Political Scandals

The establishment press has obsessed over Republican Governor Chris Christie's non-scandals in New Jersey for 18 months. Anything appearing to be problematic during the past four years for Wisconsin GOP Governor Scott Walker, including a "John Doe" fishing expedition driven by a power-abusing Democratic prosecutor, has been national news. Meanwhile, the press appears to have lost interest in…

Wednesday's NBC Today decided that the interior design of a Republican Congressman's office was an important national news story, as co-host Savannah Guthrie informed viewers: "Let's start with the latest intrigue involving my favorite show, Downton Abby....Bright red walls and carpeting, pheasant feather displays and gold-colored sconces....This is the Downton-inspired office of this guy,…

Jim VandeHei sees dead people. On today's Morning Joe, the Politico honcho agreed with Joe Scarborough's suggestion that Chris Christie is like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense: [politically] dead but doesn't know it. Ironically, Scarborough distanced himself from his own suggestion, twice saying that he didn't believe it. But when he asked his guest if the characterization was fair, Vandehei…

On Tuesday, Joseph Morrissey, Democrat turned Independent, was elected to the Virginia legislature despite currently serving a jail sentence connected to his relationship with a 17-year-old girl who worked in his law office. In the Washington Post’s coverage of the scandal-plagued politician on Wednesday, reporters Laura Vozzella and Jenna Portnoy insisted that Morrissey’s current prison status…

Each of the network morning shows devoted some time on Wednesday to looking back at the biggest news stories of year and, while they certainly could not have included every story in the allotted time, they all failed to spend even a few seconds on topics such as Jonathan Gruber, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, President Obama’s unpopularity, and the Hobby Lobby case to name a few. In…

The liberal New York Times and the Washington Post went into hyperdrive, Wednesday, devoting a combined 3800 words and three front page stories to a scandal involving Republican Congressman Steve Scalise. 

The old saying — "To err is human, but to really screw things up, you need a computer" — needs an update. In this case, it's "To err is human, but to wreck an entire industry, you need to have the federal government try to force it to computerize." I'm referring to the government's attempt to coerce doctors into using its mandated, "clunky, time-sucking" electronic health records system. Somehow…

Mark Halperin claims that the MSM has an "anti-Clinton bias." That might send the blood pressure of a Newsbusters reader rocketing.  But before downing a diuretic, consider what he and John Heilemann had to say on their Bloomberg TV show today. Halperin and Heilemann were riffing off the New York Times report that Hillary's State Department permitted a rich Ecuadorian woman to enter the US after…

Two recent Q&A sessions by New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg for the paper's Sunday magazine made for a convenient encapsulation of the paper's liberal double standards, with challenging, testy questions thrown at conservative Iowa Rep. Steve King in this Sunday's edition, versus a sympathetic, almost fawning session with lefty "Doonesbury" cartoonist Gerry Trudeau last month.

While the New York Times allows inflammatory race-baiters like Al Sharpton to get away with spouting about racial justice, and global warming activists like Al Gore can fly around the world with impunity before returning to one of their energy-sucking estates, the paper reliably plays the hypocrisy card against conservative politicians who fail to adhere to moral values.

Tuesday afternoon, Kyle Drennen at NewsBusters observed that the Big Three networks "Appear Finished With Gruber Coverage," and that their Tuesday morning shows had no coverage of the de facto Obamacare architect and his congressional appearance. One factor likely influencing the nets' posture is how original news sources like the Associated Press and the nation's largest dailies have managed to…

After a month in which NBC Nightly News gave more prominence to ugly Christmas sweaters, grape salad, Al Roker's 34-hour weather report, and a live broadcast of Peter Pan starring Brian Williams' daughter, Allison, the broadcast finally discovered Jonathan Gruber. On Tuesday evening, NBC’s evening newscast acknowledged the name Jonathan Gruber for the first time and his insulting comments…

When the now-retracted article by the Rolling Stone magazine was published on November 19 about a brutal gang rape of a first-year student at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at the University of Virginia, the major broadcast networks rushed to the story and devoted multiple segments to both the article and reaction on the school’s campus. In doing so, they failed (unlike other outlets) to…

In January, the networks deluged Americans with coverage on Chris Christie's Bridgegate scandal, offering a staggering 88 minutes in less than 48 hours. Late on Thursday night, a Democrat-led investigation failed to find evidence conclusively linking the New Jersey governor to the 2013 traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge. On Friday, CBS and NBC allowed a scant 32 seconds to this important…