Today is Thursday, May 17, 2012

Media

Denver Post asserts copyright rights

Copyrights protect the property rights of those of us who write, make movies, write and sing songs and patent inventions, among other things. The internet has caused millions to disregard copyrights, and now newspapers around the country are asserting their legal right to protect their intellectual property. I have always tried to respect copyrights and to make only fair use of copyrighted materials, which includes about anything anybody writes. In an effort to make peace with some Colorado bloggers whose writers and commenters have posted complete articles in violation of the Denver Post's copyrights, the paper has clarified its copyright policy. Basically, it says I can summarize its article as I've done here, and it would appreciate some kind of link to its stories when summaries and comments about the articles are posted on blogs and other web sites. LINK: Notice to readers about Denver Post copyright protections.

Reporter’s dream of a split in Colorado tea party movement is way over blown

Stephanie Simon is reporting that Colorado's tea party and related groups are "splintering", which is absurd. First, most tea partiers and Republicans are united behind Tom Tancredo for governor and Ken Buck for U.S. senator. And most are backing John Suthers for attorney general and Ryan Frazier, Scott Tipton, Cory Gardner and Mike Fallon for Congress.

Denver Post is going after Ken Buck

Having endorsed appointed Obama Democrat Senator Michael Bennet over Republican Ken Buck, the Denver Post is going after Buck, and he's helping them make their point. This makes sense and is predictable. I am doing the same thing on this blog—cheering on Tom Tancredo, Buck and Ryan Frazier while highlighting their opponents' missteps whenever I can. That's politics and attacking candidates is one of America's great political traditions because it informs voters. Yes, the attacks often are unfair and even untrue, but because both sides do it, voters have plenty of time and ways to process all of the opinions and facts that they see and hear during a campaign. Sometimes voters blow it as they did when gullibles elected Obama, but most of the time, they make pretty good decisions. LINKS: Off the cuff, Buck missed the mark; The candidate reaffirmed his knack for sticking his boot in his mouth with his comments about gays choosing their sexuality. Denver Post editorial. Buck's reprimand was no youthful indiscretion, Bob Barr's Denver Post op-ed.

Alaska’s Joe Miller shows he doesn’t believe in freedom of the press or the political process

When candidates like Colorado's appointed Obama Democrat Michael Bennet (D-Washington, DC) hide behind body guards so reporters and bloggers can't ask them questions, most voters tend to shrug and not give it much thought. But when Alaska's  Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller hires thugs to protect him and they handcuff a blogger who wants to ask an embarrassing question, you know that Miller has no business going to the U.S. Senate. LINK: Reporter handcuffed at Joe Miller event, by Alexander Burns.

Tom Tancredo victory wouldn’t hurt GOP or American Constitution Party

Democrats are doing all they can to scare Republicans into voting for the ethically-challenged Dan Maes instead of helping elect former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo governor of Colorado. And the Denver Post political writers are doing all they can to help the Democrats by writing misleading stories about the situtation and quoting warnings by a Democrat political consultant, Fred Ciruli. Even if the reporters are trying to be objective and fair, their work looks very biased in favor of Obama Democrat John Hickenlooper. I support Tancredo and my agenda is obvious.

Denver Post: John Hickenlooper must disclose his gifts to ACORN, hard left groups

The Denver Post is proving that it’s no longer just a liberal newspaper. Its political reporters are exposing the character flaws of not only the disgraced Republicans, Scott McInnis and Dan Maes, but also those of Obama Democrat John Hickenlooper. This morning, the Post’s editorial calls on Hickenlooper to disclose all of his contributions to charitable organizations and hard left political advocacy groups like ACORN and Re-Create 68, which threatened to disrupt the Democrats’ 2008 Convention in Denver. This editorial comes only a day after a Post editorial that questioned Tom Tancredo’s support for Amendments 60 and 61 and for Proposition 101. The Post is becoming Colorado’s newspaper of record and its doing a good job of trying to keep politicians honest. LINKS: Hickenlooper ought to reveal donations, Denver Post editorial. Governing a state of ruins, Denver Post editorial.

Hard Left Huffington Post is anti-Israel

If you’re wondering why the hard left Huffington Post is promoting writers and articles that support building a Muslim-owned mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, you might be interested in knowing that it also is very anti-Israel. LINKS: Huffington Post—attacking Israel for fun and profit. By Paul Mirengoff. HuffPost spits in the eye of a murdered IDF officer, Israel and Jews everywhere—while deep-kissing Lebanon and Hezbollah. By Huff Watch.

Don’t blame Scott McInnis’ political problems on Denver Post, Channel 9

Some of Scott McInnis’ supporters are trying to turn the story about his plagiarism into an opportunity to flame the Denver Post and Channel 9, which jointly investigated the plagiarism. No one should be defending McInnis. Plagiarism may not be a crime, but a lot of people have been fired for plagiarism. No one who has 

Why Fox, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS look so biased; journalists are co-oped by political, military sources

While I’m a conservative and report more about Republican politics than I cover Democrats, I also feel free to call out Republicans and conservatives when I think they’re off course. I also interview and cover Democrats when I can. This, of course, upsets conservative readers who expect conservatives, Republicans and journalists and bloggers who share their values to be “loyal.” The same thing goes for Democrats and liberals and the journalists who share their values. When someone fails to follow Obama over the cliff, the dissident is soundly criticized.

In one of the best articles I’ve seen about media bias since I first subscribed to the Columbia Journalism Review back in 1961 or 1962, The Dangers of embedded journalism in war and politics, the Washington Post’s David Ignatius explains why Fox looks biased to liberals and all the other networks and main stream papers look biased to conservatives. Having been a journalist and publisher for more than 45 years and a blogger for more than 7, I totally relate.

Simply put, we’re all human. We remember the last thing we hear or read, and we are much more likely to read and listen to those who reflect our views than those who don’t. I read my first employer, The Wall Street Journal, much more than I read The New York Times or Washington Post, although I read all of their web sites several times on most days. I watch Fox now and then, CNN when there is breaking news and ABC evening news a few nights a week. I never watch MSNBC, NBC or CBS, because I don’t trust them and there’s only so much time available. I read the liberal Coloradopols along with the conservative RockyMountainRight and PeoplesPressCollective. Politico.com is moderately liberal and my favorite political site because it’s what political leaders from both parties read. In Colorado, The Denver Post’s The Spot is the best political blog for news and gossip. Everybody in Colorado politics is or should be reading it.

The Columbia Journalism Review, however, has become a left wing political journal, and I no longer subscribe to it or read it or its web site.

In any case, read the Ignatius piece. It is right on.

Denver Post’s parent files pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy

The holding company that owns the Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera is filing a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy that allows the executives who borrowed the company into bankruptcy to retain control of the company and 20% of its stock.

How did Dean Singleton,

Dick Wadhams: Scott McInnis has to sell himself; Dan Maes needs to raise money

Some of the best political reporting and blogging on this election cycle’s gubernatorial and senate races is being done by Michael Roberts at WestWord. He has an excellent report on Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams’ current views on the contest between Scott McInnis, the near consensus choice of the GOP establishment, and Dan Maes, the political rookie who’s making a good impression at forums and in interviews. Wadhams tells Roberts that McInnis still has to sell himself to the GOP base, and Maes has to show he can be competitive in the fundraising primary. Link:

Chicago Sun-Times gets new owners

After I started my career in the Chicago bureau of The Wall Street Journal, I joined the Chicago Sun-Times as a business and financial writer.

For more than three years, I covered the commodity futures, transportation and auto markets, among other things. And I had a great time at the Sun-Times. Fortunately, The New York Journal of Commerce offered me a lot more money, and away I went.

Anyway, it’s good to see that the Sun-Times has new, mostly local owners. The company has been entangled in bankruptcy brought on by the fraud that put the former CEO, Conrad Black, in jail.

If the new company can start with relatively clean balance sheet, it will have a chance to be profitable. Mesirow Financial chairman James Tyree, the lead investor and the new chairman of the company, may not be a journalist, but he does know finance and business, which is more than you can say for most newspaper publishers. Most newspaper companies are hurting because they are over their heads in debt. Even when interest rates are virtually zero, too much debt makes it difficult to survive a severe recession.

Link:

James Tyree names Chicago Sun-Times investors

Denver’s Phil Anschutz, his Examiner, Weekly Standard, campaign contributions profiled

Phil Anschutz is profiled by Politico as the new owner of The Weekly Standard and a contributor to Colorado Republican parties and candidates.

It will be interesting to see who he’s backing this year.

Links

Phil Anschutz’s conservative agenda

The Weekly Standard.

Washington Examiner.

www.examiner.com/denver

Will the Post help Bill Ritter reply to Scott McInnis?

Now that the Denver Post has helped Governor Bill Ritter reply to Josh Penry’s charge that he’s added more than 4,000 jobs to the state’s payroll since taking office, will its intrepid investigative political reporters dig into Ritter’s three bad bets that Scott McInnis is telling supporters about?

The three bad bets made and being made by Ritter, according to McInnis:

Will GE sell all or part of its PR departments, NBC, CNBC and MSNBC?

Rumors that General Electric (GE) will sell all or part of NBC Universal if its joint partner, Vivendi SA, wants out are important not only to GE’s employees and shareholders, but also to the company’s critics who see its NBC, CNBC and MSNBC networks as extensions of its government relations and public relations departments.

GE is a vocal backer of President Obama’s climate control and green initiatives because the company stands to make billions if it wins government contracts generated by politically charged programs designed to spread pork and green jobs around the country.

The company’s use of MSNBC and CNBC to advance these causes and butter up the Obama administration is particularly blatant in the eyes of most critics.

Click on head for rest of the story.