Santorum Fires Back at CBS's 'Gotcha'; Raises Rev. Wright Double Stand
On Friday's CBS This Morning, Rick Santorum pushed back against Charlie Rose's interrogation about supporter Foster Friess's recent "bad off-color joke" on contraception, all but name-dropping former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright as an example of the media's double standard on playing "gotcha" politics with Republicans, but not Democrats.
Rose initially countered, "This is not gotcha;…
AP's Kravitz Makes It Appear as If Builders Started Almost 1.5 Million
Yesterday, the initial one-sentence squib from the Associated Press on the Census Bureau's monthly housing construction release stated that "(A) Surge in apartments offsets weak single-family homes, pushing housing starts up 1.5 percent" (the headline reads the same).
By the time AP real estate writer Derek Kravitz turned it into a full-blown report, the headline became "US housing starts…
Soledad O'Brien Lauds 'Successful' Auto Bailout That Cost Taxpayers
According to CNN's Soledad O'Brien, the auto bailout led to a "pretty incredible resurgence" in the American auto industry. She grilled Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) on Thursday morning over candidate Mitt Romney's previous opposition to the bailout, saying that his opposition and the auto industry's eventual success could become a "huge, huge problem" for the candidate.
"[H]e was…
NBC's Lauer to Trump: How Do Republicans 'Run Against a Recovering Eco
Seeing little hope for Republican chances against Obama in November on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer put this question to Donald Trump: "Isn't any Republican nominee going to have a problem, and that is, by all indications, the economy is getting stronger. So if you're the Republican nominee, how do you run against a recovering economy? How do you say, 'I'm not up with that'?"
NBC Pushed High Gas Prices Under Bush, Now Worried They Would 'Crush
At the top of Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams pleaded: "Why now? In a tight economy with so many Americans living on the financial edge, why are they being asked to pay so much more for gas?" Moments later, he warned: "...there's still one thing that could crush it all and ruin any hope for a real recovery right now, and that's the price of gas."
Compare that sentiment to…
AP's Original Report on Obama at Master Lock Misstates His Related SOT
Today, President Obama visited Master Lock, a company he cited in his State of the Union speech on January 24 using the following words: "But right now, it's getting more expensive to do business in places like China. Meanwhile, America is more productive. A few weeks ago, the CEO of Master Lock told me that it now makes business sense for him to bring jobs back home. Today, for the first time…
Fact-Checking AP 'Fact Checker' Woodward: Bush Did Not 'Keep the Cost
On Monday, Calvin Woodward, with help from Martin Crutsinger and Pete Yost, produced a "Fact Check" on the budget proposal the White House released earlier that day.
After properly criticizing the administration's plan to use "about $850 billion in savings from ending the wars and steers some $230 billion of that to highways" (and actually quoting someone knowledgeable, who pointed out that "…
Mika Brzezinski's Valentine's Day Gift: Kisses for Obama's Debt Explod
It appears there's nothing MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski loves more than deficits as far as the eye can see.
On Tuesday's Morning Joe, the perilously liberal co-host proudly displayed her Valentine's Day gift - Barack Obama's debt exploding budget proposal with lipstick kisses all over it (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
ABC's Farnham: 2008 Was Last Time U.S. 'Saw' $4-a-Gallon Gas
Everybody, including yours truly, makes mistakes. But a major news organization should be able to catch whoppers like the ones readers will see shortly, or at least fix them in short order if they get posted.
A Google search on the title of an ABC report on gas prices ("Bumpy Ride Ahead: Gas Prices May Soon Hit $4 a Gallon") at about 8:10 a.m. ET indicates that the story went up at about 6 p.…
CNN Money Reporter Says Obama 'Put in Place' Automatic 401(k) Enrollme
On February 2, Blake Ellis at CNN Money (HT to a NewsBusters tipster), in an item which treated minor regulatory changes relating to annuities as some kind of "rescue plan" for retirees, gave President Obama credit for "measures ... (he) has put in place to help Americans save for retirement, including automatic enrollment in 401(k)s." There's no word on whether Ms. Ellis also believes that…
Zakaria Asks Soros if Republicans 'Want the Economy to Stay Weak in an
As NewsBusters reported earlier, CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday was in full Barack Obama campaign mode.
Before asking guest George Soros if he was going to create a Super PAC to help the current White House resident, Zakaria questioned the billionaire about whether or not Republicans "want the economy to stay weak in an election year" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
ABC, CBS and NBC Ignore Shocking Jump in Government Dependents
According to the Heritage Foundation Barack Obama’s policies, in just two years, have resulted in the number of Americans who rely on a federal program spiking by 23 percent to 67 million. Yet there was no mention of this grim figure on the Big Three network (ABC, CBS and NBC) evening or morning news programs. Since the study was released on Wednesday only Fox News and CNN have mentioned the…
AP, Others Likely Misreported Chinese Chevy Volt 'We Get the Tech or Y
Sometimes you read the most interesting things in those supposedly boring trade publications.
One such item of interest comes from an article in Manufacturing News (HT to an emailer) written by Richard A. McCormack which is primarily about the Mainland China's designs on the worldwide auto parts industry, including the U.S. Some of the larger American unions are demanding that the…
CNN's Brownstein Throws Water on Effects of Bush Tax Cuts
National Journal's Ron Brownstein challenged the assumption that the Bush tax cuts created much economic growth, noting that they failed to stem the rising number of Americans living in poverty. Brownstein made his liberal points Thursday morning on CNN to guest Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.).
"What in that record gives you confidence that extending those tax cuts will produce better economic…
