Forward Biased (Less-than-current Events)

What media bias?

We've all heard of Cindy Sheehan.  For a while there, if she sneezed, it was reported everywhere you looked.  Maureen Dowd famously claimed that grieving mothers of fallen soldiers have "absolute moral authority" when they protest the war.

So, Maureen, how about Merrilee Carlson—not to mention the many others like her?  Do they also have "absolute moral authority" when they speak out in opposition to everything Sheehan stands for?

Todd Manzi of Townhall.com writes:

A grieving mother of a soldier killed in Iraq wants to voice her opinion. She has a message about the war in Iraq and feels the American people need to hear what she has to say.

Her name is Merrilee Carlson and her story is compelling and newsworthy. Unlike another mother of a fallen soldier, Carlson is not a household name. Her message is exactly opposite of the over-exposed message of the well-known protesting mom.

Regarding the war in Iraq, Carlson says, "We have to take a step back and look at what we have asked our military to do. We have asked them to do a job. It doesn’t matter how we got there. The fact is we are there and we have a job to finish."

Carlson began trying to get her message out last August and September. She didn’t like what was coming out of Crawford and felt the need to correct the record.

In the last couple of weeks the organization that Carlson chairs, Minnesota Families United, has been in the center of a controversy that, by any objective reasoning, should have made national news.

Minnesota Families United teamed with Progress for America Voter Fund and produced two television spots. Minnesota was used as a test market for the spots and PFA made a rather large statewide television buy. The ABC affiliate in the Twin Cities market, KSTP, refused to air the spots.

The decision not to air the first MFU commercial was made by Rob Hubbard, General Manager. His objection was over two lines in the spot:

1) The media only reports the bad news, but American troops are making real progress
2) You would never know it from the news reports, but our enemy in Iraq is Al Qaeda.

Thank goodness for the blogosphere, or you'd never know about this sort of thing.

There's no real question, of course, about just why they're ignoring her.  But I want someone—anyone—from the Legacy Media to tell us why.  Have a little courage.  Speak the truth about why you're ignoring her.

On Thursday, February 16th, the Chair of the Democrat Party in Minnesota called on all TV stations to pull the ad. The top Democrats in Minnesota want to suppress the message of Carlson’s group.

Merrilee Carlson was born and raised a Democrat. She doesn’t like politics and she wants to make it clear that her group is non-political. So, the Democrats in Minnesota are trying to suppress the message from mainstream families who have suffered the loss of their children from the war in Iraq. Why is this not news?

That other mom was a full-time, anti-war protester for more than a year before she came up with the PR stunt to go to Crawford during the president’s vacation. The media accepted the stunt and gave her message enormous coverage. This prompted Carlson to take action for her message. Now Carlson is in the middle of legitimate news and the media is silent.

Have we come to the point where it takes a stunt to make news? Merrilee Carlson is thoughtful, sincere, professional and respectful of those who disagree with her. Not only does she have the exact opposite message from the spectacle in Crawford last summer, she has the exact opposite approach. Regarding the efforts of her group she said, "This isn’t about us. We are not looking to be that public figure; we have stepped out because of the need. This is not about us, it is about our children."

Obviously, the mainstream media is going to do everything they can to avoid Carlson. They are not interested in balancing her view against the anti-war view they have so heavily promoted. We already knew the media was liberally biased. Now it’s apparent they are also biased against ordinary people as well. The foaming-at-the-mouth fanatical fringe gets news coverage and the people who portray the best qualities of us are ignored.

Despite its protestations that it's necessary for this country to function constitutionally, the American Legacy Media has sunk to the level of being a mere tool of the leftist, Democratic point of view.  There's not much difference between them and any other propaganda tool in history.  Many folks want to compare them to the Nazi propaganda machine in the 30s and 40s, but let's not go that far.  Let's just call them what they are:  propagandists.  Propagandists and enemies of freedom.

(Hat tip to Ralph Bristol, and thanks to Greyhawk for the Open Post!)

Speaking of "yellow" journalism...

This guy should have his own blog.  And I should have written something very much like this myself.  Only he doesn't, and I didn't, so to make up for both unfortunate facts, you can now read a most excellent commentary on the refusal of domestic Legacy Media outlets to reprint the offending "Mohammed" cartoons.  Perhaps this is the proverbial "last word" on the matter.

Via reader "Jack" on Daily Pundit:

There is a thing about the reason that the Muhammed cartoons not being published that seems to have been left unsaid.

An important thing.

Newspapers and Television news shows are not showing the cartoons out of fear of what that might cause. Terror at what might happen to them, their homes, their lives.

Terror, as in 'Terrorism'.

The West's shining fundamental tenet, the First Amendment, has been attacked by Islam, terrorized.

And it fell faster than the World Trade Center.

No planes were needed, no bombs. No innocent victims needed to have their heads sawn off.

They used our foolish nature, our tolerance, our multiculturalism, our determination to believe the best about people and fashioned it into a spear--and rammed it into our heart.

They didn't merely destroy buildings this time. They took aim--and hit, our very souls.

I would say rise up. I would say, arm yourself, fight for your country

But it's too late. Our government, our press--our allies are already accepting the scimitar at their necks. They're already sold us all down the river--just to buy a few more moments to allow themselves to milk the status quo.

As the West collapses I hope we have the sense, in our dying moment, to reduce all the centers of Islam to glass so that the roaches aren't forced to bow to Mecca.

Being speechless for a moment, I'll just shut up now and let this sink in.

Evil and treason

Email and comments are going to have to wait a few minutes today.  I just can't stand this any more.

Just in case there was ever any question, there are evil people in the world.  They choose to be evil for ther own reasons, and I therefore cannot excuse them for "difficult childhoods" or any other such folderol.  The vast majority of people who grow up under deplorable circumstances choose, rather, to overcome the temptation to turn evil.  I'm not saying it's easy—I am saying it's possible, even the normal thing to do.  It certainly is the civilized thing.

Some evil people are easy to recognize.  Sadaam, for example.  Feeding your suspected enemies feet-first into a shredder isn't likely to win you a nomination for 2001 "Beloved Dictator of the Year." 

No, I take that back—he had elections all figured out, having won with a 99% vote last time.  (Iran's "Mad Mullahs" have done similarly.)

Anyway, evil.  There's always the quintessential and over-utilized Hitler, Stalin, Caligula, people of their ilk.  They're the ones people mention when asked to name evil people, because they're easy.  Crib question, right?

Not at all.  Many, if not most, evil people are not as easy to spot, as they masquerade as people who are out for our best interests.  Public servants, you know.  Leaders of public institutions that have existed for years, often with historically admirable roots.  People who still can gather thousands of "votes" for themselves, whether literal votes (for a politician) or economic votes for, say, a newspaper.

They typify the most dangerous kind of evil because it's the most deceptive—and seductive.  Very seductive.  And while they might not be the same kind of evil as, say, Hitler, they can be much more destructive.  They're more destructive and dangerous because, for one thing, they live and work among us—and, worse, they govern us.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not one normally given to schadenfreude, but in the case of the Legacy Media I make a well-deserved exception.  I also make room for politicians who make their country's interests, even the lives of her citizens and defenders, subordinate to their own political careers.

The first has been typified lately by the LATimes (among many other papers), the second by Rep. John Murtha (D-Traitorous Scuzzbucket) and all who support him, on both sides of the political aisle.

Just so that I'm clear and confuse no one with any incorrect implications, I'm not questioning anyone's patriotism, least of all the Times or the good Rep. Murtha.  No, no.  I'm unequivocally denying their patriotism.  I'm also stating that, having the approximate morals of the average cockroach, they are outright traitors to their country along with everything she represents.

Not being able to politely use stronger terms than those, I think I am actually understating the case.

Murtha, who has stated that "our troops have become the enemy," is a "hawk" and "a respected 37-year Marine veteran," we are told over and over—even more frequently than we were informed a year ago that John Kerry, incidentally, "served in Vietnam."

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Principled Leader), on the other hand, who actually visited Iraq four times in the last 18 months to assess the situation and came to an opposite conclusion from Murtha, has been virtually ignored.  Evidently, this is one of those times when only a veteran has any "credibility" when commenting on an issue which just happens to be politically polarized.  Eyewitness accounts and qualified advice don't count for squat next to the "politically correct" opinion.

Sen. Lieberman is reminding me of this year's Zell Miller—someone whose convictions are so strong that he's willing to dissent from the party line when he believes that the party line is wrong for the country.  Would that we had more conscientious politicians like them!

Actually, Miller went much further than mere dissent: he publicly acknowledged the depths to which most of his party had sunk in explaining why he had to support the other guy for president.  We'll see whether Lieberman does anything similar.

Let's be clear.  Anyone who calls for a troop withdrawal "timetable" to be made public is calling for aid to the enemy.  In past wars there was such thing as "classified" information, kept secret from enemy planners using complex codes with keys that people guarded with their lives.

Now we have politicians, particularly Democrats, insisting that the "the public" must be consulted on each major war policy, thus informing the enemy of our intentions.

Make no mistake about this newfound "concern" for the public's sensibilities and wisdom.  These politicians are hardly concerned about doing the right thing—they're concerned only with covering their backsides with a dense, protective coating of public opinion data.  They've already seen a principled decision, namely, a vote to use force against Sadaam, come back to bite them popularity-wise, and, not having the courage of their convictions to deal with the tide of public opinion turning against them (well, at least according to some polls), they want to make dang sure that it never happens again.  These men are not only evil, they're cowards.

Murtha has also said:

We cannot win this militarily.

Demoralizing our troops while simultaneously encouraging the enemy is treason, as far as I'm concerned.  In a war with terrorists, both sides are particularly sensitive to the state of morale, and when any leader uses the occasion of dissent to pierce the hearts of our own soldiers, he does not deserve their protection.  Propaganda has always been a vital tool of war because it works.  Both ways.

The soldiers can't speak for themselves.

Oh no?  Seems to me the ones coming back are doing a pretty good job of it, and they say they can't even recognize Iraq in the news they're getting from Legacy outlets.

And his most infamous comment to date:

[T]he Army is "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth."

Listen up, sir.  You may be broken and worn out, you pusillanimous, pus-filled, festering boil on the backside of Humanity, but our armies are not.  Just ask them.  You should summarily be propped firmly against a wall and shot, along with any of your Congressional colleagues who have made so much as a whimper in support of your vile statements.  And I request the honor of personally being on the firing squad.

If you aren't a traitor, sir, then there is no such thing as treason.

UPDATE:  Is it a felony to make such statements (two paragraphs up) against a member of Congress?  If so, this is one of those times that it's actually good to be an obscure little blog...

It's official: Time is stupid

The jury is in, and they have found the defendant, Time Magazine, guilty of being completely clueless.

First, they name SC governor Mark Sanford one of the three worst governors in America, placing him in the company of Kathleen Blanco of LA and Bob Taft of OH.  Two of those I can understand, but Sanford's main fault seems to be his fiscal conservatism.  No one's accused him of corruption or of sitting by while his state was devastated by a hurricane. 

He just hasn't raised taxes, which appears to be just as bad.

Ok.  Second, Time names Snuppy the cloned puppy to be the most amazing invertion of 2005.  The technique used to create the pup wasn't invented this year, but was the same technique used to clone Dolly the sheep (somatic cell nuclear transfer) ten years ago, and it wasn't even new then.  'Nuff said.

Finally, Time's "Person of the Year" award looks like it will go to Mother Nature.  She, of course, is closely related to the 1988 winner, "The Endangered Earth." 

Neither Earth nor Mother Nature were immediately available for comment.

At least try to be a little, you know, responsible

Listen up, folks.  This won't take long.

I've already posted quite a bit on the need to take the threat of a flu pandemic seriously without succumbing to hysteria or taking unwarranted and unhelpful actions, spreading rumors, or that sort of thing.

In spite of some irresponsible words you may have heard from the mouth of whatsisname Williams on NBC news tonight (about how there are many people worried about the following), there is absolutely no reason to fear that your Thanksgiving turkey might be infectious with "bird flu" if you live within the United States.  None, period.  I can't promise you that this will be true next Thanksgiving, or even this Christmas.  But it is true now.

The level of caution and over-reaction that poultry companies go to in reaction to finding a single infected duck or something on their farms reminds me of the "mad cow disease" scare a few years ago.  Whole herds were slaughtered if a single animal tested positive, and the result was that the disease never was allowed to even come close to threatening the US population.

You already know how to handle a turkey to guard against salmonella, and right now that's about the only threat it poses.

(Yes, I heard the NBC news tonight, but it wasn't exactly of my own volition.)

Dare we hope that he really gets it?

One of the most disappointing characteristics of President George W. Bush has been, not his lack of natural speaking talent, for which I don't hold him responsible, but his lack of willingness to suck it up and communicate his reasoning to the American people as well as to his political enemies in spite of his difficulties doing so.

He has largely left that task to others (who can't exactly peer into his mind), and many of us have grown to resent that we have been defending someone who, by virtue of his job, has a unique platform from which to defend his own dang self and policies, but doesn't seem to be quite up to trying very hard to do so.

Now, with the president's Newly Revealed Testicular Enhancements of Polished Copper/Zinc Alloy Composition™, we—or, I should say, I—have been afraid to hope that he just suddenly gets it.  Maybe it was just a one-off when he let loose at Carl Levin and Teddy Kennedy and the Washington Post like that, saying the things that we had silently (or not so silently) begged him to say for so long.

Well, he's still at it.  Today it's the NYTimes, according to Gateway Pundit.  The lamest, most transparent efforts of the left to rewrite history, when they're SO easily fact-checked into oblivion (see updates), are finally being answered by the president himself.  You know what I mean—the whole "Bush lied us into war" meme, the most easily disproven balderdash the left has tried to get away with in a while, is finally being addressed by the Big Guy himself, and it's about dang time he did.

But that's the end of my complaints along that line, just as long as he keeps it up. 

That's all I ask, Mr. President, sir.  Just please speak for yourself now and then, because you know the facts are on your side.  That's not too much to ask in return for our support (at least, when you deserve our support).

I'll bet they hardly knew what hit them when the president let loose that first time last Saturday.  Heh.  It would appear that someone—Rove, no doubt—set up them the bomb.  All your word are belong to us now, dudes.

For great justice!

UPDATE:  Mr. Peabody has loaned us his Wayback Machine.  Via Instapundit, here's a direct link to a .wmv streaming video of the new RNC commercial featuring Democratic leaders talking about Saddam and WMD as far back as the 90s.  Nothing out-of-context or otherwise distorted here—just lethally pure, unvarnished truth, the best antidote for revisionist history known to man.

And a commenter to The Truth Laid Bear points to a large collection of similar quotations, handy for getting out those annoying, ground-in, hard-to-get-out lefty memestains.  Now with new head-exploding action!

ADDITIONAL UPDATE:  More Fun with the Wayback Machine here.

FURTHER UPDATE NOW THAT BILL QUICK HAS REMINDED ME OF SOMETHING:  For the record, just so there's no misunderstanding or unnecessary ill-will toward those poor souls who were so obviously misled by George Bush years before he even ran for president, let me say this unequivocally and without any undue malice:  I understand you.  I really do.

Therefore, with all due malice, I say that every one of you lying Democratic weasels who subjugated the lives of the very Americans who defend you, our national security, and a basic respect for a quaint old idea called "the truth" to your own political gain ACTED UNPATRIOTICALLY.  That's right, you treasonous, unprincipled sacks of putrid, fermenting used cat litter, I'm questioning your bloody patriotism.  No—I'm not questioning it, I'm downright DENYING it.  Just quit acting like you're the injured party here, k?  You KNOW what you said then, but since little things like honor, truth and our national interest apparently matter not a whit to you, let me just lay it on the table here:  you're not public servants by any stretch.  You're public menaces who don't deserve the protections you get from our military merely by virtue of your citizenship, which you also don't deserve.

You can all go to France for all I care.  Just get out of my sight.  Go.  Move to France or Canada or whomever will tolerate you, even San Francisco, as long as you just go.

(Oh, sorry, Bill.  That Frisco invective wasn't directed at you.  How on Earth you tolerate it there is beyond my ken, even with the reasons you recently gave.)

YET ANOTHER UPDATE RESPONDING TO A COMMENT:  Rob wrote

Fermenting used cat litter? I love it! Preach it Obi! Tell it like it is. I too am tired of Weenies bad mouthing this country that is shedding blood to protect their right to

...and there it just sort of cuts off for reasons unknown, so I'll take a stab at what he may have meant:

They're bad-mouthing (no, that's way too weak—they're cursing) the very people who shed blood to protect their very right to speak out like that and make fools of themselves. These people evidently have no concept of where freedom comes from, much less of what it costs, and especially of who procures it for them and picks up the tab. I suppose they must think it falls from the sky or grows on trees or something (actually, I have occasionally witnessed it growing on a Bush), but it always has to be purchased, and it's pretty pricey—not even George Soros can afford it. If you think gasoline has been expensive of late, try picking up a couple centuries' worth of freedom down at your local Wal-Mart Supercenter sometime.

I don't think your Gold Card will quite cover it. But don't you fret, now—just go talk to Casey Sheehan's buddies about how much it's costing nowadays. They're always happy to kick in with more than their share.

ONE MORE UPDATE:  From the Daily Pundit Archives (26 May 2004), yet another informative list of quotes from poor, misled people with no personal responsibility for what they said, how they voted, or why they did so.

(Thanks to Greyhawk's Open Post!)

Lied to again

Via The Steel Deal, we learn that the House has decided that it's a good idea to make a move to counter the infamous Kelo v. New London eminent domain SCOTUS decision.

While it's certainly a move in the right direction, sort of, please pardon me if I'm not quite as excited about this as you are.

First of all, I firmly believe that this is a prime example of something Congress does well: reacting to a current event widely perceived as bad by rushing into legislation to "fix" the problem and earn brownie points with voters, while either not fixing the original problem or making it worse.  I don't really think Congress acted so much out of "good intentions" as I think they cynically acted in their own interests.  (Maybe I'm the cynical one.)  One of the keys to knowing this is this phrase: the bill is "headed toward easy passage with bipartisan support."  Dead giveaway.

Second, this is a matter properly dealt with by the states, not the federal government at all.  Fortunately, acording to the article Steel linked to, about half the states are indeed "considering changes in their laws to prevent [eminent domain] takings for private use."

That's good.  I don't yet know whether SC is one of them.

Third, buried in the ninth paragraph of the story, we discover that the measure passed by the House is only for two years.  I have no idea why this is the case, but it only underscores the "band-aid" nature of this measure.

Now, in a perverse sort of way, this is actually a plus for me—I don't want this issue addressed at the federal level at all, and a two-year sunset only makes me glad.  Perhaps the states will have mostly dealt with this matter by then.

But this biggest issue for me, bigger even than the usurping of states' rights yet again by Congress, is the way they intend to ostensibly prevent eminent domain takings for private use.

They don't.

That's right.  Don't let anyone tell you that this law prohibits either local or state governments from using economic development as a rationale for eminent domain takings.  (It does, I think, expressly prohibit the federal governmant from doing so.)

What it does do is one of the worst things Congress ever does, because it takes advantage of one of the most perverse things that our government has done in recent decades.  We are taxed by the federal government which then proceeds to dole out those tax dollars to the states from which they came, picking and choosing which states get how much.  States keep track of whether they have gotten back more than they paid out, and are publicly delighted when things work out that way, when they should be ashamed to be sponging off of the taxpayers of other states.

(Can you tell that I'm really very ticked by all of this?  Yeah, figured as much.)

What the bill does is to...pardon me, but it's all I can do to just type these words without getting sick (I know, I'll use my favorite anti-nausea tool, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V)...to "cut off for two years all federal economic development funds to states and localities that use economic development as a rationale for a taking."

As I said, this AP story buries this fact in the ninth paragraph, while in the first paragraph it expressly lies to us, saying that "the House took up legislation Thursday to block court-sanctioned seizings of people's homes for use by private developers."

This measure blocks no such thing (except at the federal level, where it rarely happens anyway), and they know it.

While the federal government frequently uses such threats of cutting off funding as "blackmail" to enforce federal laws or regulations, this strikes me as a bass-ackwards way of going about things.  If you're going to assert federal authority over the states and forbid something, why in blazes don't you have the guts to, you know, actually forbid something?  Why go this back-door way of threatening their allowance, as if they were wayward teenagers?

Sheesh.  I better stop before I blow a gasket or something.

And it's all Bush's fault, too!

Needless to say, this was via Steel Turman.  It was certainly brave of Steel to include the self-portrait and all, but I had always thought he didn't have that much hair.  On his head, I mean.

The power of the press

Someone somewhere owes someone else an apology, and more besides, but it's not likely to happen.

Ah, where to start?   Have you ever watched the TV program "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition?"  Ok.  Then you know how they try to find a worthy family—perhaps the parents run a camp for disabled children, perhaps they take care of children no one else will care for...you get the idea.

This is the kind of family that was assaulted—yes, assaulted— by a sensationalism-hungry Legacy Media over the last few days. Now, when they get to find wrongdoing in the halls of power, O how they feel so righteous!  And yet when their vaunted layers of editors and fact-checkers make a—oops!—mistake, and something gets into print that shouldn't have, how do they correct their errors?

Errors?  What errors?  We're the PRESS!  We trump everyone!  Whatever errors may have been made were of little importance compared to the seriousness of the charges!  What errors could you possibly be talking about?

Well, lessee...let's start with this AP story that ran all over the world—just try to google "gravelles wakeman ohio" (without the quotes, of course) and you'll pull up dozens of pages of news, outraged Reporters Reporting the Reports that have been Reported to them by the Holy AP Syndicated Teletype Oracle, of how there are children in Ohio being kept in cages!  Cages, I say!  It's outrageous!  And I'm appropriately outraged for the occasion, of course.  Back to you, Dan.

Of course, plenty of blame goes also to prosecutor Russell Leffler who started this mess.  He—now get this—he actually wanted to make the case that the Gravelles were doing this for money.  Right.  We'll get to that in a minute.

And oh, yes, I forgot to introduce you to Mike and Sharen Gravelle.  They adopt the un-adoptable children that are normally doomed to spend their lives in institutions instead of homes.  And just what is their reward for doing all this?  It is to have all their children taken away from them and to be known far and wide as the Most Evil Parents in the World.

First, an example of what was reported:

WAKEMAN, Ohio - Sheriff's deputies removed 11 children from a home where they were locked in cages less than 3 1/2 feet high, authorities said.

The children's adoptive and foster parents, Mike and Sharen Gravelle, denied that they'd abused or neglected the children during a custody hearing Monday in Huron County. No charges had been filed as of Monday night.

... The cages were stacked in bedrooms on the second floor of their house, said prosecutor Russell Leffler, who was reviewing the case.

The children were found by a children's services investigator on Friday when he stopped by the Gravelles' home outside Wakeman, about 50 miles west of Cleveland. Deputies returned to the house that evening.

Some of the cages were rigged with alarms, Sommers said; others had heavy furniture blocking their doors. The children didn't have blankets or pillows.

One of the boys said he'd slept in the cage for three years, Sommers said.

... In March, a couple who had recently moved from Ohio to Florida was charged with neglect when their adopted teenager was discovered malnourished in a crib-like cage. The then-17-year-old weighed 49 pounds, investigators said.

The twin-bed-sized crib had been prescribed when the boy was much younger and lived in Ohio. It had been fitted with a lid, chains and a padlock, investigators said.

See?  Cages!  And note the strategic use of the word "rigged," as in "some of the cages were rigged with alarms."  I guess that's supposed to bring up thoughts of booby-traps or something.  See how outrageously outrageous this is?  I'm just...outraged!

I can find no more obvious example of the Legacy Press abusing its power than this story.  None of the abovementioned reporters ever went inside the actual home to see what this was all about, but of course, that didn't stop them from writing stories about the wicked cages, rigged with alarms!—until Michael Gravelle became tired of his wife's being labeled "the world's most evil mother," and he decided to give a tour of his home to a reporter from The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

"I felt terrible about it," Michael Gravelle told a reporter and photographer for The Plain Dealer during a tour of his home Sunday. "But it's necessary."

The children were removed from the home last month and sent to foster homes while the adoptions are investigated. The parents have not been charged, and custody hearings are scheduled in the widely publicized case.

The couple previously has not let reporters into their home.

For privacy reasons, they haven't allowed reporters access to their home.  Reasonable enough.  Except that said reporters will punish you for that by spreading baseless rumors about you.

Here's the kicker.

The Gravelles say they were adopting children nobody else wanted, who had problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome, autism, HIV and pica, an eating disorder that causes children to eat dirt and rocks.

The enclosures where the children slept are about 6 feet in length. The doors could be opened easily and had no locks on them, but a battery-powered alarm would go off when the doors opened, the newspaper said.

They were used as sleeping quarters to prevent the children from hurting themselves with glass or eating medicines, Michael Gravelle said. Every cupboard and shelf was covered with chicken wire for the same reason, he said.

"If you can call these cages, take me to jail right now," Michael Gravelle said. "Right now."

Oops.

Someone kind of, well, jumped to conclusions, didn't they?  These aren't normal children being kept here—these are the most difficult of the difficult cases, the ones where you can't even leave a child unattended through the night, so an alarm was set up to warn the parents if one of the children got out of bed.  I'd probably do the same thing, under the circumstances.

Prosecutor Russ Leffler alleges that the Gravelles were adopting the children for financial gain. Records show they received $4,265 monthly in adoption subsidies and disability payments when they had eight children in 2001.

"You could not pay me enough to do the things we had to do," Michael Gravelle said. "There is nothing easy about raising these children. We did not abuse them. That's the truth."

Let's see...that's about $51,000 a year to raise eleven of the most difficult children in the world.  Sure sounds like "easy street" to me.

Leffler is such an asinine...I can't say it.  I just can't say it.

When the Blogosphere makes an error, it gets splashed all over the front pages of thousands of blogs all over the internet.  When the Legacy Media makes an error, they didn't, really.  It gets buried—nothing to see here.  These aren't the horror stories you're looking for.  They can go about their business.  Move along.

There will be no gnashing of teeth or wringing of hands from them over this.  They caused untold pain and anguish to a family that was just trying to do something good, but there will be no attempt to make it right.  No headlines about what a wonderful thing the Gravelles are doing.  No foundation set up to receive donations so that the Gravelles, and others like them, can do their work a little more easily.  That's the least they could do.  The very least, after spreading nasty, unfounded rumors about good people who were just trying to help.  And the Legacy Media has the power to do just that.

Let's just watch them make it happen, right?  Right?

(Hat tip to Ralph Bristol, and thanks to Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette for the Open Post!)

Michael Yon on the radio

I received a comment on a very old post yesterday, and under most circumstances I would just delete it as spam, but hey, this is Michael Yon we're talking about here!

With so much happening in Iraq, from the trial of Saddam to the voting on the Constitution, we are happy to announce that Michael Yon will be back on the Pundit Review Radio this Sunday evening.

Michael will be joining us live from Iraq to give us a preview of his upcoming Weekly Standard column on last weekend's historic voting; we'll also get his perspective on Saddam's trial and the overall situation on the ground.

When: Sunday, October 23, 9pm EST
Where: Streaming Live at Boston's Talk Station, WRKO
Contact: Call us toll free at 877-469-4322

Yes, this is streaming live, so you don't have to be in the Boston area to hear it.  Hope you can make it.