NY weekly shows Obamas as 'Sanford and Son' actors

Since they don't have a website I'm not 100% sure that this is the pic, but it looks like it. Classy freaking paper.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — A weekly newspaper photo depicting President Barack Obama and his wife as characters from the TV sitcom "Sanford and Son" was intended as political satire and not a racist commentary, the publisher said Wednesday.

Phillip Sciarello, publisher and part owner of the Smithtown Messenger on New York's Long Island, defended the decision to publish the photo, but added the newspaper would run a retraction in its next edition for anyone who might have been offended.

The photo spread features "before and after" shots of the last six presidents and their wives, starting with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and ending with the Obamas. The "after" photo of the Obamas is a shot from the 1970s show, with Redd Foxx as Fred Sanford and LaWanda Page as Sanford's sister-in-law, Aunt Esther. She is seen standing ready to box Sanford; the characters often verbally jousted as part of the show's story line.

The "after" photos of the other presidents feature their images as slightly older than when they took office.

China demotes editor over Obama interview

By GottaLaff

As Paddy just said to me, the wingers were all whining that the President didn't talk enough about the free press while he was in China, but it was enough to get a reporter demoted?

BEIJING: The top editor of a Chinese newspaper that interviewed US president Barack Obama has been demoted, in a move they described as fallout from Communist Party censors’ anger over its handling of the story. [...]

An editor from another publication said censors also told the Southern Weekend not to print a picture of a note that Obama wrote for the paper, speaking of the importance of a free press.

During his visit to China, Obama prodded the host government on censorship and human rights.

Newspaper threatened with ‘another Fort Hood’ for criticizing Tea Party protest

By GottaLaff

It only takes one:

Police in Michigan are investigating after an irate reader of the Port Huron Times-Herald reportedly called in a threat to the newspaper after it criticized a local House representative's participation in the anti-health reform Tea Party protest two weeks ago.

"A 60-year-old Port Huron woman threatened to take a gun to the newspaper and 'do what they did at Fort Hood,' according to police," the Times-Herald reported on Tuesday. [...]

The Times-Herald says police have not yet decided whether the woman will be charged.

And the hostility spreads, no thanks to the Becks, Limpdongs, Bachmanns, Congress members, and Palins of the world who do nothing to discourage it, and more often than not incite it.

H/t: sdpdx

Video- NY Daily News Reporter Recounts Meeting with Obama at Arlington National Cemetery

The reporter talking about what Gotta covered here.

Newspaper Apologizes to Palin

By GottaLaff

The question is, when will Sarah the Quitter apologize to us for all the damage she has done?

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner runs an apology for their headline on a photo about Sarah Palin's speech in Hong Kong: "A broad in Asia."

Writes the newspaper's editor: "We made a terrible mistake."

Compared to Palin's remarks, on foreign soil no less, against her own president, that newspaper's mistake looks like a compliment... broadly speaking, of course.

Pew Survey: Charges of Media Bias Continue to Grow

In our polarized world, I see no way at all to correct this.

WASHINGTON More bad news for journalists: The percentage of people who believe their work is inaccurate and biased continues to grow.

Nearly two-thirds — 63 percent — of Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press believe that news stories are often inaccurate. That's a flip from when Pew first asked that question in 1985, when 34 percent of respondents believed stories were frequently inaccurate.

Pew also found that 74 percent of respondents believe stories tend to favor one side of an issue over another, up from 66 percent two years ago.

(snip)

The findings indicate U.S. newspapers and broadcasters could be alienating the audiences they are struggling to keep as they try to survive financial turmoil. Pew Research's questionnaire didn't attempt to gauge how shrinking newspapers and other cutbacks at news organizations are affecting people's perceptions, though the reductions probably haven't helped, said Michael Dimock, an associate director for the center.

Liberal media, my (bi)as:The Right-Wing Op-Ed Insurgency

By GottaLaff

Oneth again, it'th time to dithpel thome myth-information:

Liberal bias? A Daily Beast investigation crunches the numbers and shows how conservative think tanks have quietly achieved domination over the opinion pages of America’s biggest papers. [...]

[A] Daily Beast review of the archives of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post tells a much different story: Conservative think tanks are pummeling their liberal peers in the race for the most prominent placement on op-ed pages. During the past year, 77 percent of pieces authored by think-tank affiliates came from conservative outfits, 18 percent came from centrist groups, and a tiny 5 percent came from the left wing.

Just for the fun of it, put that info together with what's seeming to (d)evolve on the Tee Vee Machine, specifically this story about MSNBC, Fox, and Richard Wolffe. Keep in mind who the guests have been on The Ed Show (Hint: Tom Tancredeo, Lars Larsen) and The Rachel Maddow Show (Pat Buchanan), among others.

Which think tank takes up the most opinion-page real estate?

The American Enterprise Institute crushes the competition, liberal and conservative, in racking up bylines, scoring 99 of the total 217 pieces published by major think tanks from the third week of July 2008 to July 21, 2009, as shown by a review of the archives of the Times, Post, and Journal. [...]

But it’s important to note that the AEI crowd is not completely confined to the Journal. They also find themselves in the opinion section of the Washington Post more times—16 during the last year—than any other think tank. [...]

Which think tanks does The New York Times seem to crush on?

Unlike the Journal, The Times has no consistent feeder like AEI. The most common partners are fellows from the left-center Brookings Institution, security analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Kevin Pollack, and the centrist New America Foundation, including foreign-affairs expert Peter Bergen.

The Times was generally more resistant to think-tank op eds; in The Daily Beast survey, the Journal had approximately five times more major think-tank bylines than the Times.

This absence may relate more to the approach of liberal policy centers than the direction of the Times. [...]

But when it comes to the byline battles, no matter who is in the White House, Podesta and his allies face an uphill battle. When it comes to influence, conservatives have the broadsheet opinion war won.

So! How's that media push for a public option going?

Classified ad calling for Obama's assassination draws law enforcement

By GottaLaff

Yesterday I posted about an ad that was, well, so wrong that it couldn't be any wronger. We've all been waiting for the sequel, and here it is:

An errant classified "personal" ad which appeared in Thursday's Times Observer has drawn the attention of law enforcement officials.

A person from Warren placed the ad, which apparently alludes to the wish that President Obama meet an untimely end by linking him with four assassinated presidents. The ad representative didn't make the connection among the four other presidents mentioned and mistakenly allowed the ad to run.

Where was this person schooled? Wait. Let me rephrase that. Was this person ever schooled?

Upon realizing the mistake early Thursday morning, the ad was immediately discontinued and the identity of the person who placed the ad was turned over to Warren City Police as per newspaper policy. The local police department forwarded the information to federal authorities, as per department policy.

The Times Observer apologizes for the oversight.

Apologies don't explain the ignorance of a newspaper employee. Apologies don't suppress hateful racist messages. Apologies don't keep the president safe.

H/t: Shoq

PA newspaper runs ad calling for assassination of Obama

By GottaLaff

Click on image to enlarge, which is an edited version of this.

Nothing incendiary about this at all... :

The Warren Pennsylvania Times-Observer published an ad today calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama.

See? There's no there there. What's all the fuss about, right Glenn Beck? Boss Limbaugh? Madam's Apple Coulter? et al? Assassination? Pfft! What's that? You just called for the president to fail? Oooohh, well then, much better. Moving on:

The text of the small classified ad reads, “May Obama follow in the footsteps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy!” There is no other text and it has no attribution. [...]

Keystone Progress called the Times-Observer for comment and got a return call from John T. Elchert, the paper’s publisher. Mr. Elchert was extremely apologetic and wanted to make it clear that the ad did not reflect the paper’s policy.

“It is unfortunate that it made it to press,” said Elchert. “The person who took the ad didn’t recognize the significance of the names. We cancelled the ad and turned the information over to the authorities.” [...]

“Unfortunately, the attitude of the person who placed the ad is too prevalent in Pennsylvania,” said Michael Morrill, the executive director of Keystone Progress. “In the last few days we’ve gotten emails calling the president ‘chimp’ and the n-word after he nominated Judge Sotomayor. It makes it very difficult to organize around issues when the opposition to the president’s policies is so racially charged. ”

The person didn't recognize the significance of the names?

Seriously, the racism in this country is tragic. My snark is simply a way to vent. I'm at a loss here, in disbelief and appalled that this kind of ignorance and prejudice continue to fester in the 21st century.

Yoo must be kidding: Philly Paper Hires John Yoo as Columnist

By GottaLaff

Freedom of speech is one thing. Hiring someone who is clearly one of the architects of BushCo's illegal torture program is another:

The Philadelphia Inquirer has hired John Yoo — the notorious former Office of Legal Counsel lawyer and architect of the “torture memos” that not only narrowed the definition of torture to exclude waterboarding and most other widely recognized forms of torture, but justified torture (by his own definition) and suspension of the Bill of Rights on U.S. soil — to be a regular columnist for the paper.

As Will Bunch at the Philadelphia Daily News puts it:

The Inquirer thus handed Yoo a loud megaphone on what was once a hallowed piece of real estate in American journalism — to write on the very subjects that have now led Justice Department investigators to reportedly recommend disbarment proceedings against Yoo and has led international prosecutors as well as millions of politically engaged Americans to consider the Episcopal Academy graduate worthy of charging with war crimes.

Here’s the Inquirer editorial page editor’s response:

[...] Of course, we know more about Mr. Yoo’s actions in the Justice Department now than we did at the time we contracted him. But we did not blindly enter into our agreement. He’s a Philadelphian, and very knowledgeable about the legal subjects he discusses in his commentaries. Our readers have been able to get directly from Mr. Yoo his thoughts on a number of subjects concerning law and the courts, including measures taken by the White House post-9/11. That has promoted further discourse, which is the objective of newspaper commentary.

Uh, maybe. But I tend to agree with Bunch on this:

[...] The higher calling for an American newspaper should be promoting and maintaining our sometimes fragile democracy, the very thing that Yoo and his band of torture advocates very nearly shredded in a few short years. Quite simply, by handing Yoo a regularly scheduled platform for his viewpoint, the Inquirer is telling its readers that Yoo’s ideas — especially that torture is not a crime against the very essence of America — are acceptable.

Ouch: Homeland Security Dropping Newspaper Subs: Can Get News Online

Via Greg's wonderful site(if you're not reading it, you should) we see President Obama's cost cutting measures in action-

WASHINGTON The Homeland Security Department is dropping some newspaper and magazine subscriptions to save money.

The agency has told its employees to cancel subscriptions to general interest newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post and to magazines such as Newsweek and Time by April 27.

Future subscriptions will have to be authorized in advance. The department says employees will still have access to news because most publications can be found online on an in-house Web site.

Limited subscriptions to those that aren't online will be kept in a public area and shared, cutting mail screening and delivery costs.

Obama Inauguration International Front Pages

These are just a few, many more here.

Sign of the times: Detroit Free Press ceases most home delivery

By GottaLaff

Via TPM:

From the Journal (sub.req.) ...

The publisher of the Detroit Free Press, the country's 20th largest paper by weekday circulation, is expected to announce next week that it will cease home delivery of the print edition of the newspaper on most days of the week, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking.

The publisher hasn't made a final decision, said this person, but the leading scenario set to be unveiled Tuesday would call for the Free Press and its partner paper, the Detroit News, to end home delivery on all but the most lucrative days--Thursday, Friday and Sunday. On the other days, the publisher would sell single copies of an abbreviated print edition at newsstands and direct readers to the papers' expanded digital editions.

I'm a fan of actual print newspapers, the kind I can hold in my hands. Watching all these publishers fade away is like watching old friends die.

Even More Newspaper Layoffs

Rob Tornoe via Greg. More here.

'NYT' Report: `Miami Herald Up For Sale, Too

Greg over at E&P has been keeping track of all the closings, lay offs and scale downs in the newspaper industry. If you go over there you will be astounded by the blood on the ground. (or should I say ink?) Now, the Herald? It's bad folks.

CHICAGO The Miami Herald is for sale, according to a report on The New York Times Web site Friday night.

Times staffer Richard Perez-Pena, quoting “people briefed on the company’s plan,” reported that The McClatchy Company has approached potential buyers for its biggest newspaper.

The sources said “they knew of no serious offers for the paper, reflecting the evaporation of major investors’ interest in buying newspapers.” A McClatchy spokesperson declined to comment on “market rumors,” the Times said.

The article concludes: "The people briefed on the company’s plans say The Herald generates a very slim operating margin and that the most attractive part of any deal could be its prime waterfront real estate. But the Florida real estate market is in deep recession — one of the reasons for the struggles of the paper, which used to benefit from heavy real estate advertising."

The First Draft of History

Cool new book coming out, via Taegan.

This is a collection of over 75 newspaper front pages from around the world announcing Barack Obama's historic victory in the 2008 presidential election.

VIDEO: Line for commemorative Obama newspapers stretches around block

By GottaLaff

BFPEE:

[T]oday, the Washington Post released another 150,000 copies of its commemorative election edition. The line stretched around the block.

*Best f***ing president-elect ever

R.I.P. Christian Science Monitor

By GottaLaff

A sign of the times:

The Christian Science Monitor is about to pull the plug on its print edition, just as the venerable newspaper is about to turn 100.

What isn't going under these days?

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.

Newspaper endorsements switch from Bush to Obama

By GottaLaff

After 8 years of Bushage, change is mandatory:

Editor and Publisher notes that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has a significant lead over Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in newspaper endorsements — 121-42. At least 26 papers that supported President Bush in 2004 have moved to Obama, versus just four that supported Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) switching to McCain. “In California alone, the Obama-Biden ticket picked-up six newspapers that endorsed President Bush in 2004. He also gained a few papers, such as the Los Angeles Times and Cleveland’s Plain Dealer that did no[t] endorse either candidate in 2004.”

The question is, why would any paper switch from Kerry to Gramm-pa? Or to put it another way, why would anyone support Gramm-pa, period?