Does MSNBC’s ‘Culture’ Encourage ‘Harsh Personal Attacks’?

Mediaite.com:

For his latest column on FoxNews.com, MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz examines the “culture” over at competitor MSNBC that he suggests may have “encouraged” the comments about Sarah Palin that got Martin Bashir fired as well as the more recent controversial segment about Mitt Romney’s black grandson on Melissa Harris-Perry’s weekend show. “Is there something in the water over at 30 Rock?” he asks. 

Kurtz prefaces his argument with a disclaimer of sorts: “First, this is not some sort of Fox attack on MSNBC.” He explains that unlike some of his more partisan colleagues at Fox, he has “friendly relations with a number of people who work there,” thinks the network is good at “dealing with policy issues in more than short sound bites” and maintains that MSNBC President Phil Griffin “has every right to position his outfit as a liberal network.” 

“But has the channel developed a culture in which harsh personal attacks are encouraged, or at least tolerated?” he asks. Seeing a broader theme in instances like the ones involving Bashir and Harris-Perry, Kurtz says MSNBC appears to hold “a view of Republicans and conservatives as so mean-spirited, hard-hearted and clueless that just about any rhetoric against them can be justified.”

While he acknowledges that Fox is not immune to personal attacks, and suspects “some folks are at this moment scrambling to dig up incendiary comments made on Fox,” he claims it’s not on the same level as MSNBC. “Not since Glenn Beck was branding Barack Obama a ‘racist’ with a ‘deep-seated hatred’ of white people has anything been at the Bashir level,” he writes, “and that was five years ago.”

RELATED: Video: Melissa Harris-Perry’s tearful apology to Romney and other adoptive families

Global Warming Scientists Forced to Admit Defeat... Because of Too Much Ice: Stranded Antarctic Ship's Crew Will Be Rescued by Helicopter

DailyMail:

They went in search evidence of the world’s melting ice caps, but instead a team of climate scientists have been forced to abandon their mission … because the Antarctic ice is thicker than usual at this time of year.

The scientists have been stuck aboard the stricken MV Akademik Schokalskiy since Christmas Day, with repeated sea rescue attempts being abandoned as icebreaking ships failed to reach them.

Now that effort has been ditched, with experts admitting the ice is just too thick. Instead the crew have built an icy helipad, with plans afoot to rescue the 74-strong team by helicopter.

The expedition is being lead by Chris Turney, a climate scientist, who was hoping to reach the base camp of Douglas Mawson, one of the most famous Antarctic explorers, and repeat observations done by him in 1912 to see what impact climate change had made.

It is thought that the group, which includes scientific researchers and a journalist, will now be able to escape by air after two sea rescues failed.

Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis was unable to reach them because it was not strong enough to break through.

A top-of-the-range Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon ('Xue Long'), was deployed earlier in the week, and hoped to reach the ship by saturday.

However just after midnight on Friday it too got stuck just six nautical miles from the ship.

The Academic Shokalskiy set off from New Zealand on November 28 to recreate a 100-year-old Australasia expedition first sailed by Sir Douglas Mawson to see how the journey changes using new technology and equipment.


But on Wednesday morning, the boat hit a mass of thick ice sheets and today remains at a stand still.

RELATED: The Guardian Slams Funding of Anti-Global Warming Groups

Bitter, Self-Righteous Gay Advocate and Former NFL Punter Chris Kluwe Accuses Team of Bigotry After They Released Him

NFL.com:

Former Minnesota punter Chris Kluwe says his special-teams coordinator made anti-gay comments while Kluwe was with the Vikings.

Kluwe wrote a scathing first-person account on an Internet website on Thursday. In it, he alleges that coach Mike Priefer made several anti-gay comments in objection to Kluwe's outspoken support of a gay marriage amendment in Minnesota.

Kluwe also says former Vikings coach Leslie Frazier and current general manager Rick Spielman encouraged him to tone down his rhetoric in an effort to reduce distractions to the team. At the same time, Kluwe said, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf expressed support for Kluwe's championing of gay rights.

Kluwe called Priefer "a bigot" and Spielman and Frazier "two cowards" for releasing him in May after eight seasons with the Vikings.

The Vikings issued a statement saying they take the allegations seriously. They also say he was released because of his football performance, not something else.

Below is the full statement from the Vikings:

"The Minnesota Vikings were made aware of Chris Kluwe's allegations for the first time today. We take them very seriously and will thoroughly review this matter. 

"As an organization, the Vikings consistently strive to create a supportive, respectful and accepting environment for all of our players, coaches and front office personnel. We do not tolerate discrimination at any level. 

"The team has long respected our players' and associates' individual rights, and, as Chris specifically stated, Vikings ownership supports and promotes tolerance, including on the subject of marriage equality. Because he was identified with the Vikings, Chris was asked to be respectful while expressing his opinions. Team ownership and management also repeatedly emphasized to Chris that the Vikings would not impinge on his right to express his views.

"Any notion that Chris was released from our football team due to his stance on marriage equality is entirely inaccurate and inconsistent with team policy. Chris was released strictly based on his football performance.
"We will have further comment at the appropriate time."

Kluwe was due to make $1.45 million, which was more than the salary cap-strapped Vikings wanted to spend on a punter. So they drafted Jeff Locke in the fifth round and parted ways with Kluwe, bringing to an end his colorful and outspoken stay in Minnesota.

In his article, Kluwe alleged that Priefer grew more and more impatient with the various causes Kluwe supported and several times made anti-gay remarks during team meetings.

Kluwe said he wanted to post his article now in hopes of discouraging the Vikings, or any other team, from employing Priefer, who is widely respected at Vikings headquarters and is viewed by some as a potential head coach one day. Priefer was hired by the Vikings in 2011. He served previously as the special-teams coach in Denver and Kansas City.

"If there's one thing I hope to achieve from sharing this story," Kluwe wrote, "it's to make sure that Mike Priefer never holds a coaching position again in the NFL, and ideally never coaches at any level."

Priefer responded to the allegations levied against him, via The Associated Press.

"I want to be clear that I do not tolerate discrimination of any type and am respectful of all individuals," Priefer said. "I personally have gay family members who I love and support just as I do any family member. 

"The primary reason I entered coaching was to affect people in a positive way. As a coach, I have always created an accepting environment for my players, including Chris, and have looked to support them both on and off the field. 

"The comments today have not only attacked my character and insulted my professionalism, but they have also impacted my family. While my career focus is to be a great professional football coach, my number one priority has always been to be a protective husband and father to my wife and children."

Kluwe averaged 44.4 yards per punt over his career in Minnesota, including a career-high 39.7 yard net average in 2012. But he ranked just 17th in the NFL in punting that season before he was cut and he lost a competition for the punting job with the Oakland Raiders in the preseason in 2013. He had several tryouts during the season, but was never signed.

Kluwe said he wanted to wait to air his grievances until after the season so as not to provide a distraction to his friends on the team during the season.

RELATED:  Chris Kluwe Just Didn't Burn His NFL Bridge, He Blew It Up With Explosives

Rev. Franklin Graham Blasts Churches for Weak Support of Phil Robertson in ‘Religious War Against Christians’

Mediaite.com:

The Rev. Franklin Graham took to his website on December 30 to severely scold the Christian community for failing to show sufficient support for Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson and for not sticking up for the values expressed in comments which resulted in his brief suspension. Graham said that there is a “religious war” being waged against Christians, and churches have a duty to take a stand against it.


“As the Robertson controversy winds down—at least for now—I have been amazed at how many churches have apparently “ducked” out on the issue (sin). Some were even quick to condemn Phil Robertson,” Graham wrote.

“If we Christians banded together and took a stand, perhaps we wouldn’t be losing so much ground in what the media is calling the ‘cultural war,’” Graham continued. “However, it is not a cultural war—it is a religious war against Christians and the biblical truths we stand for. Some churches have fallen into the trap of being politically correct, under the disguise of tolerance.”

Graham said that the statements Robertson have been cast in the press as “intolerant” but they were, in his opinion, only “not tolerant of sin.” He added that the Bible’s message of penitence and repentance was a positive message and Robertson’s comments reflected this sentiment. 

RELATED:  What did Jesus say about homosexuality?

Bill De Blasio Draws All Godless Liberal Eyes to New York City

NYTimes.com:

Liberals across the country are looking to Bill de Blasio, who was sworn in as mayor early Wednesday, to morph New York City’s municipal machinery into a closely watched laboratory for populist theories of government that have never before been enacted on such a large scale. 

The elevation of an assertive, tax-the-rich liberal to the nation’s most prominent municipal office has fanned hopes that hot-button causes like universal prekindergarten and low-wage worker benefits — versions of which have been passed in smaller cities — could be aided by the imprimatur of being proved workable in New York. 

“The mayor has a remarkable opportunity to make real many progressive policies and prove their merit,” said Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, who as mayor of San Francisco introduced a form of universal health care and allowed same-sex couples to wed. 

“De Blasio matters,” Mr. Newsom said. “A lot of us are counting on his success.” 

New York has long been a lodestar for urban governments the world over. The avant-garde policing pioneered by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani transformed the way major municipalities fight crime. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s corporate-minded approach to education and feats of social engineering, like the ban on smoking in bars, quickly gained global traction. 

In Mr. de Blasio, a wily, image-conscious strategist who had lagged far behind in polls just weeks before the Democratic primary, advocates on the left see a unique aligning of the stars: a champion of their values who is also a shrewd and cunning practitioner, stepping into office at a time when the national debate over inequality and social justice has reached a fever pitch. 

His administration could be a redemptive moment for a national left whose policies were often blamed for the crumbling of urban centers in the 1960s and 1970s, yet has now started to reassert itself in smaller jurisdictions with bold new approaches on issues like income equality and poverty. 

But Mr. de Blasio must also grapple with the restraints placed on local executives: He is barred from unilaterally setting income tax policy, meaning he must persuade legislators in Albany and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to approve his proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy. And he has never experienced the day-to-day demands and compromises of managing an enterprise anywhere near the size of the city he will now lead. 

RELATED: Clinton Blasts ‘Inequality’ and ‘Climate Change’ Before Inaugurating NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio

Director Kevin Smith Plots Film With 'Rapturing Giant Jesus' Destroying All Life on Earth

Newsbusters.org:

Filmmaker Kevin Smith wasn’t satisfied making a religion-bashing comedy in “Dogma,” or a religion-bashing gore film with overtones of David Koresh and Fred Phelps called “Red State.” The website Film School Rejects reports Smith has a new film in the planning stages.

It’s “the punnily-titled ‘Helena Handbag’....he’s currently writing the screenplay based off [his own podscast] SModcast called ‘The (C)rapture.” Does it sound like the wit is overflowing? The villain is a “rapturing giant Jesus” out to destroy the world as we know it:

As he describes it, Helena Handbag is a rapture flick with a twist on where the good people want to wind up when the world starts ending. That’s because in this version of the end of days, mankind teams up with Hell to stop a vengeful, Rapturing giant Jesus from destroying the world and causing the extinction of all earthly existence. Smith smartly reasons on the podcast that the budget is probably going to be low for this production because people are probably going to hesitate getting their names getting attached to this script. 

Still, more offensive and far-fetched ideas have made it to theaters. It would also be a satisfying conclusion to the end of Red State that never was; Smith has stated before that he originally wanted the film to end with an actual (bloody) rapture after the trumpet heralds, rather than just a fakeout messing with the vastly devout family. If anything, the premise of the film is going along with Smith’s filmmaking motto, that “from now until I drop dead, I’m only ever gonna make a flick that only I would/could ever make.” Sounds about right.

Move over, Orson Welles.

"Red State" never ended up for a stay in theaters (it made a brief appearance in a few cities), but went direct to On Demand. This doesn't exactly sound like a "mainstream" film, either. It sounds like Smith is never going to grow up out of adolescent ennui.

RELATED: Surprising Number Of Americans Don't Believe In Evolution (VIDEO)

Even Michael Moore Thinks ‘Obamacare Is Awful’

Mediaite.com:

Michael Moore marked the start of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate Wednesday with a blistering op-ed in The New York Times in which he admits something he says “many liberals” have been too scared to say out loud before now: “Obamacare is awful.” 

“That is the dirty little secret many liberals have avoided saying out loud for fear of aiding the president’s enemies,” Moore writes, “at a time when the ideal of universal health care needed all the support it could get.” But now that the law has been implemented, Moore evidently feels free to speak out against it’s major flaw.

He blames Obamacare’s “rocky start” on one central fact:

The Affordable Care Act is a pro-insurance-industry plan implemented by a president who knew in his heart that a single-payer, Medicare-for-all model was the true way to go. When right-wing critics “expose” the fact that President Obama endorsed a single-payer system before 2004, they’re actually telling the truth.

At the same time, Moore calls Obamacare a “godsend” for people who were in danger of losing their coverage under the old system. But rather than “take a victory lap,” Moore urges progressives to keep fighting for “what we deserve: universal quality health care.” He looked ahead to 2017 when Vermont plans to implement a single-payer system that has the potential to “change everything.”

“Obamacare can’t be fixed by its namesake,” he writes. “It’s up to us to make it happen.”

Arguably, it was Moore’s 2007 documentary Sicko, which compared America’s health care systems to more cost effective systems around the world, that was responsible for jump-starting the national conversation about this issue in the first place. 

RELATED:  ‘Rate Shock’? ObamaCare launch brings renewed concern over insurance tax

Obama Pollster: Reporters Should Stop Covering Polls in 2014

DailyCaller.com:

After a year of seeing President Obama’s approval ratings plummet, the president’s pollster is offering a strikingly candid and pessimistic New Year’s resolution.

Reporters should go the next “year without reporting any public polling data,” Joel Benenson, president and CEO of Benenson Strategy Group, said.

His comments were made to reporter Mike Allen, who published them in his daily “Politico Playbook” morning newsletter on Tuesday.

Benenson explained that he thinks the polling often reported by news organizations lacks the proper context.

Asked his New Year’s resolution: “Here’s one — with a variation, if mine is too extreme: Go one year without reporting any public polling data.”

“Rationale: Most public polling continues to be reported on strictly from a topline, horserace-type perspective that does nothing, or at best very little, to illuminate the news of the day.”

Benenson offered an alternative if “this is too strict.”

“Go one year without reporting any public polling data that doesn’t provide in an in-depth analysis of the underlying dynamics that are truly shaping the data,” he said.

RELATED: ‘Can’t find’ a good one: Robert Gibbs says this is the ‘worst year’ of Obama’s presidency

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Delays Obamacare's Birth Control Mandate

Newsmax.com:

Roman Catholic Church-affiliated organizations on Tuesday obtained last-minute court injunctions that give them temporary exemptions from a part of the Obamacare healthcare law that requires employers to provide insurance policies covering contraception.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted a temporary injunction to Baltimore-based Little Sisters of the Poor and Illinois-based Christian Brothers Services, plus related entities.
Sotomayor is giving the government until Friday morning to respond to her decision.
Two different appellate courts had granted stays in three other cases that were pending at the high court, filed by various organizations, including Catholic University of America and non-profits in Michigan and Tennessee, said a lawyer representing the groups. The lower-court actions meant the Supreme Court did not need to act in those cases.
The groups were all asking the courts to exempt them temporarily from the so-called contraception mandate while litigation continues. The mandate, which was to take effect for the organizations on Wednesday, is already in place for many women who have private health insurance.
The organizations accuse the federal government of forcing them to support contraception and sterilization in violation of their religious beliefs or face steep fines.
The 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, requires employers to provide health insurance policies that cover preventive services for women, including contraception and sterilization.
The law makes an exception for religious institutions such as houses of worship that mainly serve and employ members of their own faith, but not for schools, hospitals, and charitable organizations that employ people of all faiths.
As a compromise, the administration agreed to an accommodation for nonprofits affiliated with religious entities, which was finalized in July.

RELATED: Catholic Groups Ask Supreme Court to Block Healthcare Law

Already Depressed Median Household Income Has Gone Nowhere For Two Years

Newsbusters.org:

In an earlier post today (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that reporters at Politico and CNNMoney.com seemed mystified at a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll showing that 68 percent of Americans believe the economy is in poor shape, and that over half believe it will still be that way a year from now.

One reason for their incredulity is that, perhaps deliberately, they haven't been paying attention to household income data compiled monthly by ex-Census Bureau workers at Sentier Research. Sentier's latest report covering November came out today. It shows that annualized inflation-adjusted median household income is still more than 7 percent below where it was when Barack Obama took office in Janaury 2009, and that it's gone nowhere in the 23 months since December 2011. At an index value of 92.7, November's figure is virtually the same as it was in December 2011 (92.8).

To its credit, the Washington Post's Wonkblog found Sheila Bair, who "served as Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from June 2006 through June 2011." Ms. Bair calls the following her favorite graph of the year:
 
This is why Ms. Bair chose the above graph (bolds are mine):

... for a large number of American households, there has been no economic recovery. Caught in a vice of chronic unemployment and falling wages, real median household income (excluding capital gains and losses but including cash government benefits) has declined 4.4% since the “recovery” began in 2009. For many households, the drop has been more severe. For African-American households, it is 10.9%. For those under 25 years old, it is 9.6%. For single females with children, it is 7.5%. Indeed, the only households to experience an increase in real income are those 65 to 74 years old.

So as the investor class celebrates the stock market’s bubbly 25% gain in 2013 courtesy of quantitative easing, let’s not forget the plight of those Americans who work for a living. And in 2014, let’s face up to the ineffectiveness of monetary policy to help them and the desperate need for fiscal leadership to generate real, sustainable growth.

Bair was appointed by George W. Bush in 2006. From the title of one of her her blog posts (e.g., "Time to abolish Fannie and Freddie who now account for 75% of the mortgage market, virtually all taxpayer backed" and ), it appears that she isn't a slavish adherent to Keynesianism. On the other hand, she doesn't fully appreciate the gravity of our financial situation. In January, she tried to explain "Why Republicans need to help Obama." Obama is not interested in their help at all, Sheila.

Unfortunately, Bair's guest post is only one of three items returned in a Google News search on Sentier Research's firm name for the past week. The other two refer to older data.

It's remarkable that the press, to the extent that it has noticed stagnant incomes at all, has rarely if ever assigned the blame to Obama administration economic and regulatory policies. That certainly was not the case during the George W. Bush administration, when median income was generally only flat and not stuck at the bottom of a crater.

Instead, the press has allowed itself to be co-opted by Obama's speechifying about "income inequality," which happens to have deepened on his watch, and arguably because of his administration's policies.

RELATED: Obamacare Website Official Retires, Sebelius Stays

‘Fast and Furious’ Guns Still Showing Up at Murder Scenes in Mexico

Mediate.com:

A CNN report broadcast on Tuesday revealed that gun released to Mexican gangs as part of the Fast and Furious “gun-walking” operation are continuing to show up at scenes of violence sound of the American border. According to the CNN report, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives acknowledged that more weapons released into Mexico are likely to continue surfacing in the coming years.


The latest Fast and Furious weapon to be acquired by authorities was used in a December 18 shootout in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. 

CNN acquired video of the shootout, posted to YouTube, which featured audio of the violent gun battle between Mexican gangs and authorities. Five people were killed in the shootout, including a “senior member” of a Mexican drug cartel, CNN’s Evan Perez reported.

“The ATF has accepted responsibility for the mistakes made in the Fast and Furious investigation,” an ATF statement obtained by CNN read, “and, at the Attorney General’s direction, we have taken appropriate and decisive action to ensure that these errors will not be repeated.”

“And we acknowledge that, regrettably, firearms related to Fast and Furious investigation will likely continue to be recovered at future crime scenes,” the statement concluded. 

RELATED:  Rep. Issa Asked If He Is ‘Showboating’ With Fast And Furious On Face The Nation