"The Official Portrait of Miss InDiana"

"The Official Portrait of Miss InDiana"
aka "Miss Victory"

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I smell fear.


Tonight political reporter Jim Shella sold out what little journalistic standard he had left leaving no doubt exactly what he is. Not a single speaker, including three practicing attorneys, or key event insiders, made the cut for his coverage.

Instead, like a school yard bully, he relentlessly picked on a woman who took a day away from her family and newborn infant to volunteer to staff a table.

Conversely, the early report on Channel 8 (before Shella editing room trickery) is fair and balanced. The early report seems to now be scrubbed from the Internet.

They don't do that unless they fear.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

I gave a minute long quote on why everyone was there, and why you all organized it. He chose to use the portion where I lost my train of thought, and quickly ended my thoughts. Nice.

I feel really bad for the C4L lady. That was really nothing more than cruel.

M Theory said...

CHICAGO TRIBUNE ON REVOLT:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-xgr-taxpayerrally,0,3795629.story

M Theory said...

INDIANAPOLIS WIBC 93.1 FM

http://www.wibc.com/news/Story.aspx?id=1075529

Gary R. Welsh said...

Jim Shella is shameless, Melyssa. This is a guy who couldn't even appropriately cover the rally against SJR-7 at the State House, even though Shella's own son is openly gay and his gay lover was there.

Anonymous said...

First they ignore you.
Next they ridicule you.
Then they attack you.
And finally, you win.

The media has been moved from the ignore phase to the ridicule phase. Good job, folks. Keep up the good work. As long as the ridicule and the false reporting continues, you will know that you are remaining effective. Let that be an encouragement. If you weren't making a difference, you would be ignored.

Anonymous said...

AMERICAN TEA PARTY PROTESTS - OBAMA LIED, THE ECONOMY DIED
By Frances Rice
Like the wily Wizard of Oz, President Barack Obama hides his socialist agenda behind a rhetorical curtain, telling Americans one thing, while doing another. The silver-tongued Obama promised transparency and prosperity. But once in office, Obama appointed tax cheats and lobbyists to his cabinet, while using fear mongering as a cover for his massive social spending and wealth-destroying taxes that will collapse our economy and push our nation over the failed Socialist Clift.
It took less than two months for Obama's deceit and toxic socialist shock wave to hit Americans squarely in the face. Mad as hell describes the anger fueling protests around this country.
Join your fellow Americans and express your outrage on National Tea Party Day, April 15, 2009, the day taxes are due. The momentum is growing! Take the initiative if no one else is arranging your "Taxed Enough Already" (TEA) protest.
Register your rally at: http://www.teapartyday.com/
Get additional information at the below two links:
http://www.FreedomWorks.org/
http://www.TaxDayTeaparty.com/
Click below to view the NBRA video featuring the "American Tea Party" song by Lloyd Marcus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MCh7rS5CTE
Santelli's Tea Party - Click below to view CNBC's Rick Santelli's rant of the year expressing outrage over Americans having to pay their neighbor's mortgage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZB4taSEoA
Cincinnati Tea Party -=2 0Click below to see a video of the thousands of American citizens protesting Obama economic policies. Another huge rally was in Orlando, Florida with over 4,000 angry Americans participating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DutZVKGN7tw
We The People Stimulus Package - Click below to see a Thomas Paine style call to action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA
Click here to learn about the history of the original Boston Tea Party.
Related Article: Cheap Political Theater By Thomas Sowell

For more information about the National Black Republican Association


© National Black Republican Association, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

M Theory said...

BIG JOHN'S SOAP BOX:

http://bigjohnssoapbox.blogspot.com/2009/03/let-revolt-begin.html

M Theory said...

AP/INDY STAR:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090325/NEWS0501/90325066

Gary R. Welsh said...

Chris, You obvioulsy made some very well-articulated comments to Shella. He instead chose the worst part of your interview. He snipped a piece from Mark Small's piece, making it sound like he opposed funding education. Shella knew that wasn't what Small said, but he chose to deliberately make it appear that way. This was a hit job by the washed up, two-big hack political reporter. If I was the news director of that station and he brought back a story like that, he would be fired on the spot. He's lazy and hasn't turned in a decent investigative piece in years. He kisses ass with the right people over at the State House so they will feed him easy stories and he can go home early from work. The guy wouldn't know what it is to break a sweat like a good journalist.

Anonymous said...

Its fine but he did leave out some of the interview so I will tell my side. I was talking to state rep Borders and then I turned around and there was a reporter and all that happened is my mind went blank I picked up so literature to get my brain working since I was on a completely different topic with State Rep Borders and could not find anything in the literature so my mind kind of came back and I said what I said without looking at anything. What is sad is we are just volunteers and to make fun of that is so low

Anonymous said...

Good pep talk, SB. Based on sources I know to be free thinkers, it's unfortunate to have confirmation that Shella's a hack. The journalistic notion of presenting both sides of a story has indeed evolved to how many blogs can you read before you figure out what's going on. But, public broadcasting wants my money anyway. I'm up to here with "opinion" broadcasters! Any two-sided journalists left out there, or has that completely left the genetic code?

Patriot Paul said...

Around 4:40 pm.Wednesday, Eric Berman, political reporter to Wibc, struggled to find words on anything positive. The only live issue for him was the CIB-pacer-colts deal, and other issues were dead for the session. But that is exactly the point he misses. Citizens are tired of their issues being considered dead when they are loosing their homes and hurting. When you have grass roots delegations from all parts of the State coming to Indy to state their issues of failed local and state government accountability and transparency, there ought to be media police to safeguard shallow reporting. And Shella's focus was extremely one-sided that put Libertarians in a poor spotlight. Let's face it. These media challenged walking microphone addicts value their livelihood access to Statehouse personnel instead of balanced reporting.

Downtown Indy said...

The best defense is a good offense. Bigger attendance on the 15th is the correct response.

Although I hate to again beat the dead horse, but there is STILL a lot of bitterness within those Bart Peterson supporters and they will take every opportunity to vent.

The reporters tilting their coverage and the bloggers making their snide remarks are doing it because they have no counterarguments with any merit.

One of the first comments that appeared on IndyStar compared the attendees to Timothy McVeigh.

F 'em.

Anonymous said...

We do not hear "truth" in our media; the media is controlled by opponents of Americans and America’s Constitutional Law.

Anonymous said...

Jim Shella is nothing but a controlled media hack. I have listened to his drivel for years and he represents the Fabian, drawing room claptrap that has infected most of the main stream media for the past 50 years.

Its no wonder most of the media conglomerates are all in financial trouble.

I wish there was a manner in which average people could successfully challenge their broadcasting licences and take them away from the greed pigs.

Shella and his fellows are in competition with the amoeba to be among the lowest forms of life on earth.

M Theory said...

SHEPARD ON POLITICS AND POLICY:
http://shepardpolitics.blogspot.com/2009/03/wish-tv-hit-job-bankrupt-country-losing.html

WISH-TV hit Job: Bankrupt Country, Losing Your Property and Corporate Welfare Are Funny to Jim Shella?
On Wednesday, March 25 several taxpayer and property rights groups teamed up with reporters from a few of the more popular Indiana BLOGs to congregate at the Indiana State House. The event was well attended by several hundred people and there were booths staffed by unpaid volunteers that typically had to take a day off from their day job to try and help whatever cause they advocate.

The event's speakers consisted of Republicans, Libertarians and Democrats. Groups from across the state were invited to participate. Several people from the media attended and while there is probably a valid point to be made that the event over reached in it's attempt to be very inclusive and address more than one issue, overall it was a good event with many concerned and well meaning people there.

Unfortunately, one of the local television stations decided to make a big joke out of the event in one of the worst and most unprofessional "hit pieces" I've ever seen done by a (formerly?) reputable news outlet. In fact, Shella did not air any interviews with the organizers or any speakers, instead choosing to cruelly showcase an unpaid volunteer organizer for one group who was not accustomed to media attention and got nervous. He also chose to use only the last few seconds of a much longer interview to ensure the substance of it was removed and then in an obvious hard cut in the middle of a sentence, make one of the Democrat speakers sound like they were against education funding. I mean it was almost as if I said, "If we're not going to properly fund education" and someone cut it to say, "we're not going to fund properly education".

Even more curious, was the blatant attempt to characterize the event as a "Libertarian event". The speakers included people from all three major parties. The booths included a couple of concerned property tax groups as well as the Republican Liberty Caucus, the Campaign for Liberty (mostly Republican volunteers but essentially a non-partisan group) and the people promoting the FairTax (which has 50+ co-sponsors in Congress). I guess because the invited host who introduced the various speakers is a Libertarian and maybe because one of the eight or so booths at the event included one for the Libertarian Party that gave WISH-TV creative license to write a piece of fiction and pass it off as news?

And as the above mentioned invited host of the event, I may be biased but let us just say:

A country with $60 trillion in obligations that is now impossible to pay, well Jim Shella, that's not funny.

Mr. Arnold from Delaware County who had his property taxes jump over $3,000 in one year, I'm sure he appreciates you finding humor in him being given an opportunity speak.

People being threatened with having their family's multi-generational property taken to give to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or other private development projects, yeah, really glad you think that is funny.

People who don't agree with taxpayers being asked to FURTHER SUBSIDIZE sports team season ticket holders to the tune of $1,200 a seat. Yep, Jim Shella, taxing poor people to help pay for billionaire's money losing hobbies ... that one is always a knee-slapper isn't it? Laugh it up.

So instead of focusing on the issues and the concerns of these people, one media outlet decided to try and do a hit job on, I guess, libertarians? Huh? Or was it just an attempt by WISH-TV to tell taxpayers and common citizens who want to vent their frustrations with government to sit down, shut up and take it?

Now, make no mistake, in Indianapolis the local establishment Republicans and the local media perhaps have some things to worry about. For starters, the Republicans here just had one of their elected City Councilors switch to the Libertarian Party after a little over a year in office. This switch was partially brought on by Republican willingness to support, if not their outright promotion of, increasing benefits for the largest welfare recipients in the city, the Indiana Pacers and the Indianapolis Colts as well as unwillingness to address a major conflict of interest on the Capital Improvement Board.

Combine that with the fact that the Libertarian Party of Indiana, has pretty much offered up, regardless of ideology, some of the sharpest, most thoughtful candidates for office in the past several elections and that has led to increasing vote totals for them.

The local newspaper continues to struggle, but overall, several of the local BLOG sites (Advance Indiana, Ogden on Politics, Indiana Barrister) have done more insightful, investigative style reporting and fact finding than I have rarely (if ever) seen from the local newspaper or mainstream media outlets. So, what was the purpose of this blatant disregard for journalistic integrity? I mean, really, to focus their whole segment on a couple of people manning information booths, not the organizers or speakers? I mean, perhaps as some kind of sophomore prank that ultimately just undermines the credibility of the media.

Of course, to make things worse, pro-tax, pro-property confiscation leftists like Thomas Cook at Blue Indiana picked up the story and promoted the fiction. Of course, Thomas is on record as admitting that personal attacks are more fun than journalistic integrity. Hey, we were all young and silly once I suppose. I'm glad a staunch Democrat like Thomas finds government taking money from poor people to give it to sports teams is funny.

Here is what one attendee wrote about the event:

As hard as this may be to comprehend, the speakers actually believed what they were saying. This was not politics as usual, but real human beings, taxpayers no less, who want a change to come about before it’s too late. Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats were all there as this was not about party lines but about true change.

Believe it or not, we made a little noise out in the crowd as different speakers brought up issues that affect us all. While on the surface some of the issues only relate to Indianapolis, such as the Speedway Redevelopment Commission and the Capital Improvement Board, they are really the same thing we all have in our local communities but with different names and on different scales.


We wonder why our country is going down the tubes, but when the media isn't mature enough to take the issues seriously, especially if someone isn't an establishment insider politician or a well-paid, well-spoken lobbyist than the checks on government must come from the people.

Although it's not necessarily the truth, it is nostalgic to think of past days when reporters were the guardians of truth and protectors of freedom rooting out back room secret deals and investigating wrong doing. Even early American and colonial newspapers were used as political tools to promote an agenda so the question of the day is, whose "agenda" was Jim Shella serving with the piece of trash he aired yesterday?

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This is a link to WISH-TV's contact information in case anyone wishes to contact them regarding their blatant mocking of average citizens trying to be heard.

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Don't forget your daily dose of national news and information that is affecting liberty and the economy. Visit The Liberty File.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Shella is a hack for anybody in particular. He strikes me as one of these small-dicked people who gets to be a big shot by way of associating with actual players. He isn't a lawmaker, but he gets to talk to the governor and state senators and reps, so he gets to be big man.

The people involved with this event weren't big deal names, so, for a small-dicked man like Shella, it isn't good for anything but ridicule. I'm big, important Jim Shella! Look at these dumb, insignificant nobodies!

Some guys drive a Hummer as a penis substitute. Jim Shella is Jim Shella instead.