Blogs Pump Bucks Into Campaigns
Posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 by mediababe

Chris Ulbrich, Wired News

Not even his own staff would call Democratic congressional candidate Ben Chandler a nethead.

"He uses the Internet almost exclusively for fantasy baseball," said campaign spokesman Jason Sauer, who added that he wasn't sure whether, until recently, Chandler even knew what a blog was.

But that was before Chandler's campaign turned a $2,000 investment in blog advertising into over $80,000 in donations in only two weeks. Chandler -- who won a seat in the House of Representatives Tuesday evening -- definitely knows what a blog is now, Sauer said. "It's that thing that brings in money." >>More

Amendment Deception Needs Media Clarity
Posted Tuesday, February 17, 2004 by mediababe

Fair.org

Backers of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage have created a misleading impression of their legislative plan-- a deception that some media outlets have not properly explained to readers and viewers. >>Read the full Action Alert at Fair.org

PROOF that BUSH Wanted to SKIP Vietnam in his OWN DOCUMENTS!
Posted Monday, February 16, 2004 by symbolman

Bush a No-Show at Alabama Base Says Memian
Posted Monday, February 16, 2004 by mediababe

Jackson Baker, The Memphis Flyer

MEMPHIS – Two members of the Air National Guard unit that President George W. Bush allegedly served with as a young Guard flyer in 1972 had been told to expect him and were on the lookout for him. He never showed, however; of that both Bob Mintz and Paul Bishop are certain.

Recalls Memphian Mintz, now 62: “I remember that I heard someone was coming to drill with us from Texas. And it was implied that it was somebody with political influence. I was a young bachelor then. I was looking for somebody to prowl around with.” But, says Mintz, that “somebody” -- better known to the world now as the president of the United States -- never showed up at Dannelly in 1972. Nor in 1973, nor at any time that Mintz, a FedEx pilot now and an Eastern Airlines pilot then, when he was a reserve first lieutenant at Dannelly, can remember.

“And I was looking for him,” repeated Mintz, who said that he assumed that Bush “changed his mind and went somewhere else” to do his substitute drill. >>More

White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter: "There's a Difference Between Trashy Rumors and Journalism"
Posted Monday, February 16, 2004 by mediababe

Washingtonian

Scott McClellan finally lost it Friday, according to White House reporters. He doesn’t see it that way.

The White House press secretary had kept his cool all week as reporters pounced on him about President George Bush’s 1970s service in the National Guard. Facing perhaps his toughest week as press secretary, McClellan got testy Tuesday under questioning by CBS correspondent John Roberts during the televised briefing. He then blew up at old pro Helen Thomas during the private “gaggle” for reporters on Friday.

Thomas had gotten a tip that Bush might have been absent from duty in Alabama because he was performing court-ordered community service in Texas in 1972. She asked McClellan if that was accurate. >>More

The Computer Ate My Vote
Posted Monday, February 16, 2004 by mediababe

Kim Zetter, Wired News

Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream fame will be dishing a little political activism with his ice cream tomorrow in Washington, D.C., when he calls on secretaries of state throughout the country to secure electronic voting machines.

The Computer Ate My Vote campaign, which raised $100,000 in its first two days of fundraising last week, aims to convince other states to follow the lead of California. In December, California mandated that e-vote machines used in the state must produce a voter-verified paper trail by July 2006. Shortly thereafter, Nevada and Washington state followed suit. >>More

Plame Gate: Did Robert Novak willfully disregard warnings that his column would endanger Valerie Plame? Our sources say "yes."
Posted Friday, February 13, 2004 by mediababe

Murray S. Waas, The American Prospect

The two officials say Novak was told, as one source put it, that Plame's work for the CIA "went much further than her being an analyst," and that publishing her name would be "hurtful" and could stymie ongoing intelligence operations and jeopardize her overseas sources.

"When [Novak] says that he was not told that he was 'endangering' someone, that statement might be technically true," this source says. "Nobody directly told him that she was going to be physically hurt. But that was implicit in that he was told what she did for a living."

"At best, he is parsing words," said the other official. "At worst, he is lying to his readers and the public. Journalists should not lie, I would think." These new accounts, provided by two sources familiar to the investigation, contradict Novak's attempts to downplay his own knowledge about the potential harm to Plame. >>More

E-Vote Machines Drop More Ballots
Posted Monday, February 9, 2004 by mediababe

Kim Zetter, Wired News

Six electronic voting machines used in two North Carolina counties lost 436 absentee ballot votes in the 2002 general election because of a software problem, raising increasing doubts about the accuracy and integrity of voting equipment in a presidential election year.

Election Systems & Software said problems with the firmware of its iVotronic touch-screen machines, used in a trial run, lost ballots in two North Carolina precincts during the state's early voting in 2002. ES&S, the largest U.S. maker of election equipment, is also the focus of attention into lost votes last month in Florida during a special election. >>More

What CBS doesn't want you to see during the Super Bowl...
Posted Sunday, February 1, 2004 by stranger

For many Americans, the commercials that air during the Super Bowl have become as appealing a part of the spectacle as the action on the gridiron. But this year, viewers won't get to see what may have been the best ads submitted to CBS for the big game.

CBS canned a 30-second spot sponsored by the liberal online activist group MoveOn. The commercial, which won a celebrity-judged competition for the honor of being MoveOn's Super Bowl ad, depicts children performing a variety of blue-collar jobs - washing dishes, collecting garbage, working on an assembly line. The tagline near the end of the commercial asks, "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?"

The network also spiked a commercial submitted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. That ad featured scantily clad women and suggested that meat-eating might contribute to impotence.

Of course, CBS has no problems with commercials that objectify women or that are about impotence. You'll see many such commercials during the Super Bowl. >> More

BREAKING NEWS: Novak Attacks Citizen in NH!!
Posted Tuesday, January 27, 2004 by stranger



Assault charges filed against CNN's Bob Novak

An assault complaint has been filed against CNN's Robert Novak, following an incident outside the Merrimac Restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Take Back The Media's Mike Stinson was on the scene as Novak exited the restaurant this afternoon, heading for the CNN Campaign bus. What follows is the first report of this breaking story, as filed by Don Waller of TBTM:

Just got off the phone with Symbolman - he was outside the Merrimac Restaurant in Manchester, NH where CNN is broadcasting, and he said things got a bit testy when Bob Novak came out of the restaurant, heading for the CNN bus.

Apparently, someone from the crowd got on Novak's case, calling him a traitor a few times. Novak went ballistic - Sym decribed it as a 'Lee Harvey Oswald moment' - and went over and shoved the guy, sending him sprawling.

TBTM might - might - have gotten it on videotape. Stay tuned.

More: Sym said that the guy is considering pressing assault charges. He told me that Novak really lit into him and the guy went flying - and he said the guy wasn't a little guy. Sym was standing behind the guy and caught him as he hurtled backward.

Sym got into an argument with Tucker Carlson about it afterward, and Tucker reportedly told him to 'Get over it' because Novak 'is an old man.' The guy who got pushed waited outside the bus for an apology, and Novak went into the bus and closed the door, refusing to come out.

Brad - the man who got shoved - was glad he got a reaction, because in his view, 'The guy is dirty - he knows he did something wrong,' referring to the Valerie Plame leak story.

Developing.... we will post more details as they come in.

If you were at the scene and have either still photos or video tape of the incident - or saw what happened and would like to testify - send an email to symbolman@takebackthemedia.com.

TBTM will be aiding the victim should he decide to press assault charges against Novak.

Send a comment to CNN! Ask them why such an angry, bitter man is allowed to represent their network.

Press Corps Treatment of Dean Scream Questioned
Posted Saturday, January 24, 2004 by mediababe

Dick Meyer, CBS News

"...the press corps' decision that the Scream was serious is a bit more disturbing."

"I've seen a lot of politicians do a lot weirder things. I've seen Ronald Reagan completely space out an answer during a presidential debate. I've seen Bush the Elder rumble on about how moose like to rub up to the Alaskan pipeline for, shall we say, gratification. I've heard Bush the Younger speak absolutely incomprehensible, illiterate gibberish on important issues. I've seen Bob Dole get really, really mad. I've listened to Newt Gingrich's college lectures. I've seen Tom DeLay fly to Texas when a gunman entered the Capitol. I've seen Bill Clinton drag his poor wife onto primetime television to defend himself. "

"I wish Dean hadn't renounced the Scream. His wife said it was "silly" and I think that's about the full extent of it. " >>More

Michael Moore on Clark, the Media, and Bush AWOL
Posted Saturday, January 24, 2004 by mediababe

Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com

"Jennings, referring to me as "the controversial filmmaker," asked if Clark wanted to distance himself from me and my "reckless" remark. Clark would not back down, stating how "delighted" he was with my support, and that I was entitled to say what I wanted to say -- AND that I was not the only one who had made these charges against Bush. "

"The pundits immediately went berserk after the debate. As well they should. Because they know that they -- and much of the mainstream media -- ignored this Bush AWOL story when it was first revealed by an investigation in the Boston Globe (in 2000). The Globe said it appeared George W. Bush skipped out in the middle of his Texas Air National Guard service -- and no charges were ever brought against him. It was a damning story, and Bush has never provided any documents or evidence to refute the Globe's charges. ">>More

Prosecutors refuse rehab deal for Limbaugh, insist on guilty plea
Posted Friday, January 23, 2004 by mediababe

By Peter Franceschina, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Palm Beach County prosecutors rejected an overture last month from Rush Limbaugh's attorneys that would have allowed the conservative commentator to enter drug rehabilitation rather than face criminal charges for prescription drug abuse.

Prosecutors say they think they have evidence that Limbaugh committed at least 10 felonies by illegally obtaining overlapping drug prescriptions, according to documents released to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Thursday.

>>More

TBTM ACTION ALERT: Call Congress and your local news!!
Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 by stranger

Take Back The Media urges all of our readers to contact their representatives in Congress, their local newpapers and electronic media, and demand that this story be covered.

Make no mistake about it. This story is the 2004 equivalent of Watergate. Senate Republicans have violated the DMCA, federal laws against computer hacking, and privacy laws. These are FELONIES.

Republican leaders - Bill Frist and Orrin Hatch first, everyone else involved right after - should be looking at prison terms for this obvious disregard for the laws of this country.

Call your representatives in Congress and your local news media NOW!

Infiltration of files seen as extensive

Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe.

From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics.

The office of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle has already launched an investigation into how excerpts from 15 Democratic memos showed up in the pages of the conservative-leaning newspapers and were posted to a website last November.

With the help of forensic computer experts from General Dynamics and the US Secret Service, his office has interviewed about 120 people to date and seized more than half a dozen computers -- including four Judiciary servers, one server from the office of Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and several desktop hard drives.

But the scope of both the intrusions and the likely disclosures is now known to have been far more extensive than the November incident, staffers and others familiar with the investigation say. >> More

Do not let Senate Republicans act as though they are above the law.

Republicans try to cut off 'soft money' to activist groups
Posted Thursday, January 22, 2004 by mediababe

by Jim Drinkard, USA Today

WASHINGTON — Alarmed by the sudden emergence of political interest groups bent on defeating President Bush, Republicans are trying to limit the groups' ability to raise millions of dollars.

Most of the new groups are closely linked to Democrats. They have been established by former party operatives, labor union leaders and advocates for women's and environmental issues, many with the declared intent of preventing Bush's re-election. It has left Republicans "worried or paranoid," says Ben Ginsberg, counsel to Bush's campaign. >>More

If Republicans have their way, folks like George Soros would be limited to donating a maximum of $5,000 to organizations like MoveOn.org.

USA Today Analysis: 'Behind The Address'
Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 by stranger

USA Today has distinguished itself as one of the few American media outlets to give a clear-eyed, contextual assessment of George W. Bush's State of the Union address. Read the analysis here, and send an email to USAToday thanking them for this coverage from their Feedback page.

We at TBTM are quick to criticize the media when they're wrong, so it stands that we should congratulate them for doing something right. TBTM commends USAToday for this article.

Chimp GONE WILD.
Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2004 by symbolman