Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Weekly News Journal Bias Tally, Jan. 10-17 2009

This week: The global warming debate finally runs its course, a huge amount of front-page real estate is devoted to football, we're bombarded with no fewer than 9 front-page human-interest pieces on Obama, Biden and inauguration preparations, and after enjoying nearly a full week of professional editorial cartoons drawns by cartoonists who can actually draw, we go down in flames with yet another wretched cartoon by Jack Jurden that leaves us scratching our heads.

Biases of the Week


This week's tally: Liberal Bias: 10 Conservative Bias: 23 Do What?*: 2 Read further for the day-by-day breakdown. Letter = Letter to the Editor Saturday, January 10 2009
Liberal Bias: 1
  • Columnist: Jimmy Carter. Diplomacy could have prevented the war in Gaza. Liberal buzzwords used: psychological damage, acute malnutrition, humanitarian, comprehensive peace

Conservative Bias: 4

  • Letter: Veterans' rights are being whittled away by Congress. Conservative buzzwords used: proud servicemen and servicewomen, uncaring do-nothing Congress, undeserving people and companies, pork projects.
  • Letter: Gun control doesn't work. Conservative buzzwords used: street-smart thugs, lawful owners, drug dealers, pimps.
  • Cartoon: Ordinary citizens aren't allowed into DC until after Obama's "coronation."
  • Columnist: Charles Krauthammer. Diplomacy doesn't work, Israel needs to obliterate Hamas Conservative buzzwords used: farce, terrorists, French, radical Islamist movements

Do What?: 1

  • Letter: Glaciers are not melting because of global warming, they're melting because radioactive fallout is inhibiting rain, which is actually a good thing for Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Sunday, January 11 2009


Liberal Bias: 2
  • Letter: Bush is destroying our system of checks and balances. Liberal buzzwords used: pros and cons, debate, balance
  • Letter: Republicans are focusing on the Blagojovich scandal because they lost. Liberal buzzwords used: alleged corruption, Republican bitterness

Conservative Bias: 2

  • Letter: Global warming is a myth because sea ice isn't melting. Conservative buzzwords used: editor bias, alarmism, supposed threat
  • Columnist: David Broder. Obama got outsmarted by Blagojovitch. Conservative buzzwords used: Bill Clinton, gays, Harry Reid, race card, Congressional Black Caucus

Do What?: 2

  • Letter: Social problems don't cause violence, drug laws do.
  • Letter: Why are all you people feeling sorry for Hamas when you should be feeling sorry for American Indians who didn't get anything for their land except trinkets and baubles?
Monday, January 12 2009
Liberal Bias: 1
  • Columnist: Rekha Basu. Hooters restaurants degrade women. Liberal buzzwords used: sexism, domestic assaults, victim, sexual harrassment, rights Ummm... duh.

Conservative Bias: 2

  • Cartoon: Obama is filling his Cabinet with TV celebrities.
  • Letter: Congress and Obama are going to pass a law that takes away states' rights to regulate abortion even if it helps women, so check out what Catholic bishops have to say about the Freedom of Choice Act Conservative buzzwords used: radical, right to life, extreme legislation

Do What?: 1

  • Letter: Politicians' pensions should be based on how popular they are with their constituents. Oh, and they shouldn't be allowed to be lobbyists.

Tuesday, January 13 2009


Liberal Bias: 2
  • Letter: Obama's inauguration represents fulfillment of America's destiny. Liberal buzzwords used: hope, change, equal, Dr. Martin Luther King, truth, love
  • Letter: I grew up with Jack Markell and knew his father, and he's a good guy And Muffy says his backhand is absolutely deadly, but he's always good for a round back at the clubhouse

Conservative Bias: 4

  • Letter: All Democrats are corrupt Conservative buzzwords used: Nancy Pelosi, drain the swamp, snakes from Chicago, "Promised One," filthy system, crooked balloting, Barney Frank, bailouts, Democrat cronies, pay for play
  • Letter: Taxpayers shouldn't pay pay for state employees to have pet insurance Fact check: The state does not pay for pet insurance for state workers. State employees who elect to purchase pet insurance get a 10% group discount.
  • Letter: Good riddance to Minner

Wednesday, January 14 2009


Liberal Bias: 3
  • Letter: Earlier letter saying anyone who likes the Bidens is stupid and shouldn't be allowed to vote was nasty. Liberal buzzwords used: democracy, rights, battered women, working men and women
  • Columnist: Eugene Robinson. George Bush needs to be investigated when he leaves office
  • Columnist: Tim Rutten. 401(k) plans have been a failure tht let American workers down.

Conservative Bias: 3

  • Letter: I hate the UAW because they crossed our picket lines
  • Letter: Israel should obliterate Gaza Conservative buzzwords used: Zionism, mindless Islamic murderers, Hezbollah
  • Columnist: Paul Greenberg. Liberals are trying to suppress conservative speech in politics, on the air, on the internet, and on college campuses. Conservative buzzwords used: gag rule, rig the system, competition, centralized government, arbiters of thought, indoctrination
Thursday, January 15 2009
Liberal Bias: 2
  • Letter: Teenagers aren't helped by adults who stereotype Liberal buzzwords used: focus on the behaviour, hope, change
  • Editorial: Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary has tax problems because the tax code is too convoluted even for him to understand So God help the rest of us poor schmucks.

Conservative Bias: 3

  • Letter: Voters need to stop electing the same (liberal) politicians and their relatives Conservative buzzwords used: insanity, Beau Biden, Caroline Kennedy
  • Editorial: Margaret Spellings. Bush's Secy. of Education justifies No Child Left Behind.
  • Columnist: Ruben Navarrette. Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, would have made a great Commerce Secy. if Obama hadn't dumped him because he was being investigated for improprieties as Gov. of New Mexico. Oh, and Obama is incompetent, because his vetting team tapped Bill Richardson when he was being investigated for improprieties as Gov. of New Mexico.

Do What?: 1

  • Letter: If I were king of Delaware, I'd make sports betting legal, I'd let poor people use the Cleveland Ave. housing complex in Newark instead of selling it, I wouldn't let illegal immigrants work here, and I'd make employees of out-of-state corporations pay Delaware taxes. So there. King me.
Friday, January 16 2009
Liberal Bias: 1
  • Columnist: Tim Rutten. Los Angeles mayor has a right to speak out on foreign affairs

Conservative Bias: 4

  • Cartoon: Fireman Obama pours money into financial institutions while Main Street goes begging.
  • Letter: Obama will be like FDR, who prolonged the Depression and packed the Supreme Court with liberals Conservative buzzwords used: Democrat-controlled Congress, increasing taxes, liberal justices, brave Americans, liberal media
  • Letter: The state put small business owners out of business with higher workmen's comp rates while reducing rates for large corporations.
  • Columnist: George Will. Liberal California Attorney General Jerry Brown is undermining the people of California by trying to overturn Proposition 8. Conservative buzzwords used: same-sex marriages, sexual lifestyles, universal definition of marriage, judicial fiat, abortion, judicial highhandedness
  • Columnist: David Broder. Love letter to Bush's outgoing Health and Human Services Secy., Mike Leavitt

Do What?: 1

  • News Journal editors: Letter was titled "Celebrated smoking ban harmed small businesses," when the letter wasn't about the smoking ban, it was higher workmens' comp rates harming small businesses.
Saturday, January 17 2009
Liberal Bias: 1
  • Letter: George Bush is a war criminal Liberal buzzwords used: neo-con, axis of evil, torture, detainees, propoganda network, atrocities, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Tojo Wow -- not just a knee-jerk liberal, but a raving lunatic liberal. Wipe the spittle up off the floor before you go, please.

Conservative Bias: 4

  • Letter: Obama can't be compared to Martin Luther King because he's pro-choice. Conservative buzzwords used: the blacks, the unborn Favorite quote: "I hope our new president equates the greatness of Martin Luther King when it comes to justice and equality of the unborn."
  • Columnist: Chuck Raasch. Obama's is already being fiscally irresponsible by throwing a bunch of parties on Inauguration Day. Fact Check: Raasch says Obama is paying for the festivities by raising money from "ordinary Americans." He doesn't mention that the inauguration balls going on throughout DC are private, invitation-only events, and that the vast majority of them are unofficial.
  • Columnist: Charles Krauthammer. George Bush is a martyr whose policies have been so perfect and wise that Obama is planning to continue them. Grasshopper, follow in the clown shoes of the Master.

Do What?: 2

  • Letter: I'm old and I lived in the same house for 63 years with my 90-year-old husband until he died last year, and I read about Roosevelt in school but because my husband was really old, he remembered Roosevelt and the Depression, and I learned something when I read an article in your newspaper about Obama. Oh, and Lincoln, Kennedy and Roosevelt were great and Obama will be too. I'm afraid if she ever reads anything else ever again, her head may explode from having too much knowledge stuffed in there.
  • Jack Jurden Cartoon: Unidentified cartoon man says"We'll miss you Ruth Ann" into what looks like the wrong end of a megaphone, which is inexplicably mounted on a tripod and pointed toward a woman with a bun -- has he ever seen Ruth Ann? -- dragging luggage labeled "Ex-Gov." Good-bye I get. Ruth Ann I get. Luggage I get. But what the hell is going on with that backwards megaphone thing?

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