Wow
 

Assad was probably planning on leaving anyway, just out of decency. He's a great guy, really.

What Bias?
 

• NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. media coverage of last year's election was three times more likely to be negative toward President Bush than Democratic challenger John Kerry, according to a study released Monday.
  
  The annual report by a press watchdog that is affiliated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said that 36 percent of stories about Bush were negative compared to 12 percent about Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.
  

http://reuters.myway.com/article/200...REPORT-DC.html

Wow
 

And its not like they've actually set up a fully functioning, western style, perfect democracy.

Name Dropping
 

If it helps you, Fluffy, then keep on massaging yourself this way.

What Bias?
 

He was running on his record. There's a lot more to be negative about.

What Bias?
 

I'm surprised you didn't quote this part of the article:

• Examining the public perception that coverage of the war in Iraq was decidedly negative, it found evidence did not support that conclusion. The majority of stories had no decided tone, 25 percent were negative and 20 percent were positive, it said.

Not to suggest that you've carried that particular misperception or anything.

Name Dropping
 

I'm getting this image in my mind of you and Hank meeting up in a bar and spending five hours taking turns spitting on each other.

What Bias?
 

Exactly why Kerry studiously avoided doing the same.

Name Dropping
 

Who do you see hitting their target more frequently?

Name Dropping
 

It's a little bizarre knowing that somewhere in the bowels of Detroit, an associate periodically takes a break from the burdens of representing pawnshops and slumlords and jerks off with an image of me in his head.

An image of me that is a foot shorter than reality, but hey -- on the Hank scale, that hardly even counts as a delusion.

What Bias?
 

What this suggests to me is that the negative coverage was personal rather than policy based.

What Bias?
 

I'm curious about the parameters of the measurement in that study.

One can choose stories to write, and stories not to write, and then write the chosen ones up with an entirely neutral tone, but yet still not be neutral. If, say, the NYT wrote fifty stories about bombs and killings, and none about Iraq public support, or rebuilt power plants, how would that fit into this study? If the chosen stories didn't seem to contain any tilt, or underlying tone, would that count as "neutral"? I suspect it would.

How many stories did you see about the reopening of all the schools?

End of Soc. Sec. reform
 

I thought the GOP plan was the "nuclear option" of changing the rules to prevent the Senate Dems from filibustering judicial nominees, in the hopes of picking a fight in which Senate Dems start filibustering everything, letting them blame the demise of Social Security on Senate Dems.

Wow
 

Do you think they weren't already holding elections in Lebanon? "The Lebanese have been having often lively parliamentary election campaigns for decades. The idea that the urbane and sophisticated Beirutis had anything to learn from the Jan. 30 process in Iraq is absurd on the face of it. Elections were already scheduled in Lebanon for later this spring." (Juan Cole)

Wow
 

Who said anything about elections? I'm talking about 2 million protestors telling Syria to get the fuck out.