Rightwing media working overtime to promote dishonest teabagger

National rightwing radio and TV hosts have been working overtime in a vain attempt to pump up Congressman John Dingell’s teabagger opponent, but it is doing little good, other than to stroke his already large ego, because the Dean of the U.S. House still has a 19 point lead.

Frank Beckman, one of the most biased commentators in Michigan, had to get in on the act, and in his Detroit News column he says Dingell should apologize to the dishonest Rob Steele for a web site the Michigan Democratic Party put up about Steele. The only problem with that ridclious demand is that the web site is 100 percent true, and they have nothing to apologize about. Not only that, why isn’t he asking Steele to take down and apologize for the web site attacking Dingell?

The gist of Beckman’s column seems to be people who run for political office get criticized, so Dingell should apologize. Gee, that’s only happened in this race. The fact is George Washington endured so-called attack ads, and I wonder where he was when a Dingell townhall meeting was disrupted and he was disrespected by teabaggers?

Beckman claims “Dems stoop to new low in Dingell race” for pointing out the fact that Steele is out of torch with the struggles working people are going through, and we really know almost next to nothing about this guy.

Beckman writes:

“Dr. Steele happens to be a successful cardiologist who estimates that he has performed more than 15,000 cardiac catheterization procedures. In addition, he proudly says he runs a medical practice, which includes 36 physicians and about 300 employees with seven permanent, and two satellite offices in five different counties. At the anti-Steele website, the doctor is excoriated as a "rich doctor who made millions off the broken health care system," never mind the lives that he's saved and the large number of families that have benefited.”

That entire statement is true. Steele is rich doctor who made millions off the broken health care system. Why didn’t Beckman, Steele or Steele’s supporters talk about all the pro-bono work Steele has done, or the free clinic he has started? Because there is none of that.

His clinic’s payment policy really says it all: “Payment is expected at time of service for Entire balance when there is no insurance coverage.”

There is nothing wrong with making lots and lots of money, but the argument from Steele and his supporters is that Dingell must go because he’s out of touch because of his age and because he has been in office so long. Dingell did something about the 50,000 million Americans who don’t have health care coverage. Steele had a chance to help a few people with no coverage, and he chose not to.

Beckman goes on to say the heath care system wasn’t broken for people who were treated. “Didn't MSU football coach Mark Dantonio and his excellent physicians at Sparrow Hospital benefit from the "broken health care system"?
“And didn't Congressman Dingell benefit from the "broken health care system" with the surgeries that he has endured to repair his aging body in recent years?”

Aside from Beckman’s attack on Dingell’s age, he and Dantonio have excellent health insurance coverage, and Dingell wants people to have the same kind of quality converge he has. Now, if Dantonio and Dingell had to go out and buy coverage on the individual market they can forget about it because they have a pre-existing condition. The good news is that was before the health care insurance reform bill was passed.

Right-wingers twist a champion’s words and hope people are stupid

Republicans and those on the right are hoping people are stupid.

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, has been fighting for health care insurance reform since he was elected to Congress in 1955, as did his father before him. He appeared on rightwing radio station WJR on the show hosted by Paul W. Smith, who on occasion subs for rightwing hatemonger and soon-to-Costa Rica native Rush Limbaugh.
In that long and partisan interview, Dingell was responding to a loaded question on why it will take so long to cover 32 million of the 50 million Americans who are uninsured, and he made the mistake of using three unfortunate words that the right took out of context. Already it has made it around the rightwing media and blogsphere like a shot.

Those words: “control the people.”

Now, anyone with half a brain knows that he meant it will take until 2014 to properly administer the program and pay for it, but rightwing, anti-government types that see a conspiracy around every corner are hoping you will take their word for it.

Don’t because, as usual, they are lying.

Listen to it yourself, and you will see they are full of hot air, among other things.

Update: The next day Congressman Dingell clarified his comments on a show hosted by right-winger Frank Beckman, and said he was talking about the people administering the program.

Climate change deniers have more to distort to deny a scientific fact

Global climate change deniers have some more evidence to deny the scientific fact of man-made climate change after climate scientists blew the whistle on themselves.

In a front page AP story in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus on Thursday that did not appear in the online version, errors were discovered in a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N.-affiliated body. “All the mistakes appear in a subsection that suggests glaciers in the Himalayas could melt away by the year 2035” instead of 2350, that number was apparently transposed as 2035.

The mistakes were found not by climate change deniers, but by climate scientists themselves, including one who is an IPCC co-author. “The climate panel and even the scientist who publicized the errors said they are not significant in comparison to the entire report, nor were they intentional. And they do not negate the fact that worldwide, glaciers are melting faster than ever.”

Here is the bottom line people like right-wing radio host Frank Beckman will ignore, “However, a number of scientists, including some critics of the IPCC, said the mistakes do not invalidate the main conclusion that global warming is without a doubt man-made and a threat.”

The errors were found in a half-page section of the Asia chapter in the 838 page report.

"It is a very shoddily written section," said Graham Cogley, a professor of geography and glaciers at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada, who brought the error to everyone's attention. "It wasn't copy-edited properly."

Still, Cogley said: "I'm convinced that the great bulk of the work reported in the IPCC volumes was trustworthy and is trustworthy now as it was before the detection of this mistake." The AP said “a number of scientists pointed out that at the end of the day, no one is disputing the Himalayan glaciers are shrinking.”

This mistake comes just a few months after climate change deniers jumped on 13 years of stolen personal emails to take one word out of context and ignore all the data from other agencies, like NASA, to make their case that climate change is a hoax.

Bishop condones and encourages angry mobs

If there was any doubt that the disruptive, rude and intimidating behavior at townhall meetings is being caused by the lies and scripts provided by rightwing lobbying groups and Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop just confirmed it.

Bishop appeared on righting talk show host Frank Beckman’s show last week and condoned the angry mobs who have been disrupting and hijacking the townhall meetings of Democratic members of Congress, spurred on the lies and scripts provided by the health insurance lobby, rightwing lobbying groups and Republicans. Bishop went even farther by suggesting the angry mobs go after Gov. Granholm if the solution to the estiamnted $2.8 billon budget shortfall includes any sin tax increases.

With this Bishop involved, you know why budget negotiations are going so slow. The Governor, the Speaker of the House and Bishop are currently in closed door negotiations over the state budget. Part of the negotiations includes a number of rumored proposals to raise revenue to close some of that gap.

It’s obvious that bullying and intimidation is a favorite Bishop tactic. Just last week he officially justified the assault by Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, on 72-year-old Sen. Irma Clark-Coleman, D-Detroit.

Michigan Democratic Chair Mark Brewer called Bishop out of those tactics, and pointed out that mob mentality and brawling are common themes with Bishop, recalling the brawl he was involved in on Mackinac Island a few years ago.

“We need to be having civil discussions on health care as we move toward reform,” Brewer said. “Condoning this mob behavior is despicable, but then again it’s coming from Mike Bishop, a practitioner of such tactics.”

You may recall that back in 2003 Bishop suffered a concussion, a chipped tooth, a facial cut requiring stitches and a battered nose after Bishop climbed into a horse-drawn taxi and told Aaron Kirk’s companion that she was too good to be with Kirk. Bishop admitted to telling Kirk’s companion, "You ladies ought to think twice about who you go out with at night. Police said that both combatants had been drinking, and that Bishop refused a breath test and that he declined to press charges.

Kirk got a year's probation after his no-contest plea to assault and a guilty plea to possession of marijuana and ecstasy.

This guy wants to be the chief law enforcement officer of Michigan?

See you at the MDP Convention

Like many Michigan Democrats, I will be at Cobo Hall in Detroit on Saturday for the Michigan Democratic Party Convention.

For political junkies like me, conventions are a chance to spend a day immersed in politics and see people I campaigned with and for. After the 2008 election, it will also be a celebration and a chance to gear up to take the Michigan Senate back in 2010, keep the governorship and take back the Attorney General’s office and Secretary of State’s office after allowing the Republicans to borrow the traditional Democratic positions for a few years.

The Republicans are also holding their convention at the Lansing Center on both Friday and Saturday. But after their showing in 2008, they are crying in their beer on Michigan Avenue. On Friday their guest speakers were rightwing Republicans radio host Frank Beckmann and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Apparently, Republicans want Michigan to look like Mississippi.

I’ve been in Mississippi: I’ll pass.

Beckmann, get this, is talking about media bias. If anyone should know about media bias he does, and there is none more biased. He is apparently talking about the Fairness Doctrine He is toeing the Republican Party line that the Fairness Doctrine will stifle right-wingers who have an unfair advantage on talk radio. No one can explain how that will happen, but they are making the ridiculous claim that it is censorship.

The fact is the Fairness Doctrine expands the debate and gives more people a voice, not stifling anyone. Also, the President said he will not enforce it.

I’m also excited because my wife is attending with me for the first time. She came over from the dark side to the light; like many Republicans did in November.

I also hope to see some of my fellow liberal bloggers there. Rumor has it that many will be at the Progressive Caucus.

See you there.

Unbiased Beckman is keynote speaker at MRP state convention

If you need any more proof of the rigtwing bias of WJR-AM radio commentator Frank Beckmann, just show up at the Michigan Republican Party state convention on Feb. 20 where Beckman is the keynote speaker.

Beckman says he is a conservative, but he also claims he is not a Republican. Right, and I’m not a Democrat. He will feel right at home at the Lansing Center surrounding by his audience.

The program bills his appearance as the “ Opening session with honored guest speakers “ Frank Beckmann, Host of the Frank Beckmann - WJR-AM Radio and The Honorable Haley Barbour - Governor of Mississippi.

Last year readers of Michigan Messenger ranked Beckmann in second place among the most biased reporters, columnists and commentators in Michigan. The rightwing Republican was not happy with the results of that reader survey, but his actions since then just reinforces that ranking and the rightwing slant of WJR.

What’s even funnier is how MRP chair Saul Anuzis, or whatever he is now, describes Beckmann’s appearance on his “blog.”

“We will also have WJR's Frank Beckmann there who will discuss "what media bias?” What media bias? The media bias you display on your radio show.

Online poll unmasks WJR’s bias

Either Detroit radio station WJR-AM 760 is not aware there was also a Democratic primary in Michigan or it’s finally admitting it only caters to the right side of the political spectrum. A recent poll asking people who they plan to vote for during Michigan’s Jan. 15 presidential primary only listed Republican candidates among the choices.

The poll confirmed what many former listeners of the powerful radio station have been saying for years since the station lost the broadcast rights for Detroit’s professional sports teams. To illustrate how conservative the listeners of the 50,000-watt radio station have become with a steady diet of conservative radio hosts, the poll put former conservative Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in second place with 25 percent over Arizona Sen. John McCain with just 10 percent. The real election results were much different, with McCain finishing in second behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 30 percent of the vote with Huckabee in third with just 16 percent.

The self-proclaimed “Great Voice of the Great Lakes” has become the “Great Conservative Voice of the Great Lakes” with an almost exclusive line-up of conservative hosts that includes Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Even the few local hosts are conservative, and in a poll the Michigan Messenger conducted last October, WJR morning host Frank Beckmann was voted the second most biased commentator or reporter in Michigan. This was an honor Beckmann did not appreciate, and he claimed in numerous emails he was fair and balanced, despite plenty of documentation to the contrary.

When Is Calling Someone a Wacko Not Name-Calling? When Beckmann Does It

In the world of conservative radio host Frank Beckmann, calling someone a “wacko” is not name-calling.

Last week Beckmann, who hosts the morning show on WJR-AM, was railing against the international scientific body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that just issued a report that said, "warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” His take on all those who believe climate change and global warming are serious problems is that they are environmental wackos. “They have really gone over the edge; that’s why I call them wackos,” Beckmann said. “I’m not into name-calling.”

Why he does not consider calling someone a wacko as rising to the level of name-calling I have no idea. But after about a month of monitoring his show for two and a half hours a day, I have begun to see how his conservative Republican bias manifests itself despite repeated denials and claims that he is fair and balanced.

His conservative guests outnumber other guests by a wide margin, and when he does have the conservatives that reflect his views and opinions on, he rarely has anyone from the other side to counter what they say. They can rest assured they will not be asked any tough questions or challenged, and chances are very good that Beckmann will agree with everything the person has to say.

A perfect example of that was at play Tuesday when Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter was a guest in what turned out to be little more than a 10-minute campaign infomercial. Duncan’s quote that, “We (Republicans) are the party of the middle class” really surprised me; not so much that he said it but that it went unchallenged. It’s Republican tax cuts over the years that benefited the richest 5 percent in this country at the expense of the disappearing middle class that has created a huge and widening gap between the rich and poor and shrunk the middle.

Beckmann’s support for the Iraq invasion is pretty clear, and that’s reflected in his choice of guests, including author and retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, who was on the show Tuesday. His support for the war is so strident that Peters has been described by some people as being from the “Diplomacy Be Damned, Shoot the Bastards" wing of the Republican Party.

The same show also featured an interview with John Howell about a boycott of the anti-Iraq war film "Redacted." You can be sure that neither Peters nor Howell got any tough questions.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia, was on the show. McCotter was riled up about people in his district receiving robo-calls about the inability of the federal government to hold Communist China accountable for its repeated violations of fair trade policy. He was there to complain about the “Great left-wing attack machine,” and he had a receptive audience. This is the first time I have ever heard of this alleged machine. McCotter, and Beckmann too, seem to believe only Democrats and liberal groups use “attacks,” as he calls it.
I wonder where they were during the Clinton presidency when rich guys like Richard Mellon Scaife were offering rewards for people to dig up dirt on the Clintons through the so-called "Arkansas Project." I wonder if McCotter has ever been publicly accused of murder, rape or drug smuggling like Clinton was.

He also made the ridiculous statement that Republicans don’t use robo-calls.

McCotter’s biggest complaint was over the McCain–Feingold Act and what he calls attack ads by faceless, liberal groups that receive unknown financing. The McCain–Feingold Act is a bipartisan campaign finance bill that tried to regulate so-called “soft money.” Getting the bill passed was a hard-fought battle, and it has not been very successful at regulating soft money, but apparently McCotter thinks it does not go far enough. If he has a bipartisan proposal to improve it then he should propose it.

“When Frankenstein turns on them, then perhaps we will see something done with the wonderful McCain–Feingold Act that so many liberals and well-intentioned people want to make politics more transparent and free of money,” he said.

Beckman’s agreement that only Democrats engage in attack ads was very interesting. “They say we have the American Family Values and the political right that finance campaigns,” he said. Apparently, the word "we" means Beckmann includes himself in the Republican Party.

Anti-Iraq War Movie “Redacted” Is Drawing Fire as It Comes to Michigan

Critics of the anti-Iraq war film “Redacted” plan to continue their nationwide boycott effort when the movie opens in the Detroit area on Friday.

The film, by Academy Award-winning director Brian De Palma, was financed by self-made millionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks. It's a fictionalized story about the brutality of combat, based on the March 2006 rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and the killing of her entire family near Baghdad by four members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, and the cover-up that followed. Several soldiers have been convicted in connection with the crimes.

The boycott includes the Mavericks and their sponsors, and other companies owned by Cuban, including HD Net, Magnolia Pictures and Landmark Theatres. Conservative Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has also supported the boycott of the movie.

John Howell, a former U.S. Marine from Illinois who says he became involved in the boycott from writing about Iraq on his Web site, was a guest on Frank Beckmann’s radio show on WJR-AM last week to talk about the campaign.

“I don’t know why anyone would see a movie when Brian De Palma said he made a movie that he said is anti-troop,” Howell said. “It is not anti-war, it’s anti-troop. He said if George Bush can lie about Iraq why can’t I; these are quotes by Brian De Palma."

Howell said he has picketed outside theaters where the movie has been shown. The film opened on Nov. 16, but is only being shown in Cuban's Landmark Theatre chain. It is the nation's largest theater chain dedicated primarily to exhibiting and marketing independent films.

Howell said he had not seen the film. "You won’t see us in front of 'Rendition' or 'Lions for Lambs' protesting because those are policy movies,” Howell said. “We can discuss policy all day long, but you should not defame the troops. I will not give them a dime of my money to see it.”

The boycott group has a Web site that features an online petition, and Howell said there are plans to send the petition to Cuban. He also said there are plans to picket at Mavericks' road games. Howell called the movie “un-American” and “treasonous in a time of war,” and said that it gives “aid and comfort to the enemy” and that it will serve as a “propaganda and recruiting” film for al-Qaida and jihadists.

“This movie will get service members killed,” he said. “Any guy in the Muslim world who is on the fence who sees this movie, with the way they can edit this film, will turn them into a jihadist.”

De Palma, who also wrote the screenplay, said in interviews that the movie was very similar to his 1989 film “Casualties of War,” which was set in Vietnam. In other interviews De Palma said he wanted to bring the horrors of war back to the American people that have been hidden from the American public, such as barring video and still photos of the flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. service members returning home from Iraq.

But Howell said if De Palma wants to do a film about atrocities, then he should "make a movie about the atrocities committed by al-Qaida.”

“Redacted” opens Friday at the Maple Art Theatre, 4135 W. Maple Road at Telegraph, Bloomfield Hills.

As Globe Warms, WJR's Beckmann discredits Granholm's Climate Initiative

WJR-AM radio host Frank Beckmann took his act -- and his conservative views -- on the road last week to the Los Angeles Auto Show.

On Thursday, he railed at Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s executive order creating the Michigan Climate Action Council to develop a comprehensive climate action plan for the state. Beckmann is well known for claiming climate change and global warming is a huge conspiracy and hoax thought up by liberals.

While the world’s most prominent scientists tell us the debate now should be about how best to combat the problem of climate change, not whether it is or isn't occurring, Beckmann thinks he has all the answers.

Beckmann complained that there were no scientists on the new council, which is still being formed, but he said the “… wackos will be represented.” His comments came just a couple of days before the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international scientific body, issued its fourth assessment, which said “warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” I’m sure very soon Beckmann will use his daily show to prove the world’s best scientists wrong.

Beckmann joked that the high Michigan unemployment rate should help reduce the world’s reliance on energy, which contributes to warming. It may have been funny to him, but for the worker who saw his or her job outsourced, it may not be so hilarious. I wonder where Beckmann was in the ‘70s when the unemployment rate in Michigan was in double digits and gas stations were running out of gas and closing. That stretch of driving less didn’t seem to relieve the country's reliance on foreign oil much.

Beckmann, who came in second in an informal Michigan Messenger poll of the most biased commentators, has demonstrated one thing in recent years: If you want to get on his show, all you really need to do is find fault with the governor. He had Livonia Mayor Jack Kirksey on his show on Thursday to talk about the decision by online mortgage broker Quicken Loans to move from its Livonia headquarters to Detroit. Who do you think Kirksey was upset with over the move -- Quicken? Or perhaps Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick? No, he was upset with the governor for her role in the decision to move. Instead of complaining that 4,000 jobs are going from Livonia to Detroit, he should be celebrating that 4,000 jobs stayed in Michigan.

But Beckmann’s take was that Granholm aided the Quicken deal because she owed a debt to the city and Kilpatrick for helping get her re-elected last November. With her landslide win, garnering almost 60 percent of the vote, I don’t think she’s beholden to anyone.

As an online company, I would guess Quicken could have moved its headquarters anywhere in the world. I’m reading a good book called “The World is Flat,” by Thomas Friedman, in which he talks about jobs being outsourced to India and other developing countries. Quicken not only had the governors of 49 other states throwing money and incentives at it, I’m sure many other countries were making offers. It would have been incompetence for Granholm not to become involved, and I can guarantee Beckmann would have hammered the governor if those 4,000 jobs had gone out of state.

Kirksey called it job raiding, but it should be called job retention and expansion. I wonder how many companies fled from Detroit to the suburbs since 1967? How many people who work at Quicken actually live in Livonia?

The rest of the week brought more examples of Beckmann’s consistent bias, which includes primarily booking conservative guests on any issue and getting his own opinion in even when asking questions of the few non-conservatives be books.

A perfect example was William Cohen, who was on the show Thursday. Cohen, a former Republican congressman and U.S. senator, was secretary of defense from 1997-2001 under President Clinton. Beckmann tried to blame the draw-down and the “wrecking of the military” after the end of the Cold War on Clinton, but Cohen pointed out that it occurred during the senior George Bush's presidency, when he cut the military by one-third.

Cohen told Beckmann that Clinton actually increased military spending. Instead of admitting his obvious mistake, Beckmann's response was “… that was the Gingrich Congress.”

Despite a short week conservative talk radio host has lots of examples of his bias to choose from

Despite being only on the air for two shows last week because of illness, conservative WJR-AM radio host Frank Beckmann has plenty of examples of his bias on display.

His show on Wednesday, as are all of his shows, served as a two-and- one half hour platform for his conservative views. That’s fine, but not when he claims he is fair and balanced. He chose Wednesday to talk about what he calls the Global Warming hoax. Despite every reputable scientist agreeing that global warming and climate change have been caused by human beings through the high emission of greenhouse gases Beckmann, apparently, really knows the truth because he did the research on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) web site. He referred the guest to the links on his web site to prove he has the answers on climate change that Nobel Prize-winning scientists do not. So, I took a look. The things he chose to link to clearly demonstrates his bias.

A few that really got me were, “As discussed by (Republicans) L Brooks Patterson and Bob Daddow at the (Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce) Mackinac Policy Conference” and “Satirist, Lecturer, Writer, and Political Commentator recently spoke to the (conservative think tank) Heritage Foundation, "Regurgitating the Apple: How Modern Liberals 'Think."”

The day after Michigan resident Michael Moore’s latest movie “Sicko” was released on DVD, Beckmann had as guests on his show the makers of the documentary “Manufacturing Dissent,” a 2007 documentary that exposes what the creators say are Moore's misleading tactics and mimics Moore's style of small documentary makers seeking and badgering their target for an interview. The film was made over the course of two years by Canadians Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine. Beckmann did not bother to hide his glee at going after Moore, and his closing comment to the filmmakers said it all, “We’re going to convert all of you liberals.”

On Thursday Beckmann had state Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, as a guest The softball questions he throws at Bishop are bad enough, but the disturbing part is what Beckmann lets him get away with saying without ever challenging him. Like this gem:

“The Republicans are in the minority in the Legislature,” Bishop said.

I almost fell out of my chair on that one. Even though that’s what voters clearly intended to do last November when 60 percent of the total votes cast for Senators were for Democratic Senate candidates, the Republicans still control the Senate 21-17.

Detroit News editorial page editor Nolan Finley had a few gems of his own. On Thursday he wrote, “Chrysler's new CEO Bob Nardelli is taking on more than just the nuts and bolts turnaround of the automaker. He appears to be out to break the mentality of collective entitlement that permeates the domestic auto industry, and infests much of Michigan as well. Nardelli is considering extending bonuses beyond the executive suite deep into the ranks of Chrysler workers, based on the company's performance and an individual’s contribution.”

The “mentality of collective entitlement?” We know where Finley stands.

Recently, the obscene compensation CEOs were making has been an issue as the gap between the rich and poor widens and the middle class is in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs. Nardelli was the poster boy for that problem.

In 1965 the average CEO was earning 24 times what the average worker was making. But in 2005, the average CEO was making 262 times what the average worker is making. As the CEO of Home Depot, Nardelli made $38 million, or roughly $100,000 a day, in 2005, but the average worker who is selling the product and is the public face of the company is making just $10 an hour on average with few if any benefits. Nardelli continued to make this outrageous salary despite the company’s stock going down 6 percent in six years, and it fell 40 percent during his tenure.

Finley uses his Sunday column to tell us how wonderful Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is and how bad Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is.

“Romney gets the auto industry -- in fact, he's offered himself up to run an automaker if this politics thing doesn't work out. “

I’m sure he’s qualified.

Detroit Free Press reporter Dawson Bell came in third in our poll, but I have seen no bias. He wrote three articles last week: a story on the Supreme Court argument on same sex benefits, the court decision to stop the Michigan primary and a feature on term limits.

WJR's Beckmann balks at being rated among most-biased

WJR-AM radio commentator Frank Beckmann is not happy with the results of a Michigan Messenger reader survey.

Readers ranked Beckmann in second place among the most biased reporters, columnists and commentators in Michigan.

Beckmann tried to laugh the poll off, but it bothered him enough to email me six times.

Detroit News editorial page editor Nolan Finley was picked as the most biased. But the impression I got from him was basically an amused “so what.”

Beckmann was a little different. Those who have watched Bill O’Reilly on his Fox News show "The O’Reilly Factor” constantly describe the national blog Media Matters as a “left-wing smear site” know how some people react when you hold a mirror up to them. What is Media Matters' great sin and how is it smearing O’Reilly? Simply by posting actual video of some of the stuff he says on his show.

“I addressed this on the air this morning," Beckmann wrote of the survey, "and stressed my disappointment at finishing second.....clearly, I failed to energiize (sic) my base and plan to get a better turnout next year......you must be pleased with your truly massive response of 43 votes in a week....that's impressive.....I also adopted you as my official liberal website.”

I explained to Beckmann that although I too was disappointed at the small number of votes cast, Michigan Messenger has only been around for some six weeks, and that any startup venture in any medium begins slowly. I also explained that an online newspaper is a completely new medium, and obviously more people owned radios than computers. Also, to vote you had to register with a screen name and password, and like talk radio, many people may listen or read but they do not all call in or comment; I guess that’s where the term “long-time listener, first-time caller” came from. But the 43 votes was a constant theme with Beckmann, and he pointed it out in almost every email.

“You act as if your vote with 43 ballots is somehow significant,” he wrote. “By all measures, my show has been a success.....The Michigan Association of Broadcasters afforded me two major awards last year, for 'News Coverage' and for 'Personality of the Year.' ”

I pointed out to him, again, that although the 43 votes were fewer than I had hoped for, still it was the readers and not me who chose him as one of the most biased commentators. Perhaps the question I should have asked was if he thought a mere 43 votes was so insignificant, why was he wasting his time emailing me. He offered to let me appear on his show, but it wasn't clear he was serious.

I listened to his show last Wednesday and Thursday while working and a small portion of the show on Friday while driving. I discovered Beckmann was correct when he said he regularly has liberals and progressives on. But after listening I have little doubt that those who voted for him made a good decision. He clearly treats non-conservative guests he disagrees with much more differently than conservatives.

On the first show, on Halloween morning, just a few hours after the Michigan House had met until 4 a.m. to approve the final budget bills and avoid a second state government shutdown, he had a lot to say about the budget. He told his audience that the budget just passed actually was an increase from the previous year’s budget, but then failed to say why or point out that many payments made in this budget were payments that were delayed from last year’s one-time fixes that were due.

It was very telling who his first guest was. Tricia Kinley, the director of tax policy for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, was there to push the chamber's attempt to kill the recently approved sales tax on some services. There was no one from the other side as a guest, and as always, there was no one to talk about how the budget would be balanced without the tax increase.

Beckmann did have former Democratic Gov. Jim Blanchard on the show, but Blanchard had to call him out on trying to pass off White House talking points on the Iraq occupation as his own opinions.

The next day, Thursday, Beckmann had the House Republican leader, Rep. Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, on to talk about the budget, despite the fact that every published report pointed out DeRoche had absolutely nothing to do with the budget negotiations that avoided a government shutdown. Beckmann let everything DeRoche said go by unchallenged, including the misleading claim that House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford, has grown government and the number of state employees.

The truth is that there are fewer state employees now than there were in 1973, as there were more state employees under Republican governors Bill Milliken and John Engler than there are now. After Dillon’s segment, Beckmann chose to comment on what Dillon had to say but not DeRoche, and DeRoche's comments went unchallenged again.

On Friday, he had the Senate Majority leader, Sen. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, on to talk about the budget, and he got more softball questions than DeRoche. Beckmann did not bother to ask him how he actually planned to balance the budget without the revenue increases. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, should have been on to counter Bishop’s claims -- following the pattern of the day before, when the leaders of both parties in the House were on the show. But that did not happen.

Detroit News editor chosen as the most biased in Michigan mainstream media

The Michigan Messenger readers have spoken, and after a week of online voting the Big 3 of media bias are Detroit News editor Nolan Finley, radio host Frank Beckmann and Detroit Free Press reporter Dawson Bell.

We asked our readers to nominate which journalists were the most biased, and from that list we asked them to vote last week on which journalists from a list showed the most bias. This is the result. Actually, political pundit Bill Ballenger was tied with Bell for third place, but I am exercising my power as the unofficial media critic at MM to cast my tie-breaking vote for Bell. However, I will play closer attention to Ballenger.

The voter turnout was a little disappointing, but it's certainly consistent with the voter turnout we see for general elections; and it was even better than most primary elections. When you consider that only about a quarter of the registered voters actually decide who is going to run the state, the 43 votes cast in this informal poll isn't all that bad.

Finley was the big winner - or loser depending on your point of view - with 27 percent of the vote, followed by Beckman with 25 percent of the vote and Bell and Ballenger with 16 percent. Also receiving votes were Tim Skubick with three votes; George Weeks, two votes and Murray Feldman with one vote. In the comments section I also received write in votes for Chris Christoff, the Detroit Free Press Lansing bureau chief; Chad Selewski of the Macomb Daily; nationally known sports writer, best-selling author and radio host Mitch Albom; and Detroit News columnist Laura Berman.

Among the other comments I received was that I was concentrating only on conservative media bias. My answer to that is that the myth that has been floated around since the 1970s is that the media is liberally biased, but that is simply not true. I am pointing out the predominant bias of the mainstream media. An argument was also made that some of our slate of candidates are not journalists. However, anyone who conveys information to the public fits our definition of a journalist.

Finley is a columnist and the editorial page editor of the Detroit News, and as a columnist he is expressing his opinion, which by its very nature is biased. But it's clear where his bias lays. It's very hard to find bias in the newspaper's straight stories, but as the editorial page editor, it follows Finley's bias that sets the tone for the entire newspaper. Clearly, his biggest obsession is Gov. Jennifer Granholm. He seems to blame her for everything but the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. He must not be aware that the governor, any governor, cannot influence macroeconomic activity through the two most important factors: monetary policy and fiscal policy.

In a recent column about the governor's leadership on the budget situation, he used a quote in a column he said was from Speaker of the House Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township: "Why doesn't she take control of these negotiations?" asks Dillon, and then answered, "Because she doesn't have leadership instincts."

When called out on the source of the quote, Finley changed the online version and attributed the quote it its rightful owner; Granholm opponent, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.

According to the Detroit News official bio, Finley is the "Editorial Page Editor of The Detroit News, a position he's held since May 1, 2000. He directs the expression of the newspaper's editorial position on various national and local issues, and also writes a column in the Sunday newspaper. Prior to that, Finley was the newspaper's Deputy Managing Editor, directing the newsroom. Previously, he served as Business Editor, and in various editing positions on the city, state and metro desks. He was also a reporter, covering Detroit City Hall during the Coleman Young administration. Finley has been with the newspaper since 1976, starting as a copy boy in the newsroom while a student at Wayne State University.

Beckman hosts a show on conservative talk radio station WJR weekdays from 9-11:30 a.m., and he is an occasional columnist for the Detroit News. He shares a similar obsession with Finely for the governor while claiming he is fair and balanced and looking out for us. He seems to be a Bill O'Reilly wannabe with a rather large ego. His bias seems to fit in at WJR, and it's a mystery how the most powerful radio station in a state that has been blue since 1992 located in one of the most liberal cities in America can get way with not having one non-conservative voice on the air.

Beckman drew the ire of progressives in early October when he taped an interview with the governor for replay later in the day, and then he allegedly used a YouTube clip supplied by a conservative blog from an old debate about a completely different topic to accuse the governor of lying to the public about tax increases.

Bell covers Lansing and politics for the Detroit Free Press, and he is the only reporter on the list. Finding bias in a straight news story is difficult, but bias there can cause the most damage because it is not so obvious. Bell helped start the "ipod for every student in Michigan" controversary last spring when he mistakenly wrote in a story that House Democrats were proposing a $58 million line item to buy every student an ipod that was really for new technology. Republicans made hay with that line, and it continues today.

Ballenger is one of the most well-known and respected political pundits in the state. According to his official biography as the former Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government at Central Michigan University, Ballenger "…is a former (Republican) state representative and state senator, an ex-state racing commissioner and director of the Michigan Department of Licensing & Regulation. Mr. Ballenger also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare in the administration of President Gerald R. Ford." He also writes and publishes the newsletter "Inside Michigan Politics," and he is a regular panelist on the political talk TV show "Off the Record."

Short and to the point: Michigan Democratic Chair Mark Brewer slaps down GOP columnist

It was nice to see Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer slap down Detroit News columnist Frank Beckmann after Beckmann attacked Brewer for his trip to China in one of his “unbiased” columns.

It’s just sad that Mark only got five paragraphs to respond, and I hope he will get a larger platform in the form of a column. Clearly, Beckmann is a partisan Republican hack. After all, he is on WJR. Here is Mark’s response to Beckmann,

The true irony found in Frank Beckmann's Dec. 15 column attacking me, "State Dem chairman's China trip is fraught with ironies" is that he still presents himself as a nonpartisan columnist.
The election happened well over a month ago, but apparently he still doesn't understand what the results tell us. It was never about Chinese culture or history. It was about which candidate had the record and the plan to put Michigan first. If Dick DeVos had invested $200 million in England and created jobs there, our ads would have shown a picture of Big Ben.
It is true that I find issue with many of the practices of the Chinese government.
Even people in his own party like Republican Congressman Mike Rogers agree that China's trade practices have severely harmed Michigan's citizens and cost our state jobs. Does Beckmann think China's trade practices and currency manipulation are fair?
Does he think China's persecution of Christianity and many other religions should be ignored?

Mark Brewer
Michigan Democratic Party
Lansing
I heard L. Brooks Paterson use the same attack on Brewer earlier on one of the local political talk shows, so Beckmann has the same talking points the Michigan Republication Party is putting out.

No one has ever said we should not be able to sell our products to China, but we want a level playing field to do so. They should not be allowed to copy the products we make with cheap imitations that costs pennies to make. I am no economist, but it seems to me the problem with the Amway guy was he was telling us he could fix the problems with Michigan when he’s part of the problem.

Money invested in China and jobs in China is investment and jobs not in Michigan. I hope Amway sells millions of dollars worth of its products there, but they should be made here. DeVos claims in order to sell products in China they must be made in China, and no products made in China are ever sold here. The problem with that is he lied, and products made there are sold in the U.S. Secondly, if it’s true products sold in China must be made there then we should have the same protection. Products sold in the U.S. should be made here. The same stipulation should be made, but instead the U.S. government encourages U.S. companies to offshore and outsource.

Some foreign companies are making the products they sell here in the U.S., most notability the foreign car makers. But the problem I see is that they are just assembling the cars here.

Here in Livingston County, we have no Big 3 plants here at all, but we have many plants that are Tier I, II and III suppliers to the Big 3. Not many months go by here that a new plant is not asking for a tax break from a local municipality to either build new or expand the plant that supply parts to the automakers.

We could use some of those type of jobs from Toyota or Honda.