Tag Archives: Topic: Media

Brian Raum at Townhall: The unfounded attacks and insults lodged against the National Organization for Marriage have increased recently by an ever ravenous opposition. The Humans Rights Campaign has shamelessly published NOMs confidential IRS records, and last month a federal judge unsealed some of NOM’s constitutionally protected internal reports.

AP: . . . new media guidelines that some say require public TV and radio stations to be more religious.

Religion Clause Blog: In London Christian Radio Ltd. v. Radio Advertising Clearance Centre, (EWHC, April 20, 2012), Britain’s High Court (Queen’s Bench Division) for England and Wales held that the ban on political advertising on radio broadcasts imposed by Communications Act 2003 (Secs. 319 and 321) does not infringe a Christian radio station’s free expression rights . . .

Interfax: Only 6% of respondents oppose the measure and most were citizens aged under 35 (9%), supporters of unregistered parties (15%) and respondents who have friends with a non-traditional sexual orientation (16%

The Hill: The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to review whether the FCC has the authority to fine CBS for broadcasting a split-second glimpse of singer Janet Jackson’s bare breast in 2004.

TIME: After a proposal to cut funding to Planned Parenthood sparked outrage in January, the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation is having trouble attracting donors.

AP: The communist government wants Chinese studios to learn from Hollywood and is trying to attract foreign studios to form ventures by promising more market access and a bigger share of ticket sales.

LifeSiteNews: Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party mayor of London, is being sued by a Christian organization whose bus advertisements for overcoming same-sex attraction he ordered pulled.

Raymond Ibrahim at the Gatestone Institute: While the MSM may report the most frugal facts concerning Christian persecution, they utilize their entire arsenal of semantic games, catch phrases, and convenient omissions that uphold the traditional narrative—that Muslim violence is anything but a byproduct of the Islamic indoctrination of intolerance.

How Appealing links to the ruling and reports.

Archbishop Cranmer Blog: Next Monday, 16th April, will see the launch of an advertising campaign carrying the slogan: “Not gay! Post-gay and proud. Get over it.” London buses, travelling along five different routes, will carry the advert for two weeks. No doubt some of the more militant gays will demand a capital-wide boycott of London’s buses.

Bishop George McKinney at the Daily Caller: Each of us has the right to choose how and with whom we love, certainly. But none of us has the right to redefine marriage, which was not created by government but by God and is engraved on the human heart. To suggest the prominent leaders of African-American churches are in the fight for marriage as the result of “race-baiting” is unjust and indeed patronizing on the part of media elites at MSNBC. Marriage, and the black church, deserve better

AP: Los Angeles gay rights group says Manhattan Beach police were wrong to release to the media the names and photos of 18 men arrested in an undercover gay sex sting last week.

LifeNews reports, links to the full video and embeds some video excerpts. “Margaret Sanger, the leader of the birth control movement in America, talks to Wallace about why she became an advocate for birth control, over-population, the Catholic Church, and morality.”

Sen. Ruben Diaz: Brian Brown and NOM have done something, that no one has been able to do before: they have helped Black and Hispanic people throughout the nation to find our voice when everyone else rejected us and excluded us from the debate . . . No New York Times editorial, nor anyone else will be able to sow seeds of dissension between us and NOM in this great effort to protect marriage.

David French at National Review: In my experience, federal judges are more likely to be angered than intimidated by direct attacks from politicians and pressure groups.

Marcia Coyle and Tony Mauro at National Law Journal: Regardless of the outcome of the challenge to the new health care law, three days of arguments last week may have cemented the view of the Roberts Court as a willing and aggressive player in the American political conversation.

The Hill: Democrats have waged a not-so-subtle pressure campaign on the Supreme Court in recent days by warning a ruling against the healthcare reform law would smash precedent and threaten popular social programs.

AP report.

Christian Institute: The High Court has deferred a decision on whether a watchdog was right to ban an advert that asked Christians to report experiences of workplace marginalisation.

LA Times: Signs of Supreme Court activism worry Reagan administration lawyers
Advocates of judicial restraint say conservative justices should be wary of the impulse to strike down the healthcare law passed by Congress.

Eugene Volokh discusses the proposed legislation at the Volokh Conspiracy.

Liberal theologian William Ellery Channing once observed, “The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.” War has indeed been declared . . .

Politico: Even more than that, Republican leadership has evolved, too. It has quietly worked behind the scenes to kill amendments that reaffirm opposition to same-sex unions, several sources told POLITICO.

Christian Concern: Three Christian MPs have written to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in an attempt to overturn its ban on claiming that ‘God can heal’.

NY Times: That lunch was a milestone in the dramatic evolution of a behind-the-scenes fund-raising network whose goal is to legalize same-sex marriage from coast to coast. This emerging group of donors is not quite like any other fund-raising network that has supported gay-related issues over the past 40 years. They come from Hollywood, yes, but also from Wall Street and Washington and the corporate world; there are Republicans as well as Democrats; and perhaps most strikingly, longtime gay organizers said, there has been an influx of contributions from straight donors unlike anything they have seen before.

ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull at American Thinker: Note the fact that those who support protecting marriage do not argue that Ben & Jerry’s has no right to their opinions or business practices. Chick-fil-A, of course, doesn’t get the same pass that Ben & Jerry’s does because, in the eyes of those who love political conformity, Chick-fil-A doesn’t hold to the right opinions. But that’s the sad thing about the political left. They’re always pushing their morality on everybody else.

Washington Post: Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Friday that President Obama gives people reason to believe that he’s a Muslim.

WorldNetDaily: The most well-read news story anywhere got no mention on Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times or any other so-called “mainstream” news outlet – a laughable adjective.

Politico: The AFP, the Huffington Post and other websites have scrubbed a report about first daughter Malia Obama’s school trip.

The Hill: Two Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee questioned Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski in a letter on Tuesday about his agency’s proposal to require TV stations to keep online databases of political advertising.

AP: . . . Bishop William E. Lori comes from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn . . .

Times Union: There was a verdict in the wrenching Rutgers webcam spying case, but no resolution to a broader question that hovered over it: To what extent are hate crime laws a help or a hindrance in the pursuit of justice? . . . “These laws serve only one purpose — they criminalize thoughts and beliefs that are not considered politically correct,” said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. “There’s a clash and a conflict — I don’t know that it’s here yet, but it’s coming — with freedom of expression and freedom of religion,” Stanley said.

Harry R. Jackson, Jr. at Townhall: The largely white religious right is literally becoming a melting pot of diversity as far as this marriage issue is concerned. Huge numbers of blacks and Hispanics of faith are starting to feel that there is a “not so subtle” media attack on the nation’s most fundamental institutions. They realize that many movies and TV sitcoms have gone out of their way to express support of “so called” gay rights.

LifeSiteNews: On February 15 of last year LifeSiteNews announced, much to the shock of our readers, that LifeSiteNews and five of its staff are the subject of a $500,000 lawsuit from a self-professed ‘pro-choice’ Quebec Catholic priest – Fr. Raymond Gravel.

ABC2news.com: “If you imagine you can change the church from within — get it to lighten up on birth control, gay rights, marriage equality, embryonic stem-cell research — you’re deluding yourself,” argued leaders of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “By remaining a ‘good Catholic,’ you are doing ‘bad’ to women’s rights. … Apparently, you’re like the battered women who, after being beaten down every Sunday, feels she has no place else to go.”

Findlaw: Charlize Theron’s adoption as a single parent may not have been possible even as recently as the 1970s, when such adoptions were illegal in some states. But that’s changed, and now single-parent adoptions are allowed in every U.S. state, according to the University of Oregon’s Adoption History Project.

Jeff Jacoby at Townhall: N A NEW JERSEY COURTROOM on Monday, the defense rested in the trial of Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers freshman accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate’s intimate encounter with an older man. The roommate, Tyler Clementi, later committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge, and his death unleashed a national outcry about teen-age bullying and antigay persecution.

Politico: The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is launching a new effort today to target 36 commentators who speak out against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

LifeSiteNews: Catholics and non-Catholics alike have reacted to a viciously anti-Catholic full-page advertisement in Friday’s New York Times.

Business Insider: Executives at The New York Times have rejected a full-page anti-Islam advertisement that mimicked a controversial anti-Catholic advertisement they published on March 9.

The AP reports.

NY Times: The Judiciary Committee in the Republican-controlled House held a hearing to promote a mean-spirited and constitutionally suspect bill called the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act.

James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal: Allred is trying to have it both ways. She wants to use criminal law to enforce standards of gentlemanly behavior while rejecting any reciprocal obligation for women to act ladylike. Thus feminism’s theory of equality between the sexes dissolves into incoherence in the face of real life.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: It was of course never to be expected that the European Commission, as a reply to critical questions from the European Parliament with regard to the generous funding it is handing out to ILGA-Europe (a homosexual lobby group with links to pedohile networks), would openly acknowledge to have committed a misuse of budgetary funds. But if replies to parliamentary questions are evasive and not to the point, this can be viewed as a clear indication that the Commission finds it very difficult to explain to the public what it is doing.

Christian Institute: Openly gay popstar Will Young believes vicars who describe gay marriage as ‘abhorrent’ should be prosecuted for hate crimes.

Christian Newswire: Human Life International President Father Shenan J. Boquet today defended Pope Benedict XVI, whose statement in defense of chastity and traditional marriage has started an uproar in the media. The Holy Father was speaking to several U.S. Bishops who were in Rome for an ad limina visit.

Courier Press: “We are winning in litigation,” said Bryan Beauman of the Alliance Defense Fund. He spoke at Holy Name to raise money for the 20th-annual Marsha’s Place Pregnancy Resource Center fundraising banquet. “We are winning in state legislatures, and … most importantly, we are winning in the court of public opinion.” . . . “Don’t tell me this is a social issue,” Beauman said. “It is as economic and political as it can be.”

R.J. Snell at The Public Discourse: Unless we ask the “what” and “why” in ethical debate, we aren’t doing ethics. Debating ethics requires intellectual conversion and thus a commitment to intelligible reality.

NY Times: Leticia Parra, a mother of five scraping by on income from her husband’s sporadic construction jobs, relied on the Planned Parenthood clinic in San Carlos, an impoverished town in South Texas, for breast cancer screenings, free birth control pills and pap smears for cervical cancer.

Breitbart: The video, which Kaczynski says was “licensed from a Boston television station,” shows a young Barack Obama leading a protest at Harvard Law School on behalf of Prof. Derrick Bell, a radical academic tied to Jeremiah Wright . . .

The Daily Caller: Since the market opened on Monday through its close today, Carbonite stock (NASDAQ:CARB) has plummeted nearly 12 percent . . .

ABC: Kirk Cameron is fighting back against the “hate speech” he feels he’s endured since calling homosexuality “unnatural,” “detrimental,” and “ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization” during a Friday appearance on “Piers Morgan Tonight” to promote his new film, “Monumental.”

Politico: Donald Trump blasted George Will Monday for suggesting recently that the Republican Party should give up on winning the White House in 2012, calling the conservative columnist “a totally overrated fool.”

Christian Science Monitor: Conservatives see ‘media-generated histrionic’ over vulgar comments Rush Limbaugh made about law school student Sandra Fluke. Liberals see a ripe opportunity to pin wings of GOP candidates to the wall.

Cathy Ruse at the Wall Street Journal: Because at the end of the day this is not about coverage of a medical condition. Ms. Fluke’s crusade for reproductive justice is simply a demand that a Catholic institution pay for drugs that make it possible for her to have sex without getting pregnant. It’s nothing grander or nobler than that. Georgetown’s refusal to do so does not mean she has to have less sex, only that she has to take financial responsibility for it herself.

NY Times: Emboldened by Rush Limbaugh’s public apology over the weekend to a law school student whom he had called a “slut” and a “prostitute,” critics of the radio talk show host are intensifying their online campaign against his advertisers.

The Hill: Limbaugh came under fire from Democrats on Wednesday after he attacked Fluke for her testimony in a hearing about the president’s contraception mandate, calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

infoWars.com: In a stunning coincidence, It appears Andrew Breitbart suffered his untimely death just hours before he was set to release damning video footage that could have sunk Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

Jill Stanek at LifeSiteNews: On February 28 CNN’s Wolf Blitzer tried to play gotcha with Newt Gingrich regarding Gingrich’s statement during a recent Republican debate that the mainstream media had failed to scrutinize presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 regarding his opposition as state senator to the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

The AP reports.

Cassy Fiano at LifeNews: The Virginia state legislature has introduced a bill requiring women get a sonogram before they get an abortion. It must be given by an MD at least two hours before the procedure — not one of the “nurses” employed by the abortion clinic — and the woman must be given the opportunity to see the ultrasound image and hear the heartbeat.

One News Now (AP): Wright said, “The hecklers in our culture are beginning to dictate the terms of debate and what speech is permitted on social media.”

Here. Audio excerpts of the speech available here.

NYTimes.com: The authority of the Supreme Court depends on the trust of the public. But in recent years, that trust has been undermined by controversies surrounding the court’s lack of openness in how justices deal with ethics questions and in the court’s continuing refusal to let oral arguments be televised.

Catholic Culture: The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has shut down a Catholic television station.

Connie Cass and Jennifer Agiesta write here.

Creators.com: My days as a political analyst at MSNBC have come to an end. After 10 enjoyable years, I am departing, after an incessant clamor from the left that to permit me continued access to the microphones of MSNBC would be an outrage against decency, and dangerous.

The Washington Post: Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and his allies at the super PAC Restore Our Future are spending $1,240,230 in Michigan this week, according to a Republican media buyer. The former Pennsylvania senator is spending $42,443 — not a typo — and none of his super PAC supporters have spent anything.

Reihan Salam at National Review Online: But the notion that opposition to same-sex marriage is rooted in bigotry is now so firmly entrenched that Santorum will have an extremely difficult time overcoming it . . . Santorum has said that his campaign is about freedom. Yet he hasn’t been able to explain that his opposition to same-sex marriage is rooted in a concern for equal freedom in a manner that non-conservatives find sufficiently compelling.

LifeSiteNews.com: Should Canada’s Christians have the right to defend their beliefs without losing their job? Damian Goddard plans to put this question front-and-centre in May as he heads to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

In his broadcast today, Rush Limbaugh spent a great deal of time today reviewing this article by Hillsdale College Professor Paul A. Rahe: American Catholicism’s Pact With the Devil.  Rush has posted a transcript of his discussion.  Rahe writes: “There is, I would suggest, a connection between the heretical doctrine propagated by Cardinal Bernadin in the Gannon Lecture and the difficulties that the American Church now faces. Those who seek to create heaven on earth and who, to this end, subvert the liberty of others and embrace the administrative entitlements state will sooner or later become its victims.”

Tony Mauro at The Blog of Legal Times: By an 11-7 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee today approved a bill that calls for television access to Supreme Court proceedings. The bill, S.1945 . . .

In today’s broadcast, Rush Limbaugh read from this report –  LifeSiteNews, December 9, 2005 by Gudrun Schultz: In a shocking turn-around, Massachusetts’s governor Mitt Romney announced yesterday that Roman Catholic and other private hospitals in the state will be forced to offer emergency contraception to sexual assault victims under new state legislation, regardless of the hospitals’ moral position on the issue . . .

Ryan T. Anderson at Public Discourse: Charles Murray argues we’ve come apart, but can therapeutic Deism and the sexual revolution put us back together?