Lipstick on a Pig: AP Describes ADP's Job-Loss Decline as Better Than
The coverage yesterday by the Associated Press's Stephen Bernard of payroll and human resources giant ADP's monthly jobs report for November focused on a relatively small reduction in the size of the decline in jobs lost and not on the fact that continuing to lose jobs is a bad thing.That rhetorical sleight of hand enabled the AP reporter to tell us that ADP's reported private sector job loss…
Waxman Wants Federal Government to 'Resolve' Newspapers' Problems
A powerful Democratic lawmaker has stated his willingness to intervene on the behalf of the federal government in the nation's news sector. Insisting that the newspaper business is vital to democracy, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., suggested that the government "resolve" the problems in the industry, potentially though misguided federal bailouts.At a workshop on the future of journalism at the…
AP Report on Ford Nov. Sales Holds Huge Planned Production Increase Un
In their report on Ford's November sales results, the Associated Press's Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin seemed to downplay the company's pretty decent month, and definitely downplayed the company's better near-term prospects compared to its principal rivals. Additionally, despite the report's Wednesday time stamp, the pair didn't update the item's content to compare Ford's performance to its…
Larry King Pro-Obama Then Anti-War in Michael Moore Interview
CNN’s Larry King carried water for President Obama’s move to send more troops to Afghanistan during an interview of Michael Moore on early Wednesday morning. King later shifted further to the left, asking Moore if he agreed with Jesse Ventura’s call for a new draft and a “war tax” and quoting from Bob Herbert of the New York Times, who labeled the Afghan war a “tragic mistake.”The CNN host…
Networks Briefly Note Dem Mayor's Conviction, Yet Ignored Her Trial
Imagine if you will that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin was accused of taking gift cards donated to her office for redistribution to needy constituents and using them instead for a personal spending spree.The media firestorm would swirl uncontrollably, of course, and certainly you couldn't fault the media for reporting on the ensuing criminal trial.Well, this sort of this has happened, only…
Liberal CBS Legal Analyst: I Wasn't That Political, and When I Was, It
The same CBS legal analyst who...: wrote that former Vice President Cheney "is just a dick"labeled Chief Justice John Roberts "silly and condescending" and Justice Alito a "rigid starboard-facing ideologue"and blamed Karl Rove for the Valerie Plame leak despite the fact that Richard Armitage admitted that he was the inadvertent leaker of that information...is now ending his CourtWatch blog, all…
CNN's Phillips: Obama Gives 'An Early Christmas Present for People on
On yesterday's CNN Newsroom, anchor Kyra Phillips shifted to "Bad Boys" mode:Lenders, lenders -- what you gonna do when they come for you? Call it an early Christmas present for people on the edge of losing their homes. The Obama administration cracking down on mortgage companies.We'll tell you about it.After the break:PHILLIPS: Well, from your health (ph) to your home, the foreclosure crisis…
Reviewing NYT's Food Stamp Report, Part 2 of 3: Paper Ignores Stimulus
The New York Times’s Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff published a long Saturday report on the Food Stamp program that went into print on Sunday. This is the second of three posts on their coverage; the first went up earlier today at NewsBusters and BizzyBlog. It addressed the pair's seeming happiness with the massive increase in program participation, their apparent unhappiness that 15-16…
Prior to Release, 'Brothers' Director Blames American People For Anti
The budget for "Brothers," per director Jim Sheridan, is $25 million, which probably doesn’t include marketing for promotion and … well, tell me again how Hollywood is driven by profit and not ideology? We’re a month away from 2010 so it’s hard to argue “Brothers” went into production before everyone was well aware that every single war film flopped miserably. But who does the snob Sheridan…
ABC News: 'Unemployed, Underemployed Look to Jobs Summit for Help
"Unemployed, Underemployed Look to Jobs Summit for Help" is posted on ABC News's Web site today. Authored by senior Washington correspondent John Cochran, the piece is notable in that nothing in it supports the headline. Cochran writes:Boosting confidence is at the top of President Obama's list at the Jobs Summit he is scheduled to host on Thursday. The invitation list includes business leaders…
Reviewing NYT's Food Stamp Report, Part 1 of 3: Paper Cheers Growth, L
In a long Saturday report on the Food Stamp program that went into print on Sunday, the New York Times's Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff: Almost seemed to celebrate the program's explosive growth. Bemoaned the fact that many who could participate do not. Both in their title ("Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades") and text, cheered the loss of stigma that has long been associated with the…
Cal Thomas: Media Eager to Criticize Bush for Abu Ghraib Now Reluctant
It's a night and day difference between the media's scrutiny of former President George W. Bush and the current command-in-chief, President Barack Obama. And the coverage of three Navy SEALs now facing a court martial that captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, who allegedly was the mastermind of the murder of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah in 2004, is proof. John Scott,…
At NYT's Dot Earth: Young Scientist 'Disheartened' by Climategate; Cor
New York Times environment reporter Andrew C. Revkin had a post yesterday that was primarily about an open letter from Judith Curry. Revkin describes her as "a seasoned climate scientist at Georgia Tech .... (who) has no skepticism about a growing human influence on climate." Revkin writes that "Dr. Curry has written a fresh essay that’s essentially a message to young scientists potentially…
