Agenda driven journalism isn’t confined to coverage of politics, especially in the paper of record, The New York Times. And no, I’m not talking about Paul Krugman columns that are seething with paranoia, hatred and personal attacks. I’m talking about supposedly objective news stories, not columns.

By VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: November 29, 2005

Gasoline is cheaper than it was before Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans. Consumer confidence jumped last month and new home sales hit a record. The stock market has been rising. Even the nation’s beleaguered factories appear to be headed for a happy holiday season.

By most measures, the economy appears to be doing just fine. No, scratch that, it appears to be booming.

But as always with the United States economy, it is not quite that simple.

No it isn’t that simple at all. Considering that one day later we learn that the economy grew at an astounding rate of 4.3% in the 3rd quarter, despite the impact from Katrina and rising energy costs. This is simply incredible performance. Can you image the trumpets if this occurred during another, less, oh I don’t know, what’s the word I’m looking for here, a less Republican adminsitration?

Ann Althouse is left wondering about the Times,

Unintended comedy, economic news reporting division

The NYT just needs to bring us down, for some reason. All the economic news is good, but Vikas Bajaj, on the front page of the paper today, searches desperately for the bad…How can anyone read that and not laugh?

Old friend Don Luskin of PoorandStupid,

The New York Times just can’t accept that the economy is strong, looking for a needle of dross in a haystack of gold.

NewsBusters has a great piece titled, NYT Makes ‘Yes, But’ Economic Reporting an Art Form

Times Watch says the Times is Spreading Front-Page Doubts About the Strong Bush Economy

The article above was not the only howler this week on the business pages of the Times. Don Luskin points us to another exhibit in agenda driven journalism, this time courtesy of Pulitzer prize winner Gretchen Morgenson.

Steve Lovelady of the Columbia Journalism Review has more,
A Prophet of Doom Cherry-Picks the Numbers

Gretchen Morgenson, a New York Times Wall Street reporter with a Pulitzer under her belt, is one of the shrewder financial minds in the business press, so it’s always surprising to see her stumble.

..why is Morgenson, who has devoted an entire article to cherry-picked numbers that paint a picture of a profligate, shop-til-you-drop populace, now pointing with alarm to a possible two percent decrease in outlays for holiday gifts?

She seems to want it both ways; we’re bad when we spend, and we’re bad when we don’t.

By comparison, you might as well call us Santa Claus. Because we can’t find a statistic in this entire piece that either surprises, dismays or alarms us.

I guess the best that can be said about The New York Times at this point is that you have to admire their tenacity, their committment to bringing us all the news that fits their agenda.

We Do Have A Plan
Returning From Iraq, Lieberman Praises U.S. Strategy, Urges Bush To Tout Successes

Catpain’s Quarters

Despite the recent shrieks of hysteria coming from the Democratic caucus in Congress, one of their most respected members says that the American-led Coalition has Iraq in “pretty good shape” and expects that troop drawdowns can begin late next year or early 2007 as long as progress continues. Senator Joe Lieberman took the opportunity to actually travel through Iraq, and his recommendation follows the administration’s plan to key troop withdrawals based on the buildup of the Iraqi army, and not on calendar due dates as suggested by Joe Biden last week.

November 29, 1957

If you are a jazz fan, then there is reason to celebrate today for it is the 48th anniversary of a remarkable concert at Carnegie Hall featuring the Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane.

The Village Voice said it well,

The jazz event of 2005 is an unknown Carnegie Hall concert that took place 48 years ago

Chris May at All About Jazz explains,

The hype surrounding the discovery and release of this concert recording has been considerable, but now the actuality is upon us, every breathless adjective proves to be justified and then some: it’s only September, and this beauty must already qualify as the Buried Treasure Discovery Of The Year, no contest.

Just in case you’ve been off-planet recently and missed it, here’s the back story…. It’s ‘57 and the legendary, and legendarily under-recorded, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane, match fit after four months of solid work at the Five Spot, is taped at a benefit gig at Carnegie Hall by Voice Of America, with state-of-the-art recording equipment, for a future broadcast which never happens. The inadequately labeled tape reels are then lost in the vaults until they are discovered by eagle-eyed Library of Congress recording lab supervisor Larry Appelbaum earlier this year. Take a bow, Larry, you deserve it, along with our great gratitude�??a less forensically alert person might have missed this muthalode, which could all too easily have been lost forever.

Go buy it for yourself, or a jazz fan you know, for Christmas.

In today’s Wall Street Journal Cato Institute vice president for legal affairs and director of Constitutional studies Roger Pilon argues that even if Roe is overturned by the rightward leaning Robert’s Court -which I believe it will be- that the issue of abortion will then revert back to the states.

While I agree with Mr. Pilon’s assessment that Roe v Wade, if overturned by the Supreme Court, would revert back to individual state legislative bodies to be decided, I disagree with his conclusion that:

Whether we believe that the right to life begins at conception or at some point over the next 270 days, we all believe, I hope, that it begins at some point along that line. We all agree, there is some point at which abortion amounts to murder�?�we just can’t agree on where that point is.

This is utter nonsense. We should be able to agree on “when life begins” since it is an undisputed empirical biological fact that can be found in any first year medical student’s embryology textbook that life begins at conception when the human sperm fertilizes the egg-called the process of “fecundation.” Any other arbitrary demarcation of “when human life begins” contradicts this scientific fact. There is no debate on “when human life begins.”

Mr. Pillon states:

“a conservative state like Utah might prohibit most abortions, but next store in Nevada we might see a liberal regime” which should not surprise anybody because “reasonable people can have reasonable differences.”

No individual state no matter how “liberal,” “enlightened,” or “reasonable” its citizenry, has the right to deny the constitutionally inalienable right to life to any human being by discriminating based on stage of development. The 14th Amendment is unambiguously clear on this:

“�?�nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The primary role of government is to protect human life. Since all human life begins at conception, this fundamental obligation to protect it must also begin at conception. Period. Not only should Roe be overturned because it has resulted in the intentional premeditated murder of over 40 million developing babies in the name of “privacy” and “choice,” but President Bush should introduce a Constitutional “Right to Life Amendment” that no individual state or federal court could violate.

Michelle Malkin has more on the Supreme Court abortion related Scuffle

Keith Milby has a nice piece on how Democrats have started sliming Alito

Charmaine Yoest live blogged today from the steps of the Supreme Court on New Hampshire Abortion Parental Notification Law Ayotte V Planned Parenthood. What a courageous woman. Great photo coverage of the days events.

Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq�??s forgotten GI heroes

He is expected to base the film on the writings of the independent blogger Michael Yon, a former special forces green beret who was embedded with Deuce Four and sent regular dispatches about their heroics.

Yon was at the soldiers�?? ball with Willis, who got to know him through his internet war reports on www.michaelyon.blogspot.com. �??What he is doing is something the American media and maybe the world media isn�??t doing,�?� the actor said, �??and that�??s telling the truth about what�??s happening in the war in Iraq.�?�

Willis is likely to take on the role of the unit�??s commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Erik Kurilla, 39, a Bruce Willis lookalike with a chest full of medals, more hair than Willis and a glamorous blonde wife.

How cool is that?

Poll: Dems’ barbs hurt troops

Seventy percent of people said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale - with 44 percent saying morale is hurt “a lot,” according to a poll taken by RT Strategies.

Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.

The results surely will rankle many Democrats, who argue that it is patriotic and supportive of the troops to call attention to what they believe are deep flaws in President George W. Bush’s Iraq strategy. But the survey itself cannot be dismissed as a partisan attack.

The RTs in RT Strategies are Thomas Riehle, a Democrat, and Lance Tarrance, a veteran GOP pollster.

And then there is this,

Sometimes a picture IS worth a thousand words.

Seeing as how most of us have spent a crazy amount of time on the highway this Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to keep it light tonight and have some fun with bumper stickers.

What are some of your favorites?

What ones just flat out annoy you?

When: Streaming Live at 9pm EST, WRKO

Contact us: Toll free, 877-469-4322

Two of our former radio guests and favorite bloggers are going at it in a nasty blog fight.

Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom versus Ann Althouse.

Patterico has the details.

Where’s Rodney King when you need him?

A great piece of work by the Media Research Center’s Rich Noyes who shows us how the media chooses to characterize liberals and conservatives.

Once again, agenda driven journalism, exposed for all to see.

Case of Supreme Bias

New Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has been a Justice Department lawyer, a U.S. attorney and a federal judge. Bill Clinton’s first Supreme Court nominee, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was a federal judge, too, but she also had been a liberal political activist, most notably as director of the Women’s Rights Project for the American Civil Liberties Union.

But in the first hours after each was nominated, network reporters assured viewers Judge Ginsburg was a “moderate” and a “centrist,” while journalists characterized Judge Alito as a right-wing extremist.

Twelve years ago, those same networks denied Judge Ginsburg’s liberal ideology. A few hours after President Clinton announced Judge Ginsburg’s nomination on June 14, 1993, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell pronounced Judge Ginsburg “a judicial moderate and a pioneer for women’s rights.” The next morning on ABC, “Good Morning America” co-host Joan Lunden asked legal editor Arthur Miller: “We hear words like ‘centrist,’ ‘moderate,’ ‘consensus builder.’ How will she fit into this court?” Mr. Miller, a longtime friend of Judge Ginsburg, wrongly predicted she would be a centrist justice.

Read the whole story.

We will be filling in for our friend and colleague Todd Feinburg this Saturday morning between 8am and 11am EST.

As always, you can stream the show live via WRKO

In the 9 am EST hour, we will be speaking with the incomparable Michael Yon about his experience in Iraq.

At 10 am EST, our go-to guy for economic issues, Don Luksin, . We will be discussing the health of the economy, the holiday shopping season and the outlook for fiscal sanity on Capitol Hill.