Tag Archives: Topic: Media

CBN News: “On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the broadcast of the California trial over the state’s gay marriage ban . . . ‘In a democracy the majority always rules,”‘ said Austin R. Nimocks of The Alliance Defense Fund. ‘I mean that’s the principle of democracy. If that doesn’t exist you really don’t have a democracy.’” Article includes video.

Wired.com: “If you type, ‘Buddhism is’ or ‘Christianity is,’ Google will quickly show you suggestions for what it thinks you might be trying to type. In the former query’s case, the Google guesses ‘not a religion,’ ‘wrong,’ ‘not what you think.’ Christianity gets tougher treatment with the suggestions [bleep] . . . and ‘not a religion.’”

On a related note, try Googling “National Organization for Marriage.” As of this posting, the first hit is to a Wikipedia article. The second hit is to the “Human Rights Campaign” website. The third hit is to a You Tube video titled: “YouTube – Lies from the National Organization for Marriage.” Most of the other links in the top ten hits are to homosexual or left wing organizations. No direct links to the National Organization for Marriage appears in the first ten hits except for a link to a defunct webpage from the NOM California. Is this mere coincidence based on neutral computer programming?

Ann Coulter writes at Human Events: “Most perplexing was columnist Dan Savage’s indignant accusation that Hume was claiming that Christianity ‘offers the best deal — it gives you the get-out-of-adultery-free card that other religions just can’t.’ In fact, that’s exactly what Christianity does. It’s the best deal in the universe. (I know it seems strange that a self-described atheist and “radical sex advice columnist f*****” like Savage would miss the central point of Christianity, but there it is.)”

Jake Tapper at ABC News: “C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb . . . Lamb reminded the leaders that ‘President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system.’”

Bill O’Reilly interviews Brit Hume about his comments urging Tiger Woods to take a look at Christianty. Hume describes the name of Jesus as being explosive.

Related: “Tiger, forget Buddhism, find Christ: Brit Hume on Fox”

. . . A Tipping Point . . . the case of Don Mendell.

USA Today (includes video of Brit Hume): Hume forecasts Woods will recover as a golfer but “…Whether he can recover as a person depends on “his faith. He’s said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redeption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.’”

“A group of citizens formed RTAO in July 2008 because they wanted to provide accurate and useful information about then-candidate Barack Obama. Specifically, RTAO wanted to broadcast an ad explaining Obama’s support of abortion. RTAO also planned a website and wanted to distribute a letter in order to raise money for the ad. However, if RTAO had proceeded, it was in danger of an enforcement action and civil and criminal penalties by the Federal Election Commission.”

Culture and Media Institute: “Studio executives might want to make a New Year’s resolution to show less skin in their movies. A December 29 CNN article reported that a recent study found that ‘sex and nudity failed to positively affect a film’s popularity among viewers or critics and did not guarantee big box office receipts.’”

Law.com (Legal Intelligencer): “It has been nearly eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take a second look at the case and to consider reinstating the $550,000 in fines that the Federal Communications Commission imposed on CBS over Jackson’s breast-baring performance. Without comment, the justices said the 3rd Circuit should reconsider its decision in FCC v. CBS Corp. in light of the high court’s decision in FCC v. Fox Television Stations — a case that focused on the related issue of vulgar language.”

Multichannel.com: “Religious broadcasters have asked the Federal Communications Commission not to reallocate any broadcast spectrum for wireless, saying it will disproportionately impact Christian TV broadcasters . . . NRB also maintained that if spectrum reclamation were to significantly impact religious broadcasters, it could well violate the Religoius Freedom Restoration Act . . . ”

Newsweek: “Although his very presence in the White House is the stuff of culture wars, Obama himself is reluctant to wade into one. Moreover, if socially divisive policies have the potential to compromise his legislative agenda, Obama has proven that he simply won’t pursue them.”

“America is not prudish or closed-minded, it is exhausted. It cannot be exaggerated, how much Americans feel besieged by the culture of their own country, and to what lengths they have to go to protect their children from it.”

Patrick Courrielche writes at Breitbart Big Hollywood: “Enter Howard Zinn – an author, professor and American historian – who, with the help of Hollywood and the History Channel, intends to change the way our pre-K through high school children learn American history.”

Religion Clause Blog: “According to yesterday’sWashington Post, Miniter claims that he was essentially ‘coerced’ into attending a Unification Church religious ceremony that ended with a mass wedding conducted by Rev. Sun Myung Moon.”

ChicagoNow.com: “Washington Blade, the nations oldest LGBT newspaper has been shut down by it’s publishers.”

CitizenLink: “The Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT) is arguing that Chattanooga’s Electric Power Board (EPB) should pull the plug on the Playboy channel. The EPB is selling cable TV and Internet access and included the sexually themed channel in the lineup.”

Google News (AP): “In one ad after another, voters in California and Maine were besieged with images of what would supposedly happen if same-sex marriage were legal: Students on a field trip to a lesbian wedding, elementary kids gobbling up books featuring gay couples, kindergartners learning about homosexuality from their teachers.”

“Kenneth Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for Virginia state attorney general, believes it’s ‘appropriate’ to formulate public policy on the premise that homosexuals engage in behavior that is ‘intrinsically wrong’ and offensive to ‘natural law.’”

Focus on the Family: “Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Emeritus James C. Dobson, Ph.D., will leave the ministry as its primary radio voice at the end of February, the ministry announced today.”

“Here’s how it will play out in the classroom: kindergartners will be told that some adults choose same-sex marriage and some choose opposite-sex marriage.”

One News Now: “In an alleged attempt to protect free speech on the Internet and prevent Internet service providers (ISPs) from implementing a tier system for broadband use, the FCC has decided to craft rules and regulations to guide ISPs. Once the rules are crafted, they will be posted for public comment and a final decision will not be handed down until early next year.”

Dallas Morning News: “Dallas movie executive Stephen Jarchow has made thousands of deals in his 17-year entertainment career, but none with more potential punch than his recent acquisition of a URL. The 58-year-old chairman of Here Media Inc. bought gay.com, the preeminent Web site for gays and lesbians.”

“. . . yesterday, the White House decided to try and ban Fox News from a briefing with Obama’s Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg.”

WorldNet Daily: “President Obama’s presidential campaign focused on ‘making’ the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was ‘controlled,’ White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.”

Boston Globe: “Legislation to make radio stations pay royalties to performers when they broadcast their music won the Senate Judiciary Committee’s approval Thursday.”

Guardian: “The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.”

“The Alliance Defense Fund has launched a new Web site designed to be a fully integrated resource for members of the news media covering stories on ADF cases and its related areas of legal expertise.”

WorldNetDaily: “A campaign by Ray Comfort and actor Kirk Cameron to give away 100,000 copies of a special edition of Charles Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ on 100 university campuses in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the seminal book’s publication in November already is drawing a caustic reaction from media . . . Comfort’s Living Waters is working on the project with Answers in Genesis, Campus Crusade for Christ, Teen Mania and the Alliance Defense Fund.”

John Samples, Broadcast Localism and the Lessons of the Fairness Doctrine. Cato Policy Analysis Series, No. 639, May 27, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1462192

“The history of the Fairness Doctrine suggests that federal officials who make and enforce such policies are more concerned with limiting political debate than they are with advancing local concerns or the public interest. Like the Fairness Doctrine, the FCC’s localism initiative poses the risk of restricting speech. Our unhappy experience with the Fairness Doctrine suggests that imposing localism mandates on broadcasters is unlikely to serve the public interest in constitutional propriety and uninhibited political debate.”

Calgary Herald: “Alberta’s Human Rights and Citizenship Commission has dismissed nine complaints filed against the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald in connection with a controversial editorial published seven years ago. The complaints were lodged by Muslim and Palestinian organizations and their supporters, who argued the editorial was likely to incite hatred or contempt toward Palestinian Arabs and Muslims, contrary to Alberta’s Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act.”

a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/sep/23/asa-religious-poster-blessed-oil”>Guardian: “A poster for a religious group that implied that “blessed oil” could help cure serious medical conditions has been censured by the advertising watchdog after a protest from the British Humanist Association.”

AP: “A Polish court on Wednesday ordered a Roman Catholic magazine to pay a fine and apologize to a woman for likening her to a killer for wanting an abortion and equating the practice with Nazi crimes.”

ARS Technica: “Media reform groups want an end to the FCC’s indecency crusade, making the airwaves safe for fleeting expletives once more. But the case might also gut the FCC’s regulatory authority, something that the groups certainly don’t want.”

Los Angeles Times: “‘Modern Family’ is an ensemble show set in three different households . . . There’s a gay couple, Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), who have just adopted a baby daughter from Vietnam . . . [the show] treats the gay couple in its domestic triptych as purely matter-of-fact.”

Jonathan Adler writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: “It may be a little while before we see what the U.S. Supreme Court will do to campaign finance law in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In the meantime, lower court challenges to various FEC rules continue apace. This morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down some in EMILY’s List v. FEC. The court, in an opinion by Judge Kavanaugh, joined by Judge Henderson in full and Judge Brown in part, held several FEC rules are contrary to statute and violative of the First Amendment.”

“Although the health care reform debate has gobbled up media attention for weeks, the networks’ silence on the fundamental issue of how the federal government defines marriage is odd.”

LifeSiteNews: “But officials were not prepared for the overwhelming opposition of Britain’s public to the idea. With over 4000 submissions having been made to the consultation, the review of the advertising codes will be delayed a year.”

Reuters: “In a filing on Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the FCC asked the court to allow the agency to review whether CBS was reckless by failing to use a video delay technology, reasserting that CBS used a video delay for the 2004 Grammy Awards only seven days after the Super Bowl.”

Politico: “The right-wing media’s single-minded focus on a handful of targets over the past months and its success in pushing those stories into the mainstream have underscored the sharp divide between traditional news organizations and the bloggers and talk show hosts aggressively pursuing an ideological agenda on-line and on TV and radio . . . The succession of such controversial stories has exposed blind spots in both the Obama administration and the press, with the president’s aides at first trying to ignore critics they considered shrill or ignorant, and networks and newspapers finding themselves flat-footed when issues they had ignored caught fire online and on cable.”

George Will writes at Townhall: “Last March, during the Supreme Court argument concerning the Federal Election Commission’s banning of a political movie, several justices were aghast. Suddenly and belatedly they saw the abyss that could swallow the First Amendment.”

Michael Paulson reporting in the Boston Globe: “There have been reductions in the number of reporters who write about religion full-time at all of the nation’s biggest newspapers — the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times (and even at the Globe, where for a brief period we had two religion writers) – and the religion news beat has disappeared from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Orlando Sentinel, the Palm Beach Post, the Grand Rapids Press, the Chicago Sun-Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and Newsday, according to Debra Mason, the executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association.”

SCOTUS Blog carries this description of today’s argument in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission and the apparent reactions of each of the justices.

Findlaw (AP): “‘Hillary: The Movie’ is returning to the Supreme Court for a limited engagement and with the chance to reshape campaign finance laws for next year’s congressional elections.”

AP: “Federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a 2007 law that requires trade associations to disclose their members who contribute to lobbying activities.”

National Assoc. of Manufacturers v. Taylor, No. 08-5085 (DC Cir. Sept. 8, 2009)

“Yep, let’s reiterate. The Post is saying that it’s not ‘neutral’ to say that it’s sane to believe that the institution of marriage should be heterosexual.”

Theodore B. Olsen writes at the Wall Street Journal: “Public discussion about the character and fitness for office of presidential candidates is at the core of the First Amendment’s command that ‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the Freedom of Speech.’ Yet Congress, in its zeal to impose onerous campaign-finance restrictions, has made political speech a felony for one class of speakers. Corporations and unions can face up to five years in prison for broadcasting candidate-related advocacy during federal elections. Is outlawing political speech based on the identity of the speaker compatible with the First Amendment? Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments to determine the answer to this question.”

SCOTUS Blog: “The Supreme Court announced Friday that the audiotape of next Wednesday’s oral argument in a major campaign finance case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205), will be released for public broadcast shortly after the argument ends. The argument is to begin at 10 a.m., and is scheduled to continue for 80 minutes, indicating that release may come in late morning. The arrangements are outlined in this news release . . .”

Tomorrow at 10 a.m., the United States Supreme Court will hear reargument in the campaign-finance case of Citizens United v. FEC.

Newsbusters: “Conservatives are resuming their historically dominant position atop the New York Times and Amazon.com bestsellers lists after a short hiatus that coincided, not coincidentally, with George W. Bush’s tenure in the White House.”

Broadcasting & Media: “The FCC’s report to Congress on the state of media-screening technologies, due by the end of this month, comes to two broad conclusions, but does not suggest any action items beyond opening an inquiry prompted by its survey of the current content-control landscape for a variety of media. That inquiry includes a request for better data, something that should come as no surprise for followers of the current commission. The FCC’s two conclusions: 1) There is no universal ratings system in place, and 2) better educating parents on how to use the existing systems would likely help drive adoption.”

Bloomberg: “U.S. regulators will consider a single ratings system that would warn parents of programming on television, video games, and wireless telephones that could be inappropriate for children, officials said. The Federal Communications Commission will begin the inquiry after an agency report to be delivered Aug. 31 to Congress on media blocking and rating techniques, said two commission officials, who declined to be identified because the information hasn’t been made public.”

CNSNews: “Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called for a ‘confrontational movement’ to combat what he claimed was control of the media by international corporations and to re-establish the regulatory power of government through robust public broadcasting and a more powerful FCC.”

The Hill: “The Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to keep the Internet free of increased user fees based on heavy Web traffic and slow downloads. Julius Genachowski, the FCC chairman, told The Hill that his agency will support “net neutrality” and go after anyone who violates its tenets.”

NY Times: “The commission is planning two days of workshops in December — titled “From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?” — to examine the state of the news industry.”

Charles Davis, assistant professor at the MU School of Journalism, writing in the Columbus Daily Tribune: “As a near-absolutist First Amendment advocate, my prescription for hate speech is always more speech: Give the bigot a microphone as big as the hatred, I say, and watch as the marketplace of ideas works its magic . . . My proposition is simple: Major news organizations need to cover hate the way they once did — as a standalone beat.”

LifeSiteNews: Newsweek’s Sarah Kliff added her voice to the media campaign softening the image of late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart on Saturday with her report ‘The Abortion Evangelist‘, but says she did not anticipate and has difficulty explaining her emotional reaction to witnessing Carhart actually take the life of an unborn child.

Josh Geldrich writes at the Examiner: “The Obama administration has stepped in to circumvent obstacles to reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine and halt dissemination of truthful information to the American people. The information which is detrimental to the furthering of his political agenda is all apparently from one source – conservative talk radio.”

Chicago Tribune: “Conservative columnist Robert Novak has died after a battle with brain cancer.”

Human Events has published this tribute.

RsrcID=52633″>CNSNews: “Grassley wrote. ‘I am concerned that despite his statements that the Fairness Doctrine is unnecessary, Mr. Lloyd supports a backdoor method of furthering the goals of the Fairness Doctrine by other means.’”

Denver Archbishop Chaput: “What we owe Caesar above all is honest, vigorous, public moral witness on abortion and every other vital social issue, whether Caesar likes it or not. Our moral witness needs to be formed not by the nightly news, but by learning and living an authentic Catholic faith. And when it is, we’ll be the kind of citizens who can appreciate the genuine service our news media provide to society. We’ll also be the kind of citizens who demand that our news media act with the sobriety, integrity, fairness and honesty their vocation requires.”

OneNewsNow: “Pat Trueman, special counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, believes is targeting the papers who advertised the escort services. ‘This is important because anybody who is either committing a crime or conspiring to commit a crime or aiding the commission of a crime is equally liable,’ he contends. ‘So, a newspaper that is willfully advertising for prostitution should get the same penalties as the pimp, for example.’”

CitizenLink: “Patrick Trueman, special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said when such cases get to court, free-speech claims don’t equal a defense. ‘There is no First Amendment protection to be involved in a crime,’ Trueman explained. ‘(If) a newspaper takes advertisements for prostitution, they are aiding and abetting that crime.’”

CNSNews: “Mark Lloyd, newly appointed Chief Diversity Officer of the Federal Communications Commission, has called for making private broadcasting companies pay licensing fees equal to their total operating costs to allow public broadcasting outlets to spend the same on their operations as the private companies do.”

WorldNetDaily: “Savage told WND at the time the Home Office chose him to balance the list of Muslim extremists because he is Jewish.”

The Knights of Columbus have issued this resolution calling “upon law enforcement officials at all levels to vigorously investigate and prosecute criminal conduct in this area, especially child pornography.”

“It is nothing new that such reference has become taboo in the so-called ‘mainstream’ media—but we ought to pay special attention to the role that ridicule plays as a public relations tactic.”

Chris Ahearn, President at Thomas Reuters, on the Reuters Blog: “If you are doing something that you would object to if others did it to you – stop . . . Please feel free to link to our stories — it adds value to all producers of content.”

Boston Globe (AP): Venezuela’s top prosecutor insisted Thursday that freedom of expression in Venezuela “must be limited,” and proposed legislation that would slap additional restrictions on the country’s news media.

“Researchers are just beginning to study the phenomenon, but the few who do estimate that openly polyamorous families in the United States number more than half a million, with thriving contingents in nearly every major city.”

ABC-12 Wisconsin reports: “Stephen Balkam of the Family Online Safety Institute said phones have parental controls for free. ‘All the mobile carriers now have parental controls all for free,’ said Balkam, ‘and a number of them like AT&T and Verizon have additional controls that you pay about $5 a month for.’”

Parents Who Would Prefer Their Daughters Not Seek Careers In The Hardcore Pornography Business Should Ensure They Aren’t Watching CNBC’s Family Hour Special, ‘Porn: Business of Pleasure’

GLAAD Press Release: “The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today released its third annual Network Responsibility Index, a report that maps the quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television. Primetime programming on the five broadcast networks was evaluated as well as original primetime programming on 10 of the highest-rated cable networks.”

Debra Cassens Weiss reports in the ABA Journal: “The aim is for those who use AP articles to pay for them, AP president and chief executive Tom Curley told the New York Times. AP maintains that just publishing an article headline and a link requires a licensing agreement, the story says.”

Catholic News Agency: “In a Wednesday evening conference call Steve McEveety, producer of movies such as ‘The Passion of the Christ’ and ‘Bella,’ spoke about his Hollywood career, his faith, and how aspiring filmmakers can advance in the entertainment industry. He also discussed the production of movies such as ‘Braveheart,’ ‘The Passion’ and ‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’”