Category: Media matters

The best stories are the ones you make up

I think I brought the flu back from New Mexico with me. What to do when you’re sick?

A. Watch daytime TV.
B. Blog.
C. Drink IBC.

Since A is worse than being sick, I’m going with B & C. I’m pretty sure medical experts agree that IBC rootbeer shortens the duration of the flu by at least 3 to 4 minutes.

As for blogging, I see the New York Times published a fake photo today (hat tip Powerline Blog). The caption claims to show the remains of a missile that destroyed from a home in Pakistan. This is supposedly the result of an airstrike from a Predator Drone the happened on January 13th that is getting protests from Pakistani citizens. Yahoo News changed their caption to claim it is “unexploded ordinance”. The catch here is that the attack was from a predator drone which doesn’t carry ordinance. American Thinker has a through debunking of claim.

Is this another case of “fake but accurate” reporting that CBS news invented with the forged Air National Guard memo?

Dishonoring the troops

Michelle Malkin points out how the New York Times misquotes dead soldiers. Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr wrote a letter prior to his death in Iraq. Here is what the Times printed:

“I kind of predicted this,” Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. “A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances.”

Here is what he wrote:

“Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I’m writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances. I don’t regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it’s not to me. I’m here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.”

When you see it in whole, it doesn’t sound as much as someone who regretted his duty.

Weeds of communism

For most of the summer I fight dandelions in my front yard. I spray the yard with weed killer and have green grass (well, kinda green) for a few weeks. Then one day I’m in front of the house and see another dandelion. Thankfully, there are no mainstream media reports around my house. If there were, they would be standing in front of each weed saying, “Look at all this green grass. Look at this close up. Nope, no weeds around here.”

That’s pretty much what they do with communists. Just like the San Francisco Chronicle did. Zombietime.com shows how they do it. First, start with a young protestor in San Franciso. Run photo of said idealistic youth protesting against the United States. Be sure to hide the fact that communists organized the rally. Nope no communists here.

Surely the fact that the protests are being organized by communists is significant. These are not people who love their country as much as the Chronicle may wish you to believe it.

When Cindy Sheehan protests, remember she is supported by ANSWER. Chrstopher Hitchens points out their pro-communist/anti-U.S. views.

No, the war protestors are not patriots. They don’t love their country as they are sometimes likely to claim. They want the U.S. to lose.

Abortion clinic bombing Christians

Last week USA Today published letter’s from infamous abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph who eluded capture in the mountains of North Carolina for five years. He had been held up as the poster child of all that is wrong with the Christian right.

The only problem with that, he isn’t a Christian. In a letter to his mother he wrote about his prison experience printed in a USA Today article.

“Many good people continue to send me money and books,” Rudolph writes in an undated letter. “Most of them have, of course, an agenda; mostly born-again Christians looking to save my soul. I suppose the assumption is made that because I’m in here I must be a ‘sinner’ in need of salvation, and they would be glad to sell me a ticket to heaven, hawking this salvation like peanuts at a ballgame. I do appreciate their charity, but I could really do without the condescension. They have been so nice I would hate to break it to them that I really prefer Nietzsche to the Bible.”

But there was not a word about how his radical athiestic views (“God is dead”) were the cause of his evil – unlike when the press thought he was a Christian extremist.

Stupid news of the day

We have the evening news cast on right now. They just reported a story about the space shuttle. Tuesday, during the launch, a window cover fell off the shuttle and damaged thermal tiles near the tail.

The local news cast reported that cover was held on by tape and that officials did not yet know why the cover fell off.

Something tells me that it fell off because it was held on by tape!

Islamacists – a time to review

Yesterday terrorists attacked London by bombing a bus and subway trains. Before the smoke had cleared, the blame-America-first crowd was…well, blaming America. Hugh Hewitt posted a transcription of Al Franken’s interview with Pat Oliphant. Here is a sample of the exchange:

Franken: Or have we made things worse…

Oliphant: Or have they gone in the wrong direction…

Franken: Right

Well, it is time to review exactly what al Qaeda is demanding from the U.S. Back in November of 2002, bin Laden wrote an open letter to the U.S. Here are his demands:

(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.

(2) The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.

(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire.

(3) What we call you to thirdly is to take an honest stance with yourselves – and I doubt you will do so – to discover that you are a nation without principles or manners, and that the values and principles to you are something which you merely demand from others, not that which you yourself must adhere to.

(4) We also advise you to stop supporting Israel, and to end your support of the Indians in Kashmir, the Russians against the Chechens and to also cease supporting the Manila Government against the Muslims in Southern Philippines.

(5) We also advise you to pack your luggage and get out of our lands. We desire for your goodness, guidance, and righteousness, so do not force us to send you back as cargo in coffins.

(6) Sixthly, we call upon you to end your support of the corrupt leaders in our countries. Do not interfere in our politics and method of education. Leave us alone, or else expect us in New York and Washington.

(7) We also call you to deal with us and interact with us on the basis of mutual interests and benefits, rather than the policies of sub dual, theft and occupation, and not to continue your policy of supporting the Jews because this will result in more disasters for you.

If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the Islamic Nation.

According to Osama bin Laden himself, al Qaeda is fighting to spread Islam. They demand we abandon our constitution and accept Islam. Isn’t it amazing that Franken and Oliphant are suspicious of President Bush’s motives and at the same time don’t believe bin Laden when he says he hates Western culture?

Bin Laden wrote over two years ago how he hates our lifestyle and culture, and the Franken-phants thinks we are the problem. I’d like to know when the Franken-phants are going to give up their western culture and start facing east and pray?

Weird headlines

Missing Vietnam Servicemen to Be Buried
How do you bury someone who is missing?

Iraq Finally Fills Six Cabinet Vacancies
Apparently their Correll dishes arrived by mail order.

Airports Not Rushing for Private Screeners
Aiports is now rushing for the Cleveland Browns. Hopefully, Joseph Airports will get 1,000 yard season this year.

U.S. stocks look to extend winning streak
Stocks are now four games ahead of bonds in a strike-shortened season.

Submarine Crash Could Have Been Avoided
Gee, ya think?

And finally, have you ever wondered how you date a photograph? Apparently it is more complicated than you would think according to a Reuters story:

This undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Defense shows the casket bearing the body of US Navy Machinist’s Mate Third Class Nathan Taylor being sent over the edge of the USN Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise as US Navy Sailors conduct a Burial at Sea ceremony on May 19, 2004.

I’m betting the photo was taken the day of the burial, but I’m just guessing there.