1. Clift: Bush “Stupid” to Dismiss Anti-War Protests, a Bully
President Bush made a “stupid” remark in dismissing the anti-war protesters, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift contended on the McLaughlin Group over the weekend as she charged that Bush's “coalition of the willing” is “really a coalition of the bullied and the bribed.”

2. Bernstein Absurdly Claims Protests Were Treated Dismissively
Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame last week preposterously insisted, a Florida newspaper reported, that “on television” the February 15 anti-war demonstrations “were treated dismissively, condescendingly and patronizingly as if they were not important news." In reality, they led the ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN evening newscasts which aired multiple favorable stories.

3. Obnoxious Maher is Back, Crow's Message and CBS's 2-to-1 Tilt
In the Friday night debut of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, Maher said he didn't understand the argument that the UN is being “ineffectual” when “they are stopping the rush to war.” Maher posited: “Isn't the UN's job to slow a march to war? Isn't that what they're there for, a peace organization?” Maher also came to France's defense as he demanded: “No more whining about the French. At least they're standing up to the Bush administration, which is more than I can say for the Democrats!” Plus, Sheryl Crow's “No War” lettering on her guitar strap at the Grammy Awards and CBS put National Review's Rich Lowry up against two celebs.

4. “This is CNN” Voice, James Earl Jones, Not Opposing Iraq War
Not every Hollywood celebrity is anti-war: James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, who used to be the deep-voiced announcer who intoned, “This is CNN,” looks favorably upon finishing the job in Iraq, the Fayetteville Observer reported last week in a story about what he told college students.

5. Raines Lashes Out at Liberal Bias “Disinformation” Claims
New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines lashed out at the “disinformation” effort to “convince our readers that we are ideologues.” Accepting a National Press Foundation award, Raines worried that “those of us who work for fair-minded publications... have been too passive in pointing out the agendas of those who want to use journalism as a political tool,” meaning conservatives. Raines denounced the “attempt to convince the audience of the world’s most ideology-free newspapers that they’re being subjected to agenda driven news reflecting a liberal bias.”

6. A New Book on How Media Were “Useful Idiots” During Cold War
A new book packed with examples of how journalists undermined the Cold War and claimed the onslaught of capitalism actually made those living under communism worse off. It's all in a just-published book by Mona Charen, Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First.

7. “Top Ten Ways Dumb Guys Are Preparing for a Terrorist Attack”
Letterman's “Top Ten Ways Dumb Guys Are Preparing for a Terrorist Attack.”

Clift: Bush “Stupid” to Dismiss Anti-War Protests, a Bully

     President Bush made a “stupid” remark in dismissing the anti-war protesters, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift contended on the McLaughlin Group over the weekend as she charged that Bush's “coalition of the willing” is “really a coalition of the bullied and the bribed.”

     McLaughlin Group viewers saw a clip of Bush from last Tuesday, three days after the Saturday anti-liberation of Iraq protests around the world: “Size of protest is like deciding well I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group. Role of a leader is to decide policy based on the security, in this case the security pf the people.”

     Clift denounced Bush: “That was a stupid and dismissive remark and the point is that he is bringing along a world coalition that he calls a coalition of the willing when it's really a coalition of the bullied and the bribed. The only way he's getting countries to go along with this is coming across with huge sums of money and asking leaders to overlook what is basically democratic expression in these countries.”
     Tony Blankley, Editorial Page Editor at the Washington Times, retorted: “That is not technically true. Britain, Poland, Spain, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Holland are not being bribed by the United States...”

     Good point, though Czechoslovakia no longer exists, but as two countries it can get twice as much in bribes.

Bernstein Absurdly Claims Protests Were Treated Dismissively

     Houston to Carl Bernstein, you're out of range. The former Washington Post reporter of Watergate fame last week preposterously insisted, a Florida newspaper reported, that “on television” the February 15 anti-war demonstrations “were treated dismissively, condescendingly and patronizingly as if they were not important news."

     That just proves one thing: Bernstein didn't watch any of the actual network television news of the protests. How does their treating the protests as “not important news” square with how ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN all led their evening newscasts with multiple stories about the marches?

     Compare Bernstein's ludicrous evaluation with the reality as documented in the February 18 CyberAlert. An excerpt:

Just as they did last month with the anti-war “peace” rally in Washington, DC and San Francisco, in covering Saturday's anti-liberation of Iraq protest marches around the world, the networks ignored the organizing roles and participation of far-left proto-communist and America-hating groups and people and, instead, portrayed participants as a “diverse coss-section” of average people.

The ABC, CBS and NBC newscasts on Saturday night all led with multiple stories on the protests and all featured soundbites from very average looking people along the march routes while CNN's Maria Hinojosa trumpeted: “Like New York, it's an extraordinarily diverse crowd. I have seen elderly men and women with mink coats carrying their posters. I have also seen children with their parents coming from public schools...”

All day CNN featured lengthy segments under the banner of “Voices of Dissent.” CNN anchor Carol Lin marveled at “the diversity out there, I mean, you had soccer moms out there, professional people, people who have never really participated in...political rallies.” From Berlin, reporter Matthew Chance insisted the marchers were not “radicals” but “bankers, they're office clerks, they're just normal people...”

ABC's World News Tonight showcased a “teacher” and a “pediatrician” in New York City before Hilary Brown in London admired how the protest “cuts right across political and social lines.”

On the CBS Evening News, Jim Acosta zeroed in on how “Charles Richardson and his wife held posters bearing the picture of a son, who is now awaiting war in the Persian Gulf.” Anchor Russ Mitchell celebrated “Code Pink: Women for Peace,” a bunch of far-leftists who recently traveled to Iraq to aid Saddam Hussein's cause. CBS showed a clip of one of the women kissing French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Over on the NBC Nightly News, Pat Dawson highlighted “Andrew and Denise Johnson” who “drove from Danvers, Massachusetts, to New York City, their first time at an anti-war rally.” Leading into a clip from a man with a wife and two pre-teen daughters at his side, Dawson relayed: “Protest organizers argued the real message of today's rallies is that a silent majority of Americans is uneasy with the prospect of war, like the Green family of Great Neck, New York. To them, the President's case against Saddam Hussein remains unconvincing.”

Despite the massive coverage, John McKenzie concluded his ABC story by passing along a plea: “So many voices, filling the streets, struggling to be heard.”...

     END of Excerpt

     For a full rundown of coverage:
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030218.asp#2

     Now, an excerpt from the February 19 Bradenton Herald story by reporter Donna Wright, a story highlighted by Jim Romenesko's MediaNews: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45

     The excerpt:

Journalist Carl Bernstein, who helped break the Watergate story three decades ago, told a Sarasota audience Wednesday that the Bush administration should seek to prevent a holy war, not start one.

The former Washington Post reporter spoke to a sell-out audience at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall as a guest speaker in the Town Hall Lecture series, sponsored by Ringling School of Art and Design

"We need less attitude in Washington and more diplomacy," Bernstein said. "And I say this with real respect for George W. Bush...but I do not believe his theological rhetoric about good and evil is the best way of resolving the Iraqi conflict."...

Although he supports the build-up of troops in the Persian Gulf, Bernstein stopped short of endorsing an immediate attack on Iraq.

"I think there are other ways of getting rid of Saddam Hussein without going to war."

He advocated instead to give weapons inspectors a few more months to search for weapons of mass destruction. If those inspections fail, then the United States should go to war only through the United Nations and with European allies at our side.

"But Bush has complicated those alliances," he said. "It would be easier to make the case had we signed the Kyoto treaty on global warming....Had we not given the Europeans an excuse to say we are unilateralists, unconcerned about the same things they are concerned on."

Bernstein reserved his most stinging criticism for fellow journalists -- accusing them of abandoning the search for the best obtainable version of the truth for news that sells....

He cited American media's coverage of worldwide peace demonstrations last weekend as an example of news without proper context.

"Whether we agree with those demonstrations or whether we believe they were out of line or wrong headed, these were huge events that are helping to shape what is happening in the United Nations and whether we go to war," he said. "Yet on television those demonstrations...were treated dismissively, condescendingly and patronizingly as if they were not important news."...

     END of Excerpt

     For the entirety of the story:
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/news/local/5219459.htm

Obnoxious Maher is Back, Crow's Message and CBS's 2-to-1 Tilt

     Bill Maher is back and being as obnoxiously liberal and anti-conservative as ever. Eight months after ABC ended Politically Incorrect, Real Time with Bill Maher debuted on HBO on Friday night. Plus, Sheryl Crow's obscured “No War” lettering on her guitar strap at the Grammy Awards and CBS News figured it would take two anti-war celebrities to match wits with National Review Editor Rich Lowry.

     -- In his maiden broadcast of the hour-long live show, Maher said he didn't understand the argument that the UN is being “ineffectual” when “they are stopping the rush to war.” Maher posited: “Isn't the UN's job to slow a march to war? Isn't that what they're there for, a peace organization?” Maher also came to France's defense as he demanded: “No more whining about the French. At least they're standing up to the Bush administration, which is more than I can say for the Democrats!”

     On the February 21 show, Maher pressed Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who appeared via satellite: “George Bush and Colin Powell say the UN is ineffectual and ineffective because they are slowing our march to war. Isn't the UN's job to slow a march to war? Isn't that what they're there for, a peace organization?”
     Rohrabacher: “The UN is a 'peace organization' who kicks the United States off the Commission on Human Rights and puts Libya as the Chairman, give me a break. Red Cina and France have a veto power over everything the UN can do....”

     Seconds later Maher used the same point to launch his panel segment with Michael Dyson, a Humanities professor at the University of Pennsylvania, columnist Ann Coulter and comedian/actor Larry Miller.

     Maher proposed: “I don't understand this, about how the UN is ineffectual when they are stopping a rush to war. I remember when I went on a class trip to the UN when I was in 6th grade and it seemed to be all about peace. I read their charter, it seemed to be about keeping the peace. So I don't understand how they're ineffectual when they're stopping a war.”

     Miller delivered a great comeback, but only after Dyson claimed that “this cowboy President that we have, who has a rush to judgment. It reminds me of those old days when they used to have those trials for black people, 'let's hurry up and have the trial so we can lynch them.'”

     Miller zinged: “The United Nations couldn't break up a cookie fight at a Brownie meeting.”

     Setting up a later segment, Maher castigated those critical of the French: “We're going to do something now we're going to do every week on this show. It's called 'New Rules' and the reason why it came about is while I was off I got ever more cranky about stupid things that people were doing, especially when it become a sheep-like headlong rush where lots of stupid people do the same stupid thing. 
     “For example, new rule: No more whining about the French. At least they're standing up to the Bush administration, which is more than I can say for the Democrats! And, by the way, it doesn't make me un-American to say I'd rather live in Paris than in places where cheese only comes in individually-wrapped slices.”

     Then why is Maher still in the U.S.?

     HBO's Web site for Maher's 11:30pm EST Friday night show, with a big picture of him: http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/

     The Internet Movie Database page for Larry Miller with a picture: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Miller,+Larry+(I)

     You'll recognize Miller from his supporting and brief roles in many films over the years. Currently, he has a recurring role as “Tommy” on ABC's "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." Miller is also a regular contributor of humor pieces to the Weekly Standard's “Daily Standard” Web site.

     -- The Grammy Awards were virtually devoid of any political messages, a fact helped by how those expected to use the live CBS platform to denounce any war on Iraq, such as Brice Springsteen, did not win and thus did not get an acceptance speech.

     Sheryl Crow, however, performed one song sporting the words “No War” on her guitar strap, but her long hair mostly obscured the word “No” and so viewers only saw: “War.” For a photo of Crow with the obscured lettering on her guitar strap:
http://www.drudgereport.com/crow.htm
     Or:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/en/101901grammy&a=&tmpl=sl&e=36

     But she was toned down from the January 13 American Music Awards when she came on stage twice wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a political message: “War is not the answer.” Off stage, she offered this insight to reporters: "I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies." For details and a link to a photo:
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030115.asp#7

     CBS's page for the Grammy Awards:
http://www.cbs.com/specials/45grammys/

     -- Lowry versus Sarandon and Farrell. CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday decided either it would take two celebrities to balance off a conservative or that just one conservative is all that was necessary to balance two liberals. But whatever their reasoning, the February 23 show opened with a segment made up of two anti-war liberals celebrities, Mike Farrell and Susan Sarandon, versus one conservative: National Review Editor Rich Lowry. Lowry won.

“This is CNN” Voice, James Earl Jones, Not Opposing Iraq War

     Not every Hollywood celebrity is anti-war: James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, who used to be the deep-voiced announcer who intoned, “This is CNN,” looks favorably upon finishing the job in Iraq, the Fayetteville Observer reported last week in a story about what he said to college students on February 19.

     Washington Times reporter Jennifer Harper picked up on Earl's remarks for a February 21 news story. She began:

Not every Hollywood luminary has fallen in with the anti-war elite, who have joined forces with a political group originally formed in 1998 to help America forget President Clinton's impeachment.

"All people have to be prepared. If we are going to be the police, we also have to be the guardians. We can no longer play games," actor James Earl Jones told a group of North Carolina college students Wednesday night.

"I was not against the war in Bosnia. I was against it taking so long. I was not against the war in Somalia. Again, it took too long, and we didn't finish the job. We should've stayed and finished the job. About this pending war, I just think we should've finished that war the first time," Mr. Jones said, referring to the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

The man who provided the voice of Darth Vader in "Star Wars" is also a former Army officer. His remarks drew "the loudest applause of the evening," reported the Fayetteville Observer....

     END of Excerpt

     For Harper's story, about the Iraq stances of celebrities, in full: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030221-51696425.htm

     For the Internet Movie Database's page on James Earl Jones:
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Jones,+James+Earl

Raines Lashes Out at Liberal Bias “Disinformation” Claims

     New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines lashed out at what he called a “disinformation” effort “of alarming proportions” to “convince our readers that we are ideologues.” Accepting the “George Beveridge Editor of the Year Award” at the National Press Foundation's awards dinner on Thursday night, Raines worried that “those of us who work for fair-minded publications and broadcasters have been too passive in pointing out the agendas of those who want to use journalism as a political tool,” meaning conservatives.

     Raines denounced the “attempt to convince the audience of the world’s most ideology-free newspapers that they’re being subjected to agenda driven news reflecting a liberal bias.” Rejecting any culpability for why anyone would perceive a liberal bias, Raines accused those who document liberal media bias of being advocates for “biased journalism.”

     MRC analyst Patrick Gregory took down the relevant portion of Raines' remarks at the February 20 event at the Washington Hilton which was shown live on C-SPAN2:
     “As a veteran of five other newspapers, each irreplaceable to its own community, I feel a sense of pride and stewardship when it comes to the values of mainstream American journalism. The intellectual bond, the contract of accuracy and fairness between us and our readers is central to that tradition. Our greatest accomplishment as a profession is the development since World War II of a news reporting craft that is truly non-partisan, and non-ideological, and that strives to be independent of undue commercial or governmental influence. Prior to World War II, American newspapers often functioned as political tools of their owners. 
     “The most important development of the post-war period among journalists, American journalists, was the acceptance throughout our profession of an ethic that says we report and edit the news for our papers, but we don’t wear the political collar of our owners, or the government, or any political party. It is that legacy we must protect with our diligent stewardship. To do so means we must be aware of the energetic effort that is now underway to convince our readers that we are ideologues. It is an exercise of, in disinformation, of alarming proportions. This attempt to convince the audience of the world’s most ideology free newspapers that they’re being subjected to agenda driven news reflecting a liberal bias. I don’t believe our viewers and readers will be in the long-run misled by those who advocate biased journalism. 
     “But perhaps those of us who work for fair-minded publications and broadcasters have been too passive in pointing out the agendas of those who want to use journalism as a political tool, while aiming an accusing finger at those who practice balanced journalism. I believe as Coach Bryant used to say, 'The fourth quarter belongs to us.’ As inheritors of the mainstream journalistic practices of the post-war era, we will endure because we have values to protect. Values that were forged in the furnace of democracy by our brothers and sisters who could not be seduced into being either the lapdogs or the attack dogs of any political interest or philosophy. 
     “I accept this award tonight on behalf of my colleagues of the New York Times, and as a reminder of the obligation that all serious journalists share to be good stewards of our irreplaceable professional heritage. Your award says tonight, says to me that you think we had a good newspaper last year. We’re gonna try to make it better in 2003.”

     Just not any less biased.

     The National Press Foundation's Web site: http://www.nationalpress.org

     Raines made his remarks minutes after ABC's Cokie Roberts finished admonishing her journalist colleagues for not being willing to say “we” are at war. As detailed in the February 21 CyberAlert, Roberts revealed she's “never understood” the argument against using “the first person plural when talking about 'our country.'” She contended: “It's 'our' country. And yes it's 'we' in the United States of America. I don't get that argument. And it will be 'our' soldiers who go to war.” That would appear to conflict with Jennings and the reasoning behind ABC's anti-lapel flag pin policy. For more:
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030221.asp#2

A New Book on How Media Were “Useful Idiots” During Cold War

     A new book packed with examples of how journalists undermined the Cold War and claimed the onslaught of capitalism actually made those living under communism worse off. It's all in a just-published book by Mona Charen, Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First.

     I attended a party on Saturday night at the home of Bob Bork Jr. to celebrate the book's publication by Regnery and learned that it will debut next week at #6 on the New York Times' “Best Seller” list.

     Two of Charen's chapters focus on the media and she drew heavily from the MRC's archive of quotes from the 1989-1992 period, so it's great to see some of our classic bias getting a fresh airing before a new audience.

     And in the acknowledgments, on page 288, you'll see my name as amongst those who “shared their encyclopedic knowledge.”

     At the end of last year, Charen served as a judge in the MRC's selection of the Best Notable Quotables of 2002: The 15th Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting.

     Regnery's plug for the book, in part:

Jane Fonda, Dan Rather, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, and all the other liberals who were -- and are -- always willing to blame America first and defend its enemies as simply “misunderstood.” These are the liberals who flocked to Castro’s Cuba and called it paradise, just as a previous generation of liberals visited the Soviet Union and proclaimed its glorious future. They are the liberals who saw Communist Vietnam and Cambodia -- in fact, Communism everywhere -- as generally a beneficial force, and blamed America as a gross, blind, and blundering giant.

Now that the Cold War has been won, these liberals, amazingly, are proud to claim credit for the victory -- conveniently forgetting their apologies for the Communists and their spluttering attacks on Cold Warriors like Ronald Reagan.

But nationally syndicated columnist Mona Charen isn’t about to let them rewrite history.

In her shocking new book, Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First, she exposes:

....Media figures who clucked with praise for Communists and smirked with snide disdain for America -- including Bill Moyers, Phil Donahue, Bryant Gumbel, and Katie Couric....

     END of Excerpt

     For the Regnery page on the book:
http://www.regnery.com/regnery/030214_useful.html

     To order from the Conservative Book Service:
http://www.conservativebookservice.com/bookpage.asp?prod_cd=C6143

     For a picture of the book's cover, with photos of Katie Couric and Peter Jennings as representative of the news media:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0895261391.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

     To order the book from Amazon.com: 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895261391/qid%3D1046070133/sr%3D11-1/ref%
3Dsr%5F11%5F1/104-2019431-4198354

     Or from Barnes & Noble:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=6VL0PYKQTL&isbn=
0895261391&itm=1

“Top Ten Ways Dumb Guys Are Preparing for a Terrorist Attack”

     From the February 20 Late Show with David Letterman, the “Top Ten Ways Dumb Guys Are Preparing for a Terrorist Attack.” Late Show Web site: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/

10. Wearing special "anti-terror" hat 24/7

9. Adding seat belts to dining room chairs

8. Wearing same cologne as Tom Ridge

7. Building a tolerance to radiation by standing in front of the microwave

6. Interrogating pets

5. Watching a lot of them "Lethal Weapon" movies

4. Stocking up on Tums

3. Just to be safe, getting vaccinated for small and large pox

2. Creating elaborate color-code systems to alert citizens to threat levels

1. Taping a duck

     As opposed to duct taping. -- Brent Baker