Broadcast Nets Barely Touch on Islamist Assassination of Only Christia

Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's federal minister for minorities and that government's only Christian, was assassinated yesterday on the streets of Islamabad. Bloomberg News is reporting that the Pakistan Taliban is claiming responsibility for the shooting: As many as four men ambushed Shahbaz Bhatti, a 42-year-old Christian, yesterday as he left home without a security escort, Geo television…
Ken Shepherd
March 3rd, 2011 12:28 PM

Dear AP: Haley Barbour Is Right About Obama's Gas-Price Wishes

Philip Elliott at the Obama White House's state-compliant wire service reports, and distorts (bolds are mine): Barbour says Obama cheers for higher gas prices   Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential presidential contender, accused the Obama administration Wednesday of favoring a run-up in gas prices to prod consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars.   Barbour cited…
Tom Blumer
March 3rd, 2011 12:16 PM

Big Three Networks Herald New White House Women's Report

ABC and NBC touted the Obama administration's new report on women by leading their evening news shows with it on Tuesday. Diane Sawyer gushed over the "huge new report," while NBC's Savannah Guthrie trumpeted the "first comprehensive White House report on women since...Kennedy asked Eleanor Roosevelt to lead a study." CBS also highlighted the report on Evening News and on The Early Show the…
Matthew Balan
March 3rd, 2011 12:15 PM

Flashback: New MSNBC Host Martin Bashir Once Spun FL Community as 'Ca

MSNBC host Martin Bashir, whose new 3pm show premiered on Monday, has quickly adapted to his new home. Over three programs, he's lauded the "outstanding" coverage of left-wing anchor Ed Schultz and also featured the liberal Rachel Maddow and Dylan Ratigan. Perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising. On August 7, 2007, as co-host of ABC's Nightline, Bashir derided Ave Maria, a planned Catholic…
Scott Whitlock
March 3rd, 2011 11:50 AM

As Union Debate Intensifies, Questions Arise Over Propriety of Collect

Battles over state policies concerning public employee unions in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, and elsewhere have focused some attention on a question some conservatives have been asking for years: should collective bargaining be legal in the public sector?
Lachlan Markay
March 3rd, 2011 11:50 AM

Ralph Nader: Limbaugh and Hannity Part of 'Huge Ignorance Movement' on

Ralph Nader said Tuesday conservative talk radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are part of a well-organized counter-scientific ignorance movement designed to prevent people from believing in the theory of manmade global warming. Sadly, this was said to a bunch of impressionable students at the College of New Jersey (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
March 3rd, 2011 11:30 AM

Open Thread: Millionaire Michael Moore Demands Rich People Give Back

While shameless hypocrisy from filmmaker Michael Moore is not exactly news, it is highly entertaining. True to form, Moore told Laura Flanders of GRITtv that wealthy folks' money is not actually theirs, but is in fact "a national resource." They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with…
NB Staff
March 3rd, 2011 9:50 AM

Will There Be an 'Arianna's Army' of Community Muckrakers

Arianna Huffington is leading a left-wing charge to encourage an army of nonprofit organizations to fund local news outlets across the country. When liberal foundations start funding this trend, expect that local "in-depth reporting" to carry an aggressive liberal tilt. Bridget Carey of the Miami Herald reported: In an era of cutbacks in journalism and small-town coverage, Arianna Huffington…
Tim Graham
March 3rd, 2011 8:24 AM

Huckabee Rips Media for Calling Him a Birther: ‘They Must Be Afraid

As NewsBusters previously reported, advocacy media outlets such as MSNBC and the New York Times Tuesday cherry-picked comments by Mike Huckabee to make him look like a birther. On Wednesday, the former Arkansas governor went back on the Steve Malzberg radio show to address his accusors who he claimed are attacking him because they're afraid he "might end up getting some traction running for…
Noel Sheppard
March 2nd, 2011 9:39 PM

Hillary Clinton Claims Al-Jazeera Puts American Media to Shame

Is Rush Limbaugh’s fear of a state-run media coming to fruition? Hillary Clinton spent the morning on C-Span defending the State Department’s need for funding, because she feels private media in the U.S. has fallen woefully behind the likes of Al-Jazeera, the Chinese, and Russia.  Via Business Insider, Clinton said: "Al Jazeera is winning. The Chinese have opened up a global English…
Rusty Weiss
March 2nd, 2011 9:37 PM

HuffPo Hypes Anderson Cooper Ratings 'Surge' to #16 in Cable News

WOO! HOO! Break out the victory champagne! Anderson Cooper has "surged" in the cable news ratings to an "amazing" 16th place. Why, he even beat out the ratings caboose of MSNBC known as Ed Schultz. The way the Huffington Post carried on with thick helpings of hype, you would have thought that Cooper had just beaten Fox News' top rated Bill O'Reilly instead of the dismal Ed Show. A very…
P.J. Gladnick
March 2nd, 2011 8:20 PM

Uygur: Unborn Babies Would Oppose Limiting Right To Abort Them

Wouldn't blame you for doubting this, so fantastical is the proposition.  But Cenk Uygur has claimed that given the chance, unborn babies would oppose restrictions on their mothers' right to abort them. Cenk made his grotesque suggestion in the course of discussing an Ohio bill that would forbid abortions as soon as a baby's heartbeat can be detected.  Proponents plan to let a nine-week old…
Mark Finkelstein
March 2nd, 2011 8:04 PM

ABC Omits Jane Russell's Pro-Life Views, Cites Her 'Back Alley Abortio

On Tuesday's World News, ABC's David Wright highlighted actress Jane Russell's "botched back-alley abortion in high school," which led her to push "hard to expand adoption," but he failed to mention that she described herself as "vigorously pro-life," and that she was a conservative activist. Wright's report aired at the end of the evening news program. The correspondent spent most of the…
Matthew Balan
March 2nd, 2011 7:47 PM

Matthews Rages: Newt Gingrich Looks Like A 'Car Bomber' Who 'Loves Tor

Chris Matthews, once again, abandoned any notion he was serious about establishing a new tone of political civility in the wake of the Tucson shooting, as on Wednesday's Hardball he compared former Speaker of the House and possible GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich to a terrorist as he screeched "He looks like a car bomber" and even described him in demonic terms, adding: "He's got that…
Geoffrey Dickens
March 2nd, 2011 6:25 PM