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Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz presented quite a paradox in a Charlie Gibson profile Monday. The retiring ABC World News anchor said that "it’s time to move on" since objectivity is "less of a marketable commodity." But Kurtz also underlined how Gibson dared to keep airing live coverage of Ted Kennedy’s funeral until they were able to broadcast the reading of Ted Kennedy’s letter to Pope Benedict. These passages came late in the article: Gibson worries whether broadcast networks will be able to support sizable editorial staffs in an era of declining audiences, when cable news channels are louder...

Allahpundit noted with appropriate derision last night the attack by Chris Matthews on Sarah Palin’s use of ghostwriters for her campaign memoir and her speeches. For the appropriate context, let’s revisit the entire reason Matthews has a show on MS-NBC. Newsbusters has the transcript of Matthews’ exchange with USA Today’s Susan Page on the subject: MATTHEWS: Does it bother the press that somebody comes in there, whose book was written for them – and this is people who work. You write every day. You sweat it out getting the right words, thinking how to organize a piece, intellectualizing it and...

It dawned with the warmest winter on record in the United States. And when the sun sets this New Year's Eve, the decade of the 2000s will end as the warmest ever on global temperature charts. Warmer still, scientists say, lies ahead. Through 10 years of global boom and bust, of breakneck change around the planet, of terrorism, war and division, all people everywhere under that warming sun faced one threat together: the buildup of greenhouse gases, the rise in temperatures, the danger of a shifting climate, of drought, weather extremes and encroaching seas, of untold damage to the world...

The big international summit on climate change is taking place in a large European city with some, shall we say, "libertine proclivities." As if the scandal-plagued global warming alarmists in Copenhagen didn't have enough to be embarrassed about, there's this: Copenhagen’s city council in conjunction with Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards out to 160 Copenhagen hotels urging COP15 guests and delegates to ‘Be sustainable – don’t buy sex’. “Dear hotel owner, we would like to urge you not to arrange contacts between hotel guests and prostitutes,” the approach to hotels says.Now, Copenhagen prostitutes are up in arms, saying that...

If a scandal isn't reported by the media, does that mean it never happened? Nancy Morgan For the millions of Americans who don't watch Fox News or listen to talk radio, the answer is a resounding yes. Last Friday, November 20, evidence came to light that "appears to show a conspiracy to falsify data and suppress academic debate in order to exaggerate the possible threat of man-made global warming." Translation: The global warming movement rests almost entirely on the IPCC's claim to represent the "consensus" of climate science. That entire movement now stands discredited. In the face of this absolutely...

Michael Gerson has lousy timing. In The Washington Post, in one of those now familiar elegies for old media, he writes: And the whole system is based on a kind of intellectual theft. Internet aggregators (who link to news they don't produce) and bloggers would have little to collect or comment upon without the costly enterprise of newsgathering and investigative reporting. The old-media dinosaurs remain the basis for the entire media food chain. That's laughably untrue in the Warmergate story. If you rely on the lavishly remunerated "climate correspondents" of the big newspapers and networks, you'll know nothing about the...

I would not do it. Going to war with the Associated Press is as dumb as going to war with Fox News. Sarah Palin should leave the criticism of the media to others. We like our leaders a little above the fray. From her Facebook: The book tour starts this week, and I look forward to it! I’m most looking forward to meeting many of you, shaking your hands, and telling you, “Thanks for loving America.” I’ll give you a scoop here and tell you what’s on the book’s Dedication Page -– it’s dedicated to you — Patriots -– who...

Firebrand conservative commentator Ann Coulter says she hopes Sarah Palin uses her forthcoming book to get "payback" against the McCain campaign for the way it treated Palin, McCain's running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign. The Associated Press, which bought a copy of the book, reports that, in it, Palin confirms reports of tension between her aides and McCain's, and that she writes about the "jaded aura" of professional campaign aides, and how McCain's entourage limited her access to the media-- leading many to think that she was avoiding reporters. Coulter made her remark on "The Early Show" Friday --...

"Calling 'Em Out: The White House Takes on the Press"So states the headline from an article at Time.com. According to administration officials, most notably Anita Dunn, Obama's interim White House Communications Director, the "media" has been just too darn hard on President Obama and his agenda. As Time explains: "There was never a single moment when White House staff decided the major media outlets were falling down on the job. There were instead several such moments." Sounds a bit thin considering he dominated the Sunday talk show circuit with no less then five soft-ball interviews in a single day. To...

Respectable news outlets aren't the only ones having trouble processing the fact that a purple-eyed partisan like Andrew Breitbart is producing impactful journalism this season. The ancient Atlantic magazine–which, strangely, appears to have morphed into a sort of Blogger's Monthly–has been furrowing its brows at Breitbart & Co. both in print and online. Regular Atlantic contributor Conor Friedersdorf, writing at The Daily Beast (and earning a high-five from Andrew Sullivan), poses the question: ACORN is just the latest example of how conservative media love to blast The New York Times for its shortcomings. So why can't they live up to...

It all sounds so innocent and good-governmenty: The Federal Trade Commission will hold a workshop Dec. 1 and 2 concerning "How will journalism survive the Internet age?" An assembly of editors, owners, government officials, consumer advocates, advertisers and others is scheduled to discuss a dozen topics. Three ought to make the hair stand up on the necks of every journalist and anybody else who cares about the survival of freedom of the press: » Are new or changed government policies needed to support optimal amounts and types of journalism, including public affairs coverage? » Should the tax code be modified...

This was conservatives’ seething summer of discontent and unhinged hysteria: town halls, tea parties and tirades. They captured headlines and gained momentum. Misinformation ran amuck. President Obama’s approval ratings tumbled. Through it all, Obama maintained a Pollyannaish, laissez-faire disposition. Some found this worrisome. Others, like me, even thought it weak. But maybe not so fast...

"They would not listen, they're not listening still, "Perhaps they never will." -- Don McLean, "Vincent" Radio and TV commentator Glenn Beck was mentioned three times in separate opinion columns on the same day and in an article the next day in The New York Times, possibly a record for someone who does not hold elective office. Oh, and then there's this week's Time magazine cover. He's everywhere. Beck is also the Left's latest explanation for what is wrong with America. Many on the Left believe that if conservatives would just get out of the way, shut up and allow...

Van Jones — unfit for print: The green czar affair should put the final lie to The Times’ ‘objectivity’ (KYLE SMITH, September 13, 2009, NY Post) “This is not an excuse,” the managing editor of The New York Times said after offering the following excuse for completely missing the Van Jones story, except in a blog post: “Our Washington bureau was somewhat short-staffed during the height of the pre-Labor Day vacation period.” Here’s how long-staffed The New York Times actually is. Long after Glenn Beck reported — back in July — that Jones was history’s first communist czar, and even...

I feel guilty because originally I supported the decision by the Associated Press to release the photo of the young Marine that was taken as he lay dying. I lost readers over that and I do not blame them. Sarah Palin weighed in on Facebook. "Many of us join Secretary Gates in condemning the Associated Press for its heartless and selfish decision to turn its back on the wishes of a grieving family in order to exploit the tragic death of a true American hero. Lance Corporal Joshua ‘Bernie’ Bernard was a selfless young American who sacrificed everything for our...

How much public privacy do presidential families deserve? Not as much as Barack Obama wants. Earlier this month, according to the New York Post, Secret Service agents demanded that customers temporarily hand over cell phones in D.C.’s “Good Stuff Eatery,” where Michelle, Malia and Sasha were eating cheeseburgers, onion rings and fries. Why? To prevent diners from snapping cell phone pictures of the first daughters. Now on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama has issued strong media directives about photographing the girls when he’s not with them. No word on whether regular Joes and Janes will again have to hand over cell phones...

In their quest for a quiet family vacation on the posh resort island of Martha’s Vineyard this week, President Barack Obama and his family have retreated to a 28-acre spread with a stretch of beach so private — it’s sealed off by the Secret Service — that the chances of a paparazzi photo of the president in his swim trunks are all but nil. Immediately after arriving at a closed airport on Sunday afternoon, though, the Obamas’ "normal family vacation" got off to a not-so-normal start. Dozens of people lined the roads from the Vineyard Haven airport to the family’s...

It will surprise no one that has paid attention to the obvious slant (or perhaps plunge off the leftist cliff) of most traditional media outlets, that The Washington Obamost (formerly known as The Washington Post), is doing its part to assist Shrieker of the House Nancy Pelosi in her war. The fact that we have become accustomed to the actions of these media mutations does not lessen the magnitude of their harmful "reporting". Think about the object of Pelosi's war. Consider the potential effects of a Pelosi victory, with the aid of a sorry excuse for a press like The...

The glaring duplicity in media coverage of the current chaotic "healthcare" debate is unparalleled. When a lone gunman shoots an abortionist, the nightly news incessantly recounts the event for weeks, insisting that the brutal action most certainly reflects a universal mindset among any and all who call themselves pro-life. But let the people of heartland America rise up in unprecedented numbers at Democrat "town hall" meetings and voice their sincere opposition to the attempt by Obama and the left to implement socialized "health care," and they are derided as merely a loud but insignificant "fringe." In other words, the stories...

Ah, democracy! It never works better than when informed citizens gather in town hall meetings to discuss and debate the issues of the day. But, oh, democracy! It's never more damaged than when partisan zealots plot to disrupt town hall meetings in order to prevent any honest debate of the issues. And that's exactly what's happening in health care forums held across the nation by members of Congress. We've seen it in Philadelphia; Austin, Texas; Georgetown, Del.; Salisbury, Md; and other communities. Taking a page right out of a Nazi playbook, organizers bus in professional protestors and arm them with...