Barack Obama has broken barriers with his history-making electoral victory and for that he deserves a congratulatory note. But now that the seemingly endless campaign has wrapped, the adoration he was afforded by American media outlets hasn’t subsided.
Unfortunately, mainstream media outlets are too busy basking in the glories of Obama’s sweeping success to maintain even [...]
The Conservative Paper
The News Without The Left’s Bias
7
Nov
For years, NewsBusters and its parent the Media Research Center have euphemistically made the case that press outlets use smoke and mirrors to present the news they want viewers to see, hear, read, and, most importantly, believe.
No finer example occurred than during CNN’s Election Night coverage when three dimensional images of folks not actually on the set with Wolf Blitzer were presented to the viewing audience as “holograms” (video below the fold).
As CNN.com reported Thursday (photo courtesy CNN.com):
It was an election night like none other, in every sense of the phrase. In addition to the obvious — the selection of the nation’s first black president — Tuesday night’s coverage on CNN showcased groundbreaking technology.
"I want you to watch what we’re about to do," CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer told viewers early in the evening’s coverage, "because you’ve never seen anything like this on television."
And he was right. Cue CNN political correspondent Jessica Yellin.
"Hi Wolf!" said Yellin, waving to Blitzer as she stood a few feet in front of him in the network’s New York City studios. Or at least, that’s the way it appeared at first glance.
In reality, Yellin — a correspondent who had been covering Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign — was at the now president-elect’s mega-rally along the lakefront in Chicago, Illinois, more than 700 miles away from CNN’s Election Center in New York.
It looked like a scene straight out of "Star Wars." Here was Yellin, partially translucent with a glowing blue haze around her, appearing to materialize in thin air. She even referenced the classic movie on her own, saying, "It’s like I follow in the tradition of Princess Leia. It’s something else."
Pretty snazzy, yes?
However, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, this wasn’t what CNN claimed:
CNN’s US election night stunt, in which reporter Jessica Yellin and rapper will.i.am appeared on set as three-dimensional "holograms", was little more than smoke and mirrors, physics experts say. [...]
Blitzer made every attempt to hide the fact that the hologram was fake, saying "Jessica, you’re a terrific hologram" and that he liked the hologram because "we can have a more intimate conversation".
Yellin likened herself to a character from Star Wars, saying, "It’s like I follow in the tradition of Princess Leia." [...]
But Hans Jurgen Kreuzer, theoretical physics professor and holography expert at Dalhousie University, told CBC news in Canada that the so-called holograms were simply 2D images superimposed onto the TV broadcast.The images were in fact tomograms, or images captured from all sides - in this case by 35 high-definition cameras set in a ring inside a special tent - reconstructed by computers and displayed on the screen.
A real hologram would have meant the images were projected into space, which did not occur as Blitzer and Cooper could not see their interview subjects. [...]
To perform its stunt, CNN used technology from Vizrt, based in Norway, and SportVu, based in Israel.
In an interview with Norwegian publication DagensMedier, Vizrt technical director Ole Jacobsen said that, contrary to CNN’s claims, "it’s not technically a hologram", which would be the company’s "next challenge".
Leave it to Australian press to report that which American media refuse to.
7
Nov
Now that Barack Obama has won his bid for the White House, Americans should get ready to learn some inconvenient truths about him and the folks surrounding the president-elect that media have safely hidden from the public in order to promote his messiah-like image.
First out of the gate were revelations about Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Obama supporter and Congressional Democratic Caucus chairman Obama has tapped to be his Chief of Staff (please see my colleague Jeff Poor’s November 6 report on this subject).
On Friday, ABC’s Brian Ross reported that Emanuel was on the Board of Directors of the failed financial institution Freddie Mac, a nice little tidbit conservatives on radio and in the blogosphere felt was important during this campaign, but for the most part mainstream media outlets didn’t care about…conveniently until now (emphasis added, photo courtesy ABCNews.com):
President-elect Barack Obama’s newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags," according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.
According to a complaint later filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002.
Emanuel was not named in the SEC complaint (click here to read) but the entire board was later accused by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) (click here to read) of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." [...]
The actions by Freddie Mac are cited by some economists as the beginning of the country’s economic meltdown.
The federal government this year was forced to take over Freddie Mac and a sister federal mortgage agency, Fannie Mae, pledging at least $200 billion in public funds. [...]
During the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to the SEC, Freddie Mac substantially misrepresented its income to "present investors with the image of a company that would continue to generate predictable and growing earnings."
Hmmm. So, "The actions by Freddie Mac are cited by some economists as the beginning of the country’s economic meltdown." And "Freddie Mac substantially misrepresented its income to ‘present investors with the image of a company that would continue to generate predictable and growing earnings’" while Rahm Emanuel, a leading figure in the Democrat Party who’s supported Obama throughout his presidential campaign, was on the Board of Directors.
And this is suddenly newsworthy NOW?
Hmmm. Maybe next media members will report how Obama was the second-leading political recipient of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac contributions since 1989 even though he’s only been in Congress since 2005.
After all, now such a revelation won’t hurt him, although it certainly would have if fully disclosed by Obama-loving press members as the financial crisis came to a head in mid-September.
Just imagine how differently things might have gone Tuesday if voters would have been completely apprised of Obama and his surrogate’s connections to the government sponsored enterprises so responsible for the collapse of the banking and lending industries.
As readers are likely aware, NewsBusters has for months made the case that if Americans knew just how tied to this crisis Democrats were, McCain would have easily won the White House, and the picture in both chambers of Congress would also be much different.
Alas, the media were having none of that, and nicely hid the truth from a public mysteriously not interested in it anyway.
In the end, it seems a metaphysical certitude that in the months to come, America’s disgraceful media will begin to report things about Obama and his team that could have had a HUGE impact on the campaign if revealed months ago.
I guess this is their way of soothing their guilty consciences, assuming any of these folks possess such a thing.
7
Nov
The honeymoon is certainly not yet over between the Old Media and Barack Obama. It never really ended for Clinton, so one can easily imagine it won’t for Obama. But whatever happens in the future, they are still in love with him now. I can say that because Obama has already broken two promises and the media isn’t too interested in talking about it. Two promises broken before he even sets his first foot in the White House.
The first broken promise was the one where the candidate of “change” was going to bring a new tone to Washington. This one has been broken by Obama’s choice for Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel. Representative Emanuel (D- Illinois) is a hard-core, far left, liberal as well as being an old Clinton hack. Not only that, but Emanuel is not a “new tone” kind of guy but is a Pit bull of epic proportions. The parallel would have been McCain claiming a new tone but picking Karl Rove as his Chief of Staff. Emanuel is little different than Terry MCauliffe or Howard Dean in his vehement and vocal attacks on Republicans. So much for the “new tone” Obama claimed he wanted to foster.
And, let us not forget that the candidate of “change” picked Joe Biden as his vice president. Biden is one of the least respected, old timey Senators in Congress with 34 years in office. Not much “change” there, either.
And now comes his second broken promise. Politico reported on November 5 that Barack Obama has stepped back from his claim that lobbyists would not have a place in his new administration.
Despite campaign trail promises that special interests wouldn’t be a part of his administration, President-elect Barack Obama’s has sent signals to the lobbyists that they can get jobs with him.
…the overall message to the lobbying community appears to run counter to the Democratic senator’s campaign promise to keep special interest advocates at arms length.
Once again, the “new” Washington that Barack Obama sold to a willing electorate is quickly turning into the same old Washington that Obama claimed he wanted to “change.”
And, folks, can we take just a moment to remember that he has only been president elect for four days! In four days he’s already stepped back from the supposedly monumental “change” he kept warbling on about since 2004. Four years of talking about “change” hasn’t even given us four days to enjoy it before it all starts to become business as usual.
Tell me, does THIS sound like “change”…
“The rush is on,” he said. “There are thousands and thousands of people (lobbyists) who are desperate for these jobs.”
So far, after only four measly days, the names have changed but the story remains the same.
(Photo credit: newsweek.com)