Labeling

On Monday's New Day, CNN's Chris Cuomo minimized the problem of sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants. When Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's special counsel, touted how Trump "opened up the eyes to (sic) many Americans that didn't even know sanctuaries existed," Cuomo claimed that sanctuary cities are a "misnomer." He underlined that "those are cities...are in disputes with ICE about how you deal…

Here is an object lesson in how the perceptions of low-information voters are shaped to the disadvantage of Republican and conservative candidates. In the daily email I receive from Eonline.com (subscribing to the web site’s missives is a necessary evil), the fifth item listed read: “Scott Walker Announces 2016 Presidential Run.” (Curiously, the web version of that email no longer links to the…

On Monday's New Day, CNN's Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo hyped David Letterman coming "out of retirement" on Friday to issue a Top Ten list mocking Donald Trump. The two anchors were nearly brought to tears over Letterman's list. Camerota exclaimed, "We do miss David Letterman!" Cuomo seconded Camerota's sentiment and added, "We miss the social critique. It will be interesting to see who picks…

Aamer Madhani at USA Today took the easy way out on Friday in covering the sharp increases in murders in many U.S. cities during the first half of this year. He quoted Milwaukee's police chief bemoaning "absurdly weak" gun laws. He noted that "the increased violence is disproportionately impacting poor and predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods." He found a university prof to…

Apparently nothing is ever the government's fault during the Obama era — even a clear failure by authorities to prevent an alleged mass-murderer from acquiring a gun, and their failure to retrieve it once he obtained it. Earlier today, before it went down the paper's frequently used memory hole, reporter Michael S. Schmidt wrote in his second paragraph that alleged mass murderer Dylann Roof got…

Martin Crutsinger has been a business and economics writer at the Associated Press for over three decades. Certain people in high places apparently hold him in high regard. In early 2014, on his 30th anniversary with the wire service, he is said to have received congratulatory letters from soon-to-be Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, soon-to-be-former chair Ben Bernanke and Obama administration…

On Friday, ABC, CBS, and NBC's evening newscasts all ignored how the Obama administration issued the latest version of its abortifacient/contraception mandate under ObamaCare, which ignores multiple court rulings against it – including the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling in 2014 – and again tries to force religious non-profits to fund drugs that they consider to be immoral. Instead, the Big…

Of all the media memes ever attempted, the one blaming Republicans for the fact that now-resigned Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Aruchleta was confirmed is high on the list of the most ridiculous ever. A reasonably close runnerup is the idea that Congress failed "to adequately fund OPM." Matt Balan at NewsBusters covered CNN's ridiculous tweeted claim that "Republicans…

CNN Politics's Twitter account on Friday pointed the finger at congressional Republicans over the now-former director of the Office of Personnel Management's responsibility for the massive hacking there that compromised the personal data of over 22 million people. A post hyped that "Republicans acknowledge to [correspondent] @evanperez they didn't properly vet [Katherine] Archuleta's…

One would think that a presidential candidate falsely claiming that she never was subpoenaed would be bigger news story than people in the opposing party criticizing that candidate after the fact for her obviously false statement. As Tim Graham at NewsBusters noted late this afternoon, that's not the case. This post contains several more examples. At CNN, the network's own Brianna Keilar, who…

As seen in two previous posts at NewsBusters, once the Associated Press's Christopher Rugaber didn't get the job market "nearing full health" he expected and briefly thought he got in Thursday's jobs report, he quickly downgraded it to "painting a mixed picture," and took it further down to "a bleaker picture" about eight hours later. That still left the problem, six years after the recession's…

On Tuesday's Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN, the New York Times' Maggie Haberman did her best to downplay Hillary Clinton's weaknesses, particularly in light of her recent interview with CNN's Brianna Keilar. Haberman asserted that the former first lady was "uneven" during the interview, but quickly added that Mrs. Clinton is "somebody who tends to get better over time." The journalist also played up…

The Associated Press's Christopher Rugaber had a very bad day on Thursday as he covered the government's June jobs report, but it was all self-inflicted. I noted much of the problem in a NewsBusters post yesterday, citing how the AP economics writer got badly burned while engaging in the wire service's usual practice of analyzing expected and reported economic results instead of concentrating on…

This post will document what transpired at the Associated Press on Thursday before and just after the release of the government's employment report. It should be a humiliating lesson to its business and economics writers. One would hope that they might learn to concentrate solely on discerning and accurately reporting the relevant facts, and to leave the analysis to others. (I know; fat chance…