Burt’s Eye View: Some Townhalls Are Worse Than Others

Recently, I had a very odd experience.  No, I didn’t wake up 30 years younger and with a full head of hair.  That would have been odd but nice, whereas the experience I actually had was merely bizarre.

Like most bloggers, I write for more than one website.  It’s rather like being a syndicated columnist, except that little or no money changes hands.  But, as a writer who hopes to influence public opinion, you want to have as many readers as possible.

The strange event took place on a Tuesday.  It came in the form of an e-mail from Jonathan Garthwaite, who runs Townhall, a website I’ve contributed to for nearly four years.

The message read: “Dear Burt: As everyone is painfully aware, the economy is forcing companies to make difficult decisions.  Townhall.com is no different.  We take our commitment to our readers and our bottom line very seriously.  Similarly, we are constantly reassessing our editorial lineup.  We end up making tough decisions that aren’t always fun. (more…)

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Tags: bias, CAIR, media, Terror, terrorists
Posted Sep 17th 2009 at 11:38 am in Media Criticism | 224606134 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2009/09/17/burts-eye-view-some-townhalls-are-worse-than-others/Burt%27s+Eye+View%3A+Some+Townhalls+Are+Worse+Than+Others2009-09-17+18%3A38%3A39Burt+Prelutsky

T’was Accountability That Led the Mainstream Media to Suicide

In recent days and weeks three major news stories have broke here online, at Fox News or the Washington Times; everywhere but the mainstream media. Worse still, as the stories unfolded, the media willfully ignored them until, much to their embarrassment, they were forced to give grudging coverage only after official action — in the form of a resignation (Van Jones), reassignment (the NEA) or dismissal (ACORN) — occurred that could no longer be ignored.

Mainstream news outlets have been caught off guard before, but they used to play catch up. Today they play “hide the ball.” For as long as I’ve been politically aware the media’s been biased, but willfully ignoring a major national news story at great cost to their credibility and relevance is a new low. So what changed?

Ironically enough, scrutiny and accountability is the cause of much of the media’s increasingly disgraceful behavior. (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Bernard Goldberg, bias, mainstream media, Media research Center
Posted Sep 12th 2009 at 1:10 pm in Media Criticism, Politics | 223710132 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/09/12/twas-accountability-that-killed-the-mainstream-media/T%27was+Accountability+That+Led+the+Mainstream+Media+to+Suicide2009-09-12+20%3A10%3A24John+Nolte

Seeing Voices, Hearing Faces

Okay Class, today’s Lecture is on “Text and Subtext”, that is to say, for those of you who managed to make “A”s in all your Language Arts classes without actually learning anything of value, the lecture is about Stated and Implied Themes and the ways and means by which a reader or audience is involved in what is expected to be one message while actually being inculcated in another, or various other, messages.  Be sure to take notes as otherwise your lives will be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, and most especially in the likely event that, having taken said notes, you never look at them or think about the points therein again.  Take it from a Doctor of Separate Reality.

We begin, as we often do, with “things we fail to realize”.  First, regardless of the extent to which we have absorbed a kind of reflexive, “hip” atheism in our lives without giving it any thought whatsoever, we have still grown accustomed to the idea of Vox Pop. The meaning of this term has undergone various insidious transformations over time, and especially in contemporary culture, which, yes, we fail to realize.  Vox Pop is short for the Latin, “vox populi” and originates in the phrase, “vox populi, vox dei“, or, “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.  Stop groaning and considering the threat of lawsuits as we are not talking about a Supreme Deity, except as metaphor for the ceaseless demands of particular populations to be given anything and everything they want at any time, preferably at the expense of others.  When the group wearing “Che” t-shirts stops cheering and stomping their feet to the tune of “We Will Rock You” we will continue.  (more…)

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Tags: bias, cape fear, cheney, Culture, journalism
Posted May 17th 2009 at 11:33 am in Entertainment, Politics | 132746No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sgraves/2009/05/17/seeing-voices-hearing-faces/Seeing+Voices%2C+Hearing+Faces2009-05-17+18%3A33%3A25Scott+Graves

All the News That’s Fit to Ridicule

So many absurd things are taking place around the world on a weekly, daily and even hourly basis that there’s simply no way to stay on top of it all.  If one man can barely keep up with the lunacy occurring in America, you can imagine what a Herculean task it is to also keep abreast of foreign follies.  But I am not one to shirk my responsibility.

For instance, in Afghanistan, the farmers recently called for a meeting with U.S. Marines in order to alert them to the fact that they will be in their fields at night harvesting opium poppies.  They wanted to make sure that the Marines didn’t take them for members of the Taliban and shoot them by mistake.  Like the farmers, I also don’t want our Marines to shoot them by mistake. (more…)

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Tags: abortion, ACORN, Afghanistan, Americorps, bias
Posted Apr 11th 2009 at 10:51 am in Media Criticism | 1026502 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2009/04/11/all-the-news-thats-fit-to-ridicule/All+the+News+That%27s+Fit+to+Ridicule2009-04-11+17%3A51%3A34Burt+Prelutsky

Critics Say: “Ferrell is right, Bush is stupid.”

I know what’s going on in the advertiser’s office for “You’re Welcome America, A Final Night With George Bush“.  Every morning after a show opens the producers assemble with the agency and dissect the reviews pulling out the best quotes to be used in ads, posters and banners on the theatres doors and marquee.  Based on the raves, I’m sure they’re having a pretty fun time. 

But, as your trusted, center/right theatre observer here at Big Hollywood, I read the same reviews and pulled out my own quotes.  You see, the content of the reviews I’ve been reading reveal less to me about what’s going on up on the stage at the Cort, it’s says more to me about the bias of the critics.  They are taking the opportunity of this show to send their own, gratuitous shots at “W.”  (more…)

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Tags: bias, broadway, bush on broadway, critics, will ferrell
Posted Feb 7th 2009 at 11:03 am in Media Criticism | 4387454 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/02/07/critics-say-ferrell-is-right-bush-is-stupid/Critics+Say%3A+%22Ferrell+is+right%2C+Bush+is+stupid.%222009-02-07+19%3A03%3A20Stage+Right