Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"What happens when you refer to Turkey's 1915-1923 genocide of Armenians, accurately, as 'genocide'?" asks the Los Angeles Times. "In Turkey, you face a possible three-year jail term, even if it wasn't you using the term but a character in your novel. In the United States, you just lose your job as ambassador to Armenia."
Submitted by John Stauber on
David Carr examines Ann Coulter's simple PR formula for marketing her best-selling books: vile hate speech echoed in the mainstream media.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"A remorseless rapist in Hamilton County, Ohio is sentenced to 15 years in prison for beating and raping a 57-year-old woman," writes Kelly Hearn. "An environmental activist in California is sentenced to 22 years and 8 months for burning three SUVs at a car dealership after taking precautions to harm no lives.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Media Matters caught Sean Hannity on Tuesday blaming the "anti-war left" for protesting at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq. In reality, the protesters were members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka, Kansas, which claims that terrorism and other disasters are divine retribution against America for the "sin" of tolerating homosexuality.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
"Over the first three nights, the Republican Convention speakers carefully crafted a tri-partite frame for George W. Bush's Thursday acceptance speech: Night 1: The Global War on Terror defines our lives and our generation. Night 2: With enough discipline, all Americans can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become prosperous. Those girly men have only themselves to blame.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"For $2.4 trillion, guess what word other than 'a,' 'and,' and 'the' - occurs most frequently in the acceptance speech George W. Bush delivered tonight," writes William Saletan. "The word is 'will.' It appears 76 times. This was a speech all about what Bush will do, and what will happen, if he becomes president. Except he already is president. He already ran this campaign. He promised great things. They haven't happened. So, he's trying to go back in time.
Submitted by Laura Miller on
"Over the past few weeks of Presidential WrestleMania MMIV, the Bush campaign has fired off more than a dozen press releases about John Kerry's policies on energy, nuclear-waste storage, forest and water protections, and other environmental issues - a hodgepodge of smears, exaggerations, and obfuscations intended to besmirch Kerry's pro-environment reputation," Grist Magazine's Amanda Griscom writes. Polls indicate that swing-state voters are concerned about things like pollution and wilderness conservation, prompting the Bush campaign to "neutralize" the environment as an election issue.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"A Washington nonprofit group with ties to the Republican Party is airing radio ads ... asking if U.S. Senator John Kerry takes 'the black community for granted?'" The group, People of Color United, was founded last week by DC Parents For School Choice, which supports school vouchers.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"On Saturday, [Republican] convention officials will begin a highly organized nationwide campaign to get volunteers to donate blood, feed the hungry and operate community health fairs. Initially, it will be part of a broader effort to draw attention away from the Democratic National Convention.
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