Appearing on his eponymous 3 p.m. MSNBC program, conservative columnist S.E. Cupp took Martin Bashir to task for his and his network's most recent attacks on Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) regarding her husband's views on homosexual orientation being a choice that one can change through therapy, not a deterministically-imposed genetic trait. When Cupp agreed that it was “valid to call it junk science” that one's sexuality can be changed by counseling and therapy, Bashir seized on Cupp's statement to insist that Michele Bachmann was held captive by junk science, thus calling into question her judgment. Cupp protested that Michele Bachmann herself may not share her husband's views and that the media's fixation on the matter is part and parcel of an attack on religious Americans: S.E. CUPP: I think this makes for a really perfectly-timed story. When everyone else is talking about the economy and it's really hard to make her look dumb, let's make her look scary. So then the media starts to look for these kooky, quirky, religious social issues stories. MARTIN BASHIR: No, no, no, no. S.E., that's not fair. CUPP: Because they can't talk about her positions on the economy because they're better than Obama's would be. Bashir might not think Cupp's diagnosis is fair, but Bashir's own evolving take on Bachmann is right in line with Cupp's analysis, given how Bashir praised Bachmann a month ago by snidely tagging her as “the thinking person's Sarah Palin.” To Bashir, Bachmann is no dummy, but her views are wrong-headed or scary. Bashir tried to get back to his agenda, namely opening a rift between religious Bachmann fans and the conservative but atheistic S.E. Cupp . The conservative columnist turned the tables by pointing out the absurdity of Bashir's line of attack (emphasis mine): BASHIR: You said this is junk science. CUPP: I think it's a valid argument to say that praying away the gay is junk science. BASHIR: It's not just you saying that, it's the Association of American Psychologists who are saying this. CUPP: I think it's a valid argument, that it's junk science. But I don't think you can implicate 80 percent of the population which is Christian, who believe that homosexuality is a sin as crazy and kooky and extreme. BASHIR: I'm not going there. I'm not suggesting that at all. What I'm asking you is, does Michele Bachmann therefore embrace junk science. CUPP: I can't tell you what motivates Michele Bachmann's belief that homosexuality is a sin. I have a feeling it's the Bible. BASHIR: No, no. She says it's slavery. She says it's a bondage. CUPP: These were metaphors, Martin, and you and I use metaphors all the time. To create a bigger story out of the idea that a conservative Christian candidate is against gay marriage, thinks homosexuality isn't a sin, really isn't all that controversial. BASHIR: Is a potential Republican candidate for the presidency embracing junk science? CUPP: If you don't believe that homosexuality is a sin, if you don't believe that you can pray away the gay, if you don't [sic] believe that gays should be married than you would disagree with Michele Bachmann and you would say that she is embracing junk science. If you are a Christian who believes like she does, that homosexuality is a sin, creationism is the story of how we all got here, then I don't think you would call it junk science , I think you would call that, you know, Scripture, Christianity. Of course, as an attendee of an evangelical church in Manhattan , Martin Bashir should understand Cupp's point. Unfortunately it seems he's been worshiping at the altar of MSNBC's left-wing message machine of late.
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President plays mediator in debt talks to prevent government bills going unpaid, interest rates soaring and US stocks plummeting For the third day in a row, congressional leaders were locked in discussions at the White House over the looming budget crisis, with no resolution in sight amid increasingly entrenched political positions. Washington is well versed in the political theatre of budget crises, but the current head-bashing between Democratic and Republican leaders has entered a class of its own. Not only are the two main parties further apart in their thinking compared with the previous great meltdown that shut the federal government, in 1995, but the stakes are higher now than in living memory. Unless agreement can be reached on raising the debt ceiling from its current $14.3tn towards the end of this month – in time for legislators to prepare the paperwork before the 2 August deadline – then within days, even hours, the US government would be unable to pay its debts, interest rates would almost certainly soar, and US stocks would likely plummet as trust in the American system was undermined. Barack Obama is now engaged in near-permanent talks with congressional leaders, with all other concerns shunted aside. On Tuesday he called Democratic and Republican leaders to the White House to continue where they had broken off the day before, but both sides remain stubbornly resistant to compromise – a sign of the increasingly partisan nature of US politics. At a time when bridge-building between the parties is crucial, the Republican leadership chose to take the opposite path. Mitch McConnell, the party’s leader in the Senate, accused Obama of “deliberate deception” in the talks. John Boehner, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, told reporters that “the debt limit is [Obama's] problem”. At the weekend Boehner jettisoned the search for a big compromise deal, rejecting Obama’s proposal for a package that would reduce the federal deficit by $4tn over 10 years. The rejection left the Republican party – the supposed party of small government – in the surreal position of proposing a smaller reduction in the deficit, which they now want to see cut by just $2tn. At the heart of the Republican resistance is their refusal to contemplate tax increases, even those including removing tax loopholes on oil profits or private jets. The Democrats are also in a bind: many of their congressional members are unwilling to make concessions demanded by the right that would cut social programmes such as Medicare and Medicaid. “The Democratic party on average is further left, and the Republican party on average further right, than before,” said Ron Haskins, a former adviser to George Bush and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “So they are trying to cut a deal between folks who are more driven by their ideologies and principles.” Obama, who has been accused in the past by commentators of both left and right of failing to show leadership on the issue, is now energetically trying to carve out a middle ground despite the apparent lack of flexibility from his fellow politicians. As part of the $4tn package, he is asking Republicans to concede $1tn in increased taxes; from Democrats he is asking for cuts in social benefits such as Medicare, the programme of entitlements for older people. One proposal is to raise the age of the programme from 65 to 67, which has distressed the left of the Democratic party. Another is to lower the annual cost-of-living increases, which would see a gradual whittling away of retirement benefits. “I’m prepared to take on significant heat from my party to get something done, and I expect the other side should be willing to do the same thing if they mean what they say,” Obama said on Monday. There are two major influences on the budget process making a resolution more difficult. The first is the Tea Party movement, the nationwide branch of fiscally conservative activists exhorting Republicans to stand firm against higher taxes. The other is the 2012 elections, which are already focusing politicians’ minds, as is the fear that if they are seen to be weak and compromising they could be punished at the ballot box. Barack Obama US politics US economy United States Economics Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
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Divisions grow amid calls for release of Shakil Afridi, who ran fake vaccination programme to get al-Qaida leader’s DNA Washington is pressing Islamabad to release a doctor being held for helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden as the diplomatic falling-out between the countries grows more bitter. Dr Shakil Afridi was arrested by Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency after it discovered he had been recruited by the CIA to run a fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad to try to get DNA samples from the al-Qaida leader’s suspected hideout. American authorities are trying to rescue the Pakistani doctor, his wife and children, and take them to the United States, according to Pakistani and US officials. The revelation that Bin Laden was living comfortably in northern Pakistan – and the clandestine operation by US special forces to kill him on 2 May – have pushed ties between Washington and Islamabad to breaking point. Over the weekend, the US announced that it would punish Pakistan for its lack of co-operation in the anti-terror fight by cutting $800m (£500m) in military aid. In retaliation, Pakistan’s defence minister on Tuesday threatened to pull out over 100,000 troops posted on its side of the border with Afghanistan, which would be a security disaster for the coalition’s ongoing military campaign. The recruitment of Afridi has added to the tensions. The doctor, in his late 40s, is thought to have been detained in late May or early June, and is not thought to have been charged. He is being held for working for a foreign intelligence agency, which can be punishable by the death penalty. Friends say they last saw him attend the funeral of a distant family member in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the north-west, on 18 May. Afridi worked as the doctor in charge of Khyber, part of the tribal area, on the edge of Peshawar. It is believed that he was snatched by the ISI at Karkhano bazaar, a market for smuggled goods, on his way back home to Peshawar from work in Khyber, that lies between Peshawar and Khyber. He was initially held in custody in Peshawar, but may have been transferred to custody in Islamabad. From a humble family, Afridi graduated in 1990 from Khyber Medical College, the top medical academy in the north-west of the country. He had been accused of corruption in the past but was cleared of misdoings, according to one person who knows him. The CIA was never sure that Bin Laden was hiding inside the house in Abbottabad, northern Pakistan. It recruited Afridi, who set up a fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad. It was hoped that this would produce a DNA sample from one of the Bin Laden children. A nurse working for the doctor managed to get inside the compound, though it is not thought that the right DNA was obtained. The Guardian revelations about the fake CIA vaccine programme made headline news in Pakistan on Tuesday, but government officials offered no comment. Already chilly US-Pakistan relations grew colder in recent days with the news that Washington is to withhold $800m of military aid. Much of that money would have gone toward reimbursing Pakistan for the costs of keeping over 100,000 troops in the tribal area, guarding the border with Afghanistan, under a scheme known as Coalition Support Funds. “This is money we have already spent on this war,” Ahmad Mukhtar, Pakistan’s defence minister, said in an interview with Express 24/7, a Pakistani news channel. “The next step is that the government or armed forces will remove these soldiers from the border.” According to figures released by the US Congress, Washington has paid Pakistan $8.9bn in Coalition Support Funds since 2001. The money is meant to pay for the costs of maintaining the Pakistani troops in the tribal area. Pakistan’s armed forces are accused of allowing militants to sneak across the border from safe havens in the tribal area to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. However, Pakistan says it maintains 1,100 border check posts and does its best to stop the flow. If those posts were removed, the Taliban would be able to pour across unhindered. But Mukhtar’s comments are likely to be a warning shot, as pulling out those troops from the tribal area would create a huge security threat for Pakistan too. United States Osama bin Laden Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Pakistan Saeed Shah guardian.co.uk
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Analysts said the deep discounts on offer in the high street last month reflected the squeeze on real incomes The City was last night ruling out an increase in interest rates until next year after latest cost of living figures showed Britain’s struggling retailers were forced to cut prices aggressively last month. Speculation that borrowing costs will need to be raised to tackle price pressures was dampened after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the government’s preferred measure of inflation dropped unexpectedly from 4.5% to 4.2% in a month. On a day of widespread financial market unease, triggered by the deepening crisis in the eurozone, the prospect of the Bank of England pegging interest rates at 0.5% well into 2012 left sterling under pressure on the foreign exchanges. Analysts said the deep discounts on offer in the high street last month reflected the squeeze on real incomes caused by a combination of rising inflation and modest pay awards. Prices of clothes, shoes, computer games and toys saw particularly large cuts as retailers sought to woo cautious consumers. Although retailers have been buffeted by higher energy prices and the rising cost of imports, Graham Turner of GFC economics said they were unable to pass on the higher prices to their customers. “Once again, there was clear evidence of consumer resistance to cost increases, a product of the biggest decline in real employee compensation since 1977,” Turner said. Recently announced increases in domestic energy tariffs are likely to send inflation as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI) higher over the next few months, but yesterday’s data strengthened the hand of those members of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee who have been arguing against a rise in borrowing costs. Led by the Bank’s governor, Mervyn King, a majority on the MPC believes that the surge in inflation to more than double the government’s 2% target will prove temporary and that tightening policy would risk damaging an already weak economy. Separate ONS figures for UK trade showed a widening gap between imports and exports in May, the latest month for which data is available. News that the trade deficit widened from £7.6bn to £8.5bn dented ministerial hopes that the squeeze on consumer and public spending will be offset by stronger export performance. The City is now nervously awaiting the release of growth figures for the second quarter of 2011, due at the end of this month, and has started to mull the possibility that the Bank will inject a fresh dose of electronic money into the economy by buying bonds from banks. The Bank boosted the money supply by £200bn during the recession in an attempt to boost growth but has not added to its quantitative easing programme since early 2010. Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics said yesterday’s figures added “support to the growing view that UK monetary policy is more likely to be loosened than tightened over the next year or so”. The ONS said prices fell by 0.1% last month, the first drop in June for eight years. Games, toys and hobbies were 5.7% cheaper than in June 2010 while audio-visual equipment showed an 11.5% annual drop. The ONS said rising supermarket bills limited the fall in headline inflation last month, but so-called core inflation – which excludes food and energy prices – dropped from 3.3% to 2.8%. Other measures of inflation also fell last month. The retail prices index – used in the bulk of pay negotiations – dipped from 5.2% to 5%, while the CPI excluding the impact of indirect taxes such as VAT came down from 3% to 2.7%. Angela Eagle MP, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “It is worrying that inflation is still more than double the government’s target rate. “Rising world commodity prices are partly to blame. But things have been made much worse in Britain by George Osborne’s big rise in VAT, which is due to his decision last year to cut the deficit too far and too fast. “Families and pensioners who are already being squeezed hard by the Tory VAT rise and cuts to tax credits now face the prospect of huge rises in their gas and electricity bills too.” Simon Rose at Save our Savers said: “The slight improvement in this month’s inflation figures will bring little comfort to savers. It is scandalous that the Interest rates Economics Retail industry Bank of England Economic policy Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk
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Trouble erupts after Orange Order parade passes Ardoyne shops, then spreads across city There has been a serious outbreak of violence in north Belfast with police firing dozens of baton rounds and using water cannon in clashes with nationalist youths. The trouble erupted within minutes of an Orange Order parade passing by the Ardoyne shops shortly after 7pm. The disorder has now spread across the city, with a hijacking in the nationalist Market area of the inner city and crowds gathering on the Oldpark Road. Although the police were able to pin back rioters and keep them away from loyalists in the contentious parade, disorder broke out shortly afterwards on the Crumlin Road. Two different sets of protesters attacked riot police at two entry points into the republican Ardoyne district. Police officers were pelted with bricks, rocks, bottles and petrol bombs as well as fireworks. One group of rioters have set a hijacked car on fire at the junction of Crumlin Road and Woodvale Road, not far from where a smaller group of loyalists are still standing in Twaddell Avenue. Part of the road is now covered in black acrid smoke while the PSNI continue to fire water cannon at those engaged in the riot. The streets around the district are studded with shattered glass and smashed up bits of masonry. Earlier, 24 police officers were injured as Northern Ireland reaches the climax of the Ulster loyalist marching season. The majority of those hurt were caught up in riots in Greater Belfast that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday morning. Nationalist youths threw missiles, petrol bombs and at one stage drove a hijacked bus at police lines. The Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective were denied the right to gather on Crumlin Road – the return route of the Orange parade – on Tuesday night. The PSNI feared the residents would mount a sit down protest on the road to block the Orangemen’s path home. As loyalists marched through Belfast city centre the republican residents began to protest along Berwick Road against the Orange parade passing by their district. When the Orangemen and two loyalist bands passed by, a number of nationalist women sang the Soldier’s Song (the Irish national anthem) and hurled abuse at the marchers. Speaking from the platform, Dee Fennell – a spokesman for the residents group – initially called on the crowd to disperse peacefully. When a large number of those gathered at the protest started laughing Fennell said they would “show the Orange Order, the Parades Commission and the PSNI what they thought of their parade”. Gerry Kelly, the Sinn Féin assembly member for the area and former IRA Old Bailey bomber, said he was concerned at the rising tension in this corner of north Belfast. “We have a situation where we have two parades at one time,” he said. While Kelly and Sinn Féin oppose the loyalist march they have appealed for peaceful protests against the parade. He condemned those nationalist youths behind the violence of the last 24 hours but also blamed the Orange Order for failing to reach a compromise with Catholic residents along contentious parade routes. Northern Ireland Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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Youths attempt to block path of Ardoyne parade as police count cost of rioting As Northern Ireland reached the climax of the Ulster loyalist marching season on Tuesday, police reported that 24 officers had been injured in violence surrounding the parades and new rioting flared in north Belfast. Most of the police casualties were caught up in riots in Greater Belfast. In trouble that flared into the early hours of Tuesday morning, nationalist youths threw missiles including petrol bombs and, at one stage, drove a hijacked bus at police lines. Violence erupted again in the republican area of Ardoyne in north Belfast on Tuesday evening with riot police confronting nationalist youths just before a controversial Orange Order march was due to pass by the district. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) deployed two water cannon vehicles in order to quell disturbances and prevent republican demonstrators blocking Crumlin Road, the main route home for the Protestant Orangemen and their supporters. Bricks, bottles and fireworks thrown at police lines. The Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective were denied the right to gather on the Crumlin Road because police feared they would mount a sit-down protest. As loyalists marched through Belfast city centre, the republican residents amassed along Berwick Road to protest against the Orange parade passing by their district. Gerry Kelly, the Sinn Féin assembly member for the area, said he was concerned at the rising tension in north Belfast. “We have a situation where we have two parades at one time,” he said as he appealed for locals to keep protests against the parade peaceful. Kelly condemned nationalist youths behind the violence of the previous 24 hours – “some of them would have been involved in torturing the community throughout the year,” he said – but he also blamed the Orange Order for failing to reach a compromise with Catholic residents along contentious parade routes. Dozens of PSNI Land Rovers were deployed along the Crumlin Road to deal with any violence. On the same spot last year, about 80 PSNI officers were injured during three days of rioting that followed protests against the loyalist parade. A small number of republican dissidents opposed to the peace process gathered in Ardoyne, an area that is home to a unit of the anti-ceasefire republican organisation Óghlaigh na hÉireann. The first leg of the parade passed off relatively peacefully on Tuesday morning. Amid driving rain and the drone of a police helicopter overhead, the Orangemen and two loyalist bands were accompanied by two rows of protesters shortly before 8.30am. As marchers reached the Protestant Twaddell Avenue, they were given a heroes’ reception by local loyalists. The loyalists marched behind a banner accusing local republicans of imposing “cultural apartheid” due to their continued opposition to the Orange Order march. In the early hours of Tuesday, plastic bullets were fired and water cannon was deployed to deal with a mob of up to 200 youths in the Broadway area in the west of Belfast. The rioters attacked police lines separating the area from the loyalist Village district close to the M1 motorway. Baton rounds were fired during disturbances in the Oldpark area of north Belfast close to the so-called peaceline separating nationalist and loyalist communities. A bus was hijacked on the Falls Road with the driver dragged from the vehicle and passengers ordered off it. It was then driven at police lines on the Donegall Road, but crashed a short distance away. A van was also set alight on the Donegall Road. Northern Ireland Northern Irish politics UK security and terrorism Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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David Cameron backs Labour motion urging Murdoch to withdraw £8bn takeover bid in wake of phone-hacking scandal Rupert Murdoch will face the humiliation of the Commons issuing a unanimous all-party call for his scandal-ridden News Corporation to withdraw its £8bn bid for BSkyB, the great commercial prize he has been pursuing to cement his dominance of the British media landscape. In an extraordinary volte face David Cameron will disown the media tycoon by leading his party through the lobbies to urge him to drop the bid. Murdoch can defy parliament and press ahead with the bid, prompting a Competition Commission inquiry, but he risks finding himself ostracised by a political class that once scrambled to bend to his wishes. In the latest of a series of strategic coups that has left Downing Street looking flat-footed, the Labour leader Ed Miliband tabled a Commons motion for debate this afternoon urging News Corporation to withdraw the bid “in the public interest”. With the Liberal Democrats certain to back Labour’s simple motion, the prime minister took the rare and possibly legally questionable step to row in behind the opposition, even though only the day before Downing Street insisted he and the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, must remain impartial on the takeover. Miliband will lead the debate and will argue that the bid has to be withdrawn at least until police and judicial investigations into phone hacking and police bribery at News International have been completed. That could be 2014. Cameron’s spokesman said it was for News Corp to decide how to respond to the vote, but added “we would always expect people to take seriously what parliament says”. A spokesman for the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said the vote represents “an extraordinary unified statement of the will of the people. It is unimaginable that any public corporation or public figure will want to ignore such a strong statement by the legislature of this country”. Clegg first called for Murdoch to withdraw the bid on Monday, when Cameron had also said he thought Rupert Murdoch’s priority should be to sort out malpractices exposed in his company rather than trying to clinch what could eventually a takeover costing roughly $15bn. First indications suggested that the News Corp chairman will ignore the vote in parliament, and will turn down an invitation to give evidence to the culture select committee next Tuesday. In London, BSkyB’s shares fell another 3% to 692p because investors fear Murdoch’s bid could be delayed indefinitely or scrapped altogether. News Corp, which owns 39% of BSkyB, is determined to keep the lucrative bid alive and on Monday withdrew its proposal to spin off Sky News as a financially and editorially independent unit. The move effectively forced Hunt to refer the bid to the Competition Commission. The switch in tactics gave Murdoch the chance to capture BSkyB before a police investigation or judicial inquiry had been completed. A competition commission inquiry can only last six months, with a possible three-month extension, before a recommendation must be referred to Hunt. Hunt will abstain in the vote in an effort to preserve his political impartiality over the bid. Privately Downing Street is frustrated at the way Miliband has shaped the political agenda in the past week, and Cameron will try to regain the initiative by setting out the terms of reference of two inquiries into the crisis. Cameron is likely to announce the judge-led inquiry will go wider than previously thought, looking at the police investigation into phone hacking, and other malpractice throughout the newspaper industry, relations between press and politicians, the inadequacy of the original police investigation and wider issues of corporate governance. Cameron and Clegg met Miliband in the Commons on Tuesday evening to discuss the terms of reference of the judicial inquiry. Afterwards, Labour said Cameron had acknowledged that the main judge-led inquiry, with witnesses giving evidence under oath, will have to be given a wide remit. A second inquiry into media ethics is likely to be seen as a subsidiary narrow inquiry. Cameron also held discussions with John Whittingdale, the chairman of the culture select committee, and Keith Vaz, the chairman of the home affairs select committee. Vaz’s committee criticised John Yates, the assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, on Tuesday for his handling of the investigation into phone hacking. Cameron is also expected to announce plans to strengthen transparency rules over meetings between ministers and media figures, including for the first time private social meetings. Until now ministers have declined to publish details of meetings with senior media figures, save those that are defined as business meetings. Ministers are also looking at new rules designed to oversee the future employment of former senior police officers. Andy Hayman, the Met’s assistant commissioner in charge of the investigation into News International in 2005-6, subsequently ended up in News International employment. The judicial inquiry is likely to look at why the last Labour government failed to launch an inquiry into phone hacking at News International. Supporters of Gordon Brown are furious that the cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell objected to Brown’s private urging for a judicial inquiry in 2010. Labour backbencher Chris Bryant tabled a question asking Cameron “to publish the advice provided by the then cabinet secretary in early 2010 to the then prime minister on the case for a statutory public inquiry into the phone hacking scandal.” The debate will see an intense political battle between the Conservatives and Labour over which party did least to distance themselves from the Murdoch group. The Lib Dems will relish reminding the public they shunned Murdoch, with its three most senior figures outside government writing to Murdoch to accuse him of tainted journalism. The party’s deputy leader, Simon Hughes, writes: “People working for your company have sought to cover up the many wrongs which it has committed. Your company has been accused of lying to the Press Complaints Commission, by its chair. “Only yesterday the police accused News International of trying to undermine the ongoing police investigation into the affair. News International is simply no longer respected in this country. “Given the history of the last six or more years, it should be of little surprise to you that many people in this country have no desire to have any more of our media fall into your hands, tainted as News International is by a history of completely unacceptable journalistic practices.” Rupert Murdoch News International BSkyB News Corporation Television industry BSkyB House of Commons David Cameron Ed Miliband Mergers and acquisitions Media business Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Media Matters has put together a compilation of how Fox News creates a smear and uses all of their show hosts to perpetuate it. It’s a shining example of what they do not only to organizations like Media Matters, but to politicians, people, and other media outlets who might not agree with them. Rupert Murdoch may be in hot water in England right now, but watch this video and tell me that Roger Ailes hasn’t used the same tactics. Let’s hope Congress has the will to investigate. If not the House, then the Senate, at least.
Continue reading …Media Matters has put together a compilation of how Fox News creates a smear and uses all of their show hosts to perpetuate it. It’s a shining example of what they do not only to organizations like Media Matters, but to politicians, people, and other media outlets who might not agree with them. Rupert Murdoch may be in hot water in England right now, but watch this video and tell me that Roger Ailes hasn’t used the same tactics. Let’s hope Congress has the will to investigate. If not the House, then the Senate, at least.
Continue reading …MSM Bash Bachmann While Ignoring Criminal Wrongdoing by ACORN, Planned Parenthood
July 12, 2011 No CommentThe broadcast networks are guilty of giving undeserved credibility and attention to a story that is stupid and silly. There are numerous times when these same networks chose to ignore serious issues that actually put people’s lives at risk. This Bachmann hit piece was reported by ABC World News and ABC’s Nightline last night and perpetuated by ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today Show this morning. It’s nothing more than a swipe at a leading conservative presidential candidate by an anti-Christian gay activist, but the media’s overreaction has made the clinic out to be guilty of a crime. Where were these networks when Planned Parenthood was caught on tape – multiple times and in multiple states – willing to aid and abet in sex trafficking of young girls? Or when they covered up sex abuse of minors? Or when ACORN was caught on tape willing to help a pimp cover up his sex ring? These undercover investigations exposed dangerous and illegal abuses that put young women in danger, but they flew in the face of the networks’ liberal leanings. These same networks refused to cover the explosive Planned Parenthood and ACORN expos
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