I’m glad Tennessee politics is getting interesting again. I was becoming concerned. Now The Tennessean (best known for offering minimal content at the largest font size available) has made itself the focal point of the story out of a non-story run in today’s paper.

For those not from around here, there has been a multi-year debate regarding cable television and franchise uniformity in the state. Before, providers had to obtain numerous local franchises to operate in Tennessee. Once the so-called “AT&T bill” becomes law (because AT&T has been pushing for its passage), cable providers need only get one franchise license from the state. Some oppose it, but for the life of me, I cannot find a logical reason why.

Back on point - the bill passed 29-0 in the state senate. Senator Bill Ketron, a Republican, has been targeted and lambasted by Nashville’s largest circulating daily because his wife works for AT&T’s wireless division and he didn’t wear a sandwich board declaring it. Or at least, that’s what they imply they would have needed to be happy

What the Murfreesboro Republican didn’t mention then was that his wife, Theresa, works for AT&T Mobility, the company’s wireless unit, which he had noted on his ethics disclosures this year. Nor did Ketron mention the tie when he earlier acted as an unofficial spokesman for behind-the-scenes wrangling over the bill.

Wait a minute. He disclosed it, but then … what? He also disclosed his wife as an income souce. I am failing to see the ethical travesty here. What’s worse, the headline The Tennessean chose is an outright lie: “Senator discloses AT&T link after vote”.

As if any more criticism is necessary, what makes this story even more irrelevant is that the AT&T bill passed 29-0. If the vote had only been 15-14, I very well could see (somewhat) the paper’s point. But that’s not what happened and the possibility of Ketron’s recusal from the vote, which would have been voluntary in this case under the ethics rules, would have made no difference whatsoever. The Tennessean saw a chance to smear an up-and-coming Republican senator, and they jumped at the opportunity.

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Why does The Tennessean have this headline

Metro must have fairness in its water funding plans

with this picture

If the editorial board has been hung over, that explains a lot.

For anyone who doubts the leftist slant of the mainstream media, let us move past voting records, and issue polls of journalists, and move directly on to in-kind contributions, in the form of discounted ad rates

The Times acknowledged to The Post on Wednesday that the going rate for such an ad would be $181,692.

But a spokesman for MoveOn told The Post that the group paid just $65,000.

Amid a firestorm of criticism yesterday, the Times seemed confused about the proper ad rate.

Earlier in the day, the paper’s spokeswoman said MoveOn had received a discount and confirmed to Reuters the normal rate was “about $181,000.” But later, the same spokeswoman told The Associated Press that the proper rate for such an ad is about $65,000.

Saying he wanted to place an advocacy group ad similar to MoveOn’s, a Post re porter who contacted the Times without identifying himself was told earlier this week that the rate was about $167,000.

“We do not distinguish the advertising rates based on the political content of the ad,” spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said, confirming that the normal rate was “around $181,000.”

Of course you don’t. That’s why MoveOn.org received somewhere between a 61% and 64% discount on its “aid and comfort to the enemy” ad attacking the commanding general in Iraq for not adopting its fabricated version of complete disaster in the Middle East.

Of course, the Times, being the upstanding bellwether of responsible and fair journalism that it is, will certainly offer the same discount rate to Freedom’s Watch. Or not. We will certainly see. There is no debate that the price for the ad that was sold to MoveOn.org was $65,000.00. The real fun will be watching the debacle when the Times explains in its answer to a certain shareholders’ derivative suit why it has cut its ad rates by 60% at a time of self-described declining circulation.

Say Uncle takes issue with some of the reporting on the SKS found in that California school yesterday. Specifically, the terms used in gun story reporting.

First, yes, some guns look mean, but so do some dogs, and many people. Looks are deceiving. And guns are only mean when provoked.

Second, the difference between “automatic” and “semiautomatic” is easy. Automatic means you pull the trigger and more than one bullet comes out. Semiautomatic means when you pull the trigger, only one bullet comes out. The two terms have nothing to do with the way the gun looks.

And as a side note, that had to be one friggin’ big backpack to hold an SKS. It must have had a collapsable stock, but that’s another term of art for another day’s lesson.

Music City Oracle gives no quarter to The Tennessean and it’s shabby coverage of an event of national importance

With the National Conference of State Legislatures holding its annual meeting in Nashville, one might expect that the local paper of record would provide extensive coverage, particularly with regard to issues discussed at the conference that have relevance to the state of Tennessee.

One might expect. One might be disappointed.

In fact, The Tennessean provided no coverage of a two hour session yesterday entitled “Critical Health Topics: Lessons from Tennessee.” The session, moderated by state representative David Shepard, featured presentations by state Safety Net Director Susan Cooper, DMA Health Strategies President Dr. Richard Daugherty, and XL Health Tennessee CMO Dr. David Hollis.

However, the paper did find time and space to talk about the name of Arizona legislator Jake Flake and to explain why attendees won’t get goodie bags.

That The Tennessean would be prone to do a story with the word “flake” in it fairly sums up their ability to do what the rest of us may consider “real world” coverage.

Trent Seibert, noted Tennessean reporter, is heading over to Channel 2 WKRN.

First Brad Schmitt, then Steve Gill, and now Trent Seibert. WKRN is the New York Yankees of the Nashville broadcast media market.

Cuba has released pictures of an allegedly rehabilitating Fidel Castro. The question, as Matt Drudge posts it on his site, is whether they are real.

As Reuters had nothing to do with the pictures, the question becomes self-validating. The follow-up question then becomes whether we trust Cuba’s journalistic integrity over that of the infamous wire service.

Sadly, I’d almost rather get my photographic news from the island communist state.

Michelle Malkin discusses the “Reuterization of war journalism” over at her place. Doctored pictures and facts that aren’t do not seem to be the sole bastard child of the Reuters “news” service.

There’s nothing like sloppy misinformation to atrophy and sabotage otherwise good causes. Hizbullah is a genocidal organization proxying for a genocidal regime, and our supposedly trustworthy news services are letting powerful images that are as real as Roger Rabbit infiltrate the telling of the story and falsely frame the context of the facts.

At least with the Soviets we knew they were lying.

I’ve stayed out of the Reuters kerfuffle over the doctored images. As a news organization, Reuters has been subpar for some time. Their behavior after 9/11 was abhorrible. As a collective, they seem to revel in anything that causes the United States, and now Israel, heartache or aggravation.

Now it appears that we’re on the verge of finding a whole collection of photographs that aren’t worth the pixels they’re printed on

Reuters has withdrawn a second photograph and admitted that the image was doctored, following the emergence of new suspicions against images provided by the news organization. On Sunday, Reuters admitted that one of its photographers, Adnan Hajj, used software to distort an image of smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut in order to create the effect of more smoke and damage.The latest image to face doubts is a photograph of an Israeli F-16 fighter jet over the skies of Lebanon, seen in the image firing off “missiles during an air strike on Nabatiyeh,” according to the image’s accompanying text provided by Reuters.

Perhaps they ought to ask CBS how to handle things.

UPDATE Talk about me being prescient - here’s the deluge.

The New York Times is cutting jobs and the size of their daily paper

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co. (NYT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to narrow the size of its flagship newspaper and close a printing plant, resulting in the loss of 250 jobs, the company said in a story posted on its Web site late on Monday.

The changes, set to take place in April 2008, include the closure of a printing plant in Edison, New Jersey. The company will sublet the plant and consolidate its regional printing facilities at a plant in Queens, the paper said.

We only could hope to be so blessed, that if there is sufficient good fortune available to the American public, that both Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd were among the 250 sent packing. Or at least if the smaller paper envisions a smaller op-ed section.

The LA Times today appears to enjoy the prospect that the American government is undercounting civilian casualities in Iraq. Like its Big Apple cousin, The LA Times’ memory only goes back as far as what suits its questionable political agenda.  Power Line blog takes issue

So, while 50,000 murdered people constitute a tragedy, it is meaningless to look at this figure outside the context of Iraq’s bloody history. That context includes not only the fact that far more people lost their lives–and far more brutally, for the most part–under Saddam. Equally important, it includes the fact that for the first time in a generation, the murderers and beheaders are hunted men rather than agents of a tyrannical government. The sacrifices now being made in Iraq need not be in vain, as long as Iraqis do not lose their commitment to freedom, and Americans do not lose their nerve.

It seems that some Americans have already lost their nerve.

This headline from Reuters surprised me

Rather Leaving CBS After 44 Years, Reuters, June 20, 2005

Didn’t he already leave? What’s he been doing for the last two years, mopping the newsroom floors?

This is what passes for blogging at the City Paper.

There are enough out there on the Left who claim, surprisingly to me, that there is no leftist bent to the belwethers of the mainstream media (or drive-by media, depending on your perspective and radio listening habits).  I normally don’t think twice about it anymore. It is clear to me there is a subtle undercurrent that determines the perspective from which stories and columns are written. This perspective determines the focus. This is what is meant by a liberal media bias.

It’s not purposeful per se, which is the alarming part. But your objectivity largely rests on your world view. The focus though is certainly consistent - for instance, today the Times has a piece on Bush’s continuing failing in approval polls, even though his overall approval went up two points from last time. Still within the margin of error, but certainly not indicative of a continuing negative trend, on which the Times focuses.

Then there is the Washington Post today, focusing on the extension of capital gains tax cuts about to be passed by the Congress. The sources first cited are clearly those who favor government spending, and who cannot fathom how cuts in investment taxes will result in more revenue (look at the Reagan capital gains cuts in 1986 to see that there is a precedent for that effect), or indirectly, how much growth will occur in the economy because of it, and the revenues that would stem from that. The story cites the $300 billion budget deficit as unmanageable, but historically, that’s not the case

   The increase in receipts in 2004 and 2005 played a significant role in bringing down the size of the deficit. Since the President set a goal of cutting the deficit in half from its projected peak in 2004 of 4.5 percent of GDP, or $521 billion, the deficit has come down markedly. The final 2004 deficit was 3.6 percent of GDP, or $413 billion, and the 2005 deficit fell further, to 2.6 percent of GDP, or $318 billion.

…

While this increase in the deficit is unwelcome, a deficit at this level is still well within the historical range. At 3.2 percent of GDP, it would still be smaller than the deficits in 11 of the last 25 years. More importantly, if we build on the policies of economic growth and spending restraint reflected in this Budget, the deficit is projected to return to its downward trajectory and stay on track to meet the President’s goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009.

Further, the deficit projected for next year is 2.6%, which is less than most of the Clinton years, save the last term before the tech bubble burst. One way to ensure this decline is to ensure growth, something the left has never quite grasped. To paint a budget in deficit as stingy, as the Post does, is irresponsible and on its face, just plain silly. To cite “experts” who claim we absolutely need the money in the extended tax cuts (which, mind you, were not made permanent) requires a musical backdrop of “Bring in the Clowns”.

Read both articles. Notice the layout and the perspective. When conservatives mention a bias in the MSM, this is what we’re talking about.

Now, off to court.

One need only look to the Left to see that the conservative cause is not losing ground. From Drudge

‘PROGRESSIVE’ MEDIA STALLS: ‘AIR AMERICA’ IN AUDIENCE PLUNGE NYC, ‘DAILY KOS’ BOOK SELLS ONLY 3,600 COPIES
Wed Apr 26 2006 11:39:51 ET

Left-leaning new media has hit turbulence at the marketplace, newly released stats show.

A book hyped by major media as documenting a progressive revolution of “blogs” and political power, DAILY KOS ‘CRASHING THE GATE,’ has sold only 3,630 copies since its release last month, according to NIELSEN’s BOOKSCAN.

[NIELSEN claims only 2,062 copies of DAILY KOS have been purchased at the retail level; the rest coming through 'discount' outlets. The NIELSEN figures do include online sales from AMAZON.COM, and others.]

Meanwhile, the just released radio Winter Book [Jan-Mar 2006] from ARBITRON shows AIR AMERICA in New York City losing more than a third of its audience — in the past year!

Among all listeners 12+, it was a race to the bottom for AIR AMERICA and WLIB as mid-days went from a 1.6 share during winter 2005 to a 1.0 share winter 2006.

During PM drive, host Randi Rhodes plunged to 27,900 listeners every quarter hour, finishing 25th place in her time slot, down from 60,900 listeners every quarter hour in the fall.

A network source says the radio ratings released today do not reflect the overall growth of the broadcast.

“The demos are better, and listeners trust AIR AMERICA to give them the real truth on issues and the Bush presidency,” says the insider.

I am typically not one to make hay of others misfortunes for the sole sake of spite and mockery (well, sometimes), but the Kos numbers truly surprise me. I could write a book and find some way to get three thousand copies “sold”. On the other hand, the Air America story is not so surprising. That diminishing trend has existed for some time. Just listen to Randi Rhodes and you won’t wonder why. The content and presentation is simply not good. You can hate Limbaugh all you want, but you have to admit he’s entertaining. And he started and succeeded in New York. Not so with Randi and the rest.

I believe Air America died in Washington, DC late last year. Now it’s dying in New York, the bluest of the blue and the largest of the large. Air America has discovered a way to play Sinatra backwards. If you’re a liberal talk show host and you can’t make it in New York, good luck anywhere else.

UPDATE Apparently Drudge’s numbers were off a few thousand - actually, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 books were sold. Still, my original point stands.

Rex Hammock notes the updates to the New York Times’ website, and the glaring lack of the new RSS logo.

In other news, The Tennessean has finally set up both XML and RSS feeds. I last looked and attempted to search for them about three months ago, and never could find anything. I have no idea when they actually got around to adding them.

We need more RSS for state and local news. It’s not terribly hard to do, and can still be done with advertising. City Paper - you’re on notice!

AC Kleinheider’s new home is here. It’s now on my blogroll. Check it out (the logo was cool, but I’m afraid if I linked to it I’d push Sarah off the right side of the screen).

Huh. Now WKRN is actually fair and balanced. Very good.

More proof that liberal bias in the mainstream media is a myth.

UPDATE Roger Simon noted it before I did.

Also of note is that the Nashville City Paper has a blog. It seems rather vanilla for the time being, but I’m sure that it will become more interesting as the writers do it more. Doing what he will likely do more of, Bill Hobbs offers some suggestions.