The Media Cover-up (For Now)

If the media is one thing---it is transparent. It is also leftist and predictable, but that would be three things.

So, here we go with a prediction born of the leftist transparency we find with the Activist Old Media. 

Sometime after November 7th the media will begin doing its job. Now...it still won't fully do it's job, but it will at least give it the ol' College Journalism School Try. 

Two scandals should be rocking this White House right now. By themselves, each is worse than Watergate, and combined they would make Barack Obama the most scandalous president in history. Fast and Furious, the Benghazi terrorist attack; and lies and cover-ups with both.

There is an election to win right now for the media and its Dear Leader, so neither scandal will get the attention it deserves. We know that, we see that. Oh...they may touch on these stories and bite around the edges, but the junk yard dogs sit muzzled and chained while the Obama administration has its way with the merchandise (in this case, we would be the merchandise.) Never forget this is the same media that spent four years, four years attacking the George W. Bush White House over the supposed leaking of a non-covert CIA agent's name. A story the media got horribly wrong, but oh well, the Bushies had it comin'.

Whether Obama wins or loses this election, the media will suddenly learn of these two stories through osmosis (or they will click into Big Government and read them) and they will cover them as if they knew them all along. They will try to maintain a smidgen of credibility. Investigative reporters will be unleashed, books will be written, and Peabody's and Emmy's will be awarded en-mass.

If Obama loses November 6th, the media will have ignored its motto of "speaking truth to power" because Obama will be out of power. It does little good then. The time to do these stories is now. Right now. But clearly the media feel loose seats on an American Airlines jet where nobody was hurt is more important. Gotta protect our viewers from bumping their heads---but 4 dead in Benghazi and 300+ killed in Fast and Furious will have to wait (oh, plus the lies and cover-ups, remember with Watergate it was the lies and cover-ups that were worse.) There was no desire by the media to tell the voting public who Obama was in 2008, why would they suddenly do it in 2012? They will not, they have not. 

If Obama wins November 6th (heaven help us---no really, heaven help us) the media will do what it has done to the second-terms of the most recent presidents in memory. The media will exert its power and make surethat president knows that they are in charge.  Never forget, as much as they love Obama, they love themselves and their power more. 

Second-term scandals, real or perceived are the reality. Nixon-Watergate, Reagan-Iran Contra, Clinton-Monica, Bush-Just being alive. Historians have argued that presidents get cocky in their second terms and that leads to their demise, and part of that is true, but the Obama scandals have been uncovered in his firstterm. I shutter to think what scandals might become us if he gets four more years. I haven't even mentioned the scandals of where the "stimulus" dollars were spent.

The Activist Old Media will do these stories and they will want credit for doing them. They will tell themselves how tough they were on Obama and they will point to the awards on their shelves as proof. Of course, we know the truth. When these stories needed to be done the junk yard dogs sat silent, by choice. 

There are still a few weeks left to do these stories when they matter most, but the media will not do them. They would've by now. The facts are out there now and it will matter little when they report them later.   

They have muzzled and chained themselves. 

Follow Ron Futrell on Twitter @RonFutrell

Media Protects Obama, Blames Movie For Terrorist Attacks

At a time of tragedy when Americans have been murdered by brutal terrorists in Libya, who will defend Liberty?

Not the American TV networks. 

They instead blame the principle of free speech, Liberty itself, if you will, for these horrendous attacks. 

A movie made in the USA depicts Muhammad in a negative light and the American media seems to excuse the murderous actions of terrorists because of the movie. Holy hell---what country did I wake up in?

MSNBC went a step further, even excusing the attacks because of the movie. 

"These protests are taking place, this anger is all based on that film that the US government has come out and chastised," was the question asked to Richard Engel of NBC while on the ground in Cairo. 

"This is all based on that film, but it's more than that, this is a perceived insult, an attack on Islam," responded Engel. "It touched such a sensitive issue and they feel they could not take this lying down, they had to come out and speak for their prophet, speak for their religion."

Terrorists don't hate us because of a movie. Islamic extremists declared jihad on the free world 30 years ago. The media expects us to believe that a movie made 'em do it, and Engel is excusing their actions. "They could not take this lying down." 

This was the reaction across the board from the Activist Old Media. 

Where does the media stand on free speech? If you threaten to take away First amendment rights the media would be the first to take a stand, and rightly so, but when it comes to Muslim terrorists, they somehow forget that founding principle. 

The main reason the media blames the movie is to excuse the horrendous foreign policy of Barack Obama. They cannot point to the numerous failures by this president. Obama has missed most intelligence meetings at the White House, but has been able to sneak in 104 rounds of golf.  

The media flip flops on free speech in order to protect their Dear Leader. Blame a movie, because you cannot blame Obama.

Holy hell, what country did I wake up in?

What The Left Hates Most About Clint Eastwood

His appearance has been widely panned by the left and its Activist Old Media. Clint Eastwood dared jump off the leftist bandwagon in Hollywood and he joined the Evil Right. 

But it gets deeper than that. 

They hate his "bit" on stage at the Republican National Convention because he ridiculed the president. He dared make fun of their Dear Leader. 

You don't do that and expect to leave unscathed. 

The Empty Chair performance by "Dirty Harry" bothered the President to the point that he had to tweet his own response (or his staff did it for him, who knows?) by saying, "This seat's taken."

Oh, you could argue that all of this is being done in good fun, but the Romney's are being asked serious questions by the media about what they think of Eastwood's performance. They have been rock solid behind Eastwood by saying they appreciate his support. Damn! The media had hoped the Romney's would've thrown Clint under their campaign bus. To their credit, they didn't. 

Meanwhile, it's important to note that this administration does not like to be ridiculed. No stateist can allow that. Leftists take themselves very seriously. Obama may occasionally laugh and joke about himself, but deep down he is a Cold Hearted Social Engineer and they are not the type who take to ridicule kindly. 

What they hate most is Eastwood opened the door for more ridicule. Before you make the contention that this "embarrassed the Office of the President," gimme a break. Obama started that when he removed the Churchill Bust. Besides, anybody out there remember what the left and its Activist Old Media did to George W. Bush? Our memories are not that bad. 

Deep down Eastwood's performance did not make Obama's day, it ruined it. 

Reflecting on 25 Years of Las Vegas TV Sports Coverage

The news was not unexpected, but still mildly painful.


The TV station where I had anchored sports and news for 25 years was dropping its sports department. Anchors will now read the sports with the same passion they do a hatchet murder, or a panda being born at the local zoo, and the viewers will get used to it (please pronounce Mark Teixeira's name right.) Perhaps they will.


Certainly, media is changing and some have called this a trend in the business. Consultants (who are usually failed news directors) have told us for years they want to attract females and since they believe women do not like sports, they must lessen the importance of sports, or kill it altogether. You could argue against that premise (which I did) until you were Dodger Blue in the face, but you would never win that argument and eventually management will find somebody who would just shut up and fill the three-minute segment (cut to 2:30 if weather went long.)


The news of removing the sports department did cause me to reflect on more than 2 decades of covering sports in Las Vegas and developing a bond with this community that will never be broken. It's been 4 years since I've done full time news on TV, but I still have people come up to me and think I'm the sports guy. "Hey, good job last night on the sports." I usually smile and say thanks.


I feel fortunate to have covered big-time sports during some great times in Las Vegas. I covered the careers of Randall Cunningham, Andre Agassi, Greg Maddux, Mike Tyson and many others. There were the great boxing events with Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, and Duran. I got to cover the rise of NASCAR and the UFC in Las Vegas, and was green-side for Tiger Woods' first win on the PGA Tour. The first month I was in Las Vegas I covered Kareem Abdul Jabbar setting the all-time NBA scoring record at the Thomas and Mack. Whew! Nice way to break-in back in April 1984. I was no Hunter S. Thompson, but covering the Mint 400 in the glory days of off-road racing was a dirty job long before the days of "Dirty Jobs." I was fortunate to cover World Series', Super Bowls, and NBA Finals.


Certainly, the rise and fall of UNLV basketball was a story that few got to report on up-close. 3 Final Fours in 5 years and then the internal struggle where a university president worked covertly to use the media to remove a coach (Jerry Tarkanian) because he did not have the courage to fire him. Who can forget "Cam Scam" when university officials put a camera in an air conditioning duct in the North Gym to try to catch a violation? I am most proud of covering this story straight up and honestly and my commentaries have stood the test of time. Nothing united this community more than Rebel Basketball, nothing tore it apart worse than the subsequent battles. Those were big, historic stories from 20 years ago that are still being talked about today. Often sports was called upon to lead newscasts because the stories were that big.


What I enjoyed most was the time I spent at local high schools and ball fields covering the youth of this valley and getting to know them through their sports exploits. Sure, it was fun interviewing future NFL star Steven Jackson as he barreled over opponents at Eldorado High, but doing the first, and likely the only interview ever with a Bonanza High tennis player was always rewarding. My former station let me cover grass-roots local sports unlike any other station in town and I will always appreciate that and it had great rewards.


Occasionally we did some serious journalism. There was the time a UNLV Athletic Director was using racist talk in open staff meetings. I uncovered the story and "broke" the story. Other media outlets followed but we reported this story first and did it under the risk of legal action. We were right and we broke a story that needed to be told. 


We made a lot of money with our sports department. I was trusted to produce and host hour-long shows that were highly profitable. We did NASCAR and IRL race shows, Thunder hockey shows, UNLV shows and there was the local sports show we did for 5 years following Monday Night Football, titled Monday Night Quarterback. How about this show from the late 80's that we did from Hawaii introducing a UNLV basketball team in embryo that would later win a National Championship?Aloha Rebels. These were the combined efforts of a lot of people who had passion in the projects. They were a lot of work, and a lot of fun and I believe were the essence of what a good sports department does.

What the future brings with local TV sports is hard to say. If media is one thing, it is chaning. UNLV basketball is making a comeback and Dave Rice is on his way to returning this program to national prominence. Las Vegas will have a major league professional sports team before this decade is out and viewers will want to hear from somebody who knows these sports. I thank my former station for giving me the resources and trusting me to cover sports as it deserved to be. It's also my opinion local TV news viewers (male and female) will seek stations that give them sports with flair, fun and accuracy. I'm guessing consultants don't want to hear me say that anymore.  

Twitter Suspends Account of Olympic Critic

I guess you have to say what NBC wants you to say about the Olympics, or you could get your Twitter account suspended.

Don't laugh. It has happened to Guy Adams.

Adams is a journalist with The Independent. He works out of California but his paper is published in Great Britain....and nowadays with this new thing called the internet, you can read his stories pretty much anywhere, but at the time of this column, you cannot follow him on twitter. 

Adams has mainly been critical of NBC making tape-delayed coverage appear to be live. Certainly understandable. NBC says Adams crossed the line when he tweeted out the e-mail address of one of its executives and Twitter apparently agreed. The e-mail address was an easy one to figure out once you knew the executives name and the style that NBC used for its e-mails. 

Twitter allows some of the most profane and abusive attacks imaginable, which is fine, it is what it is, and as lovers of Liberty, most would choose the side of free speech, just don't slam NBC and its sacred Olympic coverage. That would be over-the-top.

From The Independent:

What exactly did Guy Adams have to say? Plenty. Here's a look at some of his tweets, all of which are now hidden, but have been preserved on Topsy:

@guyadams Guy Adams

Am I alone in wondering why NBColympics think its acceptable to pretend this road race is being broadcast live?

3 days ago

@guyadams Guy Adams

According to NBC's commentary team, the Surrey countryside is full of “chateaus” #ffs!

@guyadams Guy Adams

Matt Lauer: “Madagascar, a location indelibly associated with a couple of recent animated movies.” #tosspot

@guyadams Guy Adams

Matt Lauer would do well to shut up, wouldn't he?

3 days ago

@guyadams Guy Adams

Techcrunch call @NBColympics total buffoons http://t.co/1DYypK0T Sums up why Gary Zenkel, moronic exec behind the time delay, shd be fired

@guyadams Guy Adams

If only someone had invented a technology to help us actually see this. Oh, wait... MT @NBCOlympics: Muhammad Ali is one of the flag bearers

@guyadams  Guy Adams

“Sneak peak” my arse MT @NBCOlympics: Check out this sneak peek of tonight's #OpeningCeremony http://t.co/vf7KKMf9

3 days ago

@guyadams  Guy Adams

Say “up yours” to @nbcolympics and watch that opening ceremony here MT @edfcarrasco: we got what the people want: http://t.co/IB5epHmx

3 days ago

@guyadams  Guy Adams

America's left coast forced to watch Olympic ceremony on SIX HOUR time delay. Disgusting money-grabbing by @NBColympics http://t.co/bQxKCCdj

4 days ago

@guyadams  Guy Adams

I have 1000 channels on my TV. Not one will be showing the Olympics opening ceremony live. Because NBC are utter, utter bastards.

4 days ago

UPDATE: The twitter feed of Guy Adams has been restored as of Tuesday morning, July 31.

Follow Ron Futrell on Twitter @RonFutrell

Media Attacks Romney on Olympics

Like any political campaign, you are told to attack your opponents strengths. Make no doubt about it, the Activist Old Media is Barack Obama's most powerful SuperPAC and they are out to attack Mitt Romney on his strength.

Take the Olympics. 

Mitt Romney speaks his opinion based on what he, and others have seen about the 2012 Games while in London and the media, wanting so hard to proclaim a "Romney gaffe" go into full attack mode on the Republican candidate. Everybody seemed to jump on this, ABC's David Muir said, "So many Brits are boiling...a rough first stop." "Boy, it sure was," added George Stephanopoulos. Hey guys, you wanna see rough? Let's check out rough. Let's compare actual Olympic experience. 

The media has created this battle, clear and simple. It wasn't like Romney attacked everybody who had ever built a business in America (who was it who did that?) he simply gave his opinion that it was a bit "disconcerting" to see lack of preparation in some areas in London. Many observers in Great Britain have said the same thing. Now, an Olympics expert giving his opinion is called a "gaffe" by the media. ABC's Rick Klein can't wait to declare that Romney and gaffes is a "long term pattern" that he is falling in to. You want gaffes? Go to Europe and talk to people in Austria about speaking "Austrian." Obama did that and the media ignored it and the many other gaffes made by this President (and don't get us started on Biden and gaffes.) The scary thing about Obama's statement here is that it was not only a gaffe, he must also think "Austrian" is a real language, or he would not have said what he said. 

As a reporter, I covered the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City that Mitt Romney saved. I challenge ABC and the other networks to do extensive research on what Romney did to save those Games that were facing financial ruin and were held at a time following 9/11 when security questions in this country were at their highest level. The Games were virtually flawless. Mitt Romney knows of what he speaks. The international negotiations that Romney had to go through to change Olympic protocol by allowing the American flag found in the ruins of the World Trade Center to be displayed at the Salt Lake Olympics was nothing short of historic. Flags of any individual nation are not to be "singled out" during the Games, but Romney went through intense international negotiations to make one of the great moment in our lifetimes happen. Watch the video and tell me it doesn't give you chills to see this again and be reminded of this moment in time.

Also ignored is Barack Obama's Olympic experience. Does the media remember the trip he made to Europe to try to win the Games for his hometown, Chicago, while as president in 2009? How did that turn out? What is Obama's history with the Olympics? Like with so many things in his administration, it is a history of failure. Obama boldly proclaimed he was going to Copenhagen to bring the Games to Chicago and the International Olympic Committee laughed at him. Chicago didn't make it out of the First Round. "I urge you to choose Chicago," Obama told the IOC. Wow, quite a pitch there, Barack. Fail. Let's see how often the media mention Obama's Olympic experience.

In spite of actual performance, the Activist Old Media is dead set on changing history and creating a template where Romney is seen as a failure, and Obama's numerous gaffes and policy failures are ignored. The Olympics are just the media's latest vehicle to use. 

   

British Media, Doing The Job The US Media Refuse to Do

It's been known for years that the US media has decided not to do its job when it comes to vetting Barack Obama, but when the British media is out there reporting critically on this White House on a daily basis, the contrast is startling.

If the Activist Old Media in this country had the ability to be embarrassed, they would cower in the corner over the way the British media pounds them on Obama coverage.

The America media chooses not to report these stories, it's not that they are getting "beaten" on them. Of course, that fact makes this much worse.

Dr. Tim Stanely of the UK Telegraph reports this week on the issue of President Obama's latest revelations of his "composite" girlfriend and the stories of him eating dog in Indonesia. In the last paragraph of his column Dr. Stanley says these issues should've been brought out long ago, since Obama wrote them in his book.


"That we are only discussing them this late into Obama’s career suggests that the vetting that should have happened four years ago was unforgivably neglected. But, hey, it’s never too late to start."


We'll see about the media and when/if it actually decides to start vetting this president. I have heard from many of my media friends that the vetting of Obama was already done, so it is not needed now. Of course, he was not vetted during the last election because the media did not want to vet him for fear of what they might find out, and besides, all their crews were in Alaska looking under rocks, glaciers, and inside igloos for Sarah Palin dirt. 

Another big story this week, reported by the British and ignored by the US media involves Navy SEALs voicing their disgust over Obama "spiking the football" on the killing of Osama bin Laden. Perhaps you heard, this week was the One Year Anniversary of the New National Holiday Honoring Obama For Shooting and Killing bin Laden. It's been in the news. This story about the Navy SEALs was not in the news, at least not here in the US. This story was in the UK Daily Mail Online. Perhaps the US media has forgotten that there is an internet and we can get these stories from the British media just as easily as we can get theirs. Click.


Of course, the US media is trying to control what we know and when we know it. They had been planning this Obama Celebration of The Killing of bin Laden, National Day of Honoring Dear Leader for weeks and they didn't want anybody ruining this party. Certainly not some British "rag." 


This was the president that the world was going to love and people across the planet were going to worship him as do the leftists in this nation. With the US media willingly in lock-step with the regime, the international media certainly would follow and the entire planet would bask in the glow of a Supreme Leader that would save us all from whatever we need to be saved from during the next 24 Second News Cycle. Seems the British media didn't get the memo. 


UPDATE May 3 11:00pm Pacific


The UK Guardian does a prominent story analyzing Osama bin Laden's thoughts on the US media. Seems bin Laden didn't like Fox News, but felt his terrorist group could make inroads with much of the other US media, like CBS and MSNBC. Again, a story from the British media that US media does not want to touch because....well, because it probably hits too close to home for them. 

NBC Nightly News Ignores Cleveland Terrorists OWS Background

The Occupy Wall Street terrorists who plotted to blow up a Cleveland bridge and kill dozens of innocent people, should use NBC's Brian Williams as their lead  defense witness.

First, the Peacock Network totally ignored the background of the OWS terrorists. It did not mention one word of who these people were, how they are leftist terrorists, how they planned to also blow up banks, the Republican National Convention, and other American sites.  These OWS terrorists are products of the class warfare being perpetuated by Barack Obama, the Democrat Party and the Activist Old Media.

NBC spent the first 10 minutes of Nightly News reporting on the First Anniversary of the Killing of Osama binLaden by Barack Obama, and then snuck in 24 seconds on the OWS terrorists.

Here's the entire script as read by Williams:


The FBI arrested five self-described anarchists in Cleveland, Ohio today, the men are between 20 and 37 years of age. They're accused of plotting to blow up a bridge over a park in Cleveland. The plot was uncovered by an FBI sting operation that provided them with what they thought to be bomb material. As is the case with so many of these similar situations, the FBI said in the end there was never any real danger associated with the plan.

Call Brian Williams to the witness stand. He's making the case for these guys.

There was no video shown of cars going over the bridge, NBC made it look abandoned. Actually, 13,000 people a day travel over that bridge and the OWS terrorists pulled the trigger on what they thought were plastic explosives that would've destroyed the bridge and killed occupants during rush-hour, but, "there was never any real danger associated with the plan." Ya, because the FBI were tipped off to the terrorist attack and gave the guys dummy explosives. Were it not for that, NBC's beloved Dear Leader would've been bumped to the second slot on this "historic day" and dozens of Americans would've become innocent victims of the Occupy Wall Street movement, beloved by the left and supported by countless Democrat politicians.

The background of the OWS terrorists was well known by the time NBC went on air, in fact, Tuesday night they even did a special West Coast Edition of Nightly News so they had extra time to research this. They knew these terrorists were OWS and chose not to report that very relevant fact. Who these people are and what motivates them does matter. Looks like some more selective editing by NBC. Are we sure they fired the person who edited that George Zimmerman audio tape?

Foolish Question of The Week

"Can Romney get on the cover of the Rolling Stone?"

This question was asked by none other than the brilliant Chris Matthews to his panel of fellow leftists on his syndicated Sunday show.

The show began with Matthews calling President Barack Obama a "rock star," and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney a "square." Bingo. There's that template that is tireless in trying to help the left get votes for their Dear Leader. Later in the show the question was asked why "polls say" Obama will supposedly get the youth vote. I dunno, maybe it has something to do with the media mantra?

Chris set the question up by talking about what a "rock star" John F. Kennedy was and how Barack Obama is the new rock star president. We've heard this theme from him before. I think Chris has a very real struggle over who to worship more, Kennedy or Obama? Earlier in the show Matthews asked his favorite question, the one he has already asked at least a hundred times during this campaign; "who is the most likable candidate?"

Seriously, I think Chris has a problem and needs some psychoanalysis. I'll try a little of it here.

Chris, just because you have to feel a thrill up your leg for a politician, doesn't mean we all do. You seem to have this bizarre obsession with American's having to fall in love with politicians and follow them with some sort of fawning worship. At one level it's silly, and at another level it's dangerous. Germany loved Hitler. He was their rock star. Every maniacal totalitarian leader first needs the public to be blinded by their "greatness" before he can turn them to serfs.

Or, I can put it this way; if my wife or one of my kids ran for office, I could love that politician, but short of that.....

Chris, you should really get this obsession with "loving" politicians checked out. This is not normal.

I don't need a presidential candidate on the cover of Rolling Stone, I want Jimmy Page on the cover of Rolling Stone. I want my president to get out there, do a great job protecting the Constitution and staying out of my life. That's about it. Obama has not done that, I believe Mitt Romney will. I want Rolling Stone to tell me how Led Zeppelin recorded "When The Levee Breaks" in an old British castle in the countryside.

Matthews' panelist Liz Marlantes from the Christian Science Monitor responded to the question of whether Romney could get on the cover of Rolling Stone with this; "I don't think so, well, we'll see, who knows?" I think she was a little shocked by the foolish question.

I will say this to Chris, I don't know if Romney will get on the cover of Rolling Stone, but I do know that if he does, the article inside will be packed with lies. That's part of the template as well.