'Today' Rejects Personal Responsibility, Attacks Online Dealmakers
August 26th, 2008 12:16 PM
Have you ever felt so embarrassed about a financially damaging mistake that you tried to blame everyone except yourself to cover your tracks? If so, you can always count on a network morning show to back you up. That's what NBC's "Today" show did August 26 in a segment attacking online dealmakers. Co-host Meredith Vieira warned shoppers could find "mysterious and unwanted charges on their…
CNN Pushes for Amtrak Funding with Senate Assistant Majority Leader's
August 21st, 2008 5:02 PM
So if a government program has been failing for decades, should you A) Privatize it, B) Get rid of it altogether, or C) Throw millions of dollars at it and hope that Americas somehow feel compelled to reenact scenes from "Some Like it Hot." The answer is C if you were watching CNN this morning. "American Morning" pointed out that high gas prices were the reason ridership on Amtrak was up…
ABC: Treats Rise in Consumer Confidence as Bad News
August 20th, 2008 12:18 PM
Editor's Note: This story originally ran on our sister site www.Businessandmedia.org. When is an increase in consumer confidence bad news? When ABC reports it.Network anchor George Stephanopoulos led off the news cast with this gloom-and-doom teaser: "Terrible Tuesday. Inflation surges. Stocks dive. And consumer confidence nears a record low."But Stephanopoulos left out a key detail: consumer…
Whatever Happened to David Cay Johnston? Former NYT Business Journalis
August 18th, 2008 1:48 PM
A former New York Times investigative journalist who wrote primarily on business and taxation will soon be speaking at a "progressive" gathering. Further, in his inaugural column at a post-Times gig, he misrepresented the nature of the 1980 and 2000 tax-cut proposals by the Republican presidential candidates. Finally, in another post-Times tax column, he used vitriolic class warfare-based…
Is Amazon.com Deleting Conservative Book Reviews
August 10th, 2008 10:26 AM
So, here is a curious thing. I have been reviewing books at Amazon for a few years now and never had the occasion to have been censored by Amazon.com. But, I just had two reviews in a row deleted by Amazon and it has caused me to wonder how often other conservatives have their reviews summarily eliminated from the Amazon site?
I have noticed, of course, that leftists use Amazon quite well to…
CBS’s ‘Early Show’ Links Foreclosures to West Nile Virus
August 7th, 2008 5:12 PM
How do you make the foreclosure crisis seem even scarier? Add in a potentially deadly virus. CBS's "The Early Show," reported August 7 that a new stronger strain of the West Nile virus could spread across the country with help from the neglected pools found in foreclosed homes in California. "Apparently ... as more and more homes are passing into foreclosure and there are many, and many of…
'Nightly News' Praises Gas-Guzzling GM Autos for Chinese Success
August 7th, 2008 9:52 AM
Maybe it is because NBC has the broadcast rights for the Summer Olympics being held in China, but big gas-guzzling, greenhouse gas-emitting automobiles made by General Motors are seen as a plus for the communist nation's embrace of capitalism. The August 6 "NBC Nightly News" featured the Chinese people's love of troubled U.S. automaker General Motors (NYSE:GM) - an indicator interpreted as an…
Pulitzer-Winner Blames Those Who 'Refuse to Raise Taxes
August 3rd, 2008 3:27 AM
Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein, who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, on Friday contended “it is not the protectionists of the AFL-CIO or CNN who are primarily to blame for the erosion of public support” for free trade, instead:The blame lies squarely with a business community that continues to support Republican politicians who refuse to raise the taxes and spend…
Media Near-Secret: Exxon's Taxes Almost 3x As Much As Profits
July 31st, 2008 10:49 PM
Just heard Mark Levin mention this point on his show tonight. The item he referred to is from Mark Perry at istockanalyst.com, who commented on CNNMoney.com's coverage of Exxon Mobil's profit report today: According to CNN, Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.…
BMI’s Gainor: ‘Gross Mismanagement’ in Network Coverage of Fanni
July 31st, 2008 2:06 PM
The broadcast networks exhibited gross mismanagement in their coverage of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage powerhouses now in need of a $25-billion government rescue. "It's partially a bias and partially just sort of gross mismanagement on their part," Business & Media Institute Vice President Dan Gainor said on CBN's "Newswatch" July 30. "All they had to do was…
CBS’s Schieffer: Bush Like ‘Queen of Hearts From Alice In Wonderla
July 30th, 2008 5:59 PM
In a bizarre rant against President Bush at the end of Sunday’s "Face the Nation," CBS host Bob Schieffer made an odd analogy between the president and the fairy tale villain in reaction to the Bush Administration’s opposition to providing the Food and Drug Administration with more regulatory power over the tobacco industry: "The administration, incredibly, in my opinion, opposes it for a reason…
New York Times Exaggerates Restaurant Closings
July 30th, 2008 1:19 PM
Chalk another story up to the media exaggerating a problem that's bad enough on its own. On July 30, The New York Times reported on the front page of its business section that "several national restaurant chains were shuttered on Tuesday." But only two chains were closed, and both were owned by the same company. The American Heritage Dictionary defines "several" as "being of a number more than…
BMI’s Burchfiel on FBN: Media Sensationalizes Qantas Incident
July 25th, 2008 4:47 PM
The media were quick to jump on the story of an emergency airplane landing in Manila, Philippines due to a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas flight. And they were quick to sensationalize the story without mentioning Qantas' impressive safety record. "Well, nobody's saying that we should be covering up a huge hole in the side of an airplane. But it's important for the media to not sensationalize…
'Early Show' Fuels Granite Countertop Radiation Fears
July 25th, 2008 1:21 PM
Just when you thought it was safe to cook in your kitchen, it turns out your kitchen might be cooking you. At least that is what CBS's "The Early Show" led viewers to believe on July 25. Co-host Harry Smith warned viewers about what might be "lurking inside" granite countertops - radioactivity. "There's granite all over the place in modern kitchens, sometimes you have a little breakfast nook…