Chuck Todd: Lot Of 'Clinton Kool-Aid Drinkers' In The Media
Some refreshing frankness from Chuck Todd today. Commenting on the MSM hoopla about Bill Clinton's recent White House press room solo, NBC's political director and chief White House correspondent acknowledged that there are "a lot of Clinton Kool-Aid drinkers" in the media.
Chris Matthews, who had played a couple Clinton clips and gushed over his brilliance, protested that Todd was…
WaPo: Venezuela Has Acquired 1,800 Russian Missiles; AP, NYT Snooze
A useful guideline in evaluating the significance of a national security-related news story first revealed by someone in the establishment press is whether other media outlets pick it up. If they don't, it's probably significant.
Such is the case with the Washington Post's Saturday story about Venezuela acquiring 1,800 Russian antiaircraft missiles. That appears to be 1,700 more than…
AP Item Serves as Press Release for Benefit-Duplicating, Power-Grabbin
How did the nation ever survive without the government telling its schools what foods they should serve?
This is one of many questions the Associated Press's Mary Clare Jalonick did not explore in her brief de facto press release this morning trumpeting the wonders of the "nutrition bill" President Obama is signing into law these days (presented in full for fair use and discussion purposes):
AP's Ohlemacher Continues Press's Persistent Promotion of Social Secur
One of the press's longest campaigns to systematically obfuscate the truth about a specific government program is the one that has protected Social Security from reasonable scrutiny for most of the 75 years of its existence.
The Associated Press's Stephen Ohlemacher did his part to continue the misdirection in his coverage of the possible effects of the payroll tax cut President Obama and…
Deceive the Children: NYT 'Learning Network' Frames Federal Income Tax
A New York Times "Learning Network" graphic informs us that under the proposed Obama-GOP tax and spending compromise, "rates will not change for at least two years for anyone."
Wow. Somebody at the Learning Network needs to tell the Old Gray Lady's beat reporters, editorial board, and opinion columnists. Just today, reporter Helene Cooper, in noting how Vice President Joe Biden is playing a "…
AP's Crutsinger Issues Incomplete, Sloppy, Misleading Report on Novemb
How can you cover a story about Uncle Sam's November Monthly Treasury Statement and the proposed Obama-GOP compromise on taxes and unemployment benefits without using the words "spending," "receipts," any form of "collect," or "unemployment"? It's a neat trick, but the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger pulled it off in his Friday afternoon dispatch shortly after the government report's…
Gainor Column: Media Can't Decide Whether Espionage is Journalism
Imagine the year is 1942 and the German government runs a news bureau in Washington, D.C. collecting government secrets. Even FDR would have laughed at claims they were actual journalists, locked them up and thrown away the key.
He would have been right. There's a huge difference between an individual or an organization reporting abuses in government or business one at a time and the same…
Burning Styleite Question: 'Why Isn’t Sarah Palin Selling More Cloth
Justin Fenner at Styleite needs to buy a clue or two about how women who like Sarah Palin think and act, and about Palin herself.
In a post late Friday afternoon, he asked, "Why Isn’t Sarah Palin Selling More Clothes?" (bolds are mine):
As Obama Bizarrely Walks Away From Presser, AP's Feller Waxes Nostalgi
Not that he legitimately deserves our pity, but imagine the difficulty of being Ben Feller at the Associated Press yesterday.
You've just attended a suddenly announced joint press conference with President Barack Obama and former president Bill Clinton to announce the latter's support for the former's tax- and spending-related legislative proposals worked out with Republicans. You witness the…
Liberal Columnist Mike Barnicle: Obama 'Deified' in '08, Media 'Largel
Liberal columnist Mike Barnicle confessed Friday that the media "deified" Barack Obama during his 2008 Presidential campaign. Both Barnicle and former MSNBC host Donny Deutsch, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," admitted that Obama had no executive experience when he took office as president and that hurt him in his first two years in the Oval Office.
"This guy took office, he had never really run…
Name That Party, Confuse-the-Reader Division: AP Refers to 'Also a Dem
In a 12:35 p.m. story at the Associated Press's main site (pictured here, here, and here for future reference, fair use, and discussion purposes), reporter Jim Fitzgerald covers the conviction of White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley ("Suburban NY mayor convicted of attempted assault").
At Paragraph 12, Fitzgerald writes:
Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore, also a Democrat, praised…
Islamophobia-obsessed Media Silent on Anti-Semitic 'Hate Crimes' at In
Most Americans are probably unaware that Jews were the victims of more than eight times as many anti-religion hate crimes last year as were Muslims. And the reason is simple: anti-Muslim crimes receive far more media attention.
Case in point: the media has been all but silent on a slew of anti-Semitic acts of vandalism at Indiana University, coinciding with the beginning of the celebration of…
Media Emphasis on 'Holiday Shopping' Directly Defies Public's Stated P
There are many areas where the establishment press's terminology preferences are significantly out of sync with everyday usage by the general public. To name just two examples, the ever so PC press routinely replaces publicly favored and more informative terms such as "illegal immigrants" and "Muslim terrorists" with "undocumented workers" and "militants." And of course, we can't forget the…
Zero Hedge, Kaus Note GM 'Channel Stuffing' Ahead of and After IPO; Pr
A few weeks ago, just before GM's initial public offering went to the market (at the Washington Examiner; at BizzyBlog), I noted that Multi-Government/General Motors had spent the past several months shipping more cars than its dealers were selling, to the point where dealer stocks represented an unusually high number of days of dealers' sales.
GM's December 1 press release made that trend…
