The Soviet Headstone

A month ago today, Ronald Reagan was laid to rest. On that day, Michael Ramirez published this cartoon, which didn't come to my attention until today.

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

Confer.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 07/12/04 08:12:38 PM
Categorized as Farewell to the Great Liberator & Ronald Reagan.

"Bulldog Journalism"

A blockbuster essay from Orson Scott Card.

Today's OpinionJournal publishes an essay that had already appeared at The Ornery American, May 30:

.... Testing for Bias

This morning — the Sunday before Memorial Day — I picked up the Asheville Citizen-Times and started looking through national news coverage. You know, the stuff that is filtered through the lens of liberal bias long before it even reaches local papers, which rarely revise what they get off the press service wires.

In a story on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's remarks to the graduating class at West Point, here is the lead paragraph:

"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, making no mention of the prisoner abuse scandal that has led to calls for his ouster, told a cheering crowd of graduating cadets Saturday that they will help win the global fight against terror."

Let's see ... how could there be any bias in that? Every word is true, right?

Bulldog Journalism

Except for this: The first thing mentioned, the lens through which we are forced to view the rest of the story, is something that did not happen and that only an idiot would expect might happen: Rumsfeld mentioning the prisoner-abuse scandal at a commencement address at West Point.

The lead, in other words, is not the graduation that is supposedly being reported, but rather Rumsfeld's failure to resign in the face of events that happened weeks ago.

How is Rumsfeld's not resigning news? It's mentioned in this story only because the reporter does not want to let go of it.

This is bulldog journalism: Once you get hold of a story, you never loosen your grip until your victim dies — at least politically.

Does it happen to everybody? Or just Republicans?

Well, try this fictitious opening paragraph:

"Senator Hillary Clinton (Dem. NY), making no mention of the $100,000 she once made by trading cattle futures with astonishing perfection, told a cheering crowd of activists that Bush's globalist economic policy is hurting poor people in other countries and costing American jobs."

Nope. You've never seen it, and you never will. Because bulldog journalism only goes one way in our "unbiased" mainstream media....

RTWT.

And see also these.

(Thanks, Cassandra.)

P.S. I am reminded of something I blogged last year:

Why, when mainstream media goofs up, is it invariably to the detriment of, say, conservatives, or Catholics, or Republicans? When an editor or reporter doesn't get a story quite right about George W. Bush or his administration, it never makes the president look good, does it? When newspapers get a story wrong about the Catholic Church, it never makes the Church look good, does it? When a conservative is misquoted, it never makes him look good, does it?...

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 07/12/04 06:55:56 PM
Categorized as Media.

Land of Hope and Glory

A bilingual weblog.

Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 07/12/04 06:08:27 PM
Categorized as Blogosphere Stuff.

Danger! Falling Brainwaves

A weblog two years old last week.

Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 07/12/04 05:51:55 PM
Categorized as Other.

The View Through The Windshield

A young weblog.

Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 07/12/04 07:29:22 AM
Categorized as Other.

Stop the Sacrilege: A National Campaign

"U can't B both Catholic and pro-choice".

Cecilia Martin, editor of The Catholic Advocate, writes to let us know about the new Stop the Sacrilege campaign sponsored by the The Missionaries Under the Sun.

Another page at the website lists a number of Catholics In Name Only. I must say, I have great admiration for anybody who could think to call Fr. Richard McBrien the "elderly enfant terrible".

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 07/12/04 07:09:00 AM
Categorized as Religious.

Re: Personal Stuff

I applied for a part-time position at the portrait studio at a nearby Sears. They're taking applications for seasonal work that wouldn't begin earlier than late August and would continue through mid-December. I'll be trying some other similar possibilities soon.

If anybody else has a good idea, let me know!

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 07/12/04 06:50:02 AM
Categorized as Other.