Column

The liberal Columbia Journalism Review has published a lengthy special report from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism on the values and practices of online conservative news sites. Three professors -- Anthony Nadler, A.J. Bauer, and Magda Konieczna – interviewed 22 journalists at 14 websites, and their overall picture of the conservative media is straightforward. But in the end, they still…

This week, according to members of the federal government, and state and local governments, Americans have begun to flatten the curve in the novel coronavirus outbreak. The excitement was muted -- after all, trends can easily reverse -- but real. Americans have abided by recommendations and orders. They've left their jobs to stay at home; they've practiced social distancing; in many places, they'…

We black people are so convenient and useful to America's leftists. Whenever there's a bit of silencing to be done, just accuse a detractor or critic of racism. A recent, particularly stupid, example is CNN's Brandon Tensley's complaint that the "Coronavirus task force is another example of Trump administration's lack of diversity." Tensley said the virus experts are "largely the same sorts of…

Lately The New York Times is writing articles with headlines like “Before Virus Outbreak, a Cascade of Warnings Went Unheeded,” and “Alarm, Denial, Blame: The Pro-Trump Media’s Coronavirus Distortion.” But they won’t consider what their anti-Trump rag published before March. Did they downplay or distort the threat? Yes.

So let’s take a look at just what the Leftist State Media has been dishing during the coronavirus crisis. From Vox on January 31st: “Is this [coronavirus] going to be a deadly pandemic? No.” From The Washington Post on February 3rd: “Why we should be wary of an aggressive government response to coronavirus. Harsh measures tend to scapegoat already marginalized populations.”

The unhinged Left compared President George W. Bush to Hitler after the dawn of the Iraq War. Hollywood trotted out similar talking points months before Donald J. Trump could utter the presidential oath. Far-left comic Sarah Silverman unofficially played the “Hitler Card” first. Silverman, who ignores the anti-semitism swirling around Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign, dressed as Der Fuhrer during a…

On March 25, Tara Reade, a former employee of Senator Joe Biden, made a disturbing accusation about her old boss. She claimed in a podcast with Katie Halper of Rolling Stone that Biden sexually assaulted her in a secluded area of the Capitol in 1993, pushing her against a wall, kissing her and penetrating her with his fingers. Where's the story from the Brett Kavanaugh-crushing media?

I confess to a certain self-interest in today's column. The media, especially newspapers, are in trouble. Conservatives like myself have been relentless in attacking their collective bias over the years, but as more of them fold or reduce staff, it is crucial the institution be saved. Margaret Sullivan, a columnist for The Washington Post, has suggested that federal bailout money should be…

"There are no libertarians in a global pandemic." So goes the smug punchline of large-government advocates who point to the necessity of collective action in the face of an unprecedented global crisis. Without government, they say, we'd all be dead. Few libertarians would disagree. The hardcore libertarians at Reason magazine aren't spending their days fulminating over the evils of government-…

I'm not sure whether COVID-19, first identified in Wuhan, China, in the U.S. qualifies as a true disaster. Putting the disease in perspective, we might look at current influenza illnesses. According to Centers for Disease Control estimates, between Oct. 1, 2019, and March 14, 2020, there have been 390,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations as a result of the flu, 38,000,000 to 54,000,000 flu illnesses…

There is nothing abhorred more by the mandarins of the 24-hour news cycle than hope. Reporting must beget more reporting. If not, viewers lose interested and change channels and teleprompter readers like Don Lemon and Rachel Maddow get less face time. Hence, broadcasts of chaos, doom, and gloom must end with a promise of more doom and gloom to follow.

The enormous coronavirus “stimulus package” was festooned with goodies for key Democratic constituency groups, including $75 million in “emergency” funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which offers grants to PBS and NPR stations. That’s on top of the half-billion the Congress already authorized for the year. They call it “public” broadcasting, but it’s niche broadcasting by…

Even in this time of crisis and death, some in the news media launched partisan attacks on Republican governors regardless of actual data, including how many people have died. We see this in the media all the time: journalists often cherry-pick commentary and data to support the side they like and attack the other. Here we see an example on the left. Last week, CNN's "The Point with Chris…

Call me crazy. But I had this strange idea that Americans ran America. I was under the apparently mistaken impression that every four years Americans elected a president. And that when times of crisis hit, as they occasionally do, the American people turn on their televisions, radios or, in today’s world, their computers - and listen to their freely elected leader update them on the crisis.