HOW THE PRESS BLUNDERS - AT 3:30 P.M. ET:  Often, press bias is slipped into a story in oh so subtle ways.  Take today's New York Times piece about Obama continuing some of the detention policies of the Bush administration.  The piece makes it clear that Obama has his critics:

But Mr. Obama’s critics say his proposal is Bush redux. Closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and holding detainees domestically under a new system of preventive detention would simply “move Guantánamo to a new location and give it a new name,” said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested this month that as many as 100 detainees might be held in the United States under such a system.

COMMENT:  Bad journalism.  It quotes the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, implying that he is some kind of great authority on the subject, and gives no background on the organization. 

In fact, the Center is a pro-Communist, anti-American group that has consistently sided with this country's enemies over the years.  It was formed in 1966 to oppose our effort in Vietnam, and at one time suggested that American officials of the period be tried as war criminals. 

But how is the reader to know that?

May 23, 2009