The News Network Saying the Country Is in a Recession

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Rad Mag

Barack Obama has professed surprise at the radical and anti-American rants of his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, saying he was never in church when Wright made such comments. Obama must also not have read his church's popular newsmagazine either.

Wright founded Trumpet Magazine back in 1982, and as Stanley Kurtz writes in The Weekly Standard — "glance through even a single issue of Trumpet, and Wright's radical politics are everywhere."

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was on the cover of a December 2007 issue along with Reverend Wright’s description of him as a "21st century giant."

In the May 2006 issue, Wright likened hurricane Katrina to "the flood waters of white supremacy", adding "that is an analogy that we need to drum into the heads of our African-American children."

And in another article Wright calls African-Americans "songbirds" who are locked in quote "this cage called America."

The "R" Word

It appears that CNN has decided the U.S. is in a recession even though the economic data do not support that claim.

On its Web site, CNN posted the exit poll results from Tuesday's West Virginia primary which asked voters if and how the "recession" has affected their family. All the major television networks use the same exit poll questionnaire.

And, while that generic survey asked voters, "Has the current recession or economic slowdown affected you and your family?"

Other networks, including this one, used the term "economic slowdown" when reporting the results. A recession is defined as at least two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. The last quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 were marked by slow, but positive economic growth.

Liberal Arts

How liberal is the University of Colorado at Boulder? Well, according to one professor's analysis, the 800-strong faculty includes just 32 Republicans.

That has led Chancellor Bud Peterson to announce plans to raise $9 million to create an endowed chair for what is thought to be the nation's first professor of conservative thought and policy.

But the idea has been greeted with protests from students and faculty. Even some conservatives who have pushed for academic balance are voicing concerns.

Conservative author and activist David Horowitz says that setting up a token right-winger will brand the person as a curiosity like "an animal in the zoo."

And, conservative columnist George Will, whose name has been floated as an option to fill the post, says, "Like Margaret Mead among the Samoans, they're planning on studying conservatives. That's hilarious."

To Sir with Love

And finally, Sir Paul McCartney has received a new gift from Toyota — a brand new hybrid Lexus which costs around $160,000. But McCartney, who helped promote the eco-friendly vehicle, is not a bit happy about it.

Instead of arriving by boat, the car was flown to Britain on a Korean Air flight, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than if it had come by sea.

A source close to the former Beatle says he is horrified, and that, "Paul has always campaigned for green issues and he can't understand why anyone would send an enormous car from Japan to Britain on a plane."

— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.