Let me preface is this by saying I’m a big fan of Mythbusters, but like many of you I’ve been expecting something like this would happen for quite some time… Accidents happen, but what happened Tuesday, while Mythbusters co-hosts Tory Belleci, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara were working on either proving or debunking myths related to the ability of stone cannonballs to break through castle walls was a foreseeable and preventable accident.

First of all firing a cannon anywhere near  a residential neighborhood is spectacularly bad idea. Second this isn’t the first time they’ve had a cannonball get away from them or caused property damage, remember the matchstick cannon and neon orange bowling ball?

A lot of what they do — working energetic materials is inherently dangerous, and things can go horribly wrong. Look I don’t want this to sound like I’m bashing the Mythbusters team, they have admirable safety record — eight plus years without a Class A or even a Class B mishap is a record to be envied. That said, the Alameda County Sheriffs Department bomb disposal range  is not an appropriate or safe location to be firing cannons. The incident with the matchstick cannon bouncing a projectile 1,500 feet up a hill should have made that clear.

One hopes that in the future they’re conduct experiments involving cannons at a more appropriate location such as an artillery range or other remote location that isn’t closely bordered by densely populated residential or commercial areas.

Related

• Mythbusters cannonball ‘myth-fires’ – The Register
• ‘MythBusters’ cannonball stunt goes awry – Houston Chronicle
• ‘MythBusters’ Hosts, Adam Savage and Jamie Hynerman, Visit California Home Damaged by Cannonball – Foxnews.com
•  ‘MythBusters’ cannon ball accident caused by ‘unforeseen bounce’ – Washington Post
• ‘MythBusters’ hosts: Sorry about that cannonball – San Francisco Chronicle
• MythBusters aren’t Jackasses. Let’s keep that in mind. – Entertainment Weekly
• The ‘Mythbusters’ cannonball run as seen on a map – CNET News

I like it.

H/T: Weasel Zippers.

Ouch, I love it!

It’s about time Republican candidates started calling the sound bite media on the carpet for wasting everyone’s with time trivial, tabloid gotcha questions instead of asking substantial policy questions. Newt was absolutely right to go after Chris Wallace the way he did tonight… and judging by the crowds reaction they agreed with the former Speaker.

H/T: Jim Hoft.

MARK HALPERIN: Do we have the seven-second delay today? I want to characterize how I thought the President behaved.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: We have it.  We can use it–right [Executive Producer] Alex?

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, sure, come on, take a chance. Have faith.

BRZEZINSKI: Let’s see what happens.

SCARBOROUGH: I’m behind you.  You fall down, I’m gonna catch you.

BRZEZINSKI: And the precedent has been set on the show, so you’re good [a reference to Joe dropping an f-bomb back in 2008, leading to the installation of the seven-second delay].

HALPERIN: I thought he was kind of a dick yesterday.

SCARBOROUGH: Oh my God.  Delay that!  Delay that!  What are you doing?  I can’t believe you–I was joking! Don’t do that! Did we delay that?

(Transcript courtesy Newbusters.)

Ouch, there’s a lot of things I could say about President’s performance yesterday, but that’s not one of them…. Look I’m no fan Barack Obama, you don’t have to like or even respect him, but he is the President of the United States and you do have to respect the office he holds… While I might agree Mr. Halperin’s assessment of the president’s performance, his remarks were still inappropriate. You don’t call the President of the United States a “dick” — period.

Anyway, Mr. Halperin has apologized and MSNBC rightly has suspended him indefinitely.

“Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers,” in a statement by MSNBC spokesperson Jeremy Gaines. “We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.”

~ ~ ~

“I completely agree with everything in MSNBC’s statement about my remark. I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate,” Halperin said in a statement. “Again, I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President, to my MSNBC colleagues, and to the viewers. My remark was unacceptable, and I deeply regret it.”

That said the President was clearly posturing and playing to his base yesterday by resorting to the same tired, old partisan class warfare rhetoric. This country faces a serious financial crisis driven by debt and a lack of economic growth.

Washington’s policy makers can’t simply turn a blind eye to that and keep spending beyond our means. No amount tax increases is going to close the budget gap, particularly not while the economy is teetering on the edge of a cliff. Raising taxes now could easily push our already weakened economy back in recession or depression.

Washington’s policy makers have to face reality and make real, what some would call draconian, spending cuts. Not only in discretionary spending, but also through entitlement reform. Whether you agree with Republicans or not they have at least offered a plan. All the President has offered is demonetization and demagoguery.

Related

• The Deficit Is Worse Than We Think – Lawrence B. Lindsey, Wall Street Journal
• President Obama’s war on facts — Jonathan Strong – The Daily Caller

Here’s the video segment followed by NBC’s on air apology read by Dan Hicks (courtesy Newsbusters):

According to the United States Flag Code (4 U.S.C. § 4), the Pledge of Allegiance reads:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

NBC’s defenders are pointing out that the words “under God” weren’t added to the Pledge until 1954, which everyone should apparently consider an acceptable excuse for NBC’s decision to omit the words ‘under God, indivisible’ from the Pledge.

Nonsense… If you don’t like the words “Under God” being in the Pledge of Allegiance petition congress to remove them, simply ignoring them because don’t like them smacks of the sort of foolish “we don’t want to offend anyone” political correctness that creates more problems then it solves.

Anyway here’s the text of NBC’s apology:

“We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago and when we did it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open Championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s capital for the third time. Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone and we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.”

Exit Question: Does anyone really believe that NBC accidentally left out the words ‘under God, indivisible’?  I don’t, somewhere along the line someone in the chain command at NBC decided to cut ‘under God’ out of the segment. That segment didn’t air without someone reviewing it and approving it. That’s said I’m not inclined to attribute real malice or bias to NBC’s omission… Just foolish political correctness.

Related

• NBC’s ‘Under God’ Omission Prompts Calls for Boycott, Firing – CNSNews.com

NPR maintains they “refused” the check multiple times, but the video released today clearly shows NPR’s Senior Director of Institutional Giving, Betsy Liley, telling a member of the fictitious Muslim charity that NPR could help  shield the charity from a government audit of NPR’s books by accepting the donation anonymously:

As the Daily Caller reports the video report details phone calls and an e-mail exchange between Ms. Liley and an undercover investigator identified as Ibrahim Kasaam:

When a man posing as Ibrahim Kasaam asked, “It sounded like you were saying NPR would be able to shield us from a government audit, is that correct?” NPR’s senior director of institutional giving, Betsy Liley, responded, “I think that is the case, especially if you are anonymous. I can inquire about that.” According to conservative James O’Keefe, whose Project Veritas organization conducted the NPR sting organization, the man posing as Kasaam made two follow-up phone calls to Liley after their lunch.

Liley said a $5 million donation would amount to about “10 years of support.”

Kasaam follows up by asking: “The fact that NPR is not only a tax-exempt organization, but also receives direct contributions from the government — does that invite some sort of government oversight or government examination of contributions, et cetera?”

Liley answered: “They have audited our programs at times and, I think, as part of that, they can look at our audited financials. If you are concerned in any way about that, that’s one reason you might want to be an anonymous donor. And, we would certainly, if that was your interest, want to shield you from that.”

~ ~ ~

Following their phone calls, Liley checked with NPR’s senior management, and sent an e-mail to the man posing as Kasaam saying MEAC was cleared to make an anonymous donation of $5 million.

~ ~ ~

That e-mail directly contradicts NPR’s public statements issued in the wake of O’Keefe’s first video. “The fraudulent organization represented in this video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check, with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept,” NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm said in NPR’s official response.

So the bottom line is they were lying about turning down the check… I’ll repeat what I said the other day: cut the purse strings. Let NPR compete in the market place like everyone else.

NPR’s official response is here.

Update (Friday, March 11, 2011 @ 9:45 a.m.): NPR has released e-mails showing its top staff raised questions about accepting a $5 million donation from the fictitious Muslim Education Action Center. Frankly the e-mails are a point in NPR’s favor, they clearly show Vivian Schiller explained to “Kasaam” after his conversation with Ms. Liley that they couldn’t shield the groups donation from the IRS. Other e-mails show NPR’s counsel, Joyce Slocum,  politely informing “Kasaam” that he’d have to prove his group was a genuine 501(c)(3) organization before NPR could accept their donation… Which would seem to bolster NPR’s claim that they “refused” the check multiple times.

Related

• NPR hosts, journalists ‘appalled’ by Ron Schiller’s comments – The Poynter Institute

Anyway, here’s the back story from the Daily Caller:

In a new video released Tuesday morning by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe, Schiller and Betsy Liley, NPR’s director of institutional giving, are seen meeting with two men who, unbeknownst to the NPR executives, are posing as members of a Muslim Brotherhood front group. The men, who identified themselves as Ibrahim Kasaam and Amir Malik from the fictitious Muslim Education Action Center (MEAC) Trust, met with Schiller and Liley at Café Milano, a well-known Georgetown restaurant, and explained their desire to give up to $5 million to NPR because, “the Zionist coverage is quite substantial elsewhere.”On the tapes, Schiller wastes little time before attacking conservatives. The Republican Party, Schiller says, has been “hijacked by this group.” The man posing as Malik finishes the sentence by adding, “the radical, racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people.” Schiller agrees and intensifies the criticism, saying that the Tea Party people aren’t “just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it’s scary. They’re seriously racist, racist people.”

The only real takeaway from this video is Mr. Schiller’s admission that NPR would do better without federal funding:

Later in the lunch, Schiller explains that NPR would be better positioned free of federal funding. “Well frankly, it is clear that we would be better off in the long-run without federal funding,” he says. “The challenge right now is that if we lost it all together we would have a lot of stations go dark.”

When one of O’Keefe’s associates asked, “How confident are you, with all the donors that are available, if they should pull the funding right now that you would survive?,” Schiller answered this way: “Yes, NPR would definitely survive and most of the stations would survive.”

Frankly, I think we should take Mr. Schiller at his word and cut the purse strings. Let NPR compete in the market place like everyone else.

You can read NPR’s official response here. The full uncut two hour video is available here.

Update: NPR has placed Ron Schiller on “administrative leave” while they investigate… They’ve effectively fired him, Mr. Schiller had already informed NPR that he was resigning to take a new job with the Aspen Institute starting in May.

Update II: Mr. Schiller has resigned from NPR effective immediately:

“While the meeting I participated in turned out to be a ruse, I made statements during the course of the meeting that are counter to NPR’s values and also not reflective of my own beliefs. I offer my sincere apology to those I offended. I previously resigned from NPR effective May 6th to accept another job. In an effort to put this unfortunate matter behind us, NPR and I have agreed that my resignation is effective today.”

Update III (Wedneday, March 9, 2011 @ 10:30): Vivian Schiller, is out as President and CEO of NPB…

Update IV (Wednesday, March 9, 2011 @ 1:00 p.m.): Ron Schiller has decided not to join the Aspen Institute.

Related

• NPR officers compare deniers of climate change to birthers and flat earth believers – The Washington Times
• NPR, PBS campaigns to keep federal funds called unlawful – The Washington Times
• GOP leader amazed at ‘condescension and arrogance’ in NPR video, calls on Dems to support defunding – Byron York, The Washington Examiner
• Juan Williams Responds to NPR Sting: ‘They Prostitute Themselves for Money’ – Fox News

Mr. Olberman reportedly donated $2,400 apiece to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords in violation of NBC policy, which prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president.

Wow, personally, I suspect NBC has been looking for an excuse to indefinitely suspended Mr. Olberman without pay for a long time and he’s finally given them the opportunity.

I don’t like Keith Olbermann or his brand commentary and I’m certainly not going to miss him (not that I ever watched him), but this is a lousy way to get rid him… There’s just something distasteful about barring political employees from making political contributions in my book.

Update (Monday, November 8, 2010): Color me surprised, MSNBC has reinstated Keith Olbermann effective Tuesday… I would have bet almost anything that given his dismal ratings reportedly high salary he was toast after news of this  non-scandal scandal broke.

Related

• Wheels Within Wheels: Is Keith Olbermann Kerfuffle Just a Publicity Stunt? – Tommy Christopher, Mediaite

Mr. Williams’s crime was apparently speaking honestly about a visceral reaction many Americans have in our post 911 world:

The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.

He continued: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.

NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

I’ve watched the full segment a few times now… what I find so distasteful about Mr. Williams firing is the blatant hypocrisy of NPR.

If Mr. Williams remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.” what about the controversial remarks from other NPR personalities?

Were Nina Totenburg’s 1995 remarks wishing AIDS on Jesse Helms or one of his grandchildren consistent with NPR’s editorial standards and practices?

Were “All Things Considered” commentator Andrei Codrescu’s remarks calling certain Christian beliefs crap consistent with NPR’s editorial standards and practices?

Were publicist Sarah Spitz’s remarks on the now-defunct Journolist listserv wishing death on Rush Limbaugh consistent with NPR’s editorial standards and practices?

And lastly were NPR CEO Vivian Schiller’s remarks at the Atlanta Press Club yesterday suggesting that Mr. Williams should have kept his feelings about Muslims between himself and his psychiatrist consistent with NPR’s editorial standards and practices?

Yes, she’s apologized for that remark, but watch the video, watch her body language when she says it:

Spoke hastily? I’m not buying it.

Ed Morrissey sums things pretty over at Hot Air:

With the exception of the very beginning, when Williams made the statement that so offended NPR, Williams and Mary Katharine took a position mainly opposite of Bill O’Reilly, with both stating that the distinction between extremist Muslims and the rest was an important one to make, Mary Katharine more for strategic purposes, and Williams on journalistic grounds.

But then again, Williams was arguing for tolerance, and that apparently violates NPR’s “editorial standards and practices.”  Clearly, NPR only wants opinion journalists that agree with the opinions of NPR, and I mean totally agree.  An NPR opinion journalist had better not admit to having a normal human reaction about potential for terrorism nine years after 3,000 Americans got killed by radical Muslims on commercial air flights, or else. The rest of NPR’s cast just got an object lesson about the range of opinion tolerated by management.

I suspects what so offended NPR wasn’t what Mr. Williams said, but were he said it… and that may very well be NPR’s downfall at least so far as public funding is concerned.

Related

• Most Americans Say U.S. Is Too Politically Correct – Rasmussen Reports
• JUAN WILLIAMS: I Was Fired for Telling the Truth – Foxnews.com

Oh boy…

(H/T: LauraW @ AoSHQ)