NYT Public Editor Scolds Paper For Not Disclosing Change to Christie S

On Saturday (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted how the New York Times had made a critical change to a story about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's possible knowledge of lane closures in the area of the George Washington Bridge. The initial story was that a Port Authority official "has evidence" in the matter. A short time later, that claim was watered down to a far more speculative "…
Tom Blumer
February 5th, 2014 10:55 PM

Ed Schultz Proudly Displays His Shabby Contempt for Constitutional Rig

One of my favorite memories from watching MSNBC -- not that there are many -- came a few years back when Rachel Maddow in full-blown, arms-waving smarm insisted that the Constitution does not have a preamble. "That would be the Declaration of Independence," Maddow declared emphatically. It's one thing for an MSNBC pundit to publicly reveal her ignorance of the Constitution (and Maddow made…
Jack Coleman
February 5th, 2014 7:47 PM

Huffpo Reporter Claims 'ObamaCare Opponents Freak Out' Over Workers' N

Michael McAuliff, a former New York Daily News reporter who now writes for the liberal Huffington Post website, stated on Wednesday that people who oppose the Affordable Care Act refer to a report released by the Congressional Budget Office that the shift of full-time employees to part-time work would result in employees losing working hours equivalent to about 2.5 million jobs during the next…
Randy Hall
February 5th, 2014 7:36 PM

Column: Hollywood's Curious 'Ethics' On Display in Oscar Row Over Chri

In a world where Woody Allen can get a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes at the same time his adopted daughter accuses him of sexually abusing her when she was a child (Allen has repeatedly denied it), and where a film "The Wolf of Wall Street" sets a record for use of the F-word, it is a wonderment that an obscure, low-budget film called "Alone Yet Not Alone" has had its Best…
Cal Thomas
February 5th, 2014 7:30 PM

Peter Schiff Slams Daily Show for Dishonest 'Hit Job

Back on January 28, Comedy Central's The Daily Show ran a piece on the minimum wage debate where guest Peter Schiff, opposing a minimum wage increase, appeared to be the heartless villain. Now Schiff is calling out the show for running a "hit job" on him. "After watching 'The Daily Show' segment for the first time since it aired, I realized it was an even bigger hit job than I first realized…
Matt Hadro
February 5th, 2014 7:05 PM

Column: Schoolteacher Cheating

Philadelphia's public school system has joined several other big-city school systems, such as those in Atlanta, Detroit and Washington, D.C., in widespread teacher-led cheating on standardized academic achievement tests. So far, the city has fired three school principals, and The Wall Street Journal reports, "Nearly 140 teachers and administrators in Philadelphia public schools have been…
Walter E. Williams
February 5th, 2014 6:52 PM

Red State Dems Urge Obama to Approve Keystone Pipeline; Broadcast Nets

Yesterday afternoon three red state Democratic senators -- plus Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) -- joined a number of Republican legislators and the Canadian ambassador to the United States at a press conference called to publicly press President Obama to approve the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline. Such a show of bipartisan and international agreement on an economic-development issue is…
Ken Shepherd
February 5th, 2014 6:30 PM

Ed Schultz Supports Keystone Pipeline, Lectures Liberal Audience to 'C

  Liberal MSNBC anchor Ed Shultz incurred the wrath of his left-wing audience when he publicly came out in support of the construction of the Keystone pipeline. The host on Wednesday took the step of reading angry tweets on the Ed Show and responding to them. Aware that he was daring to leave the liberal reservation on this one issue, Schultz called the pipeline "controversial" and began, "…
Scott Whitlock
February 5th, 2014 6:19 PM

Even the 'View' Crew Are Shocked By Dire ObamaCare News: Is It the 'En

  Even the liberal hosts of The View seemed to understand just what a PR nightmare the President is facing after a Congressional Budget Office report declared that ObamaCare will likely cost the U.S. 2.3 million jobs. A graphic for the "hot topics" segment on Wednesday screamed, "The end of ObamaCare?' Whoopi Goldberg hyped, "There's a new bombshell, a new congressional report is landing…
Scott Whitlock
February 5th, 2014 4:25 PM

NBC's Todd Whines: 'Unfair' for GOP to Say ObamaCare Will Cost Jobs

Following White House talking points to the letter on Wednesday's The Daily Rundown on MSNBC, host Chuck Todd bemoaned how "Republicans immediately seized on" the Congressional Budget Office report on ObamaCare costing the economy over 2 million jobs "and spun it the way they want to spin it." He fretted that Democrats would have a tough time defending ObamaCare "in the world of sound bites and…
Kyle Drennen
February 5th, 2014 3:38 PM

ABC Gushes Over Meeting Between 'Philomena' and Pope, But Still Vilifi

Wednesday's Good Morning America on ABC ballyhooed the "breaking news" that Pope Francis shook hands with the real-life inspiration for the anti-Catholic movie "Philiomena" at the Vatican. George Stephanopoulos trumpeted the "moving journey for the woman portrayed by Judi Dench in the Oscar-nominated film" and her "remarkable story." Cynthia McFadden slantingly gushed that "a woman, once…
Matthew Balan
February 5th, 2014 3:23 PM

Open Thread Wednesday

Feel free to comment on the declining forecast for Obamacare today. NPR's Diane Rehm show website featured one liberal commenter who could not keep her view of democracy straight. First, didn't everyone know 75 percent of Americans favored single-payer socialism?
NB Staff
February 5th, 2014 3:20 PM

Daily Beast's Cottle: Ted Cruz 'Playing to the Passions and Paranoia

Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, the Daily Beast's Michelle Cottle -- formerly of the New Republic -- accused Texas Senator Ted Cruz of "playing to the passions and paranoia" of the Republican base during a discussion of Cruz's criticism of the Obama administration's record of adhering to the law. After host Al Sharpton played a clip of Senator Cruz's comments on…
Brad Wilmouth
February 5th, 2014 3:10 PM

PBS's Smiley Doubles Down On Praise of 'American Hero' Edward Snowden

A few weeks ago, PBS host Tavis Smiley got in some hot water for comments he made about Edward Snowden. On January 19, Smiley appeared as a guest on ABC’s This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos and argued that, “Edward Snowden might be on a postage stamp somewhere down the road.” Despite the controversy surrounding Smiley’s extreme comments, the PBS host took to his nightly program on February…
Jeffrey Meyer
February 5th, 2014 2:53 PM