Media Bias Debate

While CNN's Soledad O'Brien tossed softballs at Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, she was not so kind to her Republican guest during the next hour, on Thursday's Starting Point. O'Brien reported poor poll numbers for both the Romney and Obama campaigns, but went after only the Romney campaign's economic message in detail. O'Brien teed up the Democratic mayor to respond to…

Maybe the answer to eliminating much of the annoying bias in establishment press business reporting is to have the reporters involved eliminate the could-might-maybe statements which almost inevitably follow the initial relay of the primary news. Take the first paragraph of Christopher Rugaber's report Tuesday on recent increases in state tax collections (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Of course you probably won't hear an apology or retraction on the network's programming, but PolitiFact.com has determined that MSNBC's Chris Matthews was in error when the Hardball host claimed on his June 4 program that a new Florida law -- which has been on hold by a federal judge -- made it utterly impossible for voter registration drives to sign up new voters over weekends. The law…

To illustrate how factually negligent this afternoon's report by Martin Crutsinger at the Associated Press on the federal government's financial results embodied in its Monthly Treasury Statement was, let's take a look at how Pedro Nicolaci da Costa at Reuters communicated more in a four-sentence brief than the AP reporter did in 18 painful paragraphs. Here is da Costa's item, in full:

Here is yet another "fact check" whose sole purpose is to try to invent reasons that an objectively true statement made by a conservative or Republican really isn't. Monday, the Associated Press's Stephen Ohlemacher tried to claim that "Taxmageddon," the $423 billion tax increase which will take effect on January 1 if Congress and President Obama don't act to prevent it, won't really be the…

Appearing on the Chicago Tribune's Web site is "Undocumented immigrants fight for lifesaving liver transplants: Without insurance, brothers are denied care."  The story also appears in today's print edition with the title "Struggles for the sick and undocumented." The story centers on two illegal immigrant brothers suffering from a deadly liver disease.  Contrary to the Web site's headline,…

How much does a biased media machine help its favorite party and candidates? Recent data from Italy suggests biased media favoring a certain national candidate and party is worth anywhere from 2 to 5.5 points to that candidate and his party in the final election tally. 

The $82 billion auto bailout has been a Crony Socialist nightmare mess. We’re going to lose at least $30 billion on the deal.  And that’s only if the Barack Obama Administration’s math can be trusted - a dicey proposition at best. The Administration eviscerated two hundred-plus years of bankruptcy law, throwing bond holders over the side to over-reward their United Auto Workers shock force…

Last week, for the third year in a row, the Television Critics Association – which “represents more than 200 journalists writing about television for print and online outlets in the United States and Canada” – nominated MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for their annual award for “Outstanding Achievement in News and Information.” The left-wing host is the only consistent nominee in the category over the…

This week the Los Angeles Times's Web site carries the story "Kirk Douglas on the blacklist: Why Hollywood showed so little courage," referencing  the actor's recently released memoir.  The article also appears in today's Chicago Tribune print edition, titled "How Douglas took on blacklist with 'Spartacus.'"  Author Patrick Goldstein reports Douglas is particularly proud of hiring former…

Last year, Harry Reid said pretty close to the same thing President Obama said on Friday about the health of the nation's private sector. Obama claimed that "The private sector is fine." On the Senate floor on October 19, Reid claimed that "It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine." Don't feel bad if you don't know this, because the press mostly ignored it. The few…

At National Review (here and here), Stanley Kurtz has proven beyond doubt that Barack Obama sought the far-left New Party's endorsement in 1996. In the process, he has rendered a central claim made by the Obama campaign at its "Fight the Smears" web site in 2008 ("Barack Did Not Seek New Party Endorsement") and swallowed whole by the gullible establishment press utterly false. In 2008, Ben…

Today at a press conference, President Barack Obama said that "we’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government ..." Later, in a cleanup attempt, in what the press is claiming is a walkback, Obama really didn't walk it back: "…

"Between 2000 and 2009, George Soros has contributed over $400 million to academic causes in this country" to push liberal "curricula that he wants taught," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on last night's "Media Mash" segment on Fox News Channel's Hannity program. For this, Soros gets a free pass from the media, yet the conservative/libertarian Koch Brothers donations are severely…