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The 2,529th CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
6:10am EST, Thursday November 15, 2007 (Vol. Twelve; No. 202)

 
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1. CNN Defends Hit on McCain Over 'Bitch,' Kurtz Chastises Sanchez
A night after CNN host Rick Sanchez decided to try to create a scandal over John McCain's failure to rebuke a supporter who referred to Hillary Clinton as a "bitch," Sanchez on Wednesday declared McCain "should have distanced himself" from the remark and, since he didn't, the incident was newsworthy; McCain castigated CNN for its "biased reporting" and CNN's own media critic, Howard Kurtz agreed "his campaign has a point. That little incident was pretty badly hyped by Rick Sanchez." ABC got into the hype too as anchor Charles Gibson introduced a story on "another bit of controversy in the presidential race" which "involves the reaction of Senator John McCain when a lady at a town meeting asked him a question that contained a derogatory reference to Hillary Clinton." CNN's Sanchez whined about how in criticizing CNN's news judgment, McCain is "shooting the messenger, blaming me personally and CNN for his present plight." Sanchez laid bare his agenda as he excoriated McCain for not acting as Sanchez wanted: "His staff has put out several statements today. None of them offers an apology to women in general or to Hillary Clinton specifically."

2. NBC Catches Up With ABC to Highlight Safer, Better Life in Iraq
Three weeks after ABC's World News aired the first of three stories then and since about significant declines in violence and improving living conditions in Iraq, NBC Nightly News caught up Wednesday night as anchor Brian Williams acknowledged: "We are all hearing more and more these days about a significant drop in violence and deaths in Iraq, even though 2007 some time ago became the bloodiest year of the war, yet for U.S. forces these new stats show a different trend." From Iraq, reporter Tom Aspell illustrated how life has improved: "A few months ago, Ali Hamid could not have sold balloons here on Jadriyah Street. He might have been kidnaped or killed. A few blocks away, Azar Habud might have been shot for giving Western-style haircuts in his barbershop. And nearby, Mohammed Hassan's ice cream shop is still busy, even though it was bombed twice in April, killing nine customers. Back then, explosions were a horrifying part of everyday life. Now, the U.S. military says rocket and mortar attacks in Iraq have dropped sharply in the last few months from 1,000 in June to fewer than 400 in October. And so have civilian deaths."

3. CBS Tribute to Mailer Avoids His Incendiary Left-Wing Theories
On CBS's November 11 Sunday Morning, reporter Martha Teichner narrated a profile of recently deceased ultra left-wing author Norman Mailer, but managed to avoid reciting his more incendiary far-left claims. She described him as "a hell of a big man for a short guy, scrappy, brilliant, controversial. Slugging away at life and letters until the very end." Of course, this was the same Norman Mailer that said of the World Trade Center in October 2001: "Everything wrong with America led to the point where the country built that tower of Babel, which consequently had to be destroyed." Later Teichner remarked that "Mailer was unapologetically liberal, anti-war, anti-Nixon, anti-establishment." Well, he certainly was "anti-establishment" when he said to a London Telegraph reporter in February 2002: "America has an almost obscene infatuation with itself...The right wing benefitted so much from September 11 that, if I were still a conspiratorialist, I would believe they'd done it." At another point, Teichner observed that "Norman Mailer loved playing the political provocateur." That proved true when in 2003 Mailer asserted in a Times of London op-ed: "Bush thought white American men needed to know they were still good at something. That's where Iraq came in...."

4. Behar to Rain-Starved Georgians: Pray to Al Gore Not God
The View's Joy Behar considers prayer a "distraction" from achieving scientific results which would be better achieved by praying for a fix for global warming. On the November 14 show, the co-hosts discussed Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue's prayer service for drought relief. Whoopi Goldberg, surprisingly defended the Governor, but Joy Behar fretted about the "separation of church and state," and hinted the Georgia residents should be praying to Al Gore instead: "Well, they need to be praying to people who will fix global warming and take care of the environment because that's more realistic."

5. Schedule of Bozell's Radio Interviews on His Hillary/Media Book
Brent Bozell, President of the MRC, will be interviewed on a bunch of talk radio shows over the next several days about his new book published by Crown Forum, 'Whitewash: What the Media Won't Tell You About Hillary Clinton, But Conservatives Will.' A list of his scheduled interviews:


 

CNN Defends Hit on McCain Over 'Bitch,'
Kurtz Chastises Sanchez

     A night after CNN host Rick Sanchez decided to try to create a scandal over John McCain's failure to rebuke a supporter who referred to Hillary Clinton as a "bitch," Sanchez on Wednesday declared McCain "should have distanced himself" from the remark and, since he didn't, the incident was newsworthy; McCain castigated CNN for its "biased reporting" and CNN's own media critic, Howard Kurtz agreed "his campaign has a point. That little incident was pretty badly hyped by Rick Sanchez." ABC got into the hype too as anchor Charles Gibson introduced a story on "another bit of controversy in the presidential race" which "involves the reaction of Senator John McCain when a lady at a town meeting asked him a question that contained a derogatory reference to Hillary Clinton."

     On CNN's The Situation Room, Brian Todd informed viewers how on "Tuesday evening CNN anchor Rick Sanchez takes about six minutes at the very top of his prime time show, Out in the Open, raising questions about why Senator McCain didn't immediately chastise the woman for insulting Mrs. Clinton like that." Later, on Out in the Open, Sanchez whined about how in criticizing CNN's news judgment, McCain is "shooting the messenger, blaming me personally and CNN for his present plight." Sanchez laid bare his agenda as he excoriated McCain for not acting as Sanchez wanted: "His staff has put out several statements today. None of them offers an apology to women in general or to Hillary Clinton specifically."

     Sanchez devoted two segments Wednesday night to "John McCain & the B-Word." After looking at McCain's reaction to CNN and re-hashing what McCain did and should have done, Sanchez brought aboard left-wing radio talk show host Stephanie Miller to examine when it's okay to use the "B-word."

     Not surprisingly, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann devoted a segment to the Monday exchange, at a South Carolina restaurant, between a woman in the audience -- who asked "how do we beat the bitch?" -- and McCain, an incident being pushed by liberal activists.

     The story in the 6 PM EST hour of The Situation Room highlighted this line from an e-mail sent to supporters by the McCain campaign: "We need you to stand with John McCain against Rick Sanchez and his friends at CNN and their biased reporting."

     [This item was posted late Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     The Wednesday CyberAlert posting, "CNN's Sanchez Erupts Over McCain Not Rebuking Hillary as 'Bitch,'" recounted:

Trying to create a scandal over Republican presidential candidate John McCain's failure to rebuke a woman supporter who called Hillary Clinton a "bitch," CNN's Rick Sanchez led Tuesday night's Out in the Open with what he insisted was the "relevant and newsworthy" topic as he seriously asked: "Is John McCain done as a result of this?" He later speculated: "Is his campaign dead in the water?" Betraying the skew of those at CNN, Sanchez told guest Amy Holmes: "He could be in trouble for this from women, especially the ones that've been talking to me today in our newsroom who heard this and were offended." Sanchez's spin matched that of left-wing bloggers, a story in Wednesday's New York Times revealed: "The clip began showing on Web sites like Salon.com, the liberal site TPM.com and others, with bloggers asking why Mr. McCain had not taken the questioner to task."

Setting up the video, Sanchez haughtily intoned: "You're going to hear a McCain supporter. She refers to Hillary Clinton using really what is a horrible word that is used to do nothing but demean women. Well, at the time, it was a supporter who said that. It wasn't until later on, when we watched the whole tape, which is what you're about to see, that you see McCain's reaction, or lack thereof, that we decided that this is both relevant and newsworthy, and important information to this campaign." An older woman at an event in South Carolina had asked: "How do we beat the bitch?" An appalled Sanchez complained: "He says 'that's an excellent question,' after somebody refers to Hillary Clinton as a B-word which rhymes with witch."

     For the CyberAlert rundown in full: www.mediaresearch.org

     CNN's follow-up story during the 6 PM EST hour of the November 14 The Situation Room:

     WOLF BLITZER: Right now, John McCain's campaign is having to respond to something someone else said. It involves one woman's use of some foul language, Hillary Clinton, and criticism of CNN. Let's go to Brian Todd. He's following this story. Brian, this has ignited some controversy. Give us the background.

     BRIAN TODD: It sure has, Wolf. John McCain's campaign is brushing back hard on a CNN prime time segment, accusing the network of bias. It started with an impromptu campaign stop by John McCain Monday in Hilton Head, South Carolina. A woman uses offensive language in asking how McCain can stop Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign momentum.

VIDEO ATTRIBUTED TO YOUTUBE:

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: How do we beat the bitch?

(LAUGHTER)

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: May I give the translation?

(LAUGHTER)

MCCAIN: The way that-

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Senator, I thought she was talking about my ex-wife.

MCCAIN: But that's an excellent question. You might know that there was a, there was a poll yesterday, a Rasmussen poll identified that shows me three points ahead of Senator Clinton in a head to head match up.

(APPLAUSE)

MCCAIN: I respect Senator Clinton. I respect anyone who gets the nomination of the Democrat Party.

     TODD: The exchange plays out over less than a minute. Tuesday evening, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez takes about six minutes at the very top of his prime time show, Out in the Open, raising questions about why Senator McCain didn't immediately chastise the woman for insulting Mrs. Clinton like that.
     RICK SANCHEZ, ON TUESDAY'S OUT IN THE OPEN: Is John McCain done as a result of this? Is this going to become a viral video?
     TODD: A top official in the McCain campaign tells CNN he believes the Senator did a good job trying to diffuse the situation, that it goes without saying the woman's remark was offensive, but it's not McCain's job to come to Mrs. Clinton's defense. The McCain campaign accuses Rick Sanchez of sensationalizing the exchange in hopes of generating a news story. They used the segment as a peg for this e-mail to supporters to stand with McCain against Sanchez and to make contributions. McCain's campaign later calls for an apology. Sanchez says he has nothing to apologize for.
     SANCHEZ: If someone had used this word about Laura Bush or about Senator McCain's wife or about anybody else, be they Democrat or Republican, there are many people out there who would have said that's an offensive word, and the Senator should have distanced himself not only from the statement made against Senator Clinton, but against the use of the word itself. And at no time does it seem that he does that, and that's the reason we did the story.
     TODD: We asked Howard Kurtz of CNN's Reliable Sources and the Washington Post about the blow-up.
     HOWARD KURTZ: It probably would have been better for John McCain to have not laughed along with the crowd and talked about that being an excellent question. [edit jump] But his campaign has a point. That little incident was pretty badly hyped by Rick Sanchez. Senator McCain did not embrace the "B" word that this woman in the audience used.
     TODD: McCain has been criticized for some of his more candid public moments.
     MCCAIN, APRIL 18: That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran? You know, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway.
     TODD: But he has also publicly shown solidarity with Hillary Clinton, visiting Iraq with her, making other appearances. And the McCain campaign says he's expressed his utmost respect for Mrs. Clinton several times on the campaign trail. We contacted Mrs. Clinton's campaign for response to the woman's remark and Senator McCain's reaction. Her spokesman had no comment. A short time ago, Mr. McCain addressed the issue at a stop in Phoenix. Listen.
     MCCAIN: I did. You know, I walked into a restaurant in South Carolina. There was a number of people there. They asked questions. She made a comment. I made light of the comment, and then I said very seriously, I treated and continue to treat Senator Clinton with respect. And I've said that many times. I'm sure that's good enough for the American people, even if it's not good enough for CNN.
     TODD: Senator McCain responding there once again. And the campaign has reiterated that this woman was not a supporter, stressing again that it was an impromptu campaign stop, and one of the McCain spokespeople told me that the people in the restaurant essentially turned it into a de facto town hall meeting, Wolf.

     Sanchez set up a segment on the November 14 Out in the Open:

     Tonight, John McCain is not apologizing, not apologizing. Last night, we showed you a clip of one of his supporters calling Hillary Clinton the B-word that rhymes with witch. You know the word well. Well, the Senator, he laughs, and then he calls it a good question. All right. So maybe he made a mistake. And most people in this situation would normally come back the next day and say, you know, I probably should have distanced myself from that comment and I shouldn't have laughed, and maybe I shouldn't allow any woman to be called such a demeaning word. Nope! Instead, today Senator McCain is e-mailing the comment with the Hillary bash to donors and asking them to send more money to his presidential campaign.
     He's also, of course, shooting the messenger, blaming me personally and CNN for his present plight. Our staff has put out several statements, I should say, his staff has put out several statements today. None of them offers an apology to women in general or to Hillary Clinton specifically. No matter what you think of Hillary Clinton, and we know that she can be very polarizing, she is a U.S. Senator, the former First Lady of the United States. Should her being called that be turned into a joke by a presidential candidate? Fair question. There's a lot to get to here....

     ABC got into the topic and the MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the piece on the November 14 edition of ABC's World News:

     CHARLES GIBSON: Well, there is another bit of controversy in the presidential race tonight. Not so much about what a candidate said, but what he didn't say. It involves the reaction of Senator John McCain when a lady at a town meeting asked him a question that contained a derogatory reference to Hillary Clinton. ABC's Kate Snow reports.

     KATE SNOW: The question came at a quick meet and greet at Trinity Restaurant in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
     UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: How do we beat the bitch?
     SNOW: McCain chuckled.
     MCCAIN: May I give the translation?
     SNOW: Then said-
     MCCAIN: But that's an excellent question.
     SNOW: Some voters we spoke with today took issue with the question, and thought Senator McCain should at least have reprimanded the questioner for her choice of words.
     UNIDENTIFIED MAN: He's running to be the leader of our country. He should have certainly used some leadership at that moment.
     SNOW: And top Republican strategists agreed McCain might have handled it differently.
     TUCKER ESKEW, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: If there's anything he could have done different, it would have been to more quickly rebuke that choice of words, and then answer the question, which is: How are we going to beat her?
     SNOW: But a conservative talk radio host said the criticism was overblown.
     SEAN HANNITY, TALK RADIO HOST: Do you notice, I mean, there was humor, there was laughter, there was, he didn't say it. He's not going there.
     SNOW: McCain's campaign noted he did quickly pivot at the restaurant.
     MCCAIN: I respect Senator Clinton.
     SNOW: And today, he reiterated his respect for her, but with a veiled swipe.
     MCCAIN: People come to gatherings, and they voice their opinion. I don't tell them what to say.
     SNOW: But the "B" word question points to something larger: a current of anti-Clinton sentiment that is very real. We found it in Medina, Ohio.
     SNOW TO THREE WOMAN: Can any of you see voting for Hillary Clinton?
     UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: No.
     UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: No way, no how.
     UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: No way.
     SNOW: Just don't like her?
     UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: No. [edit jump] I'm not so sure that she is for the family.
     SNOW: In that key state, 44 percent of registered voters say they have an unfavorable opinion of Senator Clinton, and nationally, Clinton remains a highly polarizing figure -- her strongest supporters intense in their support; her biggest detractors, even more intense. And the McCain campaign is trying to use all of that negativity to their advantage. In fact, today, in an e-mail to supporters, McCain's campaign manager denounced all the coverage of this questioner, but then went ahead and asked supporters for money.

 

NBC Catches Up With ABC to Highlight
Safer, Better Life in Iraq

     Three weeks after ABC's World News aired the first of three stories then and since about significant declines in violence and improving living conditions in Iraq, NBC Nightly News caught up Wednesday night as anchor Brian Williams acknowledged: "We are all hearing more and more these days about a significant drop in violence and deaths in Iraq, even though 2007 some time ago became the bloodiest year of the war, yet for U.S. forces these new stats show a different trend."

     From Iraq, reporter Tom Aspell illustrated how life has improved: "A few months ago, Ali Hamid could not have sold balloons here on Jadriyah Street. He might have been kidnaped or killed. A few blocks away, Azar Habud might have been shot for giving Western-style haircuts in his barbershop. And nearby, Mohammed Hassan's ice cream shop is still busy, even though it was bombed twice in April, killing nine customers. Back then, explosions were a horrifying part of everyday life. Now, the U.S. military says rocket and mortar attacks in Iraq have dropped sharply in the last few months from 1,000 in June to fewer than 400 in October. And so have civilian deaths."

     Aspell noted how Iraqis get electricity for only seven hours a day and that many don't have access to clean water, but concluded with how "despite the everyday hardships, there is a bright note -- wedding halls are back in business" and "Iraqi authorities say weddings have tripled in the past month."

     [This item was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     On Monday night, only the CBS Evening News reported the drop in mortar and rocket attacks. See the November 13 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org

     Previous CyberAlert articles on how, until NBC's piece Wednesday night, ABC's World News has been the only broadcast network evening newscast airing reports from Iraq on improving conditions:
     October 23 CyberAlert: "ABC Airs Upbeat Iraq Story on Fallujah's 'Remarkable Turnaround.'" See: www.mrc.org

     October 31 CyberAlert: "ABC: Iraqis Adapt to 'New Normal' as 'Violence on Downward Trend.'" See: www.mrc.org

     November 2 CyberAlert: "Only ABC Reports Military's Stats on Violence Plunging in Iraq." See: www.mrc.org

     The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the November 14 story on the NBC Nightly News:

     BRIAN WILLIAMS: We are all hearing more and more these days about a significant drop in violence and deaths in Iraq, even though 2007 some time ago became the bloodiest year of the war, yet for U.S. forces these new stats show a different trend. When our own Tom Aspell went out in Iraq to report this story, he found there are, indeed, signs of change.

     TOM ASPELL: A few months ago, Ali Hamid could not have sold balloons here on Jadriyah Street. He might have been kidnaped or killed. A few blocks away, Azar Habud might have been shot for giving Western-style haircuts in his barbershop. And nearby, Mohammed Hassan's ice cream shop is still busy, even though it was bombed twice in April, killing nine customers. The second time was right in front of the shop, he says.
     Back then, explosions were a horrifying part of everyday life. Now, the U.S. military says rocket and mortar attacks in Iraq have dropped sharply in the last few months from 1,000 in June to fewer than 400 in October. And so have civilian deaths. Last December, 2,172 people died violently in Iraq. In October, the number was 750. Why the sharp drop? The U.S. military says the 30,000-troop surge and deploying them to live in troubled areas has made a critical difference. And 70,000 mainly Sunni fighters have turned against al-Qaeda and are now working with the U.S. as part of neighborhood watch programs.
     REAR ADMIRAL GREGORY SMITH, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: We also have these growing numbers of concerned local citizens who are working neighborhood by neighborhood to secure their way of life.
     ASPELL: Baghdad used to be under a strict dusk-until-dawn curfew. Only soldiers and death squads moved around at night. But with the number of attacks dropping, the curfew has been pushed back to midnight to give people a few hours out in the evening. But basic services are still a problem here. Iraqis still only get an average of seven hours of electricity a day. And according to a new U.N. study, only one in three Iraqi children under the age of five has access to safe drinking water.
     But despite the everyday hardships, there is a bright note -- wedding halls are back in business. Hida and his bride have been waiting a year to tie the knot. "We decided to marry now because it became safer than before," he says. They are not alone. Iraqi authorities say weddings have tripled in the past month. Tom Aspell, NBC News, Baghdad.

 

CBS Tribute to Mailer Avoids His Incendiary
Left-Wing Theories

     On CBS's November 11 Sunday Morning, reporter Martha Teichner narrated a profile of recently deceased ultra left-wing author Norman Mailer, but managed to avoid reciting his more incendiary far-left claims. She described him as "a hell of a big man for a short guy, scrappy, brilliant, controversial. Slugging away at life and letters until the very end." Of course, this was the same Norman Mailer that said of the World Trade Center in October 2001: "Everything wrong with America led to the point where the country built that tower of Babel, which consequently had to be destroyed." Later Teichner remarked that "Mailer was unapologetically liberal, anti-war, anti-Nixon, anti-establishment." Well, he certainly was "anti-establishment" when he said to a London Telegraph reporter in February 2002: "America has an almost obscene infatuation with itself...The right wing benefitted so much from September 11 that, if I were still a conspiratorialist, I would believe they'd done it." At another point, Teichner observed that "Norman Mailer loved playing the political provocateur." That proved true when in 2003 Mailer asserted in a Times of London op-ed: "Bush thought white American men needed to know they were still good at something. That's where Iraq came in...." None of these extremist statements by Mailer made it into the Sunday Morning segment.

     More on Mailer's October 2001 comments: www.mediaresearch.org

     More on Mailer's February 2002 comments: www.mediaresearch.org

     More on Mailer's 2003 comments: www.mediaresearch.org

     However, Teichner did devote a generous thirty seconds to an incident in which "Mailer was in real trouble after he got drunk at a party and stabbed his second wife with a pen knife." Teichner observed that "the incident left him shaken."

     [This item, by Kyle Drennen, was posted on Wednesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Teichner devoted another thirty seconds to Mailer's crusade to free convicted murderer, Jack Abbot, and how "in 1981, six weeks after Abbot was freed, he attacked and killed a man." Teichner described how "Mailer was vilified and acknowledged his mistake." However, she followed that with, "But he was never afraid to try something new...He even tried acting, most recently in 2005...Appearing in the television show Gilmore Girls." Well, as long as Mailer was willing to try new things, letting the occasional murderer go free was no big deal. After all, even Mailer admitted about Abbott case that he was "willing to gamble with the safety of certain elements of society to save this man's talent...."

     Teichner ended the segment with a description of Mailer's final work: "He published his last book just three-and-a-half weeks before his death. It was called On God: An Uncommon Conversation. In it he wrote: 'I think that piety is oppressive. It takes all the air out of thought.' Pious, he was not."

     Here is the full transcript of the segment:

     CHARLES OSGOOD: As you very likely heard by now, Norman Mailer died yesterday morning at the age of 84. For almost 60 years, the life and writings of Mailer provoked, and shocked, and entertained. Summing up such a life is a daunting task. That's what we've asked of Martha Teichner.

     MARTHA TEICHNER: He was a hell of a big man for a short guy, scrappy, brilliant, controversial. Slugging away at life and letters until the very end. He was married six times, fathered eight children, dabbled in politics, drugs, alcohol, counter-culture, TV and the movies. But managed along the way to write close to 40 books. He won the National Book Award, plus two Pulitzer Prizes, and was one of America's most outspoken literary voices.
     NORMAN MAILER: I've been coming to this town for, oh, 60 years just about. First came here back in 1942. And I love the place. It's my favorite town in America.
     TEICHNER: In recent years, Norman Mailer lived mainly in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where we met him in 2001.
     MAILER: This town has just had everything. It's had pirates, it's motorcycle drivers. It's had mad artists, crazy parties, a lot of pot smoking. And now that I'm old, I still like it because the echo is there.
     TEICHNER: He could have been talking about his own life. Mailer was famous by the age of 25 for his first book, "The Naked and the Dead," an auto biographical World War II novel. But it was for "The Armies of the Night," his personalized account of the 1967 peace march on the Pentagon, that he won the National Book Award and his first Pulitzer. His second was for "The Executioner's Song," about Gary Gilmore, the first American to be executed after the death penalty was reinstated in the United States. Mailer was unapologetically liberal, anti-war, anti-Nixon, anti-establishment. And he didn't just write about his politics. When push came to shove at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago he was there. And later, took delight in throwing a few verbal punches of his own.
     MAILER: What shocked me about Chicago in '68 is I had always given the establishment more credit. You know, I always thought that it ran things better than it actually did run them. I was amazed at how much quickly the establishment cracked up under that pressure. We can win this thing! We can win it! --
     TEICHNER: Norman Mailer loved playing the political provocateur. In 1968, he ran for mayor of New York, proposing that the city secede and become the 51st state. He really did.
     MAILER: I've become a politician. I mean, I'm dull enough to be elected to high office.
     TEICHNER: His personal life was anything but dull. He was a pugnacious celebrity bad boy.
     GORE VIDAL: You're a liar and a hypocrite, you're a plague.
     TEICHNER: Watch his verbal combat with Gore Vidal on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971.
     MAILER: Are you ready to apologize?
     VIDAL: I would apologize if it hurts your feelings, of course, I would.
     MAILER: No, it hurts my sense of intellectual pollution.
     VIDAL: Well, I must say, as an expert you should know about that.
     MAILER: Yes, well, I've had to smell your works from time to time. And that has helped me to become an expert on intellectual pollution.
     VIDAL: Yeah, well.
     TEICHNER: MAILER was in real trouble after he got drunk at a party and stabbed his second wife with a pen knife. She didn't press charges, but the incident left him shaken.
     MAILER: It was as if some huge switch was thrown in my nature, which was no matter what happens after this, that will never happen again. And, you know, because I really couldn't believe it when it happened. I couldn't believe that I had done it. And so it was a huge shock.
     TEICHNER: In 1975, he met Barbara Norris of Russellville Arkansas, a divorced high school art teacher with a small son. She was 26. Mailer was 52. They were married happily for more than 25 years, and had one son together. Norris-Mailer set out to unite all the various children and step-children into a family.
     MAILER: She's given a certain dignity to my life that I never had before. Well, now I'm not a mad man. I'm an established family man.
     TEICHNER: But Mailer had one more big public controversy in him, the Jack Abbot case. Abbot was a convicted killer who wrote a highly acclaimed prison memoir In the Belly of the Beast. Norman Mailer campaigned for his parole.
     MAILER: I'm willing to gamble with the safety of certain elements of society to save this man's talent.
     TEICHNER: In 1981, six weeks after Abbot was freed, he attacked and killed a man. Mailer was vilified and acknowledged his mistake. But he was never afraid to try something new. He made films. Among them Tough Guys Don't Dance.
     MAILER: Well, I don't have a lot of monthly income, you know.
     TEICHNER: He even tried acting, most recently in 2005.
     MAILER: What the devil is she talking about.
     TEICHNER: Appearing in the television show "Gilmore Girls." As he aged though, Stormin' Norman, as he was once known, calmed down. He began his days doing a cross word puzzle to get himself in the mood for writing. And then he would struggle to climb the stairs to his third floor study to work.
     BARBARA NORRIS-MAILER: Did you have a good day?
     MAILER: Fairly good, not great.
     TEICHNER: In the evening, after not talking to each other all day, he and Norris would meet. You flirt with each other?
     NORRIS-MAILER: As much as I can.
     MAILER: Yeah, she's a flirt.
     TEICHNER: To anyone on the outside looking in, it appeared that Norman Mailer lived a happily ever after story. But to admit to anything that conventional would have been anathema to him. He published his last book just three-and-a-half weeks before his death. It was called On God: An Uncommon Conversation. In it he wrote, "I think that piety is oppressive. It takes all the air out of thought." Pious, he was not.

 

Behar to Rain-Starved Georgians: Pray
to Al Gore Not God

     The View's Joy Behar considers prayer a "distraction" from achieving scientific results which would be better achieved by praying for a fix for global warming. On the November 14 show, the co-hosts discussed Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue's prayer service for drought relief. Whoopi Goldberg, surprisingly defended the Governor, but Joy Behar fretted about the "separation of church and state," and hinted the Georgia residents should be praying to Al Gore instead: "Well, they need to be praying to people who will fix global warming and take care of the environment because that's more realistic."

     Co-host Sherri Shepherd asked Behar what she would say if indeed there is rain, which is in the forecast. Behar gave a dismissive response stating she "would consider that a coincidence. But that's me because I'm the way I am."

     [This item was adopted from the NewsBusters post by Justin McCarthy: newsbusters.org ]

     Joy Behar continued her "distraction" line charging that prayer can distract us from advancements in the medical field. Shepherd and Whoopi responded that God provides to mankind this science for man to explore with Whoopi asking why we can't have both prayer and science.

     The entire discussion:

     WHOOPI GOLDBERG: You know, yesterday, the Governor of Georgia held a prayer service outside on the mall-esque part of the, of the Capitol. He invited all denominations to come and pray, didn't make any, you know, say only you. He said everybody who wants to join in here can come and pray. And what they were praying for was praying for rain. Now, one of the things that I found astonishing is that, in watching different television programs, people seemed to have lost their mind that he would pray for rain. And I thought to myself, but the American Indians prayed for rain. Everyone prays for rain. What's the problem? And people said, well, he's on the Capitol. But he wasn't. He was not in the Capitol where so you can't have any discussion about separation of church and state. But we are in a very interesting time with religion because people are really frightened it seems to me. Do you feel the same way?
     JOY BEHAR: Now, wait a minute, before you go off that you say it's not separation, he is the governor. He is supposed to practice separation of church and state.
     GOLDBEG: And he did, and he did.
     BEHAR: Just because he wasn't in the Capitol steps I'm saying-
     GOLDBERG: No, he wasn't in the Capitol. Now, the separation, he can do whatever he wants to do outside of the building.
     BEHAR: Even if he is the governor of Georgia?
     GOLDBERG: Even if he's the governor of Georgia. If he wants to have a thing-
     SHERRI SHEPHERD: I like that. We've done everything we can do. We're trying to pray to somebody higher than us to make something happen.
     BEHAR: Well, they need to be praying to people who will fix global warming and take care of the environment because that's more realistic.
     SHEPHERD: But right then, that's what's going on there was they have been in a drought and they needed water. So they were praying for what was going on right now. And I'm sure everybody in that city would have agreed with him.
     GOLDBERG: But, but, I guess my question, and jump in any time, my question is why is it a question? If he decides to do it -- I mean, he wasn't, and again he wasn't inside the legislature. He wasn't anywhere where you could really say he was doing anything wrong and people, I mean people were vicious.
     BEHAR: Well, that's not necessary, to be vicious about it. But I think that people are responding to what they perceive to be irrationality. In other words, you can pray until the cows come home, it may not rain. But that's the point.
     SHEPHERD: That's where faith comes in. It's not an irrational thing we have faith.
     JORJA FOX: But I think there were three Protestant ministers there. And so the next time they do it, it would be great perhaps if there was a wider community, inter-denominational. And I think people will, will-
     GOLDBERG: But they were all interfaith and a lot of folks came, a lot of folks of different colors, different faiths, a couple Buddhists were there, and a lot of interesting folks. And I just thought, well, listen, if it doesn't hurt the situation, what's the-
     SHEPHERD: What do you got to lose? What do you have to lose?
     BEHAR: It's a distraction from the fact that there is scientific evidence that we are in the midst of global warming, which is causing a lot of these droughts and fires. So let's focus on the rationality....

 

Schedule of Bozell's Radio Interviews
on His Hillary/Media Book

Whitewash Book Ad     Brent Bozell, President of the MRC, will be interviewed on a bunch of talk radio shows over the next several days about his new book published by Crown Forum, 'Whitewash: What the Media Won't Tell You About Hillary Clinton, But Conservatives Will.' A list of his scheduled interviews:

     THURSDAY, November 15:

     # WHO in Des Moines with Jan Mickelson at 9:05 AM CST.

     # WDUN in Gainesville, Georgia with Martha Zoller at 10:35 AM EST.

     # WBAP in Dallas/Ft. Worth with Mark Davis at 10:05 AM CST.

     # KEX in Portland, Oregon at 9:30 AM PST.

     # KDKA in Pittsburgh with Kevin Miller at 1:05 PM EST.

     # "Janet Parshall's America" on Salem Radio at 3:05 PM EST.*

    
    
FRIDAY, November 16:

     # KVI in Seattle with Kirby Wilbur at 6:05 AM PST.

     # Laura Ingraham's nationally syndicated show at 11:15 AM EST.*

    
    
MONDAY, November 19:

     # WCBM in Baltimore with Tom Marr at 10:05 AM EST.

     # Mike Gallagher's show on Salem Radio at 11:05 AM EST.*

     # KOA in Denver with Mike Rosen at 10 AM MST.

     # KARN in Little Rock with Dave Elswick at 3:05 PM CST.

     # WBAL in Baltimore with Ron Smith at 4:05 PM EST.


     TUESDAY, November 20:

     # WJR in Detroit with Paul W. Smith at 8:20 AM EST.

     # Hugh Hewitt's show on Salem Radio at 3:20 PM PST.*

     # Michael Reagan's nationally syndicated show at 4:30 PM PST.*


     WEDNESDAY, November 21:

     # WLS in Chicago with Don Wade at 8:40 AM CST.


* = Air times of national shows varies by radio market.

    
    
Flash video of Bozell's November 13 segment on FNC's Fox & Friends is now on the MRC's home page: www.mrc.org

     For Windows Media, Real or MP3 audio, check this node on the MRC's blog: newsbusters.org

     Bozell also appeared Monday night on FNC's Hannity & Colmes. For Flash video on You Tube of the segment with Bozell, as well as downloadable Real video, Windows Media video and MP3 audio, go to this page on the MRC's blog: newsbusters.org

Bozell's book: Uncovering a Fifteen Year Love Affair

How could America's presidential front-runner be a woman who has held only one elective office and had staggering numbers of personal, political, and financial scandals?

How did the First Lady to a disgraced, impeached president become a presidential front-runner despite never having held elective office before 2001? And how did this happen given her staggering number of personal, political, and financial scandals -- and her leftist political agenda?

Authors L. Brent Bozell and Tim Graham peel back the layers of Hillary Clinton's success to expose the real shocker -- not Travelgate or Whitewater -- but a fifteen year love affair by the liberal media, starting with Time magazine, who first introduced Hillary Clinton to the country as an "amalgam of Betty Crocker, Mother Teresa and Oliver Wendell Holmes." The elite media's continued and unprecedented favoritism is the key to Hillary's mythic political standing. They have downplayed or ignored her every scandal and recast her ultra-liberalism as being in the political center.

What's even more stunning is the incredible number of stories that have been under-reported, excused and buried. To expose the truth, the authors interviewed dozens of leading conservatives who want Americans to hear the whole story, including Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Cal Thomas, Newt Gingrich and many others.

Whitewash: What the Media Won't Tell You About Hillary Clinton, But Conservatives Will

Order your copy today! Go to: www.mrc.org

     Or, to order from Amazon: www.amazon.com

     To order from Barnes & Noble: search.barnesandnoble.com

     Tuesday, November 13 was the release date and so it should be in bookstores this week.

-- Brent Baker

 


 


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