Media Bias Debate

In his "Rewrite" segment last night, MSNBC's "Last Word" host Lawrence O'Donnell pounded out a 9-minute-long sermonette against conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. O'Donnell slammed Limbaugh as biblically illiterate, reacting to a monologue from his April 25 program in which Limbaugh complained about liberals co-opting Jesus Christ for political purposes in the federal budget debate,…

Imagine if a Tea Party backer by some miracle got to teach on a college campus, and began describing ways to, oh, I don't know, keep opposing politicians from conducting business, hack into their computers and destroy data, and make their staffs feel threatened. How long would that class last, and how long would it be before it became a national news story? Well, Publius at Andrew Breitbart's…

Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but in late August 2010 Ben Bernanke took on complete responsibility for everything -- especially everything mediocre or bad -- that occurs in the economy. I know this because on August 27 and 28 (covered here and here), the Associated Press issued three reports essentially telling readers that it was up to Ben to save us. There wasn't anything Barack Obama, Tim…

The "erosion" of progressive policies in the U.S. has led to a "dramatic" rise of economic inequality in the past few decades, writes Princeton historian Julian Zelizer in a CNN.com op-ed. The incline has been so steep that Zelizer's headline asks "Are we heading for royal weddings in the U.S.?" According to Zelizer, the upcoming British royal wedding "reminds some Americans of what America…

BuzzMedia.com bills itself as "pop culture amplified." It recently acquired a former Turner Broadcasting site called "The Frisky." BuzzMedia's press release announcing the acquisition said that "The Frisky has struck a major chord with female audiences for its authentic voice and fierce sense of humor." Last Tuesday, The Frisky "Guys" section contributor and Julie Gerstein, whose occupation…

The establishment press's lack of interest in associating President Obama with the sharp run-up in energy costs has been thoroughly documented by several folks at the Media Research Center, including but not limited to Julia Seymour when gasoline hit the $3 mark, and more recently Brent Bozell. Saturday, the Associated Press's Mark S. Smith took the gas-price propaganda to the next level. As…

In its infamous June 2005 Kelo vs. New London ruling, a Supreme Court majority allowed the city of New London to seize the properties of holdout homeowners in that city's Fort Trumbull area for the "public purpose" of economic development, not a "public use" as the Constitution's Fifth Amendment requires. It has been eleven years since the litigation began, six years since the court's ruling…

On Friday night, the Fox News Channel debuted a Hannity special, ‘Behind the Bias: The History of Liberal Media.’ The promo declared: “Double standards? Groundless attacks? Blatant bias? Sean calls out the mainstream media! Don’t miss Behind the Bias: The History of Liberal Media.” The Media Research Center made available to Fox News Channel producers video clips from our archive going back…

Tonight (Friday) the Fox News Channel will air a Hannity special, in Sean Hannity's usual time slot, ‘Behind the Bias: The History of Liberal Media.’ The promo declares: “Double standards? Groundless attacks? Blatant bias? Sean calls out the mainstream media! Don’t miss Behind the Bias: The History of Liberal Media.” It will run for the hour at 9 PM EDT/8 PM CDT/7 PM MDT/6 PM PDT. It will…

NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell appeared on the April 22 "Fox & Friends" to discuss the media's double standard on rising gas prices. In short, in 2006, the media blamed then-President Bush, but in 2011, anyone but Obama seems to be at fault as far as the media are concerned. For the full video of the segment, watch the video embed posted after the…

CNN contributor John Avlon, labeled an "independent," was all but sounding the death knell for 2012 Republican presidential hopes on CNN Thursday. Avlon took Republican criticism of notable figures such as Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann and spun it to tout that the GOP is in trouble. "This is the sound of Republicans getting nervous," Avlon ominously sounded. "It really…

Are you a Christian who also is supportive of Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan? Then you'd best repent of your sin and be renew your mind with the social gospel. That's the pronouncement of liberal theologian Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite in an April 18 post at the Washington Post/Newsweek "On Faith" website. Brooks Thistlethwaite -- who previously hit Tea Party conservatives as tribalistic --…

They may not be officially celebrating "Green Week," but CNN was fully in the spirit of the week Wednesday morning. Anchor Carol Costello expressed her dismay that Congress has not acted in the last year to prevent another disaster like the BP oil spill, and seemed to want more safety regulations and laws for oil companies to follow in a disaster. "Congress doesn't seem to be in charge,"…

Imagine it's April 2007 and President Bush's Treasury department lobbied unsuccessfully to deter credit analysts at Standard & Poor's from revising the credit outlook of the United States government from "stable" to "negative." No doubt it would be front-page news as the election season was heating up and there's yet another piece of bad news to lay at the feet of Bush and the Republican…