Jens 'n' Frens


	Jens 'n' Frens Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political. "A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster

Saturday, December 12, 2009 ::: Not all Muslims are our enemies, but some of them are. CNN is misreading their statements in an attempt to pretend that they aren't; Ann Althouse is calling them on it. Speaking of Muslims killing infidels, this story has been undercovered. To be sure, it's not perfectly clear what this murderer's motive was, but there's an obvious guess. Labels: CNN, media distortion ::: posted by Steven at 10:53 PM (0) comments Saturday, October 17, 2009 ::: Rush Limbaugh was in discussions as part of a group bidding to buy the NFL's St. Louis Rams, but was deemed too controversial and dropped. A few aspects of this interested me; for one thing, Limbaugh is not remotely far enough out of the mainstream to be considered anathema. More interesting is that even his opponents don't seem to think he's actually vile enough to exclude, as they had to make up implausible quotes to put in his mouth. CNN, which had fact-checked Saturday Night Live the week before, reported one of these "quotes" as fact. Jonathan Adler speculates whether CNN's behavior is sufficiently egregious for Limbaugh to have a case for defamation. It seems to me that if "reckless disregard for the truth" applies to anything, it would have to apply here. On the other hand, I'm not sure he can demonstrate any economic damages. On the gripping hand, if a show-man sued an alleged news organization for "reporting" something that the editor of a student newspaper would have sent back, who do you think would be more interested in a quiet, pre-trial settlement? Labels: CNN, IANAL, lies, NFL, Rush Limbaugh ::: posted by Steven at 10:55 PM (0) comments Saturday, September 12, 2009 ::: There was a big Tea Party event in Washington, DC, today — some estimates put the crowd above a million, but I'm inclined to believe the hundreds of thousands estimates, which would still be pretty big. Powerline noted CNN's attempt to mis-cover the event. Mark Hemingway rounded up some reports and pictures. Jay Nordlinger commented on the homemade signs. Speaking of signs, Mary Katharine Ham noted how hard ThinkProgress had to stretch to identify eight "offensive" signs, so crazy people were not well represented; one of Instapundit's readers even marveled at the lack of trash afterward. On the other hand, some crazy people on the other side called in a bomb threat to the organizers yesterday. Labels: CNN, crazy people, tea parties ::: posted by Steven at 11:59 PM (0) comments Friday, April 17, 2009 ::: As you may have missed if you were on Mars with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears -- or if you get your news from the Boston Globe -- there have been a series of protests over the last two months culminating in a large string of protests on Wednesday. There was interesting coverage of the Chicago event by CNN: A seamless conclusion to the smear job heard ’round the world, thanks to some amazingly fortuitous timing by Founding Bloggers. On a day when the grassroots came out to protest the establishment, it's fitting that a small indie outfit like FB would end up putting the screws to CNN this way. What's most striking is how savvy the protesters are about the game Roesgen's playing: They know exactly why she zeroed in on the guy with the Obama/Hitler sign, and it ain't because of his grasp of economics. Stick with it until the end or else you’ll miss the astounding nerve of this disingenuous moron, who just spent three minutes on national television sneering at the people around her, to say to the woman who's yelling at her, "You know, you really don't need to be so antagonistic." There's video at the link, along with a video of the same reporter covering a different protest quite differently. Labels: CNN, media distortion ::: posted by Steven at 10:22 AM (0) comments