Here’s a shocker regarding Jesse Jackson’s latest publicity opportunity, the case the 60’s throwbacks commonly known as “reporters” nostalgically dubbed the “Jena 6,” from Craig Franklin, writing in the Christian Science Monitor:

JENA, LA. - By now, almost everyone in America has heard of Jena, La., because they’ve all heard the story of the “Jena 6.” White students hanging nooses barely punished, a schoolyard fight, excessive punishment for the six black attackers, racist local officials, public outrage and protests – the outside media made sure everyone knew the basics.
There’s just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice.
I should know. I live in Jena. My wife has taught at Jena High School for many years. And most important, I am probably the only reporter who has covered these events from the very beginning.
The reason the Jena cases have been propelled into the world spotlight is two-fold: First, because local officials did not speak publicly early on about the true events of the past year, the media simply formed their stories based on one-side’s statements – the Jena 6. Second, the media were downright lazy in their efforts to find the truth. Often, they simply reported what they’d read on blogs, which expressed only one side of the issue.

Are we really supposed to believe these statements? The media, that herd of independent thinkers, assuming facts not in evidence and trying to shoe horn an event into their preconceived notions about the racist country they are so unfortunate to inhabit? And too lazy to find out the truth? C’mon, Mr. Franklin!

In all seriousness, for years I have asked whether our friends in the so-called MSM (mainstream media, so-called because these chardonnay-sipping, arugula-munching, Volvo-driving elitists are anything but) are politically-motivated or lazy, or both. I have concluded that while individuals may fall into one category or the other, in general, the answer is both.

Here we go again: the Duke lacrosse story all over again. Most of us realized that this whole thing was baloney from the git-go, for no other reason than it was based on the suggestion that high school students are sufficiently aware of American history to understand the consequences of hanging nooses on trees. Get real. The democrats in Congress may be obsessed with events from 1915, but ask most high school students about anything that happened before Bill Clinton’s second term and you’ll see a look more vacant than Rosie O’Donnell’s exercise log.

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The Husband doesn’t know what’s about to hit him when he gets home. I don’t know whether to warm up the rolling pin or put a cot in the garage or both. Why is he in the doghouse? Because of his failure to bring me romantic gifts, of course! I got to thinking about that after reading this AP story “Clinton Talks of Bill’s Romantic Gifts.” No, I’m not making this up. It gets better than even that headline suggests the. Check this out:

Hillary Rodham Clinton says husband Bill often brings her romantic gifts: a giant wooden giraffe from an African trip, for example, and a Chanel watch that reminded him of teeth.

“Oh he’s so romantic,” the former first lady said in an interview for the November issue of Essence magazine. “He’s always bringing me back things from his trips.”

I don’t doubt that last statement. Herpes: it’s the gift that keeps on giving. And a giant wooden giraffe, too? What could be more romantic than that? Perhaps a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Oh wait …

And the Husband has never come close to anything as romantic as a watch that reminds him of my teeth. He’s never once brought me a present that shows how fondly he regards my chompers, or even shows that he’s thinking of them. I have to confess, I’ve never heard of any guy giving his beloved a romantic gift involving dental health, but then Bill Clinton has been known to has a special place in his heart for things oral, no?

Here’s the best part of this silly AP story:

“While sticking it out might not be for everyone, Mrs. Clinton said women should support each other in the choices they make in their marriages.

“I think it’s so important for women to stand up for the right of women to make a decision that is best for them,” she said.”

“While sticking it out might not be for every one? “ Are you kidding me? It’s clear that the AP writer has decided to throw in the towel and concede the obvious political agenda behind this silly article and go for the innuendo-based humor. (Shades of the Bill and Hill’s beach dance right before the Monica Lewinsky story hit.) Ok, I’ll bite, and no, that’s not an invitation for Bill Clinton to send me any teeth-themed gifts. Yes, Hillary, “sticking it out” might not be for everyone, but it seems to work for your old man, at least it did when he was in the Oval Office with his pants down around his ankles.

The writer’s succumbing to the irresistible impulse to mock Hillary and her attempt to convince the hopelessly gullible that she and Bill have a real marriage isn’t the really interesting part of that paragraph. The interesting part is the senator’s attempt to spin her willingness to tolerate the repeated humiliation inflicted on her by her zipper-challenged husband as an example of feminist empowerment. You thought her “sticking it out” with Bill despite his incessant cheating was about her bottomless pit of ambition that makes eating the excrement he served up year after year seem not only tolerable, but dare I say delicious. No, no, no. It’s all about a woman’s “right to choose,” and if you are for women’s rights, you’ll be all for it. Nice try, Hillarita, but most of us think standing up begins at home.

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Of all the evidence that America is a great country, my favorite is the fact that one of the richest people in human history is a woman who could not pass Economics 101 at gunpoint. Of course, you know I refer to the Oprah. Don’t get me wrong. When she sticks to interviewing Hallie Berry or some other half-wit actress, or invites her gay decorator guy on the show to show a “before and after” on some run-down house that won’t sell, she does a fine job. But she needs to leave the serious public policy discussions alone. She’s a former news reader, not a policy expert, for God’s sake, and anytime she tries to talk about anything serious, it really, really shows. About 18 months ago, she did a program about the minimum wage that left no doubt about her breathtaking ignorance about the free enterprise system that made it possible for her to earn $260 million last year. Click here to see the Oprah, Morgan Spurlock aka Michael Moore, Junior and some union babe talking about the shamefully low minimum wage being “why New Orleans happened,” but if you do and you lose your lunch, don’t say I didn’t warn you. As the clip ends, you’ll see Mr. Super Size Me repeat the mantra of his role model, the Round Mound Whose Lies Astound, Michael Moore, that “the number one cause of bankruptcy isn’t credit cards, it’s health care.”

But why have the pretender when you can have the real thing? I’m sure that’s what was in Oprah’s head last week when she invited serial liar Michael Moore on her show for the second time to shill for his latest crockumemtary “Sicko.” Over and over during the show, the Oprah repeated that no matter what you think of Michael Moore, the movie is “something every American must see,” an “eye-opening documentary.” That’s not exactly the phrase I would use to describe it, but then, unlike the Oprah, I’m not a cheerleader for the Left’s Leading Lying Lardsack. “Sicko” isn’t the first Michael Moore “masterpiece” (“masterpiece” being a synonym for what my dog left for me to pick up on the parkway during our afternoon walk) that Oprah has promoted. She also gave the “courageous” filmmaker a platform to sell his false and misleading anti-freedom and anti-American film, “Bowling for Columbine.” No matter what you think of Michael Moore? What if I think, accurately, that he’s a lying phony who spews left-wing propaganda? Or doesn’t that matter? Must this woman continually insult my intelligence? Perhaps if you watch the show, you’re asking for that. Fair enough, but sorry Oprah fans. If, after the whole James Frey “A Million Little Pieces” debacle, you thought she was concerned about the truth and not misleading her audience by promoting lies, you thought wrong. Based on her continuing support of Michael Moore, it’s clear that her turnaround on Frey’s phony memoir was less about the truth and more about her fear that letting Frey promote lies as truth was damaging her brand. Why Moore’s lies are different is a mystery. Perhaps it’s because, as Oprah explained, Michael Moore got her to see issue of health care in a whole new way, and to understand that socialism is a good thing after all. See above re Oprah’s affliction with EIS (Economics Ignoramus Syndrome.) It’s ironic that she could go to Auschwitz with Ellie Weisel and then herself become a tool of another Big Lie.

Last week’s hour featuring Moore and entitled “Sick in America: It Can Happen to You,” was billed as a “debate” on “the health care crisis.” In fact, it was a bizarre and nauseating spectacle, Queen for a Day meets Democrat party talking points, featuring a series of mascots telling their tear-jerking stories, interspersed with Moore’s pro-socialist propaganda, greeted with delight from the Oprah.

The parade of victims started with, the retired steel worker/media swoon maker, Steve Skvara, who asked “what’s wrong with America?” in that democrat debate. After they showed the clip that made him an overnight media star, he appeared live, in-studio, shedding tears to thunderous applause.

Then some German professor from Princeton stated that Americans need to get over “a mental disease that is rampant in America and that is that you get up in the morning and hate your government. You’re the only people who do that. Most other nations have no problem asking government for help where the private sector cannot do it. And that’s what we need to do. We need to overcome our hang-ups about government. Listen to the candidates and how many of the candidates run down our government. I always say I’ve got a solution for you, a one-way ticket to Afghanistan. Then you’ve got a country without a government. Enjoy.” No, instead why don’t just turn our country into a European-style socialist hellhole like the place you loved so much that you moved here, Professor. We’re the only people who hate the government? Are you sure about that? Have you spoken to anyone in Cuba lately? I’m thinking of some of the people who survived Fidel’s dirt-floored jails, featuring daily beatings, starvation and other similar …shall we say …inconveniences. I say inconvenience because I’ve seen “Sicko,” so I know that sort of repression doesn’t matter because Cuba has a terrific health care system, and it’s all free to those lucky enough to survive living in Cuba in the first place.

The show also featured the following:

o A 300-pound man lamenting the problems with our health care system. Are you kidding me? Hey, Tubby, the annual tab for obesity-related diseases exceeds $100 billion a year. I would love to have seen Oprah’s bud Dr. Oz come out there and tell Michael Moore that the cure for a lot of the diseases people suffer in America (adult-onset diabetes springs to mind)is a big healthy dose of get off your ass. Given that fact, Michael, I think we’re pretty safe in assuming that you are not the best authority on how to fix what might be wrong with our health care system. Michael, how about fixing yourself first?

o A woman with more money than God asking “do you fundamentally believe that the child of a gas station attendant and the child of an investment banker deserve the same health care?” Here we go again. Let’s set the hackneyed “for the children” demagoguery aside for a minute. I have a different question for the Oprah: does a gas station attendant deserve to have several large estates, unlimited expensive clothes and jewelry, private jets, servants waiting on him hand and foot, and any other material riches the world has to offer like Oprah has? If not, why not?

o Michael Moore lecturing us on what would Jesus do, explaining the government-run health care shouldn’t be called “socialized medicine,” but rather “Christianized medicine.” The ACLU’s going to love that! They are apoplectic at the thought of a nativity scene on public property, but I’m sure they’ll have no problem with government-funded health care being justified by Christianity. Can we know conclude that Michael Moore doesn’t believe in the Left’s precious “separation of Church and State?” I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that the Oprah didn’t ask him that question.

And who did the Oprah invite on the show to respond to this crock of baloney? An articulate spokesperson for the free market, explaining that the problem isn’t insurance companies, but third-party payment? Someone who was willing to confront Michael Moore with the distortions and lies in his silly movie? Someone who would tell the audience about the guy in Great Britain who couldn’t have eye surgery until he went blind in at least one eye, and the other horror stories in places with “free” government-run health care? I’m afraid not, kids. Instead, we got Karen Ignagni, President, America’s Health Insurance Plans, your typical, circumspect, pinch-faced, neutered corporate PR talking head type, more concerned about not offending anyone or appearing to be “mean” than she was about making sure the audience got the truth. She opened her presentation by conceding that Michael Moore is right about the fact that everyone in America must have health insurance. You would say that, Karen. You’re more concerned with damage control and keeping the government from destroying your lucrative business than you are with fixing the problems in the system. The obvious fix is to let the person getting the service pay for the service. The problem isn’t free enterprise or profits, no matter how often the “courageous” Michael Moore repeats that foolish claim. The problem is the golden rule. No, not THAT golden rule. The one that says he who has the gold makes the rules; that is, if someone else pays the bill, that person or entity will have the right to make the choices about how the money is spent. Does anyone seriously believe that the federal government will be a more benevolent, compassionate decision maker than the demonized insurance companies, particularly when the federal government has a monopoly on your medical decisions? Yes, as it turns out, someone does, and sadly, it’s the Oprah.

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