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James Pethokoukis of Reuters published a chart Tuesday demonstrating exactly why all the hysteria about a debt default or missing Social Security check payments is a bunch of nonsense. If America's news outlets were actually interested in disseminating the truth rather than fear-mongering, this chart or something like it would be part of every report involving the debt ceiling:

What part of 'broke' don't people understand?

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday questioned the patriotism of Rupert Murdoch, wondering of the media mogul is a "true American." Talking to Judd Legum of the liberal Center for American Progress, the Hardball anchor, derided, "Did [Murdoch] become a citizen just like somebody marries somebody to get into the country because they want a job or because he discovered some love of America? Is…

On Wednesday's NBC Today, correspondent Stephanie Gosk reported the latest details on the phone hacking scandal in Britain involving a Rupert Murdoch owned tabloid and declared: "Damage to the company [News Corporation] may have already been done. And some say it is about time." Gosk noted that included, "actor Hugh Grant, who in recent months has led his own campaign against the tabloids."…

He said it, he meant it, and there's no denying it. On Monday, in a statement carried at the Washington Post, the Associated Press, the New York Times (Page A8 of Tuesday's print edition), and elsewhere, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told U.S. troops at Camp Victory in Baghdad: "The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked. And 3,000 Americans — 3,000 not…

ABC's George Stephanopoulos appeared on Tuesday night's Charlie Rose show to discuss what Rose described as "the political implications of the debt-limitation talks." Rose tried to compare Obama to Clinton. Stephanopoulos resisted the idea that Obama was more "cautious." In fact, when asked how Obama is doing overall, Stephanopoulos pulled out the old line about how nobody "in our lifetime"…

The New York Times's chief economics writer David Leonhardt proposed his usual solution – tax hikes – to the ongoing budget and debt-ceiling battles between congressional Republicans and President Obama in his confidently titled Wednesday column “Why Taxes Will Rise In the End.” Leonhardt struggled to ponder why his fellow citizens stubbornly refuse to raise the debt ceiling. Polls show that…

Despite the fact that the White House press corps is comprised mostly of members who are ardent liberal Democrats who want to see President Obama triumph over Republicans, it has grown increasingly clear that the feeling of respect is not mutual. The White House made that apparent today by laying down a new rule for reporters covering Obama's news conferences there: No more shouting questions…

New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes’s latest front-page story on the budget battle displayed typical Times’s labeling bias, with “angry conservatives” but no liberals. Calmes also paid the Republican leadership a backhanded compliment for trying to stop their conservative base from provoking a financial crisis. On Tuesday, Calmes claimed on the front page that Obama was “repositioning”…

Earlier this morning, Washington Times blogger Kerry Picket discovered an unusual listing on the popular movie rating website Rotten Tomatoes. The new Sarah Palin documentary, 'The Undefeated,' was categorized not only as a documentary, but also as science fiction and fantasy. Since Picket's blog was posted, the science fiction and fantasy tag has been removed, but it begs the question of why…

Unsurprisingly, Fox-hating National Public Radio has eagerly embraced the nasty scandal of phone-hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid, which included dastardly deeds like hacking into the phone messages of abducted 13-year-old Milly Dowler, whose parents thought she might be alive because a tabloid reporter was messing with her phone. NPR was so excited by this scandal that…

On Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry talked to left-wing MSNBC host Chris Matthews about the debt ceiling fight, who cheered Senator Mitch McConnell's plan to give President Obama sole authority to raise the nation's credit limit: "...the White House seems to be happy that somebody on the other side realizes how dangerous this is going to be next week." Later, Matthews went further in…

Of the three morning shows on Wednesday, only NBC's Today speculated that Barack Obama might be using "scare tactics" with his dire warning that, barring a deal on raising the debt limit, Social Security checks in August might no be mailed out. Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos simply asserted that the "debt crisis in Washington is getting very scary." Stephanopoulos uncritically…

"It's a talking point so overused it's almost a trope by this point," CBSNews.com's Bailey Johnson groused in a July 11 "The Feed" blog post: "How will I explain this [same-sex marriage] to my children?" "Obviously that's a question parents have to answer for themselves. Unless they don't explain anything and let the children work things out for themselves. What would that look like?" Johnson…