NewsBusters Time Machine

When Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, angry reporters branded his impeachment a “legislative coup d’etat” and a “spiteful” act from Republicans. When Donald Trump was impeached exactly 21 years later, journalists lauded it as an example of Democrats “putting principle before politics” and “a great day for constitutional democracy.”

Three years ago, Time magazine’s editors made the ridiculous choice of making the radical activist Greta Thunberg their “Person of the Year” for 2019, when she was just 16 years old. The idea seemed frivolous then and seems even more preposterous now, as Thunberg has become even more extreme in her views.

Seven years ago, the national media made a spectacle of themselves for both the speed and stupidity with which they seized upon a horrible mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, racing to promote their anti-gun agenda, bashing conservatives and prayer in the process.

Six years ago today, November 26, 2016, news broke of the death of Fidel Castro, the former communist dictator of Cuba. His death was an opportunity for journalists to salute the prison state’s advances in health care, and to mindlessly babble about how Cubans supposedly preferred donkey carts to modern automobiles.

Twenty years ago, Democrats lost a midterm election they had expected to win. But instead of blaming “candidate quality” or a party message that was out of synch with voters, liberal pundits whined that the real problem was that the media were too slanted towards conservatives for liberals to get a fair shake. That’s right, a pro-conservative press.

With Republicans forecast to win a slim majority of seats in the House of Representatives, GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is the odds-on favorite to be the next Speaker of the House. But unlike the overwhelmingly favorable coverage that Democrat Nancy Pelosi enjoyed in 2006 as incoming Speaker in that election year, the liberal media have been mauling McCarthy — and the GOP caucus he leads — with…

An exceptionally repulsive feature of journalism these days is when media figures use tragedies to smear their political adversaries as dangerous threats. That’s clearly happening now, and it happened in 2011, when irresponsible journalists wrongly blamed the conservative Tea Party for inciting the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords and murder of six other citizens.

Decades before the media’s embarrassing love affair with Barack Obama, or their open warfare against Donald Trump, there was the 1992 presidential campaign, when liberal journalists shamelessly promoted Bill Clinton’s candidacy and showed their contempt for George H. W. Bush.

Four years ago, Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke enjoyed a starring role in the liberal media’s coverage of the 2018 midterm elections. This year, Beto’s trying again, taking on Texas Governor Greg Abbott, but on TV news he’s gone from a rock star to the invisible man.

One of the more distasteful habits of liberal journalists has always been the tendency to flatter and fawn over brutal dictators. Reporters, who are supposed to speak truth to power, often fail when it comes to charismatic communists. That’s exactly what happened when ABC's Barbara Walters interviewed Fidel Castro almost 19 years ago.

The networks found their 2022 October Surprise, a Republican candidate to pounce on and work to destroy the GOP’s chances in the midterms. In less than a week, ABC, CBS and NBC have devoted over 27 minutes to the Herschel Walker story and whether the Georgia Republican senatorial candidate paid for an abortion in 2009. 

This week, the residents of Florida endured the wrath of Hurricane Ian moving up through the state. At this time, the damage isn’t totally known, but certainly looks very worrying. In this case, the governor of Florida is Ron DeSantis, a man running in a contentious 2022 midterm election, as well as being a possible 2024 presidential contender.

It was 35 years ago this September that Joe Biden’s first of three presidential campaigns was embroiled in a plagiarism scandal, one that would torpedo the bid in controversy. While journalists and late night hosts in 2022 don’t seem interested in mocking now-President Biden, it’s worth remembering that Johnny Carson had no problem joking about the Democrat in 1987. 

Given the collapse of CNN+, the jettisoning of anchors like Brian Stelter, it’s clear that CNN itself is the middle of an identity crisis. It’s not the first time the network has gone through cringe-inducing moments. It was 17 years ago this coming Monday that CNN founder Ted Turner embarrassed himself by insisting that despotic North Koran dictator Kim Jong Il “didn’t look evil.”