Ah your "librul" media at work.

Zappatero at SquareState.net noted this article at the Denver Post.

The Denver Post, while finding an astonishing fact about Big Oil Bob Schaffer, proceeds to muddy up the comparison between Schaffer the extremist and the eminently reasonable Mark Udall.

One analysis of Schaffer's three-term congressional record places him as the 14th most conservative out of more than 3,400 lawmakers to go to Washington since 1937. Udall, though less extreme, falls squarely within his party's liberal wing — and based on his votes is more liberal than Clinton and Obama.

Less extreme? Schaffer was ranked the 14th most conservative out of more than 3,400 lawmakers. Udall was ranked 509th, although that number doesn't show up in the article. 14th (R) = 509th (D). It's fair and balanced! And according to the Post article, both need to work on coming to the middle.

The Post continues to compare Apple Pie to Oranges:

Those voting records present significant problems for the early strategies of both campaigns, which depend on repositioning their candidates to appeal to the moderate and independent voters who most experts say will decide the race.

That would be ok if it was true. Unfortunately, for all of us Denver Post readers, and the candidates and the voters, it's not. Here are some stats on how voters now trust Democrats overwhelmingly on the issues

There's more...the update looks at the data and finds that if you look at the data for the current crop of politicians (the data used for the Post study goes back to 1932), the numbers become even more stark and surprise, surprise! Schaffer is on the far right extreme and Udall is basically right there in the middle as he claimed.

On the heels of Michael Barone's hour long interview and President Bush meeting more conservative columnists and talk show hosts, I'd like to ask the White House If I can interview President Bush for an hour too. Isn't there a slogan floating out there that says " fair and balanced?"

What do you say NSA? I understand that you're watching and listening so you probably know I'll be in DC soon. I just called the Press Office and got transferred around until they gave me a recorded message saying I need to fax in a request and please allow 2 weeks to process.

Greg Sargent has more on the interview from US News. Bush actually says that Iraq attacked us and only 25% of Americans want us out of the war. Our liberal press sure is doing a fine job of reporting on Bush's Conservative media blitz.

FAUX NEWS ALERT(not a real one)

John O’Neal, leader of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was just hired as a political analyst for Fox News.

Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO, Fox News Network, in a brief statement said today:

"We are ecstatic at hiring one of the bright new voices in the political world today. His reputation is outstanding and he brings a unique sense of honesty into the FNC stable of fair and balanced reporting."

An insider said they they may build a 30 minute show around Mr. O'Neal, where he will have an open forum to continually bash Senator John Kerry for the remainder of his life.

For now you can see John O'Neal weekly on the "Hannity and Colmes Show."

Blessed are the sneaky bastards TBogg

Sometime back we referred to Mel Gibson's theological snuff film as Crouching Jesus, Hidden Agenda. Now reader Ed (no, not that Ed, the other one) provides us with a link where handy tips are provided for slipping Jesus through the eye of a needle cracks:

If you are worried that your local schools are teaching children that religion has no place in the study of biology, please consider donating biology-related books, posters, CDs, and DVDs with religious content to your school. These materials can be given to public libraries, too, and even directly to science teachers who can keep them in the classroom as convenient reference sources. Students benefit greatly from being exposed to alternatives to the theory of evolution, which is the bias of most textbooks used these days.

These donations are completely legal, and provide a very good way to provide balance in the school without formally challenging the agenda of the mainstream curriculum.

[...]

"These donations can also be tax deductible, but are best made anonymously so that a connection is not easily made to the religious affiliations of the donor. Purchases made at Amazon.com can be sent directly to the school's librarian." (my emphasis)

Oh. And if you want to have some fun, there's a contest to rename Intelligent Design. Why? Here's why:

As you know, lately we have enjoyed increasing success in getting religious explanations of life reintroduced into public school curricula, and we believe our strategy of "repackaging" every 10 years has been a critical contributor to this success. In particular, it has allowed our members to appear more "fair and balanced" at school board meetings.

Because appearing to be "fair and balanced" is much more important than actually being "fair and balanced".

There must be something to all those rumors about FOX News being pretty slanted to the right after all. Tom Delay's lawyer made this comment while talking about a new film coming out about his client.

"Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's attorney, said the film offers little in the way of balance."I think it's about as fair and balanced as Michael Moore's stuff or Fox News," he said."

(reader Mark)

I thought Wolf was playing the straight man earlier, but aparently he wasn't. He really, really wanted that basement-market value analogy driven home.
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Digby:

"Did anyone catch Wolfie getting all nervous and twitchy when he thought that Cafferty hadn't been "fair and balanced" in reporting the response to his question aabout Boehner renting his apartment from a lobbyist? He was very agitated that Cafferty didn't report any emails that said it was ok if Boehner "paid fair market value and the apartment wasn't luxurious." The fact was that Cafferty did read an email that said exactly that (how odd) but Wolfe apparently didn't hear it. Unfortunately for Wolfie, his little fit made Cafferty mad and when pressed on the matter, Cafferty said that out of 700 or so emails he had received only half a dozen or so supporting Boehner. Oops...read on

Letterman to O'Reilly: "60% of what you say is crap"

Bill joined David last night on the Late Show and found that Letterman wasn't buying his phony war on Christmas deal. David also wasn't happy about his attacking Cindy Sheehan, the Iraq war and a lot of what Bill has to say in general.

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(Here is a transcript)

O'REILLY: No way that a terrorist that blows up women and children is going to be called a freedom fighter on my program. (applause)

LETTERMAN: I'm not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling that about 60 percent of what you say is crap (laughter)...

O'REILLY: 60?

LETTERMAN: 60 percent...I'm just spitballing here.

O'REILLY: Listen, I respect your opinion. You should respect mine (applause.) Our analysis is based on the best evidence we can get.

LETTERMAN: This fair and balanced...I don't think you represent an objective viewpoint.

Before O'Reilly says something negative about Letterman, he should be reminded what Bill said about David in the past:

"Mr. Letterman is a smart guy who can spot a phony with telescopic accuracy and expects his guests to bring something to the table. If a guest begins to sink on this show, the bottom is a long way down."

I guess Bill has a long way to climb up.

Direland joins in.

Former FOX producer explains the use of religion on FNC

Ideagrove: Charlie Reina, a former Fox News Channel discusses the motivations behind Fox's current "War on Christmas" campaign via Poynter

"...But what really separates Fox from the competition is its unabashed use of religion as a divisive weapon. Common sense -- and common courtesy -- have long dictated that personal religious beliefs be kept out of news reporting unless the story at hand involves religion. But on Fox, it's not uncommon for an anchor to raise the issue of a guest's religion, or lack thereof, a propos of nothing...read on"

Fair and balanced?

Power Line is Fair and Balanced

So sez The Factor. According to Paul Mirengoff, they don't attack liberals including Dan Rather. They just promote conservative ideas. lol

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Bill:..You didn't bad mouth Rather, you didn't do a history of Ratherisms or try to make him look like some ideological fool?

Paul: No, not-not at-eh-later on we linked to some-his history became relevant when he continued to deny the story-we linked to some other people who did that...

I debated Paul briefly on Connected once and he was a nice guy. TV isn't easy either. I don't hide my partisanship, but Power Line attacks liberals all the time.

I have no problem with Bill defending himself against what he believes are attacks against his (cough) good name. Then he puts on Jacob Laksin of Frontpagemag and Todd Manzi from Human Events, two uber-conservatives to opine to his audience about how bad liberal groups are and how the media just regurgitates whatever stories they print. That's sure fair and balanced Bill. O'Reilly is one of the biggest cowards I have ever seen; a millionaire who can't take any criticism. Please Bill, you know the saying so get out of the kitchen already. He constantly gets on his soap-box when somebody he takes issue with refuses to come on his show, but ducks Media Matters whenever they want to go on The Factor to defend themselves. I'll have the video up late tonight.