Video- President Obama Remembers Walter Cronkite

Cartoon of the Day

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Freedom of the press declines in every region in 2008

By GottaLaff

Will someone please loosen my muzzle? I'm trying to communicate here:

Journalists around the globe should have little reason to think that freedom of the press is safe, according to a survey report released on Friday by Freedom House, a human rights advocacy group. Freedom House’ annual ‘freedom of the press report’ analyzed the state of the news media in 195 countries; advocates found that the freedom of the press declined in every region for the first time since the annual report was published.

The report, which can be found at the Freedom House website, recorded the seventh straight year in overall declines in freedom of the press worldwide.

Seventh year... think. Think. What does that coincide with...? Nah.

“Improvements in a small number of countries — including bright spots in parts of South Asia and Africa — were overshadowed by a continued, relentless assault on independent news media by a wide range of actions, in both authoritarian states and countries with very open media environments.” [...]

“The journalism profession today is up against the ropes and fighting to stay alive, as pressures from governments, other powerful actors and the global economic crisis take an enormous toll,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House. “The press is democracy’s first defense and its vulnerability has enormous implications for democracy if journalists are not able to carry out their traditional watchdog role.”

It's really hard to type when I'm wringing my hands.

More here.

VIDEO: Joe the Plumber goes to Israel... as a war correspondent

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I wish I was kidding about what I'm about to post. MSNBC just said that Joe the Fraud is traveling to Israel to-- hold on to your hats-- report news from the p.o.v. of "the regular guy".

This clown makes Jeff Gannon look like a pro. Well, Gannon was a pro, but just not when it came to journalism.

Here's the print story:

Joe the Plumber has found a new job: Intrepid Middle East war correspondent.

America's most-famous plumber since Watergate is apparently heading to Israel as a war correspondent for a conservative Web site so he can let "'Average Joes' share their story" during the onging war with Hamas in Gaza.

Joe demonstrated his foreign policy acumen during the presidential campaign when he said putting Barack Obama in the White House would mean "the death of Israel."

In a later interview with Fox News, which you can watch below, Joe told Shep Smith: "Listen, you don't want my opinion on foreign policy. I know just enough about foreign policy to probably be dangerous."

Wurzelbacher is dangerous alright. And that anyone could possibly take him seriously enough to send him to the Middle East during a crisis of this magnitude is mind-boggling.

What next, Grandma Palin as ambassador to Russia?

Mark Halperin on biggest media failure in the past 7 years - “It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage.”

What a serious dumbass. What John says-

If there was a journalist out there who you wanted to talk to about media bias, would you start with Mark Halperin? Listening to Mark Halperin discuss media bias is like listening to Michael Brown opine on the benefits of good disaster relief. Halperin, you will remember, is the deep thinker who informed us all that McCain’s inability to explain how many houses he owned was… bad news for team Obama.

Was Howard Kurtz unavailable for comment? What about Brent Bozell? And really, being insufficiently hostile to Obama was the media’s biggest failure the past seven years? Really?

Right-Wing Group Distributing Hundreds Of Thousands Of DVDs Attacking Obama In Swing-State Newspapers

When did newspapers decide that whoring themselves out for political fearmongering was their journalistic duty? Remember, this isn't the first time. Via TPM, more at the link.

Citizens United, the conservative group headed by notorious Whitewater scandalmonger David Bossie, is distributing hundreds of thousands of DVDs attacking Barack Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers in newspapers in Ohio, Nevada, and Florida this week, a group spokesperson confirms to us.

A reader in Ohio reports to us that she received a copy of the DVD, called "Hype: The Obama Effect," in her copy of the Columbus Dispatch this morning.

We checked in with Citizens United spokesperson Will Holley, who confirmed to us that the DVD was distributed in the Dispatch today, and will be disseminated in copies of the Cincinatti Enquirer and Plain Dealer tomorrow, followed by the Palm Beach Post and the Los Vegas Review Journal on Friday.