NewsBusters Archive

Current TV’s Bill Press is visibly distraught over the loss of Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch to former Governor Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) in the South Carolina First Congressional District special election.  The liberal commentator was clearly a sore loser on May 8, and took to the radio to openly mock Sanford and the voters of South Carolina. 

Press’ main attack against Sanford was his continued reference to God for his political comeback. "Mark Sanford suddenly he found religion… You know what, alright, so he won but stop the God talk," a bitter Press, himself a former Catholic seminarian, groused. 

Teasing an upcoming panel discussion on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer proclaimed: "Today's Professionals are going to weigh in on what could be a game changer in the gun debate, a plastic pistol undetectable by most security systems that almost anyone can make at home using some modern technology." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Fretting over details being released on how to construct the weapon using a 3D printer, Lauer posed this questions to the usual group of liberal pundits: "What do we do about it?" Attorney Star Jones admitted that there wasn't much that could be done under existing law, "other than really step up our efforts at gun control....if you make the behavior, the penalty for the behavior, the possession of a gun, no matter how it's manufactured, much more stringent."

Appearing for his regular "Miller Time" segment on FNC's The O'Reilly Factor on Tuesday, comedian Dennis Miller denounced former Vice President Al Gore as a "detestable cat" and "a phony," as he recommended that "everybody should shun Al Gore" after he sold Current TV to Al-Jazeera.

After host Bill O'Reilly joked that Gore was a "personal friend' of Miller's, the comedian made a point of denying any friendship with the former Vice President as he began his response:

On Wednesday's NBC Today, news reader Natalie Morales touted a "Today exclusive" with Michelle Obama, playing a clip of a "wide-ranging conversation" between the First Lady and Kelly Wallace of the NBC-owned iVillage website that amounted to little more than a friendly chat about current events and Obama's 2012 book, American Grown.

On CBS's Sunday Morning, correspondent Lee Cowan conducted an identical fawning exchange with Michelle Obama, putting special emphasis on her White House garden: "This is the garden's second term as well....Ever since ground was broken four years ago, kids from all over the country have come to play and plant in the dirt, everything from peas and carrots, to a new crop this year: wheat."

Liberal news anchor Thomas Roberts is known for using advocacy journalism to promote liberal policies on his daily MSNBC show. For example, Roberts, who himself is openly gay, will run pro-gay marriage puff pieces on a regular basis.

On May 8 however, Roberts’ liberal puffery reached new heights as he introduced a new segment entitled  "The Agenda" which features only "reporters who cover progressive issues."

The Washington Post Twitter account pushed this strange thought: "Who's tweeting about Benghazi? Rich, middle-aged men and Chick-fil-A lovers." It links to the Post Politics blog, where Caitlin Dewey wrote a blog post with the same headline.

Dewey turned to a Twitter analysis firm called Demographics Pro to see who's using the #Benghazi hashtag and "helping disseminate, and even steer, the divisive political narrative of what happened that night." The answer seems to be rich white male fans of "hate chicken" restaurants:

The far left hate campaign against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is really quite a sight to behold. The guy clearly is not a conservative but the fact that a political group he founded spent money on a 1-week television ad campaign featuring two senators speaking positively about oil drilling and the Keystone XL pipeline has sent the self-proclaimed merchants of tolerance into a fit of rage.

Not content with manufacturing false allegations of censorship against Zuckerberg and Facebook, extremist groups have now organized a boycott of the social network where they are refusing to purchase ads from the company--for two whole weeks. The threat is pretty absurd on its face but the motivation behind it is no joke. As I wrote last week, the real motive behind the campaign is to intimidate Zuckerberg into bowing down to the jackbooted "progressive" power structure. The recent independence Zuckerberg has demonstrated must not be tolerated.

The Associated Press could not very well ignore today's hearing at which whistleblowers are testifying as to the events surrounding the Benghazi attack and the Obama administration's failed response thereto.  So AP did the next best thing from its liberal perspective: it downplayed the hearing's significance, casting it as a purely partisan event in its headline as a "GOP hearing."

That is not mere MSM spin: it is blatant journalistic malpractice.  This is not some unofficial hearing held under Republican auspices.  It is an entirely official hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  Yes, there has in recent times been a faux House "hearing" held by a political party for partisan purposes.  That would be the "hearing" held by Democrats in February 2012, featuring Sandra Fluke.  More after the jump.

The extent of the media's influence to shape public opinion was on full display in a new Pew Research Center poll that shows, even though gun crime has dropped by half since its peak in the mid '90s, most Americans (56 percent) wrongly think gun violence has increased.

In an L.A. Times article that highlighted the poll, Emily Alpert posited "It's unclear whether media coverage is driving the misconception that such violence is up. The mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., were among the news stories most closely watched by Americans last year, Pew found."