The Theodore Newsletter

February 1, 2014

Is the media biased from a political perspective? Is it biased relative to Barack Hussein Obama (BHO)? In particular, is the New York Times (NYT) biased? Most of my liberal friends (I really don’t have too many through no fault of my own) have vehemently argued that the media is fair, balanced and objective. Many others (including your author) believe the media has enabled BHO not to be transparent (as he had promised) while allowing him to lie unchallenged. Here is my take on the above questions relative to the NYT.

My main source of news information is the O’Reilly Factor, and to a lesser degree, some of the other FOX NEWS programs. I refuse to read any papers or watch the traditional TV news programs. However, our household subscribes (not my choice) to the NYT. And every day, I have the opportunity to check their news headlines, as O’Reilly has often suggested. And most of the time, I get disgusted with the aforementioned headlines. And, the headlines are consistently biased.

With the above in mind, I started a NYT file two months ago. Listed below are some of the headlines appearing in the paper during this period. The date, headline and my comments follow. Note also that I have italicized certain words in the headlines.

Date: Sunday; October 6, 2013
Headline: “A CRISIS MONTH IN THE PLANNING: CONSERVATIVES FOCUSED ON BUDGET AS HEALTH LAW WEAPON”
Comment: Note the choice of words.

Date: Saturday, October 5, 2013
Headline: “BOEHNER URGES G.O.P. SOLIDARITY IN EPIC BATTLE: RIVALS AND ALLIES SAY SPEAKER HAS NO PLAN TO RESOLVE CRISIS”
Comment: In addition to the comment begin incorrect and/or a lie, it was BHO who had no plan.

Date: Monday, October 7, 2013
Headline: “BOEHNER FIRM ON SHUTDOWN”
Comment: Draw your own conclusions.

Date: Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Headline: “LIFT ‘THREATS’ OBAMA INSISTS”
Comment: According to my files, it was only BHO, Reid and Pelosi who did the threatening.

Date: Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Headline: “MANY IN G.O.P. OFFER THEORY: DEFAULT WOULDN’T BE THAT BAD”
Comment: They referred to only one member.

Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Headline: “TALKS IN DISARRAY AS HOUSE BALKS OVER DEBT PLAN”
Comment: Of course Reid and the Senate, as well as BHO, didn’t balk at any of the House’s plans.

Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Headline: “WITH G.O.P. BADLY DIVIDED, BOEHNER IS LEFT ‘HERDING CATS’”
Comment: What did Pelosi do when she got Obamacare passed?

Date: Thursday, October 17, 2013
Headline: “REPUBLICANS BACK DOWN, ENDING BUDGET CRISIS”
Comment: Of course – Reid, Pelosi and BHO had nothing to do with the crisis.

Date: Saturday, October 19, 2013
Headline: “STATES ARE FOCUS OF EFFORT TO FOIL HEALTH CARE LAW”
Comment: Note the choice of the word foil – not the attempt to reduce the negative impact on the economy.

Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Headline: “OBAMA ADMITS WEBSITE FLAWS ON HEALTH LAW”
Comment: This admission came one week after the site was launched and he took no responsibility. In addition, the site wasn’t flawed – it was a total disaster.

Date: Sunday, October 27, 2013
Headline: “THE MALFUNCTION OF HEALTHCARE.GOV COULD POSE A THREAT TO PRESIDENT OBAMA’S AGENDA, WHICH EXTOLS A POLICY OF ‘EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT’”
Comment: Please! “Effective government” is an oxymoron. Face it, it is impossible for the government to be effective.

Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 – Thursday, October 31, 2013
Headline: There was not one word on either the chaos associated with Obamacare or the hearings about the debacle on Benghazi.
Comment: Thursday’s paper did have a photograph of Sebelius, referring the reader to Page A17.

Date: Friday, November 1, 2013
Headline: “SENATE REPUBLICANS THWARTED THE CONFIRMATION OF TWO OF PRESIDENT OBAMA’S NOMINEES…”
Comment: Note the choice of the word thwarted.

Date: Sunday, November 10, 2013
Headline: “CON MEN PREY ON CONFUSION OVER CARE ACT”
Comment: There was essentially no mention of the Act being responsible for the fraud.

Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Non-Headline: “WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS ARE STRUGGLING TO MAKE GOOD ON BHO’S PROMISE THAT AMERICANS CAN KEEP THEIR INSURANCE COVERAGE…”
Comment: At this point in time, essentially everyone and the media were referring to BHO’s “promise” as a lie. There was not one word regarding his deceit.

Date: Friday, November 15, 2013
Headline: “IN A REVERSAL, OBAMA MOVES TO AVERT THE CANCELLATION OF HEALTH POLICIES”
Comment: Nothing about the ACA debacle. Instead there was this: “Obama is battling Republican opposition that has refused to open the door to any legislative fixes…and has blocked him at virtually every turn.” Interestingly, the NYT never mentioned what was being blocked.

Date: Week of November 17th
Headline: None (not one) comment about the “knockout” games being perpetrated by black youths on unsuspecting white women and seniors.
Comment: Imagine if white gangs were attacking unsuspecting blacks.

Date: Thursday, November 21, 2013
Headline: “G.O.P. MAPS OUT WAVES OF ATTACKS OVER HEALTH PLAN”
Comment: Here is part of the story “closed-door strategy sessions…increasing organized attack of the ACA…a multilayered sequenced assault.” Note the choice of words.

Date: Thursday (Thanksgiving), November 28, 2013
Headline: “ANOTHER DELAY FOR HEALTH LAW AS SNAGS PERSIST – FUEL FOR G.O.P. CRITICS”
Comment: You get the drift of it all. You’re not allowed to criticize, and if you do, you are “fueling” problems.

Date: Saturday, November 30, 2013
Headline: “HEALTHCARE SITE RUSHING TO MAKE FIX BY SUNDAY; HARDWARE IS UPGRADED”
Comment: Not a word about the site’s disaster and BHO and his administration’s responsibility for the impact it has had on working Americans.

Date: Monday, December 2, 2013
Headline: “INSURERS CLAIM HEALTH WEBSITE IS STILL FLAWED; WHITE HOUSE PRAISES SOFTWARE UPGRADE”
Comment: Who would you believe? And BHO still hasn’t provided any accounting for the debacle. There just isn’t any accountability.

During this period, there was little to nothing relative to BHO in the NYT on:

1. The rampant conflicts of interest.
2. How things happened, i.e., in terms of accountability.
3. Failure to appoint/hire the right people.
4. The demand for Sebelius to resign.
5. BHO’s inability to think on his feet without the aid of a teleprompter.
6. BHO’s repeated failure to appear presidentially.
7. BHO’s inability to provide a one-line answer to a question, e.g., “yes, we deserted our people in Benghazi”.
8. BHO’s lying.
9. The deceit perpetrated on an unsuspecting public by both BHO, Lehrner, Sebelius, etc.
10. BHO unable to attend the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln Gettysburg address due to “attending to the ACA website” but was able to attend two days of fundraising three days later. Like I said, lying is a way of life for this guy.

Finally, remember when BHO promised to reduce the terror threat in 2007-8 and later claimed in 2012 that Al-Qaida was on the run? Well, here is what the flaming liberal Senator Dianne Feinstein had to say at the end of November: “There are more terrorist groups than ever, with more sophisticated, hard-to-detect bombs…there is a huge malevolence out there.” Republican representative Mike Rogers added: “…Al-Qaida is changing, with more affiliates around the world.” As one would expect, the NYT never reported the House and Senate Intelligence Committee findings. Did BHO? Of course not. Continuing on Monday, December 30, the NYT had the audacity to claim that the terrorist attack on Benghazi (over a year earlier) was really not a terrorist attack; they effectively re-initiated the lies and deceit set forth earlier by the BHO Administration. This was followed two days later with a headline that read “Million Gaining Health Coverage Today Under Law”; there was absolutely no mention of those (5 times as many) who had lost coverage.

What a newspaper!

Lou Theodore

NEXT POSTINGS:
February 15: On Hofstra Men’s Basketball; there is Hope
March 1: On Chaste, Pristine, and Random Thoughts XX
April 1: On the Barack Hussein Obama Update III

Please note that the February 15 article is a new posting.