_Let's face it.  Anyone who still subscribes to Newsweek does not care that they are reading pure propaganda.  They have to know that by now.  It's like the New York Times, Times Magazine, the Charlotte Observer, and The Pilot.

Of course, the somewhat redeeming virtues of the Observer and The Pilot are the Sunday edition coupons...

The blatantly biased cover article by Andrew Sullivan is an incredible piece of wishful thinking by an unabashed Obama devotee -- wishful in the way he hopes enough unthinking, irrational, useful idiots will actually believe his outlandish tripe.

Yes, Sullivan has caused quite an uproar among both the left and, especially, the right wing "blogosphere".  I almost find the entire matter amusing.  Anyone who does not fully understand how biased the media has become over the past couple of decades (it always was, but they used to conceal it much better and at least try to report factual news -- no longer), is simply so immersed in left wing ideology that they can no longer see reality, much less acknowledge reality.

My own hope is that outlets such as Newsweek will soon go bankrupt and get out of the way of the Truth.  Regardless of the wishful thinking of the left, people will ultimately support those media outlets who report facts and truth and they will abandon those media outlets who deliver only propaganda and editorial opinion disguised as fact.

Editorial opinion is great as long as it is delivered as such and does not distort and twist what is presented as news reports.  People do want to read opinion and ideas.  That's why talk radio is so very successful.  That's why people avidly read the editorial pages of their local newspapers.  We learn, we are challenged, and we challenge others through the exchange of opinion and ideas.  It's wonderful!  I do that here, so obviously I am not condemning commentary.

But the problem with rags like Newsweek is that the difference between editorial opinion and news is completely lost on them.  The reader is left to wonder and decide for himself what may be factual and what may be fiction.  That's wrong.  It should be clear what is factual reporting and what is editorial opinion.  It used to be that way, and the media used to serve as a check and balance on government.  No more.  Newsweek is no more than a Democrat campaign super-PAC.


Bill Cochrane

_If you listen to WRAL or read the Raleigh News & Observer -- both left-leaning biased outlets -- you would conclude that another "progressive" polling operation -- the Public Policy Center (think Soros) -- had proven the NC Legislature did a dastardly deed when called back by Governor Perdue for a special session.  These folks are truly expert at twisting things through one-sided reporting, selective information, and questionable sources.  The old media outlets are becoming so rampantly misleading and blatantly in-your-face ideologues as to become truly disgusting.

In fact, a review of all the major newspapers reveals outright one-sided proclamations that the vote was "unethical", "unconstitutional", "not transparent", "absurd", "unprecedented", "shameful", "unfair",....  All of these are very much dishonest of these media outlets.

To revisit WRAL, I have to say the single "mainstream" media outlet article which presented a mostly balanced presentation of fact and quoted opinions from named sources on both sides of the arguments was by WRAL.  But every other article I read from WRAL was a total and complete one-sided hatchet-job.

Let's rationally review the salient points of what actually happened:

●  Governor Perdue called the NC Senate back to Raleign for a special session to reconsider a bill which the Governor had vetoed during the regular 2011 session.  So, the Senate Republicans did not sneak back into Raleigh on their own for some secret, nefarious covert session to trick the Democrats.  The Governor called all the NC State Senators back to Raliegh on a very short notice.

●  All of the Republicans were present at the Governor's special session in response to her call.  Some of the Democrat Senators were not present, for whatever reasons -- irrelevant to the matter at hand.  The Democrats did not come.  There was a quorum.  The Senate convened for the purposed called by the Governor, and they conducted the business that they were called to do.

●  The Democrats and the Governor did not like the outcome of the vote.  Politics is tough and elections do have consequences.  Now the Dems are trying to say that the bill and vote were somehow un-constitutional.  They threaten to take the matter to court.  But, in reality, they knew and the Governor knew what would happen all along when the Governor forced this vote.  The reality is that this is all purely political and ideological posturing on the part of the losers.  Sour grapes.

●  The NC Constitution says that the Legislature cannot consider any other bills during a special session called by the Governor for the purposes of handling a specific bill.  The media, the Dems, and the Guv are trying to portray what happened next as an un-constitutional action.  This is false.  Completely false.

●  The Senate is allowed under the NC Constitution to vote on resolutions.  In fact, this is a necessary part of the legislative process in handling a bill.  Resolutions and procedural decisions may be voted upon during the parliamentary maneuvers leading to a final vote.  Moreover, whenever the Legislature meets, there is a final resolution to officially decide the date and time of the next session.  This final resolution is at the vortex of the arguments.  But the fact that the Senate voted on a final resolution regarding the date and time of the next session is normal, constitutional, and necessary.

●  What happened is this:  Since the Senate was already in place and had handled the purpose of the special session quickly, since that business was concluded and there was time left over on the anticipated schedule, since all these Senators had changed their personal plans and schedules at the call of the Governor and traveled from across the state to Raleigh -- because of these considerations, the Senate changed their resolution to adjourn the special session and set the date and time of the next Senate session to that same night.  This they did.  They adjourned the special session and reconvened in place a new session.

●  In the new scheduled session, the Senate is free to consider any old business pending action.  This they did.  They took up another bill which had been vetoed earlier in 2011 by the Governor.  The NC House had already voted to override the Governor's veto.  At this session, the Senate voted whether to override the veto, and the override passed the Senate.

●  Now the Democrats, the Governor, and their shill media want you to believe that the action was dishonest and unconstitutional.  It was neither, and there is good precedent for all that was done by previous Democrat-controlled NC Legislatures.  This is all sound an fury to confuse and influence uninformed voters who have not paid attention or do not have the time to dig into all the details.

The dishonesty and shameful behavior is all on the side of the Democrats and their shill advocacy media.

Now, let's take a little closer look at that poll these folks are trying to use to convince the public of their righteousness.  They would have you take this poll at face value and simply accept that a majority of people of all stripes now condemn the above actions by the NC Senate.  But when ideologues begin throwing poll numbers around, we need to look closely at the details of the poll they're using.

●  First, this poll was conducted by a very left-leaning progressive organization, Public Policy Polling in Raleigh, NC.  This concern is affiliated with the Democrat Party and partners with the Daily KOS.  These folks are most interested in furthering the interests of the Democrat Party and supporting left-wing progressive organizations.  Just keep that in mind.

●  The poll was conducted using automated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology.  The questions, therefore, were presented in very succinct phrasing, allowing the person on the phone to interpret the slanted questions in a very broad manner as they pleased.  The question, which we will examine in a moment, is carefully phrased to elicit a desired response from the typical voter.

●  The sample purportedly was based on Board of Elections records to include likely voters.  However, the sample size is very small -- only 780 likely voters.  Public Policy Polling does not provide any information on how many Democrats versus Republicans versus Unaffiliated voters were included in the sample.  They provide breakdowns by party, race, etc.  But those breakdowns are only expressed in percentages, so we do not know whether or not the sample base was heavily weighted toward registered Democrats.  We just don't know.  When we are not given such information about the sample, the sample must be considered suspect.

●   The question actually asked here was:  "Do you think it is appropriate or inappropriate for the General Assembly to take votes on legislation in the middle of the night?"  Surely you see the fallacy here!  This question was simply asked out of the blue among a number of other such questions unrelated to the issue here.  No context was provided.  No explanation was provided.  No information about the fact that the Governor had called the special session at night.  No supporting facts or information at all.  If I just walked up to you on the street and asked you the above question, how would you answer?  Of course you would answer that it's not appropriate.  Especially after all the late night, weekend, and holiday votes taken by Nancy Pelosi's and Harry Reid's Democrats in Washington these past three years!

●  So this survey is patently dishonest.  It was carefully constructed to deliver a pre-determined, desired result.  And then a dishonest media dutifully reported it in exaggerated ways to completely distort all of the facts and real news.  We should all be outraged!

You can review the Public Policy Polling survey by clicking here.

Be ashamed media.  And count your days.  I'm no longer patronizing you, and millions more will soon see through your lies and actions.  You may consider us to be sheep that you can lead and fence.  I am no sheep.  And the new media will soon replace you.



Bill Cochrane

_How long will the American people put up with this?  Most of the media is ignoring the scandal upon scandal upon scandal.  Most people still seem unaware or oblivious to the atrocities of our current government.  Otherwise, the outrage and anger would be palpable, and honestly, it does not appear to be so.

The Washington Times reports the latest cronyism and scandal associated with the Countrywide Financial Corporation settlement.  Rampant corruption is plainly out in the open, and not a whimper from the people!  No pandemonium in Congress!

It seems that the media's opinion of the American People is accurate, after all.  Did you see the Christmas card that Fox News distributed to media journalists this past Christmas 2011?  Well, here it is:

_The sleighs of the "mainstream" media are racing down a snowy hillside.  The relative positions of the channels corresponds to their viewer ratings.  Two networks who have such small ratings that they can only watch from the sidelines look on from the hillcrest (MSNBC and CNN).

Notice anything "funny" about this card?  Who are pulling the sleds?  Those aren't reindeer.  They're not ponies.  No teams of huskies here.

No.  Those are sheep.   Sheep are the ones propelling the various media outlets in their race for ratings.  Damn it, doesn't that tell you something?!?!  What does the media think of you, the American viewer?  They consider you to be sheep!  Sheeple!  Sheeple who can easily be led and guided by the media.  And that is even Fox's opinion of YOU.  Not merely the other biased and lying media.  They all think of us as sheeple!  And, by golly, we're acting like it.  We deserve it, I suppose.

No outrage over the scandals.  No outrage over the recent calls to suspend elections.  No outrage over the blatant violations of the Constitution and established law.  No outrage over the government outside of government that is under no oversight and has no constraints on the new laws it can impose on America (CFPB).  No outrage over the fact that the Administration can arrest anyone now without charges and imprison them indefinitely without trial even execute or send them to foreign countries for imprisonment with no recourse under the law (NDAA).  No outrage.

The American people are sheeple.  The media are correct!


Bill Cochrane

_Archeological proof unearthed by the People's Cube proves long term media bias in NYT predecessor.

_This is truly a great clip.  Governor Rick Perry is asked to comment on accusations about his campaign made by an anonymous source supposedly within his campaign, and he flat refuses -- telling the reporter to give him a name or he won’t comment.  Finally, someone puts Politico in their place over this whole anonymous source game they like to play.  I love it!

We want a candidate who shows confidence and authority, and Perry does that very well here.  He should stay in this mindset when giving speeches and interviews on the campaign trail, and many more of the electorate would support him.  The other candidates should take a lesson, too.

But get a load of the reporter....  He can't believe he's getting challenged like this!  He doesn't know what to do, so he tries to double-down and get snarky.  Perry puts him right where he belongs.  I love it!


Bill Cochrane (with h/t to RightScoop)

I'm getting tired of this.  Aren't you?

WRAL, N&O whitewash Occupy Raleigh connection to shooter


Bill Cochrane

Have you heard about the idiot who started shooting at pedestrians and motorists in Hollywood yesterday?  Well, 99.9% of the media has said he was a "crazed", "irrational" gunman who began shooting "indiscriminantly", "at random" on the street until he was finally stopped by a police officer.  And the Hollywood police are "looking for a motive" and "checking his home to see if a domestic dispute triggered his rampage" and they just can't figure out why he would do this.  Hmmmm.....  Yeah. Here's a typical news media report, probably much like the one you've seen or read: Gunman calmly targeted drivers, pedestrians

Still trust the media?  Who has told you that this gunman was shouting "Allahu Akbar" while shooting?  How does that change the story?  What agenda would cause the media to hide the fact that this was a suicide Islamic terrorist attack?  Why do you still trust the media?  You must look at several, often alternative media sources to discern the truth.  Here is an honest report: Sudden Jihad Syndrome


Bill Cochrane