Labeling

Jeff Schweitzer heralded the discovery of an apparent Earth-like planet as a nail in the coffin for religion in a Thursday item on Huffington Post. Schweitzer, a scientist, "rationalist," and former Clinton administration senior policy analyst contended that "with this discovery, we come ever closer to the idea that life is common in the universe," and added that religions would "all will come…

Rachel Zarrell, BuzzFeed's news editor, quickly apologized on Thursday night after two "reactive," as she put it, posts on Twitter regarding the shooting at a theater in Lafayette, Louisiana. Zarrell first linked to a NBCNews tweet about the murders, and added her obscenity-laced take on the incident: "Let's just give everyone guns, right? It's in the goddamn constitution." Twenty-one minutes…

Thursday's lead New York Times story on New York State raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers to a whopping $15 an hour was dominated almost completely by cheerleading for the wage. That's despite the fact that even liberal economists are queasy about such a drastic hike in the minimum wage, and that the hike risks hurting the very low-income workers it supposedly helps, by raising the…

On Wednesday's CNN Tonight, Alan Dershowitz blamed police misconduct on societal racism. Dershowitz noted that he tells his students "particularly the African-American students: you have rights...Do not exercise them when you're arrested by a police officer." When Don Lemon asked him why he gives such advice, the Harvard Law professor replied, "Because they get into so much trouble if they don't…

The press's favorite abortion questions usually have nothing to do with the 700,000-plus terminations of preborn babies' lives which take place each year in the U.S. (Note: The real figure is likely quite higher, because reporting is voluntary.) Especially when the person interviewed is a Republican or conservative, abortion questions focus heavily on the fewer than 1% of all abortions which are…

As of Wednesday morning, NPR's morning and evening newscasts have yet to cover the second undercover video of a Planned Parenthood executive revealing how the organization varies its abortion procedures in order to preserve the organs of unborn babies for medical research. Instead, Tuesday's All Things Considered spotlighted a March 2014 incident where the adult son of a pro-life activist…

After five days, President Obama finally today ordered "that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds" and at other official federal locations until sunset on Saturday to honor the five victims of Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez's murder spree in Chattanooga, Tennessee last Thurday. Though the White House will never admit…

ESPN analyst and reporter Stephen A. Smith, apparently in reaction to seeing anyone who dares to say the words "all lives matter" in succession getting mercilessly attacked, pushed back hard today against the censorship and intimidation of the "Black Lives Matter" crowd in three tweets. The first: "Where is all the noise about #BlackLivesMatter when black folks are killing black folks?" The…

Gayle King expressed her astonishment on Tuesday's CBS This Morning that two Catholic sisters were unmoved by Katy Perry, after the hyper-sexualized pop singer sang to them in an attempt to get them to sell their property in Los Angeles to her: "I was surprised to hear they met her, and still weren't impressed, because – you know, she's a doll! She's a really, really nice, nice girl."

In June, Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley unveiled a "climate change plan." The press loved it. Glowing articles appeared in many place, including the Washington Post, USA Today, The Hill and the Huffington Post, whose Kate Sheppard wrote that the former Maryland Governor had "Just Set An Extremely High Bar ... For 2016 Democratic Contenders." Well, if they're so wired into…

The National Association of Business Economics released its quarterly survey of its members' take on the state of the current and future economy today. Given that the survey only had 112 responses, it's probably not a good idea to generalize too much about its results. That didn't stop The Hill from headlining Vicki Needham's writeup by far too optimistically declaring that "Business leaders…

The company officially known as the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in five years. This time around, the storied "A&P" name may completely disappear. Coverage at USA Today by Nathan Bomey notes that "About 93% (of its workers) are represented by one of 12 different unions, and many of them have bumping rights that the company has described as…

On Monday's Rundown, MSNBC's Luke Russert repeatedly touted the supporters of the communist Cuban regime who rallied outside near the newly-opened Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C.: "I would say, from talking to people, those who are in favor of this outnumber those who are opposed to it...probably, at least, five to one – just from my anectodal conversations." Russert also hyped that "this is…

Andrea Mitchell wondered if Chattanooga terrorist Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez's "small-town Tennessee" upbringing had anything to do with his slaughtering of four Marines. Mitchell interviewed a high school classmate of Abdulazeez on the Friday edition of her MSNBC program and asked, "Were guns a big part of activity – social or other activity?...Did he hunt? Did he shoot? I mean, was that just…