Category: Magazine

comments about magazines and articles

“Impartial” PBS journalist wants Democrats to politicize the census

census 2010Taxpayer-funded PBS journalist Bonnie Erbe has some advice for Democrats: politicize the 2010 Census, then use the biased numbers to jam pack Congress full of left wing wackos.

“Depoliticize the Census?” PSB “journalist” she wrote in her blog at US News & World Report. “Surely they jest!”

“The Census is part of the spoils of victory for whichever party controls the White House at the turn of each decade,” she added. “Gerrymandering—using Census data to create voting districts that artificially lean toward one end of the political spectrum or the other—is as uniquely an American tradition as Thanksgiving. The thought of trying to depoliticize the census is, well, decidedly un-American.”

Let us now translate Erbe’s concluding sentence.

What she said was, “So gerrymander away with the 2010 Census and spare us the theatrics of trying to look nonpartisan.”

What she meant was, “This could guarantee another generation of funding for the partisan hacks at PBS.”

Link: Bonnie Erbe’s blog

Second PR agent quits octomon, calls her “nuts”

Nadya Suleman is nuts? In the words of Gomer Pyle, "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!"
Nadya Suleman is nuts? In the words of Gomer Pyle, "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!"

Another publicist has walked out on Nadya Suleman, the infamous octomom. In the words of Gomer Pyle, “Surprise, surprise, surprise.”

According to Us Weekly, PR maven Victor Munoz is the latest one to take a hike. “It just got to be too much,” Munoz said. “It’s pretty much a free for all over there right now. They are freaking out right now.

“Nadya got real greedy,” Munoz added. “This woman is nuts.”

Far be it from us to question Munoz’ judgment, but we’re wondering what ever made him think Suleman wasn’t nuts.

Was it the octuplets? Or her first six kids? Or the whole kit and kaboodle of fourteen kids with no father? Or the initial story that the father was in Iraq? Or the hundreds of threatening emails sent to the first PR agent?

There’s a giant red neon sign figuratively flashing over this woman’s head:

“Nuts…nuts…nuts…”

Source: Us Weekly

American media ignores bungling Obama, British media irate

President Obama bungled meetings this week with America’s most important ally. The British are irate about it.

First, Obama unceremoniously returned a bust of Winston Chuchill the Brits had given to President Bush right after 9-11. Then, he snubbed Prime Minister Gordon Brown by deciding he wasn’t important enough to merit a joint press conference. Finally, after Brown was thoughtful enough to present Obama with a beautiful pen holder hand-carved from a plank from a former anti-slavery ship, Obama reciprocated by giving Brown a collection of DVDs.

The Brits are up in arms. Editorial after editorial and article after article has ripped Obama’s trashing of the “special relationship” the two countries share. But the story has been ignored by the adoring American media. For example, a Google News search for “Obama, “British,” and “25 DVDs” turns up a mere 21 stories, including reprints in various publications.

We can’t even say it’s a case of conservative-liberal bias, because a search for “Hillary,” “Europe,” and “reset” turns up 249,000 stories and her gaffe only happened on Friday. No, this is strictly a case of the media protecting its investment in Barack Obama.

But perhaps we shouldn’t really blame the American media. They had plenty of other important stories that needed covering this week. Like Octomom. Has she had anymore kids yet? And Michelle. Is she wearing sleeves today?

Gordon Brown may be rethinking his earlier comments in this video.

Oprah gives up impartial pretense, puts Michelle Obama on cover of “O”

First first lady is the first person ever to be deemed worthy to share the cover with Oprah.
Oprah has hands together, thanking God for guiding her to make the First Lady the first person to ever share the cover of O with her.

Oprah Winfrey, the same host who wouldn’t allow Sarah Palin on her TV show, has now put Michelle Obama’s merry mug on the cover of her monthly magazine.

This is the first time in the magazine’s nine year history that the camera hogging host has allowed anyone to share her cover. But, c’mon, this is Michelle Obama we’re talking about.

The cover, Winfrey said, makes a statement. “Say what you will about books — people do judge a magazine by its cover, which is why it’s important to me keep the cover of this one looking fresh,” she cooed. “And right now nothing — and I mean nothing — is fresher than the family that moved into the White House in January, sparking a national spirit of renewal the likes of which I’ve never seen.”

We think Oprah was misquoted. We think she actually said, “…sparking a national renewal of spending the likes of which I’ve never seen.”

This is the type of story that led to the birth of IHateTheMedia.com. It combines politics, print and television all rolled together in one pretty, prejudiced little package.

Source: Sun Times

Chavez to Obama: Be my socialist homeboy

<b>We don't need no stinkin' constitution bigger than this!</b>
We don't need no stinkin' constitution bigger than this! Either do you America.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has just called upon President Obama to help lead the world out of the global recession by joining the project of “21st century socialism” of which Chavez is the self-proclaimed leader.

Speaking to a group of workers in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar, their Dear leader directed this comment to our Dear Leader: “Come with us, align yourself, come with us on the road to socialism. This is the only path. Imagine a socialist revolution in the United States/”

Far-fetched? Not to Chavez: “Nothing is impossible. Who would have thought in the 1980s that the Soviet Union would disappear? Nothing is impossible. Who would have thought in the 1980s that the Soviet Union would disappear? No one,” he said. “That murderous, genocidal empire has to end, and some day there has to come a leader … who interprets the best of a people who also include human beings who suffer, endure, weep and laugh.”

Reporters and anchors in the newsrooms of America must be bewildered. On the one hand, it is music to their ears to hear the call to socialism here in America, coming on so strong and so soon after they collectively installed their president. On the other hand, there aren’t a lot of reporters reporting in Venezuela, now are there?

Source: Drudge Report

British newspaper rips Obama again, compares him to “flawed” LBJ

<b>President Obama was excited when he heard he was going to meet the queen, disappointed when he found out it wasn't Elton John.</b>
President Obama was excited when he heard he was going to meet the queen, disappointed when he found out it wasn't Elton John.

Looks like newspapers on the other side of the Atlantic didn’t get that “laudatory coverage only” memo from the White House. The President and everyone around him have been sliced and diced by The Telegraph this week.

The paper’s latest article starts off by reviewing all the president’s gaffes – his poorly thought out choice of gifts, his insulting return of the Churchill bust, his hastily-prepared joint press conference with Gordon Brown. Then things got really nasty:

“Something, suddenly, seems to have made the Obama White House perk up and start to take an interest in the Brits. The Queen has invited the President to tea when he’s here for the G20 in April. And he’s in through the front door of Buckingham Palace faster than a Harley Davidson roaring along Route 66.”

“Note how the coolness of Team Obama disappears when a bit of regal glamour is introduced into the equation. He might not like the Brits, but he can recognise a global superstar when he encounters one. He wants to be associated with her. He’s shameless.”

“If Obama, or someone in his inner circle, had spent two minutes thinking about what present to get Brown then they could easily have come up with something appropriate. He likes books. He loves American history. Get him a signed first edition of a good Robert Dallek book such as the brilliant Flawed Giant on LBJ. Come to think of it, Obama should read it too, if he hasn’t yet, as it reveals a great deal about how a Presidency can go so wrong.”

We’re surprised Obama didn’t schedule tea and crumpets with Prince Charles since they have so much in common:

They both have two kids. Both believe in global warming, yet whip around the world in private jets. And both have domineering wives who make them jump through hoops like trained chihuahuas.

Link: Telegraph

McCain rips everyone on earmarks — Obama, Democrats and Republicans

During the presidential campaign, the compliant liberal press believed every word Barack Obama said. Or at least they pretended they did. They assured us that when their man was elected president, he would do as he promised by eliminating earmarks and emasculating lobbyists.

Oops. Turns out there are 9,000-some earmarks in the “stimulus” bill. And lobbyists go to see the document before members of the House and Senate did.

John McCain doesn’t like it and went ballistic on the floor of the senate yesterday. “If it sounds like I’m angry,” he roared, “it’s because I am.”

His anti-earmark oratory was the kind of speech that’s rarely heard in the Senate. McCain hurled invective at President Obama, Democrats and Republicans and he used words that are equally rare in the Washington, DC gentlemen’s club known as the U.S. Senate.

“I just went through a campaign, Mr. President, where both candidates promised change in Washington, promised change from the wasteful, disgraceful, corrupting practice of earmark, pork-barrel spending,” McCain seethed. “So what are we doing here? Not only business as usual, but an outrageous insult to the American people.”

If the Arizona Republican had shown this kind of fire on the campaign trail, he might be president today.

Watch the entire five-minute video. For once, John McCain seems a lot more like “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” and a lot less like Captain Queeg.

Which Senators voted in favor of censorship…uh…we mean the Fairness Doctrine?

dem_donkeyBy now you’ve probably heard that the Senate approved an amendment a few days ago to outlaw the “Fairness Doctrine.” Republican Senator Jim DeMint’s amendment passed by a comfortable margin of 87-to-11.

Although one would think it’s important to know which senators cast their votes in favor of censorship, we can’t find a single news report that calls out their names. So we’ll do it:

Bingaman (D-NM), Conrad (D-ND), Dorgan (D-ND), Feinstein (D-CA), Harkin (D-IA), Johnson (D-SD), Kerry (D-MA), Reed (D-RI), Rockefeller (D-WV), Sanders (I-VT), and Whitehouse (D-RI).

In addition, Kennedy (D-MA) did not vote, but does anyone doubt that he would have joined them Infamous Eleven had his health been up to it?

Please note that there’s a “D” attached to ten of the eleven of the names. “D” as in Democrat. “D” as in unDemocratic.

Porn to be wild: Octuplet mom lands in middle of a bidding war

nadya suleman fourteen children under the age of eight and an IQ to match.
Fourteen children under the age of eight and an IQ to match.

Nadya Suleman, mother of the California octuplets born last month, has landed smack dab in the middle of a public relations feud between rival porn producers.

One adult film producer has offered Suleman $1 million plus free health insurance to star in one of his porn productions.

In response, another porn producer offered Suleman a year’s supply of diapers if she turns down the first offer. Kim Kysar, manager of the second company, said the company’s offer demonstrated its “social responsibility”.

“It simply isn’t in your best interest, and more importantly, in the best interest of your children, for you to become a porn star,” Kysar said in a letter. “As you know, there’s a great deal of stigma attached to being a porn star. It’s not something that a mother should take lightly, as this decision will most assuredly affect the lives of your children, and not in a positive way.”

“I have to go now,” Kysar then thought to himself. “I have some socially responsible naked women greased up in the next room and the socially responsible cameras are ready to roll.”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell run over by steamroller

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAytq2Dh_SwOuch. Norah O’Donnell never saw it coming. It’s been hours now and she’s probably still woozy after the figurative beating she took from documentary maker John Ziegler.

Ziegler’s out promoting “Media Malpractice,” his new documentary, by making the rounds of all the news and talk shows. Today was MSNBC’s turn.

Based on the smug smile on O’Donnell’s face when the interview started, she though Ziegler was going to be easy pickings. She was wrong.

The former talk show host immediately went on the attack. He repeatedly and pointedly made her look like the empty-headed news babe she is (and by the way, politics aside, Norah O’Donnell is a babe).

Ziegler clearly enjoyed every moment of this interview. Norah, not so much.

For the Media Malpractice documentary, go here.

Playboy may fold (or centerfold, as the case may be)

playboy_bunny_logoThe Playboy empire may be on the auction block. If it can’t find a buyer, it has to figure out how to survive massive losses that show no sign of diminishing.

Last week, the “sophisticated” gentlemen’s magazine had a dismal conference call announcing its fourth quarter and full-year financial results. Jerome Kern, the company’s interim CEO, gulped and reported a 2008 loss of $156 million.

Kern admitted he’s “open to discussions” about a possible sale. In the last six months, the company has eliminated 80 jobs, lost its CEO (founder Hugh Hefner’s daughter Christie), moved back to Chicago, and replaced its editorial director. Critics also complain that the magazine has no internet strategy.

The magazine desperately needs to attract a younger demographic. So it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that one of its problems is that its most visible spokesman is an 82-year old man who pretends he’s sleeping with three attractive young women.

Hugh Hefner seems to have “sophistication” confused with “sophomoric.”

Source: Mediabistro

Time Magazine tells newspapers how to survive, ignores its own problems

time_cover_save_newspaperThere was a frequently-recurring scene in old TV show “Kung Fu” where Master Po would dispense the mystical wisdom of the ages to “Young Grasshopper.”

That may have been the inspiration for the article “How to Save Your Newspaper” in the current issue of Time in which the magazine graciously advises the newspaper industry how to get its head out of its collective butt.

We consider it almost zen-like that Time is able to solve problems for others from which they themselves suffer. Kind of like Master Po and Little Grasshopper.

You see, Time’s circulation hovered around the 4.0 million mark for the last decade, but precipitously plunged to just 3.4 million in 2007. As of June, 2008 the magazine’s base circulation sits at just 3,250,000. They’ve also discontinued publication of its 60-year old Canadian edition.

We’d like to dispense a little zen-like advice to Time. But we’re a little busy here with our in-depth analysis of international events.

Farrah Fawcett flap over famous foto

farrah fawcettFarrah Fawcett. Red bathing suit. Blonde hair. More teeth than is anatomically possible. Oooooh, that poster.

Fawcett is now suing the pants off Bio-Graphics Inc., Pie International Inc. and T.N. Trikilis, accusing them of claiming they own exclusive rights to the photo, reproducing it and selling it. She’s demanding $100,000.

Fawcett swears up and down that she “owns and possesses all the photographs and negatives of all the photographs taken at the photo shoot.”



We’re showing you the poster in question, knowing full well that it’s virtually impossible for any man who grew up in the 70s to wipe it from his memory. Even if he wanted to.

The economy is so bad Playboy can’t afford boobs

seth_roganWant to know why Playboy is struggling? To put it in terms a Playboy reader can understand, why pay for the cow when the milk is free? (In case that was too subtle, we mean to say that there’s so much free porn on the internet that no one is willing to pay for “sophisticated” nudity anymore.)

OK, we’ve put this off long enough. Let’s just say it quickly and get it over with. “Knocked Up” star Seth Rogan’s ugly mug will be on the cover of Playboy’s March (oops, correction) April issue. Maybe Christie Hefner hasn’t noticed but he’s a man. A dude. A guy.

Shame on Playboy. This sad little ploy reeks of desperation and screams, “Publicity stunt.”

It really doesn’t matter to us because we haven’t read Playboy since college. Oh, hell, who do we think we’re kidding? We didn’t read it then. Never actually noticed that it had words.

Sports Illustrated used PhotoShop to remove “natural” beauty’s tattoos

FHM/Sports Illustrated
FHM/Sports Illustrated

For god’s sake, man, is there no morality left in the world? Now Sports Illustrated has admitted that its swimsuit issue actually included models who had been (gasp) enhanced with PhotoShop.

This is such shocking news, such a remarkable revelation, that we must pause to gather our senses about us.

OK, we’re back.

This is truly investigative reporting at its finest. Reporters demanded to know if it were true that tats had been removed from Indy driver Danica Patrick’s lower back. In a real Perry Mason moment, the SI spokesperson ‘fessed up and admitted that, yes, Patrick had been “cleaned up” with a little PhotoShop work. He called it “natural beauty.”

Why, next thing you know, some lunatic will try to tell us that these girls have had boob jobs.

But we’re not buying it. Because we know natural beauty when we see it.

Holy Cow: The New Yorker compares Obama to Gandhi

ghandi_obamaIn a February 23 articled titled “Partisanship, by the bye,” The New Yorker compares President Obama to Mahatma Gandhi.

“Fifty years ago,” the New Yorker said, “the civil-rights movement understood that nonviolence can be an effective weapon even if–or especially if–the other side refuses to follow suit. Obama has a similarly tough-minded understanding of the political uses of bipartisanship, which, even if it fails as a tactic for compromise, can succeed as a tonal strategy: once the other side makes itself appear intransigently, destructively partisan, the game is half won. Obama is learning to throw the ball harder. But it’s not Rovian hardball he’s playing. More like Gandhian hardball.”

We’re not even sure what the hell that means, because the article is written in that smarmy, pseudo-intellectual style meant to impress the reader with the writer’s intellect more than the substance of the article itself.

But to tell you the truth, we also think Obama’s a lot like Gandhi. After all, both of their fathers had multiple wives. Both of them were “community organizers.” Both were attorneys. And both look so damn sexy with their shirts off.

Octuplets’ PR agency aborts relationship

A Brentwood, California public relations agency has walked out on octuplets mom Nadya Suleman because its owners feared for their lives.

Joann Killeen, president of Killeen Furtney Group, says threatening emails and phone calls began flooding her firm as soon as its connection to Suleman was made public.

“They hope I die, they hope my business goes under, they want to rip her uterus out,” Killeen said. “They say I should be anesthetized and put down like a dog.”

The website Killeen created for Suleman received 55,000 e-mails, most of them negative. She also has piles of angry letters.

You might say Suleman’s litter was literally littered with problems.

“Impartial” author of Michelle Obama Vogue article hosted fundraiser for the future president

michelle_obama_vogue_coverWhat’s this world coming to when you can’t trust Vogue magazine to be impartial?

Turns out that cover story featuring Michelle Obama in fancy-schmancy designer fashions was written by editor-at large Andre Leon Talley. And it turns out Talley also hosted an $1000 per plate fundraiser for Barack Obama along with Vogue editor Anna Wintour and designer Calvin Klein.

“With her long, lean, athletic frame, she moves as if she could have danced with Alvin Ailey in another life,” the article gushed. “Curled up in the corner of a huge taupe velvet sofa, wearing knee-high boots as she nestles into the cushions, she almost seems like any other mom recently relocated to a city because of her husband’s new job.”

We’re thinking of starting a new website. Does anyone know if “IHateButtKissingFashionMagazines.com” is available.

Obama team hiring journalists fast as they can be laid off

The newspaper business may be dying, but journalists’ careers are being reincarnated by the Obama administration.

The latest is the Chicago Tribune’s Jill Zuckman. She’s hooking up with the administration as Director of Public Affairs at the Department of Transportation. Peter Gosselin, one of her coworkers at the Trib, recently hired on as chief speech writer for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Time Magazine’s Jay Carney is now Joe Biden’s communications director. CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta is rumored to be in the running for Surgeon General.

Many conservatives fear this intentional blurring of the lines between impartial journalism and partisan politics.

(Hey, who picked up the mail today? Did anyone notice if our job offer came in yet?)

Story of Buffalo beheading has no legs

Three days ago in Buffalo, NY, Muzzammil Hassan sawed the head off his wife Aasiya Hassan — we’re going to say it — Islamofascist-style in a gift to the press that’s normally insatiable for this type of story. Ironically, Mr. Hassan is the founder of Bridges TV network, formed to improve the image of Muslim-Americans in the U.S. So where’s the story?

Conservative commentators knew there would be just token press, and they were proven right. If it were a Christian (or any non-media-protected group), it would have been all over television and print media. But, just three days out, and we see that not only does the poor wife no longer have a head, but the story has no legs. Continue reading “Story of Buffalo beheading has no legs”

Me(d)ia (d)eclines to i(d)entify (d)emocrat scan(d)als

elephant_donkeyLamar Smith, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, strode purposely to the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday to discuss the elephant in the room. And the donkey that isn’t.

“The national media spells scandal without the ‘D,'” Smith roared during the one-minute daily speech allotted every member of the House.

“Two weeks ago the Governor of Illinois was removed from office,” he said. “All three television networks ran full reports on the story the same night and again the following morning. Not one report mentioned that he is a Democrat.”

To reinforce his point, Smith noted that the major media also failed to identify the party affiliation of troubled Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, jailed Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and ousted New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

“Americans need and deserve balanced reporting from the media, not selective omissions,” Smith added.

We completely agree with Smith. So let us point out to you that he is a Texas Republican.

Newsweek just called you a socialist

The Socialist States of America?
The Socialist States of America?

The latest cover of Newsweek says “We Are All Socialists Now.” The story is actually a short editorial that begins by attacking talk show host Sean Hannity and Congressman Michael Pence for refusing to surrender to the new, socialist paradise that is America.

“It is…the European Socialist Act of 2009,” Hannity said while talking to Pence about the “stimulus” bill. “We’re counting on you to stop it.”

“There it was,” Newsweek editorialized, “just before the commercial: the S word, a favorite among conservatives since John McCain began using it during the presidential campaign…But it seems strangely beside the point. The U.S. government has already—under a conservative Republican administration—effectively nationalized the banking and mortgage industries…the America of 2009 is moving toward a modern European state.”

Last week Newsweek announced that it would soon be moving away from words and to a much more photo-oriented design.

The change can’t come soon enough.

Joy Behar is an incoherent plagarist. Whoopi Goldberg says, “Hey, that’s my job.”

On Thursday, February 5, Time Magazine said Republican critics of the President’s “stimulus” plan are like the geese that caused the crash of US Airways Flight 1549.

“It’s hard to take Republican leaders too seriously when they criticize the recovery plans for the economy; it’s sort of like those geese criticizing the evacuation plans for US Airways Flight 1549.”

On Tuesday, February 10, Joy Behar, one of the harpies on ABC’s The View, liked the line so much that she decided to “borrow” it. Problem is, Behar delivered her version of the line almost incoherently.

“You know, Obama’s like that pilot Sullenberg…berger, who, you know, and the Republicans are like the geese that flew into the, you know, it’s like they’re stopping the plane.”

Hard to believe that someone paid to express her opinions expresses them so poorly.

See what we mean on the video.

Salon.com admits obvious: “The new Great Communicator…isn’t.”

Ahhhh, excuse us while we sit back, put our feet up on the footstool and eat bonbons while we laugh our asses off.

OK, we’re back now.

A story by Joan Walsh at Salon.com last week said, “Obama is stumbling in the stimulus debate — and public support is dropping — because for 30 years Republicans have lied about the role of government. Now he’s got to tell the truth.”

That’s right. Obama is flailing around like an inmate in a straight jacket because Republicans lied. Because big government is good. Because taxes aren’t high enough.

Admittedly, we merely skimmed the article. Does anyone know if it mentions Democrats deserting Obama like rats off a sinking ship? Or the series of ethical lapses unmatched in the early days of any administration? Or the rhetoric not matching the reality?

This story really upsets us. Because hate it when other writers are funnier than we are.

Now that’s what we call a stimulus package

Sometimes we love the media
Sometimes we love the media

The 23-year-old Israeli-born model Bar Refaeli was allegedly slated for last year’s Sports Illustrated cover, but was dropped and replaced by Marisa Miller when Bar couldn’t keep the good news to herself. As Page Six reports: “It’s very secretive, and the magazine likes to keep people guessing.”

Boyfriend and overpaid actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been pushing hard to get his squeeze on the cover. But judging from the photos and video, his effort was unnecessary.

Obama’s stimulus plan has been criticized for not taking effect fast enough. After the obligatory research the IHTM staff must rigorously and dutifully perform, we can report with certainly that the Bar Refaeli package provides instantaneous stimulation.

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