By ,
Published January 25, 2017
Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Never a Muslim?
Barack Obama's chief spokesman has been saying since January that the Democratic presidential candidate has never been a practicing Muslim. Now the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Obama was registered as a Muslim when he attended primary school in Indonesia.
The Times quotes friends and teachers as saying Obama took Muslim religious classes in school and went to prayers at a local mosque. The Obama campaign reacted to the story this morning by reiterating its position that the senator "has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim and is a committed Christian."
Media Bias
83 percent of likely voters in the latest Zogby Internet poll say the media are biased in their reporting — with 64 percent feeling that the bias is tilted to the left. 97 percent of Republicans detect a liberal bias — two-thirds of independents agree — and even 17 percent of Democrats said the media favor the left.
Just 28 percent of the online respondents said there was a conservative slant in news coverage.
Good News Is No News
The news from Iraq that violence in Baghdad is down just one month into the new security crackdown didn't make a dent in most major newspaper front pages — and was buried in many.
The New York Times had it on page 16 today. The L.A. Times page 6, and the Chicago Tribune page 10. The decrease was mentioned in Wednesday's Washington Post on page 9 and the Boston Globe's page 13.
On the broadcast networks there was a brief mention on NBC's nightly newscast — but we could not find any reference on the ABC or CBS evening news shows.
Global Warming Woes
It appears global warming is causing major emotional distress for some of the rich and famous. Business Week says famed Silicon Valley Democratic supporter and venture capitalist John Doerr recently choked up during a speech at the TED conference — an annual meeting of high-techies, celebrities and politicians. Doerr told the crowd that he feared for his teenage daughter and said, "I don't think we're going to make it."
Meanwhile actress and Ben Affleck's wife Jennifer Garner says she cries a lot lately and climate change is one of the reasons. Garner tells The Post Chronicle that since she became a mother, "I cry more because I care about things more. I've always cared about global warming and breast cancer, but now there seems to be an urgency about them."
—FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/new-information-on-whether-barack-obama-was-once-a-practicing-muslim