As Freddie Begs for More Cash, AP's Zibel Perpetuates Fannie Mae/Fredd
There are quite a few shaky assertions in Alan Zibel's Associated Press report yesterday about Freddie Mac's latest quarterly loss ($6 billion), its latest bailout installment request to the U.S. Treasury ($1.8 billion), and the cumulative taxpayer bailout amounts that have been paid out to Freddie Mac and big sister Fannie Mae thus far ($148.2 billion) -- too many to cover in a blog post. So I'…
Copenhagen Dashed: AP Reports Lament That Bonn Climate Talks 'Slip Bac
The past week has brought forth a couple of items from the Associated Press's -- and for the most part the establishment press's -- special corner of journalistic unreality. It is an area where human-caused global warming is still a given, and where that the nastiness known as ClimateGate that exposed the entire global warming enterprise as entirely unsupported by verifiable scientific data doesn…
Blogger Unearths Interesting Info on 'Teacher' That Criticized Palin
While filming a segment for her new TLC program in Homer, Alaska, former governor Sarah Palin was recently accosted by one Kathleen Gustafson, a local bearing a large handwritten banner reading "Worst Governor Ever."Several news agencies and networks have picked up on the story, uncritically relaying that Gustafson is simply a local teacher. But that's not accurate, as MacRanger of the Mac's Mind…
AP's Fall-out-of-Chair Headline: 'Adult Stem Cell Research Far Ahead o
A week ago, AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter committed a serious act of journalism by telling readers what is really going on in stem cell science. It ought to be required reading for the Obama administration, which seems to be making a crusade out of human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) while acting to stifle what appears to be significant progress in adult stem cell research (ASCR). The…
'Recovery Summer' vs. 'Mission Accomplished': Will MSM Immortalize Oba
For the media, "Mission Accomplished" represents everything that was wrong with the George W. Bush administration and its war policy. The image of Bush declaring unequivocal victory mere weeks after the invasion of Iraq has been ballyhooed as a visual representation of Bush's arrogance, naivete, even dishonesty (the media contrived most of this meme - more on that below).Will Barack Obama have a…
Obama Admin's IT Outsourcing Assistance to Sri Lanka, Armenia Gets Lit
On August 3 ("U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers"), InformationWeek.com's Paul McDougall reported that the U.S. Agency for International Development is operating at cross purposes with the Obama administration's stated goal to keep high-tech jobs in the U.S. USAID has since attempted to do some backing and filling about the assistance it is providing in Sri Lanka, but its arguments may ring…
Establishment Press Ignores Counterpunch Accusations That Sherrods Mis
What follows was eminently predictable, but noting it is nonetheless necessary. Shirley Sherrod, and to a lesser extent her husband Charles, were media celebrities for a while in late July. Readers might have noticed their near absence from establishment media news reports during the past seven days. It would be easy to think that this has occurred because the story played itself out, with…
As GM Plans IPO, AP Finally Makes Prominent Reference to Drivers' 'Res
In what I believe is the first direct acknowledgment by the wire service of what so many have known for so long, the Associated Press's Tom Krisher wrote the following in an August 5 story about plans for an initial public offering by government-controlled General Motors (bolds are mine throughout this post): Ever since the Obama administration gave the automaker a $50 billion dollar survival…
ABC Hypes Michelle Obama's 'Lush,' Luxurious' Spanish Vacation, Hit Ex
Good Morning America's Yunji de Nies on Friday touted Michelle Obama's "five-star," "luxurious" vacation to Spain, skipping any discussion of controversy over the $148,000 trip. In January of 2009, however, the very same program chided Laura Bush for introducing new presidential dinnerware, despite the fact that the bill was being paid by a private organization. De Nies gushed, "They toured the…
Bill Press Mocks Southern Senator with Banjo Music; Suggests 'Taking C
Ah yes - liberalism, or as its recent branding has labeled it, progressivism, is the most open-minded and culturally sensitive place to be on the ideological spectrum. Those who subscribe to those beliefs are far more enlightened and far more able to respect those from all over the globe, or least all over the United States, right? Not the case with liberal talk show host Bill Press. On his…
CNN Sides Heavily With Opponents of Proposition
On Wednesday, CNN's daytime coverage of a federal judge's decision on California's Proposition 8 leaned mostly towards those who opposed the voter-approved amendment to the state's constitution, which banned same-sex marriage. When the judge's ruling was released, which found Prop 8 to be unconstitutional, the network went so far to get immediate reaction to the ruling at a "gay" bar in West…
'CBS Evening News' Anchor Couric Ridiculed Palin from Day One; Mocks S
Want more evidence of an elitist vibe coming from the upper echelons of the mainstream media? You ought to remember the Sept. 24, 2008 Katie Couric interview of Sarah Palin. It's been celebrated time and time again as a heralded part of American journalism. However, raw footage appearing to be from Aug. 29, 2008 shows that Couric, anchor of the "CBS Evening News," was already predisposed not…
Was WikiLeaks Leaker Lashing Out Against 'Don't Ask Don't Tell
Army Spc. Bradley Manning may face some serious charges for allegedly leaking tens of thousands of classified military documents to the website WikiLeaks. The leak could have serious consequences for the war effort. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen claimed that WikiLeaks "might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family."In…
SEC Claims Information Opacity, But Media No Longer So Concerned With
It seems that not even the truth can possibly overturn the narrative that President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have brought transparency to Washington.Last Wednesday I wrote about how the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill Obama signed into law last month contains a provision exempting the Securities and Exchange Commission from Freedom of Information Act requests. Such an exemption…
