Politico: CBS News Execs See Attkisson As ‘Dangerously Close to Advocacy’ on Benghazi
Politico media writer Dylan Byers sought to add context to Paul Farhi’s “glowing profile” of CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson in Wednesday’s Washington Post.
Byers suggested Farhi painted it as a David and Goliath story with Team Obama as Goliath. But there’s another Goliath, he wrote: CBS News executives who aren’t happy with Attkisson’s “Benghazi campaign” that’s “wading dangerously close” to advocacy:
Bozell Column: Coming Up Short On Dr. Gosnell
The trial of notorious Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell -- as close to a demonic presence as anything this country will ever see -- was almost a month old when the network blackout finally ended. CNN broke its silence, as did CBS. National newspapers sent reporters to the trial for the first time.
They started covering it only because of a national outrage that they would so deliberately withhold this horror story from the public -- for political reasons.
WashPost Admits a Gosnell Blackout, But Claims There’s No ‘Evidence’ of Liberal Bias
Monday’s Style section of the Washington Post was topped by a surprising story: “An abortion provider is on trial: Where’s the media coverage?” Sadly, what followed was a denial that there's any evidence of liberal bias, and a parade of utterly unconvincing evasions, excuses, and accusations against conservative media.
Post reporter Paul Farhi credited the “conservative Media Research Center” with asking if the blackout of the Kermit Gosnell trial could be caused by the “mainstream media’s supposed support for abortion rights.” This story utterly erodes the word “mainstream” for them. Start with the maddening list of official media responses to where they’ve been on Gosnell:
WashPost’s Farhi Laments Newspapers Caving in to Pressure, Backing Away from Publishing Gun Owner Lists
In a 19-paragraph story today, Washington Post staff writer Paul Farhi took a look at how various newspapers around the country are backing away from their initial requests for public records of gun owners. "For the third time in as many months, a newspaper has faced an angry backlash, including threats of violence, after it sought government data on local gun permit holders," Farhi noted. "In the two most recent instances, the newspapers rescinded requests for the documents amid the outcry, with one issuing an abject apology to its readers and the local sheriff for daring to seek the information in the first place," he griped.
In a time when the print newspaper is an endangered species, you'd think Farhi might present the story with the angle being how liberal papers are shooting themselves in the feet with stunts that harm their advertising revenue and subscription base. But no, the thrust of Farhi's piece is how newspapers are cowering away from doing their job. To make this point, Farhi turned to journalism professor Geneva Overholser, who perhaps is most infamous for her call eight years ago for newspapers to identify alleged rape victims (emphasis mine):
WashPost Honors Ellen’s ‘Courage’ As She Says Women Should Be ‘Very, Very Scared’ of Romney
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Tuesday’s Washington Post honored lesbian comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres for “A comic’s courage” to come out of the closet. So did the Kennedy Center people who selected her to win the Mark Twain Prize. She did not disappoint the liberals.
On the awards show (taped for PBS), she made a “sly nod toward Mitt Romney’s sentiments” with the joke, “Thank you, PBS. I’m so glad to be part of your final season.” She also told Politico Romney made her “very, very scared” for women for many reasons (on which she apparently didn't have the "courage" to elaborate):
WashPost Honors Ellen’s ‘Courage’ As She Says Women Should Be ‘Very, Very Scared’ of Romney
Tuesday’s Washington Post honored lesbian comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres for “A comic’s courage” to come out of the closet. So did the Kennedy Center people who selected her to win the Mark Twain Prize. She did not disappoint the liberals.
On the awards show (taped for PBS), she made a “sly nod toward Mitt Romney’s sentiments” with the joke, “Thank you, PBS. I’m so glad to be part of your final season.” She also told Politico Romney made her “very, very scared” for women for many reasons (on which she apparently didn't have the "courage" to elaborate):
WashPost Joins Time, CNN In Suspending Fareed Zakaria’s Column After Plagiarism Scandal
The Washington Post really knows how to bury the lede. In a Tuesday story on how suspended CNN-Time journalist Fareed Zakaria is now under fire for stealing quotes without attribution in his book The Post-American World, media reporter Paul Farhi waited until the 13th and final paragraph to acknowledge that that the Post has joined CNN and Time in punishing Zakaria for his plagiarism.
“Zakaria also writes a separate column for The Washington Post. The newspaper said on Monday that his column will not appear this month,” he concluded. Zakaria lamented: "People are piling on with every grudge or vendetta" now that NewsBusters exposed him.
Wash Post Columnist: America’s ‘Olympic Chauvinism’ Is ‘Mild’ Compared to Hitler’s Germany
Washington Post columnist Paul Farhi on Saturday offered an obnoxious comparison for the widespread American patriotism on display during the just-ended Olympics: He brought up Hitler. Regarding the quest for gold medals, Farhi connected, "Certainly, America's current Olympic chauvinism (USA! USA!) is mild compared with Adolf Hitler's grotesque perversion of the 1936 Berlin Games or the long arc of the Cold War era."
(Well, it's a good thing America's "chauvinism" isn't quite as bad as Hitler.) The Post journalist seemed to want to have it both ways, acknowledging the prestige and advertising money U.S. viewers bring to the Olympics and at the same time worrying about how Chinese athletes "don’t get many humanizing breaks." Farhi lamented, "Bob Costas hasn’t been having them over for many post-game chats, nor is Visa likely to feature them in its golden-tinged commercials anytime soon."
Colbertian Studies: WaPo Highlights Academia’s Obsession with Comedian
Observers on the right and left have, for different reasons, long lamented that Comedy Central has become the main source of news for young people. But one group thinks the phenomenon is just fine. The academic left considers comedian Stephen Colbert an object of serious and perhaps even obsessive study.
The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi wrote an excellent piece on July 9, examining the academic world’s “unsettling” obsession with comedian Stephen Colbert. Farhi describes Colbert-related studies as the “academic cult of Colbert,” writing: “Yet ever since Colbert’s show, “The Colbert Report,” began airing on Comedy Central in 2005, these ivory tower eggheads have been devoting themselves to studying all things Colbertian.”
Farhi checked off a list of Colbert-related academic work, including forays into philosophy, politics, and media studies. Perhaps the most unsettling example of Colbert-mania Farhi notes is the graduate paper: “The Wørd Made Fresh: A Theological Exploration of Stephen Colbert,” published in Concepts (“an interdisciplinary journal of graduate studies”), Villanova University, 2010.
The academic left’s obsession with Colbert is unsurprising. Colbert is notorious for venturing into the political sphere and attacking conservatives – he once called paraplegic conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer “Count Chocula.” On his comedy show, “The Colbert Report,” he plays the part of what Farhi calls “an egomaniacal right-wing gasbag” pundit.
Colbert’s mockery of the current American political system is evident. He created his own Super PAC, “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow,” in order to demonstrate how easy it is to manipulate current campaign finance rules. He even testified before Congress concerning immigration and migrant farm workers, mockingly arguing: "I don't want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, sliced by a Guatemalan and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian."
Colbert’s animosity towards conservatives won him starry-eyed praise from the academics Farhi cited. Penn State professor Sophia McClennen gushed: “Colbert deserves to be held among the greatest satirists in American history.” Media studies professor Geoffrey Baym argued: “you could argue that the emergence of satire news at this level is an important phenomenon that I still don’t think we understand.”
Academia is notorious for advancing liberal themes under the guise of “study” and “research.” History professor Joseph Ellis declared that the Tea Party and modern conservatism was a “repudiation of all he [George Washington] stood for. Even history textbooks skew events in order to inculcate a liberal perspective.
Farhi wrote: “our so-called universities are in big trouble, and not just because attending one of them leaves you with more debt than the Greek government.” Farhi’s writing might be tongue-in-cheek, but it’s difficult to disagree with his assessment.