Another reason or two to boycott the media... and one great story

The following came in my daily "cyber alert" from the Media Research Center. I'd normally post just the first paragraph and a link, but they sent the whole thing and I couldn't easily find it on their site (ha, probably because it's on Newsbusters, duh.. just noticed a comment when scanning, no time to find it now though so will just post). Below the MRC post I've included a link to the interview and video Matthews and Alter are slamming.

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter Slams Sarah Palin as 'So Lame'

On Thursday night's Hardball, Chris Matthews played several clips from documentarian John Zeigler's interview with Sarah Palin, in which the former GOP VP candidate criticized Katie Couric and the press as a whole for bias against her, but his guest, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, dismissed Palin's charges as "so lame," and called her "a Nixonian Nanook of the North." Alter noted "the subtext of this is that somehow the Democratic candidates are treated better by the press," a notion he dismissed: "Ask Bill Clinton the way he was treated, you know, by the press. I mean it's just not true."

[This item, by the MRC's Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Thursday evening on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: www.newsbusters.org]

The following exchanges were aired on the January 8 edition of Hardball:

First up, after Matthews aired a clip of Palin criticizing the McCain campaign for forcing her to conduct continuing interviews with Couric, Alter called the Alaskan governor: "So lame."

CHRIS MATTHEWS: There ought to be a law against politicians blaming their handlers. What do you think Jonathan?
JONATHAN ALTER, NEWSWEEK: Yeah this was just so lame, Chris. I mean why didn't it go well the first day? It wasn't because Katie Couric was asking awful questions. Her questions were very straight, no spin on the ball. The problem was Sarah Palin couldn't answer the questions in a way that showed the knowledge that is required to be Vice President and quite possibly President. So if she had decided not to go back for the rest of the interview she would have been conceding that she simply wasn't qualified to be Vice President if she couldn't answer Katie's questions.

Then after a clip of Palin wondering if Caroline Kennedy would get better coverage in her quest for the New York Senate seat because of a "class issue," Alter insulted Palin as acting like a "Nixonian Nanook of the North."

ALTER: Chris you wrote the book on Kennedy and Nixon. You know this is Sarah Palin acting kind of like a Nixonian Nanook of the North. She's trying to play that class argument against the Kennedys. That goes back a long way. It's had some success in American politics. But you know this, at this point it's kind of comparing apples and oranges. She was on the threshold of becoming Vice President and possibly President. Caroline Kennedy hasn't even been, you know, chosen yet for the U.S. Senate, as one of 100. So you know the standards in covering them aren't quite comparable. Not to mention the fact that Caroline's had a pretty tough press so far. She has hardly been handled by kid gloves in the last couple weeks.
MATTHEWS: You're right.

Finally right before the close of the show, Alter denied Palin's claim of liberal bias that she would've received positive coverage if she was on the Democratic ticket:

MATTHEWS: Jon, Jon would she have gotten better treatment had she been on the "D" ticket instead of the "R" ticket?
ALTER: Well first of all, first of all Chris she never would've been on the Democratic ticket. I mean John McCain said that the first requirement for his pick was that, that person be qualified to step in at a moment's notice and deal with terrorism and all the big international issues. So he violated his own standards. That was also Barack Obama's standard for who he would put on the ticket and he chose somebody with, with the requisite experience. But if she had been -- the, the subtext of this is that somehow the Democratic candidates are treated better by the press. Ask Bill Clinton the way he was treated, you know, by the press. I mean it's just not true.
MATTHEWS: Okay, ask Jimmy Carter.
ALTER: Jimmy Carter! Yeah.
MATTHEWS: Anyway. Ask Jimmy Carter, he got a terrible press.

Here's a link to Zeigler's great interview:

Video Exclusive: A Revealing Morning With Sarah Palin
by John Ziegler
If someone told me five months ago that in early January I would pay over $1,400 for an incredibly inconvenient plane ticket and $120 for a 3 a.m. cab fare to get from sunny Los Angeles to Wasilla, Alaska, I would have told them there was a better chance the Dow Jones would be below 9,000 and a gallon of gas less than two dollars.

Your efforts succeed; CNN does it again...

A few days ago Palin supporters across the blogosphere were up in arms about CNN's inclusion of Sarah in their notorious list of bad guys for 2008. They had a slide show with politicians who fell from grace because of their crimes and misdemeanors in which they included Sarah Palin.

Well, due to YOUR emails and complaints they've quietly taken Sarah out of the mix. Yep, she's no longer in the story. No explanation, no apology, no rationale for including her or for removing her from the list.

I've been reading the news from China thanks to one of our blogging members, Cristy Li. One of the news stories I read exposed a controversy with a photo at a promoted government event. A photo was posted of attendees with a gentleman in the front row clearly snoozing. When attention was called to the photo, it magically appeared the following day with the guy wide awake (they doctored the eyes). Another story showed a painted documentary picture of a historical event that had been changed due to political whims. Over the years as the officials in the picture fell out of favor they were painted out of the picture. Later when in favor, they were brought back. People who weren't there were painted into the photo.

They changed history.

CNN attempted to re-write history by including Sarah in the criminal mix, then quietly changed history again by taking her out without acknowledging they made a HUGE error in judgement. I hope you'll all consider blogging about this issue and continue to hold CNN's feet to the proverbial fire.

CNN has been called on the carpet for many controversial choices they've made to the detriment of our military and / or conservatives. They should be called on the carpet about this issue, too.

There is a Mainstream Media Blackout effort that I now believe should consider focusing on ONE media outlet at a time. We had discussed doing a 3-hour Friday blackout of ALL media each week, which seemed like an easy task. However, I don't think the idea is catching on. I know many of you are already boycotting CNN. What would you think about putting a button on your blogs that linked to a new blog I just grabbed, "CNN Boycott"? Promoting a CNN boycott?

If you're interested in participating, let me know (readmylipstick at live dot com). If you'd like to be a fellow blogger on the CNN Boycott blog and / or the Mainstream Media Blackout blog, let me know, too.

We must have fairness in the media. We can not rely on radio (the Dem's are coming after talk radio soon with the so-called "Fairness Doctrine"), we can not rely on Fox News. We need fairness across the board.

CNN Scrubs Palin from NewsBusters Covered Criminal Politicians Story
By Warner Todd Huston
As most of you know, I originally posted this story on Sunday under the headline CNN Places Sarah Palin With 2008's Criminals, Sex Addicts, and the Corrupt here at NewsBusters. It raged all day Sunday in the Blogosphere and into the night among Palin fans and center right bloggers. Gretta Van Susteren even posted about it on her FoxNews blog (It garnered 4 pages of comments there, too).
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2009/01/06/cnn-scrubs-palin-newsbusters-covered-criminal-politicians-story

My blog: Time to Rumble with CNN; They Lump Palin with Criminals

CNN Places Sarah Palin With 2008's Criminals, Sex Addicts, and the Corrupt
By Warner Todd Huston
January 4, 2009 - 07:06 ET
Showing they have no sense of morality, no grasp of corruption and no understanding of what defines a criminal, CNN gives us another one of those ubiquitous year in review stories, this one titled "Politicians who fell from grace in 2008." In this one, CNN has decided to reveal for us their top eight politicians that found 2008 to be a "career-buster" because of their "crimes and misdemeanors" or their outrageous controversies.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2009/01/04/cnn-places-sarah-palin-2008s-criminals-sex-addicts-corrupt

CNN Story: Politicians who made headlines for the wrong reasons
Politicians who fell from grace in 2008
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/31/politician.scandals/index.html

Time to Rumble with CNN; They Lump Palin with Criminals

CNN Places Sarah Palin With 2008's Criminals, Sex Addicts, and the Corrupt
By Warner Todd Huston
January 4, 2009 - 07:06 ET
Showing they have no sense of morality, no grasp of corruption and no understanding of what defines a criminal, CNN gives us another one of those ubiquitous year in review stories, this one titled "Politicians who fell from grace in 2008." In this one, CNN has decided to reveal for us their top eight politicians that found 2008 to be a "career-buster" because of their "crimes and misdemeanors" or their outrageous controversies.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2009/01/04/cnn-places-sarah-palin-2008s-criminals-sex-addicts-corrupt

CNN Story: Politicians who made headlines for the wrong reasons
Politicians who fell from grace in 2008
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/31/politician.scandals/index.html

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have HAD it with CNN. I tried watching it again while at a restaurant yesterday. The bias is so blatant, the stories lead you to their conclusions, the questions asked are designed to make their point. The stories they choose to report are part of the agenda. I swallowed my food but couldn't swallow the garbage they tried to feed me via the screen.

Television has become a mind-washing machine.

We need to bombard CNN with emails. Turn them off. Write the advertisers letting them know you won't be watching them. There are probably 500 different stop the media, media watchdog, blackout media, groups around the Internet. We need to pull them all together and have a concerted voice.

I've been promoting taking over the Internet for 2010 and 2012. If we don't do something about the mainstream media (msm) we'll be fighting the battle partially blindfolded.