Labeling

The government reported this morning that seasonally adjusted March housing starts and building permits fell by 8.8 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively, far worse declines than analysts and economists predicted. After the report, the business wires at least communicated the facts accurately, but continued to insist almost to the point of editorializing that there's no reason to be worried…

Earlier today, Tim Graham at NewsBusters covered a poll done by an Associated Press-led partnership which found that, in AP's words, "Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public's view of other institutions." The poll noted that "Nearly 90 percent of Americans say it's extremely or very…

A frequent guest on now-cancelled MSNBC program The Ed Show, The Nation’s national affairs correspondent John Nichols appeared on MSNBC Monday afternoon and proclaimed that Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz “is no more attractive to the Republican establishment” than Donald Trump and “maybe less” so since he’d do worse geographically.

CNN's Chris Cuomo hounded Bernie Sanders on Monday's New Day over his opposition to litigation against gunmakers and dealers. Cuomo spotlighted the lawsuit by some of the families of the Newtown shooting victims and wondered, "Why did you give such a quick no on...whether or not they should be sued?" Cuomo pressed him again about the Newtown case specifically: "Do you think they should be able to…

Key data about the U.S. economy's performance released this past week was mostly dismal. Wednesday brought news that seasonally adjusted March retail sales, instead of climbing as predicted, fell by 0.3 percent. Later that morning, the government reported that manufacturing and trade inventories and sales both fell in February. The worst news came on Friday, when the Federal Reserve reported…

NewsBusters has long maintained that immigration is the issue that brings out the most egregious bias from the New York Times. As a significant case comes before an evenly split Supreme Court, the Times set the table with a collection of liberal clichés on Saturday. Reporters Michael Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis, both with a long pattern of sympathy toward Obama, fretted over whether the…

On Friday, ABC and CNN's morning newscasts hyped a Connecticut Superior Court judge's decision to let the families of nine Sandy Hook victims continue their lawsuit against gunmakers and sellers. On New Day, CNN's Chris Cuomo echoed the language of the pro-gun control Brady Campaign: "A big development — a major win this morning for families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims: a lawsuit holding…

For better or worse, the press, Wall Street and others routinely place a great deal of faith in the federal government's payroll employment estimates. But when Republican Governor Rick Scott's supporters cited data from Uncle Sam's Bureau of Labor Statistics to defend him against an insufferably rude leftist who started screaming and cursing at him in a Starbucks coffee shop, Associated Press…

Yesterday was supposed to be a glorious day for the people involved in organizing something they called the "Million Student March." On Monday, they had priceless free publicity provided by leftist luminaries at the Huffington Post. They had a new source of support and participation from the "Black Liberation Collective." They had four platforms students could supposedly believe in and get…

Just three months after Arch, the nation's Number 2 coal mining company, filed for bankruptcy, Number 1, Peabody Energy, has followed suit. Five of the industry's largest firms have now gone bankrupt in the past 12 months. Two Associated Press stories on Peabody this week managed to avoid mentioning the name of President Barack Obama, whose hostility toward the industry has been obvious since…

Two writers at the Five Thirty-Eight blog, purchased by ABC's ESPN network two years ago, have done something the crime increase causation deniers will surely detest: demonstrate, based on statistical evidence, and despite their tentative language, that "real changes in the process of policing in Chicago" have led to "spike in gun violence in Chicago since the end of November." Translating the…

Today's report from the government on retail sales was awful — "unexpectedly" so, according to both Bloomberg and Reuters. Following on the heels of a 0.4 percent seasonally adjusted decline in January and a flat February, March sales fell by 0.3 percent. Two of the three main U.S. business wire services blamed the American people, not the worst post-recession economy since World War II during…

Add this to the seemingly endless list of "Imagine what would happen if Republicans or conservatives did the same thing" items. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary "I don't feel no ways tired" Clinton and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio rolled out a very tired, old and insulting racist stereotype this weekend. The headline at Stephanie Condon's report on the related event at CBS News…

Esquire's Charles Pierce unleashed on Paul Ryan on MSNBC's All In on Monday during a panel discussion on a possible presidential bid by the House speaker: "I think he's as ambitious as Satan. I think he doesn't want to go out in the country where he was already deemed not worthy of the vice presidency, and try to run for president. But if they offer him the crown, he would loathe to lay his hands…