On The Trib Watch

First off, the circle jerk.

In an editorial today about "ObamaCare" Richard Mellon Scaife's brain trust writes:

In fact, ObamaCare tax credits that offset health insurance costs for firms with 25 or fewer workers making an average of $25,000 annually are counterproductive for employment and wage growth -- a major economic shortcoming, particularly when far too many Americans are jobless.

One author of a new National Center for Policy Analysis study on the credits even told The Hill newspaper that they create a "perverse incentive not to have businesses grow by not encouraging them to hire new workers."

Missing, of course, from the editorial is any mention of the millions of dollars given to the National Center for Policy Analysis by foundations controlled by Trib owner, Richard Mellon Scaife.

The Mediamatters.org reports that over the last two and a half decades or so, a little more than $2.25 million has been funneled from the Carthage and Sarah Scaife foundations.

Scaife funds the think tank and then his paper reports on that think tank's "findings" without mentioning his support. Tell me again that there's no "vast right wing conspiracy."

On another point, Craig Smith interviews Oliver North. And here is how North is described:

A combat-decorated Marine, author and syndicated columnist, North says his most important accomplishment is being "the husband of one, the father of four and the grandfather of 11."

Assigned to the National Security Council staff in the Reagan administration, North helped plan the rescue of 804 medical students on Grenada and played a major role in the capture of the hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro.

Miss anything? Maybe something like this from Lawrence Walsh's IranContra Report:

On April 6, 1989, North took the stand in his own defense. For six days, North admitted to having assisted the contras during the Boland prohibition on U.S. aid, to having shredded and removed from the White House official documents, to having converted traveler's checks for his personal use, to having participated in the creation of false chronologies of the U.S. arms sales, to having lied to Congress and to having accepted a home security-system from Secord and then fabricating letters regarding payment for the system. But, North testified, ``I don't believe I ever did anything that was criminal.''

Yea, I can see why they'd want to try to erase that part.