Networks Snoozing on Hoyer Suggesting Dems Won't Vote to Continue Bush
Between the ongoing Gulf oil spill and the McChrystal row, this story is bound to get put on the back burner, but it still deserves attention by the broadcast and cable news media.Yesterday I wrote about the Washington Post burying its story on House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer saying that congressional Democrats were not wedded to President Obama's 2008 campaign pledge to not raise taxes on…
CNN Fails to Label Liberal Group Poised to Sue McDonald's Over 'Happy
As NewsBusters sister company CNSNews.com reported, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a liberal consumer advocacy group, is threatening to sue the McDonald's Corporation for "unfair and deceptive" marketing practices unless the fast food company stops giving away toys in its "Happy Meals." CNN's "American Morning" on June 23 covered the story half-jokingly, but failed to…
MRC's Bozell: Comedy Central's 'JC' Has No Advertiser Support
Of the more than 300 corporate sponsors who have sponsored Comedy Central in the past, not a single one has indicated their intention to buy advertising time on the planned "JC" program should it ever be set to go to broadcast.That's the victorious announcement today from Citizens Against Religious Bigotry (CARB), a group co-founded by NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell and a handful of other…
Newsweek Wonders if Utah Republicans Will 'Play Dirty' by Voting for L
Liberals in the media frequently paint conservatives and Tea Party activists as pushing the GOP too far to the right to be electable in general elections. But the same complaint isn't repeated on an endless loop when it comes to leftist activists challenging more centrist Democratic incumbents in primary contests. In fact, in some of those occasions, the media find a way to cast aspersions on…
AP Writers Criticize Foreign Oil Spill Aid Offers Because (Gasp!) They
A Friday report by reporters Matthew Lee and Eileen Sullivan indicates that there is a serious shortage of critical thinking skills over at the Associated Press, or a serious desire to run interference for the Obama administration no matter how ignorant doing so makes the wire service's reporters appear.Lee and Sullivan try to excuse the State Department's inaction on the vast majority of roughly…
In the Best of Hands (Not): Even AP's Borenstein Sees Problems With Ob
The presidential commission tasked with investigating the BP oil spill is so short on technical expertise and packed with left-leaning politicians and knee-jerk environmentalists that even the Associated Press's resident ClimateGate apologist Seth Borenstein is concerned. On December 12, 2009, over two weeks after the ClimateGate e-mails first appeared, Borenstein wrote that "the exchanges don't…
The Real Detroit Three Stories in JD Power’s Latest Initial Quality
When it comes to the performance of the U.S.-headquartered Detroit automakers once known as the Big Three, the real news in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Initial Quality Study (IQS) is not what the Associated Press's Stephen Manning wrote in his Thursday coverage ("US cars top foreign brands on quality survey") of Power's pronouncement. While barely true and in a sense historic, it's not…
Screw the Newbies: AP's Lament on Plight of New UAW Hires Ignores the
There several annoying aspects of today's Associated Press report on the plight of newly-hired employees at U.S. auto plants represented by the United Auto Workers. Mentioned by writers Dee-Ann Durbin and Tom Krisher, but not until their eleventh paragraph, is the fact that new workers, whose starting wage (mentioned in Paragraph 2) is "about half what veterans make under their current contract…
MSNBC's Brewer Annoyed at Barton's 'Shakedown' Reference, But Colleagu
In a satellite interview with Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) held shortly before 1 p.m. EDT today, MSNBC's Contessa Brewer criticized Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) for denouncing the president for pushing BP to agree to a $20-billion escrow account for oil spill damages as a "shakedown": So, there's Joe Barton calling the $20 billion in escrow a shakedown, and as you point out, there are people in…
Chris Matthews Crams Year's Worth of Anti-Tea Party Cliches into One H
What do Tea Partiers, Truthers, birthers, Birchers, militias, Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell, Barry Goldwater, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Ronald Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Rand Paul, Alex Jones, Orly Taitz, and Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh all have in common? Approximately nothing, but don't tell Chris Matthews.The MSNBC "Hardball" host…
Ed Schultz Hates Country Star Lee Greenwood's Patriotic Song 'God Bles
Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer found Ed Schultz on his radio show Tuesday mocked country star Lee Greenwood and his patriotic song "God Bless the USA," which he suggested was an anthem for American imperialism. Remember when every time we invaded an oil-rich country or any time there was any kind of confrontation, we were subjected to -- ad nauseam, I might add -- [mock sings, really badly] "…
Religion Blogger Shreds Newsweek's Take on 'Saint Sarah' Palin
"You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting." That's how the biblical prophet Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall that heralded the imminent demise of the Babylonian Empire. It could also sum up journalist Sarah Pulliam Bailey's take on Lisa Miller's "Saint Sarah" piece in Newsweek (emphases mine):Journalists have long been puzzled over Sarah Palin’s popularity. In November,…
Follow-up: AP TV Says Etheridge 'Manhandles' Questioner; Text Coverage
It would appear, based on the graphic tease reproduced at the right and the underlying content, that the folks putting together videos at the Associated Press didn't get the memo that they should go as soft as possible on North Carolina Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge. Etheridge arguably committed assault "last week" when approached on a public street. The description of what occurred and…
Journalistic Instincts: In Alleged Etheridge Assault, Who Does AP Want
A sitting congressman allegedly commits assault on a public sidewalk, is caught on video doing so (link is to the related Eyeblast.tv video and blog post), and "apologizes." Note that the incident took place "last week," according to the linked BigGovernment.com post, which means that Etheridge didn't see the need for an apology until the video went viral. So ... who does the intrepid…
