As NewsBusters previously reported , CNN on Monday did a segment about recent sex scandals that conveniently ignored that of its own Eliot Spitzer. On Sunday, “Reliable Sources” host Howard Kurtz took his network to task for this glaring omission (video follows with transcript and commentary): HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Just a quick hit from the “Media Monitor' this morning. It was supposed to be a look back at the major sex scandals involving politicians in recent years. But there was one glaring omission in this CNN report. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux takes a look back at some of the scandals. SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whether it's the rumored affairs of President John F. Kennedy, or the painful story of John and Elizabeth Edwards, infidelity, lies, and the inevitable apologies. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Others in this hall of shame included Mark Sanford, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, David Vitter, Larry Craig. But there was no mention of a New York governor who resigned in disgrace three years ago after patronizing prostitutes. I'm sorry. If you're going to do this kind of story, you have to include Eliot Spitzer, even if he does now host a primetime CNN program. Otherwise, you are airbrushing history. CNN says the omission was decided by an individual producer and that other reporting did make mention of the Spitzer scandal. A check of LexisNexis transcripts did identify a number of CNN reports last week that did refer to Spitzer's scandal.
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Click here to view this media Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) has pledged not to run for president in 2012, leaving former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) unimpressed with the remaining Republican candidates. “We have about 2 million activists across the country, and frankly we’re disappointed,” Armey told CNN’s Candy Crowley Sunday. “Now, obviously, we’ll have to start looking, and I was just saying this morning maybe it’s time to start drafting Paul Ryan.” “We understand the fiscal crisis of this nation and this nation’s government faces is so acute that somebody’s got the stand up and take on the big issues. Paul Ryan has done that.” He added: “I have said for years on, for example, the subject of medicare. It’s always a debate that’s governed by Republicans that don’t dare and Democrats that don’t care, and at least now we have a Republican that dares. He needs to be applauded, encouraged, and his work needs to be appreciated as serious professional work.” The FreedomWorks tea party organizer also suggested that he wasn’t worried that future seniors might have trouble paying for insurance if Republicans are successful at enacting Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system. “I’m perfectly capable of having my own health insurance, that which I’ve had all my life,” Armey said. “Paul Ryan is doing more to save grandma’s health care than anybody I know right now because Medicare is going to go bust and bring the government to going bust if it’s not attended to, and he ought to be applauded.”
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Click here to view this media Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) has pledged not to run for president in 2012, leaving former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) unimpressed with the remaining Republican candidates. “We have about 2 million activists across the country, and frankly we’re disappointed,” Armey told CNN’s Candy Crowley Sunday. “Now, obviously, we’ll have to start looking, and I was just saying this morning maybe it’s time to start drafting Paul Ryan.” “We understand the fiscal crisis of this nation and this nation’s government faces is so acute that somebody’s got the stand up and take on the big issues. Paul Ryan has done that.” He added: “I have said for years on, for example, the subject of medicare. It’s always a debate that’s governed by Republicans that don’t dare and Democrats that don’t care, and at least now we have a Republican that dares. He needs to be applauded, encouraged, and his work needs to be appreciated as serious professional work.” The FreedomWorks tea party organizer also suggested that he wasn’t worried that future seniors might have trouble paying for insurance if Republicans are successful at enacting Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system. “I’m perfectly capable of having my own health insurance, that which I’ve had all my life,” Armey said. “Paul Ryan is doing more to save grandma’s health care than anybody I know right now because Medicare is going to go bust and bring the government to going bust if it’s not attended to, and he ought to be applauded.”
Continue reading …Rachel Maddow Predicts GOP Presidential Candidate Refusing All Mainstream Media Interviews
May 22, 2011 No Comment
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow this weekend predicted that there is going to be a Republican presidential candidate that will refuse to do any interviews with the mainstream media. She told her fellow panelists on the syndicated “Chris Matthews Show” that it could be Sarah Palin (video follows with transcript and commentary): RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC: Mine is a prediction. I predict that there will be a candidate from the right side of the Republican Party, it may be Sarah Palin, somebody else, but they will establish a new litmus test for Republican candidates, which is that they do not do mainstream media interviews. That doing a mainstream media interview is itself a capitulation. That only conservative media should be engaged with by the nominee. CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Meaning Fox, Limbaugh, radio? MADDOW: That’s right. KELLY O’DONNELL, NBC: Boy, if I’m on a GOP bus, that is a depressing, depressing prediction. MADDOW: Hey, good news is I’m always wrong. Well, that's good news for everyone except the folks that watch her on a nightly basis and think what she's saying bears any semblance to the truth. If she knows what she's saying is always wrong, maybe she should begin each of her programs with a disclaimer. A conservative can dream, can't he?
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Millions turn out to elect municipal councils and regional governments, despite calls from demonstrators to abstain As tens of thousands of demonstrators continued to defy Spanish authorities by filling city squares to protest against establishment politics, millions more went to the polls to elect municipal councils and regional governments. By early Sunday afternoon, voting turnout was up 2% on four years ago, suggesting that calls to stay away from the polls made by one section of the mushrooming protest movement had not had any wider impact. By 2pm turnout had reached 36% of voters. Overall turnout at the elections four years ago was 64%. “I have dressed up because I consider voting very important,” said José Luis, a Madrid voter in his 50s who had put on his best suit for the event. Only when polls close at 8pm on Sunday however, will the number of blank or spoilt ballot papers be counted to give any idea of just how deep disenchantment with Spain’s political system runs. Opinion polls showed the socialist party of the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was facing a resounding defeat at the hands of Mariano Rajoy’s conservative People’s party. In the Puerta del Sol, the central Madrid square where the spontaneous protests began a week ago, crowds gathered to join or simply watch those taking part in the open assemblies at which the movement is trying to come up with a coherent set of demands. Speaker after speaker insisted they did not want to leave the square yet. “We must not go until we have firm plans and proposals,” said the representative of one of the sub-committees and working groups that have sprung up as part of a sophisticated, if cumbersome, exercise in open democracy. Early on Saturday afternoon, the Puerta del Sol protesters agreed they would camp out for at least another week. “The consensus is to stay until Sunday 29 May,” organisers said in a statement. “Nobody from amongst the thousands of participants in the assembly opposed the idea.” The protesters also agreed to start spreading their influence to neighbourhoods across Spain’s capital city. A working group of computer experts and hackers told the assembly they were building online links to bring together the multiple protests. These have taken over dozens of city squares around the country and have been spread by both social networks and Twitter with the #spanishrevolution hashtag . Organisers said the separate protests had decided to unite and work together to produce demands, which were likely to call for electoral reform and stricter measures to tackle corruption. An open video conference involving demonstrators in various cities was also due to be held. Intense political debate did not prevent a festive air ruling in the tent city that has taken over the Puerta del Sol. Sunday strollers picked their way past exhausted-looking youths lying on mattresses, many of whom have now been camped out for days. Signs pasted up in the square called on those who wanted to party to go somewhere else. “This is not a zoo,” read a message to onlookers. Spain Europe Protest Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
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British ambassador among those penned into United Arab Emirates embassy by mob loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh Western and Arab diplomats, including the British ambassador to Yemen, were trapped inside an embassy in Sana’a for several hours on Sunday by a mob loyal to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who refused to sign a deal arranging for him to leave office in return for legal immunity. The US and some Arab envoys were reported to have been ferried by Yemeni army helicopters from the United Arab Emirates embassy to the presidential palace where members of Saleh’s ruling party, but not Saleh, signed the deal. The president, who earlier rejected the deal as a “coup”, had declared he would only sign in the presence of opposition leaders. According to Foreign Office sources, the British ambassador, Jonathan Wilks, remained in the UAE embassy “to wait until it was safer to leave”. Saleh has backed out of signing a political settlement, brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), on two previous occasions. Even if he does sign and hand power to his vice-president, it is not clear whether the agreement will satisfy opposition activists who demand Saleh’s immediate departure and the complete dismantling of his regime. Opposition leaders signed the deal on Saturday, but pro-democracy protesters massed in central Sana’a to reject it. They held Yemeni flags and banners that read: “Now, now Ali, down with the president!” and “Go out Ali!” Meanwhile pro-Saleh demonstrators erected a tent in Sana’a, blocking a main street, and flew banners appealing to the president: “Don’t go, don’t sign.” The group of diplomatic observers, which also included envoys from the EU, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, had gathered at the UAE embassy compound intending to drive to the palace for the signing. Instead they found themselves unable to leave when a pro-Saleh crowd gathered outside, apparently determined to stop them reaching their destination. CNN reported that several dozen protesters were armed with machine guns, and many more had pistols. The Foreign Office said the route from the UAE compound to the palace had been “blocked by tribesmen and efforts are being made to clear the road”. Earlier in the day, armed men attacked a convoy of the GCC’s secretary general, Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, in a bid to stop him reaching the UAE embassy. Pounding the car, they shouted against Gulf intervention in Yemeni affairs. The motorcade of the Chinese ambassador was also attacked before a police detail was sent to disperse the crowd. Under the GCC agreement, the opposition and elements of the Saleh regime would form a national unity government within a week, parliament would pass a law guaranteeing him immunity from prosecution for acts while in office, and, 30 days after signing, Saleh would hand over to a deputy after 33 years in power. In his speech on the Arab world on Thursday, President Obama said Saleh needed to “follow through on his commitment to transfer power”. There are concerns that if the deal is not signed soon, clashes could break out between military units that have defected from Saleh since the protests first erupted and those that have stayed loyal. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …British ambassador among those penned into United Arab Emirates embassy by mob loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh Western and Arab diplomats, including the British ambassador to Yemen, were trapped inside an embassy in Sana’a for several hours on Sunday by a mob loyal to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who refused to sign a deal arranging for him to leave office in return for legal immunity. The US and some Arab envoys were reported to have been ferried by Yemeni army helicopters from the United Arab Emirates embassy to the presidential palace where members of Saleh’s ruling party, but not Saleh, signed the deal. The president, who earlier rejected the deal as a “coup”, had declared he would only sign in the presence of opposition leaders. According to Foreign Office sources, the British ambassador, Jonathan Wilks, remained in the UAE embassy “to wait until it was safer to leave”. Saleh has backed out of signing a political settlement, brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), on two previous occasions. Even if he does sign and hand power to his vice-president, it is not clear whether the agreement will satisfy opposition activists who demand Saleh’s immediate departure and the complete dismantling of his regime. Opposition leaders signed the deal on Saturday, but pro-democracy protesters massed in central Sana’a to reject it. They held Yemeni flags and banners that read: “Now, now Ali, down with the president!” and “Go out Ali!” Meanwhile pro-Saleh demonstrators erected a tent in Sana’a, blocking a main street, and flew banners appealing to the president: “Don’t go, don’t sign.” The group of diplomatic observers, which also included envoys from the EU, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, had gathered at the UAE embassy compound intending to drive to the palace for the signing. Instead they found themselves unable to leave when a pro-Saleh crowd gathered outside, apparently determined to stop them reaching their destination. CNN reported that several dozen protesters were armed with machine guns, and many more had pistols. The Foreign Office said the route from the UAE compound to the palace had been “blocked by tribesmen and efforts are being made to clear the road”. Earlier in the day, armed men attacked a convoy of the GCC’s secretary general, Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, in a bid to stop him reaching the UAE embassy. Pounding the car, they shouted against Gulf intervention in Yemeni affairs. The motorcade of the Chinese ambassador was also attacked before a police detail was sent to disperse the crowd. Under the GCC agreement, the opposition and elements of the Saleh regime would form a national unity government within a week, parliament would pass a law guaranteeing him immunity from prosecution for acts while in office, and, 30 days after signing, Saleh would hand over to a deputy after 33 years in power. In his speech on the Arab world on Thursday, President Obama said Saleh needed to “follow through on his commitment to transfer power”. There are concerns that if the deal is not signed soon, clashes could break out between military units that have defected from Saleh since the protests first erupted and those that have stayed loyal. Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
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Dennis Rice launches proceedings alleging that his voicemail messages were intercepted while working at the Mail on Sunday A leading tabloid journalist has joined those suing the News of the World for allegedly hacking into voicemails, reviving claims that the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper has been spying on its rivals to steal their stories. According to the high court registry, Fleet Street veteran Dennis Rice has issued proceedings against the NoW and its private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. Rice, who is now freelance, was the investigations editor at the Mail on Sunday (MoS) when Mulcaire was at the peak of his activity between 2005 and 2006. A source familiar with Mulcaire’s activities claims that, acting on orders from an NoW editorial executive, he intercepted voicemail messages from Rice and half a dozen other journalists at the MoS. They say that among other targets, the paper was keen to steal stories that Rice was filing from Germany, where England were playing in the World Cup in the summer of 2006, generating tabloid interest in the players’ wives and girlfriends. The same source said that by hacking into voicemails, Mulcaire obtained a password which would have allowed him to access the MoS internal computer system, potentially disclosing all of its email traffic and every story awaiting publication. Some journalists who have worked for the NoW claim they were also attempting to penetrate the security of the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People. If proved, the claim could break the alliance of silence which has seen most Fleet Street papers refuse to investigate the scandal. Rice’s legal action is only the latest in a number of indications that the claim may be correct. The original police inquiry in 2006 found evidence that Mulcaire had succeeded in intercepting the voicemail of the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks. The current police inquiry is believed to have discovered that Mulcaire also targeted the Sun’s former editor and columnist Kelvin MacKenzie. Both would have been rich sources of intelligence about the Sun’s activities. When he was tried in January 2007, Mulcaire admitted intercepting messages from the phone of the celebrity PR agent Max Clifford, who was boycotting the NoW and selling stories to its rivals. Clifford’s former personal assistant Nicola Phillips is suing Mulcaire and the NoW for allegedly intercepting her messages. As one apparent example, notes kept by Mulcaire suggest his hacking of Phillips’s voicemail allowed the theft in February 2006 of a story about an alleged affair between the actor Ralph Fiennes and a Romanian singer, Cornelia Crisan, which Phillips had sold for £35,000 in a joint deal with the Sunday Mirror and the Mail on Sunday, but which nevertheless turned up in the NoW. Rice himself was at the centre of a controversy 12 years ago, when he was deputy news editor of the Sunday Mirror. According to allegations made in the high court in August 1999, Rice had been contacted by Neville Thurlbeck of the NoW, who had asked to meet him in a south London pub. Rice had been suspicious and gone to the meeting with a concealed tape recorder. He allegedly captured on tape Thurlbeck offering him a weekly payment of £5,000 for the Sunday Mirror’s news list, plus a bonus of £3,000 for any story from the list which made a front-page NoW splash. Rice rejected the offer and took the recording to his editor. The Sunday Mirror went to court seeking an injunction to order the NoW to stop trying to bribe its staff. The NoW denied Thurlbeck had attempted to bribe Rice and claimed the Sunday Mirror had approached one of its journalists in search of information. The case was settled out of court with the Sunday Mirror’s then editor, Colin Myler, publicly denouncing the NoW and accusing it of lying. Myler now edits the NoW. That case followed two earlier embarrassing disclosures after Piers Morgan stopped editing the NoW in 1995 and moved to the Daily Mirror. Soon afterwards, its sister papers, the Sunday Mirror and the People, both discovered their news lists were being secretly sold to the NoW by a senior Sunday Mirror reporter and a secretary on the People. Both papers said they had been aware that some of their supposedly exclusive stories had found their way into the NoW. Rice’s wife and sister are also named in the high court registry as claimants, suggesting their phones may also have been hacked. Rice’s solicitor, Mark Lewis, of Taylor Hampton, said: “I can confirm that Dennis Rice has issued proceedings in relation to allegations that his voicemails were intercepted.” We are currently awaiting a response from the News of the World. Phone hacking News of the World Sunday Mirror Mail on Sunday News International Newspapers National newspapers Newspapers & magazines Crime Nick Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Dennis Rice launches proceedings alleging that his voicemail messages were intercepted while working at the Mail on Sunday A leading tabloid journalist has joined those suing the News of the World for allegedly hacking into voicemails, reviving claims that the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper has been spying on its rivals to steal their stories. According to the high court registry, Fleet Street veteran Dennis Rice has issued proceedings against the NoW and its private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. Rice, who is now freelance, was the investigations editor at the Mail on Sunday (MoS) when Mulcaire was at the peak of his activity between 2005 and 2006. A source familiar with Mulcaire’s activities claims that, acting on orders from an NoW editorial executive, he intercepted voicemail messages from Rice and half a dozen other journalists at the MoS. They say that among other targets, the paper was keen to steal stories that Rice was filing from Germany, where England were playing in the World Cup in the summer of 2006, generating tabloid interest in the players’ wives and girlfriends. The same source said that by hacking into voicemails, Mulcaire obtained a password which would have allowed him to access the MoS internal computer system, potentially disclosing all of its email traffic and every story awaiting publication. Some journalists who have worked for the NoW claim they were also attempting to penetrate the security of the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People. If proved, the claim could break the alliance of silence which has seen most Fleet Street papers refuse to investigate the scandal. Rice’s legal action is only the latest in a number of indications that the claim may be correct. The original police inquiry in 2006 found evidence that Mulcaire had succeeded in intercepting the voicemail of the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks. The current police inquiry is believed to have discovered that Mulcaire also targeted the Sun’s former editor and columnist Kelvin MacKenzie. Both would have been rich sources of intelligence about the Sun’s activities. When he was tried in January 2007, Mulcaire admitted intercepting messages from the phone of the celebrity PR agent Max Clifford, who was boycotting the NoW and selling stories to its rivals. Clifford’s former personal assistant Nicola Phillips is suing Mulcaire and the NoW for allegedly intercepting her messages. As one apparent example, notes kept by Mulcaire suggest his hacking of Phillips’s voicemail allowed the theft in February 2006 of a story about an alleged affair between the actor Ralph Fiennes and a Romanian singer, Cornelia Crisan, which Phillips had sold for £35,000 in a joint deal with the Sunday Mirror and the Mail on Sunday, but which nevertheless turned up in the NoW. Rice himself was at the centre of a controversy 12 years ago, when he was deputy news editor of the Sunday Mirror. According to allegations made in the high court in August 1999, Rice had been contacted by Neville Thurlbeck of the NoW, who had asked to meet him in a south London pub. Rice had been suspicious and gone to the meeting with a concealed tape recorder. He allegedly captured on tape Thurlbeck offering him a weekly payment of £5,000 for the Sunday Mirror’s news list, plus a bonus of £3,000 for any story from the list which made a front-page NoW splash. Rice rejected the offer and took the recording to his editor. The Sunday Mirror went to court seeking an injunction to order the NoW to stop trying to bribe its staff. The NoW denied Thurlbeck had attempted to bribe Rice and claimed the Sunday Mirror had approached one of its journalists in search of information. The case was settled out of court with the Sunday Mirror’s then editor, Colin Myler, publicly denouncing the NoW and accusing it of lying. Myler now edits the NoW. That case followed two earlier embarrassing disclosures after Piers Morgan stopped editing the NoW in 1995 and moved to the Daily Mirror. Soon afterwards, its sister papers, the Sunday Mirror and the People, both discovered their news lists were being secretly sold to the NoW by a senior Sunday Mirror reporter and a secretary on the People. Both papers said they had been aware that some of their supposedly exclusive stories had found their way into the NoW. Rice’s wife and sister are also named in the high court registry as claimants, suggesting their phones may also have been hacked. Rice’s solicitor, Mark Lewis, of Taylor Hampton, said: “I can confirm that Dennis Rice has issued proceedings in relation to allegations that his voicemails were intercepted.” We are currently awaiting a response from the News of the World. Phone hacking News of the World Sunday Mirror Mail on Sunday News International Newspapers National newspapers Newspapers & magazines Crime Nick Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …enlarge That’s Nikki Haley, Tea Party darling and new Governor of South Carolina speaking on the steps of the Statehouse in Columbia. Originally scheduled to include an appearance by The Donald, this tea party rally was anticipated to have around 2,000 participants. Unfortunately, Trump was made a chump by Obama and dropped all ego-glorifying pretension to running for president, which included backing out of this South Carolina appearance. So there’s Nikki Haley, all by her lonesome…. literally : Trump’s decision to not enter the GOP presidential race left local Tea Party leaders stewing about the way they had been treated. But about 30 people were on hand Thursday to thank Gov. Nikki Haley, lawmakers and activists for their work to require more on-the-record Legislative votes. It was all part of a tough week for the state’s Tea Party movement. On Wednesday, the S.C. House reversed course and approved a controversial sales tax break for online retailer Amazon. Thursday, the S.C. Senate voted down a proposal that would have rebated any better-than-expected state tax collections to income tax filers. Columbia Tea Party chairman Allen Olson expected as many as 2,000 would have attended Thursday’s rally had Trump been there. But The Donald, a favorite of many who attended the group’s Tax Day rally with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., elected to not run and dropped the rally from his schedule. “It was a kick in the gut, but it gives you a chance to regroup,” said Olson. “He’s a businessman. He showed his worth.” And frankly, he showed the worth of the tea party. Thirty attendees, huh? Yeah, that’s a powerful and influential group. Contrast that to the 2,500 who came out in March to protest state budget cuts to education and health care . But who do you think the media will ask about–appeasing those 30 never-say-die tea partiers or the thousands of populists fighting for education and healthcare?
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