The Miley Cyrus Effect: Young Girls Acting Like (Trashy) Adults

A video of young girls provocatively dancing in skimpy outfits recently surfaced on the Internet. The public outcry it garnered was so great that the girls’ parents appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to defend the dance routine. But the inappropriate dancing shouldn’t really be surprising in an era when girls are exposed to less-than ideal role models and bombarded with sexualized messages…
Sarah Knoploh
May 22nd, 2010 4:38 PM

FNC's Pinkerton Cites NB Coverage Of Rand-Scarborough-Maddow Kerfuffle

On this weekend's Fox News Watch, panelist Jim Pinkerton cited this NewsBusters item in which Joe Scarborough passed along the comment from an unnamed conservative insider questioning "what the hell was [Rand Paul] doing on MSNBC?", a reference to Paul's appearance on the Rachel Maddow show in which he made comments on the 1964 Civil Rights Act that have caused controversy.  The irony of course…
Mark Finkelstein
May 22nd, 2010 3:24 PM

Hostile ABC and NBC Deride Texas Conservatives for ‘Rewriting’ and

ABC and NBC rushed to get stories onto the air Friday night delivering left-wing talking points against the new social studies curriculum guidelines passed by the Texas State Board of Education, as both portrayed conservative Christians as the enemies of accurate history. Reality wasn’t good enough for ABC, which framed its lead story around “Rewriting History?” and saw no liberals in the “big…
Brent Baker
May 22nd, 2010 2:35 PM

New Casual Sex-Promoting Sitcom: 'Friends With Benefits

"Dating is difficult. In fact, many times it's so uncomfortable that you have to look for creative ways to unwind after an unsuccessful night out."So begins NBC's synopsis for a new "romantic comedy" expected to premiere in 2011.In "Friends With Benefits," "Ben, Sara, Hoon, Aaron and Riley are a group of close friends who do just that. After a bad date, they turn to each other for moral (and…
Noel Sheppard
May 22nd, 2010 12:58 PM

Even As Democrats Stand Against Public Opinion, Times Sees GOP Jeopard

The front page of Saturday's New York Times screamed how "Arizona Law Reveals Split Within GOP." Fair enough. But the Democrats are ostensibly in worse shape, having publicly and visibly denounced (with the President of Mexico) a popular law that nearly two-thirds of Americans support.
Rich Noyes
May 22nd, 2010 12:57 PM

Establishment Press Largely Covers Obama's Tracks on Disgraceful Danie

President Barack Obama's statement just before he signed the Freedom of the Press Act on Monday painfully avoided reality to the point of giving offense. If it became widely known, it would likely become very problematic. Here is what the President said that was particularly offensive (bolds are mine): And obviously the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s…
Tom Blumer
May 22nd, 2010 10:48 AM

New Prime Time Sitcom: '$#*! My Dad Says

Would you watch a sitcom with your kids at 8:30 PM that had the title "$#*! My Dad Says?"The folks at CBS think you will.In fact, they're so confident the vulgar reference won't offend viewers that the star -- and hence, the dad in the vulgar title!!! -- is none other than "Star Trek's" William Shatner.According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Parents Television Council is threatening to challenge…
Noel Sheppard
May 22nd, 2010 9:48 AM

Open Thread

NB Staff
May 22nd, 2010 8:40 AM

Bozell Column: A Global Sports Problem

The 2010 World Cup opens in South Africa in a few weeks. As a sports event it is unrivaled in its popularity. It promises to bring a half-million soccer fans to that country. But it will also draw out the worst of the worst. The Christian Science Monitor reports that the economic promise of an expected half a million largely male incoming consumers is attracting a massive influx of prostitutes…
Brent Bozell
May 22nd, 2010 8:09 AM

Maher Show: Tea Partiers Fall for 'Brilliant Magic Trick' of Associati

Bill Maher invited comedian Patton Oswalt to his table on HBO's Real Time on Friday night and saluted his small film from 2009, "Big Fan," in which he plays a superfan of the New York Giants, even after a Giants linebacker beats him up severely. Maher turned this analogy to politics and leftist Thomas Frank's book "What's the Matter with Kansas?" which argued that poorer Americans are duped into…
Tim Graham
May 22nd, 2010 6:50 AM

Economic Guru 'Dr. Doom' Advises People Buy Spam Not Gold

The man that predicted the economic and financial collapse two years ago advised people that are concerned about inflation to buy Spam rather than gold.As you can't turn on a TV these days without seeing an ad for gold or some economist recommending you buy the precious metal, Nouriel Roubini's comment on Friday's "Real Time" deliciously went against the tide of financial advisors across the…
Noel Sheppard
May 22nd, 2010 1:58 AM

John Fund Smacks Down Bill Maher: Stop Saying 'Teabaggers

John Fund on Friday smacked down Bill Maher for calling Tea Partiers "teabaggers."As the panel discussion of HBO's "Real Time" convened, the host said, "The teabaggers I guess think they had a big win Tuesday."He then asked the American Spectator's Fund, "Why are they so silent on financial reform?"  After Fund answered the question, he said, "I think people should be called by the term that they…
Noel Sheppard
May 22nd, 2010 12:41 AM

AP's Castro Can't Hold In Bias (and Perhaps Ignorance) in Report on Te

It would not surprise me if the Associated Press's April Castro has spent the last 10 weeks gritting her teeth non-stop. In March (covered at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), she was clearly peeved at the Texas State Board of Education. In a supposedly objective news story entitled "Texas ed board vote reflects far-right influences," she decried a "faction" (actually a nearly two-thirds majority) of…
Tom Blumer
May 22nd, 2010 12:19 AM

As If They're Brangelina: Nina Totenberg and Mark Shields Mock the Sex

They say people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. But that saying didn't stop NPR's Nina Totenberg and PBS pundit Mark Shields from making fun of the sex appeal of conservative Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana, who resigned this week after admitting an affair with a female staffer. On the local PBS talk show Inside Washington, Totenberg mentioned the abstinence video Souder made with his lover,…
Tim Graham
May 21st, 2010 10:09 PM