Bias by Omission

Tuesday evening, I wrote that there appears to be a need for an intervention among the economics writers at the Associated Press. At the time, I was referring to how the wire service's Christopher Rugaber, in his dispatch on a trade group's upbeat business sentiment survey appearing about an hour after Martin Crutsinger's writeup on the horrible March trade imbalance, failed to report Crutsinger…

It appears that someone might need to schedule an intervention with the Associated Press's economics writers. In his dispatch published a half-hour after the government's March release on international trade at 8:30 this morning, the wire service's Martin Crutsinger quoted a normally upbeat economist who was singing the blues about the result's effect on previously reported first-quarter…

In covering the failed terrorist attack at a Prophet Mohammad cartoon event in Texas, NBC neglected to describe the two gunmen on Monday evening as “Islamic extremists” or “terrorists,” while ABC, CBS, and NBC prominently touted the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) description of AFDI as an “anti-Muslim” or “anti-Islamic” “hate group.”

On Monday night, English-language networks ABC and CBS joined Spanish-language networks MundoFox, Telemundo, and Univision in ignoring the news that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has finally agreed to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi regarding the 2012 terror attack in Libya and her usage of a private e-mail account while at the State Department.

Following the announcements from Republicans Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina that they will each be running for president, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC showed no interest in giving extensive time to either candidate during their Monday evening newscasts with a combined one minute and 10 seconds of news briefs devoted to the new 2016 candidates. Clocking in with the least amount of time was…

At the Associated Press today, Martin Crutsinger's coverage of the Census Bureau's March Factory Orders report admitted that a leading economic forecasting firm currently believes that the economy will grow at an annualized rate of just 1.9 percent in the second quarter. Despite the fact that just about everyone who is anyone had until very recently been saying that the figure will be 3 percent…

(See Update Below) Since news broke of the terrorist attack in Garland, Texas Sunday evening and continuing until early this morning, the Associated Press, perhaps best nicknamed Allah's Press in instances such as these, was determined not to reveal the nature of those behind it. Two attackers were killed by police after opening fire and wounding a security officer, who, according to AP, "was…

One could spend hours critiquing the horridly written, agenda-driven Friday evening (Saturday print edition, front page) story at the New York Times about Marilyn J. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore. On Friday, she announced the indictment of six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. Earlier Sunday, "Open Blogger" at the Ace of Spades blog provided the Cliff's notes version of…

On Thurday, the government, apparently as determined as the press to create good news where there is none, opened its March report on Personal Income and Outlays as follows: "Personal income increased $6.2 billion, or less than 0.1 percent." Yeah, it was so much less than 0.1 percent that it rounded down to 0.0 percent in current dollars in the table which followed. In real terms, i.e., after…

ABC and NBC's evening newscasts on Friday both spotlighted how a former New Jersey government official pled guilty as a result of Bridgegate. On World News Tonight, ABC's Ron Claiborne touted how "this scandal has taken a tremendous toll on Governor [Chris] Christie's presidential prospects," even after pointing out how "nowhere in today's indictments is Governor Christie said to have known about…

The so-called experts supposedly took March's worse than usual weather in many parts of the country into account when they predicted that this morning's March Construction Spending report from the Census Bureau would come in with a seasonally adjusted increase of 0.4 percent or 0.5 percent. Instead, the result was a decline 0.6 percent, "unexpectedly" sending that metric to a six-month low.…

As of Friday evening, ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning and evening newscasts have yet to report on the targeting of Asian-owned businesses by the rioters/looters in Baltimore on Monday. To their credit, CNN and NPR covered this disturbing component of the unrest in Maryland's largest city. Less than 24 hours after the unrest, on Tuesday's The Lead with Jake Tapper, CNN's Joe Johns spotlighted how an "…

English-language networks ABC, CBS, and NBC and Spanish networks MundoFox, Telemundo, and Univision  covered the news on Thursday night that independent Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt.) will seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, but only NBC Nightly News chose to label him a “socialist” after ABC and CBS had previously done so on Thursday morning. While correspondent and MSNBC host…

On Wednesday, Fox News reported that "a senior law enforcement official" who has since emerged from anonymity told them that Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake "gave an order for police to stand down as riots broke out Monday night." That source, Michael Lewis, currently the Sheriff in Wicomico County and a former Sergeant with the Maryland State Police, appeared on the Norris and Davis…