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Sen. John Kerry misspoke, but the fact remains that our military specifically targets those for whom college is not an option, says The Nation.
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The National Review Online says it would be easier to buy Sen. John Kerry's apology if his recent remarks weren't part of a trend.
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(CBS)Jim Stewart, a correspondent at CBS News for more than 16 years, announced his retirement from CBS News last month and Friday was his last day in the office. Before he left, he agreed to be this week's "10 Plus 1" subject. We also spoke to him earlier about his time at CBS News covering the Pentagon, the Justice Department and everything in between (we're considering that his "plus 1.") So here"s one more chance to read about his experiences as a journalist of 37 years. What do you do at CBS News?I am a correspondent assigned to cover the the Justice department, the FBI and counter-terrorism.What single issue should be covered more at CBS News?There is no single issue that should be covered more at CBS News. I think that I would like to see more beat reporting at CBS News. I think I would like to see us be more inquisitive and critical of government decisions and I think you can do that best by having someone immersed in a beat who closely watches it every day and comes to know it as well as the people who work there.Give us a great behind the scenes story.Well, I could get sued if I told some of the stories... In the news media, you get to see behind the scenes all the time, it's like watching sausage made. It"s not pretty sometimes. When you pursue any journalism, especially on a national scale, you're behind the scenes every day because you are the first author of history. You're writing what we think we just saw; what we think we just heard and you are behind the scenes for that. You are there during the half hour before the press conference starts and you see the aides running crazily trying to gather facts for the defense secretary or the president or the attorney general or whomever it may be. Every day is a behind the scenes experience on history.Have you ever been assigned a story you objected to? How did you deal with it?I would be asked to do stories all the time both in print and in broadcast media that I thought didn't rise to the level of being a national story. I felt it was just a waste of our time to report it. But I did the stories, in any event, convinced that the viewing public was smart enough to realize that this was just a snapshot of something and nothing to really be upset or concerned or worried about. The public is smarter than we think.
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(CBS/AP)Think you've seen enough articles about the potential of YouTube getting sued? Make room for one more. Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corp., whose Web site is . wait for it. utube.com, is a company with 17 employees that sells "used machines that make tubes." (I don"t know either.) Which is why they"re sort of peeved that they received, oh, about 68 million hits on their Web site in August. In all likelihood, those visitors weren"t interested in purchasing used machinery of any kind. So utube is suing YouTube because, well, all those people who are seeking clips of Borat shopping for cheese are shutting down the site. Utube is asking that YouTube either stop using the address Youtube.com, or pay the company's cost of getting a new domain name.
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(AP)On Saturday, "48 Hours" ran a story about the 2003 murder of Elli Perkins, a murder that her 28-year-old son Jeremy confessed to committing. Jeremy had been hallucinating and behaving erratically before his mother's death, but his parents, devout Scientologists, resisted giving him psychiatric treatment. As "48 Hours" notes, "[s]ome pro-Scientology materials declare that psychiatrists are not only useless, but evil - their medications nothing but poisons." The Perkins' opted to medicate their son primarily with vitamins. The Scientology community was not happy with the story, which raised the possibility that Elli Perkins might not have been murdered had her son been given psychiatric treatment. The group refused to provide "48 Hours" with an official spokesman and began taking action to influence the broadcast. "They hit us with numerous e-mails and there were some people at CBS or at '48 Hours' who they knew personally, and so there were some personal requests made as well," says CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason. One of the primary complaints from Scientologists was that CBS News has a conflict of interest in covering the story, since the network counts pharmaceutical companies among its advertisers. The argument was that since these companies make anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs, CBS News wanted to promote them - and that this story was one way to do that. Mason disputes this argument. "Nothing could be further from the truth," she says. "At CBS the sales department and the news department - there is a Chinese wall between them. And we just don't cross. And we've done numerous stories on the ill effects of drugs of various sponsors that are on CBS." After the broadcast aired, Mason estimates that CBS News received "more than 500 letters from scientologists saying that we had been unfair."
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Just yesterday, Charlie Cook updated his race rankings. I have to say, I think he might have jumped the shark. Reading Cook has felt to me like watching one of my favorite sitcoms. Maybe a bit like Seinfeld: his trajectory...
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The same Baltimore Sun survey that showed Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich closing to within one point of Martin O'Malley shows Michael Steele pulling to within six points of Ben Cardin. There is good and bad news for each side in...
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Keith Olbermann's arrogance and pomposity have reached unbelievable heights this year. But he sets a new bar with this ten minute rant against President Bush (and John McCain) and in defense of John Kerry's "botched joke" from the other day....
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There is a little bit of clarity creeping into the Battle for the Senate. Today we have moved four races: three toward the Democrats and one towards the GOP. (View the changes on RCP's Senate summary page which you can...
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Bubba was in town for Harold Ford, Jr. yesterday: "You know what it will mean if Harold gets elected on Tuesday," Clinton said. "It won't mean what all those columnists and commentators say. It won't mean that it's a victory...
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Larry Sabato came out with predictions today: Dems take control of the House picking up 27 seats and also grab control of the Senate with a 6-seat pick up (RI, PA, OH, MT, OH, VA)....
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(CBS/AP)For anyone unfortunate enough to live in one of the "battleground" states or "hotly contested" congressional districts, Tuesday"s elections probably can"t come soon enough. Being a resident of Virginia, and part of the Washington media market, I"ve seen so many ads for George Allen, Jim Webb, Ben Cardin and Michael Steele that I"ve come to really appreciate the creative genius of the Budweiser frogs. Alas, the ad blitzes we"re subjected two every two years are a permanent part of our democratic fabric and still the primary tool by which campaigns sell themselves to the electorate. As distasteful and pervasive as they are, we can"t really just ban political ads anymore than we can get rid of the Geico "Caveman" commercials (amusing yes, but only the first twenty times you see them). There is another annoying element of campaigns, however, that we could do something about - polls. More to the point, our obsession with the daily ups-and-downs of the horse race polls. Public opinion polling, like Election Day exit polls, have an important role in our understanding of the nation"s political pulse. What issues do Americans care about, what are their positions on the great questions of the day, which courses of actions do we favor? A real examination of these things can enlighten our understanding and help us understand where we"re headed. But, just as exit polls have been touted as early indicators of winners and losers (more on that issue to come) on Election Day, our pre-election polls are used like Las Vegas betting lines.
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It'll never happen, of course, but there's no harm in hoping: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's lead over his main rival ahead of the Dec. 3 presidential election narrowed in October to 4 percentage points in polling by Caracas-based public opinion...
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Who knew Keith Olbermann had so many fans? Here's a sampling from today's inbox: Mr. Bevan, Spare us. The "millions" who took Kerry's comment at face value and were subsequently offended by it, are almost certainly comprised mostly of the...
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DFL-er Mike Hatch holds a small lead over incumbent Republican Tim Pawlenty in the hotly contested race for Minnesota Governor. I would have loved to have seen the look on Hatch's face when he heard that his running mate Judi...
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Media Alert: I will be on The O'Reilly Factor and the FOX Report tonight to discuss the state of play in the Battle for the Senate and the House....
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A new University of New Hampshire poll has some very ominous news for NH Republicans. In the new survey, incumbent Republican Charlie Bass in NH2 is down 8 points to Democrat Paul Hodes, which is an 18-point decline from the...
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Abstinence message is correct approach Linda Trzyna - Williamsville, N.Y. USA TODAY's report Abstinence message now goes beyond teens begs the question: Why is abstinence often condemned as a solution to unwanted pregnancy and the spread of diseases (News, Tuesday)?...
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Enjoying Halloween is no sin Chris Sage - Toms River, N.J. I truly had to snicker as I read about holy Halloween (Some churches rejecting occult for 'holy' Halloween, News, Tuesday). I can remember the heydays of having Halloween parties...
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Races show America is losing its way Bob Jorth - Kalamazoo, Mich. As we come upon another election, it is clear that our electoral process has devolved into simple competition — a winner-take-all mentality that has produced the most divided...
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Another WWII film, another open wound By Yvonne Latty More than 700 African-American Marines served on Iwo Jima in World War II, running ammunition to the front lines and burying the dead, among other harrowing duties. These men, in addition...
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Newspapers: Election advice or kingmaking? Plain Talk by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY founder EUREKA, S.D. — Between now and Tuesday, all across the USA, you're in for a media barrage of late pre-election news and views. Especially from many newspapers...
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Kerry flap sparks renewed Iraq debate South Florida Sun-Sentinel, in an editorial: (Democratic Sen. John) Kerry says he was trying to make a joke about (President) Bush earlier this week when he said that people who don't succeed in school...
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Opposing view: Threat is exaggerated ‘Leaks’ to reporters are common even without federal shield law. By Randall D. Eliason Supporters of a federal shield law claim the proposed statute is necessary to encourage confidential sources to come forward and to...
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Our view on the federal shield law: Writers find scandal, face jail Why should public service be rewarded with prison time? For more than a decade, baseball was awash in rumors of players bulking up on steroids and other performance-enhancing...
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