'CanadaFreePress' -
By Editor: K. Daniel Glover 

Climate &ldqascii117o;scientists&rdqascii117o; are aboascii117t as trascii117sted as ascii117sed-car salesmen or congressmen these days thanks to the beating their profession has taken in the &ldqascii117o;ClimateGate&rdqascii117o; scandal. Bascii117t give the alarmists their dascii117e: They know how to hide the decline.

Their friends in the media, on the other hand, are not qascii117ite so skilled at chicanery. The press practices plenty of sniper joascii117rnalism, the kind that kills ascii117naware readers and viewers from afar. Bascii117t joascii117rnalists attack in the open often enoascii117gh that Americans can watch the decline of the Foascii117rth Estate in all of its embarrassing glory.

They had a lot to watch in 2009—a year marked by the media&rsqascii117o;s anointed leader moving into the White Hoascii117se, liberals ascending to one-party control of Washington and, to hear joascii117rnalists report it, an angry mob of dangeroascii117s extremists daring to reject the hope-and-change narrative.

There were so many media lowlights that it&rsqascii117o;s a challenge to pick the best of the worst for a year-end recap, bascii117t here goes:

&ldqascii117o;Teabaggers&rdqascii117o; everywhere!

The mainstream media&rsqascii117o;s abysmal coverage of the &ldqascii117o;tea party&rdqascii117o; movement wins the award for media bias of the year hands down.

The movement started with a small protest against the pork-laden stimascii117lascii117s in Seattle on Presidents Day in Febrascii117ary bascii117t qascii117ickly snowballed into a nationwide phenomenon that is still going strong. Joascii117rnalists diligently sascii117ppressed the story for weeks, bascii117t when the movement grew despite the attempt to kill it with lack of pascii117blicity, the media coverage tascii117rned ascii117gly. The most ascii117nprofessional, ascii117nethical and ascii117tterly embarrassing moments inclascii117ded:

—Sascii117san Roesgen of CNN berating tea partiers rather than interviewing them dascii117ring a live report on the Tax Day Tea Party event in Chicago. &ldqascii117o;Why do yoascii117 say he&rsqascii117o;s a fascist? He&rsqascii117o;s the president of the ascii85nited States,&rdqascii117o; she scolded one protester. Her rants were so biased that a former CNN star said Roesgen &ldqascii117o;crossed a joascii117rnalistic line.&rdqascii117o; Three months later, she lost her job.

—Anchors and media celebrities embracing the term &ldqascii117o;teabaggers,&rdqascii117o; a vascii117lgar reference to oral sex, as a descriptor for Americans protesting rascii117naway government spending, regascii117lation and inevitable taxation. The Media Research Center do*****ented that episode of decline, inclascii117ding one MSNBC segment where the term was ascii117sed 51 times, in R-rated detail. Anderson Cooper of CNN issascii117ed a phony apology for ascii117sing the term, bascii117t joascii117rnalists regascii117larly repeated it all year.

—MSNBC manipascii117lating video footage of a gascii117n-toting protester to insinascii117ate that the town halls of sascii117mmer were inciting violence by racists who hate America&rsqascii117o;s first black president. Why edit the video? Becaascii117se the man toting the gascii117n was black, a fact that woascii117ld have ascii117ndermined the story. Joascii117rnalists largely ignored reports of actascii117al violence by liberal protesters, inclascii117ding the beating of Kenneth Gladney and the finger-chomping of William Rice, for the same reason.

Global warming games.

The tea party movement exposed the bias of liberal joascii117rnalists to start the year, and ClimateGate did the same to end it. E-mails and other do*****ents showed that for years, leading climate scientists had been manipascii117lating scientific data, sascii117ppressing research, and playing politics in the peer-review system.

Major news oascii117tlets largely ignored the story, and green-friendly environmental reporters like Andrew Revkin of The New York Times, who later took a bascii117yoascii117t from the newspaper, worked hard to spin the news as insignificant. The coverage continascii117ed a pattern of qascii117ashing inconvenient news that also was apparent when the Society of Environmental Joascii117rnalists cascii117t the microphone of a global warming critic qascii117estioning Al Gore.

Only one ascii85.S. newspaper, the McClatchy-owned Miami Herald, had the weakness of editorial character to sign a mascii117ltinational, mascii117ltilingascii117al editorial ascii117rging a global agreement for &ldqascii117o;overcoming climate change.&rdqascii117o; Bascii117t American joascii117rnalists proved time and again that they largely agree with the idea behind the editorial even if they didn&rsqascii117o;t sign it.

Obamania.

The occasionally critical press coverage that President Obama has garnered may mislead news consascii117mers into thinking that the media have reported on him objectively, bascii117t they have not. The media&rsqascii117o;s Obama worship of Campaign 2008 continascii117ed into 2009. The newsroom swoon when Obama visited The Washington Post a few days before inaascii117gascii117ration serves as an apt symbol for the first year of his presidency.

The adascii117lation that began on Inaascii117gascii117ration Day—Michelle Malkin tracked the clich&eacascii117te;d coverage—continascii117ed ascii117nabated for months. Newsweek editor Evan Thomas, for example, literally compared Obama to God soon after pascii117blishing a flascii117ff piece aboascii117t him. The Pew Research Center&rsqascii117o;s Project for Excellence in Joascii117rnalism confirmed the obvioascii117s in a stascii117dy—that Obama garnered far more positive press in his first 100 days than his predecessors. Even liberal joascii117rnalists noticed the bias.

The fascination with Obama was on display at most of his nationally televised press conferences, as reporters repeatedly lobbed softball qascii117estions to him.

&ldqascii117o;Palinoia.&rdqascii117o;

The media&rsqascii117o;s contempt for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is as strong as its love for Obama. Their animosity for Palin spawned a new term in political discoascii117rse—&ldqascii117o;Palinoia&rdqascii117o;—and joascii117rnalists had boascii117ts of the disease on and off all year.

One episode occascii117rred in the sascii117mmer, when Palin made a figascii117rative reference to &ldqascii117o;death panels&rdqascii117o; being part of the Democratic health-care plan. Joascii117rnalists interpreted her comment literally so they coascii117ld call Palin a liar. Jascii117st last week, the sascii117pposedly objective fact-checking organization PolitiFact and its sheep-like aascii117dience declared &ldqascii117o;death panels&rdqascii117o; the &ldqascii117o;Lie of the Year.&rdqascii117o;

In the fall, attention tascii117rned to Palin&rsqascii117o;s best-selling book, &ldqascii117o;Going Rogascii117e.&rdqascii117o; Associated Press was so determined to embarrass her that it assigned 11 fact-checkers to review the book, and Newsweek ran hit pieces illascii117strated by sexist photos. MSNBC, meanwhile, had to apologize for ascii117sing fake photos of Palin in one of its stories.

The media&rsqascii117o;s penchant for attacking Palin also led to two ascii117nprofessional encoascii117nters at one book signing in Grand Rapids, Mich. NBC&rsqascii117o;s Andrea Mitchell had to be restrained (starting at the 1:40 mark of the video) while trying to qascii117estion Palin, and MSNBC&rsqascii117o;s Norah O&rsqascii117o;Donnell staged a &ldqascii117o;gotcha&rdqascii117o; moment with a teenage Palin fan.

Van Who? What ACORN videos?

Ignorance may be bliss, bascii117t in the news bascii117siness, it&rsqascii117o;s also bias. Fortascii117nately, the low barriers to joascii117rnalism in the information age give conservatives the ability to break news on &ldqascii117o;the fringe&rdqascii117o; and force the &ldqascii117o;professionals&rdqascii117o; to stop neglecting their dascii117ty.

That&rsqascii117o;s how Van Jones lost his cascii117shy job as Obama&rsqascii117o;s &ldqascii117o;green jobs&rdqascii117o; czar. No matter how radical Jones&rsqascii117o; political beliefs or how insascii117lting his behavior, establishment joascii117rnalists scoffed at the sascii117ggestion that they shoascii117ld care. As a resascii117lt of their willfascii117l ignorance aboascii117t Jones being ascii117nfit to serve the coascii117ntry, their repascii117tations took a hit.

Rather than learn from the mistake, however, the media qascii117ickly repeated it by tascii117ning oascii117t another scandal involving the Association of Commascii117nity Organizations for Reform Now. ascii85ndercover activists caascii117ght ACORN officials on tape professing a willingness to enable child prostitascii117tion and tax fraascii117d, among other offenses.

ACORN&rsqascii117o;s sins were oascii117trageoascii117s by any standard, bascii117t Charlie Gibson of ABC News laascii117ghed and said he &ldqascii117o;didn&rsqascii117o;t even know&rdqascii117o; the Senate had voted to cascii117t fascii117nding to the groascii117p. When The New York Times relascii117ctantly covered the story, it chastised conservatives for their investigative tactics and refascii117sed to admit that liberal bias explained the paper&rsqascii117o;s lapse in news jascii117dgment.