Media self-sensorship

From a post on SlashDot:
Note: DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act

On 'Larry King Live' Wednesday night, Bill Maher said many of 'the people who really run the underpinnings of the Republican Party are gay… Ken Mehlman, OK, there's one I think people have talked about. I don't think he's denied it.' When CNN re-aired the interview, the mention of Mehlman was edited out with no indication anything was missing. When a minute-long video of the original vs. censored clips was posted on YouTube, a DMCA takedown removed it (the original poster plans to resubmit a shorter clip he hopes will qualify as fair use ? good luck, since the DMCA doesn't recognize fair use). Relatedly, the Washington Post today was caught silently editing its published stories to make them less informative. Unnamed GOP officials are also saying that Mehlman will step down from his post when his term ends in January.

You know it's bad when they are now policing themselves in order to send exactly the right message about whatever it is they are supposedly reporting "objectively" about.

Strange bedfellows

In the film Dick Tracy, our yellow-clad detective hero mumbles to himself as he tries to unravel a relational mystery. "Is the enemy of my enemy my friend, or is the enemy of my friend my enemy?" With al Qaeda and Democrats both gloating about Uncle Don's resignation, I had to join Detective Tracy in his search for truth. They say that nothing unifies like a common enemy, and it seems that Democrats and al Qaeda have one, namely the President of the United States. Both have done everything in their power to topple the Bush "regime," and I believe that both groups have painted themselves into a corner where the only way they could claim success would be for the United States to fail in the war on terror. Don Rumsfeld is the latest casualty to be attributed to the war effort, and Dems and al Qaeda now gloat in perfect harmony about their victory.

I'm not suggesting that the Democrats in this country have become allies with al Qaeda against the United States, but it seems to be worth mentioning that they are on exactly the same page on this one.