President Bush's fiscal 2009 budget proposal calls for a 7.5 percent hike in Defense spending and a 5 percent jump in spending for Medicare and Medicaid, but while CBS anchor Katie Couric on Monday night correctly stated that Pentagon spending would “rise” in the Bush plan, she erroneously asserted “spending on Medicare and Medicaid would go down.” Similarly, while ABC's Martha Raddatz cited the call for an “increase” in DOD's budget, she falsely reported: “Medicare and Medicaid would be cut by almost $200 billion.”

On FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume, reporter James Rosen scolded the sloppy reporting of his journalistic colleagues, specifically how “the New York Times' lead article on the subject referred matter of factly to the 'trimming' of Medicare and Medicaid. In fact, Medicare will continue to see its budget grow, by 5 percent instead of 7.2 percent.”

Don't take NewsBusters's word for it. According to Lanny Davis, with one exception MSNBC has donned flippers and goggles to go entirely in the tank for Barack Obama.

Davis, who made his bones tirelessly defending Bill Clinton during the dark Lewinsky days, appeared on Tucker Carlson's show this evening. Tucker opened the conversation by asking whether Davis sensed Obama's momentum. But Lanny was more interested in getting his point on the record about MSNBC's pro-Obama bias.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) the oldest news agency in the world and the largest French news agency, has been caught recycling two-year-old Congressional subcommittee testimony as current news.

On Sunday, AFP released an article, "US Qaeda strategy fatally flawed; analysts," which opened:

Maybe they should have added a few carbon credits to this Super Bowl bet.

NBC's "Today" co-anchor Meredith Vieira lost a bet to fellow co-anchor Matt Lauer for the New York Giants 17-14 win over the New England Patriots. But it wasn't exactly a carbon-neutral endeavor.

"[Y]ou know, let's check the traffic chopper, chopper four for Meredith - to see how traffic is over the West Side [of New York City] - and you can see, it's still clear," "Today" meteorologist Al Roker said on the February 4 show. "It's still clear, the traffic and in fact, it's perfect for planes flying overhead, ‘Giants Rule, Meredith drools.'"

Pour Some Sugar On Me

Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) is having a one hour town hall meeting on the Hallmark Channel this evening, the eve of Super Tuesday, with an extra half hour for internet interaction. It begins at 9:00pm EST.

The hostess? Former ABC News pseudo-journalist and current Clinton endorser Carole Simpson.

The only thing that might be more lovey-dovey (and nauseating) than this arrangement is its description by New York Democrat Representative Anthony D. Weiner.

(Diabetics beware.)

Throughout Monday’s CBS "Early Show," co-hosts Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez gushed over Obama and some of his recent famous female endorsements, beginning with Smith’s proclamation at the top of show: "With 24 hours to go, a CBS News poll shows Barack Obama has knocked down Hillary Clinton's lead going into Super Tuesday. Are the 'Obama Girls' making a difference as Oprah, Caroline, Michelle and now Maria hit the trail?"

In later segment, Rodriguez continued to look at the influence of these endorsements:

Ahead this morning, the power of 'O' in California. The Obama all-stars hit the campaign trail...You've probably seen 'Obama Girl' on the internet, and now you're seeing Obama's girls on the campaign trail. All powerful women recognized by their first names. We're talking about Oprah, Caroline, Michelle and now Maria.

I’m pretty sure that Oprah excluded, no one recognizes Caroline Kennedy, Michelle Obama, or Maria Shriver, solely by their first names.

Imagine someone going on the radio and using Scripture to give you advice on your finances. To ABC's "World News," following this advice involves "radical" action.

The February 3 "World News Sunday" featured the financial advice of Howard Dayton. Dayton incorporates the Bible into his advice and says it's Biblical to get out of debt as soon as possible. But "World News" anchor Dan Harris portrayed the followers of this advice as a fringe element.

"Dayton urges families to pay them [debts, including home mortgages] off as quickly as possible, even if it involves radical belt tightening - advice the Pruitt family is following," Harris said.

As NewsBusters reported Saturday, conservative author Ann Coulter told Fox News's Sean Hannity that she will campaign for Hillary Clinton if John McCain wins the Republican presidential nomination.

On Sunday's "This Week," ABC's George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton adviser, asked the junior senator from New York the following question concerning this matter:

What do you make of the fact that Ann Coulter says she's going to support you if John McCain gets the Republican Nomination?

Hillary responded (video available here):

"View" co-host Joy Behar offered her political expertise to explain the conservative opposition to John McCain: Conservatives support "torture" (a liberal propaganda term for CIA interrogation methods of actual terrorists). On the February 4 edition of "The View," Behar, who considers the term "fringe liberal" "name calling," explains why "very extreme right wing conservatives" oppose McCain.

BEHAR: Ann Coulter, she says, Coulter, who makes a living by being provocative, picked a predictably offensive reason to oppose McCain. Quote, from Ann, "he has led the fight against torture at Guantanamo." That’s why she doesn’t like him because he is against torture. I think that’s fascinating.

GOLDBERG: I think if she meets him, he would torture her.

BEHAR: Well, she tortures us plenty.

Sen. John McCain may not have won the favor of Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter, but he has some upside in the eyes of The New Republic Editor Franklin Foer.

Foer appeared at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., on February 1 to promote his new book, "Election 2008: A Voter's Guide."

"[I] think that McCain has certain political virtues that other Republicans don't, which is that he actually has kind of a record of being, of being conciliatory - that there's actually - I mean, I don't what it means for the electoral future of the Democratic Party, but there are the possibilities for doing some interesting things with McCain as a leader, and I'm mostly thinking about global warming - where McCain has the best track record on energy and environment on the Republican side in the Senate," Foer concluded. "So, I think you have some really good possibility for a Nixon-to-China type solution to climate change if he decides that that's going to be the thing he is going to use to build a bridge."

On the verge of foisting McCain on the Republican Party -- and then turning viciously upon him

Straight Talk

The media’s long love affair with the maverick, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, may be finally about to bear presidential primary fruit.

The Straight Talk Express has taken a circuitous route to the precipice of the Republican nomination and -- throughout the journey -- its co-pilot has been the national media, who rarely have loved a Republican more.

Former New York Times White House reporter Elisabeth Bumiller is on the campaign trail after writing a book on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but Monday's "Once a Thorn, McCain Now Courts a Wary Party" betrayed some ignorance about the nature of past opposition to McCain.

At least Bumiller's honest about McCain's base:

He says he is not enough of a masochist to listen to Rush Limbaugh. He jokes at a Republican dinner about a looming foreign policy crisis: "I have a four-hour speech on the North Korean nuclear buildup that I know you've been waiting for." And he still treats the media as his No. 1 constituency, plying them with nonstop talk and stories, like one about a date from his Navy days who cleaned her nails with a switchblade.

Then it's on to the myth about McCain's summer meltdown:

Remember at the beginning of January, just hours before the New Hampshire primary, and days after a devastating loss to Sen. Barack Obama in the Iowa caucuses, Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton teared-up in front of the camera, and a sycophantic media fell for it hook, line, and sinker?

Of course, many political pundits felt this was partially responsible for her victory in New Hampshire the following day.

Now, with polls showing Obama in very good position to shock the world in tomorrow's Super Tuesday primaries, Hillary's tearing up again (video available here), raising some very important, albeit likely obvious questions:

The voters had a temper tantrum last week . . . Parenting and governing don't have to be dirty words: the nation can't be run by an angry two-year-old. -- Peter Jennings, November 14, 1994, on the Republican landslide.

[C]onservatives . . . can choose to stand aside from history while having a temper tantrum. But they should consider that the American people might then choose not to invite them back into a position of responsibility for quite a while to come. -- William Kristol, February 4, 2008, on conservative aversion to McCain.

It's one thing to have been bawled out by the late Peter Jennings. But do conservatives have to have their knuckles rapped by one of their own, Bill Kristol? Apparently yes, as per the Weekly Standard editor's New York Times column of today, Dyspepsia on the Right.

ABC reporter Deborah Roberts interviewed Michelle Obama on Monday's "Good Morning America" and glossed over some of the more controversial statements of this "fascinating," "straight-talking," "charming" woman.

Roberts appeared comfortable repeating talking points from "the spouse of politics' newest star" and didn't challenge Mrs. Obama on her assertion, from November 2007, that it will be America's fault if her husband isn't elected. Instead, Roberts simply recited, "I asked her about race in this campaign....She and her husband refuse to dwell on it." Continuing the spin, she added, "They genuinely believe that people want to move beyond that, talk about something else."

On the Monday "Today" show co-host Ann Curry was breaking down the delegate counts for each Super Tuesday state with NBC's political director Chuck Todd but when it came to finding Barack Obama's home state of Illinois on the map, Curry pointed to Minnesota instead.

The following exchange occurred on the February 4 "Today" show:

ANN CURRY: Okay let's talk about the home states because we've got Illinois--

When I am loitering on the NewsBuster homepage I noticed that it will auto-refresh from time to time. Is this a new feature? Can it be turned off? I don't like to "turn the page" until I have looked at the current stories, but they keep getting pushed down the page.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

H/t ML.

How fixated is the MSM on its beloved Democrats? In a recent week, the media bestowed more coverage on Bill Clinton than on any of the Republican presidential candidates.

That's the finding of the The Project for Excellence in Journalism [PEJ], a part of the Pew Research Center, which has never been accused of right-wing tendencies.

Not that we need any more proof that our colleges and universities have degraded to near foolishness, but the Daily Collegian, a paper that bills itself as "New England's largest college daily," gives us one more reason to assume it is true. The paper, published at the University of Massachusetts, gives us an uninformed screed against Ronald Reagan that is a mere exercise in name calling as opposed to a cogent review of Reagan's presidency. And, most ridiculous of all, the headline to the piece spells Reagan's name "Regan." Apparently this "school" doesn't have an encyclopedia handy to find out about this "Regan" guy?

Like many college journalist wannabes they assume that petulance and bombast is the road to "journalism" and this fellow, Ted Rogers, is no different. He begins by smearing Reagan admirers as sexual perverts: