Slanted Press or Slanted Blogs?

"Ali Fadhil, who two months ago won the Foreign Press Association young journalist of the year award, was hooded and taken for questioning. He was released hours later.

"Dr Fadhil is working with Guardian Films on an investigation for Channel 4's Dispatches programme into claims that tens of millions of dollars worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated.

"The troops told Dr Fadhil that they were looking for an Iraqi insurgent and seized video tapes he had shot for the programme. These have not yet been returned."

GOP chairman Ken Mehlman sat down with Michelle Malkin, Captain Ed Morrissey and other conservative bloggers. Part of his message, says the Captain:

"1. Positive agenda for change -- Defending the status quo won't do.

"Need to be seen as reformers -- leadership already turning towards that. We need a smaller government to combat this kind of corruption. Reduce government, reduce corruption. But then how do we reform lobbying and government? Full and quicker disclosure. Keep in mind that what Jack Abramoff did was theft and kickbacks, and that should always be aggressively prosecuted."

Right Side Redux has a photo of the historic event.

By the way, I linked to a Raw Story piece last week suggesting that the Abramoff probe was sparked by an angry ex-girlfriend of Jack's partner Michael Scanlon. But my Post colleagues note that the paper reported the actual genesis in a February, 2004 article by Sue Schmidt:

"The FBI has stepped up an investigation into alleged spending irregularities by one of Abramoff's clients -- the 800-member Louisiana Coushatta tribe, which takes in hundreds of millions of dollars yearly from its casino."

Finally, Howard Stern 's satellite debut: "The F word was there, and a few others that can't be reprinted, but the show fell just short of a celebration of George Carlin's famed seven dirty words. In fact, Stern said he was limiting the use of expletives, although there were lapses."