Something to admire from Bob Pitts of the Miami Herald:

“And then Bob Costas said no.

“Maybe you didn’t hear about it. There’s so much news to keep track of, after all, what with Paris Hilton maybe or maybe not getting married, Angelina Jolie maybe or maybe not sleeping with Brad Pitt and Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs announcing to a breathlessly waiting world that henceforth he will be known simply as ‘Diddy,’ because the ‘P’ was ‘getting between me and my fans.’

“So maybe you missed Costas’ modest stand for principle. It seems he was scheduled to guest-host Larry King’s program on CNN recently on a night when the agenda included yet another discussion of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared in Aruba.

“When he found out the program’s planned focus, Costas asked the producers whether they would find another topic. They refused, and Costas declined to do the show.

“‘I didn’t think the subject matter of Thursday’s show was the kind of broadcast I should be doing,’ he said in a written statement. That’s as specific as Costas has chosen to be in explaining why he wouldn’t do the show, which leaves plenty of room for conjecture. You’ll pardon me if I take advantage of it.”

JOURNALISTS HELD IN IRAQ

This just in:

“Re: the case of Reuters cameraman Ali Al-Mashhadani — a secret tribunal has ordered that he be held, without charge, in Abu Ghraib for up to 6 months. Reuters is extremely concerned at this development and is calling on the US military to release him immediately or publicly air the case against him and give him the opportunity to defend himself.

“The U.S. military have also confirmed that five journalists for major news media are in detention, including Mashhadani and another freelance cameraman who has worked for Reuters, as well as a cameraman for the U.S. television network CBS. ”

TRUMP THIS

TV show inspires Russian copycat:

“…shows on TV today are vulgar, filled with lies like in Soviet times… In Chance, five groups of four individuals try to build a small business from scratch…”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10343215

HOW WOULD JESUS POLL?

On new Pew Center findings:

“Both major political parties have a problem with their approach toward religion, in the eyes of many Americans. More than four-in-ten say that liberals who are not religious have too much control over the Democratic Party, while an almost identical percentage says that religious conservatives have too much influence over the Republican Party.

“The public also has distinctly different perceptions of both parties when it comes to dealing with religion and personal freedoms. By a wide margin — 51% to 28% — the GOP is seen as the party most concerned with protecting religious values. By a nearly identical margin (52%-30%), the Democratic Party is perceived as most concerned with protecting the freedom of citizens to make personal choices.

“Yet the Democrats’ strength in this area is overshadowed by a sharp erosion in the number of Americans who believe the party is friendly toward religion. Only about three-in-ten (29%) see the Democrats as friendly toward religion, down from 40% last August. Meanwhile, a solid majority (55%) continues to view the Republicans as friendly toward religion.

“However, independents are more critical of the influence of religious conservatives on the Republican Party than they are of the influence of secular liberals on the Democratic Party. Most independents (54%) think religious conservatives have too much influence over the Republican Party, while fewer, 43%, think secular liberals have too much sway on the Democratic Party.

“The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted July 7-17 among 2,000 adults, finds deep religious and political differences over questions relating to evolution and the origins of life. Overall, about half the public (48%) says that humans and other living things have evolved over time, while 42% say that living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. Fully 70% of white evangelical Protestants say that life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time; fewer than half as many white mainline Protestants (32%) and white Catholics (31%) agree.”

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050465