Bad Deeds for 10-30-2007

Campaign News Coverage Provides Relatively Little Information About Candidates Records or What They Would Do If Elected – A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy shows that 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects of the campaign. That is nearly four times the number of stories about the personal backgrounds of the candidates (17%) or the candidates’ ideas and policy proposals (15%). And just 1% of stories examined the candidates’ records or past public performance. The press’ focus on fundraising, tactics and polling is even more evident if one looks at how stories were framed rather than the topic of the story. Just 12% of stories examined were presented in a way that explained how citizens might be affected by the election, while nearly nine-out-of-ten stories (86%) focused on matters that largely impacted only the parties and the candidates. All of these findings seem to be at sharp variance with what the public says it wants from campaign reporting. A new poll by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted for this report finds that about eight-in-ten of Americans say they want more coverage of the candidates’ stances on issues, and majorities want more on the record and personal background, and backing of the candidates, more about lesser-known candidates and more about debates

US Quietly Backing Egyptian Nuclear Program as White House Slams Iran for Nuclear Program

Declassified: US spying could top $50 billion in 2007 – The tab for US non-military spying in 2007 is a whopping $43.5 billion, according to figures released today by National Director of Intelligence Mike McConnell. A more complete budget figure for US spying is actually even higher. If still-classified totals for military-based programs were factored in, that number would reach $50 billion.

Conservative Pundant George Will Makes Up Stuff About Social Security – On ABC’s “This Week”, George Will said, “Sixty-five days from now, the first of 78 million baby boomers begun (sic) to retire. Most Americans who collect Social Security begin to collect it at age 62, which is absurd. We have the public subsidizing increasingly long and comfortable retirement of people for a third to a half of their adult lifetime. Now. That’s why one in four voters in 2004 was over 60 years old. The elderly have the biggest stake in the welfare state, which exists to transfer wealth to them. So this is, politically, a loser.”

The rules of Social Security say that while it’s true that you can begin collecting at the age of 62, you won’t get as much as if you wait until 65. George Will also complained about subsidizing people for up to half of their lives, but how many 124 year olds does he know?

Conservative Author Doesn’t Recognize Journalism Even When It’s Staring Him in the Face – Andrew Keen has written in the Weekly Standard (owned by News Corp. [Rupert Murdoch], which also owns Fox News). He also recently wrote a book called “The Cult of the Amateur” in which he lambastes citizen media for degrading our culture. In it he said, “It is not surprising then that these prominent bloggers have no professional training in the collection of news. After all, who needs a degree in journalism to post a hyperlink on a Web site? Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, for example, the founder of Daily Kos, a left-leaning site, came to political blogging via the technology industry and the military.” However, Markos earned two bachelor degrees at Northern Illinois University (1992-96), with majors in Philosophy, Journalism, and Political Science and a minor in German. The journalism department honored him as “Journalism student of the year.” He was editor in chief of the Northern Star in 1995. He did freelance for three years for the Chicago Tribune. In 2005, he spent two weeks in the UK reporting on the elections for the Guardian newspaper. (Conservatives like to talk, but not check facts.) [And neocons tell noble lies.]

Chief of Civil Rights Division of Justice Department Claims That Photo ID Laws Help Minorities to Vote (and Insults Them at the Same Time) – The Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, John Tanner, said, “It’s probably true that among those who don’t [have Photo ID], it’s primarily elderly persons. And that’s a shame. Of course…our society is such that minorities don’t become elderly. The way that white people do. They die first.”

Your Homeland Security at Work – The Department of Homeland Security detained British international development minister Shahid Malik at Dulles Airport — ostensibly because he is Muslim — and searching him for explosives as he arrived in the U.S. to meet with… the Department of Homeland Security.

Dogs Provide Dick Cheney With Competition

Regards,

Jim