Abdulmutallab Interrogation Critics Now Insist They Deserve A Pass For Their Ignorance
February 8, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
On yesterday’s edition of “Meet The Press”, John Brennan took the opportunity to blast his GOP critics for politicizing the war on terror. A worthy cause, considering how consistently wrong and foolish they’ve been on all matters related to the failed Christmas bomb attack.
On the show, this part stood out:
BRENNAN: On Christmas night, I called a number of senior members of Congress. I spoke to Senators McConnell and Bond. I spoke to Representative Boehner and Hoekstra. I explained to them that he was in F.B.I. custody. That Mr. Abdulmutallab was in fact talking. That he was cooperating at that point. They knew that in F.B.I. custody means that there’s a process then you follow as far as mirandizing and presenting him in front of the magistrate.
None of those individuals raised any concerns with me, at that point. They didn’t say, “Is he going into military custody? Is he going to be Mirandized?” They were very appreciative of the information. We told them we’d keep them informed. And that’s what we did. So, there’s been quite a bit of an outcry after the fact. Where again, I’m just very concerned on behalf of the counterterrorism professionals throughout our government that politicians continue to make this a political football. And are using it for whatever political or partisan purposes.
Yesterday, I gave myself a pat on the back for correctly intuiting that the process went something like this:
1. Captain Crotchfire happens. He is detained and treated as you would anyone who tried to kill people with an incompetently weaponized scrotum.
2. GOP lawmakers are informed.
3. Some time passes. It looks like nothing bad has happened, so this can be politicized.
4. A plan is hatched to politicize this. It does not make any fucking sense, but whatever. People remember being scared, they can be made to be scared of a sad and lonely loser who pasted flammable goop on his balls for the glory of his Sky-God.
5. Al Qaeda is like: “Wow. Thanks for taking an incident that would normally make us embarrassed to be in the terrorist business, and turning it into a super-successful field op! We will definitely associate ourselves with this sad loser.”
6. We are honestly asked to entertain the possibility that it would have been better to have tortured this sad loser, so that we could have some false intelligence, presumably on this network of sad losers who paste gunk to their taint and set them afire.
7. The media aids and abets the cynical opportunists who populate the political landscape, and they should all die in the snow but they won’t.
Now you can add the eighth part of the process: the part where the same GOP lawmakers, weeks after the fact, now think they deserve a pass because HOW SHOULD THEY KNOW HOW THE F.B.I. works, anyway? Via Spencer Ackerman, at the Washington Independent:
Sure enough, Sen. Chris Bond (R-Mo.) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republicans on the congressional intelligence committees, insisted that Brennan never specifically told them the FBI would Mirandize Abdulmutallab. “If he had I would [have] told him the Administration was making a mistake,” Bond said. The entire Republican leadership, including fact-averse Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House GOP leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) echoed Bond’s claims in one form or another. Apparently these men, who claim leadership on national security, know less about FBI procedure than the average movie-goer. Obviously the FBI Mirandizes suspects in their custody.
I think that Hoekstra’s inclusion is worth noting, because no one is faster to grandstand on national security issues than Hoekstra. Maybe if, in the end, he’s so ignorant in the basics of law enforcement procedures, he should just calm down, shut up, stop twittering, and of course maybe rein in his instinct to turn everything he knows nothing about into an opportunity for personal enrichment.
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]
Abdulmutallab Interrogation Critics Now Insist They Deserve A Pass For Their Ignorance
February 8, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
On yesterday’s edition of “Meet The Press”, John Brennan took the opportunity to blast his GOP critics for politicizing the war on terror. A worthy cause, considering how consistently wrong and foolish they’ve been on all matters related to the failed Christmas bomb attack.
On the show, this part stood out:
BRENNAN: On Christmas night, I called a number of senior members of Congress. I spoke to Senators McConnell and Bond. I spoke to Representative Boehner and Hoekstra. I explained to them that he was in F.B.I. custody. That Mr. Abdulmutallab was in fact talking. That he was cooperating at that point. They knew that in F.B.I. custody means that there’s a process then you follow as far as mirandizing and presenting him in front of the magistrate.
None of those individuals raised any concerns with me, at that point. They didn’t say, “Is he going into military custody? Is he going to be Mirandized?” They were very appreciative of the information. We told them we’d keep them informed. And that’s what we did. So, there’s been quite a bit of an outcry after the fact. Where again, I’m just very concerned on behalf of the counterterrorism professionals throughout our government that politicians continue to make this a political football. And are using it for whatever political or partisan purposes.
Yesterday, I gave myself a pat on the back for correctly intuiting that the process went something like this:
1. Captain Crotchfire happens. He is detained and treated as you would anyone who tried to kill people with an incompetently weaponized scrotum.
2. GOP lawmakers are informed.
3. Some time passes. It looks like nothing bad has happened, so this can be politicized.
4. A plan is hatched to politicize this. It does not make any fucking sense, but whatever. People remember being scared, they can be made to be scared of a sad and lonely loser who pasted flammable goop on his balls for the glory of his Sky-God.
5. Al Qaeda is like: “Wow. Thanks for taking an incident that would normally make us embarrassed to be in the terrorist business, and turning it into a super-successful field op! We will definitely associate ourselves with this sad loser.”
6. We are honestly asked to entertain the possibility that it would have been better to have tortured this sad loser, so that we could have some false intelligence, presumably on this network of sad losers who paste gunk to their taint and set them afire.
7. The media aids and abets the cynical opportunists who populate the political landscape, and they should all die in the snow but they won’t.
Now you can add the eighth part of the process: the part where the same GOP lawmakers, weeks after the fact, now think they deserve a pass because HOW SHOULD THEY KNOW HOW THE F.B.I. works, anyway? Via Spencer Ackerman, at the Washington Independent:
Sure enough, Sen. Chris Bond (R-Mo.) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republicans on the congressional intelligence committees, insisted that Brennan never specifically told them the FBI would Mirandize Abdulmutallab. “If he had I would [have] told him the Administration was making a mistake,” Bond said. The entire Republican leadership, including fact-averse Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House GOP leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) echoed Bond’s claims in one form or another. Apparently these men, who claim leadership on national security, know less about FBI procedure than the average movie-goer. Obviously the FBI Mirandizes suspects in their custody.
I think that Hoekstra’s inclusion is worth noting, because no one is faster to grandstand on national security issues than Hoekstra. Maybe if, in the end, he’s so ignorant in the basics of law enforcement procedures, he should just calm down, shut up, stop twittering, and of course maybe rein in his instinct to turn everything he knows nothing about into an opportunity for personal enrichment.
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]
Huff TV: Arianna Debates Hugh Hewitt About Glenn Beck And Political Paranoia On CNN’s Reliable Sources
February 7, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
On CNN’s Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz, Arianna was asked to explain her critique of the inflammatory rhetoric used by Fox News host Glenn Beck.
“What’s happening with Glenn Beck is, he takes these apocalyptic statements that basically fuel people’s fear and anxiety and has made them his stock and trade,” she said. “Literally, practically no show is done without some kind of form of inciting fear in the American people, and I think that is dangerous, especially at a time like this.”
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt argued that Beck shouldn’t be held responsible for using the word “slaughter” in the context of the Obama administration because “if you talk for 30 hours a week, you’re going to use the word ’slaughter,’ and you’re going to use it sometimes without even knowing it.” Hewitt said that instead of talking about those statements, “we ought to focus on Glenn Beck and why he is so popular.”
Later in the show, Kurtz played tape of Keith Olbermann’s controversial criticism of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown. Arianna pointed out that Olbermann himself had apologized for his comments and acknowledged they were over the top, something Beck has rarely if ever done.
WATCH:
Huff TV: Arianna Debates Hugh Hewitt About Glenn Beck And Political Paranoia On CNN’s Reliable Sources
February 7, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
On CNN’s Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz, Arianna was asked to explain her critique of the inflammatory rhetoric used by Fox News host Glenn Beck.
“What’s happening with Glenn Beck is, he takes these apocalyptic statements that basically fuel people’s fear and anxiety and has made them his stock and trade,” she said. “Literally, practically no show is done without some kind of form of inciting fear in the American people, and I think that is dangerous, especially at a time like this.”
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt argued that Beck shouldn’t be held responsible for using the word “slaughter” in the context of the Obama administration because “if you talk for 30 hours a week, you’re going to use the word ’slaughter,’ and you’re going to use it sometimes without even knowing it.” Hewitt said that instead of talking about those statements, “we ought to focus on Glenn Beck and why he is so popular.”
Later in the show, Kurtz played tape of Keith Olbermann’s controversial criticism of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown. Arianna pointed out that Olbermann himself had apologized for his comments and acknowledged they were over the top, something Beck has rarely if ever done.
WATCH:
Jimmy Fallon & Brian Williams Slow Jam The News (VIDEO)
February 6, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
Brian Williams was Jimmy Fallon’s guest last and not only did he chat with Jimmy, but joined him for a classic “Late Night” bit: Slow Jamming The News. BriWi (aka Brilliam) along with Jimmy and the Roots took on Obama’s budget plan, national debt and the Bush years with a tune that could put any couple in the mood…for fiscal discipline.
WATCH:
Jimmy Fallon & Brian Williams Slow Jam The News (VIDEO)
February 6, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
Brian Williams was Jimmy Fallon’s guest last and not only did he chat with Jimmy, but joined him for a classic “Late Night” bit: Slow Jamming The News. BriWi (aka Brilliam) along with Jimmy and the Roots took on Obama’s budget plan, national debt and the Bush years with a tune that could put any couple in the mood…for fiscal discipline.
WATCH:
Thomson Reuters Accused Of Illegal Pay Cuts By Newspaper Union
February 5, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
NEW YORK — A labor union has filed a complaint against Thomson Reuters Corp. alleging the financial information and news service is illegally imposing pay cuts and restricting what workers can write on their Twitter accounts.
In a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the Newspaper Guild of New York charges that Thomson Reuters plans to cut wages of reporters and other employees by an average of 10 percent this year without the union’s consent.
Thomson Reuters disputed the figure Friday, saying it is guaranteeing a 0.5 percent salary increase for the more than 400 U.S. journalists represented by the union at its Reuters News service. Some will get bigger raises, based on how well they do their jobs, Thomson Reuters said in a statement Friday.
“We believe such a system is fairer than a lockstep system and is essential for Reuters’ future,” the company said.
The conflicting figures provided by the union and Thomson Reuters’ management reflect the acrimony underlying their talks on a new contract.
The union’s complaint alleges Thomson Reuters improperly declared an impasse in the negotiations last month.
Other media companies, mostly newspapers, have been lowering wages and requiring unpaid furloughs during the past year as a severe advertising slump dried up their main source of revenue.
The Newspaper Guild contends Reuters hasn’t been hit as hard because it isn’t as dependent on advertising as newspapers.
“If a healthy company like Thomson Reuters … cuts pay, it will cause less healthy news organizations to cut even more, and pretty soon many of the journalists our democracy depends on won’t be able to afford to stay in business,” said Bill O’Meara, president of the New York Guild.
The complaint also alleges that Thomson Reuters hasn’t followed proper procedures for drawing up its policy governing its employees’ use of Twitter, a popular online tool for broadcasting messages of up to 140 characters.
Thomson Reuters bars its workers for posting anything “that would damage the reputation of Reuters News or Thomson Reuters.”
The union said the policy was recently cited when a Reuters reporter tweeted: “One way to make this the best place to work is to deal honestly with Guild members.”
Thomson Reuters Accused Of Illegal Pay Cuts By Newspaper Union
February 5, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
NEW YORK — A labor union has filed a complaint against Thomson Reuters Corp. alleging the financial information and news service is illegally imposing pay cuts and restricting what workers can write on their Twitter accounts.
In a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the Newspaper Guild of New York charges that Thomson Reuters plans to cut wages of reporters and other employees by an average of 10 percent this year without the union’s consent.
Thomson Reuters disputed the figure Friday, saying it is guaranteeing a 0.5 percent salary increase for the more than 400 U.S. journalists represented by the union at its Reuters News service. Some will get bigger raises, based on how well they do their jobs, Thomson Reuters said in a statement Friday.
“We believe such a system is fairer than a lockstep system and is essential for Reuters’ future,” the company said.
The conflicting figures provided by the union and Thomson Reuters’ management reflect the acrimony underlying their talks on a new contract.
The union’s complaint alleges Thomson Reuters improperly declared an impasse in the negotiations last month.
Other media companies, mostly newspapers, have been lowering wages and requiring unpaid furloughs during the past year as a severe advertising slump dried up their main source of revenue.
The Newspaper Guild contends Reuters hasn’t been hit as hard because it isn’t as dependent on advertising as newspapers.
“If a healthy company like Thomson Reuters … cuts pay, it will cause less healthy news organizations to cut even more, and pretty soon many of the journalists our democracy depends on won’t be able to afford to stay in business,” said Bill O’Meara, president of the New York Guild.
The complaint also alleges that Thomson Reuters hasn’t followed proper procedures for drawing up its policy governing its employees’ use of Twitter, a popular online tool for broadcasting messages of up to 140 characters.
Thomson Reuters bars its workers for posting anything “that would damage the reputation of Reuters News or Thomson Reuters.”
The union said the policy was recently cited when a Reuters reporter tweeted: “One way to make this the best place to work is to deal honestly with Guild members.”
Thomson Reuters Accused Of Illegal Pay Cuts By Newspaper Union
February 5, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
NEW YORK — A labor union has filed a complaint against Thomson Reuters Corp. alleging the financial information and news service is illegally imposing pay cuts and restricting what workers can write on their Twitter accounts.
In a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the Newspaper Guild of New York charges that Thomson Reuters plans to cut wages of reporters and other employees by an average of 10 percent this year without the union’s consent.
Thomson Reuters disputed the figure Friday, saying it is guaranteeing a 0.5 percent salary increase for the more than 400 U.S. journalists represented by the union at its Reuters News service. Some will get bigger raises, based on how well they do their jobs, Thomson Reuters said in a statement Friday.
“We believe such a system is fairer than a lockstep system and is essential for Reuters’ future,” the company said.
The conflicting figures provided by the union and Thomson Reuters’ management reflect the acrimony underlying their talks on a new contract.
The union’s complaint alleges Thomson Reuters improperly declared an impasse in the negotiations last month.
Other media companies, mostly newspapers, have been lowering wages and requiring unpaid furloughs during the past year as a severe advertising slump dried up their main source of revenue.
The Newspaper Guild contends Reuters hasn’t been hit as hard because it isn’t as dependent on advertising as newspapers.
“If a healthy company like Thomson Reuters … cuts pay, it will cause less healthy news organizations to cut even more, and pretty soon many of the journalists our democracy depends on won’t be able to afford to stay in business,” said Bill O’Meara, president of the New York Guild.
The complaint also alleges that Thomson Reuters hasn’t followed proper procedures for drawing up its policy governing its employees’ use of Twitter, a popular online tool for broadcasting messages of up to 140 characters.
Thomson Reuters bars its workers for posting anything “that would damage the reputation of Reuters News or Thomson Reuters.”
The union said the policy was recently cited when a Reuters reporter tweeted: “One way to make this the best place to work is to deal honestly with Guild members.”
Terry Krepel: WorldNetDaily’s Totally Positive Tea Party
February 4, 2010 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
WorldNetDaily has long peddled the fiction that it cares only about “seeking the truth without fear or favor” and it has no “sacred cows.” As any casual observer is all too aware, WND is laden with bias and has plenty of sacred cows — Orly Taitz chief among them.
WND has been providing sacred-cow treatment to another sainted right-wing cause — this weekend’s National Tea Party Convention. That’s in no small part because WND editor Joseph Farah is speaking at it, along with conservative darling Sarah Palin. In an apparent grasp for credibility among right-wingers, Farah is now promoting himself as an ideological kin to Palin — a Jan. 5 WND article by Chelsea Schilling touted it as the “Palin-Farah ticket” even though they in all likelihood will not share a stage (their speaking appearances are on separate nights). It is doubtful, however, that even the staunchly conservative Palin would endorse Farah’s advocacy for killing adulterers and creating ideological blacklists.
The rank boosterism of Schilling’s article set the tone for WND’s coverage of the convention; for instance, she noted that Judson Phillips, head of the Tea Party Nation group that is putting on the convention, was “named one of Tennessee’s top 25 political players in 2009.” No unpleasant or negative topics will be broached unless they can be spun away.
Below are some notable controversies regarding the Tea Party Convention and the tea party movement in general and how WND has covered them (or not).
Cost of convention, Palin’s speaking fee
The cost of the convention is $549 all-inclusive or $349 for either Palin’s speech alone or the entirety of the convention minus Palin’s speech — a steep price that prompted complaints about profiteering on Phillips’ part. Further, according to MSNBC, Phillips filed for bankruptcy in 1999 and has had federal tax liens filed against him.
Also sparking controversy is what Palin is getting paid to speak — reports say it could be as much as $100,000.
WND’s treatment: Largely ignored. It’s not until a Jan. 29 article by Schilling that it’s mentioned, and then it’s spun as a claim by unnamed “critics” that the Tea Party Nation “should have filed for nonprofit status.” Schilling then gave Phillips all the room he needed to frame the convention’s structure as reflecting a desire to “use the capitalist system to support our activities” and to avoid “begging for bucks.”
Erickson: Convention “smells scammy”
Conservative blogger Erick Erickson wrote in a Jan. 11 post at his RedState blog:
I have much good to say about groups like Tea Party Patriots, but I think this national tea party convention smells scammy.
Let me be blunt: charging people $500.00 plus the costs of travel and lodging to go to a “National Tea Party Convention” run by a for profit group no one has ever heard of sounds as credible as an email from Nigeria promising me a million bucks if I fork over my bank account number.
[...]
The tea party “leaders”, if there are any, are actively at work in their home towns changing things one letter to the editor, one contribution to a candidate, and one protest at a time. They are not on bus tours profiting off the hard work and sometimes the names of others (some also on the bus with no pay) headed to Nashville licking their lips at the $500.00 per person payments coming in to their for profit company.
Sarah Palin is certainly giving the National Tea Party Convention legitimacy. But at what cost? I am fearful this thing will blow up and harm her. I am more fearful that a bunch of well meaning people from across the nation are going to show up, expect more, and then grow disaffected or burn out when the deliverables they expect do not come in.
WND’s treatment: None. WND has ignored this post, though it has previously repeated other claims by Erickson. For instance, an April 2008 WND article touted a video promoted by Erickson in which Lawrence Lessig, an adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, “show[ed] disdain for America’s mainstream” by “gleefully introduc[ing] a YouTube piece that mocks Jesus Christ” by showing “an effeminate Jesus singing Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive.’” And an August 2008 WND article repeated Erickson’s claim that as a state senator, Obama “backed infanticide” by opposing a “born alive” bill in Illinois.
Ban of most media
Convention officials announced that media would be barred from covering the convention except for a few “selected” members of the press who were obviously “selected” for their right-wing leanings — among them WorldNetDaily.
WND’s treatment: Whitewashing the ban. A Jan. 15 article by Schilling — in between gushing that “The upcoming National Tea Party Convention is already a resounding success – with tickets to the convention sold out and only a few tables remaining at the final banquet” and baselessly asserting that “There has been a frenzy to purchase tickets since it was first announced WND founder Joseph Farah will join former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as speaker at the first national tea-party convention” — portrayed it this way:
Phillips told WND Tea Party Nation has received hundreds of requests from media outlets from all over the world that are seeking to cover the event.
“We’ve gotten inquiries from small-town weeklies, bloggers, big media, England, France, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal,” he said. “I got one from Croatia two days ago.”
However, the organization is limiting convention press access to a small group of prominent media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and WorldNetDaily.
According to Schilling and WND, they’re not biased; they’re “prominent.”
WND’s acquiescence to the convention’s ban on non-sycophantic media runs counter to its activism when WND is blocked from covering events. In November, WND threw a fit when the United Nations refused to grant it credentials to cover the global climate-change convention in Copenhagen declaring its plan to sue the U.N. over the denial. WND doesn’t mention that Farah’s declaring “Death to the U.N.!” and calling it “a global criminal enterprise determined to shift power away from individuals and sovereign nation-states to a small band of unaccountable international elites” might have had something to do with that denial.
But right-wingers banning media coverage that might deviate from the relentlessly positive coverage they want? That’s perfectly fine with WND — after all, Farah is among those who will benefit from the sycophancy.
Withdrawal of sponsors
Two announced sponsors — the American Liberty Alliance and the National Precinct Alliance — withdrew their support for the convention in late January. The New York Times reported that the American Liberty Alliance executive director stated on the group’s website, “When we look at the $500 price tag for the event and the fact that many of the original leaders in the group left over similar issues, it’s hard for us not to assume the worst.” The National Precinct Alliance announced that “amid growing controversy” around the convention, it would no longer participate.
WND’s treatment: Did not report either withdrawal.
Intramural squabbling
There have been numerous incidents of arguing between the various tea party groups. The biggest revelation in that department is that one group, Tea Party Express (which WND has previously promoted), had directed almost two-thirds of its spending back to the Republican consulting firm that created it.
WND’s treatment: Did not cover. WND has promoted Tea Party Express events as well.
* * *
The next time Farah asserts that WND covers the news without fear or favor or that it has no sacred cows, feel free to ignore him — or just laugh in his face at his audacity in telling such a blatant, self-serving lie.
(This article originally appeared at ConWebWatch.)
