Labeling

The competition is fierce, but perhaps the most consistent area of outright and arguably deliberate U.S. and worldwide press distortion is found in their coverage of the Catholic Church and its pontiff. Last week, the major international wires and several U.S. outlets once again demonstrated that readers, listeners and viewers can never trust that they will get an accurate story relating to…

On May 5, PolitiFact's Louis Jacobson kept with the alleged "fact-checking" web site's actual role as pack of leftist hacks by issuing a fundamentally dishonest "Half True" ruling on a statement made by CarlyFiorina.org's cybersquatter. I raise the matter now because the web site's critics, while raising most of the relevant points, haven't gone far enough in tearing apart Jacobson's work. As…

On Tuesday, Associated Press reporter Martin Crutsinger celebrated the federal government's large April budget surplus, caused by "a flood of tax payments (which) pushed government receipts to an all-time high." He didn't mention that the tax payments were higher largely because of tax increases passed in 2013. It certainly didn't occur because of an improving economy — because it's not…

On May 1, the Associated Press's Paul Wiseman was pleased to tell the wire service's readers and subscribing outlets that "The University of Michigan's sentiment index rose to 95.9 from 93 in March," reaching "its second-highest level since 2007." Among other things, the survey's chief economist said that the result reflected "improving prospects for jobs and incomes." What a difference two…

Friday's NBC Nightly News picked up where Today left off earlier in the day by hyping former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's "long week," after his Monday remark that he would have authorized an invasion of Iraq if he had been president in 2003. Lester Holt echoed Savannah Guthrie in underling that Bush has "struggled since then to put daylight between him and his brother's legacy on Iraq." He also…

On Friday's CNN Newsroom, liberal anchor Carol Costello actually didn't buy the spin of a Hillary Clinton supporter on her skirting of questions from the press. When Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman did his best to shield Mrs. Clinton, Costello interjected, "I want our political candidates to take tough questions." She later underlined that "she's not answering questions! About her…

On Thursday's CNN Newsroom, Brian Stelter asserted that George Stephanopoulos is "one of the biggest stars on all of television," as he reported on the ABC anchor's $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation. Stelter later claimed that Stephanopoulos has "done a lot to earn people's respect and trust. He's one of the most well-respected anchors at ABC." During his report, the correspondent…

New York Times campaign reporter Jeremy Peters on Tuesday lent libertarian-Republican Sen. Rand Paul some slight, cynical support toward his attempt to repeal the Patriot Act, yet maintained his personal hostility toward both the GOP, which "demands fealty to hawkish dogma on national security and defense," and the candidate himself, who "can't stop swearing" and whose "mouth gets him in trouble…

CNN's Fareed Zakaria inserted a thinly-veiled shot at Fox News Channel during his Monday special on ISIS. Zakaria underlined that "the angry rhetoric of cable news fits right into the script [of ISIS]."  He continued that "CNN makes an occasional appearance" in the Islamist terrorist group's propaganda, but then played up that "Fox News is a favorite of ISIS, with commentators who demand boots on…

The Daily Beast's Dean Obeidallah denied the existence of Islamism as an ideology during a segment on Monday's CNN Newsroom. Obeidallah, responding to conservative commentator Erick Erickson applauding Saturday Night Live's draw Mohammed skit as "a perfectly humorous way to point out the absurdity of radical Islam's refusal to let people draw Mohammed," wildly claimed that "the [SNL] writers'...…

Today, Bloomberg TV's Mark Halperin inadequately apologized for his conduct and line of questioning during an April 30 interview of GOP presidential candidate which came off as rude and racist to many who saw it — well, basically because it was. As Tim Graham at NewsBusters noted on Sunday, and as will be seen in the video following the jump, Halperin engaged in a "prove-you're-a-Cuban" line of…

Well, this takes the well-founded belief that the left only cares about blacks because of their votes to a new level. At the Washington Post's "Monkey Cage" blog yesterday (seriously, that's it's name), Dean Robinson, an "associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst" who is apparently not a regular contributor, explores "the political consequences of…

On Monday's New Day on CNN, the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza asserted that there was no wrongdoing in former President Bill Clinton helping his brother-in-law, Tony Rodham, get a job with former DNC head Terry McAuliffe (who's now the governor of Virginia): "Bill Clinton was not in office. It doesn't seem to conflict with her [Hillary Clinton's] job as secretary of state. If Bill Clinton helped out…