NB Podcast

On Friday, we were flustered by the rumor that Seventies pop star Barry Manilow sided with Neil Young in pulling his songs from Spotify over Joe Rogan. The rumor was untrue. But this kind of controversy lines up with our interview with Christian Toto about his new book on politically correct entertainment, Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul.

When President Biden dismissed an inflation question from Fox's Peter Doocy by calling him a "stupid son of a bitch," network reporters suggested the poor president was "frustrated" and "it's not easy being president." It was granted a few seconds of notice, and not greeted as a grotesque violation of decency...like a congressman yelling "you lie" at President Obama, which drew great fury.

The network polls on Biden are so bad that Chuck Todd is warning of the danger of a Democrat "shellacking" in the midterms. From NBC to NPR, you can hear the media suggesting strongly that Team Biden needs to fix it. 

Biden's second formal press conference of his one-year presidency underlined why he avoids them. In the latest NewsBusters Podcast, managimg editor Curtis Houck -- who monitors many Psaki briefings -- shares just how Biden's questioners did, starting with Peter Doocy getting razzed and called nonsensical by the president. He only asked one question, where other reporters hogged the microphone…

Even as Joe Biden's approval ratings have collapsed, you can't blame the liberal media for his unpopularity. MRC Research Director Scott Whitlock joins the show to share the results of his study of evening newscasts, looking at just how aggressively the networks downplayed or skipped stories that would put bad news on Biden's plate.

Martin Luther King birthday celebrations could be unifying, but that’s not how media liberals use it. It’s just another occasion to trash Republicans as “Jim Crow” racists trying to keep blacks from voting and laboring to stop school kids from learning anything about MLK. What a sorry set of smears.

Between Joe Biden's ranting Atlanta speech and Kamala Harris's bumbling interview with Craig Melvin on NBC, the White House had a terrible week...even though the liberal TV networks energetically promoted their failing arguments.

On Tuesday, President Biden gave a “fiery” speech in Atlanta attacking anyone who disagreed with him on current Democrat “voting rights” bills as akin to southern segregationists of the 1960s, like George Wallace and Bull Connor. He compared his side to Abraham Lincoln, and his opponents to Jefferson Davis. The networks lined up to promote his “appeal to the lessons of history.”

On the latest NB Podcast, we marvel at the amazing pundit acrobatics of the CNN Media Unit. In 2020, CNN was the center of the universe on coronavirus panic (unless you were attending a Black Lives Matter protest). Suddenly in 2022, there's too many "doomsday doctors" and "panic porn" out there -- now that Biden's approval rating is in the dumps and the Democrats are vulnerable in a midterm…

As the liberal media devoted many hours to commemorating the 1/6 riot, it was considered horrible to "minimize" it, but it's apparently never objectionable to exaggerate it beyond belief -- an event where five died doesn't match the terrorist murder of 3,000 on 9/11.

NewsBusters rings in 2022 with Nick “Night Train” Fondacaro filling in for Tim Graham and discussing the media New Year resolution to make every day, this midterm year, about January 6 in an attempt to swing the election for Democrats. I’m also joined by research director Scott Whitlock to talk about the media’s refusal to better themselves as they stoke hatred against the right.

As we wrap up 2021, it's time for a little cultural talk on the NewsBusters Podcast. NPR recently suggested the Beatles signified how the rock band was a white-male institution. They also recently brought on Nikole Hannah-Jones to explain that "yacht rock" like Steely Dan, Toto, and the Doobie Brothers is culturally appropriated black music.

Filling in for boss Tim Graham, NewsBusters deputy managing editor Nick “Night Train” Fondacaro and I were back in our saddles for Monday’s post-Christmas edition of the NewsBusters Podcast and, while it’s often a slower time of the year in the news business, we still had plenty to talk about.

On Wednesday’s podcast, newly minted early bird Curtis Houck and I discuss the Covid crazies in the media who are desperately trying to get America to reinstitute mass lockdowns. We also do a rundown of the fun project I worked on: “2021’s Top Dirty Dozen Fredo Moments from CNN’s Former Wise Guy.” And chatted with the newest member of the NewsBusters night crew, former intern Kevin Tober about…