Patterico's Pontifications

12/31/2005

Patterico’s Los Angeles Dog Trainer Year in Review 2005

Filed under: Dog Trainer,Year in Review — Patterico @ 4:40 pm



It is time for this blog’s third annual review of the performance of the Los Angeles Times, which long-time Patterico readers know as the Los Angeles Dog Trainer. The first annual review was posted here. The second annual review was posted in two parts, here and here, and resulted in one of the proudest moments I have had as a blogger: being featured in a Day by Day cartoon.

This year’s installment will cover familiar topics, such as general anti-Republican and pro-Democrat bias, culture wars issues, and media coverage. It will also cover events specific to the year, with a heavy emphasis on judicial confirmation battles, the war in Iraq and the war on terror, and other miscellaneous issues.

This post summarizes an entire year’s worth of work documenting omissions, distortions, and misrepresentations by this newspaper. When someone truly takes the time to provide specific examples of liberal bias in the news media, the result can be voluminous, and this post is no exception. Feel free to bookmark it and return to it in the coming days, browsing through the categories as they interest you.

I hope every new reader who reads this post will bookmark the main page and return often. Bloggers: please blogroll the site if you like it. I’ll be happy to reciprocate the link if I like your site — write me and let me know your URL, and I’ll take a look.

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Also, anyone who appreciates the work put into this post is welcome to drop me a few bucks by clicking on the PayPal button at the bottom right-hand corner of the page. I appreciate it very much, and I will write you personally to thank you.

Without further ado, on to the bias:

(more…)

12/30/2005

This Kid Has Way More Guts Than I Do

Filed under: Morons — Angry Clam @ 6:11 am



[Posted by The Angry Clam]

Farris Hassan is a 16 year old, American-born Floridian whose parents are Iraqi immigrants. He was taking a journalism class in high school that lead him to become really excited about immersion journalism. This first lead to him talking politics with some Muslims (he himself is not) until 6 A.M. at a local mosque.

That wasn’t enough for him. He then decided to go by himself to Iraq. Brilliant.

Luckily, he’s safe, and he certainly has an interesting story, which you can read in the link. However, I doubt very much that his parents will (1) ever give him more money (2) let him out of their sight for the next 10-15 years.

12/29/2005

More Internet-Based News from the L.A. Times

Filed under: Dog Trainer,Humor — Patterico @ 12:33 pm



I’m told that the L.A. Times reporter who believed an April Fool’s press release she saw on the Internet has a new blockbuster series coming out: “How to Make Big Bucks Responding to Unsolicited E-Mails from Nigerians.”

P.S. Note for the reality-challenged: this post is not for real. Neither are those e-mail offers from Nigeria.

12/28/2005

L.A. Times Falls for April Fool’s “Press Release”

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 9:15 am



The L.A. Times has this correction to a recent story about the Endangered Species Act:

Gray wolves — An article in Tuesday’s Section A about tensions over the federal effort to reintroduce wolves into parts of the West wrongly attributed to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal a statement that Wyoming considered the Endangered Species Act no longer in force and “now considers the wolf as a federal dog.” The statement, which was circulated on the Internet, was purportedly from Freudenthal but was in fact a hoax.

The story is actually more amusing than this rather antiseptic correction indicates. McGehee has this link explaining the background. It turns out that the statements attributed to Wyoming’s governor were part of an April Fool’s joke. A Wyoming outfitter with no connection to the governor’s office sent a private e-mail to a few friends with the text of a phony “press release” from the state’s governor. You can read the “press release” here; it begins as follows (emphasis mine):

Wyoming is extremely disappointed in the ruling by the federal court that Wyoming has “no sovereignty over federally protected species.” Actually, we are not so much disappointed as we are mad as hell, and frankly that’s where the feds can go, and please take their fraudulently “endangered” species with them. Wyoming will not stand idly by and see our wildlife heritage be destroyed. Not on my watch!

The “press release” is dated April 1, 2005.

Its author has no idea how his private e-mail ended up getting quoted as “news.” As he wrote to the local paper, which had also been fooled: “In a related story to the Wyoming Governor’s Official Declaration, Hell froze over.”

So, if you see a banner headline in tomorrow’s L.A. Times declaring the freezing over of Hell, you’ll know where they got the story. After all, the story has been widely reported on the Internet, so it obviously meets the standards for publication in the Los Angeles Times.

12/27/2005

Kavanaugh: Screwed

Filed under: Judiciary — Patterico @ 2:07 pm



Confirm Them says Brett Kavanaugh is getting screwed, no doubt thanks to Hillary.

12/26/2005

Programming Note

Filed under: Blogging Matters,General — Patterico @ 8:52 pm



I have working hard on the Dog Trainer Year in Review. Like I said, posting may be very light until the end of the year.

UPDATE: I mean, I have been “hardly working” on it. Sorry for the confusion.

12/25/2005

Merry Christmas

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:18 am



Merry Christmas, everyone. Remember to treat it as Thanksgiving as well. Be thankful for what you have, and take nothing for granted.

12/24/2005

The Group With the Most Votes Wins

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General,War — Patterico @ 9:17 am



This is rich. The L.A. Times says this morning in its lead editorial:

PRESIDENT BUSH IS FOND OF berating opponents of the Iraq war who allegedly claim that Arab nations such as Iraq aren’t ready for democracy. The president now needs to explain democracy to Iraq’s Sunnis and let them know that in elections like the one held last week, the group with the most votes wins.

Unfortunately for the Sunnis, those were the other guys.

Yeah, well, he tried to explain that same concept to Democrats in this country after the last presidential election, and they didn’t take to the explanation any better than the Sunnis are likely to.

Nor have Democrats behaved as though they understand the idea that “the group with the most votes wins.” Didn’t someone filibuster Bush’s judicial nominees and the renewal of the Patriot Act? Which group was that? The one with the most votes in Congress?

Question for Times editors: Is the United States not ready for democracy just because the Democrat party is filled with sore losers?

(Second question: where is your editorial saying that President Bush needs to explain democracy to the Democrats?)

Welcome to democracy, Iraq. It’s not always perfect, and it doesn’t leave everyone happy. But it beats what you had before.

Where Is the Special Prosecutor?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:07 am



The more I become convinced that Bush’s secret surveillance program is legal, the more I want to know: when will a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate this damaging leak? This one blows the Valerie Plame thing out of the water.

I want to see someone to go to prison for this.

Goldstein on the Surveillance Program

Filed under: Civil Liberties,General,Terrorism — Patterico @ 1:24 am



Jeff Goldstein is not a lawyer, but he reasons better than most lawyers. He has a post that quotes a guy who is a lawyer, ranting about Bush’s secret surveillance program. Once I saw this guy’s rant, I felt I had to respond — until I saw Jeff’s response. Jeff takes apart the guy’s arguments one by one, very elegantly, making any response by me superfluous. So Jeff saved me a lot of time, which I appreciate.

P.S. The guy Jeff quotes claims no conservative defending the program has mentioned the Youngstown case. Gee, didn’t I mention that case the other day? Why, yes, I did.

P.P.S. Also, you should be reading Antimedia’s detailed analysis of the legalities involved.

Jeff’s and Antimedia’s posts represent the blogosphere at its best.

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