MEDIA — STUDY INDICATES ‘CONSERVATIVE COLUMNISTS GET MORE SPACE’ IN NEWSPAPERS: A new study by Media Matters found that “in paper after paper, state after state, and region after region, conservative syndicated columnists get more space than their progressive counterparts.” Sixty percent of daily newspapers print more conservative than progressive syndicated columnists every week; only 20 percent of the nation’s daily newspapers maintain a balance between the two. In a given week, conservative columnists reach a circulation of 152 million, versus progressives’ 125 million. “In three out of four broad regions of the country — the West, the South, and the Midwest — conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists.” This study serves as a conclusive counter to the claims of conservatives voices like Bill O’Reilly, who asserted that “there’s no question the media in America is heavily liberal — every study shows that,” and Michelle Malkin, who wrote off the “liberal media” when some newscasters refused to wear Iraq ribbons on their lapels.

“Six years after the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S., it seems the media still have some educational work to do. A new CBS/New York Times poll reveals that even today, 1 in 3 Americans believe that ‘Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.’”

In advance of the 2008 presidential election the Republican hate machine is up and running at full speed with the full cooperation of the mainstream media. The GOP spin miesters have issued their marching orders and pundits and talking heads like Tim Russert, Chris Matthews and the rest have all dutifully fallen in line. They have done their utmost to assassinate the character of the Democratic presidential candidates and spin lies about them that play on people’s prejudices and fears. Their mission is to weaken the Democratic candidates as much as possible in advance of the primaries

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When we initially bought our 1987 Dodge conversion van, I envisioned weekends of camping by pure mountain streams, surrounded by trees and wildlife with lots of privacy. That hasn’t exactly been the case at least at first but I got plenty of natural beauty this past weekend at Ashefest, held on the grounds of Deerfields, just five miles or so past the Asheville Airport. Our campsite was near a stream, banked by trees and our nearest neighbor was at least 100 feet away from our site. At night with the back of the van opened up we could hear the faint sound of music and the babbling of the stream, it was wonderful. I had been told that Deerfields was a fabulous setting but I really couldn’t have pictured a more peaceful and naturally beautiful place so close to home.

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