USA Today Prints High School Science Project Report

Using its best resources available, the USA Today chose to print on Tuesday, May 30th a high school science fair project report detailing the causes of global warming. In the process, The Erie Weekly noticed that it made sure to do all of the great things that children do to beef up their reports to make them more effective in the eyes of their peers, such as using incomplete data to draw conclusions and utilizing inference in an entirely illogical manner.

Researchers Sue Kelly and Dan Vergano may have used the research library, pictured above, to draw conclusions about global warming for their USA Today report. The Erie Weekly found that the large graphic, possibly taken directly from posterboards at their local highschool, uses much less data than is contained in the average American secondary school, and was put together with the combined intelligence of two students of a much lower education level. Reports have it that Jimmy Smitdch and Kelly Wendling of Lincoln Highschool, both 8th graders, consulted on the spread "How the greenhouse effect works."

Highlighting the story, following a step by step process detailing how the earth traps heat, is a timeline showing that the current warming is irregular, and directly caused by human industrialization. Conveniently, researchers failed to use all of Earth's history of human existence and its known climate fluctuations (heard of ice ages?) for its graph, leaving off about 30,000 years of interesting details that might make readers think that earth climate fluctuations aren't so irregular. In an act of honesty, USA Today's crack team of researchers at the very least mentioned that their data prior to 1856 is based on scientific estimate, which only further invalidates their handy graph showing climate changes today.

Illustrated further down on the poster, Mars and Venus sit besides Earth in what The Erie Weekly can only assume is an inference to what might happen if you upset your planet's greenhouse gas balance. The USA Today talks about the "runaway greenhouse effect" on Venus and the "drop in greenhouse gas[es]" contributing to the cold temperatures today. A call will be placed to researchers Sue and Dan to let them know that Venus is so close to the sun, and so hot that it doesn't fucking matter what happened to its atmosphere, and that Mars is so far from the sun (therefore cold, Sue and Dan) and so small, that it doesn't even have the planetary mass, let alone volcanic activity (and thus magnetic field) to hold onto and protect an atmosphere, so that doesn't fucking matter either.

Thoughts of Worldly Travel

Travel to faraway lands is planned for this coming Saturday. The Erie Weekly, although dedicated to providing its readers with quality analysis, will be on sabbatical until early June.

Please leave your well-wishes in the comments section, and be sure to check out Joker's, "In My Biased Opinion..." blog, linked on the right.

Bush Sends in Big Guns to Border, Liberal Media Soils Self

Appealing to the interests of an overwhelming majority of Americans, President Bush acted deftly in announcing his plan to send troops to the Mexican border as part of a multi-teired strategy for phasing out the worst illegal immigrants, phasing in the best, and guarding against all of the others.

A poll taken after the plan was announced showed approximately 70% of Americans have a positive opinion of Mr. Bush's ideas.

Liberal media sources seemed to have trouble creating a party-line response to Mr. Bush's plan, waiting for negative comments to form from an expert, or for other negative news to come about.

The front page of CNN.com, for instance, featured many positive stories, posted early in the day, regarding Mr. Bush's plans. Later, some flip-flopping occured, in which the positive stories were pushed aside for more negative fare.

Phone call record collection now takes center stage on CNN.com, the ink yet to dry on the illegal immigration story, as word comes out about a class-action lawsuit (yawn) against the NSA and the organizations wrongly identified by USA Today as having submitted call records.

The Erie Weekly points out that this is a diversionary news story (low on content, high on bluster), about a common occurance (class action lawsuit that holds only symbolic value), about a legal activity (collecting phone records to hunt people who want to murder us), from a liberal source (USA Today), with a clear interest in sullying Mr. Bush's name and office without any facts (3 of the 4 companies cited in the USA Today's rag denied submitting records to the NSA, and the article conveniently failed to mention that the program targeted only long distance calls).

Naturally, CNN and others continue on their path towards trying to decieve the American public, and thier attempts go unchecked, even as President Bush takes positive steps towards protecting our borders.

CNN Bias Alert: Bush Tax Cut Benefits Ignored

Blatently ignoring the positive gains made due to President Bush's tax cuts, CNN continues to its rampage on the perceptions of the American people, hoping most likely to skew the upcoming election in Democrat candidates' favor.

While reporting on the extension of President Bush's tax cuts, CNN was sure to spew information on the disparity in immediate gains between Americans from the lowest income level to the highest ($100 savings annually for the lowest level, $42,000 or so for the highest), what Democrats think about this cherry-picked data, and what they are going to do about it.

Intentionally ommitted is the story of the long term benefits that clearly come from this policy, as accepted by economists and proven by the tax revenue report from the Congressional Budget Office. Steven Moore relates nicely in a WSJ piece the data from the report to the economic principle from which the tax cuts stem, the Laffer Curve.

The benefits of the accepted economic principle on which this tax cut plan is based is made clear in Mr. Moore's article, when describing the results of a June, 2005 CBO report:

"The numbers are an eye-popping vindication of the Laffer Curve and the Bush tax cut's real economic value. Federal tax revenues surged in the first eight months of this fiscal year by $187 billion. This represents a 15.4% rise in federal tax receipts over 2004. Individual and corporate income tax receipts have exploded like a cap let off a geyser, up 30% in the two years since the tax cut. Once again, tax rate cuts have created a virtuous chain reaction of higher economic growth, more jobs, higher corporate profits, and finally more tax receipts."

Failing to display or play any quote or footage of a Republican in support of the cuts is a blatant omission, added to the pile that will form on this blog. Once the summer rolls in, expect The Erie Weekly to form a call-to-action campaign against CNN, to make them aware of their one-sided nature at a time when the American people rely on the American media to be a balanced information source for decision making.

Interested? Send in your legal ideas! Please leave a comment for The Erie Weekly, below.

Opinion Piece: Howie's Manufactured "Deal"

Trickery surrounds the supposedly popular reality TV gameshow "Deal or No Deal", from its marketing to its contestant selection. The Erie Weekly has formed a grand theory regarding this show, and will only publish a brief post to this effect, later returning to the regular fare of political review.

The theory goes something like this:
Howie Mandell and his staff are intent on fooling the American public away from thinking that his show is the most mind-numbing pile of dung ever created in television history, despite the fact that the show consists solely of a person guessing at numbers in order to win money, drawing on little of the intellectual capability of anyone who might be paying attention.

Tools of Howie's trade:
1.) Flashy marketing campaign falsely claiming the show as having "hit" status (The Erie Weekly would like that word defined)
2.) Recordings played to significantly enhance, if not completely fabricate the crowd reactions, played during a show that has a real audience that, if properly encouraged by a good show, would eliminate the need for such a track
3.) Contestants purposely selected for their lack of self control, a failed acting career, and/or have family members with similar characteristics.

Next time you watch, remember three things relating to the above, respectively:

1.) Your friends and co-workers never have asked "Did you see Deal or No Deal last night?!"
2.) You have noticed several times that even the studio audience is completely disinterested in watching Deal or No Deal, hence the clap/shout/excitement track that plays during the show
3.) You find each contestant of Deal or No Deal abrasive for a reason that, until reading this article, has alluded you

Evidence, outside of hearsay, will be accepted by The Erie Weekly for a followup story. Please see The Erie Weekly profile for contact info.

Opinion Piece: CNN Bias Alert

While police officers on capital hill rounded up all the details on Congressman Patrick Kennedy's recent, possibly drunken car crash, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld danced around some tough questions about comments he made to bolster support for the current war in Iraq.

This not only gave The Erie Weekly a chance to add graphics to what is normally a picture-less report, it served as a good reminder for television viewers to pay attention to who delivers their news, and how.

Paula Zahn, reporting on CNN on her nightly news show, continued coverage of a former CIA analyst's questioning of Mr. Rumsfeld regarding the facts of his claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Al Qaeda in Iraq. CNN had the man on Ms. Zahn's program, where she greeting him with uncontrollable smiling, unable to contain her joy as she attempted to question the Rumsfeld critic.

Miss Zahn made clear, verbally before and during the interview, that she regarded the questioning of Mr. Rumsfeld a momentous occasion. Certain that Mr. McGovern's moment in the spotlight was spontaneous, one of her first questions went along the lines of "Were you planning on challenging Mr. Rumsfeld at this speech?"

Beaming, Ms. Zahn fervently consumed Mr. McGovern's answer that he hadn't planned his questioning of Mr. Rumsfeld, despite clearly reading his initial question off of a type-written piece of paper at an event that already featured three protesters dragged from the auditorium after interrupting.

More than satisfied with Mr. McGovern's answer, Ms. Zahn moved on. The standard set with the early, unchallenging question, allowed for a comfy interview for Mr. McGovern.

Reporters like Ms. Zahn, purportedly trying to help viewers understand their country and its happenings, reveal their incompetence in such instances. It was clearly, in this instance, very easy to properly contextualize what occurred during Mr. Rumsfeld's speech, but Ms. Zahn was more interested in distorting it to her own liking. Here there was political gain, and for that such people will abandon their true obligation to you, as Ms. Zahn abandoned the viewer today.

What did she do, and why? She helped CNN improperly portray a planned protest as a spontaneous, glorious moment of revolt, hoping that you too, might wish "follow the crowd" towards a "movement" to her political viewpoint. Ms. Zahn and you, and I, may forget about this particular piece of reporting all together, but CNN and reporters like Ms. Zahn hope that such small distortions, not entirely overt, eventually form a collective accumulation of memories improperly pointing viewers to perceive a political trend.

The Erie Weekly would be hard pressed to pinpoint what the trend is for, but it is definitely against the current administration. It should be said that this sets a dangerous precedent, seeing that fairly presented facts, favoring the government or not, should alone be the tools presented to persuade the American people.

Kudos go to Mr. McGovern, despite Ms. Zahn's deceitful performance. He asked tough questions, planned or not, regarding a tough issue to a tough guy. The Erie Weekly hopes that such reasonable requests for government accountability continue. Speech interruptions and their diversions are an inconvenience, and at times rude, but sometimes necessary to get answers from a dodgy group of government officials.

Post Script:
It should be noted the story behind Congressman Kennedy’s accident, which occurred at 3am and, as CNN reported, happened after Mr. Kennedy was swerving down the road. Congressman Kennedy has denied that alcohol was involved in the incident, but reportedly, he was staggering and told police officers that he was driving hurredly because he was late for a vote in the Senate, which had closed for the evening three hours prior to his accident.

Internet Media E-History: Check Your Bias at the Door

Search expertly through your favorite Internet news outlet and find that you’re a better media watch-person than any talk show personality. Past postings of news events are often kept in virtual perpetuity, making the Internet a treasure trove of archived news documents, and a great source to check one’s historical bias.

The Erie Weekly examined old Internet articles, which will be henceforth referred to as E-History, with the search tool Google in order to advance the idea that media outlets delete old Internet articles, thus covering their tracks. Results showed the quite the opposite; that old news material lingers on the ‘Net.

Leftovers from the daily, weekly, or yearly news cycle seem more prevalent that previously thought. It was the assumption of The Erie Weekly that outlets would simply purge old articles in order to avoid scrutiny, but this was not the case.

The coverage of Hurricane Katrina is a great topic for searching E-History, a widely reported disaster that turned out to be a U.S. television media debacle. What media critics report, and what turned out to be untrue in at least the E-History archives, was that predictions of death were overblown, and that exaggerations of human suffering ran rampant.

Google searches of “Katrina Death Toll” on CNN.com, NYTimes.com, Foxnews.com and MSNBC.com found that the E-History remained, seemingly untouched and relatively balanced. In a historical context, the probing reporting on Katrina in Internet print articles seemed rightful, rather than irresponsible.

Historical perspective can be gained by searching another, oft-mentioned media event: the “Mission Accomplished” aircraft carrier landing of President George W. Bush. Today, the staged event is considered a critic’s punch line and major PR mistake. The uncovered articles revealed a less critical media at the time, a media without the knowledge of missing WMD’s, the oncoming insurgency, or an understanding of the time for U.S. withdrawal.

Note that the tone of the articles on CNN.com and NYTimes.com (referenced at the end of this article) didn’t contain great criticism, and even seemed complicit in Mr. Bush’s victory celebration. By the end of each article, focus was drawn to Mr. Bush’s need to address domestic issues in order to win the 2004 election, far from what one might think was the perspective of outspoken critics today.

All personal political beliefs aside, finding historical context on any newsworthy issue, and how that issue was reported, can only make a U.S. citizen wiser. Republicans, Democrats, liberals and conservatives can all gain from a quick search of E-History to see who said what, and who felt what.

Major organizations have not yet made the deleting of old articles de rigueur, which is to the benefit of the average news consumer. Each additional day that E-History lingers on the Internet means more information for those who care to be expertly informed about the historical reactions to major media events.

Surprise yourself today, as The Erie Weekly did by checking the news of the past, all stored at the Internet user's fingertips, in E-History.

Use the below links to perform your own E-History searches.

Google’s Advanced Search Tool:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

E-History:

A New York Times article analyzing President Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” media moment:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/02/nyt.bumiller/index.html

A cnn.com article reporting on the “Mission Accomplished” landing:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/01/sprj.irq.bush.speech/index.html

A report a month after Hurricane Katrina, now common, with a sobering assessment of the actual dead, with reference to previously high estimates of dead by local officials:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/10/04/Katrina-death-toll1004.html

Randall Robinson’s claims of cannibalism during Hurricane Katrina can still be found on the Internet, and although the statements were retracted, exist as E-History and are left for discussion:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476249/posts

One article found related a story of roving gangs of rapists during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, reported from comments by volunteers:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.impact/index.html

Search of “Nagin 10,000” and his estimates, as well as sites commenting on his performance:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=Nagin+10%2C000