Posts Tagged ‘ABC News’

Lawrence Meyers

The Brazilian Blowout Hoax Part 3: Politicians and The FDA Attack a Safe Product

by Lawrence Meyers

Please read Part 1 and Part 2.

Contrary to recent media reports, the Brazilian Blowout hair treatment is safe for use.

Oregon OSHA and Federal OSHA had already attacked Brazilian Blowout’s product, steering the media to focus on faulty aspects of their respective studies, and burying the truth  –  that the product does not release formaldehyde in amounts that exceed state or federal short-term or long-term exposure limits.

Enter Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D – 3 – OR).  Ontheissues.org labels him a “hard-core Liberal”, and you know what that means when it comes to anything involving chemicals or the environment.   Rep. Blumenauer sponsored nonsensical bills like HR 3311 that taxes drivers based on miles driven; a ludicrous bill to jump-start the funding of streetcars; a bill to establish under-the-radar death panels; a bill providing environmental education grants for outdoor experiences (huh?); and even one quashing free speech by attempting to ban a website promoting the perfectly safe Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

So Rep. Blumenauer reads about OSHA’s nonsense in the media and, because he’s a politician, doesn’t do his research, either.  Nor does he bother contacting the company to get their side of the story.   Instead, he grandstands by penning a letter to the Food and Drug Administration asking that they recall the product — a product already proven to meet OSHA standards!

I asked Rep. Blumenauer’s press secretary, Derek Schlickeisen, about this approach to policy.  His assertion was that politicians “can’t have a chemist on staff”, and thus rely on OSHA’s scientists to bring incidents like this to light.  When I mentioned that the company-funded study by Health Science Associates showed formaldehyde levels below OSHA standards, he inferred that the study held little weight because it was company funded.

Yet why is it that OSHA’s results are given any more credibility, especially when OSHA caused a panic based entirely on a faulty sample?  Are we to believe that OSHA scientists are somehow free of ideological bias?  Kermit McCarthy, one of the authors of the Oregon OSHA study, “likes” hard-core Liberal Sen. Ron Wyden according to his Facebook page.  Why isn’t his bias questioned?  If anything, a government worker is likely more biased than a private company to insert bias, because his very job depends on his work generating a result that permits the government to do something.  Otherwise, the agency’s existence, and the employee’s, have no purpose.

(more…)

Michelle Lancaster

Class Warfare and President Obama

by Michelle Lancaster

Peace is hard.  But class warfare isn’t.  And it’s happening now right before our eyes.

The All American Blogger writes:

The president outlined a tax increase he’s calling the Buffett Rule, or something silly, which loots more from the rich, richer and richest Americans. It’s a tax hike he says is necessary to pay for his American Jobs Act, also known as the next Keynesian failure to not convince leftists that Keynes was wrong.

Exactly.

But wait. I thought you shouldn’t raise taxes during a recession?

Ah, that’s right.  We’re not in a recession.  It’s the Obama Depression!

Our President and his latest plan targets a specific population of our fellow citizens stating they need to spread their wealth even more than they already do.  Is that fair?  No, it is not.  Look how much they already pay.  Fair indeed.


We are already paying more.  I know I am.  You are too.   More at the gas pump.  More at the grocery store.  More for higher education.  More for clothing.  More, more, more.  Will it ever end?  It will never end as long there is a population of our country who does not pay.

Publius

WashPo/ABC Poll: Only 17% of Americans Think Obama Has Helped Economy

by Publius

From the Associated Press:


Public support for both President Barack Obama and the US Congress has hit news lows, as a pair of polls Tuesday reflected Americans’ frustration with the stalled economy and rancorous partisan squabbling.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll, released just days ahead of Obama’s planned major address on job creation, found that 53 percent disapprove of his job performance and 77 percent think the country is on the “wrong track.”

The poll found 35 percent of Americans believe they have become worse off financially under Obama’s presidency, the highest since the 1980s.

(more…)

Britt Hysen

Virtue vs. Profit: The War on Cancer

by Britt Hysen

The latest breakthrough in cancer treatment could prove to be “the cure” that kills it all, including a $50 billion-a-year industry. Dr. Carl June and his team at The University of Pennsylvania Medical Center have discovered a fresh, yet promising procedure that has leukemia patients marveling and pharmaceutical companies weary.

On August 10, 2011, the New England Journal of Medicine announced that the Alliance of Cancer Gene Therapy funded a clinical trial performed on three patients with the most common type of blood disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The innovation that genetically alters T-cells and infuses them back into the body after chemotherapy has astonishingly decimated over six pounds of cancer in 28 days. All three terminally ill subjects have been in remission for over 10 months with two of the three having no trace of malignant cells, and the other with 75 percent shrinkage in the tumor.

According to the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. alone averages 15,000 new cases of leukemia every year, killing 4,300. The only treatment available is to undergo chemotherapy and radiation to stall the disease, and life-threatening bone marrow transplants to aid in remission. Dr. June said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg, “This is like a bone marrow transplant where the patient is the donor…this might make treatment more widely available with less long-term toxicity.”

His new procedure takes a small sample of the patient’s own T-cells extracted from their blood, and genetically modifies them to recognize cancer cells. They are then mixed with genetically harvested T-cells that have a similar coding to the HIV virus in the sense that they multiply 1000 fold when infused back into the body. Four days after chemotherapy, when the white blood cells are at their lowest and weakest points, the new genetically altered T-cells are given in one dose for three days, and act as replacement “serial killing” cells. Dr. June said of the research, “the results exceeded our expectations quite a bit.” Oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. David Steensma, who wasn’t involved in the study said, “[the army of T-cells] not only has attacked and cleared the field but it’s also set up a patrol to make sure the enemy doesn’t come back.”

So if a potential cure has been found, then why is there a lack of funding for further research and clinical trials? Both the pharmaceutical industry and the government’s National Institute of Health have denied financing this project and many others in the past. An ongoing battle since the 1970s has prevented a cure from obliterating not only a life altering disease, but also that of a lucrative cancer industry.

(more…)

Andrew Breitbart

Huffington Post/AOL Founder, Editor-In-Chief Admit ‘Color of Change’ Campaign Against Me Based on Big Lie

by Andrew Breitbart

It’s taken a long time, but Huffington Post/AOL founder Arianna Huffington and Huffington Post/AOL editor Roy Sekoff have finally acknowledged that I am not a racist–despite the popular left wing website’s campaign to frame me as one.

From a letter crafted by Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff to the Daily Caller:

…I want to make it as clear as possible that neither I nor Arianna believe that Andrew Breitbart is a racist. If we did believe that, we never would have allowed him to blog on HuffPost — let alone featured him on our front page.

I am grateful for Huffington and Sekoff’s true courage to go against many of their partisan bloggers and ideological editors, many of whom threatened to quit if I wasn’t ousted from its “progressive” waters.

For the last six months the Huffington Post, recently purchased by AOL for $315 million, has been running a vengeful propaganda campaign led by a far left wing anti-free speech organization called “Color of Change,” created by former Obama White House “green czar” Van Jones – whose resignation was sealed, to a great degree, by facts revealed in reporting at one of my websites. (more…)

Jim Hoft

Good Cop-Killer Supporter – Bad Cop-Killer Supporter…Van Jones Plays Huckabee

by Jim Hoft

Sometimes things are not always what they seem.

I spoke with Andrew Breitbart today about a rally planned on May 1, 2011in St. Louis. Andrew is headlining the event with Governor Mike Huckabee. Andrew shared these thoughts about the event, Van Jones, Color of Change and Mike Huckabee.

Good Cop Killer Supporter – Bad Cop Killer Supporter
Van Jones’ cynical ploy to win Mike Huckabee’s affection.

I don’t ascribe bad motives for Mike Huckabee playing footsie with Van Jones. I just want to draw attention to the fact that this radical left wing agitator has created an organization Color of Change with the sole purpose to isolate, marginalize and destroy those who have effectively exposed the Barack Obama administration’s radical agenda.

At the exact moment that Color of Change got me kicked off the Huffington Post front page he went straight to Mike Huckabee to pretend he’s a gentleman patriot.

This is the first incident in Jones’ 42 years that would suggest civility in this community organizer’s hard-core agitation repertoire. This “cop killer supporting” racist commie punk is playing Huckabee.

(more…)

Publius

ABC News Caves Completely to Intolerant Left, Cancels Breitbart Election Night Appearance

by Publius

After flying Andrew Breitbart all the way out to Phoenix, Arizona yesterday to participate in an online Townhall election event, after taking him out of his home state, away from his business, and nearly making it impossible for him to vote in today’s crucial midterm election (though he’s on an airplane now in order to cast his ballot), at about as close to the last minute as you can get, Andrew Morse, chief of the ABC News digital division, sent the following email late this afternoon abruptly canceling Breitbart’s appearance:

We have spent the past several days trying to make clear to you your limited role as a participant in our digital town hall to be streamed on ABC News.com and Facebook. The post on your blog last Friday created a widespread impression that you would be analyzing the election on ABC News. We made it as clear as possible as quickly as possible that you had been invited along with numerous others to participate in our digital town hall. Instead of clarifying your role, you posted a blog on Sunday evening in which you continued to claim a bigger role in our coverage. As we are still unable to agree on your role, we feel it best for you not to participate.

This is yet another obvious attempt to build a narrative that puts the blame on Breitbart when the truth is that this is nothing more than ABC News caving in to and attempting to appease the organized left’s outrage machine that went into full astroturf mode after Breitbart’s ABC News appearance was made public.

ABCnews

As a reminder as to who’s exaggerating, here is exactly how Breitbart’s election night townhall event was described by an ABC News producer to him in an email:

This program will broadcast on the ABC Television Network, abcnews.com, ABC News Now, and ABC News Radio. …

The show will be live on the web and ABC News Now as well as on the network from 4:00pm till 11:00pm MST.

With this in mind and in writing, here is how Big Journalism announced Breitbart’s ABC News appearance: (more…)

Andrew Breitbart

Email Reveals ABC News Walked Back ‘Bigs’ Publisher Participation in Election Night Coverage

by Andrew Breitbart

In response to the announcement that I would provide my analysis on ABC News from Arizona on election night, like-clockwork, from the George Soros-funded Media Matters to Keith Olbermann to Huffington Post to Daily Kos to Talking Points Memo to Twitter (#boycottABCNEWS), the institutional left began on Friday to inundate ABC News with a wave of partisan objections and unfounded allegations against me.

Make no mistake: this is a calculated “astroturf“ intimidation campaign by the well-funded and frightened-for-their-political-lives institutional left to quash dissenting voices. It’s what they do.

ABCnews

What was ABC News’ response?  Not standing up for free speech and the 1st Amendment.  Not sticking by their original invitation.  Not standing up for diversity of opinion.

Instead, on Saturday, ABC News issued an official statement that was immediately heralded as a victory by the anti-free speech forces on the left:

Since conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart announced on his website that he was going to be a participant in ABC’s Town Hall meeting at Arizona State University, there has been considerable consternation and misinformation regarding my decision to ask him to participate in an election night Town Hall event for ABC News Digital. I want to explain what Mr. Breitbart’s role has always been as one of our guests at our digital town hall event:

Mr. Breitbart is not an ABC News analyst.

He is not an ABC News consultant.

He is not, in any way, affiliated with ABC News.

He is not being paid by ABC News.

He has not been asked to analyze the results of the election for ABC News.

Mr. Breitbart will not be a part of the ABC News broadcast coverage, anchored by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos. For the broadcast coverage, David Muir and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg will contribute reaction and response gathered from the students and faculty of Arizona State University at an ABC News/Facebook town hall.

He has been invited as one of several guests, from a variety of different political persuasions, to engage with a live, studio audience that will be closely following the election results and participating in an online-only discussion and debate to be moderated by David Muir and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg on ABCNews.com and Facebook. We will have other guests, as well as a live studio audience and a large audience on ABCNews.com and Facebook, who can question the guests and the audience’s   opinions.

George Stephanoplous quickly tweeted, “Breitbart NOT on ABC network broadcast http://bit.ly/bgkseJ.” (more…)

Andrew Breitbart

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: A Profile in Media Courage

by Andrew Breitbart

Today James O’Keefe and I had the privilege to go on ABC News’ Good Morning America to launch O’Keefe’s new set of undercover videos – the Census. While most of the feedback email of the contentious segment is running negative against George Stephanopoulos for emphasizing long debunked and retracted smears and for using the word “criminal” throughout the piece, what is missing is an acknowledgment of how courageous Stephanopoulos was to put O’Keefe and me on the air in the first place.


ABC NEWS and Stephanopoulos are not immune from partisan propaganda campaigns to ignore points of view that run counter to their already center-left mainstream media line. In fact, Stephanopoulos himself was the person who delayed the mainstream media’s report on the Clinton/Lewinsky story by stopping Bill Kristol in his tracks on ABC News’ This Week in January, 1998. He was also the political operative who internally attacked ABC News brass for booking former White House FBI agent and New York Times bestseller, Gary Aldrich. Twice Stephanopoulos tried to use his political skills to kill a story.

Today was different. (more…)

Warner Todd Huston

VP Biden Says Obama Plans to ‘Control Insurance Companies’

by Warner Todd Huston

The indispensable Jake Tapper of ABC News took an interview with Vice President Joe “Foot in Mouth” Biden that contains a nugget of information that tends to prove that Barack Obama intends to destroy America’s insurance industry and place it under the full control of the federal government.

Biden

Tapper asked VP Biden what he’d been hearing from the members of the Democrat Congress that are vulnerable over this healthcare debate and Biden’s reply let slip the administrations ultimate goal; full government control of the insurance industry. (My bold)

BIDEN: Well, I yes. Some of them I say they say, well, Joe, look, man, I mean, you know, you guys haven’t massaged this very well. And, you know, this thing has gone on so long, I don’t know. And my response is, hey, man, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I’m telling you, you know, pre-existing, they’re going to be covered. You know we’re going to control the insurance companies.

Granted Joe Biden is the court jester of the Obama Administration. He is a fool of the highest order. It would be easy to dismisshis words. However, the idea that Obama wants to take full federal control of the insurance industry fits quite nicely with Obama’s claims as a candidate — that he was for a single payer plan all along.

(more…)

Jim Hoft

That Didn’t Take Long… ABC Reporter Attacks National Tea Party Convention Leaders During Press Conference

by Jim Hoft

You just knew before this weekend was over that the mainstream media would insert itself into the story.

The presss conference was packed today at the National Tea Party Convention but not everyone acted like they were glad to be there.

The media elites could only sit on their hands for so long. After biting his lip for twenty minutes New York-based ABC reporter John Berman ripped into the National Tea Party Convention leaders at their press conference today.

John was visibly upset after attending former Rep. Tom Tancredo’s speech last night at the conference. Instead of confronting Tancredo, Berman attacked the organizers of the event and demanded they speak for the former representative. Berman also attacked organizer Mark Skoda for not listing the names of the board members of a newly formed organization after Skoda said he would have the names listed by the end of the week… Funny, Berman’s never been this hard on Team Obama?

(more…)

Andrew  Marcus

Eye (Don’t) Witness News – The Lech Walesa Story

by Andrew Marcus

Last week, Nobel Laureate, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, and former president of Poland, Lech Walesa, traveled to Chicago to endorse a political candidate for governor of Illinois.

Who he endorsed doesn’t matter.  The fact that he is here endorsing anyone at all should be considered newsworthy.

Unfortunately for Chicago residents, and the Polish community specifically, if you get your news from the city’s local television stations, you might not have even known that he was in town, let alone that he attended a Tea Party, and endorsed Adam Andrzejewski for governor.


(more…)

Publius

BREAKING: White House Officials to Make Sure ‘Inappropriate’ NEA Conference Call ‘Never Happens Again’

by Publius

‘This is about the election,’ where you’d get into violations of the Hatch Act, it’s not illegal. But it doesn’t look good — it looks terrible. It’s inappropriate.”

Jake Tapper of ABC News:

White House officials say they are enacting specific steps to make sure such a call never happens again.

Today White House officials are meeting with the chiefs of staff of the executive branch agencies to discuss rules and best practices in this area, a conversation during which they will be told that that while White House lawyers do not believe that the NEA call violated the law, “the appearance issues troubled some participants,” Burton said. “It is the policy of the administration that grant decisions should be on the merits and that government officials should avoid even creating the incorrect appearance that politics has anything to do with these decisions.”

After listening to the transcript and the audio posted at the conservative website BigHollywood.Breitbart.com — secretly recorded by Los Angeles filmmaker Patrick Couriellech — Melanie Sloan, executive director of the good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told ABC News that the call was “disturbing.” (more…)

Publius

American Spectator: Big Media Ignores ACORN Scandal

by Publius

From the American Spectator:

ACORN cheer

Here’s the Saturday morning round-up on the Census Bureau story for the formerly mainstream media, checking out their home Web pages:

Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, CBS News, CNN Sucks — story isn’t there. WashPost did run a piece about the Big Government expose’ in DC.

MSNBC, to its credit, posted a link to an AP version of the story near the top of their homepage. Some of the others above have the AP story too, but they don’t headline it on their homepages. This is significant because all the major news organizations have an auto-feed of wire service stories to their sites — MSNBC just took the trouble to link it from their homepage.

Fox News of course has followed the story all along, and the Washington Times ran the AP version.

And kudos to ABC News (top of their homepage) and reporter Jake Tapper. Unlike the other lazy and indifferent bureaus listed above, Tapper stayed on the story doing original reporting, crediting Fox News and Big Government for their scoops, embedded one of James O’Keefe’s YouTube videos in his story, and got a response that no one else did:

(more…)