Eight Dems Arrested in Bell, CA 'Corruption on Steroids' - Not a Singl

Today, eight city council members were arrested in Bell, California for what Los Angeles County District Attorney labeled "corruption on steroids." Thus far, every major news outlet that has reported on the story has omitted the fact that all eight individuals arrested are Democrats.These glaring omissions come only weeks after NewsBusters reported that of the 351 stories on the then-brewing…

CNN Contributor Avlon: Christine O'Donnell 'Queen of the Wingnuts

CNN contributor John Avlon returned to his consistent theme of bashing conservatives on Monday's Newsroom, labeling Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell the "new queen of the wingnuts." Avlon also referenced Reason magazine's label of O'Donnell as a "crackpot of the first order" and didn't provide the full context of her 1997 remarks on AIDS. Anchor Kyra Phillips led the…

UK Press Finds Possible 'Muslim,' 'Islamic' Plot to Kill Pope; AP Find

Check out the following headlines in the British press about the arrest of six men who may have been planning to kill the Pope during his visit to England:"Muslim Plot to Kill Pope" (Daily Express)"Pope visit: Five suspected Islamist terrorists arrested over assassination plot" (Telegraph)"Police question six street cleaners held over plot to attack the Pope" (Daily Mail) (2nd paragraph: "Armed…

Joliet Herald-News Ignores Story of Demonstrators With Nazi Signs From

Joliet, Illinois must be a community absolutely bursting with newsworthy events. Why? Because the Herald-News newspaper in that city was (conveniently) unable to cover a local news story that has become a sizzling hot topic in the blogosphere. All one has to do is enter the name of the Illinois 11th Congressional District Congresswoman, Debbie Halvorson, into Google Blog Search and you will get…

Cable Nets Barely Cover Christine O'Donnell's Values Voter Summit Spee

While the mainstream media have been in a frenzy to denounce Christine O'Donnell as a kook for her socially conservative statements on abstinence from the 1990s, the cable news networks had a perfect opportunity this afternoon to let her speak for herself. Collectively they gave her less than five minutes. The Republican Delaware Senate nominee gave a speech at the Values Voters Summit in…

AP, Crutsinger Publish Three Clear Falsehoods in Report on August Defi

I tried to find a nicer way to put it in the headline. But I can't. At the Associated Press, Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger's apparent plug-and-play report less than an hour after the issuance of Uncle Sam's August Monthly Treasury Statement on Monday (his item is time-stamped at 2:56 p.m., which follows the Treasury Department's 2:00 p.m. release by less than an hour) contains three…

NYT's Deadpan Howler: ‘Lawmakers Were Apparently Unaware’ of New O

New York Times reporter Robert Pear ought to consider moonlighting as a stand-up comic in the tradition of Steven Wright. Wright's deadpan delivery is legendary. Pear's deadpan lines in his article about the immense paperwork burden heading the economy's way in the form of requiring IRS 1099 forms to be issued to each and every person paid $600 or more during the course of a calendar year for…

Another Fact Ignored in NYT Boehner Hit Piece: Pelosi Gets Far More Lo

"Mr. Boehner's ties to lobbyists seem especially deep," New York Times reporter Eric Lipton wrote of the House Republican Leader yesterday. Well, they're not, and therein lies the problem: Lipton apparently premised his article not on facts and data, but on what he thought seemed reasonable.Had Lipton stooped to investigate some of the serious claims he was making, he might have discovered that…

NYT Tees Up DNC Talking Points With Ethically Questionable Piece on Bo

The New York Times's lobbyist double standard lives on. Since Barack Obama became president, the paper has routinely overlooked the vast disconnect between his rhetoric on lobbying's role on the political process - there really isn't one, if you believe Barack - and his actions on the issue.But while the Gray Lady all but ignores Obama's deep ties with lobbyists and the industry groups they…

Sebelius to Insurers: Shut Up Or Else on ObamaCare Increasing Premiums

Adopting language and tactics more typical of tyrants, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius yesterday sent a public letter to the head of a health insurance industry group demanding that carriers stop "falsely blaming premium increases for 2011 on the patient protections in the Affordable Care Act," and that "that there will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and…

Bozell: Jay Leno Knows More About What's News than the 'News' Networks

The ABC, CBS and NBC evening new shows have yet to notice Fidel Castro's astonishing admission that Cuban Communism does not work. But non-journalist Jay Leno brought the news to his Tonight Show audience on Thursday, joshing:  "Most Cubans heard this announcement on a 1954 RCA Deluxe console TV -- beautiful black-and-white, all mahogany...." (Video at right)The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg…

The Fed's Beige Book: AP Needs a Geography Lesson

For the record, here are the first and fourth sentences from the Federal Reserve's Beige Book released earlier this afternoon: Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggested continued growth in national economic activity during the reporting period of mid-July through the end of August, but with widespread signs of a deceleration compared with preceding periods. ... However, the…

CNN's Feyerick Promotes Ground Zero Mosque Imam

CNN's Deborah Feyerick played up Imam Feisal Rauf's apparent credentials as a "moderate" Muslim during a report on Wednesday's American Morning. Feyerick omitted using sound bites from Rauf's critics, and only briefly mentioned his controversial remarks about on CBS's 60 Minutes about the 9/11 attacks and his reluctance to condemn Hamas.The CNN correspondent's report led the 6 am Eastern hour,…

AP Item on Judge's Embryonic Stem Cell Action Mostly Avoids Naming Adu

In a Tuesday evening report, Associated Press Writer Jesse L. Holland engaged in a great deal of word massage which appears to have been designed to mislead relative newcomers to discussions about stem cell research. The news concerned Federal Judge Royce Lamberth's refusal of the federal government's request that he lift his August 23 order blocking federal funding for embryonic stem cell…