Business

The saga of the environmental crusade against Chevron over pollution in Ecuador will be coming to San Francisco theater this month. Filmmaker and investigative journalist Phelim McAleer co-wrote the play The 18-Billion Prize, with Jonathan Lear. Broadway World described as a “shocking and at times farcical tale of how an environmental lawsuit turned into the world's biggest fraud.”

Protests by workers and activists and, in some cases, violence by anarchists marked the far-left holiday May Day this year. But most American news consumers would not have known that some London demonstrators carried communist flags and banners of brutal Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. They weren’t told that communists marched in Athens, Greece, or that anti-capitalist anarchists destroyed…

Superheroes, the naming of a new royal and an adorable child umpire were all more important to ABC, CBS and NBC news than the latest U.S. economic data. The Commerce Department announced a better-than-expected estimate of GDP — 2.3 percent — for the first quarter of 2018. In recent years, first quarters have been beset with weakness and economists expected the number to be 2 percent or a little…

On-air editor Rick Santelli announced the first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) estimate for CNBC’s Squawk Box on April 27. “Holy cow! Better than expected up 2.3 percent. You know many were thinking, and there’s a lot of reasons to believe so, that it would be a bit under the 2 percent. So 2.3 of course, as follows 2.9 last quarter,” Santelli said.

CNBC’s on-air editor Rick Santelli reacted to the April consumer confidence numbers positively, but the same night ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs all ignored the latest update of consumer attitudes toward the economy, as did their Spanish-language counterparts, Univision and Telemundo. “Some breaking news: Consumer confidence, we are looking for a read on April and the number is 128.7,…

Drew Cloud was a prolific writer specializing in student loan issues, founder of the Student Loan Report, and “a source for news on the student loan industry, financial aid, and scholarships.” Media relied on him for sensational surveys about student debt issues and quoted him often. Except Cloud didn’t exist.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals clearly had enough of PETA’s monkey business, when it ruled against the animal activists on April 23.

Jeff Bezos’ media properties, The Washington Post and Express newspapers, are acting more than ever like press agents for the Amazon CEO. Both publications recently heralded the “unspoken requirement” for Amazon’s headquarters hunt — LGBT rights. And now that Bezos own newspapers have published the story, consider the word officially out that Amazon is trying to find a second headquarters…

Ah yes, what better way to get people to “help” the planet than by auctioning off prizes from mansion owning, private jet flying Hollywood stars?

The Federal Reserve and the Conference Board both issued positive progress reports about the U.S. economy last week. Neither got a peep from the broadcast networks on those days. In fact, on April 18 and 19, the evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC included just one economic story — and it wasn’t about either of those positive economic updates

The GOP-passed tax legislation passed in late 2017, remains a centerpiece of the 2018 mid-term elections. One side will be praising it, the other attacking it. USA Today only seems to care about who backs one side of that battle. Advertisements celebrating or attacking the tax bill were the focus of an April 17, USA Today front-page exclusive. It reported that “GOP groups and candidates have run…

Celebrity promotion of liberal views are predictable as death and taxes. But these days the media also take these opinions seriously, trying to turn absurdities into news. The latest example was the media frenzy over a Tweet from Sen. Bernie Sanders promoting 25 year old rapper Cardi B’s economic opinions. The rapper was already a fan of Sanders, having encouraged people to “Vote for Daddy Bernie…

Shot: Anti-booze groups held a conference on influencing government policy. Chaser: Two government agencies were involved with the event.

Robert Johnson, the founder of BET television and America’s first black billionaire, had some positive things to say about the economy in April, but most liberal media failed to notice. The one national paper to cover it delayed including it in the print edition for more than a week. Citing multiple factors including “fairly stable” interest rates, the “Trump tax cut,” and historically low…