Politico's idea of news: John McCain, Twitter genius. Because it's pure genius to tweet stuff like this:

But they don't stop there.

But it’s not just McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, who’s the GOP standard-bearer for social media. In a social media game mastered by the campaign of Barack Obama, the study found Republicans have “struck back,” with GOP senators averaging more than 5.5 IQ points higher than their Democratic counterparts.

Of the seven senators who scored “genius” social media rankings, four were Republicans: McCain — the top tweeter, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and John Cornyn of Texas.

DeMint is a tea party force, and Brown rode significant grass-roots tea party support to upset Martha Coakley for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat last winter. Cornyn is the head of the Senate GOP campaign organization.

Wow. A Tea Party force. And a Twitter genius. Evidently the authors of the official academic study of Senators' Twitter use didn't take the gaming aspect into account when they came up with this study. Nor did they particularly care what the content was.

But hey -- props to the staffer behind the McCain account, who at least knows enough about trolling to get Politico's attention, eh? They don't really think John McCain tweets from his iPhone do they? He barely understands his Blackberry.

We've all seen the type. The standoffish, petulant misfit who doesn't really have any friends but wants to be in the center of everyone's group. When they don't get what they want they start playing gossip games and trying to turn one against the other.

Tucker Carlson is one of those. Eclipsed back in the day by Anderson Cooper on CNN, he moved on to MSNBC, where he didn't quite fit, and from there to Fox where he is comfortably nondescript and not particularly useful.

But Tucker is resourceful, cunning, cruel, and petty like most conservatives, so the idea of weaseling his way onto a private listserv where members thought they were speaking on a private email list in order to then publish those private emails selectively...well, that was too delicious for Tucker to resist. I'd call him the Hedda Hopper of the Internet age but that gives him too much stature.

Long story short: Tucker weasels his way onto a private listserv of journalists owned by Ezra Klein which, to everyone's shock and awe, has...liberal journalists on it. Oh, the horror, the awful, awful horror.

And then, I read his intellectually dishonest, lizard-scaly, creepy self-justification and just had to say it: This Daily Caller has no balls.

Tucker rushes to his own defense with this:

To be clear: We’re not contesting the right of anyone, journalist or not, to have political opinions. (I, for one, have made a pretty good living expressing mine.) What we object to is partisanship, which is by its nature dishonest, a species of intellectual corruption.

Errrrr...what part of being a senior fellow at Cato Institute isn't partisan, Tucker? Just sayin'. And no, it's not a species of intellectual corruption. Human beings are, by their nature, social and tend to gather in affinity groups where they share similar goals, outlooks, hopes and dreams. Partisanship is but one way of expressing that.

Again and again, we discovered members of Journolist working to coordinate talking points on behalf of Democratic politicians, principally Barack Obama. That is not journalism, and those who engage in it are not journalists. They should stop pretending to be. The news organizations they work for should stop pretending, too.

Why TUCKER, I'm so glad you looked in the mirror! You might have even seen your reflection if it weren't daylight and you weren't a slimy little vampire sucking notoriety off of ginned up blown out of proportion pronouncements. But hey, let's just see whether you actually measure up to your own standard.

• This interview with Ron Paul where you admitted you voted for him and "slobbered all over him"? You're right. It's partisan pretending, and shouldn't be considered journalism. (Pssss, Tucker. Ron Paul is a Republican. Partisan. Party. Republican.)
• How about admitting that liberals like Barney Frank "fill you with hatred"? Partisan. Not journalism.
• On supporting the Iraq War before the flip-flop to not supporting, how about your defense of Karl Rove? Partisan. Not journalism.
• Or perhaps this slam against Al Gore in 2007 where you said if he were President we'd be living in yurts? Partisan. Not journalism.
• Bashing Hillary Clinton in 2006? Partisan. Not journalism.

I could go on, and on, and on. But you get the idea. And while we're on the topic of the corruption of journalism, perhaps it's worth pointing out that Tucker Carlson's petty two-bit "who can pee farther" contest with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann smacks of desperate penis ratings envy?

But this-- this might just frame Tucker Carlson's hypocrisy perfectly. From a Salon interview when he was pimping his book:

...even though we claim to withhold judgment until we know all the facts, but we don't, all the times. And our prisons are nAoot packed with innocent men, but there are some. And I think we all, especially those of us in the press, ought to remember that.

Unless, that is, your name is Tucker Carlson and you're a slimy weasel named Tucker Carlson who slithered onto a private email list and made a lot of weaselly Tucker Carlson promises about not flaming and then cherry-picked the email list to paint liberal journalists as incompetent partisans because your name is Tucker Carlson and you're a pathetic loser who couldn't figure out a REAL STORY. If that's who you are, then you're just pathetic.

Not innocent. Not a journalist. Not immune. Just pathetic.

Update: Oh, Jon Perr and BlueGal just sent me more reminders of how "non-partisan" Tuckie is. Among the invited guests to the Daily Caller's launch? None other than Scooter Libby. Scooter is Tuckie's special friend after he talked him up all over cable news during his trial while Tuckie's daddy was promoting and managing Scooter's Legal Defense Fund.

Yeah, nothing says nonpartisan quite like the whiff of Daddy's BigBuckBuddies in the Republican Party. Good going, Tuckie.

This whole episode screams "Why can't we have reasonable discussions about racial issues???" at me.

The answer is twofold: First, Andrew Breitbart is a dirty, lying SOB who thrives on waving his malodorous lies around on Fox News and the Internet. Second, the White House or USDA, depending upon which story you read, believed him.

Here's the story in short bites:

Shirley Sherrod was an employee of the USDA; specifically, the USDA Georgia director of rural development. In a speech to the Georgia chapter of the NAACP, she tells a story that appears to indicate she prefers to put black folks ahead of white folks.

Breitbart edits the video, puts it up, and the world goes mad. Sherrod is fired resigns, after being told pressure is coming from the White House to fire her.

Does this sound like the ACORN story? Via Salon:

Sherrod was speaking to a Georgia chapter of the NAACP. In the speech, according to Breitbart's characterization, Sherrod is explaining how she refused to help a white farmer as much as she could have because she preferred to help black people. Breitbart:

We are in possession of a video from in which Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia director of rural development, speaks at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia. In her meandering speech to what appears to be an all-black audience, this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.

The speech wasn't to an all-black audience (though the specter of black people revealing their contempt for whitey in closed-door meetings of fellow black people seems to drive a lot of conservatives into a paranoid frenzy), as the mayor of Douglas, Ga., was among the white attendees. And the story Sherrod told was about her work 24 years ago for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, not "her federal duties." So, that's a lie. Andrew Breitbart is lying in this paragraph. Just for the record. Andrew Breitbart lies.

If the White House or the USDA had bothered to actually look for facts, they might have discovered that Sherrod had ultimately befriended that white farmer she talked about, and helped the family save their farm.

The story Sherrod told was one of redemption, not prejudice. But Breitbart twisted it around into a story that never existed and the White House/USDA took the bait.

As the President so often says, "You're entitled to your opinions, but not your own facts." It might have been good for the folks in the White House to actually think about that before reacting to a lying liar scum like Andrew Breitbart.

Here is the UNEDITED video

As many may be aware, Dave Weigel, a reporter for the Washington Post, resigned after emails to a private listserv called Journolist were publicly released. These are the things he wrote which cost him his job:

•"This would be a vastly better world to live in if Matt Drudge decided to handle his emotional problems more responsibly, and set himself on fire."

•"Follow-up to one hell of a day: Apparently, the Washington Examiner thought it would be fun to write up an item about my dancing at the wedding of Megan McArdle and Peter Suderman. Said item included the name and job of my girlfriend, who was not even there -- nor in DC at all."

•"I'd politely encourage everyone to think twice about rewarding the Examiner with any traffic or links for a while. I know the temptation is high to follow up hot hot Byron York scoops, but please resist it."

•"It's all very amusing to me. Two hundred screaming Ron Paul fanatics couldn't get their man into the Fox News New Hampshire GOP debate, but Fox News is pumping around the clock to get Paultard Tea Party people on TV."

I've spent some time reading around the web, and the main criticism of Weigel seems to be that he wasn't impartial: not only didn't he like the right wing folks he was covering, he despised them.

This is exactly what is wrong with US journalism. The responsibility of reporters is not to be "impartial", their responsibility is to tell the truth. Should reporters have been unmoved by the fact that that Bush was torturing people? Should that not bother them as people? Should they be unmoved by the fact that Obama is still torturing people? Should they be unmoved by the fact that Bush sold a war based on lies, and millions of people were displaced, killed and injured as a result?

Is that we want? Sociopaths who have no personal opinions?

Continue reading »

h/t Bob Cesca

This is yet another in a long series of stunningly arrogant moves by BP:

When CBS tried to film a beach with heavy oil on the shore in South Pass, Louisiana, a boat of BP contractors, and two Coast Guard officers, told them to turn around, or be arrested.

"This is BP's rules, it's not ours," someone aboard the boat said. Coast Guard officials told CBS that they're looking into it.

As the Coast Guard is a branch of the Armed Forces, it brings into question how closely the government and BP are working together to keep details of the disaster in the dark.

Hold the phone...BP is making the rules???? Kind of hard to argue that we aren't a full-blown corporatocracy, when BP--that's British Petroleum--is leading the United States Coast Guard on this--and this is okay with a branch of our armed forces.

And note how far journalism has fallen that anchor Katie Couric doesn't even blink at that information. Later, CBS reported online that Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) demanded that BP provide live footage of the oil spill:

Earlier Wednesday, Markey demanded the broadcast so independent scientists could more accurately calculate the flow rate. He questioned why such data wasn't readily being made public.

"BP thinks it's their ocean," Markey said while chairing a House Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

Markey didn't stop with BP, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. He blasted the Coast Guard for what he described as letting BP call the shots.

Coast Guard officials were on a boat with BP contractors who stopped CBS News cameras from viewing an oily beach, and the Coast Guard - which is in charge of the investigation - admits it's had access to live video since Day One but wouldn't let Congress or the public see it, Attkisson reports.

Markey said there was "no excuse for withholding live video for 23 days."

There's no excuse for much of BP's actions, frankly, Congressman Markey. And it will be a test of the strength of our federal government to actually hold them accountable.

In early 2008, the Bush Justice Department subpoenaed New York Times reporter James Risen over his book, State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration. Now, just two weeks after taking action against an NSA whistle-blower who leaked information about contract corruption to the Baltimore Sun, the Obama DOJ is continuing its predecessor's push to compel Risen to divulge his confidential sources.

Risen and his Times' colleague Eric Lichtblau have long been targets of conservative ire for their December 2005 revelations about President Bush's regime of illicit domestic surveillance by the NSA. (While President Bush branded the article a "shameful act" that is "helping the enemy," Commentary editor Gabriel Schoenfeld hoped Risen and Lichtblau might be indicted, or at least, found "in contempt of court and even land them in prison.") But two years ago, the Justice Department subpoenaed Risen not for his NSA reporting, but revelations in a chapter of his 2006 book about the CIA's failed efforts to subvert the Iranian nuclear program.

Now, as the New York Times detailed, despite the Obama administration's professions of support for a new media-shield law, Attorney General Eric Holder is continuing President Bush's pursuit of Risen:

The Obama administration is seeking to compel a writer to testify about his confidential sources for a 2006 book about the Central Intelligence Agency, a rare step that was authorized by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

The author, James Risen, who is a reporter for The New York Times, received a subpoena on Monday requiring him to provide documents and to testify May 4 before a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., about his sources for a chapter of his book, "State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration." The chapter largely focuses on problems with a covert C.I.A. effort to disrupt alleged Iranian nuclear weapons research...

The Bush administration had sought Mr. Risen's cooperation in identifying his sources for the Iran chapter of his book, and it obtained an earlier subpoena against him in January 2008 under Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey. But Mr. Risen fought the subpoena, and never had to testify before it expired last summer. That left it up to Mr. Holder to decide whether to press forward with the matter by seeking a new subpoena.

In response, Risen's attorney Joel Kurtzberg said his client would fight the subpoena, declaring, "He intends to honor his commitment of confidentiality to his source or sources."

Having continued down the path of whistle-blower retribution, the question now for Holder is where it will end.

Continue reading »

Yep, I did a double take too.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has tapped a former top aide of his predecessor George W. Bush to a key post on a board overseeing government-sponsored international broadcasting.

Dana Perino, the first Republican woman to serve as White House press secretary, was appointed late Wednesday to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).

Created in 1994, the BBG oversees all of the US government's non-military international broadcasting outlets, including Voice of America, Alhurra television, Radio Sawa, TV Marti, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe. Read on...

Where to begin? I understand that President Obama campaigned on the idea of bipartisanship, but this is truly an insult. Forget that he is appointing an intellectual lightweight who ran cover for, and spread propaganda for the worst president in American history. Dana Perino stood before reporters and routinely lied to them and the world -- even defending the use of torture, calling it "effective, safe and legal."

And now President Obama believes that she has the integrity to hold a key position in an agency that oversees government-sponsored, international broadcasting?

Perino's appointment must be confirmed by the Senate, so it's not a done deal, but we have to make our voices heard. Contact your Senators and let them know your thoughts on the matter.

As Digby sez -- Perino is just a member of the club, playing the game.

Thomas Frank is, admittedly, the token liberal op-ed writer at The Wall Street Journal. And it's hard to say whether Murdoch's minions let this one slip through on purpose to lend credibility to the newspaper, or by accident:

To point out that this network [FOX News] is different, that it is intensely politicized, that it inhabits an alternate reality defined by an imaginary conflict between noble heartland patriots and devious liberals—to be aware of these things is not the act of a scheming dictatorial personality. It is the obvious conclusion drawn by anybody with eyes and ears.

The comment section had me splitting a gut laughing, especially this one:

Dr. Charles Krauthammer is a conservative respected on both the right and the left.

Far be it for me to speak for the right. But is there anyone on the Left who has "respect" for Charles Krauthammer? (Tweety doesn't count.)

Project Censored, a media research project operating out of Sonoma State University in California has spent several years looking at media accountability and how the freedom of the press aids democracy:

At Project Censored, we examine the coverage of news and information important to the maintenance of a healthy and functioning democracy. We define Modern Censorship as the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass media outlets. On a daily basis, censorship refers to the intentional non-inclusion of a news story – or piece of a news story – based on anything other than a desire to tell the truth. Such manipulation can take the form of political pressure (from government officials and powerful individuals), economic pressure (from advertisers and funders), and legal pressure (the threat of lawsuits from deep-pocket individuals, corporations, and institutions).

The latest edition of Project Censored is in and available on Amazon:

Here's this year's top 25 stories:

• 1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
• 2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
• 3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
• 4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
• 5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
• 6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
• 7. Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past
• 8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions
• 9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
• 10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
• 11. Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation of Palestine
• 12. Mysterious Death of Mike Connell—Karl Rove’s Election Thief
• 13. Katrina’s Hidden Race War
• 14. Congress Invested in Defense Contracts
• 15. World Bank’s Carbon Trade Fiasco
• 16. US Repression of Haiti Continues
• 17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan
• 18. Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature
• 19. Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor
• 20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates
• 21. Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare
• 22. Obama’s Trilateral Commission Team
• 23. Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud
• 24. Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion
• 25. Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon

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Horrible news:

North Korea found two U.S. journalists it has held since March guilty of illegal entry and sentenced them to 12 years hard labor, its official KCNA news agency said on Monday.

The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of U.S. media outlet Current TV, were arrested while working on a story near the border between North Korea and China. Their trial opened on Thursday.

"The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," KCNA said in a brief dispatch.

There just aren't words to express my anger and frustration for Lee and Ling. Al Gore, whose CurrentTV has remained curiously silent on Lee and Ling's plight, may go to Pyongyang to negotiate for their release:

The United States might send former US vice president Al Gore to Pyongyang in order to negotiate the release of two American journalists on trial in North Korea for illegal entry.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly did not rule out such a possibility when asked if it would make sense to send Gore, who is chairman of the California station Current TV, which employs the two journalists.

"It's a very, very sensitive issue, I'm not going to go into it," Kelly told reporters who pressed him on the matter.

"This is such a sensitive issue, I'm just not going to go into those kinds of discussions that we may or may not have had," he added when asked whether Gore himself had raised the matter with the State Department.

"The bottom line is that these two young women should be released but I'm not going to go into any kind of details on what we will or won't do," Kelly said when asked again if it would help to send Gore.

The Petition Site has a petition you can sign (and a Facebook group you can join) to ask the State Department to bring Lee and Ling home.