Government Agencies

AP, NY Times Finally Focus on Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber Corruption Story
February 12th, 2015 7:29 PM
In a sign that the walls are truly beginning to close in around him, the Associated Press's national site and the New York Times, both of which have largely ignored the growing ethical scandals surrounding Oregon Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber and his fiancee Cylvia Hayes for months, have gotten busy during the past 24 hours.
The very belated national attention cannot possibly be helpful to…

Least-Known, Scandal-Plagued Governor in U.S.: Oregon Dem Kitzhaber
February 12th, 2015 1:27 PM
The establishment press has obsessed over Republican Governor Chris Christie's non-scandals in New Jersey for 18 months. Anything appearing to be problematic during the past four years for Wisconsin GOP Governor Scott Walker, including a "John Doe" fishing expedition driven by a power-abusing Democratic prosecutor, has been national news.
Meanwhile, the press appears to have lost interest in…

Another Month, Another Selective AP Federal Deficit Report
February 11th, 2015 9:54 PM
The federal government today reported a $17.5 billion budget deficit for January. That brings this fiscal year's shortfall through four months to $194.2 billion, up from $182.8 billion during the same period last year.
As usual, the Associated Press's coverage, this time delivered by Martin Crutsinger, named the nation's "Worst Economic Writer" by National Review's Kevin Williamson two years ago…

NY Times's Correction on Vaccines Fixes Misattribution of Walker Quote
February 4th, 2015 11:45 PM
Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh believes that because the center-right media and blogosphere pushed back against the vaccine vendetta campaign against Republicans and conservatives, the establishment press is sharply backing away from trying to capitalize on it, especially because both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been shown to have played to the anti-vaxxer crowd during the 2008…

NYT Op-ed and Correction on Sheldon Silver Fail to Tag Him as a Dem
February 4th, 2015 7:02 PM
On Friday, Joe Nocera at the New York Times, in the words of a February 4 Times correction, premised his op-ed column "about the indictment of the longtime New York State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver ... on several factual errors."
The correction failed to correct yet another factual error, namely that Silver, who was arrested, as the Times itself reported, on January 22, has not yet been…

Gallup CEO Blasts Press's Complacency in Covering Unemployment
February 4th, 2015 3:31 PM
Yesterday, in a column at his organization's web site, the head of the nation's leading polling organization called the government's official unemployment rate, currently at 5.6 percent, a "big lie."
Rest assured that if Gallup Inc. Chairman and CEO Jim Clifton had written this column during a Republican or conservative administration, his words would have been picked up by the Associated Press…

AP on Potential GDP Revisions: Heads They Report, Tails They Ignore
February 3rd, 2015 8:34 PM
On Friday, the government reported that the nation's economy, as measured in its real gross domestic product, grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent during last year's final quarter, sharply trailing analysts' consensus predictions ranging from 3.0 percent to 3.6 percent.
As is the case after the first version of every GDP report, economy watchers have been trying to estimate the effect other…

Press Virtually Ignores Obama's 'No Interference' Netanyahu Hypocrisy
February 2nd, 2015 5:43 PM
According to the Israeli publication Haaretz and many other news outlets, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry won't meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because it's "inappropriate."
Specifically, "The White House cited the proximity of the Israeli election to Netanyahu's visit, and the desire to refrain from interfering in the election." Certain blatant falsehoods…

Worse Than Seattle’s Super Bowl Call? The Media’s Calls on Government
February 2nd, 2015 9:37 AM
The Seattle Seahawks yesterday - in a moment of profound foolishness - forsook Beast Mode for Least Mode. And it cost them the Super Bowl. But they can take ever so slight solace - the Media has been in Least Mode for decades.
This has been on prominent display throughout the Barack Obama Administration - and certainly when it comes to the Administration’s many, MANY unilateral power grabs…

Gore Hardest Hit: 'Car of the Future' to Have Combustion Engine
January 31st, 2015 11:51 PM
At the recent meeting of the world's elites in Davos, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and former Mexican President Felipe Calderon circulated a proposal to ban cars in all major cities in the world by dense-packing their layouts. The cost, as I noted on Monday: a mere $90 trillion (that's right, trillion). It's telling in a foreboding sense that the pair's idea wasn't laughed off the continent…

AP, WSJ Reactions to Friday's GDP Report Vary Sharply
January 31st, 2015 9:54 AM
Yesterday's government report on the economy's growth, which told us that the nation's gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent during the fourth quarter, sharply underachieved analysts' expectations of an annualized 3.0 percent to 3.6 percent. The stock market clearly reacted negatively to the downside surprise. Bloomberg's take at the end of the day: "U.S. stocks fell Friday…

AP Covers Fire Chief's Sacking, Ignores Religious Discrimination Claim
January 30th, 2015 11:48 PM
Former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, who alleges he was fired from his position solely because of his Christian beliefs, has filed a religious discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
That's not news at the Associated Press's national site, and it appears that the AP has not even carried a local story about Cochran's EEOC complaint — omissions that reek of…

For Once, AP Skeptical of Dems' Over-the-Top Claims About the Economy
January 30th, 2015 9:30 PM
Even Charles Babington at the Associated Press, for once not the completely beholden Administration's Press, seemed to be having a hard time buying what Democrats at a meeting in Philadelphia were selling. Unfortunately, he decided to let Joe Biden's direct contradiction of his party's congressional delegation's sunnyside-up stance on the economy go unreported.
In a video carried at the Weekly…

Bloomberg Praises Home Sales Spike, Despite Prior Downward Revisions
January 28th, 2015 11:52 PM
If someone fools you once, shame on them. If they fool you with the same trick a second time, shame on you. If they "fool" you a third time — well, you must be in on it.
That's my take on Bloomberg News's virtually euphoric reaction to yesterday's new-home sales release from the Census Bureau. The wire service's Shobhana Chandra celebrated how seasonally adjusted December sales were at "the…