Two Percent of Americans Think Filibuster is a Medical Procedure

John McCaslin from the Washington Times writes:

How many Americans were actually paying attention when the Senate debated the filibuster around the clock? Not too many, it appears.

A majority, 61 percent of Americans, could not define or describe a "filibuster" in their own words, finds a new nationwide survey of 1,000 adults by a Washington-based Polling Company.

And if you think that's bad, Americans' knowledge of the filibuster exceeds their ability to name at least one member -- either by name or department -- of President Bush's Cabinet.

Our favorite findings, however: 4 percent of Americans polled identified filibuster as a medical procedure, 2 percent said it was a sports team, another 2 percent said it was a household appliance, 1 percent said it was a breed of horse, and 1 percent said it was a type of sandwich.

Study: Many Newspapers Do Not Allow Anonymous Sources

A new survey conducted and released by the Associated Press shows that many American newspapers have strict policies prohibiting the use of anonymous sources. One editor said his paper's rules are so strict they would have disqualified Deep Throat as a source.

Read the complete story here.

Media Soft on Bush, Says Conyers

According to a June 3 story on the Broadcasting & Cable website, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, says says big media, especially cable news channels, are giving the Bush Administration a free pass by focusing on celebrity news and other “trivial matter” rather than examining White House policies.

Conyers based his assertion on a new survey of cable news treatment of important or high-profile stories by the Congressional Research Service, which gathers data at lawmakers’ request to help them write bills or prepare for hearings. Conyers used the CRS sampling to charge that cable news outlets gave big play to some inconsequential stories while largely ignoring a lot of news casting Bush Administration policies in a negative light.

For instance, according to the study, April 28 revelations of a British government memo indicating intelligence services had concluded prior to the start of the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction were ignored by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Reports and Anderson Cooper 360, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olberman and Fox’s Big Story. Days later, those same shows were leading or devoting a lot of time to the runaway bride saga.

“All you need to do is turn on the television, open up the paper, or listen to the radio to appreciate the extent our so-called ‘fourth estate’ has fallen,” Conyers complained at a Capitol Hill forum on media coverage attended by some Judiciary Committee Democrats.

“We have turned from breaking stories like Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal to celebrity journalism."

Ingraham: Kerry Voters "Not Regular People"

From Media Matters:

Conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham stated on a June 2 appearance on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor that the 2004 presidential election returns show that "Republicans are clearly connecting with the regular people, where the Democrats are not." She continued, trying to back up her claim by stating that in the election, among those earning between $23,000 and $50,000, President Bush "won by six points in all Americans and 22 points in white middle-class voters."

Apparently, those constituencies who supported Sen. John Kerry in greater numbers than Bush do not qualify as "regular people." While the source for the statistics Ingraham cited is unclear, exit poll data show that these not-so-regular Kerry supporters include voters in the $15,000-to-$30,000 income bracket, among whom Kerry won by 15 percentage points, and African-Americans, who voted for Kerry over Bush by an 8-to-1 margin. Additionally, women, Hispanics, Jews, and gays and lesbians all supported Kerry over Bush, by an overwhelming margin in some cases.

Further, exit poll income data show that Bush's largest margin of victory came from "regular people" making $200,000 or more per year; his second-largest among those making between $150,000 and $200,000; and his third-largest among those making between $100,000 and $150,000. Kerry, meanwhile, won among those making between $30,000 and $50,000 and those making less than $15,000, in addition to those making $15,000 to $30,000.

From the June 2 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

INGRAHAM: Well, I think it's interesting that people like [New York Daily News chairman and publisher Mort] Zuckerman [who wrote a June 2 op-ed suggesting that religious conservatives may hurt the Republican Party] would be saying this now, coming off of an election where President Bush was elected with middle-class support, Bill [O'Reilly, host], from about $23,000 to about $50,000 bracket for annual salary. Bush won by six points in all Americans and 22 points in white middle-class voters. So the Republicans are clearly connecting with the regular people, where the Democrats aren't.

Fair? Balanced? Certainly not accurate.

Oh, and I was really looking forward to it...

A fundraising cruise for the Thomas Moore Law Center was recently cancelled, due to an apparent lack of interest. The "Battle For American Values Fun Cruise" was to feature conservative talk show host and all around irritant Bill O'Reilly. You know you are in for trouble when the organization has to add the word "fun" to the official title of the event.

More on the story here.