The WaPo’s Ombudsman opines on Panthergate
As for “limited staffing,” the average issue of the Washington Post, like almost every other newspaper, is filled with so much dross it’s impossible to take that excuse even faintly seriously. I’d like to see Merida say that one with a straight face.
No, we don’t need a ombudsman to tell us what was going on here. The Washington Post was following its narrative just as the Washington Times follows its narrative. Nothing more complicated than that, alas. And what we would expect.
Nevertheless, newspapers want to make us think they are unbiased by the use of these ombudsmen. But shouldn’t editors like Merida be answering these questions for themselves, not through a filter? He certainly has one very famous quite recent example, if he’s interested — Steve Jobs. Just the other day, as uncomfortable as it obviously was for him, the Apple chief was out front and center responding to problems with the iPhone 4. No such luck with the Washington Post.
But perhaps I am just a sorehead. There was no mention by Alexander of PJ Media, where DOJ whistleblower J. Christian Adams has written most of his comments about his former employer. There was only some vague reference to right-wing blogs. Is that all we are? I would compare the vitae of many of the writers here at PJM quite favorably with the best at the Washington Post, but, hey, I’m biased. I’m the CEO.
The Washington Post does not need extra staffing to print the comments J. Christian Adams has written here. Maybe they only have room for AP stories.
It’s not that at all…since PJM writers didn’t go to journalism school (but then neither did Randolph Hurst or Ben Franklyn) they aren’t real journalist (or on JournoList), ergo sum, they can’t be used as sources for information as PJM isn’t a legitimate source of news.
The friendly Latin teacher just wants to point out that the Latin word ‘ergo’ means ‘therefore, and so’ all by itself. You don’t want to say ‘ergo sum,’ which means ‘therefore, I am,’ as in Descartes’ famous statement, ‘cogito, ergo sum’ (I think, therefore I am).
The WaPo was clearly hoping that by keeping the story quiet, it would just go away.
They haven’t quiet caught on to the fact that they no longer have a monopoly on widespread media coverage, and that causes them to make mistakes.
Huh? What news could be more “significant” than that the US Department of Justice is biased — or should I say just plain racially prejudiced — in its treatment of voting rights?
To answer this question would be an unqualified acceptance that people of such low cognitive abilities should be paid attention to.
Ghost, you said in the comments on the PJM article entitled “Former DOJ Colleagues Confirm Whistleblower Adams’ Accusations” that you, and I quote directly, “don’t care one way or the other about this issue.” It’s in your comment replying to comment #26, dated July 16, 2010 – 2:11 pm, first paragraph, second sentence, if you need to look it up again.
And yet here you are again, wasting time, bandwidth, and electronic “ink” talking about this issue that you “don’t care one way or the other about.”
Methinks thou dost protest too much. Go put another sock on your hand and try again.
It’s difficult to believe that you’re this dim-witted. Do you care about baseball? No? Do you care if someone hits a baseball through your window? Noticing the fact of your rending your garments and screaming at the top of your voice doesn’t mean I like when you do that, it means that your incessant chatter of this issue, focused through the cheesy megaphones of your movement—Drudge, Fat-Drug Addict, Nazi Obsessed Psychotic Beck—has made everyone have to pay attention to your tantrum, including the Ombudsman. Mommies don’t like it when their kids soil themselves, and erupt into a shrieking tantrum, but mommies still have to change the panties of their incontinent children. So, in answer to your question…do I care that after a hundred years of white people legally and extra-legally preventing non-white people from voting, ONE case of it going the other way may have slipped through the gates? No. I really don’t. When you can come up with three such events, perhaps in the next fifty years, get back to me and I’ll change your diapers for you. Do I care that your intolerable, petulant sobbing of this issue takes attention away from the already impossible to solve problems facing our nation. Yes, I care about that. Because I care about my country and the people that live in it, even idiots like you on which the vote is not only wasted on, but made into a liability by.
Actually, yes, I do care about baseball.
And your analogy is so erroneous that it cannot even be termed “wrong.”
You’ve proven my point brilliantly, by the way. You have conclusively proven that you lied when you stated that you don’t care one way or the other about this issue.
In short, you’ve proven that you’re just another lefty troll, probably one of the two or three that seem to infest PJM, just using a different sock on your hand. This one’s reached the end of it’s usefulness. Time to change socks. Try a nice argyle this time.
Well, you are certainly a devoted follower of the creed, Mr. Ghost… with bold face, no less, in case we in the great unwashed overlook your ex cathedra pronouncements. A bit of insecurity, perhaps? Now I understand why Mr. Simon likes to call modern liberals reactionaries.
I would point out to you, however, that although you think this case is a one-off, many others find it an example of the larger behavior of this Justice Department. Perhaps you are unaware that Holder et al have refused to use any Islamic reference (Islamism, Islamofascism, etc.) when referring to recent cases of terrorism (Times Square, Ft. Hood, as two salient examples) on our shores when their perpetrators themselves have publicly identified with jihad. Some would see that as all of a piece with a DOJ that will not prosecute Black Panthers brandishing batons in front of polling places.
You obviously have no problem. Well, keep on truckin’, ol’ chap.
If you truly cared for the country and the people, you would want the laws to be enforced fairly. Instead, because you have no problem with laws being applied according to skin color, you have made yourself a racist, indistinguishable from those who have advocated this in the past. Put simply, you lack principle.
I’m sure you think your response to Wanderer was a skillfully crafted put-down but in fact it’s just an adolescent, dismissive screed that relies primarily on trite name-calling to deflect the issue. (NAZI. Please spare us. You must be able to do better than that.) Weak arguments rely on harsh words.
As to your writing, please take time to review your work before you unveil it. Reading it to the 6 cats in your apartment without objection does not count. If your posts were written a little more clearly, we could dismiss them more quickly
I’m not a lawyer, but I seem to remember an old lawyer’s adage that says something like, “When the law is on your side, argue the law. When the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When neither is on your side, pound the table.”
Our troll here whose latest sock is named Gould’s Ghost is pounding the table as hard as he/she/it possibly can because neither the law nor the facts are on his/her/its side.
Now that’s a self-reflective comment if I have ever seen one.
Back during Campaign 2008, both the Washington Post and the New York Times cited “reports” from the Huffington Post (and Daily Kos IIRC) as evidence that crowds at McCain/Palin rallies shouted “kill him” and “kill the ni**er” at the mention of then-candidate Barack Obama’s name — specifically, around the time Sarah Palin said that Obama was “pallin’ around with terrorists.”
Clearly, the WaPo considers the Huffington Post (and Daily Kos — again, IIRC) to be a reliable source of news reporting. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Around 2004-05, the CNN website used to offer a blogroll-style link to the Daily Kos — thereby implying that Kos was as legitimate as other CNN-linked websites, such as the BBC, Reuters and the AP (on second thought, Kos may not actually be all that different from the BBC, Reuters & AP). And although it’s mere anecdotal evidence, it’s been my experience that an awful lot of young journos (and liberals in general) treat the HuffPo as a reputable, down-the-middle, mainstream publication. If it has a liberal bent, it’s only because the HuffPo isn’t afraid to tell the “truth,” or “speak truth to power,” etc.
By contrast, most people in the mainstream media automatically dismiss every center-right web publication — from Instapundit to Powerline Blog to National Review — as nothing more than “right wing” propaganda/agitprop. Remember, the mainstream media was verrry reluctant to confer legitimacy on Free Republic’s, Power Line Blog’s and LGF’s debunking of then-CBS anchor Dan Rather’s Bush-AWOL documents in 2004 because the debunking was done entirely by “right wing” websites. But today, the Huffington Post — and to a lesser degree, the Daily Kos — are seen as perfectly legitimate sources of New Media news “reporting.”
That’s just how the playing field is contoured.
You failed to mention the Drudge Report as a member of the Right Wing debunkers of the AWOL story.
IIRC, it was mention of people sitting in front of computers with their thinking caps on, still wearing pajamas during that time, (intended as an insult), that gave this site it’s name.
It seems to me that an argument can be made that in the face of the stated DOJ policy not to pursue black racism towards white, Mr. Farrakhan feels free to write an extortionist letter to America’s Jews demanding protection money, in the certainty that no one in the White House or the Department of Justice will lift a finger to enforce that law about matters such as blackmail, extortion, or death threats if they are made by a black person (or a Muslim).
I wonder what sort of a letter the Washington Post’s editors would have to receive before they think it’s important that the American Department of Justice take up and pursue these cases on a fair basis.
And that’s not even counting the election fraud that took place to put That Person in the White House, including illegal and uncountable donations from overseas.
An ombudsman at a leftist rag is like a crooked Internal Affairs department at a crooked police department. (or justice department, I suppose)
There job is to make up any excuse, alibi, outright lie…that will get any objective readers they have remaining, to not laugh out loud at their sanctimonious posturing about being objective and willing to present all the facts, no matter where they lead.
And we can forget the merde from Kevin or elsewhere…that for several months they couldn’t expend the manpower to report on intentional racism in our Department of Justice.
Isn’t it coincidental that NOBODY in the ENTIRE entrenched media, with its own peculiar notions about “truthiness” and “wrong facts, right narrative” mentality…all had the SAME power outage at the exact same time. I guess this failure of a recovery is hurting the abject liar workplace as much as it is the rest of us.
They just as “coincidentally” all missed the global warming, East Anglia email fiasco. They all missed the Al Gore sweaty poodle thing, the John Edwards love child thing, ….it’s just astronomically gobsmacking how EVERY news item that hurts leftist Democrats has this exact same coincidence. And NONE of the one’s of their opponents suffers from this manpower outage.
Ombudsman…french for BS artist.
I wonder how many people actually read the WaPo anymore. Certainly, the opinion leaders of today are more likely to folly Instapundit and Pajamas Media, and the Huffington Post (it chokes me to mention the last, but anyway)… how relevant is the WaPo anymore?? Or the NYT?
In terms of defining any one day’s news, it has to be the DrudgeReport.
Actually, here inside the beltway, it is exceedingly influential. The American educated elite that live and work directly or indirectly on national policy rely on it for their news. With the center of national political and bureaucratic power centered in DC, and growing all the more so by the week, these elite run our world despite their being a minority of the population. Unfortunately, what a country’s best and brightest think and value determines the success, or lack thereof, of a people.
Marsouin is right on this. And it’s not just inside the beltway types who rely on NYT and WaPo, the international press does too. What people think of America and its policies is formed by foreign reporters still enthralled by Woodward and Bernstein. Issues raised by PJM, NRO, or even City Journal are treated as fringe, obstructionist Republican tactics.
I wonder if the disconnect between the political elite and the public can be partly explained by the fact that the elites mostly get their news from the WaPo and NYT.
Objectivity in journalism is an ideal that journalists used to try to get as close to as possible, rather than just repeating to each other knowingly that it was impossible for journalism to be objective. However, just because an ideal may be impossible to realize exactly does not mean that it is not worth trying for. Consider another ideal that others — in this case parents — often have to approach as closely as possible while knowing that it is impossible: exactly equal sized servings of desert for their children. Imagine telling Johnny, who has obviously received a bowl of ice cream half the size of his sister Mary’s: “Well Johnny, it’s impossible to get the two servings exactly the same size, so just be glad for what you got.” If Johnny has any spirit at all, the ice-cream server who tells him that will get a bowl of ice-cream in the face! There is, of course, a classic procedural solution to the ice cream problem — have one child dish both bowls and the other child choose first which of the two to get. A little thought shows that there is also a procedural solution that would allow us to get a lot closer to creating objective journalism. Hire a group of editors representing all the points of view you wish to treat equally, and give each of them equal editorial control over the output of the journalist assigned to the oh-so-impossible task of creating an objective work of journalism. The article written by that journalist has to get the approval of all of the editors before it is published (and it has to be published by the deadline) or else neither the journalist nor any of the editors gets paid for that day’s work. I guarantee that after a few months of this system the journalist — no matter what his political views — will have become quite adept at putting on his “objectivity” cap and creating copy that all his editors will approve the first time through. The results will be eye-opening to all those who unthinkingly pontificate on how impossible it is to produce objective journalism. The journalism produced by this process may be a bit bland, but readers may find it refreshing and relaxing to read news stories without forever and always being on the lookout for tendentious reporting and important facts omitted to satisfy hidden agendas. For something exciting and enthralling, designed to make blood boil or to tell those bastards where to get off, you can go to the editorial page (or its modern blog equivalent).
I am far more concerned with the railroaded locked up innocent: Sholom Rubashkin.
They are coming for Jews…pogrom style…better wake up!
His attorney’s comments should shake you to the core…no bail because you are a Jew; 90 year old law used for first time in 90 years: felony conviction: did not pay a creditor a bill in one day! His former US attorney/prosecutor that is now a/his defence attorney not allowed to present/debrief…as he sees fit!
Rubashkin Lawyer Speaks At Agudah Dinner Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RTqlDGhpOk&feature=related
part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhuDowobSgo&feature=related
Liberals rags have an agenda, conervative ones do too. Big frickin’ deal, we all know– correct, who needs an ombudsman at a paper except to “handle” angry people?
The liberals are open about not doing as their voters so desire. Their only agenda/loyalty is their ideology.
I am quite tired of my govt. forcing me to do things & pay for items i object too. My only choice is going to prison or be put on one of their secret lists.
There’s a new book out that I think every must read cause it’s about a hometown in America where citizens finally stand up to federal tyranny & ends up starting the 2nd American Revolution. Hey, the same issues are there again (tyranny, high taxes, continual foreign wars, etc.).
It’s powerful & could be our hometown one day. I recommend it.
http://www.booksbyoliver.com
Wasn’t it the New York Times who used the same excuse(short of staff)for not covering the Acorn scandal?The MSM is just an unoffical house organ of the DNC.
One of the defining features of old media is their pomposity and nobody working for an old-line news outlet (like the WaPo) is more pompous than their “ombudsman.” Usually these guys are wheeled out to make sonorous excuses after the rag has been caught, shall we say, embroidering the truth or failing to meet those “high standards” that the journalism bores are always gassing on about.
Of course they always give their employer a clean bill of health while taking a swipe at the “low journalistic standards” of the new media. Our local paper has one of these stiffs and he writes a weekly column on media affairs that is totally unreadable. The New Black Panther case is major story that folks like those at the WaPo just wish would go away. However it hasn’t. So out comes the ombudsman to opine that they were really doing their job when they wern’t doing their job. Of course they interpret their job as defending to the last ditch everything the Prez and his minions do so this can be a tricky task.
If you can understand the meaning of “faithful traitor”, you are qualified to define the word “ombudsman”. But let’s not sour on the ombudsmen unnecessarily: they are still preferable to a government agent in charge of arbitrating what is objective and what is not.
The job title “ombudsman” is of Scandinavian origin and means “representative” or “mediator.” Basically, the complaint department. The job exists because people in a heirarchy understandably want to serve their bosses in particular rather than serve the organization’s constituents in general. The readers of the Wash Post aren’t going to conduct any reporter or editor’s annual review. What they will do is decide whether or not to renew their subscriptions, which 12% fewer of them did last year.
At best, an ombudsman can alert the organization to sources of dissatisfaction among its constituents. At worst, the ombudsman is a shill. The difference is how seriously the executives take the ombudsman. If the Wash Post ombudsman says publically that the paper should give greater coverage to the Department of Justice’s spiking of the New Black Panther Party cases but his comments have no effect all, just a journalistic form letter, the paper will never know how many readers its political bias has driven away.
I love Roger Simon. I think he is a hero for bringing light to issues that otherwise are intentionally buried, distorted, or outright fabricated by the cretins in major news organizations who pretend an honor they do not possess. (and all the other founders and contributors here at PJM and across the blogosphere)
I think the world of Roger and agree with him on almost every issue.
Except this one.
It is NOT ok for a news organization to intentionally mislead the American people (and/or the world ABOUT the American people). It is NOT ok to slander Israel. It is NOT ok to fuel racial disharmony or foment class warfare. It is NOT ok to give away state secrets so that an enemy of state gains a tactical advantage. It is NOT ok to prop up enemies of state or to commit other acts of treason and traitorism.
It is NOT ok just because you have a political bent to fail to vet one candidate completely and to instead dig into the private lives of a candidate’s children or spouse for innuendo, rumor…and then report those as truth or fact.
It is NOT ok to become an arm of one political party, producing reams of political propaganda in the guise of the “facts on the ground” necessary for us to self-govern this land of ours.
It is NOT ok to engage as silent coconspirators in worldwide schemes to “redistribute” money from the pockets of some of our citizens…into the hands of “more deserving others” elsewhere…by being shills for the long con and intentionally crushing any investigation or unveiling of the plot.
Our self-governance is not a church or charity. It is not designed to operate as either. This disappoints leftists, who, with missionary zeal not only try to morph us into such…they plot, scheme and conspire to effectuate it without our knowledge, consent or approval.
“Forced charity” at the tip of a bayonet, ripping earned coins from the purses of some into the pockets of the favored few is nothing more than laundered larceny…theft with a pretty bow tied around it.
If we stop adhering to the notion that the truth matters. That honor matters. That there exists a difference between giving our countrymen the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…and THEN trying to convince them that our way of thinking about those facts is the correct one…AND…simply butchering the truth and feeding our countrymen what is deemed “enough” truth to come to a premasticated belief about it…then we are lost as a nation.
Then the Code of Ethics in journalism is a cosmic joke and needs to be taken out with the morning trash.
If truth and honor no longer matter we cannot self-govern as a collective, we are simply so amoral that every fact has its own truth…we are lost as a nation.
And the words in the link below are a sham.
http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
It’s almost like a comedy routine at this point. The press pretends it doesn’t know about an issue when all they have to do is visit a site like Drudge once a day and learn all they need to know about the stories they’re pretending to miss.
Then, they stall. Finally, they cover it with the best liberal spin possible and make up pathetic excuses for their actions (not enough reporters … thanks, folks, I’ll be here all week … please tip your waitresses).
One nagging question continues … aren’t their any editors with guts out there to call out their peers? Even a liberal editor who would vote for Obama again in a heartbeat but cares about integrity and can’t stand how the press operates? Or is the system so closed at this point that such actions would be career suicide?
One nagging question continues … aren’t their any editors with guts out there to call out their peers?
Editors’ guts are located right next to their integrity. It’s probably best not to waste a lot of time looking for either.
PJTV – Media has put out more intelligent and humorous and talented news and information than anyone else except maybe Fox News different hosts. Maybe they are becoming equal. Either way, the Newspapers have shown so much bias that real news does not even get in. How many of the voters would have voted for Obama had they known the real truth and depth of his association and interaction with William Ayers (domestic terrorist, murderer, flag stomper, and self avowed) (and getting money from Annenberg and us to teach our kids)-How many of the voters would have voted for him, had they known the types of things really said by Farrahkan and many other groups related to him, not to mention Rev. Wrong’ – PJTV and Fox and many of the now groups giving information don’t get the press the very blind and very biased media enjoy. I hope that changes! That would be Change I could swallow!
Gammy Sparkles here!
And the news print industry wonders why their subscription base is shrinking.
Non-reporting, under reporting, and totally ignoring news items, duplicate reporting on different days, etc.,etc.
Mr. Simon:
“Meanwhile, the Post’s own defense of its behavior in Alexander’s piece is laughable: National Editor Kevin Merida, who termed the controversy “significant,” said he wished The Post had written about it sooner. The delay was a result of limited staffing and a heavy volume of other news on the Justice Department beat, he said.”
Hmmm, yes…quite.
Perfectly understandable that the Pest was so busy that they took twenty months to finally inform the chumps who pay to read it about the New Black Panther Party’s foray into federal elections…especially seeing as the video of the event was secreted away on YouTube and all.
And yet they seemed to be all over the non-story of the alleged racist-based attacks on Speaker Pelosi’s little Congressional “Minstrel Show March” of African-American Congressmen through an anti-Health Care “Reform” demonstration, were they not?
Here’s one article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/20/AR2010032002556.html
And here’s Courtland Milloy in one of his patented “sulks”:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/23/AR2010032304018.html
And all the while Mr. Breitbart has $100,000 just gathering dust waiting for verifiable proof of the allegation that was so breathlessly reported in the propaganda ministry’s organs.
I think “organs” is the right word, since it’s pretty clear who they are taking their editorial policy from:
http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/25/tea-party-bigotry-parade
And of course, the sad understaffing that led to one of the nation’s “newspapers of record”,(so-called),utterly ignoring the most egregious race-based voter intinmidation case in my lifetime simply supports the assertion by Columbia University’s President Bollinger that the Federal government needs to subsidize newspapers.
So that we can all pay for more staff who won’t bother to collect, and editors who won’t deign to print, the news that the publisher doesn’t want us to know.
I have my own way of dealing with the Post.
All it takes is a buck to get into the vending machine, and then you can take as many newspapers as your heart desires…
The Washington Post Ombudsman story is your last branch to grasp before being sucked into the quick sand of this incredibly irrelevant issue.
— Abigail Thernstrom is the author, most recently, of Voting Rights — and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections. She is an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Forget about the New Black Panther Party case; it is very small potatoes. Perhaps the Panthers should have been prosecuted under section 11 (b) of the Voting Rights Act for their actions of November 2008, but the legal standards that must be met to prove voter intimidation — the charge — are very high.
In the 45 years since the act was passed, there have been a total of three successful prosecutions. The incident involved only two Panthers at a single majority-black precinct in Philadelphia. So far — after months of hearings, testimony and investigation — no one has produced actual evidence that any voters were too scared to cast their ballots. Too much overheated rhetoric filled with insinuations and unsubstantiated charges has been devoted to this case.
A number of conservatives have charged that the Philadelphia Black Panther decision demonstrates that attorneys in the Civil Rights Division have racial double standards. How many attorneys in what positions? A pervasive culture that affected the handling of this case? No direct quotations or other evidence substantiate the charge.
Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, makes a perfectly plausible argument: Different lawyers read this barely litigated statutory provision differently. It happens all the time, especially when administrations change in the middle of litigation. Democrats and Republicans seldom agree on how best to enforce civil-rights statutes; this is not the first instance of a war between Left and Right within the Civil Rights Division.
The two Panthers have been described as “armed” — which suggests guns. One of them was carrying a billy club, and it is alleged that his repeated slapping of the club against his palm constituted brandishing it in a menacing way. They have also been described as wearing “jackboots,” but the boots were no different from a pair my husband owns.
A disaffected former Justice Department attorney has written: “We had indications that polling-place thugs were deployed elsewhere.” “Indications”? Again, evidence has yet to be offered.
Get a grip, folks. The New Black Panther Party is a lunatic fringe group that is clearly into racial theater of minor importance. It may dream of a large-scale effort to suppress voting — like the Socialist Workers Party dreams of a national campaign to demonstrate its position as the vanguard of the proletariat. But the Panthers have not realized their dream even on a small scale. This case is a one-off.
There are plenty of grounds on which to sharply criticize the attorney general — his handling of terrorism questions, just for starters — but this particular overblown attack threatens to undermine the credibility of his conservative critics. …The New Black Panther Party incident bears no resemblance to voter intimidation in the Jim Crow South. The DOJ’s decision to drop the case may have been wrong; so far, we have no hard evidence that can definitely settle the question. But we do know that, in 2008, it was a unique case. And there are much more important questions involving voting-rights enforcement upon which to focus.
Gould’s Ghost write on July 16 @ 2:11 p.m.: Former DOJ Colleagues Confirm Whistleblower Adams’ Accusations:
I’ve already explained that I don’t care one way or the other about this issue
If you don’t care about this issue, why are you writing so much about it?
Writing so much about something you don’t care about doesn’t sound very rational, unless you are being paid to do it and would rather be doing something else. Of course, this is only speculation. Please inform us. Why do you write so much about something you don’t care about?
I DON’T CARE
I DON’T CARE
I DON’T CARE!!!!
I don’t know if you have a point to your posts, but this phrase:
“Get a grip, folks. The New Black Panther Party is a lunatic fringe group that is clearly into racial theater of minor importance”
rather beggars the question of why the Alleged Hawaiian’s Odministration refused to use the NBPP for a bit of political theater of their own.
Very visibly and ostenatiously putting the DoJ’s boot up their keesters.
Would have played big in Peoria.
An excellent question, that.
One really has to wonder just how many “Sistah Souljah” opportunities come along for a DemocRat Administration.
And unlike the original Sistah Souljah, the New Black Panther Party has absolutely no discernible redeeming qualities to them whatsoever.
(I understand that they can’t rhyme and rap for squat).
One would think that a “crack political machine” as the Alleged Hawaiian is alleged to possess would fall on its knees and thank its dark and grim Political Gods for such a tailor-made set of hobgoblins and bogeymen as a the NBPP to smite at mightily and thereby perhaps earn the undying gratitude of all those “typical white person” voters out in the hinterlands.
How long has the Kennedys,(and especially the detestable LBJ), “eaten historical lunch” over a few years of chasing berobed Klu Klux Klansmen through the Piney Woods of the Deep, deep South in the early and mid 1960′s?
The Puddin’head Of The United States done passed up a golden opportunity to make his bones off these evil clowns…and now the whole mess done come around full circle and crawled right up his own yazoo to fester and die.
Serves him right.
Working in the Beltway I see but a few reading the WaPo on the train. WSJ, Washington Examiner are the more prevalent amongst professionals. JMO.
It seems to me that an argument can be made that in the face of the stated DOJ policy not to pursue black racism towards white, Mr. Farrakhan feels free to write an extortionist letter to America’s Jews demanding protection money, in the certainty that no one in the White House or the Department of Justice will lift a finger to enforce that law about matters such as blackmail, extortion, or death threats if they are made by a black person (or a Muslim).
The important thing is what’s covered and what isn’t. Giving play to the rantings of the anti-Semetic leader of a small fringe group (which is what Farrakhan is), while ignoring the government ditching (on racial grounds) a Civil Rights case they had already won, says volumes about the biases of the media. It also speaks to what level of trust the public should place in the media – and the government.
“They are written by humans, a uniformly biased group, whether they admit it to themselves or not, for whom objectivity is almost impossible”
This premise grants the Left everything it needs. It is the one basic idea – drawn chiefly from Kant – that is fundamentally responsible for every single political and ethical problem in the United States today.
If objectivity is impossible, then no individual or group can rationally claim to have any better (or worse) beliefs than any other and all of society becomes nothing more than a war of subjective wishes.
Jeff Parren,
A war of subjective wishes indeed.
The only premise then is to pursue a median, an accord to meet in the middle on matters that effect the populous.
Unfortunately, ‘majority rules’ in political party numbers have proven to be a form of thuggery for sometime.
The majority exercising impunity, indifference to their colleagues. In many instances their constituents as well.
What’s left in their wake is a smug, detatched aristocracy.
I agree with Gould’s Ghost. This is a very small issue. Mr. Simon is straining to have a really big scoop. Be serious. None of these alleged Black Panther thugs will ever get any real power. Please move on to some serious problems.
If it’s such a small issue, why waste time commenting on it?
You know how us Neanderthal Conservatives demonstrate that something is a small issue? We ignore it. Try it sometime, you might like it.
Oh, the new “moderate” sock on your hand is so much better than the “ghostly” white one. Very… moderate choice. -LOL-
Nothing of importance, nothing to see here, move along.
DO NOT PAY ATTENTION
DO NOT PAY ATTENTION
DO NOT PAY ATTENTION
Roger,
Love Suzanne correcting Latin usage. Makes me flashback to a triage of wounded and putting the ones with M-1 thumbs at the head of the receiving line. Suzanne, honey, we’re way beyond worrying about a declension foul up, a misused verb, gerund confusion or even a Dickens’over cooked potato. The Rubicon it be crossed.
Which, you Roger, remind me of about once a week.
The mainstream media is upstream without a paddle, not because they lost it. Because they threw it away. The Constitution gave them protections and they’ve decided to,in turn, protect the Marxist miscreants in U.S. elected office. Whether the faint of heart would rather call them left wing progressives doesn’t matter a whit to Rachel. What matters is that they’ve (the press, the Obama clan, you name it), declared war on little incidental yet attractive accessories of freedom, everything from the right to vote, to protect our borders, free enterprise, to a free press.
Mouseketeers, don’t look now, but the Obama administration, the attorney general, the justice department ad infinitum have identified the first ten amendments to be targets of opportunity. They have the equivalent of 50 caliber machine guns mowing down every vistage of Americanism and freedom they see. The people of Arizona are in their sights like the USS Arizona was in the sights of Japanese dive bombers on seven December.
Roger Simon, I applaud you for having the energy and intestinal fortitude to seriously take the work of the Washington Post Ombudsman (is that a Latin word?) seriously, but to lil’ ole blond haired blued eyed Rachel, it’s a bit like asking the forward elements of the U.S. 106th Division on December 18,1944 from their positions along the front line between Echternach and just south of Konschau in Belgium why they haven’t been reporting to VIII Corps, G-2.
America, we are under attack and no Washington Post Ombudsman is going to save us. Free market capitalism is under heavy bombardment. Our voting rights are in shambles. Our Constitution is on its way to the paper shredder. Our nation’s finances have been booby trapped by bankrupt policies and processes. Terrorists are being afforded Miranda rights. Obama’s henchmen are making taxpayers throw money at lawyers for Muslim Extremist Savages to defend them under civilian law when money should be spent on more effective ways to kill them over a minimum of time. In other words, boys and girls, freedom is under siege. It’s the equivalent of September 1, 1939, and you’re Poland. How many different ways are there to say it? Your government is gunning for you.
Rachel’s advice.
Worry less about. Be Worry warts about keeping freedom alive, and preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution. President Barack Obama has declared war on America. The pen may be once have been mightier than the sword. But, I guess, times have changed. If freedom is gonna die, America, it might as well be inland. Time to get off the beach.
As my friend Frank Loesser was wont to say: “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”
The media can’t get enough of Mel Gibson. They are airing his rants 24/7. But when it comes to the Panthers, they are uncurious basterds.
I beg leave to disagree.
They are not uncurious.
Should cops and prosecutors be biased? Must they be? Should a detective only gather information about a case that fits the prosecutors needs, thereby telling the defense/defendant to pound sand , to gather their own evidence?
Yes, the analogy is not an exact fit, but the premises do. If they are advocates and not journalists, they lose a lot of the “press” protections of the First Amendment, including protecting their sources, and favored status in civil or criminal cases.
They can’t have it both ways.