmay on the perplexing media refusal to cover any of the growing and glaring discrepencies in the Kerry self-promoted Vietnam record;

The media blackout on Kerry’s Vietnam record is really quite stunning. I’ve never seen anything quite like this. We know for a fact that 80-90% of working reporters and editors vote Democratic in every election, but this is simply unreal. As John Rosenberg notes, even so respectably mainstream-left a paper as the Washington Post, on its front page no less, is continuing to gush about Kerry’s fantastic Vietnam record and the support of his fellow veterans, while saying not one word about any of the Swifties’ allegations or the recently uncovered evidence of Kerry’s possibly false claims about Cambodia. Or about a man who served on his boat saying he’s a liar and a sleaze.
The Post didn’t put the gushy praise-sans-criticism in an editorial either. It was there as front page news.
I would have to ask why a single 20 year old drunk driving charge made screaming national headlines four years ago, but none of this is making it into the mainstream press, except on the editorial pages of a few small newspapers.

Dean’s post is rich with links to the various contraversies. Go check it out. Right now, the blogosphere is the only real source for this story – which seems to be growing despite the best efforts of the mainstream media to ignore it, and the Democrats to sue the Swift Boat Vets into silence.
update – talk radio host and blogger Hugh Hewitt spots the first crack in the dam.

For fans of Bill O’Reilly and Paul Krugman.

Mr. O’REILLY: …I’m appointing Russert as president of the United States right now, OK? I talked to Tommy Franks the other night, and I said, ‘You know, what’s this weapons of mass destruction deal?’ And he was the general that commanded the war. He said, ‘Before we went to war, Egypt and Jordan told me,’ Tommy Franks, all right, ‘that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. I passed that along to President Bush.’ So you’re sitting there in the White House, Russert, OK–frightening thought, but you are–and you’re getting your top general going, ‘I just heard from Egypt and Jordan weapons of mass destruction are there.’ Blair’s telling you, ‘MI6–weapons of mass destruction.’ Putin’s telling you, ‘Russian intelligence–weapons of mass destruction.’ Your own CIA chief is telling you, ‘Slam dunk weapons of mass destruction,’ according to Woodward. Now the 9-11 Commission harshly criticized Clinton and Bush for not doing enough to get bin Laden. That was one of their main thesis, and I believe that and I think everybody does. So you’re told by Jordan, Egypt, Russia, Britain, your own guy, ‘Weapons of mass destruction.’ You know Zarqawi, a top al-Qaida lieutenant’s, sitting in Baghdad because he just had a leg operation, all right? You know that. You know, as the 9-11 Commission pointed out, there’s been repeated contacts between al-Qaida and Saddam. You know all this. And you don’t move against Saddam? So they did have the WMDs. Say there was an anthrax attack on Krugman’s apartment block, OK? You’re sitting there, you had all this information, you didn’t act. Impeachable offense. He had to act. That’s the truth.
Prof. KRUGMAN: No, the truth–look, you’re talking all about commissions and governments that were under political pressure, and we have some independent stuff, right? The best reporting was actually by Knight Ridder, which was talking to the analysts off the record and not to the top officials. And this is the fall of 2002. And all the analysts said, ‘You know, they’re exaggerating this threat. We’re under enormous pressure to go and find reasons to attack Iraq.’ And you’ve actually got people who are close to the administration, like, you know, editorialists at The Washington Post, Jim Hoagland saying– boasting about how we’re managing to put the screws on these CIA analysts who don’t want to believe that Saddam is such a threat. So, come on, this is rewriting history. And the fact of the matter, as…
Mr. O’REILLY: Like I’m going to believe a Washington Post editorial writer over all the people I’ve cited.
[…]
Mr. O’REILLY: Why doesn’t your newspaper, The New York Times, do some investigating? You did 48 Abu Ghraib front-page stories…
Prof. KRUGMAN: Oh…
Mr. O’REILLY: …but you haven’t been able to do any oil for food investigations. I wonder why.
Prof. KRUGMAN: Because nobody has any information, right?
Mr. O’REILLY: Nobody has any?
Prof. KRUGMAN: Nobody has anything except these claims of all this come from Ahmad Chalabi, who The New York Times has learned a little bit to be wary of.
Mr. O’REILLY: Well, maybe you assign a couple of reporters to do that, you know. I mean, Abu Ghraib, I think we got the story there.
Prof. KRUGMAN: No, we didn’t.
Mr. O’REILLY: Oh, we didn’t? Forty-eight front-page stories, we still don’t have it?
Prof. KRUGMAN: We didn’t. No. Read the appendices. Read the appendices to the Taguba report. There’s much, much worse than anything that most of the public has heard about yet.
Mr. O’REILLY: All right. Well, maybe it’s right. And if there is, I want to read about it.
Prof. KRUGMAN: Yeah. Well…
Mr. O’REILLY: And I know I will in your paper. But I ain’t gonna read oil for food investigation there.
Prof. KRUGMAN: But let me just come back. The…
RUSSERT: Bill, why are you suggesting The New York Times won’t be aggressive in pursuing oil for food?
Mr. O’REILLY: Because they use stories to bludgeon the Bush administration. They use their front page–here’s the deal.
Prof. KRUGMAN: Oh God.
Mr. O’REILLY: Abu Ghraib, horrible story, awful, OK. Off-the-chart bad. Twenty-eight front-page stories in the Chicago Trib, no bastion of conservatism. Forty-eight front-page stories, all of the last 20 just repetitive, what we already knew, in The New York Times.
Prof. KRUGMAN: So you…
Mr. O’REILLY: They use that story to drive public opinion against the present administration, which the paper despises, and that’s the fact.

Heh.
The National Debate has more.

There’s been considerable coverage of a so-called “Bushism” being reported today. Why, I do not know, other than the fact that the media sits in wait for them.

” Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. “

It is a clumsy sentence, to be sure. But does it say what the scoffers pretend to think it does?
Just a month ago, the Bush administration was criticized for having a “lack of imagination” prior to the 9/11 attacks. “Thinking about new ways” that harm could be inflicted is not the same as planning to inflict the harm to yourself.
So, what’s the fuss about?

Ed Morrisey charts the media coverage of the Joe Wilson before (Bush lied about Iraq seeking uranium in the SOTU address) and the Joe Wilson after (Joe Wilson lied about what he found in Niger and who recommended him for the job) media coverage;

Outlet………Wilson Before….Wilson After
CBS………………..30……………0
NBC………………..40……………1
ABC………………..18……………1
Washington Post…..96………….2
New York Times……70………….3
Los Angeles Times…48………….2

Using “uranium niger” and “Joe Wilson” as search terms:
CBC.ca…………………..7……………0
CTV.ca……………………1……………0
(It appears that CTV preserves stories for a shorter period of time)

Former New York Times Executive Editor, Howell Raines, February 20, 2003:

“Our greatest accomplishment as a profession is the development since World War II of a news reporting craft that is truly non-partisan, and non-ideological, and that strives to be independent of undue commercial or governmental influence….But we don’t wear the political collar of our owners or the government or any political party. It is that legacy we must protect with our diligent stewardship. To do so means we must be aware of the energetic effort that is now underway to convince our readers that we are ideologues. It is an exercise of, in disinformation, of alarming proportions, this attempt to convince the audience of the world’s most ideology-free newspapers that they’re being subjected to agenda-driven news reflecting a liberal bias.”

New York Times Public Editor Daniel Okrent, July 25, 2004:

Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?
Of course it is.

Ed Driscoll asks, “What does that do to the folks who claim that because Fox sometimes tilts to the right (don’t tell Geraldo and Greta, though) that they shouldn’t be using “fair and balanced”? Read the rest of his post.
I agree with the critics, though. Until there are about a dozen more networks and media outlets like Fox, media fairness and balance is still just a idealistic fantasy. But the success of Fox vs the declining share values and circulation figures for organizations like the Times, does bring some hope that the marketplace may eventually force change where basic journalistic integrity has failed.
via Instapundit

Republican commissioner John Lehman on the circus that overtook the 9/11 commission hearings when Richard Clarke was testifying;

“I think we were mugged by Viacom,” Lehman told NRO in a phone interview on Thursday afternoon. “Because they changed the release date of the book and geared up 60 Minutes to launch his book to time them with his testimony and they edited his book to take out all of the criticisms of Clinton from his [original private] testimony. Because they wanted to make it a jihad against Bush.”
Lehman says that Clarke’s original testimony included “a searing indictment of some Clinton officials and Clinton policies.” That was the Clarke, evenhanded in his criticisms of both the Bush and Clinton administrations, who Lehman and other Republican commissioners expected to show up at the public hearings. It was a surprise “that he would come out against Bush that way.” Republicans were taken aback: “It caught us flat-footed, but not the Democrats.”
Clarke’s performance poisoned the public hearings, leading to weeks of a partisan slugfest. Lehman says Republican commissioners felt they had to fight back, adding to the partisan atmosphere. “What triggered it was Dick Clarke,” says Lehman. “We couldn’t sit back and let him get away with what he wanted to get away with.” He adds, “We were hijacked by a combination of Viacom and the Kerry campaign in the handling of Clarke’s testimony.”

The Associated Press has already pulled this item, but not before it was saved for posterity…

Police are asking for help to solve the mystery of Powell’s death.
“The public is very important, especially if they know her from a different name or may have seen her sometime before Saturday,” Ryan McFarland of the Adams County sheriff’s office said.
Investigators are not sure if Powell died where her body was found or if she was killed elsewhere, WLWT Eyewitness News 5’s most- overrated, obnoxious, annoying, stick-like, ho-bag, sperm- receptacle staff member Raegan Butler reported.

Via Outside The Beltway and Wizbang.

I sent an email to CTV news today. I asked them where their coverage is on Joe Wilson’s exposure as a liar and fraud. Considering the breathless reporting they gave to the infamous “16 words” in the State Of The Union address, and the “Iraq trying to buy uranium from Africa” contraversy, one would think they’d be over this complete vindication of the Bush administration like white on rice.
A search for the words “Joe Wilson” produced only this year old item on the initial contraversy.

The 16 words in the State of The Union Address last year in which Bush stated that British Intelligence had reported that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium in Africa have been upheld by the Senate Intelligence Report.
Did you know that?
The same report quite clearly exposes Joe Wilson, husband of the infamous “outed” cia agent Valerie Plame, as an out and out liar.
Now, Mr. Fryer et al – why have you not revisited this information to correct it for Canadian viewers? The SOTU address recieved tremendous coverage at the time.
Or, does anyone at CTV actually READ the reports you “report” on?

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds is gloating.

LIKE MILLI VANILLI’S GRAMMY AWARD, this “Restore Honesty” website by the now-discredited Joe Wilson is mostly of comedic value now. But wait, there’s more — scroll to the bottom and you’ll see that it’s “Paid for by John Kerry for President, Inc.” Quite an embarrassment.

Indeed.
Now, I think it’s time for an experment, fellow Canabloggers – Join me in emailing CTV. (I don’t watch CBC tv at all, so email them too if it’s appropriate). Ask them where the “Joe Wilson lied and Iraq did try to buy uranium from Niger” story is.
Let’s see if we can get a reply.

Coming to a cable channel near you – the Official News Service Of The Islamic Jihad;
Globe & Mail;

The federal broadcast regulator is expected to announce today that it will permit Canadians to subscribe to the Arabic Al-Jazeera network but is turning down an application to offer Italy’s RAI International as a digital specialty service through cable or satellite. The decision, more than a year in the making, will be announced by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in Ottawa.

Brought to you by the federal licencing body that protects Canadians from the propogandist FoxNews.

For those who are making a career of being outraged over the FCC fines directed at Howard Stern’s behavior – The CRTC has pulled the broadcast license for Quebec City’s most popular radio station, because of offensive comments by a couple of radio personalities. They recieved 47 complaints.
We should all complain more about the CBC, methinks.
This is the same CRTC that will not allow Fox News on Canadian cable, but has no problem with CBC’s “it’s not porn if there are subtitles” or with CTV scheduling the Sopranos uncut and Nip/*uck-fests on prime time.

Jeff, at Beautiful Atrocities, does a masterful job exposing the double standard of the entertainment media with a side by side comparison of “reviews” of Moore’s Farenheit and Mel Gibson’s Passion Of The Christ
A sample:

A.O. Scott, New York Times:
F9/11: Mr. Moore’s populist instincts have never been sharper…he is a credit to the republic.
Passion: Gibson has exploited the popular appetite for terror and gore for what he and his allies see as a higher end.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post:
F9/11: Moore exercises admirable forbearance … his finest artistic moment.
Passion: Gibson has exhibited a startling lack of concern for historical context.

Go read ’em all.
hat tip – Marcland – who also has a pretty funny post on US reaction to the Canadian election.

Last night, CTV National News was at it again.
With the stories of Alberta’s health care reforms and the indictment of Saddam Hussein by a soveriegn Iraq for crimes against humanity to choose from, which do you think they put second in their news lineup?
Neither.

NBC’s Tom Brokaw interviews new Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi;

Brokaw: I know that you and others like you are grateful for the liberation of Iraq. But can’t you understand why many Americans feel that so many young men and women have died here for purposes other than protecting the United States?
Allawi: We know that this is an extension to what has happened in New York. And the war have been taken out to Iraq by the same terrorists. Saddam was a potential friend and partner and natural ally of terrorism.
Brokaw: Prime minister, I’m surprised that you would make the connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq. The 9/11 commission in America says there is no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam Hussein and those terrorists of al-Qaida.
Allawi: No. I believe very strongly that Saddam had relations with al-Qaida. And these relations started in Sudan. We know Saddam had relationships with a lot of terrorists and international terrorism. Now, whether he is directly connected to the September atrocities or not, I can’t vouch for this. But definitely I know he has connections with extremism and terrorists.

Donald Sensing – “Lay aside the breathtaking arrogance of an American newsreader trying to tell a head of state what he should think about one of the most important issues facing the prime minister’s country. The fact is that Brokaw was flat wrong about what the 9/11 Commission said.”
He has more thoughts on media bias. And lots of examples of outright misrepresentation.
hat tip – OTB

Why isn’t it being reported on by our taxpayer funded media, and their competitors?
Via Instapundit
Amir Taher has been touring Iraq. .

Iraq today is no bed of roses, I know. I have just come back from a tour of the country. But I don’t recognise the place I have just visited as the war zone depicted by the Arab and western media.
[…]
Despite the continuing terrorist violence Iraq has attracted more than 7m foreign visitors, mostly Shi’ites making the pilgrimage to Najaf and Karbala where (despite sporadic fighting) a building boom is under way. This year Iraq has had a bumper harvest with record crops, notably in wheat. It could become agriculturally self-sufficient for the first time in 30 years.
“Iraq has always had everything that is needed to build a successful economy,” says Heydar al-Ayyari, an Iraqi politician. “We have water and fertile land. We have oil and a hardworking people. What we lacked was freedom. Now that we have freedom we can surge ahead.”
Nor should one believe the claims of self-styled experts that the Iraqis are not ready for freedom. During the past 10 months elections have been held in 37 municipalities. In each case victory went to the moderate, liberal and secular candidates. The former Ba’athists, appearing under fresh labels, failed to win a single seat. Hardline Islamist groups collected 1% to 3% of the vote.

What is wrong with our media? What great dysfunction has set in, that I must go to the internet, to private sources, to find these reports for myself?
Surely there are reporters and editors who surf through here. I see it in my logs- “cbc.ca”, “abc.com”.
I want to hear from you. You covered every anti-war demonstration. You quoted every naysaying Canadian politician. You gave a closeup to every half-wit Hollywood actor who could move their lips. You covered UN deliberations. You’ve dissected every hoped for disaster, from the “massive humanitarian disaster” to the “quagmire” of the stretched supply lines, to the “failure” to catch Saddam, to the “uprising of the Arab street”, to the “Vietnam” of El Sadr’s militia, dancing to the rhythm of every RPG to be tossed into the Green Zone. You even reported on the ones that “caused no casualties”. So, it’s not like you didn’t have the time and space.
Are you intentionally trying to mislead and misinform the Canadian public by reporting out a tiny window facing in a single direction?

Translation: We really prefer the unfavourable stuff, actually. See Entertainment. See Selling. See Gotcha.
Crossposted at the Shotgun
And, added to the Traffic Jam

Matt Drudge is so funny. From his current “headlines”;

Clinton’s Book Signings Draw Adoring Throngs in NYC…
CNN: ‘My Life’ sets records; 90,000 to 100,000 unit single-day expectation..
PUBLISHER CLAIMS: 400,000 copies bought in U.S. in one day!
BUT… Sales slow in Florida…
Stacks Left Untouched on Maryland Shore…
SAN FRAN YAWN…
Clinton book sales quiet in Arizona…
Memoirs not on Houston’s best seller list…
Tome slow out of gate in Cincinnati…
Not flying off shelves in Hudson Valley…
Mixed reaction in Manitowoc…
Mixed book sales in N.E. Georgia…
Creates little hoopla in San Antonio…
Not Selling in Shenandoah Valley…
Book not so magical in Wichita Falls…
Hoosiers react quietly to memoir…
Just hype? asks Gainesville…
Sales can’t measure up to Harry or Hillary in suburban Chicago…
Memoirs don’t stir Saginaw…
Memoir is no 1st-day best-seller in Ft. Wayne…
Not selling in VA Beach…
No best seller in Billings…
Slow in Sacramento…

A little mental exercise, now if you will.
If there had been no Monica Lewinsky in the White House, what would the buzz be around “My Life”? today…
think.
hard.
….
Can’t think of anything, eh?
So, why would anyone other than the usual suspects run out and buy a book, when they can get their curiosity satisfied for free on 60 minutes?

The Aboriginal justice commission was formed in response to the freezing deaths of Indian men on the outskirts of Saskatoon – in locations that coincided with an incident in which Saskatoon police dropped an intoxicated Darrell Night to walk back to the city, in the dead of winter. Yesterday the commission released its final report.
The Federation Of Saskatchewan Indian Nations did not attend the news conference, but responded today. Early broadcasts of comments of Vice-chief Lawrence Joseph had some particularly descriptive criticism of chair Willie Littlechild’s report (which included emphasis on the need for Indian and Metis communities to take responsibility for their own future)… now, lets see who wants to include it in their print coverage.
Looking for the money quote: Globe and Mail ? not here.… the CBC …nope. … FSIN news release ? eh… no.
So far, I can’t find the statement in any coverage at all.
Ok, so this is from memory, from a local 650 CKOM radio clip this morning (it’s been dropped from later reports). FSIN Vice-chief Lawrence Joseph;

” they want to train Indian leadership to be good little white leaders.”

That may not be the exact wording, but it’s damned close. If anyone has the actual transcript, please send it along.
(update, June 24 – revised to actual quote.)