Ever since George W. Bush was elected in 2000, the left-wing media have developed a taste to expose episodes of media corruption. No, not their corruption. Conservative media corruption. The liberal media made loud grunts and noises over columnist Armstrong Williams, who didn't tell readers of his column that he had a public-relations contract with the Department of Education to sell the "No Child Left Behind" legislation. If a columnist is working for a government program or entity, it's always best to disclose to readers your involvement, so they can judge your point of view more fully. The latest example... continue reading
As another year turns, we're reminded that the more things change, the more they stay the same. As our popular culture pushes ever further into anything goes, we're reminded that anything-goes has certainly gone before. Pick up St. Augustine's "Confessions," and find him traveling to Carthage in the year 371, where "I found myself in a hissing cauldron of lust." Looking back, he regretted how in his desperate search for love, "I muddied the stream of friendship with the filth of lewdness and clouded its clear waters with Hell's black river of lust." This was not the way Augustine saw... continue reading
While much of America celebrates the holiday season with reverent sobriety, some liberal media stars sound so daft in their Bush hatred you might suspect they've been swimming in spiked Christmas punch. In a "web-exclusive commentary," Newsweek's ever-predictable Jonathan Alter went ape over the stories about the National Security Agency monitoring phone calls between terror suspects in America and their terrorist contacts abroad. "We're seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War." Alter suggested leaking the NSA story to... continue reading
The "war on Christmas" centers primarily on the way in which so many schools and businesses are scrubbing the word and the concept of Christmas from the public square to avoid ACLU lawsuits or complaining non-Christians, not a one of them, I might add, I've ever met. Some say it's not a "war," that it's only an outbreak of multicultural sensitivity. No, it's a war, and it's being waged by those deliberately attempting to undermine our Judeo-Christian heritage. The Viacom corporation is an active participant through its Comedy Central channel. Its method is not excessive sensitivity, but wild-eyed insensitivity. This... continue reading
The year 2005 is ending as it began, with another successful election in Iraq and a liberal media still flapping around trying to find other controversies to submerge it. It does not matter to them that a Gallup poll found that 74 percent of Americans express confidence in their military, but only 28 percent express confidence in their newspapers or TV news outlets. The "mainstream" media excels in excoriating the performance of nearly everyone else, but acts as if nothing they do should be held up as ineffective, inaccurate, or just plain absurd. That's why the Media Research Center and... continue reading
The Family Friendly Programming Forum consists of several dozen major television advertisers that urges the entertainment industry to build "a commitment to and understanding of quality family entertainment." It has just announced its "Family Television Awards." To be sure, what the Forum has chosen to salute is far less offensive than so much of what is oozing out of our TV sets, but is it "family friendly'? You, dear reader, decide for yourself. Their best drama series selection was ABC's "Lost," a gripping and popular show, but also incredibly violent. Scenes depicting torture and people being destroyed by explosives, the... continue reading
They call the magazine "Newsweek," but in today's 24-hour news cycle, a weekly magazine that is seen as a recycler of old news is courting a death wish. To avoid this, Newsweek gives us haughty pieces of attitude, not only in the cover stories, but on the cover itself. Remember the cover on Iraq with the words "Bush's $87 Billion Mess"? This week's edition is the latest in a series of let-'er-rip Bush-bashing covers. It pictures President Bush floating encapsulated in a bubble with the headline "Bush's World. The Isolated President: Can He Change?" The headline on the cover story... continue reading
Pope John Paul II led a remarkable life at the center of Europe, not only dynamically rising to the top of the Catholic Church, but resisting two different totalitarian oppressors in his native Poland. His life has natural drama and provides natural inspiration. So it's not surprising that upon his death, which triggered the greatest international outpouring of grief in modern times, that the decision would be made by three different TV networks to produce TV movies about his life. Or is it? In a broadcast television landscape endlessly littered with gratuitous vulgarity, ABC and CBS deserve applause for taking... continue reading
Brian Williams has wrapped up his first year anchoring the "NBC Nightly News," and he is presenting himself as this year's new face of the TV news kingdom. He's a knight on a white horse raging against poverty and indifference, especially in the poorer sections of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. He believes the issues of race, class, oil, war, and the environment make Katrina the "monumental story of modern times." The NBC anchor shared his thoughts with Howard Kurtz on CNN's "Reliable Sources." Kurtz asked the obvious question: Has Williams become a crusader? "I don't think so," said Williams... continue reading
For seven long hours on Tuesday they argued. Some twenty five panelists representing the networks, the cable industry, the satellite industry and family organizations (this writer represented one of the three family groups invited) met with Senator Ted Stevens's (R-AK) Commerce Committee in an attempt to resolve the wretched state of affairs of entertainment programming. But what happened outside the room was the big news of the day. There may be light at the end of the tunnel. Sen. Stevens, along with Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) laid down the gauntlet at the outset: Unless the participants could find a way... continue reading