Not News: Fewer Than 0.5% Live in Fully Recovered Counties

January 23rd, 2015 9:44 AM
In his State of the Union address — perhaps, based on the recommendations for government involvement and control he made therein, better described as his Statist of the Union address — President Obama referenced the "growing" U.S. economy at least three times, but "recovery" only once. Specifically, he claimed that "thanks to a growing economy, the recovery is touching more and more lives." The…

As Homelessness Rises in Seattle and Elsewhere, National Press Snoozes

January 22nd, 2015 11:53 PM
A week ago, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat, called homelessness in his city and the rest of King County a "full-blown crisis." Based on the numbers presented in coverage of the area's situation, we can certainly add the Emerald City to the list of areas where homelessness has been on the rise. Odds are that many readers here didn't know that, because the national press hardly ever pays…

Salon: Obama’s SOTU Message Was ‘Bye-Bye, Reagan Conservatism’

January 22nd, 2015 9:46 PM
Elias Isquith contends that “after eight years of George W. Bush,” America “was in such rotten shape that Obama had little time to do more than stave off the next crisis,” but that by this past Tuesday night, favorable economic developments gave Obama “an opportunity to boast of changing the ‘trajectory’ of the country like few presidents before him and none since Ronald Reagan.”
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ABC’s David Muir Continues Network Fawning Over Clinton Baby

January 22nd, 2015 5:44 PM
On Wednesday night, ABC’s World News Tonight and anchor David Muir restarted the media promotion of Chelsea Clinton’s new baby with Bill and Hillary Clinton as grandparents by spending 24 seconds informing viewers of the competition between Bill and Hillary for “who gets to read to Charlotte.” Muir also took particular interest in how Hillary spends her time with the newest member of the Clinton…
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VandeHei's Sixth Sense: Chris Christie Doesn't Realize He's Dead

January 22nd, 2015 9:12 AM
Jim VandeHei sees dead people. On today's Morning Joe, the Politico honcho agreed with Joe Scarborough's suggestion that Chris Christie is like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense: [politically] dead but doesn't know it. Ironically, Scarborough distanced himself from his own suggestion, twice saying that he didn't believe it. But when he asked his guest if the characterization was fair, Vandehei…
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NBC’s Jansing Gushes Over ‘an Energized, Combative' Obama Post-SOTU

January 22nd, 2015 7:28 AM
NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing did her best to provide some White House spin during Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, hailing President Obama as “an energized, combative President” whose policies made for a “carefully choreographed, populist message with the details generally panned by Republicans.” Also within her report, Jansing found time to chide House Speaker John…
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Williams: 'A Lot of People Hope' Todd's SOTU Reality Check Is 'Wrong'

January 21st, 2015 5:33 PM
On Tuesday night, NBC News anchor Brian Williams charged that “a lot people hope” a reality check by Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd was wrong in asserting that most of President Obama's initiatives proposed during his State of the Union address won’t become law. “Some people hope you’re right, a lot of people hope you’re wrong,” interjected Williams following Todd’s brief outlook on whether…
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Al Hunt Hits GOP 'Not Interested' In Governing; Praises Obama for Same

January 21st, 2015 3:23 PM
Appearing on PBS's Charlie Rose Tuesday night following President Obama's State of the Union address, Bloomberg View columnist Al Hunt praised it as "one of the best speeches of his presidency" and "remarkably effective," before admitting: "I don't think he's going to get much done....This is not a cycle where you get much done. He may get a little stuff on trade and infrastructure."
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CNN Touts Obama's State of the Union With Highlight Reel-Style Mash-Up

January 21st, 2015 12:51 PM
Wednesday's CNN Newsroom aired an ESPN-style highlight reel of "some of the moments that got us talking" from President Obama's State of the Union address. The mash-up featured dramatic music and bold graphics, and zeroed in on the Democrat's "burn" of congressional Republicans during his speech. Bizarrely, the program also repeatedly played clips of the President winking and Vice President Biden…

Kos: Obama Approval Rating Up Because ‘Being Liberal Is Popular’

January 21st, 2015 12:07 PM
The Daily Kos founder and publisher argues that the recent jump in Obama’s approval rating shows that Obama should have governed as a staunch liberal “from Day One, instead of wasting years of his life trying to make nice with an intractable and hostile Republican Party…Republicans are on a holy war to destroy everything that is good and noble about government. They have no interest in peace.”
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NBC's Lauer Accuses GOP of 'Disrespect' & 'Pettiness' During SOTU

January 21st, 2015 12:02 PM
In a softball interview with Joe Biden on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer fretted over there being "more tension than normal" during Tuesday's State of the Union address with Republicans in control of Congress and slammed GOP reaction to a line in the speech: "...the President was talking about having arguments that are worthy of the body and the country, and then he said, 'I've run my…
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Brian Williams Blames Rep. Joe Wilson for Decline in SOTU Decorum

January 21st, 2015 2:12 AM
During NBC’s coverage of President Obama’s seventh State of the Union speech, anchor Brian Williams remarked how there’s been “change in tone and tenor and ambiance” inside the House chamber from over the past few years and chose to link it to Republican Congressman Joe Wilson (S.C.) telling the President “you lie” during a 2009 speech before a joint session of Congress. After saying how “some…
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Schieffer Swoons: Obama’s SOTU Was ‘Uplifting’ with ‘Soaring Rhetoric'

January 21st, 2015 1:04 AM
At the conclusion of President Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union speech, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer offered plenty of praise for the President’s address by proclaiming it as “the best speech he’s made in awhile” with “soaring rhetoric” and being “uplifting at the end.” In the moments right after the speech, Schieffer declared that the…
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Chuck Todd: Obama ‘Got the Post-Election Honeymoon' and Not the GOP

January 20th, 2015 8:29 PM
While previewing President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, NBC Nightly News had on Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, who told viewers that the President will set out to “do a little victory lap about the state of the economy” and opined how Obama “got the post-election honeymoon, not the Republicans” thanks to his moves on illegal immigration and Cuba. Following the move…