ABCNews.com

Let's get this straight [pardon the pun]: A beauty contest contestant with a conservative view on same-sex marriage upsets an openly gay blogger with her answer to his question about her thoughts on the issue. Yet in reporting the story, ABCNews.com paints her as the bad guy for offending the celebrity judge, while failing to mention that a majority of said beauty queen's fellow Californians agree with her views.

Welcome to the saga of Carrie Prejean, Miss California, whom ABCNews.com describes as having "floored" gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who went on to "skewer" the Miss USA runner-up for her honest answer in an angry video blog entry.

What caused celebrity judge Hilton to seethe so? Only Prejean's honest, politely-delivered answer. Quotes ABCNews.com's Luchina Fisher:

It must be hard to keep a straight face when you report that the President of United States going to cut $100 million from a $3.5 trillion budget and then say he is serious about cutting government spending.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs couldn't pull it off. In the White House's April 20 press briefing, Gibbs was asked by Associated Press reporter Jennifer Loven why the $100-million target was so small and she even accused him of making a joke about it.

"I'm being completely sincere that only in Washington, D.C. is $100 million not a lot of money," Gibbs said. "It is where I'm from.  It is where I grew up.  And I think it is for hundreds of millions of Americans."

But somehow, CNN correspondent Elaine Quijano pulled it off. Originally on CNN's April 20 "American Morning," and again on CNN throughout April 20, Quijano reported the Obama administration was making an effort to cut spending.

Is pessimism about the economy really the new porn?

ABC's Dan Harris inquired about that possibility in an April 9 "Quick Fix" video for ABCNews.com. But he didn't examine ABC's role in promoting pessimistic or apocalyptic news which has been happening for years.

"Here's something I'm fixated on this week," Harris teased. "A little something called pessimism porn. That is a term coined by the good folks over at New York Magazine and it refers to the fact that there are a lot of people who've become addicted to reading apocalyptic news about the economy online."

According to Harris, "People are logging on to read all sorts of dire predictions about a new Great Depression, bread lines, riots. You name it." 

"Iowa Gives Gay Marriage a Thumbs Up," trumpets the front page teaser headline on ABCNews.com. But, the subhead explains, it was "Iowa's Supreme Court" not the people via their legislature or direct referendum that opened the door to same-sex marriage by finding the state's ban on the ceremony "violates [the state] Constitution."

The accompanying photo illustration (shown at right) depicts two (presumably) masculine, wedding-band-sporting left hands embracing. In the background is a long, unfurled rainbow flag, held aloft by marchers in a parade.

The story itself was filed by Amy Lorentzen of the Associated Press.  Lorentzen jumped quickly into the jubilant reaction of gay marriage activists, but found no space for comment from traditional values advocates in her 18-paragraph story. 

The ABCNews.com Law and Justice front page currently features an article, dramatically titled "Will Steal For Food: Crisis Creates Criminals." On that same page, alleged bank robber Bruce Windsor is featured in an orange jumpsuit above a caption that reads: "In poor economy, police have arrested a rash of atypical alleged bank robbers."

The latest Stephanopoulos entry on ABC News needs a reality check, in a big way, and Erick Erickson of RedState hit it perfectly.

The Democrat-turned-born-again-journalist posted the following story on his ABC News blog today, claiming that Eric Cantor had repudiated Rush Limbaugh's CPAC rhetoric:

“Defending his attacks against President Barack Obama's economic plans, Limbaugh said Saturday to the conservative conference, "What is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundations?"

Cantor today rejected Limbaugh's rhetoric.

"So the Rush Limbaugh approach of hoping the president fails is not the Eric Cantor, House Republican approach?" I asked.

In February, in the build up to the ultimate passage of President Barack Obama's $787-billion stimulus package, there was a lot of discussion about how much the stimulus was going to help the ailing economy. And to promote the bill, Obama visited a Caterpillar plant in Peoria, Ill.

Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., who represents the 18th Congressional District of Illinois, where the Caterpillar plant is located, described Obama's visit and how he used it to lobby him to vote for the bill. It was another side of the story that went unreported by the media.

Obama singled out Schock in his Feb. 12 appearance, telling his audience to visit with the Illinois congressman and encouraged him "to do the right thing for the people of Peoria."

But despite the president's rhetoric, leading up to the bill passage and being signed into law, Schock told a group assembled at the Heritage Foundation's Blogger's Briefing on March 3 he did not hear from a single Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) employee urging him to vote for the stimulus bill, while hearing from 1,400 self-identified Caterpillar employees telling him not to vote for it. It eventually passed in the House by a 244-188 margin, without a single Republican vote.

ABC News is excited about porn. At least excited by the "fact" that conservative and religious states have the highest levels of porn usage in the country. This, ABC says, is according to a study by Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School. Yes, it's another one of those dime-a-dozen studies.

ABC trumpets the bare "facts" in its February 28 piece titled, "Porn in the USA: Conservatives Are Biggest Consumers." In its first few paragraphs the report claims that, "Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious" than states in the more liberal areas of the country. But there is a problem with ABC's heavy-handed claim. Even the Harvard researcher doesn't put too much emphasis on the "conservative states" aspect because his data doesn't show a very wide gulf between states, conservative or not.

Well, isn't THIS interesting.

In a December post (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I reviewed ABC's online "The Faces of Political Scandal" slideshow, which featured mini-profiles of 14 politicians in recent years who have been tainted by scandal and/or crime.

At the time, I noted that:

Of the 14 politicians identified, seven are Democrats and seven are Republicans. Five of the seven GOP members are identified as such, while only two of the seven Democrats were flagged. The montage also has a couple of surprising factual errors.

Well, glory be, sometime in the past couple of months, ABC has made changes to the montage. Now each profile except for Bill Clinton's (which is excusable) identifies the politician's party. Additionally, two factual errors at the original profiles have been corrected. The year of Clinton's Lewinsky scandal which ultimately led to his acts of perjury and impeachment has been changed from 1995 to 1998, and an incorrect statement that sex-scandalized Florida Democratic Congressman Tim Mahoney had conceded to GOP opponent Tom Rooney before Election Day last year has been removed.

Here's the lineup of the "Faces of Political Scandal," and how their status changed:

The ABC News medical unit wants to warn you about a stunning new risk to your health: fast food. Amazingly, it "ups your stroke risk" ABC tells us. Of course, we all know that eating too much fast food is bad for us, right? Well ABC has even more startling news. It isn't necessarily only eating the stuff that'll kill you. You see, ABC wants us to believe that just living near fast food places will kill you, too.

Now stop laughing. I think ABC is serious with this stuff.

ABC unleashed this "news" piece on February 19 with a headline that screams "Living Near Fast Food Ups Stroke Risk" and based it on yet another one of those groundbreaking "studies" that are always touted as "science." This piece is filled with dire warnings and shocking conclusions... unless you actually read it, that is. Then you find it is really built on conjecture, maybes and assumptions instead of hard proof. So much for science.

Sleep a little, miss a lot.

As noted Friday evening (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), Jake Tapper at ABC's Political Punch blog revealed that former South Dakota senator Tom Daschle, Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, had failed to pay over $100,000 in federal income taxes for 2005, 2006, and 2007, because he did not originally report the "the services of (a free) car and driver" provided to him by his employer, private equity firm InterMedia Advisers.

At 11:24 last night, Tapper posted a separate update (HT to NB commenter "slickwillie2001") indicating that Daschle's tax problems involve larger amounts, go well beyond the matter of a "mere" car and driver, and are not completely resolved (bolds are mine):

Former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle (picture at right is part of a Getty Images pic at a related New York Times story) has just upped the ante in Washington's tax-avoiding/evading game of "Can you top this?"

Whereas recently confirmed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "only" $40,000 in back taxes and interest, principally relating to unpaid Social Security and Medicare taxes (with a dash of retirement-plan penalty and illegally deducted overnight summer camp expenses included in the mix), the man who Rush Limbaugh used to call "Puff" Daschle during his Senate days has upped to ante to six figures.

Jake Tapper at ABC's Political Punch appears to be the one breaking the story (HT NRO's The Corner):

Bumps in the Road: Obama's HHS Secretary Nominee Faces Tax Questions Over Car and Driver

A 14-picture slideshow of "Historic Moments of Inaugurations Past" that begins with an illustration of Washington's 1793 swearing-in and mostly includes flattering photos of other commanders-in-chief ends not with a photo of President George W. Bush but of left-wing protestors at his first inauguration. (h/t e-mail tipster Chris Lowery)

Even President Nixon was shown flashing his "classic double victory salute" to inauguration attendees in 1969. Of course,the  caption accompanying that picture noted that he "was greeted with less than warm feelings from the crowds. Protestors threw smoke bombs, sticks and stones at the presidential limo on its way to the Capitol Building."

Yet when it came to portraying President Bush's inauguration, ABCNews.com photo editors decided to show protestors at the 2001 inaugural, including one holding a "Hail to the Thief!" sign (depicted above at right). The caption accompanying that photo:

In a January 18 ABC News exclusive interview, former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright confessed to, but did not repent of, his inflammatory rhetoric directed at the media. Wright's excuse:

"They were arrogant, they were evil, they were devious and I responded in kind," Wright said. "I just talked to you about a 500-year tradition but you don't ask me one question about that because that's not your interest, your interest is to taint Barack Obama. So no, I'm not going to be conservative, I'm not going to kiss anybody's behind and if I'm standing up straight you can't ride my back.

In other words, Wright sees himself as repaying evil with evil and insult with insult. Hmm, I seem to remember Scripture warning Christians not to do that and that pastors and preachers have a higher standard for the words they speak, particularly publicly from the pulpit. And that's a 2000-year old tradition!

Yet apparently ABC staffers Tahman Bradley and Ferdous al-Faruque failed to question Wright on whether his demeanor from the pulpit exhibited more the gospel of class and race warfare than the gospel of Jesus Christ. What's more, Bradley and al-Faruque failed to point out that some print journalists such as Newsweek's Eleanor Clift have hailed Wright as a "prophetic" voice, something that cuts against Wright's view that the MSM has had it in for him.

Looks like ABC News is starting out 2009 with a partisan bang. On its main page, ABC News is hosting a slide show featuring what it is calling the "All Time Dumb Quotes." Now, these are not all strictly political dumb quotes, to be sure. They also have the empty headed Christina Aguilera, that sharp as a tack Jessica Simpson and other denizens of the Hollywood Mensa club among the 16 featured quotes -- and some of them are doozies, too. But, there are six political quotes five by Republicans and one by Tina Fey making fun of a Republican (Palin, naturally), yet there are no "All Time Dumb Quotes" from any Democrats. Not a one. Apparently ABC doesn't think there's ever been a dumb Democrat?

Even more absurdly, all these "dumb quotes" are from the last year or so. Apparently, ABC also is not aware of anything "dumb" that was ever said before contemporary history. Yet, even as all these supposedly "All Time Dumb Quotes" are recent, they have one quote.... just one... from farther back in time than just recently. And guess who it’s from? Amazingly, the ONLY "All Time Dumb Quote" ABC can find from before the year 2008 is a 1988 quote by... drum roll please... Dan Quayle!

Just how bad is the economy? ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" went all the way to Edwardsburg, Mich. to find out. 

The Dec. 18 broadcast of "World News" highlighted a new economic indicator - the increase in the number of people willing to lend their body to science for money.

"We're going to turn next to some of the extreme measures that some Americans are taking because of the faltering economy," Gibson said. "According to an ABC News Poll, more than one in four people say someone in their household has been fired, faced a cut in pay or a reduction in work hours. Facing mounting debts and dwindling finances, some people are deciding to put their bodies at risk."

Beats waiting in a soup line, no?

Barack Obama doesn't mind a fight with gay activists over selecting Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration because the President-elect is bound and determined to govern as a centrist.

That according to ABCNews.com's Rick Klein as posted to The Note blog (emphases mine):

President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration has ignited a firestorm of criticism from the gay-rights community, where Warren is considered something of a sworn enemy.

Yet Obama’s response to a question about his selection of Warren seems to confirm one perception: that this is a fight that the president-elect isn’t necessarily sorry to be having.

A collection of "The Faces of Political Scandal," assembled by ABC News yesterday (HT to an e-mailer), once again demonstrates the media's relative reluctance to identify the membership of Democrats involved in scandal.

Of the 14 politicians identified, seven are Democrats and seven are Republicans. Five of the seven GOP members are identified as such, while only two of the seven Democrats were flagged. The montage also has a couple of surprising factual errors.

Here's the detail, slide by slide:

1. Current Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich -- Party not ID'd, while containing a quote with a Republican frame of reference ("Gov. Blagojevich has taken us to a new low," U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said. "This conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.").

Complete with a photo of the president-elect at the pulpit, ABCNews.com is hyping how "Obama Goes Church-Hunting, With Caution" on the Web site's front page.

"In picking church, Obamas will weigh political, religious and personal feelings," the subheading to Russell Goldman's reads.:

Come Jan. 20, Barack Obama knows the house in which he and his family will live, but he has yet to decide at which house of worship they will pray.

Within steps from the White House, the Obamas can choose from a bevy of churches, each offering reasons to be selected, from historic connections to the presidency to historic connections to the African-American community.

Finding Michelle Obama to be the "First Lady of Fashion," ABCNews.com's Luchina Fisher wondered if the president-elect's wife could save the fashion industry.:

Michelle Obama will soon be the nation's first lady and mom in chief, but others are expecting even grander things from her, like saving the fashion industry.

And who in their right mind would think that?:

"We're all obviously trying to look at the silver lining," designer Norma Kamali told ABCNews.com. "Where do we look for hope, an opportunity to create good feelings for the customer? There is real hope with Michelle Obama. I think she can keep women interested in purchasing."

Congratulations, America. It's a she-male!

Trumpeting an "exclusive," ABCNews.com is proud to announce that transsexual Thomas Beatie is pregnant again. As we've documented at NewsBusters, the biologically female pregnant "man" was the mid-summer fascination of ABC News both in broadcast and on its Web site, ABCNews.com. Beatie gave birth in July but is preggers again and that's enough to make the Breaking News e-mail circuit at ABCNews.com.

Here's the text of the Breaking News alert I received in my inbox around 11:30 a.m. EST today:

ABC Still Attacking Gov. Palin

On its Blotter from Brian Ross Blog, ABC News is trying to re-ignite the "Troopergate" issue by portraying Alaska state trooper Mike Wooten as a victim of "threatening phone calls." And, in reporting this new aspect of the story, ABC waits until the last sentence of the story to mention that Governor Palin was deemed innocent of charges of ethics violations in trying to be rid of Trooper Wooten even as 90% of the story pounds home what the supposed charges against the Governor were. Further, ABC misrepresents the charges against Wooten as a simple "she said" argument by Palin and fails to mention that he was actually found guilty of many of them.

In fact, this whole report subtlety makes Governor Palin look like the bad actor in this situation and garners sympathy from the reader for Trooper Wooten. In the first paragraph, the piece talks of Palin's "harsh allegations" and states that he has been "taken off patrols recently for his own safety" because of "threatening phone calls." The report mentions that both Wooten and his union are whining that he cannot get over time pay since he's stuck on a desk job "for his own safety." Looks like ABC thinks Trooper Wooten is a victim here.

Now that Barack Obama has won his bid for the White House, Americans should get ready to learn some inconvenient truths about him and the folks surrounding the president-elect that media have safely hidden from the public in order to promote his messiah-like image.

First out of the gate were revelations about Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Obama supporter and Congressional Democratic Caucus chairman Obama has tapped to be his Chief of Staff (please see my colleague Jeff Poor's November 6 report on this subject).

On Friday, ABC's Brian Ross reported that Emanuel was on the Board of Directors of the failed financial institution Freddie Mac, a nice little tidbit conservatives on radio and in the blogosphere felt was important during this campaign, but for the most part mainstream media outlets didn't care about...conveniently until now (emphasis added, photo courtesy ABCNews.com):

Update: ABCNews.com has since changed out the McCain photo to show a grinning McCain.

Lee Boggs found that ABCNews.com augmented a generic horse-race campaign story by Mark Mooney on Monday morning with this slanted "photo illustration" -- or is it some sort of movie poster, with obvious Good Guy vs. Snidely Whiplash overtones? Or just JFK vs. Nixon? Mooney's article suggested Ohio was up for grabs between Good and Evil:

McCain started the week with good news in the Buckeye State, which was critical in President Bush's win over Sen. John Kerry in 2004 and Vice President Al Gore in 2000.

An Ohio Newspaper/University of Cincinnati poll indicates the Ohio race is a statistical dead heat, giving a 49-46 edge to Obama.

Could this agitprop art be more over the top -- on a "news" site?

The leftwing blogosphere went into full panic mode Saturday as a result of a tough interview Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden had with a Florida anchorwoman two days ago (video embedded right).

As my colleague P. J. Gladnick previously reported, Barbara West of the ABC TV affiliate WFTV in Orlando gave Biden quite a grilling Thursday.

Yet, despite the obviously favorable and well-documented treatment Barack Obama and his running mate have received from the press during this campaign, Netroots members were shocked and appalled with how Biden was questioned.

Katharine Zaleski, the Senior News Editor at the Huffington Post, published the following Saturday (emphasis added):

Just how bad has the presidential campaign coverage been this year?

So bad that popular online columnist Michael S. Malone, aka ABC.com's "Silicon Insider," wrote Friday, "I’m deeply ashamed right now to be called a 'journalist.'”

So strong were his words that they should be required reading for all the Obama-loving media members that have disgraced themselves as well as their industry this year, especially if Malone's assertion that they're doing this to protect their own careers via a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine that will "crush the alternative media" is correct (h/t LGF via NBer Paul Wright, picture courtesy Santa Clara University):

Democrat vice presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday guaranteed that if Barack Obama is elected president, there will be an international crisis within six months.

It's certainly going to be interesting to see how the Obama-loving media report this potentially huge gaffe by the Delaware senator.

UPDATE AT END OF POST: Is Biden basing this on national security information the Obama campaign received from the White House last week?

Kudos to ABC's Matthew Jaffe and the networks Political Radar blog for posting this Monday (emphasis added, partial audio embedded right):

ABC's Sam Donaldson has validated Joe the Plumber's worst fears: socialism has indeed washed over capitalism.

Maybe worse, Donaldson is clearly less unhappy about this than our new campaign spokesman from Ohio.

Such appeared to be the case when the former White House correspondent published a rather ominous commentary at ABCNews.com Tuesday both in written and video form (emphasis added, h/t Extreme Mortman via Glenn Reynolds):

"McCain Used Joe Wurzelbacher to Depict His Tax Plan; Ironically He Is in Line for Obama's Tax Plan," insists the subheader for an October 16 ABCNews.com story by Imaeyen Ibanga. The reporter pushed the Obama campaign talking points that as it stands right now "Joe the Plumber" would be a beneficiary of Illinois senator's tax plans:

Wurzelbacher has become the focal point of the presidential election because of his objections to Obama's plan to boost taxes on people who earn more than $250,000. Ironically, the plumber currently has an income level that would make him eligible for Obama's proposed tax cut rather than the tax increase.

But that doesn't address what impact Obama's tax hikes might have on Wurzelbacher's boss and how new taxes might adversely impact the plumbing company's payroll under an Obama administration.

After noting that Wurzelbacher admitted the company he's hoping to buy doesn't cross the quarter-million threshold, Ibanga seemed perplexed at his anger at the notion of taxing "rich" people for their success:

Although it seems unlikely the disgusting, Sarah Palin-bashing T-shirts my colleague John Stephenson shared with readers today will get much attention from Obama-loving media, at least ABC's Jake Tapper has taken offense.

Writing at his Political Punch blog Sunday, Tapper, who continues to distinguish himself as one of the few impartial journalists still working for a mainstream press outlet, didn't mince words (photo edited for decency):