GMA's Elizabeth Vargas Pushes James Carville to Attack GOP
On Tuesday's edition of Good Morning America, Elizabeth Vargas was joined by former Bush pollster Matt Dowd and Democrat strategist James Carville. Astonishing though it may seem, Carville was not the left-most member of the panel.Carville and Dowd were there to provide commentary on the Obama administration's response to the attempted Undi-Bomber attack. Dowd agreed with Carville's assessment…
CNN Reports TSA Lacks Chief Because of 'the Very Conservative' Senator
On CNN's American Morning today, anchor John Roberts talked with correspondent Jim Acosta about "the politics" of terrorism. Part of the exchange:ACOSTA: There is plenty punting going on in Washington, John. Hearings on the Detroit scare are planned for early next month, and the top Republican on that committee has already said there should have been a big red flag next to the suspect's name,…
AP, Aversa Conveniently Change Their Definition of 'Recession
The Associated Press's business writers and many others in the establishment press spent just over a year reminding readers at seemingly every conceivable opportunity that the recession began in December 2007, simply because the supposedly apolitical collection of academics at the National Bureau for Economic Research said so. Lo and behold, in her year-end roundup of 2009's top business stories…
Sen. Chris Dodd Heckled During Interview
In the midst of a left-slanting report on Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) triumphant return to his home state, there was a brief moment of sanity provided by (presumably) a Dodd constituent.This can’t be a good omen for Senator Countrywide (hat-tip to FireAndreaMitchell.com):REPORTER: A tired, but triumphant Senator Chris Dodd meets the media just hours after passing health care reform in the Senate,…
Media Reaction to the Best Notable Quotables of
The Media Research Center's "Best Notable Quotables of 2009: The Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting" are garnering some media attention of their own. MRC President Brent Bozell drew laughs from the gang on Fox & Friends this morning as he reviewed a few of the winners, but other journalists have also found the awards worthy of coverage:The American Spectator's Quin Hillyer, who…
Chicago Trib's Page Claims 'Teabagger' Label 'Asked For'; Calls Fox Ne
UPDATE: Page responds to NewsBusters in Chicago Tribune blog post. The bitterness toward the tea party movement continues to go on and on. Case in point - Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page, who on the Dec. 27 broadcast of "The McLaughlin Group," deemed it "The Most Defining Political Moment" of 2009, but refused to call it the "tea party." Instead, he granted the movement the preferred…
AP: Carter's 'Built a Legacy That Few, If Any, American Ex-Presidents
Former president Jimmy Carter is doing one terrific job. So reports the Associated Press today in its "Carter finds happiness in foreign missions." According to the article:Since leaving the White House, he's logged millions of miles and visited dozens of countries on missions to wipe out diseases, mediate conflicts, advocate for human rights and monitor elections. He's built a legacy that few…
The New York Times Eulogizes an 'Eminent Politician
How does someone qualify for description as an "eminent politician" by the New York Times? Being very, very liberal seems to help.Today on its Web site, the newspaper reports "Percy Sutton, Eminent Politician, Dies at 89." Mr. Sutton maintained a long list of liberal bona fides. In a book last year he was quoted:"I like the fact that my family was a family of protesters. I like the fact that…
Relief Without Limits: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Get Blank Checks; NYT P
On Thursday, the Treasury Department issued a press release, called "Update on Status of Support for Housing Programs." Its fourth paragraph reads as follows: At the time the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship in September 2008, Treasury established Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements (PSPAs) to ensure that each firm maintained a positive…
Fox Newswatch Highlights Couric & Klein in MRC's Awards for Worst Repo
Saturday's Fox Newswatch on FNC highlighted two “winners” in the MRC's “Best Notable Quotables of 2009: The 22nd Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting.” (Posting on NewsBusters) Viewers were treated to Katie Couric pining to Barack Obama: “You're so confident, Mr. President, and so focused. Is your confidence ever shaken? Do you ever wake up and say, damn, this is hard?” FNC host Jon Scott…
Liberal Henican Tags Couric Quote 'Icky
Saturday’s Fox News Watch gave attention to a couple of entries in the MRC’s "Best Notable Quotables of 2009: The 22nd Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting." Returning from a commercial break, a clip of CBS’s Katie Couric began the segment as Couric was shown expressing awe at President Obama’s confidence as she interviewed him last July. Couric: "You’re so confident, Mr. President, and…
Flight 253: AP Scrubs 'M-Word,' Potential Relevance of 'Nigerian Talib
It has been interesting watching the Associated Press reports on the attempted takedown of Flight 253 devolve in the past 12-plus hours. In its 8:56 a.m. report (likely dynamic and subject to change), it looks like the assemblage of AP writers who worked on the story have succeeded in: As Mark Finkelstein at NewsBusters noted earlier this morning in the case of the New York Times, ridding the…
Guess The Missing Word In NY Times Report On Attempted Plane Bombing
Imagine that there had been a series of three incidents in which members of a [invented for present purposes] fanatical Jewish sect had attempted to bring down airliners from Arab countries. In reporting on the latest attempt and describing the previous ones, do you think the New York Times might have mentioned the religion of the perpetrators? So do I.But with the legerdemain required to…