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2. Chris Matthews: Bill Clinton 'Sounds Like Jesus in the Temple'
3. Cal Thomas: Ex-Sen. Allen Exonerated of Bogus Charges; Media Yawn
4. 'Cold Cash' Jefferson's Personal Katrina Truck Trip Left Out
5. Dennis Miller Debates Patriot Act with Rosie O'Donnell
6. Couric Stuck in NBC Mode? She Calls Letterman's Show by NBC Name
Norcross, a "hurricane specialist" for the CBS-owned Miami station WFOR-TV channel 4, rejected the premise: "No, I don't think so. This is just part of this extreme situation we've had this winter -- very warm, very cold -- and so the extreme weather continues and it turns out the United States is just about the only spot in the world that has a lot of these kinds of super-cells, just not normally this time of year." [This item was posted Thursday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [2] ] WFOR-TV's bio page for Norcross: cbs4.com [3]
[This item, by Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Thursday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [7] ] The following exchange took place about 30 minutes into the February 28 Hardball:
Eugene Robinson: "I mean, it's the one memorable speech from, from that funeral." The following is the full discussion:
As noted by CNSNews.com, the charges, first reported by the AP, were picked up and editorialized in several prominent Virginia papers. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee even used the claims in an ad for Allen's Democratic opponent James Webb. (See above picture added to the posted version of this CyberAlert and with the NewsBusters posting.) Not so coincidentally, Senator Allen ended up losing his pivotal Senate seat by around 9,000 votes. So the question is, now that it turns out the media hyped faulty accusations, where does Senator Allen go to get his reputation back? [This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Thursday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [8] ] In his March 1 column, Cal Thomas commented on the shoddy coverage by the liberal media: Last October, the Associated Press ran a story that said Allen had failed to report his CBI stock options and hinted at possible wrongdoing by Allen when he was governor because the company had done business with the state. This was all that Allen's challenger, now Sen. James Webb, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headed by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer needed. They prepared an attack ad, alleging that Allen's stock options were worth $1.1 million and were not worthless, as he had claimed. The ad also made the connection between CBI and the state, charging Allen tried to "steer government contracts to a company that paid him in stock options." AP did not report anything about Allen trying to steer government contracts to the state, but Jim Webb "approved this message" anyway. An analysis of the negative ad by AP political writer Bob Lewis revealed its inaccuracies. One must conclude that, since the information was available to Webb and Schumer, the two deliberately used factual inaccuracies in the negative ad. But why let truth get in the way of an effective election strategy? The damage was done and since the ad fit nicely into the Democrats' theme of "the culture of corruption" in the Republican majority, the desired result was achieved. Allen lost the election by 9,000 votes. The Allen camp asked for a formal ruling by the Senate Ethics Committee and on Feb. 16, it came. In a letter to Allen, signed by committee chairman Barbara Boxer, California Democrat and committee vice chair John Cornyn, Texas Republican, Allen was exonerated of any wrongdoing: "The committee has determined that your ownership of CBI stock options did not constitute deferred compensation during the relevant reporting periods." Therefore, they said, Allen was not required to amend the reports. Allen made his share of mistakes during his re-election campaign, but this was not one of them. His opponent and Sen. Schumer, neither of whom has apologized or retracted their accusations, unfairly smeared him. In commenting on the Senate Ethics Committee letter and the incorrect negative ad that contributed to Allen's defeat, a Richmond Times Dispatch editorial asked a question familiar to many public figures who have been unfairly slimed, "So where does George Allen go to get his reputation back, never mind his job in the Senate?" See: www.timesdispatch.com [9] This saga is important for a number of reasons. First, it cost a good man an important job. Second, it significantly contributed to a change in the balance of power in the Senate. Third, it again exposed an unholy alliance between liberal politicians and the leftist big media who are quick to attack someone whose policies and party they don't like, but rarely correct errors of their own making, or investigate bogus charges when they help the policies and party the media prefer. END of Excerpt
For the column in full: www.townhall.com [10] Allen's opponent in the campaign, Webb, then released a television advertisement saying Allen had "tried to steer government contracts to a company that paid him in stock options," and that he had "hid those options for years." The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) stated in its campaign ads that the Virginia Republican had "a dark side," was "distracted by scandals" and "failed to report stock options worth over $1 million and intervened for the same company on a federal contract." Newspapers including the Washington Post, the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk and the Richmond Times-Dispatched also editorialized about the matter and the "serious ethical questions" it raised about Allen. END of Excerpt
For the CNSNews.com story in full: www.cnsnews.com [11]
Washington Post reporter Lyndsey Layton reported Thursday that House Republicans will move for an unusual vote protesting the new committee assignment of Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, the Congressman still under investigation for the $90,000 in bribe money found in his home freezer. After removing Jefferson from the powerful Ways and Means Committee last year as the Democrats ran against a "culture of corruption," Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi now wants to place him on the Homeland Security Committee. [This item, by Tim Graham, was posted Thursday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [13] ] Layton's story highlighted Jefferson's role as a "vocal critic of FEMA's performance" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as a rationale for his Homeland Security appointment. But the Post left out Jake Tapper's September 2005 ABC scoop on Jefferson using the government to check on his personal property in the hurricane aftermath: "Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings -- even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned." Tapper added: "The water reached to the third step of Jefferson's house, a military source familiar with the incident told ABC News, and the vehicle pulled up onto Jefferson's front lawn so he wouldn't have to walk in the water. Jefferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour." The original truck got stuck during the wait, and another truck had to be dispatched to pull it out. A helicopter was also dispatched to the scene, but Jefferson refused to board it.
March 1 Washington Post article: www.washingtonpost.com [14]
Last October, O'Donnell equated the Patriot Act with South Africa's apartheid. The October 25 CyberAlert recounted how O'Donnell equated the brutal tactics used against the people of South Africa by its own government with the Patriot Act: "They were seeking out terrorists, which is what they called the people in South Africa who actually lived there, who were the majority. The blacks in South Africa, who were trying to fight for their own civil rights, were called terrorists and the government was allowed to arrest them at will and interrogate them, no matter what they did, just on the suspicion. Very similar today to what we have in the United States, thanks to the Patriot Act." See: www.mrc.org [16] [This item is adopted from a Thursday posting, by Justin McCarthy, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [17] ] The relevant exchanges on the March 1 The View:
Joy Behar: "How about Nancy Pelosi, what do you think of her?"
Then:
[This item was posted Thursday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [18] ] The Late Night show title remains the property of Couric's employer for nearly two decades ending last year, NBC, with Conan O'Brien's name attached for the past 13-plus years -- as in Late Night with Conan O'Brien. BTW: CNN's Anderson Cooper will be one of O'Brien's guests Thursday night and ABC's Bob Woodruff will be on the Late Show with David Letterman. Late Show's home page: www.cbs.com [19] Late Night's page: www.nbc.com [20] -- Brent Baker
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After leading with the terrible toll of deadly "super-cell" storms with tornadoes which struck Missouri and Alabama on Thursday, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric's mind turned to global warming as the potential cause. She asked "CBS News weather analyst" Bryan Norcross, working out of the network's Washington bureau: "Bryan, I understand people have been asking you this all day" -- probably CBS News staffers in the DC bureau -- "Does this have anything to do with global warming?" 
Chris Matthews: "A new poll by The Washington Post and ABC News shows that black voters are abandoning Hillary Clinton to support Barack Obama. How's that, how bad is that for Clinton? Let's bring in the Hardballers. Today's Hardballers are Kate O'Beirne, I just love that phrase, Hardball, political analyst and Washington editor of the, I`m sorry, the Washington editor of The National Review. That was John McLaughlin's old job. And Gene Robinson is a columnist for the Washington Post itself. Your poll came out, sir, today. It showed that Hillary Clinton was beating, among African-Americans, Obama 60 to 20, beating him like a drum, and now he's beating her by about 10 points. What's happening?" 
A couple of weeks ago, the Senate Ethics Committee exonerated former Virginia Senator George Allen on charges that he failed to report stock options he earned during the time he served as a director of a biotech company. As Cal Thomas throughly documented in his current column, this determination of innocence has gone little noticed by the mainstream media. The accusations, however, which were made last October during Allen's heated, and ultimately unsuccessful, re-election campaign, were heavily covered. 
Right of center comedian Dennis Miller appeared on Thursday's The View and after discussing John McCain's announcement and the recent feud between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Miller joked about Nancy Pelosi's rapidly blinking eyes, leading Barbara Walters to defend her as "terrific." Miller also debated Rosie O'Donnell on the finer points of the Patriot Act. "No I don't," Miller retorted when O'Donnell proposed: "Don't you believe democracy demands dissent? Don't you believe that like the Patriot Act has robbed us of us our civil liberties in this country, that fear has taken over from faith in democracy, in the Constitution?" 
Late Night with David Letterman hasn't aired since August of 1993, when Letterman moved his show to CBS, where it was re-named Late Show with David Letterman. But in reporting on Thursday's CBS Evening News about how John McCain announced on Letterman's show Wednesday night that he is running for President, Couric led into a clip of McCain by relating: "John McCain is in. As first reported here last night, the Senator made it official during the taping of Late Night with David Letterman."