NEWS AND OPINION:
For those with serious interest in otherworldly things, don’t forget: The House Oversight subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs will hold a hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency” at 10 a.m. Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
The committee is investigating the increase in sightings of UAPs — or UFOs, if you prefer — and the impact this has on national security, among other things.
“The Pentagon and Washington bureaucrats have kept this information hidden for decades, and we’re finally going to shed some light on it. We’re bringing in credible witnesses who can provide public testimony because the American people deserve the truth. We’re done with the cover-ups,” Rep. Tim Burchett, Tennessee Republican, said in a written statement on Tuesday.
Interested?
This unique event will be shown live on C-SPAN. If you can’t get the public affairs network — long the master of Capitol Hill coverage — via cable, visit CSPAN.org or watch the committee’s livestream at https://oversight.house.gov.
The witnesses at the hearing will be Ryan Graves, executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace; Cmdr. David Fravor, former commanding officer of the Navy’s Black Aces Squadron; and David Grusch, former national reconnaissance officer representative with the Defense Department’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force.
“More people believe in UFOs than they do Congress,” Mr. Burchett said during a recent press conference announcing that the hearing would take place.
THE FOX NEWS COOKBOOK
Those with a taste for Fox News are in luck. Literally.
Fox News Books, the publishing imprint of Fox News Media, soon will release “Cooking with Friends,” authored by “Fox & Friends First” co-host Carley Shimkus.
Yes, the new book will be chock full of recipes and photos from cast members, along with network personalities and special guests. Those recipes will also include the personal stories behind them.
Among the many contributors: Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Pete Hegseth and Janice Dean. Other recipes will come from FNC’s Martha MacCallum, Shannon Bream, Bret Baier, Johnny Joey Jones, and Jeanine Pirro. The book arrives Oct. 10.
“I have always loved spending time in the kitchen and being a foodie myself, know these tried-and-true dishes will not disappoint,” Ms. Shimkus said in a written statement shared with Inside the Beltway.
Among the recipes: The author’s grandmother’s apple cake, her father’s linguine with clam sauce, barbecued deviled eggs and a diner-style burger.
This marks the eighth book issued by Fox News Books — which has sold 2 million books so far, according to the network, all of them earning a place on “multiple national bestseller lists.”
A TEPID REACTION
“President Biden’s economic policies have recently found strong support within his own Democratic Party and among the big media. Yet, despite the push by Biden’s most ardent supporters, a majority of average voters disagree that the president’s policies are turning the economy around,” writes Terry Jones, editor of Issues & Insights, a news organization affiliated with the TIPP Poll.
“The president in recent weeks has maintained that his economic policies are ‘turning things around’ and ‘delivering for the American people,’ and has made other comments intended to boost support for Bidenomics,” Mr. Jones writes.
“But by 51% to 42%, Americans disagree with those assessments, based on the online I&I/TIPP Poll, taken July 5-7 from 1,341 adults,” he adds.
THE SELECTIVE NETWORKS
The “Big Three” networks – that’s CBS, NBC and ABC — have been very selective in their coverage of illegal immigration these days. So says an in-depth study of the phenomenon released Tuesday by Bill D’Agostino, media editor and senior research analyst for Newsbusters.org, a conservative press watchdog.
“Despite overcrowded processing facilities and thousands of unauthorized daily crossings, ABC, CBS, and NBC’s flagship evening newscasts prefer to cover the crisis from the perspective of illegal immigrants,” he writes.
The study examined broadcast coverage of America’s immigration crisis that aired between Oct. 1 and July 20 on the three networks. In the past nine months, they provided a total of 254 minutes of border crisis coverage on their evening newscasts alone.
“However, less than 15% of that airtime discussed the issues posed by the massive influx of uninvited illegal aliens. For example, only 1.9% of the coverage was spent on the massive amount of illegal substances being smuggled into the country,” Mr. D’Agostino wrote.
“The broadcast networks were intensely interested in Title 42 — a COVID-era restriction lifted in May of this year — and in fact, that topic alone comprised more than half of their border coverage. Almost every discussion of Title 42 emphasized how difficult the restriction had made life for would-be illegal immigrants lined up at the border,” he said.
“As is often the case with ABC, CBS, and NBC, the newscasts continued to focus almost exclusively on the plight of illegal immigrants. Nearly every full-length report included sound bites from migrants desperate to enter the United States. Throughout all 254 minutes of border coverage, they never once used the terms ‘illegal immigration,’ ‘illegal immigrant,’ or ‘illegal alien.’ They also failed to report on a single crime committed by an illegal alien who had entered the country during this period,” Mr. D’Agostino noted.
Find his complete study at Newsbusters.org.
POLL DU JOUR
• 20% of U.S. adults have relocated or have made plans to relocate in the last year.
• 39% of this group rank the affordability of housing in the area they have chosen to live in as “extremely important.”
• 38% cite the overall cost of living as extremely important in that area.
• 37% cite the local crime rate.
• 28% cite affordable health care.
• 23% cite the climate in the area in which they will live.
• 20% cite the availability of jobs.
SOURCE: An Ipsos poll of 1,110 U.S. adults conducted July 18-19. Respondents could cite multiple reasons as being “extremely important.”
• Contact Jennifer Harper at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.