Another sex scandal

Is there a double standard in the main stream media when it comes to reporting school sex scandals? Youbetcha! We heard of the Catholic School sex scandals for months, and rightly so. But have you heard that 21 teachers and administrators have been fired in the Los Angeles Unified School District for inappropriate sexual conduct with students in the last year alone? Me neither. See Newsbusters.

Freedom of speech attacked on campus

Yesterday I received a newsletter entitled “Silencing Faith on Campus” which said:

Five years ago, Emily Brooker enrolled at Missouri State University (MSU) to study social work. For her, college was a time of spiritual growth and testing that climaxed during her last semester, when her professors ordered Emily’s class to become “lobbyists” for homosexual behavior by writing letters to the Missouri legislature, encouraging lawmakers to recognize adoption by same-sex couples. Emily respectfully asked for an alternative assignment, explaining to her professor that this one ran counter to her deep religious beliefs. The request was not well received. Her professor filed a ‘level 3’ grievance against Emily—the stiffest charge a faculty member can make against a student.”

“To answer the grievance, Emily was required to appear alone—no parents, no lawyer—before a department ‘ethics’ committee.”

The committee apparently had the authority to not only fail her in the class, but to keep her from graduating. Fortunately, the Alliance Defense Fund stepped and put a stop to it.

The newsletter also listed other examples of blatant anti-Christian attacks in our publically funded universities: “At Savannah State, members of a Christian club were put on suspension for washing each other’s feet during a worship service—school officials called that ‘hazing’ and harassment.” [Isn’t it interesting how some state colleges are using tax payer money to fund Muslim footwashing facilities, but when Christians do it, its is “hazing.”]

“At the University of Wisconsin—Superior, administrators denied InterVarsity Christian Felloswhip…access to campus facilities after accusing the members of violating the school ‘anti-discrimination’ policy by not allowing non-Christians to serve in leadership positions.” [Hmmm, I wonder if the brilliant administrators at the U. of Wisconsin required Muslim groups to have Christian leaders or for Atheist groups to have Muslim leaders, or for Democratic groups to have Republican leaders! How stupid—or hateful—can some people get?]

“At the University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire, university officials forbade RAs…to lead a Bible study—even with just one other person—in their own dorm room. (Beer parties were permitted.)”

The newsletter said that “In at least 230 public universities across the country, institutional policies are in effect that can sharply curtail Christian activity and limit the spread of the Gospel."

It is amazing that university officials, who undoubtedly think of themselves as tolerant and liberal-minded, can be so intolerant, hateful, and un-liberal. It is also amazing that we have such full-blown assault on freedom of speech and freedom of religion going on in state-run institutions, and yet the major media outlets are totally asleep at the switch.

Fortunately, Alliance Defense Fund is helping to fight such university fascism. If you give to charity, the Alliance Defense Fund is a worthy organization.

Shooting in Jerusalem

A couple days ago a terrorist attacked a Jewish school in Jerusalem killing about 10 students and wounding numerous others. What was not so widely reported in the American presses was the fact that the gunman many have killed dozens more if not for the fact that he was shot dead by one of the students who was licenced to carry a gun.

Fox News; fair and balanced

A study by The Center for Media and Public Affairs has found:

Fox News Channel’s coverage was more balanced toward both parties than the
broadcast networks were. On FOX, evaluations of all Democratic candidates
combined were split almost evenly – 51% positive vs. 49% negative, as were all
evaluations of GOP candidates – 49% positive vs. 51% negative, producing a
perfectly balanced 50-50 split for all candidates of both parties.

On the three broadcast networks, opinion on Democratic candidates split 47% positive vs. 53% negative, while evaluations of Republicans were more negative – 40% positive vs. 60% negative. For both parties combined, network evaluations were almost 3 to 2 negative in tone, i.e. 41% positive vs. 59% negative.

McCain and a female lobbyist

The New York Times reported this morning that eight years ago John McCain’s staff became concerned that his relationship with a female lobbyist was becoming romantic so they took steps to stop it.

Both McCain and the lobbyist have denied any such relationship. On Fox News this morning, Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager at the time said the story is totally false. Carl Cameron at Fox News said that Fox investigated the story at the time and could find no one, on or off the record, who could back up the reports.

On the other hand, a search of the New York Times archive for Larry Sinclair produced no articles at all. Larry Sinclair is the man who says he took drugs and had sex with Barack Obama about eight years ago and is now going to court to fight harassment by Obama’s staff.

So the New York Times finds it newsworthy to report anonymous sources alleging suspicions of third parties regarding a possible relationship between McCain and a lobbyist which both parties deny. But they neglect to report actual allegations by someone who says he personally had sex and took drugs with Obama, even though Obama has had a past history of drug abuse and the matter is going to court!

Don't tell me there's no left-wing bias at the New York Times! Either investigate both stories or ignore both stories but don't report one and ignore the other.

Fox News

"In a surprising admission, Hillary Clinton says Fox News Channel has actually been fairer to her presidential campaign than liberal MSNBC" (NewsMax).

I'm not sure whether this speaks to fairness at FoxNews, or some of the radical lunacy at MSNBC.

Fox News most trusted

According to a new survey, Fox News is the most trusted name in news (SHU):

Fox News (27.0%)
CNN (14.6%)
NBC News (10.90%)
ABC News (7.0%)
Local news (6.9%)
CBS News (6.8%)
MSNBC (4.0%)
PBS News (3.0%)
CNBC (0.6%)
CBN (0.5%).

Public radio's deep fried Christ

Recently a public radio station in Salt Lake City aired a skit with the following lines:

[Woman’s voice]: And now another Huckabee family recipe leaked by his
opponents.

[Male Voice]: Tired of bland unsatisfying Eucharists? Try this Huckabee family favorite. Deep-Fried Body of Christ--boring holy wafers no more. Take one Eucharist. Preferably post transubstantiation. Deep-fry in fat, not vegetable oil, ladies, until crispy. Serve piping hot. Mike likes to top his Christ with whipped cream and sprinkles. But his wife Janet and the boys like theirs with heavy gravy and cream puffs. It goes great with red wine.

Why is it constitutional for the public broadcasting radio station to use tax dollars to trash Christianity, but unconstitutional for someone to promote Christianity, for example, in a public school?

Please remember this next time you hear one of the public broadcasting stations' long, drawn-out badgering and manipulation campaigns to solicit funds from their listeners.

The media and interracial crime

Please read Walter Williams' excellent article on how the "Media conceal[s] black interracial crimes." Williams' writes:

According to the 2004 FBI National Crime Victimization Survey, in most
instances of interracial crimes, the victim is white and the perpetrator is
black. In the case of interracial murder for 2004, where the race of victim and
perpetrator is known, more than twice as many whites were murdered by a black
than cases of a white murdering a black. The failure of civil rights leaders,
people like Jackson and Sharpton, as well as politicians to vocally condemn
black-on-white crime – and the relative silence of the news media in reporting
it – is not simply a matter of double standards. It's dangerous, for it
contributes to a pile of racial kindling awaiting a racial arsonist to set it
ablaze. I can't think of better recruitment gifts for America's racists, either
white or black.

Fair and balanced

According to The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University a study found that “on FOX evaluations of candidates were perfectly balanced: A 50-50 split for candidates in both parties. But, on the three broadcast networks, candidate evaluations for both parties were negative almost 60 percent of the time.”

I could be wrong, but my guess is that you won’t hear about this study on ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN.

Dealing with attack ads

I was watching clips of Mike Huckabee responding to his critics this afternoon. He basically said you can listen to the lying attack ads against him but you should remember that if the candidate
who will lie to get into office will lie after being elected to office too.

It wa a good soundbite. Unfortunately, Huckabee gave no answers to what were some very significant objections to his campaign.

I know nothing about campaigning, but rather than calling one's opponent a liar or saying--as another candidate did--that his opponent's position would likely change tomorrow and that his opponent was in a tailspin, wouldn't it be better to use a kind of verbal "judo" against attack ads?

In other words, why not use attack ads to your benefit by explaining how your opponent has deliberately misrepresented you or twisted your message, and then use the opportunity to better explain what your position really is? Then let your audience draw their own conclusions about the honesty--or lack thereof--on the part of your opponent?

On the other hand, maybe that's just the nature of TV news. If you give more than a soundbite, you won't get air time.

Cowardice is killing freedom of speech

The more cowards like this MSNBC analyst let fear keep them from speaking out, the more we can kiss our freedom of speech goodby. Yet I suspect that cowardice is at least in part behind the fact that so many Leftists feel free to vent their vitriol against conservative Christians who, for example, may legally protest an art display defaming Jesus; while the same Leftists are so remarkably tolerant of radical Muslims who call for the murder of those who disrespect Muhammad.

It is only natural that someone would be afraid to speak out, but if they are part of the media and they let fear keep them from speaking out, they need to find other employment and let more courageous journalists fill their positions.

By contrast, see Michelle Malkin's blog today. Now that's courage :-)

AIDS, HIV and IV drug use

In a recent article, Robert Knight asks why the media never asks some of the following questions of "the professional HIV/AIDS lobby, which grows ever fatter while the human tragedy rises":

• Federal funding for HIV/AIDS has increased dramatically every year since 1993, yet the number of new infections has not declined. Why do we spend more money every year on prevention programs that have failed to prevent new infections?
  
• Why do billions of dollars continue to flow to organizations and programs that have been a colossal failure by any yardstick?
  
• Why does the government spend far more on AIDS than cancer or heart disease, which each kill more than 10 times more people annually in the U.S.?
  
• With CDC statistics showing that HIV/AIDS in the United States is still astronomically higher among men who have sex with men (MSM), why are AIDS officials getting away with saying all Americans are equally at risk?
  
• Why have most of the media ignored studies, such as one in the American Journal of Public Health in June 2003 about a program among African-American female adolescents that reported that "17.8 percent of the adolescents acquired an STD despite 100 percent condom use."

Knight goes on to point out that:

• "Between 2001 and 2006, MSM sexual contact was the most common mode of transmission reported among newly reported AIDS cases."
  
• "Between 2001 and 2006 among persons living with AIDS, the highest number of cases was consistently among those attributed to MSM sexual contact, followed by heterosexual contact and IDU [injection drug users]."
  
• "Males made up greater than 70% of all cases living with AIDS, consistent with national trends."

Knight says that “A draft report for the UN's AIDS agency has found that even when people use condoms consistently, the failure rate for protection against HIV is an estimated 10 percent…One would think a 10 percent failure rate against a 100 percent fatal disease would continue to make news, but the stat has disappeared into a media black hole.”

Knight says that “All three leading Democratic presidential candidates have pledged to increase federal money for needle giveaway programs.” But Knight then points out that while Vancouver, Canada has the largest needle exchange program in the Western Hemisphere, the incidence of HIV among IV drug users has risen from 2% to 40%, the “highest HIV infection rate of any city in the developed world.”

Just another bright idea from your friends on the Left. These drug users should find a way to sue the government for facilitating and enabling their drug dependence.

The government is already taking billions of our tax dollars for programs that are not working.
The Democrats want to take even more of your tax dollars to expand these programs that aren’t working. And our politically correct media just continue to ignore the story.

The article concludes, “The main question should be: Why are we throwing billions of dollars at the same old approaches? It can't be "compassion," because it's not working.”

Good question. Please read the entire article at One News Now.

S.F. Chronicle's sneaky censorship

At one time the Left was at the forefront in the fight against censorship. Now some are apparently at the forefront of practicing it. See LGF on the San Francisco Chronicle.

Cemetery workers

There is a joke about George Bush and the Pope riding in a boat when the Pope falls overboard. George Bush jumps overboard and walks on the water to save the Pope’s life. The next day, the media headlines read, “Bush can’t swim.”

I heard about this headline on Fox & Friends this morning.

Hillary and the media

In a New Republic article published yesterday, “Bunker Hillary; Clinton’s strategy for crushing the media,” Michael Crowley writes,

Reporters who have covered the hyper-vigilant campaign say that no detail or
editorial spin is too minor to draw a rebuke. Even seasoned political
journalists describe reporting on Hillary as a torturous experience. Though few
dare offer specifics for the record--"They're too smart," one furtively
confides. "They'll figure out who I am"--privately, they recount excruciating
battles to secure basic facts. Innocent queries are met with deep suspicion.
Only surgically precise questioning yields relevant answers. Hillary's aides
don't hesitate to use access as a blunt instrument, as when they killed off a
negative GQ story on the campaign by threatening to stop cooperating with a
separate Bill Clinton story the magazine had in the works. Reporters' jabs and
errors are long remembered, and no hour is too odd for an angry phone call.
Clinton aides are especially swift to bypass reporters and complain to top
editors. "They're frightening!" says one reporter who has covered Clinton. "They
don't see [reporting] as a healthy part of the process. They view this as a
ruthless kill-or-be-killed game."

Is this really the kind of person we want to run America?

Sexual abuse in public schools

Accordinding to OneNewsNow:

The findings of a seven-month investigation by Associated Press reporters
reveal that from 2001 to 2005, the teaching credentials of more than 2,500
educators nationwide were revoked, denied, surrendered, or sanctioned following
allegations of sexual misconduct. The investigation, chronicled by the news
agency in a mid-October report, states that young people were the victims in at
least 1,801 of the cases -- and more than 80 percent of those were
students.

However, AP says that during its investigation, it found a "deeply
entrenched resistance" toward recognizing and fighting that sexual abuse -- from
teachers and school administrators who wish to avoid lawsuits, to the halls of
state capitals and Congress where lawmakers are hesitant to disparage an
otherwise honorable and vital profession. The result, says Associated Press, is
that very few abusers get caught -- and often are allowed to exit a district
quietly, only to show up in another school district. That dynamic, says the
report, is so commonplace that it has its own nicknames -- "passing the trash"
or the "mobile molester" (Readthe AP report)

Contrary to what I have reported before (this is a correction), this percentage is less than the number of abuse cases reported in the Catholic Church, nevertheless, this story deserves much more media attention than it is getting. Our nation's kids are at stake.

See WorldNetDaily for a list.

Paul Addis and the church

According to the San Jose MercuryNews:

San Francisco prosecutors have charged Paul Addis with three felonies and
two misdemeanors for allegedly planning to set fire to the city's historic Grace
Cathedral. Besides attempted arson, Addis faces charges of possessing explosives
and incendiary devices, removing required markings from an imitation firearm and
violating a court order. Addis was out on bail in the Burning Man case when
police say he was found with an ammunition belt of small explosives outside the
Episcopal church late Sunday.

This happened in San Francisco last Sunday and so far the only one who appears to have covered it is Bill O'Reilly (It's even hard to find much about it on the internet!). If Paul Addis had been a Christian attempting to set fire to an abortion clinic you can bet that it would be the leading story on every news outlet in the country. If Paul Addis had been a Muslim, his attempt would have been called terrorism.

Media ignores pro-family event

According to the Christian Newswire

"Yesterday, thousands of New Jersey citizens showed up on the Capitol steps
in Trenton to show their support for marriage between one man and one woman.
"Mainstream media" in New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York were notified of the
marriage event, hosted by the New Jersey Family Policy Council, yet not one
member of the press showed up. When the press were contacted by phone for
confirmation that someone would attend the event to cover it, callers were met
with hostility about the subject matter by many members of the press."

If a couple dozen gay marriage supporters had been protesting, you can bet that it not only would have been on the evening news, but would have been filmed in such a way as to make it look like a big crowd.

Sex with pupils

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 11 /Christian
Newswire/ -- A male homosexual was the teacher most apt to have sex with his
pupils in a study encompassing 7 countries. Overall, 43% of teachers who made
the news for having sex with their pupils over the last 27 years engaged in
homosexuality. Homosexual teachers violated 1,925 (56%) of the 3,457
pupil-victims. Women were 11% of perpetrators, but a heterosexual female teacher
was least apt to have sex with pupils. Lexis-Nexis was searched from 1980
through 2006 uncovering 902 teachers who had sex with pupils. Teachers who
engaged in homosexuality constituted 63% of perpetrators in Ireland, 62% in New
Zealand, 60% in Canada, 54% in Scotland, 48% in Australia, 47% in England, and
35% in the U.S.

This is particularly significant because the homosexual population in these countries is undoubtedly much less than 35-63%. If 35-63% of the sex-with-pupils cases in public schools were perpretrated by Catholics, for example, I suspect that it would be national news.