ACORN Disbanding; Press Not Handling It Well

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has announced that it is disbanding. Though the hard-leftists that formed or were running it are likely to show up in some other venue and perhaps in a successor organization down the road (Update: or perhaps burrow themselves into the government, as NB commenter "Hunter 12" suggests), this is a moment to savor. Two twenty-…

WaPo Presents Readers with Plight of Immigrant Who Escaped Federal Rai

While its March 22 front page was exulting over House Democrats "scor[ing] a historic victory in the century-long battle to reform the nation's health-care system," the Washington Post's Style section ginned up a human interest story for another cause dear to many liberals: immigration "reform." "Caught up in hope, but snared in a raid," blared staffer David Montgomery's headline. "Rally for…

Homeless Official, NYT Obfuscate Significance of Jan. '09-Jan. '10 Spi

Sometimes, certain claims made by establishment media reporters or people who are quoted don't pass the smell test. Then, when you dig in, to borrow a phrase from Michael Savage, the stench makes you clench. Such is the case with a front-page story ("Number of People Living on New York Streets Soars") that went up online at the New York Times late Friday, and appeared in its Saturday print…

Hume Predicts Health Bill Win Will Prompt ‘Wave of Gushing Coverage

Not exactly going out on a limb, but Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume predicted President Barack Obama’s success in getting his health bill passed and signed will lead to “a wave of gushing coverage” for “the determination of this President to see his signature initiative through.” Hume, during the panel segment on Fox News Sunday: The early political fallout will be, particularly in…

Supposedly Apolitical 'Today' Guest Is HuffPo Blogger Who Urged Reade

Jenna Wolfe's introduction of her guest on health-care on this morning's Today would surely have led viewers to believe he was an objective, apolitical voice.  What Wolfe didn't tell viewers is that Andrew Rubin is a HuffPo blogger and such an avid ObamaCare advocate that he urged his readers to call Congress to lobby for it. Here was Wolfe's intro: "The politics surrounding the health-care bill…

NYT Print Edition: Financially Imperiled ACORN 'Attacked by the Right

Who knew that two brave twenty-somethings and a skilled mentor constituted America's entire right wing? That's apparently how Ian Urbina at the New York Times sees it. In a subheadline employed in a front-page article in the paper's March 20 print edition (relevant portion shown at right) but not used in the online edition's version, the reporter told readers that the poor, put-upon Association…

Drew Carey Says Libertarians Can ‘Get Away’ in Hollywood, but Cons

According to actor and comedian Drew Carey, Hollywood is not the intolerant blackballing liberal utopia many deem it to be. In fact, Hollywood is very accepting of the right-wing crowd - except for that fringe, radical segment known as conservatives. "In Hollywood, you can pretty much get away with being a libertarian," Carey told John Stossel on the Fox Business Network. "But if you're a…

Unreal: AP Cites Teen Intercom Prank As Wal-Mart's 'Latest Minorities

Following up on a post earlier today (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) -- a 16 year-old in southern New Jersey was arrested and charged with "harassment and bias intimidation" for getting onto an area Wal-Mart store's intercom and saying, "Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now." Though the company had told the local press Friday evening that it believe that a non-…

DC Journalists Get Together Naked to Sweat After Watching Wolf Blitzer

“He believes networking in the nude to be an absolute moral good.” Talk about the incestuous relationship amongst sources, policy-makers and members of the Washington press corps, a front page Washington Post story on Thursday, “A Hot Spot for Diplomacy,” uncovered how DC-insiders get together for a weekly sauna session in the basement of Finland’s embassy – with Wolf Blitzer on the TV beforehand…

AP: 'Some' Obama Health Care Bill Promises Not Kept; More Like 'Almost

In a Friday piece of presidential protection prose promulgated by the Associated Press, writer Erica Werner correctly identified a number of significant "unfulfilled commitments" relating to proposed health care legislation, and then attempted to make excuses for why they didn't happen. Werner's work was conveniently accompanied by a heavily downplaying headline -- "Final health bill omits some…

AP: Goverment Secrecy Increasing Under Obama, But It's Not His Fault

In a week that has been chock full of lame claims, it would not be correct to say that the howler propagated by Sharon Thiemer of the Associated Press on Tuesday is the worst. But it's definitely in the upper echelons.In an item about government bureaucrats' increased volume and increased level of excuse-making for denying Freedom of Information Act requests, Theimer acts as if the guy in charge…

CNN's Velshi Asks: 'Do You Love the Stimulus?,' Then Catches Himself

For a moment on yesterday's CNN Newsroom, it looked like anchor Ali Velshi was again expressing his deep affection for President Barack Obama's stimulus plan.  Velshi, who last month sang "Happy birthday, dear stimulus," asked correspondent Josh Levs "Do you love the stimulus bill?"  But then Ali thought better and backed up:VELSHI: You have, after weeks and weeks of working on this, do you have…

Cheerleaders for ObamaCare: A Year of Slanted Media Coverage

As the Media Research Center's latest Media Reality Check details, over the past year, the media have served as cheerleaders for ObamaCare, praising the proposed legislation, while continually slamming its critics. As Congress moves closer to a final vote on the bill in the coming days, it's a good time to take a look back at the friendly spin that has dominated the airwaves in support of it, as…

ABC Replaces Clinton Operative with the Wife of a Clinton Operative as

In a bizarre choice, ABC News President David Westin has decided to make Christiane Amanpour, CNN's New York City-based international affairs correspondent, the host of ABC's Washington, DC-based This Week -- thus passing over many qualified ABC journalists in favor of replacing a Bill Clinton operative with the wife of an operative for both Bill and Hillary Clinton. Amanpour is married to Jamie…