Imagine Karl Rove, having worked as a political advisor and controversial strategist for both terms of the Bush presidency, being named as Cheif Political Correspondent for a major network. Insane, right? Could never, ever happen in a million years.

Isn’t that essentially what we have in George Stephanopoulos at ABC News? Two-terms working the war room and fighting political battles for the Clinton’s, now foisted upon the American public as an impartial journalist. Ever hear any hue and cry from the left about his ascention from White House backroom brawler to top of the media food chain? Of course not, because he was one of their own. If you think about it, ditto for Tim Russert and Chris Matthews too.

Literally overnight, Stephy’s gone from one of them, to one of us. Welcome to the even more vast than we could have ever possibly know right wing conspiracy George.

Stephy isn’t pro-Democrat, he’s a pro-Clinton, Hannitized hack. This must be more of that nuance that liberals are always talking about.

Hot Air has more on this stunning turnaround.

UPDATE: Now Mary Mapes, formerly of CBS News thanks to the Bush National Guard fiasco, is lecturing ABC. I’m sure they are listening closely. She knows of what she speaks, shoddy journalism.

Charges dropped against Marine in Haditha case

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Charges against a US Marine involved in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha were dropped on Friday, just moments before the start of the soldier’s court martial.

Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum had been due to face a military trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault over his role in the killings in November 2005.

Exonerated Haditha Marine Justin Sharratt on Pundit Review Radio
Having been accused of “cold blooded murder” by his own congressman, John Murtha, Justin Sharratt joined us to describe what this ordeal has been like for him and his family,

Darryl Sharatt, Justin’s father, joined us to describe the pain this has caused his family. He also told us an incredible story about Murtha. Mr Sharratt made 53 phone calls over 18 months, before getting a return call from Murtha! Can you imagine? A congressman, YOUR congressman, accusing your son of “cold blooded murder of innocent women and children” and not having the dignity to return a phone call for eighteen months! Talk about outrageous.

The Haditha incident was a tragedy for all involved, Marines and Iraqi’s alike. There is no question about that. Finally, we are getting to a point of consensus around the incident itself, it was NOT as it was widely reported, a “massacre”.

Let’s never forget what John Murtha did to the Haditha Marines! Gary Gross at Let Freedom Ring has a timeline of Murtha’s travesty that is a must read.
Here is a visual reminder,

The fact that this guy, Murtha, is a member in good standing in the Democratic Party is a disgrace. The fact that he is in a leadership position in the House, after trying to become Speaker on the backs of these innocent Haditha marines, is inexcusable.

It was our great pleasure to welcome John Hinderaker of Powerline to Pundit Review Radio. John and his colleagues at Powerline are among the best in the blogosphere. We talked to John about the latest gift from 60 Minutes to the blogosphere, their hit piece last week on Karl Rove.

We also discussed the campaign and how the GOP should go after Obama in the general election. John also gave us some insight into a leading contentder for VP on the Republican side, MN Gov.Tim Pawlenty.

This was a fun half hour and we look forward to visiting with John again as the campaign unfolds.

All of our interviews are also available for download at iTunes and Podcast Alley via the Pundit Review Radio Podcast.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin and Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station

In a race between a Democrat and a Republican, the Republican must deal with a hostile press corps. In a race between two Democrats, the press, in this case Reuters, is treating Hillary Clinton like she’s the Republican.

Just ask Condi Rice.

My article in today’s Townhall.com:

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter and many others in the conservative media have been attacking Senator McCain relentlessly, assailing him as a liberal and referring to him as “Juan McCain.” Limbaugh has claimed that a McCain (or Huckabee) nomination would “destroy the Republican Party.”

Frankly, it is unfathomable to me and many others how any honest and responsible person could fail to say exactly that about Willard Mitt Romney — if they’ve done the homework assignment Now that Romney has “suspended” his campaign and McCain looks like the inevitable nominee, many of the conservative elites continue to cavil and lambaste McCain. Ann Coulter stated on “Hannity & Colmes” that she would go work for Hillary before voting for McCain. Hmmm.

Not to be outdone, talk radio host Laura Ingraham stated “there is no way in hell” she could “pull the lever for John McCain.”

I for one am getting a little sick and tired of listening to the relentless screeds and caterwauling of these conservative elites who are in many regards totally disconnected from the conservative base — especially the evangelical Christian field slaves who bring in the harvest. Why are the spoiled elites complaining about McCain like a bunch of petulant children when the reality is that, collectively, they share considerable blame for the fact that McCain is our likely nominee?

You see for months these conservative elites have been whitewashing by far the most left wing GOP presidential candidate in American history, Mitt Romney.

Most left wing GOP candidate you say, Gregg? But all the conservative talkers told me he was the most able to unite the Reagan Coalition. I thought he was the most conservative candidate we had?

Let’s review what the conservative pundit “Dream Team” ruthlessly covered up about their boy Mitt while inadvertently putting us on a one-stop railroad to McCain City. As I have written in numerous exposes here on Townhall.com, as governor, Willard Mitt Romney:

rest of my article here

Newsbusters shows the surest way to get a letter published in the prestigious New York Times, claim to be a “lifelong Republican” and then proceed to criticize Republicans.

Henry A. Lowenstein, who has managed to get 20 different letters published in the New York Times since 2003, a remarkable feat when you consider that the Times (by its own admission) receives around 1,000 letters a day and prints only 15 on its letters page.

Click here to read the full post, which includes excerpts from some of this “lifelong Republican’s” letters.

Not surprisingly, the “lifelong Republican” meme works with most MSM outlets.

I am on record as saying that Time Magazine has never, ever had an easier choice than they did in 2007 when it comes to selecting the Person of the Year. Gen. David Petraeus is the clear choice.

They didn’t just screw it up, they screwed it up massively.

The guy I thought they’d pick, Al Gore, was the runner-up.

Certainly, given all that he has accomplished, Gen. Petraeus must have finished third, behind Gore? Nope, that would be fiction writer J.K. Rowling. No, really, JK Rowling. Are we talking about Time Magazine here or US Magazine?

Time went ahead and selected Vladimir Putin as their Person of the Year.

Gen. Petraeus came in fifth. Incredible.

The media in Iraq has taken on a new strategy, rather than simply ignore good news, they are now making up bad news.

Gateway Pundit has all the details,

Media Quagmire Continues… 7 Bogus Slaughter Stories in 7 Weeks!

Jim has done an incredible job tracking all these bogus stories, and his post has the complete rundown on each one. Say what you will about some elements within the media, they sure do get style points for consistency and persistence, if not accuracy.

You would think some enterprising professionally trained journalist, or maybe someone within the layers of editors might be interested in investigating this reporting fiasco from the war zone. But no, a blogger in St. Louis is doing it for them.

If you aren’t making Gateway Pundit part of your daily reading habits, you are really missing out.

The Congressional Budget Office just released a report titled “Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2005“. The difference in how this report was covered by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal clearly shows that as news consumers we need to read multiple sources of information. It is incredible that these two pieces are written about the same report.

The New York Times

Report Says That the Rich Are Getting Richer Faster, Much Faster

The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher.

The Wall Street Journal,

Taxes and Income

Every Democrat running for President wants to raise taxes on “the rich,” but they will have to do something miraculous to outtax President Bush. Based on the latest available tax data, no Administration in modern history has done more to pry tax revenue from the wealthy.

Last week the Congressional Budget Office joined the IRS in releasing tax numbers for 2005, and part of the news is that the richest 1% paid about 39% of all income taxes that year. The richest 5% paid a tad less than 60%, and the richest 10% paid 70%. These tax shares are all up substantially since 1990, and even somewhat since 2000.

If it bleeds it leads. Progress in Iraq can be accurately tracked by the inverse relationship between events on the ground and the amount of press coverage.

Progress goes up, coverage comes down.

MRC Study:
As Surge Succeeds and Casualty Rates Fall, ABC, CBS and NBC Lose Interest In Iraq War
Good News = Less News on Iraq War

Vanishing War. Back in September, as reporters voiced skepticism of General Petraeus’ progress report, the networks aired a total of 178 Iraq stories, or just under two per network per night. (See chart.) About one-fourth of those stories (42) were filed from Iraq itself, with most of the rest originating in Washington.

In October, TV’s war news fell by about 40 percent, to 108 stories, with the number of reports filed from Iraq itself falling to just 20, or less than one-fifth of all Iraq stories. By November, the networks aired a mere 68 stories, with only eleven (16%) actually from the war zone itself.

If this keeps up, I might start to wonder whether the MSM has an agenda or something.