Tipped off to Felt?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Conservative Media Crisis?

The president of the Newspaper Guild (search) says conservative bias is a major crisis in the media and that balanced reporting is used by conservatives in place of the truth. Participating in a panel discussion at the "Take Back America" conference, Linda Foley (search) said, "The conservatives have got us, as a country, now believing that balance — giving both sides — is the same as truth, and there are some things that are just false."

According to the conservative CyberCast News Service, Foley added, "The discussion that we have to have balanced reports is kind of crazy."

Tipped off to Felt

Though most people had no idea about the identity of Watergate source "Deep Throat" until just this week, it turns out President Nixon (search) and his aides thought they knew who the leaker was early on. Four months after the Watergate break-in, in a taped conversation from October 1972, President Nixon's chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman (search), told the President that deputy FBI director Mark Felt was the main source of Watergate leaks.

In spite of that, a few years later, Nixon had overcome any grudges he might have had. When President Reagan (search) pardoned Felt for having authorized FBI break-ins of leftist groups linked to the bombings of federal buildings, Nixon was gracious and sent Felt a bottle of champagne with a note reading "Justice has prevailed."

Baseball Buzz

Liberal financier George Soros (search) has expressed an interest in buying DC's new baseball team, the Washington Nationals — and Beltway conservatives are already squawking over the possibility. Ed Brookover, the former political director at the Republican Congressional Committee, tells the Washington Times that having what he calls "the biggest socialist around" as the owner of DC's major league team is "mind-boggling."

Investor Dal Mitchell, whose father was a major leaguer, says he'd "have pause" about supporting the Nats with Soros as an owner. And conservative publicist Craig Shirley says that if Soros gets the Nationals, "the president of France should throw out the first ball."

Turner to CNN: Can the Perverts

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, CNN founder Ted Turner (search) has some advice for his former network — stop covering the "pervert of the day," as he put it. Turner told an audience of journalists that he was tired of seeing "three stories about perversion at the lead of every half-hour."

He also revealed that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (search) inspired CNN International, relating that Castro told him "Ted, the whole world needs CNN." Turner says he thought, "if Castro needs it, certainly the capitalists around the world could use it."

Amazingly, Turner also claimed some credit for ending the standoff with the Soviet Union. Pointing to his sponsorship of the Goodwill Games, along with CNN, he said, "I thought, between sports and news and television and friendship, that you could end the Cold War and, by God, we did."

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report