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Watchdog group report
BY PETER GOODMAN, May 25, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment...14,print.story
Despite a perception that National Public Radio is politically liberal, the majority of its sources are actually Republicans and conservatives, according to a survey released today by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a left-leaning media watchdog.
"Republicans not only had a substantial partisan edge," according to a report accompanying the survey, "individual Republicans were NPR's most popular sources overall, taking the top seven spots in frequency of appearance." In addition, representatives of right-of-center think tanks outnumbered their leftist counterparts by more than four to one, FAIR reported.
Citing comments dating to the Nixon administration in the 1970s, the report said, "That NPR harbors a liberal bias is an article of faith among many conservatives." However, it added, "Despite the commonness of such claims, little evidence has ever been presented for a left bias at NPR."
The study counted 2,334 sources used in 804 stories aired last June for four programs: "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition Saturday" and "Weekend Edition Sunday." For the analysis of think tanks, FAIR used the months of May through August 2003.
Overall, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 61 percent to 38 percent, a figure only slightly higher now, when the GOP controls the White House and both houses of Congress, than during a previous survey in 1993, during the Clinton administration.
"Some people may think is too left of center because they are contrasting it to the louder, black-and-white sloganeering of talk radio," said FAIR's Steve Rendall, a co-author of the report. "It could be that, just by contrast, the more dulcet [tone] and slower pace and lower volume of NPR makes many people think it must be the opposite of talk radio."
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Kissinger tape: Nixon too drunk to speak with British PM
Wednesday, May 26, 2004 Posted: 1:39 PM EDT (1739 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/....ap/index.html
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland (AP) -- Five days into the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, with the superpowers on the brink of confrontation, President Nixon was too drunk to discuss the crisis with the British prime minister, according to newly released transcripts of tape recordings.
{edit: My interest here is based on my fear that Junior is a "dry drunk" that sometimes binges, hence the accident of last weekend...not exactly presidential material in my view}
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'Pirate Act' raises civil rights concerns
Last modified: May 26, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT
By Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/'Pirate+Act'+raises+civil+rights+concerns/2100-1027_3-5220480.html?tag=nefd.lede
File swappers concerned about getting in trouble with record labels over illegal downloads may soon have a major new worry: the U.S. Department of Justice.
A proposal that the Senate may vote on as early as next week would let federal prosecutors file civil lawsuits against suspected copyright infringers, with fines reaching tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The so-called Pirate Act is raising alarms among copyright lawyers and lobbyists for peer-to-peer firms, who have been eyeing the recording industry's lawsuits against thousands of peer-to-peer users with trepidation. The Justice Department, they say, could be far more ambitious.
...
"It represents yet another point in another very long line of major corporate copyright interests pushing for and receiving what amounts to significant corporate welfare," said Adam Eisgrau, a lobbyist for the P2P United trade association. "This legislation literally offloads the cost of enforcing copyrights traditionally borne by the copyright holder onto the federal government and therefore the taxpayers."
...
Critics also charge that the Pirate Act may invent a form of double jeopardy: It would let the RIAA sue the same people already sued by the Justice Department.
{edit: My take on this is that it is the upteenth step towards the complete conflation of the government with several large corporate interests. And who's to say that they will not both sue civilly and then pursue one criminally? Personally, I think they want everyone either poor or in prison, either way working for the man - doesn't matter whether it's Walmart or Unicor (the Federal Prison slave labor system that steals union work).}
BY PETER GOODMAN, May 25, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment...14,print.story
Despite a perception that National Public Radio is politically liberal, the majority of its sources are actually Republicans and conservatives, according to a survey released today by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a left-leaning media watchdog.
"Republicans not only had a substantial partisan edge," according to a report accompanying the survey, "individual Republicans were NPR's most popular sources overall, taking the top seven spots in frequency of appearance." In addition, representatives of right-of-center think tanks outnumbered their leftist counterparts by more than four to one, FAIR reported.
Citing comments dating to the Nixon administration in the 1970s, the report said, "That NPR harbors a liberal bias is an article of faith among many conservatives." However, it added, "Despite the commonness of such claims, little evidence has ever been presented for a left bias at NPR."
The study counted 2,334 sources used in 804 stories aired last June for four programs: "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition Saturday" and "Weekend Edition Sunday." For the analysis of think tanks, FAIR used the months of May through August 2003.
Overall, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 61 percent to 38 percent, a figure only slightly higher now, when the GOP controls the White House and both houses of Congress, than during a previous survey in 1993, during the Clinton administration.
"Some people may think is too left of center because they are contrasting it to the louder, black-and-white sloganeering of talk radio," said FAIR's Steve Rendall, a co-author of the report. "It could be that, just by contrast, the more dulcet [tone] and slower pace and lower volume of NPR makes many people think it must be the opposite of talk radio."
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Kissinger tape: Nixon too drunk to speak with British PM
Wednesday, May 26, 2004 Posted: 1:39 PM EDT (1739 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/....ap/index.html
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland (AP) -- Five days into the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, with the superpowers on the brink of confrontation, President Nixon was too drunk to discuss the crisis with the British prime minister, according to newly released transcripts of tape recordings.
{edit: My interest here is based on my fear that Junior is a "dry drunk" that sometimes binges, hence the accident of last weekend...not exactly presidential material in my view}
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'Pirate Act' raises civil rights concerns
Last modified: May 26, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT
By Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/'Pirate+Act'+raises+civil+rights+concerns/2100-1027_3-5220480.html?tag=nefd.lede
File swappers concerned about getting in trouble with record labels over illegal downloads may soon have a major new worry: the U.S. Department of Justice.
A proposal that the Senate may vote on as early as next week would let federal prosecutors file civil lawsuits against suspected copyright infringers, with fines reaching tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The so-called Pirate Act is raising alarms among copyright lawyers and lobbyists for peer-to-peer firms, who have been eyeing the recording industry's lawsuits against thousands of peer-to-peer users with trepidation. The Justice Department, they say, could be far more ambitious.
...
"It represents yet another point in another very long line of major corporate copyright interests pushing for and receiving what amounts to significant corporate welfare," said Adam Eisgrau, a lobbyist for the P2P United trade association. "This legislation literally offloads the cost of enforcing copyrights traditionally borne by the copyright holder onto the federal government and therefore the taxpayers."
...
Critics also charge that the Pirate Act may invent a form of double jeopardy: It would let the RIAA sue the same people already sued by the Justice Department.
{edit: My take on this is that it is the upteenth step towards the complete conflation of the government with several large corporate interests. And who's to say that they will not both sue civilly and then pursue one criminally? Personally, I think they want everyone either poor or in prison, either way working for the man - doesn't matter whether it's Walmart or Unicor (the Federal Prison slave labor system that steals union work).}
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