This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Pew Research Center
September 4, 2009
In April, 62% of the public approved of Barack Obama's performance as president and 26% disapproved. In August, just four months later, 52% approved of Obama's job performance while 37% disapproved.
Obama's approval rating has declined across nearly all major demographic and political groups: It has fallen 11 points among women and nine points among men; by 12 points among Republicans, 10 points among Democrats and nine points among independents.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 4, 2009
The provocative commercial, which ends with the tag-line "AIDS is a mass murder", aims to young scare people into using condoms by associating the deadly disease with the German dictator.
In the highly-sexualised clip, a couple undress and begin to make love in a dimly-lit bedroom.
But what appears to be a typical, if steamy, advert for perfume or underwear takes a macabre twist when the camera pans to man's face at the moment of climax - revealing him to be
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 4, 2009
The Daily Manab Zamin reported that Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, had admitted at a news conference that the historic landing was part of an "elaborate hoax".
Neither they, nor The New Nation, which also ran the story, realised that The Onion, which also prints a parody newspaper, was not a genuine news site.
The story, which first ran in the US on Monday, said that Armstrong had been convinced by a conspiracy theorist that the Apollo 11
Source: Guardian (UK)
September 3, 2009
The World Wildlife Fund and an ad agency have admitted that a press campaign comparing the loss of life in the New York 9/11 attacks and the Asian tsunami "should never have been made".
The Brazilian press ad, created by local advertising agency DDB Brasil, is called "Tsunami" and uses images of dozens of planes about to crash into New York City skyscrapers to illustrate the scale of the lives lost in the 2004 Asian tsunami.
WWF's ad, which also show
Source: Vanity Fair
September 3, 2009
Within months of J.F.K.’s death, the president’s widow asked William Manchester to write the authorized account of the assassination. He felt he couldn’t refuse her. Two years later, nearly broken by the task, Manchester found himself fighting a bitter, headline-making battle with Jackie and Bobby Kennedy over the finished book. The author chronicles the toll Manchester’s 1967 best-seller, The Death of a President, exacted—physically, emotionally, and financially—before it all but disappeare
Source: CNN
September 3, 2009
Former "Manson Family" member Susan Atkins, who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and now is terminally ill, was denied parole Wednesday, prison officials said.
The parole hearing was the 13th for Atkins, 61, who is battling terminal brain cancer. Held at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California, the hearing stretched to more than nine hours.
The panel set another hearing for Atkins in three years, said Michel
Source: The Art Newspaper
September 1, 2009
Beijing--The director of the Terracotta Army Museum (officially titled the Xi’An Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum) and other officials at the institution denied local media reports that a major discovery of 100 new terracotta warriors has been made.
China’s state news agency Xinhua, and the AFP, reported that archaeologists have found 100 figures in the “number three” excavation pit at the museum’s site in Shaanxi Province, where work started one month ago.
Directo
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
September 3, 2009
This astounding picture purporting to capture a young Adolf Hitler playing chess against Vladimir Lenin 100 years ago has been put up for auction.
Prospective buyers will be taking a huge gamble on the authenticity of the picture, said to have been created in Vienna by the Fuhrer's art teacher, Emma Lowenstramm.
It is titled 'A Chess Game: Lenin with Hitler - Vienna 1909' and the vendors claim the signatures on the back are of the two dictators.
Experts, ho
Source: The Raw Story
September 2, 2009
Political columnist Pat Buchanan is coming under fire for a column arguing that Adolf Hitler didn’t want to launch a European war, and that World War II could have been avoided if Poland had agreed to hand over the city of Gdansk to Germany.
He even appears to have implied that the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened if the Allied powers hadn’t guaranteed Poland’s security.
In his column published Monday by Creators Syndicate, Buchanan wrote:
The Ge
Source: NYT
September 2, 2009
It was long ago, the end of summer in 1949. She was 13. But for Joan Landzberg, the memories will never go away.
Not that Aug. 27, when a scheduled concert by the singer Paul Robeson was canceled after a terrifying attack by dozens of men swinging clubs and folding chairs, making bonfires out of sheet music. Not the night of Sept. 4, when she left the rescheduled concert lying flat on the bed of a pickup, other frightened children lying on top of her, as mobs threw bricks and rocks.
Source: New York Post
September 3, 2009
While Coney Island's future remains murky, a group of local commercial divers are bringing a piece of its glorious past back to the surface.
The divers discovered a massive brass bell that was rung in bygone days at the old Dreamland Park whenever passengers left or arrived by steamboat at its once-bustling amusement pier.
They plan to tow the 500-pound bell -- which sank to the ocean floor with the rest of the grand iron pier during the great 1911 Dreamland fire -- to
Source: Reuters
September 2, 2009
BEERSHEBA, Israel (Reuters) – Researchers in Israel say they have developed a computer program that can decipher previously unreadable ancient texts and possibly lead the way to a Google-like search engine for historical documents.
The program uses a pattern recognition algorithm similar to those law enforcement agencies have adopted to identify and compare fingerprints.
But in this case, the program identifies letters, words and even handwriting styles, saving historia
Source: Yahoo News
September 1, 2009
The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.
Source: Taegan Goddard's Political Wire
September 3, 2009
Contrary to assertions made by David Brooks, President Obama has had the second greatest rate of decline in approval, reports Charles Franklin.
"Clinton did worse, falling at a monthly rate of 2.3 points. If you look back to the first figure, you see that Clinton fell faster and further, but then rebounded a bit at the end of the summer, making his net change a little smaller (-14) but his overall rate of decline a bit steeper. Obama's chart shows two phases, an initial shallo
Source: Catholic News Service
August 31, 2009
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A German cardinal said his country will not achieve full reconciliation with neighboring Poland until both nations recognize the grievances of millions of civilians who lost everything in deportations during and after World War II.
"We should remember the present generation doesn't carry the blame for these events, but bears responsibility for them," said Berlin Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky.
"The challenge of approaching others withou
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
September 3, 2009
Britain has been accused of 'bare-faced lies' over the Lockerbie bomber's release which will damage its special relationship with the US for years.
Gordon Brown faced a backlash at home and abroad after it was confirmed that the Libyans had been told privately that he did not want Abdelbaset Al Megrahi to die in jail.
And the Foreign Office was accused of tearing up a 'cast-iron' promise given to the Americans and the United Nations a decade ago that the terrorist - r
Source: Fox News
September 1, 2009
It's no secret that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been gauging how Sen. Edward Kennedy's death affects the health care debate.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave an unusually blunt assessment in an interview with a local newspaper.
"I think it's going to help us," the Nevada Democrat told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Democrats generally have used Kennedy's death as a rallying cry for health care reform, urging their colleagues t
Source: CNSNews.com
September 1, 2009
A letter written by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 1971 reveals that he then opposed abortion and supported giving rights to the unborn.
“While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life,” Kennedy wrote on Aug. 3, 1971 in response to a letter sent to him by Thomas E. Dennelly, wh
Source: NYT
September 1, 2009
The Turkey-Armenia border, closed for more than 15 years, will be opened to trade once diplomatic relations are established, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Tuesday...The protocols also call for the formation of an international history commission to study the Armenian genocide, the central dispute between the countries.
Source: NPR
September 2, 2009
There was no doubt that Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts had died if anyone listened to NPR in the days after his death late on Aug. 25 from brain cancer. Between Aug. 26 and 30, NPR ran 53 stories.
Before Kennedy even died, NPR had 7 in-depth stories already prepared, according to David Sweeney, NPR's managing editor. "From shortly after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, we worked up a list of stories both for the air and online," said Sweeney. "We also worked
