Reporters Visiting WH for Off-the-Record Lunch Work For Pubs That Dema
File the news in this report filed late yesterday afternoon by Michael Calderone and John Cook at Yahoo's Upshot Blog under "D" for Double Standards: White House reporters mum on Obama lunch, even as papers back transparency White House reporters are keeping quiet about an off-the-record lunch today with President Obama — even those at news organizations who've advocated in the past for the…
After Bashing Bush on Unemployment, NYT Now Touting 'Benefits' of High
In late 2009, when high rates of unemployment began looking like a sad fact of life for the foreseeable future, the media started looking for ways to put a positive spin on the situation.
Sure, many had predicted the next great depression when unemployment stood at around 6 percent in 2008, but with Democrats in control of the White House and Congress, a number of reporters suddenly found the…
Rained Out: DC CBS Affiliate Preempts Evening News With Storm Coverage
On Thursday, instead of showing the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, the network's Washington DC affiliate, WUSA-TV, decided to continue with live storm coverage. The last time the CBS broadcast was preempted by local coverage occurred during the massive winter blizzards, which buried the region in a few feet of snow. The Evening News has consistently ranked third among the network evening…
NPR Host Helps Vanity Fair Writer Trash the 'Profoundly Silly' Press f
Todd Purdum, a former White House reporter for the New York Times in the Clinton years -- a man so impressed by Clinton's first press secretary Dee Dee Myers that he married her -- discussed his latest Vanity Fair article on how Washington is broken on the NPR show Fresh Air on Tuesday. Purdum's most noteworthy complaint is how the Washington press corps is mean-spirited, even "profoundly silly"…
For Two Days in a Row, MSNBC's Contessa Brewer Presents a One-Sided De
As the anchor of MSNBC's noon news hour, Contessa Brewer could not openly advocate for supporters of gay marriage – but she definitely seemed to give generous credence to their views on Thursday and Friday. Furthermore, she made snide comments about opponents of same-sex marriage, providing an opposition to their arguments but not seriously questioning proponents of same-sex marriage.Brewer…
Five for Five: Top Five Journalistic Obamagasms Exposed by NewsBusters
Editor's Note: For the list of NewsBusters T-shirt contest winners, skip to the end of this post. Click here to enter the contest.It's time once again for "Five for Five," this time around we unveil the top five Journalistic Obamagasms Exposed by NewsBusters.We know what you're thinking: "Only five?!"Since they're all so equally good, or bad, as the case may be, I'll leave it to you folks to rank…
Bring On ‘The Expendables’: Violent Cartoons Were Good for America
With the release of The Expendables, it seems that every self-respecting male has caught 80's fever. As a way to clear the palette from modern metro-sexual romps, my friends have resorted to re-visiting old B-movie beauties such as Cobra, Road House and Tango and Cash. Sure they're awful, but unlike the Kaiser-helmet wearing hipsters of the lower east side, those movies never tried to be…
Even the Poor Are Abandoning Obama, According to Gallup Poll Data
In every week of his presidency until now, Barack Obama has enjoyed a majority approval rating in the Gallup Poll from people earning less than $2,000 per month. But that changed in the Gallup survey conducted from Aug. 2-8, when only 49 percent of Americans in that income bracket said they approve of the job Obama is doing. This marks the first time since Obama was inaugurated on January 20,…
Fox News Chicago: Rostenkowski 'As Responsible As Anyone But Ronald Re
When former Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) passed away this week, Fox Chicago News's political editor Mike Flannery described the late Ways and Means committee chairman as 'a giant of Chicago politics, remembered and beloved for negotiating legislation that helped create projects all over the state." Rostenkowski did indeed bring home the pork. But Flannery also writes that the congressman…
AP Headline: 'Flight attendant's grand exit is a dream for some
It would seem that what JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater did earlier this week was the stuff that some small-minded people's dreams are made of. Would all of you out there who think that way please remove yourselves from jobs that involve contact with the public? One has to wonder, based on her sympathetic paean to the "take this job and shove it -- but first, I'll get my revenge" crowd,…
For Climate Change Piece, ABC's Dan Harris Skips Agenda of Global Warm
Good Morning America's Dan Harris on Friday filed a report on extreme weather and failed to mention the agenda of a global warming scientist. Elizabeth Vargas teased the segment by fretting, "And coming up next, from killer heat waves to fires to those devastating floods in Pakistan and in Iowa, why all the severe weather? Is it global warning?" Harris interviewed no skeptics of man-made global…
Of 351 Reports on Outrageous Bell, Calif. Salaries, Only One Mentions
In late July, NB Contributing Editor Tom Blumer busted the Associated Press for neglecting to mention the party affiliations of scandal-plagued officials in Bell, California. The AP piece was one of hundreds of reports on the scandal. Of those hundreds, one solitary report mentioned party labels for the five officials.Can you guess which party they belong to? I'll bet you can.The only news outlet…
