From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Oh,
You Mean Those Liberal Media
John Carroll, editor of the Los Angeles Times, has issued a staff
memo warning reporters to keep their liberal politics out of the news pages,
blogger Kevin Roderick reports. Here's how the memo begins:
I'm concerned about the perception--and the occasional reality--that the Times is a liberal, "politically correct" newspaper. Generally speaking, this is an inaccurate view, but occasionally we prove our critics right. We did so today [May 22] with the front-page story on the bill in Texas that would require abortion doctors to counsel patients that they may be risking breast cancer.
Because the story is a week old, it no longer appears on the Times Web site, but the Baltimore Sun picked it up. Carroll criticizes reporter Scott Gold for slanting his report in several ways:
- Editorializing by referring to "so-called counseling," a phrase,
in Carroll's words, "that is loaded with derision."
- Failing to quote scientists who think there is a link between abortion and
breast cancer (a minority view, to be sure), except for one, quoted late in
the story only for "his political views."
- Referring to one of the sponsors of the bill as having "a professional background in property management," while making no reference to the lack of scientific credentials of the bill's opponents.
Meanwhile, Newsweek quotes an in-house e-mail from New York Times reporter Tim Egan, who's frustrated by the recent scandals over Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg (the latter resigned after being hit with a "suspension" for overrelying on an uncredited and unpaid intern's reporting). Quoth Egan:
All of this is corrosive, hypocritical, and ultimately undermines a gifted staff. What will come of this infighting, cannibalism, and soul-searching? Hopefully, we'll go back to valuing what we have: people who care about the drift of this country, and are given the time and respect to tell it right.
Get his drift? As Andrew Sullivan writes: "The choice at the Times is between frauds and ideologues. (Of course, there's also [former Enron adviser] Paul Krugman, who manages to conflate the two.)"
The
'Diversity' Fog
One Dennis Hans, writing for a far-left outfit called Take Back the Media, contributes
a bizarre commentary on the Jayson Blair episode, in which he offers this "definition"
of diversity:
Diversity does not mean a newsroom of straight, white, middle-of-the-road males whose diversity is expressed in the ties they wear. Nor does it mean a multi-hued newsroom comprised of people who share--or have adapted to--the values of straight, white, middle-of-the-road males. Diversity is not just about skin color and ethnicity. It's about gender, sexual orientation, religion or lack thereof, ideology and other things I could think of if my own thinking weren't limited in ways of which I myself am unaware.
That really clears things up, doesn't it?
Dinosaur
Vomit
Bill Clinton wants to amend the 22nd Amendment, which limits a president to
two terms, Reuters reports. "I think since people are living much longer
. . . the 22nd Amendment should probably be modified to say two consecutive
terms instead of two terms for a lifetime," the 42nd (and 44th?) president told
an audience at the JFK Library in Boston.
According to Reuters, "the former president said such a change probably wouldn't apply to him." But hey, why not? After all, he was a darn good president, if he does say so himself. "I was particularly well-suited to serve when I did because I have a higher pain threshold than most people," the Associated Press account of the event quotes him as saying. But wait. Does this mean he doesn't feel his own pain? If so, how does he feel yours?
Here's a job listing for an office manager in Al and Tipper Gore's office. If Congress doesn't follow Clinton's advice on term limits, maybe he ought to see about getting an interview.
A
Discriminating Party
"Leading black Democrats in Congress and the national party are protesting
the layoffs of 10 minority staffers at the party's headquarters," the Associated
Press reports:
"I'm just outraged," said Donna Brazile, who served as Al Gore's campaign manager in the last presidential election and is also the chairwoman of the DNC's Voting Rights Institute. "They started reading me the names and I said 'Oh, oh--they're all black. I went through the roof.' "
The AP quotes DNC communications strategist Jim Mulhall: "We are hiring professionals who have the experience to carry the battle against George Bush," he says. "It's about making the DNC the most effective political organization we can." Wouldn't it be more effective if it were more diverse?
Metaphor
Alert--I
"The
administration of George W. Bush has pursued a Flintstones agenda in
a Jetsons world. And in so doing, George Bush has let the sparks
of innovation fall to the floor. As your president, I will make sure
they spread to a much bigger, broader fire."--Sen. Joe Lieberman,
May 27, in prepared remarks quoted by the Associated Press (italics ours)
Blogger Orrin Judd's analysis: "So, if I followed all that: Wilma's hair is on fire?"
You
Don't Say
"Liberal Groups Join to Solicit Funds, Fight Bush Re-election; They Will
Raise 'Soft Money' to Aid Democrats"--headline, San Francisco Chronicle,
May 28
Look
Out, Ayatollahs
Why all the recent talk of "regime change" in Iran? London's Guardian
reports Washington has received "intelligence reports that al-Qaida leaders
are being sheltered by the Iranian revolutionary guards at one of the former
shah's hunting lodges":
The terrorist leaders suspected of taking refuge in Iran include Saif al-Adel, an Eygptian [sic] believed to have risen to number three in the organisation, and Abu Mohammed al-Masri, a suspected organiser of the 1998 embassy bombings in east Africa. They may also include Saad bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden's sons.
A February airplane crash, which killed more than 200 of the revolutionary guard "produced intelligence that the revolutionary guards were 'hosting' the al-Qaida leaders," sources tell the paper. Officials say they traced communications about the May 12 suicide-murders in Saudi Arabia to the al Qaeda leaders in Iran.
No one is talking about direct U.S. military intervention, which would seem an overextension at this point. But ABC News reports the Pentagon advocates "a massive covert action program to overthrow Iran's ruling ayatollahs." The proposal, which President Bush has not acted upon, would involve "backing armed Iranian dissidents and employing the services of the Mujahedeen e Khalq," an Iraq-based Iranian opposition group currently on the U.S. terrorist list.
Green,
Back
The Greenpeace
Web site still features a section on the environmental group's "No War"
campaign, which explains why it opposed the liberation of Iraq:
War would have devastating human and environmental consequences. The last Gulf war killed two hundred thousand people and left many of the survivors malnourished, diseased, and dying. Damage to ecosystems in the area remained years after the war ended. What would be the consequences of another war?
The actual consequences, detailed in London's Telegraph, should have Greenpeace red-faced:
The Mesopotamian marshlands are returning to life as local people tear down earthworks and open flood gates allowing spring waters to surge on to land drained by Saddam Hussein.
Satellite pictures published yesterday by the United Nations Environment Programme on its website--www.grid.unep.ch--show that considerably more water has reached the wetlands this May than last and places that have been dry for five years are under water.
Here are the photos, which, according to the UNEP, "dramatically reveal streams and waterways which have ebbed and run aground over the past decade, surge back to life and drainage canals swollen by an exceptional increase in water flows." Had Greenpeace had its way, these marshes would still be desert.
'Antiwar'
Activists vs. Sick Children
"City agencies in San Francisco added up the costs of the war protests
that disrupted the city in March and came up with more than $3.5 million in
expenses and lost revenue," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
That's $3.5 million less for the city to spend on food for the homeless and medical care for AIDS patients and sick kids. WE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS WHEN THEY SHOOT THEIR OFFICERS, read one sign at a March protest. How many San Franciscans died for want of crucial social services because these creeps insisted on taking to the streets to express their hateful views?
Dementia Watch
Time magazine has a hagiographic profile of West Virginia's Sen. Robert
Byrd, the third-longest-serving congressman in history. With a straight
face, Time reports this lunatic comment:
For Byrd, history not only teaches the importance of rules and precedent but also offers warnings for the present. Deviation from democratic process can, he says, cloak an attempt "to dominate all branches of government." For that reason, Byrd says, "this Republic is at its greatest danger in its history because of this Administration."
Notes a reader who prefers to remain anonymous:
In the World According to Robert Byrd, America faces "the greatest danger in its history" because of the Bush administration--a greater danger, apparently, than the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Great Depression and the crimes of Watergate.
Like Helen Thomas, American journalism's crazy old aunt in the attic, Byrd
gets a lot of respect simply for endurance. But let's face it: The man is batty.
As it happens, his term ends at the end of the next Congress. Perhaps someone
should take him aside and gently suggest that the time has come for him to retire.
Hasn't this man embarrassed the Mountain State enough?
Metaphor
Alert--II
"The question I always have about members of the Bush team is, How good
are they at translating principles into practice? When it comes to breaking
things they are very, very good--whether it is the ABM treaty, the Kyoto
accord, Afghanistan, Iraq or the old way of Arab-Israeli peacemaking. The Bush
people believe in power and are not afraid to wield the wrecking ball.
But how good are they with a hammer and a nail? How good are they at
the detail work of building real alternatives--to Kyoto, Saddam or the
Arab-Israel peace process? This is still the most important unanswered question
about this administration. Can it reap the harvest of the principles
it has sown?"--Thomas Friedman, New York Times, May 28 (italics
ours)
Zero-Tolerance
Watch
Two years ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, the state of Wisconsin
set up a hotline, at a cost of $50,000 a year, "so students can anonymously
call authorities to report weapons in schools." The hotline has received
a total of seven calls. "State Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) said none
of the seven calls the hotline has received so far has been legitimate, and
five of them were pranks." The paper calculates the cost per call at $14,285.
It gets even sillier. Calls to the hotline "are handled by Dane County"--Madison--and "callers would get a much quicker response by calling their local police," according to Lazich, who "also pointed out that many people may not know about the hotline but nearly everyone knows about 911."
Close
Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind
"Space People Visit School"--headline, (Nacogdoches, Texas) Daily
Sentinel, May 28
Life Imitates the Onion
"Report: TV Helps Build Valuable Looking Skills"--headline, the Onion, Oct. 28, 1999
"Video-Game Killing Builds Visual Skills, Researchers Report"--headline, New York Times, May 29, 2003
SARS's
Silver Lining
Severe acute respiratory syndrome is a serious medical crisis, and it's devastated
the tourist industry in China and other affected places, but we prefer to look
at the glass as half full. At least fewer people are being eaten by captive
jungle cats. That, at least, is how we read this Washington Post headline: "Slump
in Visitors Leaves Lions and Tigers Hungry at Chinese Zoo."
Dept.
of Redundancy Dept.
"Seoul Records Highest Temperature in Seoul"--headline, Korea Times,
May 29
Better
Late Than Never
Today's New York Times waddles in with this correction:
[A May 15] article . . . misidentified an Italian city in a paraphrase of the Bible by the medieval French rabbi Tam, who cited the area's scholarly distinction. He said, "From out of Bari the Torah will go forth, and the word of God from Otranto"--not Taranto.
We scooped the Times by 13 days on its own correction.
Not
Too Brite--LXXX
"Serbian Agriculture Minister Dragan Veselinov quit Thursday, bowing to
public pressure over a road accident in which his car killed a pedestrian,"
Reuters reports from Belgrade.
Oddly Enough!
The
Loneliest Job in the World
The dictator of Belarus, Europe's most repressive state, has decreed that the
heads of companies, unions and other organizations may not call themselves presidents,
London's Guardian reports. "President" Alexander Lukashenko says the
title is his alone. It's not an original idea; the Guardian reports that erstwhile
tyrant Idi Amin of Uganda issued a similar decree back in the '70s.
The president--uh, make that head honcho--of the Belarussian Union of Businessmen "suggested that President Lukashenko should give himself the title Belarusbashi, on the model of the president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, who calls himself Turkmenbashi--father of all Turkmen." The Guardian adds that "it is not clear whether the law will also ban the use of president with a lower case p."
Clop,
Clop, Clop, Clop, Huh?
"A Penn State University study found that the vast majority of drivers
do not recognize the slow-moving vehicle symbol affixed to most Amish buggies,"
the Associated Press reports. "Many of those surveyed mistook the bright
orange triangle for a yield sign or even a biohazard warning."
So let's see: The folks surveyed don't know that the triangle represents a slow-moving vehicle even though they see it attached to the horse-drawn buggies that plod along Pennsylvania's roadways? Sounds as though the Amish aren't the Keystone State's only slow drivers.
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Barak Moore, Daniel Goldstein, Kevin Brotz, Robert LeChevalier, Natalie Cohen, Tom Bemis, Richard Miniter, Rosanne Klass, Bob Batts, Mara Gold, Jerome Marcus, Patrick McHale, Joel Goldberg, Elliot Ganz, Erik Moy, Mark Schulze, Anita Parillo, Joshua Brook, Tom Bonetto, John Crosbie, Charlie Gaylord, Aviva Ross, Steve Ginnings, Joe Deltoro, Benjamin Smith, Vidya Sagar, Michael Morley, S.E. Brenner, Jenifer Sawicki, Sheldon Miller, Tom Wolf, George Lenz, Buddy Smith, Michael Segal, Nick Defensor, Jeff Rowes, John-Paul Nepote, George Geddes, C.E. Dobkin, Edward Schulze and Kevin McNally. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: The Bush administration needs an assertive mideast policy.
- John Fund: The Clintons create a political vacuum for Democrats.
- Nat Hentoff: Comic pioneer Lenny Bruce deserves a posthumous pardon.
