Labeling

The New York Times Magazine cover story by political correspondent Jim Rutenberg, "A Dream Undone -- Inside the 50-year campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act," is a 10-part, 10,000-word doorstop (issued with the baleful threat "The first in a series") comparing current attempts to stop voter fraud as a return to Jim Crow, with particular focus on North Carolina. Rutenberg also relayed more…

On Thursday, Curtis Houck at NewsBusters noted how the Big Three networks and the two leading Spanish-language networks ignored the latest developments in the now 813 day-old IRS targeting scandal. As usual, only Fox News covered a congressional hearing on, in Fox's words, "the lack of accountability following the IRS targeting of tea party and other groups" as well as a federal judge's threat "…

On Friday's NBC Nightly News, Lester Holt badgered former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on the issues of race and racism. Holt underlined how "12 percent of African-Americans, 25 percent of Latinos have a favorable view of the Republican Party," and asked, "Is it a perception problem, or is this party fundamentally out of touch – tone-deaf – to minority communities?" He later played up how Bush "…

It’s not hard to make Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz look dumb. But she probably didn’t expect it on MSNBC. When liberal Hardball host Chris Matthews stumps her, it’s a gift that keeps on giving. Matthews asked if Sanders lost the nomination, if there be a place for him to speak at the DNC convention.  Wasserman-Schultz lauded Sanders on his “progressive…

These economics reporters at the Associated Press have become experts at deadpan humor. Earlier today, I noted how the wire service's Christopher Rugaber told readers, in the wake of a government report showing the lowest wage and benefit increases on record, that "the job market is not yet back to full health." No kidding, Chris. On top of that, the AP's Martin Crutsinger reacted to yesterday's…

Christopher Rugaber at the Associated Press and the "expert" he quoted in his writeup on the government's awful Employment Cost Index report seemed to be taking their cues from Steven Wright's deadpan comedy act. The problem, of course, is that they were writing and saying isn't funny at all. Rugaber, with his "expert" help, assembled an impressive array of understatements and misstatements in…

Ohio's newspapers have reported that two state legislators, one Democrat and one Republican, are cosponsoring a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in the Buckeye State. But they have mostly failed to note the key points made by Cleveland Democrat Bill Patmon in his inspiring, passionate speech at an Ohio Right to Life rally announcing his cosponsorship. You see, Mr. Patmon is black, and he has…

The bar-lowering in the business press continues. In the wake of today's disappointing news from the government on U.S. economic growth, an email from CNNMoney.com failed to properly describe reported second-quarter growth, and falsely characterized today's results as "solid":

CNN's Alisyn Camerota regurgitated common liberal talking points in defense of federal funding for Planned Parenthood on Thursday's New Day as she interviewed Senator Joni Ernst. Camerota noted that Senator Ernst "sponsored a bill to defund them," and spotlighted that "the argument against that is that Planned Parenthood provides a whole host of services beyond abortion services. They provide…

New York Times national reporter Jackie Calmes spent a semester at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University studying "conservative media," and this week issued an exhaustive 16,000-word report with the oh-so-objective title, "'They Don't Give a Damn about Governing' -- Conservative Media’s Influence on the Republican Party," blaming the "far right" for killing the moderate, pragmatic GOP,…

The news out of Venezuela has apparently become so grim that the arguably Chavista-sympathetic press barely bothers to report it in any kind of sutstantive fashion. Inflation has gone wild, the level of violent crime has become frightening, and the government has taken to jailing citizens who dare to tweet their dissatisfaction with the regime of Nicolas Makuro (note that the linked report was…

As of Wednesday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning and evening newscasts have yet to cover the third video from the Center for Medical Progress, which featured a whistle-blower's account of "picking" through the remains of aborted babies in order to find organs that could be sold for medical research. The Big Three networks have actually devoted more time to the slaying of a lion in Zimbabwe…

Yet another important economic statistic confidently predicted to rise has fallen — hard. This time it was June's pending sales of existing homes. Just in time for summer, they were predicted to increase by a seasonally adjusted 1.0 percent to 1.5 percent. Instead they fell by 1.8 percent, the steepest drop since December 2013. Additionally, May's original 0.9 percent increase was revised down…

Jackie Calmes, one of the New York Times' most reliably pro-Democratic, Obama-supporting reporters, lit into the "conservative media" as leading the Republican Party to perdition in Tuesday's "As the G.O.P. Base Clamors for Confrontation, Candidates Oblige." Calmes' story was packed with labeling bias and dismissive, hostile portrayals of conservatives as angry, robotic followers of Rush Limbaugh…