Helen Thomas dropped by agency?

Politico is reporting that Helen Thomas, in light of the controversial remarks made about Israel, has been dropped as a client by her agency, Nine Speakers.

MSM lets Obama skate ... but if Bush had done it....

Mark Hemingway is spot on when he notes that "it's practically a parlor game among conservatives to note how often problems under Obama get ignored when the media would have crucified George W. Bush for had they happened on his watch." He is amazed that the Washington Post has also noticed the hypocrisy.

Top biased quotes of 2009 in New York Times

"Documenting and exposing the liberal political agenda of the New York Times," Times Watch has picked the top Times biased quotes of 2009:

New York Times bias often came with a smile in the early part of 2009, with the paper falling hard for Obama's "historic" presidency and limitless intellect. But by late summer that smile had curdled into a snarl, as Times reporters seethed at“angry,” “bitter,” and, above all, “white” tea party protesters who challenged the president on his attempted takeover of health care and his massive spending proposals. Below is a collection of the worst bias the Times has to offer in 2009.

With quotes from Helen Thomas to Maureen Dowd to Paul Krugman and more ... from expressing undying love for Barack Obama while dissing Sarah Palin's supporters and tea party patriots ... all the quotes and authors are listed making it easy to understand why the mainstream media is in serious decline.

AP published photo of dying Marine against family's wishes

What is it with some in the mainstream media? Do they not understand they are Amerians first and reporters second? What about the decency of being fellow human beings ... what about the decency of respecting the wishes of a deceased Marine's family?

USMC Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard, 21, was mortally wounded by a grenade in Afghanistan on August 14. An embedded Associated Press photographer -- a woman -- snapped photos of the dying Marine as fellow Marines tried to save his life.

When the family of Lance Cpl. Bernard became aware of the photo, they asked -- twice -- that it not be published. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked that it not be published and followed up with a phone call ... all to no avail:

Gates wrote a strongly worded letter to AP President and CEO Tom Curley on Thursday, saying it was a matter of "judgment and common decency" not to use the photo. A Pentagon spokesman said Gates followed up with a phone call "begging" Curley not to use it.

The AP decided to publish it anyway. Why? From the Washington Examiner:

[AP photographer] Julie Jacobson had been embedded with the unit and had photographed the Marines, including Lance Cpl. Bernard immediately prior to the ambush. She had also kept a journal in which she had described the attack and the care the other Marines had provided.

Describing her decision to publish the image to the St. Petersburg Times Julie Jacobsen stated,”To ignore a moment like that simply ... would have been wrong. I was recording his impending death, just as I had recorded his life moments before walking the point in the bazaar," she said. "Death is a part of life and most certainly a part of war. Isn't that why we're here? To document for now and for history the events of this war?”

I dare say Ms. Jacobsen is not a mother. I almost question whether she is a human being after such a blatant comment. A heart of stone would be needed to ignore the wishes of a young man's parents.

Secretary Gates wrote that "use of the photo of a wounded Bernard would mark an "unconscionable departure" from the restraint that most journalists have shown in covering the military since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." When the AP still published the photo, he followed up:

"Why your organization would purposely defy the family's wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me," Gates wrote. "Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple newspapers is appalling."

I also would dare say the MSM is trying to recreate the Vietnam war by playing on the emotions of the American public ... at the expense of the very families who have made the biggest sacrifice in the ongoing war on terrorism.

The AP's director of photography, Santiago Lyon, put out a statement defending the decision:

AP journalists document world events every day. Afghanistan is no exception. We feel it is our journalistic duty to show the reality of the war there, however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is.

Against the wishes of the family? It makes no sense.

Did they bother to talk with the parents and learn about the young man they were about to exploit?

Lance Cpl. Bernard's father John was on Fox and Friends Monday morning where the Marine veteran emphasized that the family did not want that photo of his son published, and then described a gentle young man who went to war.

He also emphasized that the Rules of Engagement -- ROE -- need to be changed. With no time to explain, I would guess he is talking about the fact that political correctness has followed our military into war and, as a result, soldiers and Marines are dying because of it.

Here's an idea: send those who make the rules into combat zones and see if they still feel the same.

Perhaps the headline of the story should be, "Change the Rules of Engagement ... military dying because of them."

America is at WAR ... we are not on a cake walk. Our military is putting itself in harm's way and politicians are tying their hands. August was the deadliest month in the ongoing war on terrorism ... this under Barack Obama and the Democrats' watch.

On Fox and Friends, a composed yet grieving father talked with affection about his son whom he described as a Christian first who was devoted to family and country, and was kind to a fault. He became a Marine at the age of 18 but continued to "walk the walk," held in high esteem by his fellow Marines who called him "holy man" and considered him their religious leader because of his quiet yet strong faith.

American first ... reporter second. Are the MSM more interested in getting the sensationalism ... "If it bleeds, it leads" ... or following an agenda ... or will they show they care about America and her citizens? The AP appears to have given its answer.

Meanwhile, an American hero's family mourns, that sadness intensified by the actions of the media.

Our prayers and gratitude go out to the Bernard family for their extreme sacrifice in the war on terrorism and the fight to preserve the freedoms we enjoy here in this country. May God bless and watch over them.

Semper Fi.

Flip-flopping Obama gets pass from MSM

If President George W. Bush had backtracked on issues like Barack Obama does, the MSM would have howled with glee as they excoriated him once again in their hate-hate relationship with the 43rd president.

Obama backpedals on private health care and do we hear a peep? Vicki at Frugal Cafe picks up on the hypocrisy by bringing to light Obama's flip-flop on private health care versus universal health care. As she notes:

Wow, it didn’t take long for a “pay no attention to that shyster behind the curtain” moment, did it? It’s a Chicago back-alley shell game, with our health and health care insurance and our choice of medical providers and trillions of taxpayer dollars, all being shuffled about under walnut shells… very suspicious. And troubling.

What’s with President Obama saying one thing one day, and the next day, it turns out to not be true? In our house, we call that LYING. In the White House, it’s “rhetoric that shouldn’t be taken literally.”

And with a Bush White House the MSM would have made it front page headlines.

Unemployment rate highest in 25 years

Jerry Fuhrman at From On High hits the nail on the head with this post. Job losses are higher than they've been in 25 years ... Obama-mainstream media continue to try and put a hopeful spin on it.

The positive spin of the MSM was MIA during the Bush years when there actually was something to be positive about. 'Nuff said.

So much for Dems promising transparency....

After passage of the huge stimulus/pork bill by Democrats on Friday, Donald at the American Power blog in California wrote A fundamental reworking of our priorities:

This morning's Wall Street Journal cuts right to the chase in their editorial, "1,073 Pages":

Democrats rushed the bill to the floor before Members could even read it, much less have time to broadcast the details so the public could offer its verdict.

So much for Democratic promises of a new era of transparency.

That's exactly what Democrats do not want, transparency.

Read the rest of the post plus the comments.

Imagine for just one minute ... think back over the past eight years ... if George W. Bush and the Republicans had rammed through a huge pork bill after saying three days before that they would allow 48 hours to provide the bill could be seen by the American public, and then passing it less than 24 hours after it came out of the printing office.

Yeah ... you don't have to think for a minute, do you? The media would be screaming bloody murder. But all we hear with the Democrats in control is ...

... deafening silence.

U.S. Senator ... what is worse? Saying "macaca" ... or slamming our troops on floor of Congress?

Rush Limbaugh posed an interesting question today while discussing Sen. Chuck Schumer's slam at our American troops yesterday. Schumer, on the floor of Congress, said:

And let me be clear, the violence in Anbar has gone down despite the surge, not because of the surge. The inability of American soldiers to protect these tribes from al Qaeda said to these tribes we have to fight al Qaeda ourselves. It wasn't that the surge brought peace here. It was that the warlords took peace here, created a temporary peace here. And that is because there was no one else there protecting.

Rush compared George Allen's use of the word "macaca" that brought down a U.S. Senator ... and Schumer's traitorous remarks slamming the American troops. How could "macaca" be so bad the media thought Allen needed to be removed ... and, yet, they have been silent on Schumer's traitorous criticism of our American troops?

Good question....

DeLay smacks down Matt Lauer on media hypocrisy

Finally! A Republican with a backbone to stand up to the media and call them to account for their hypocritical actions. Thank you, Tom DeLay!

DeLay was a guest on NBC's "Today" show Thursday to discuss the incident surrounding Sen. Larry Craig. Lauer began his question by listing a number of controversies involving Republicans.

DeLay responded, “I hate to say this, Matt, but you just showed the problem, the double standard, and you just participated in it. You listed a whole lot of scandals that involve the Republicans, but you didn't mention one Democrat… I think in your premise, if you had listed all the Democrats that are having problems right now, it would have been different. You see, the Democrats re-elect the people with their problems. Republicans kick them out.”

To which Lauer protested but DeLay would not let him get away with defending the double standard. He listed several Democrat scandals including Congressman Alan Mollohan of West Virginia who is under investigation by the FBI yet retains his chairmanship of the FBI budget oversight committee.

He tried to mention William Jefferson of Louisiana who is currently serving his ninth term as congressman. But Lauer cut him off and said, “So, you're saying it's a positive thing. Is it a positive thing that the Republicans do this, they weed out immediately?”

DeLay was insistant and replied, “You don't want me to finish it? Because you don't want me to…” Lauer relented and said, “No, no go ahead.”

DeLay continued, “You have William Jefferson caught with $90,000 of marked bills in a freezer. And they did put him off the Ways and Means Committee, but they put him on a highly sensitive Homeland Security Committee. You have Barney Frank, who was caught with a homosexual prostitute who was reelected over and over again ... Gerry Studds who was caught in a bathroom with an under-aged page and he was re-elected.”

Woo-hoo! A Republican with a backbone....

DeLay explained to Lauer that, when Republicans see that one of their own is guilty, they take care of it which often leads to the a resignation. DeLay continued, "On the other hand, the Democrats don't. And the media, the double standard in the media is amazing. The feeding frenzy, the sharks in the water that's going on right now because of a Republican. Where is the frenzy on Alan Mollohan from West Virginia or William Jefferson from Louisiana?”

Yep. I posted on that double standard today.

Lauer protested, “I think you mentioned William Jefferson. There was an awful lot of coverage of William Jefferson when that story broke, Congressman.”

DeLay retorted, "Yeah, for just a couple of days and then we went on. In the case of a Republican, believe me, I've experienced this, it's day in and day out in the media, and they write this story over and over and over again. We all know the double standard in the media. It's amazing.”

DeLay hit the ball out of the park when he told Lauer, “There are scandals that need to be addressed. Republicans address them; Democrats reelect them.”

We need more Republicans to stand together against the double standard of the media and the Democrats. The dems circle the wagons and protect the guilty, no matter what. When it's a Republican, the dems howl and scream, and Republicans kowtow and boot-out the guilty party.

It is time for Republicans to realize we are at war with MoveOn.org politics. We must fight fire with fire ... or we will not survive.

Double standard from the Dems? Yes ... and from the MSM

Thank you, Bearing Drift, for the post Republicans Resign; Democrats Don't. Republicans get caught in scandal ... and resign almost immediately. Democrats circle the wagons and protect the guilty no matter what.

So what is the difference between the political Parties?

The difference is the double standard of the mainstream media who zoom in like a bunch of vultures when it involves a Republican ... but are amazingly MIA when it involves a Democrat.