TV Morning Shows Give Short Shrift to Novak’s Passing

The network morning news shows could not have cared less about the passing of conservative columnist Robert Novak. While ABC, CBS and NBC all ran obituaries during their August 18 evening news shows, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS’s The Early Show completely skipped over Novak this morning, not once mentioning his death.Over on NBC’s Today, fill-in news anchor Hoda Kotb squeezed in a brief…
Rich Noyes
August 19th, 2009 6:23 PM

Karl Marx Is 'Back in Vogue,' NYT Book Reviewer Enthuses

New York Times book critic Dwight Garner on Wednesday enthused over a new biography of Friedrich Engels, cooing that Marxism is "back in vogue" and adding that the founding communist comes across as a "jovial man of outsize appetites" in Tristram Hunt’s new biography "Marx’s General." Garner opened the review by insisting that decrying capitalism is now hip again: "Thanks to globalism’s…
Scott Whitlock
August 19th, 2009 5:35 PM

MSNBC's Shuster Dismisses Fear of ObamaCare Covering Abortion

Reviewing a new NBC poll shortly after 3 p.m. EDT today, MSNBC's David Shuster today dismissed as "false" the fears of 50 percent of respondents that "tax dollars will help pay for abortions." But Shuster's flat denial belies the fact that there is reasonable debate over what exactly Democratic health care proposals before Congress would mean when it comes to financing abortion via the so-called…
Ken Shepherd
August 19th, 2009 5:16 PM

CNN Devotes Six Minutes to Health Care 'Rationing' Proponent

Princeton bioethics professor Peter Singer tells 'American Morning' Americans 'already have rationed care.'
Julia A. Seymour
August 19th, 2009 4:55 PM

Don Hewitt, RIP: Reprimanded Rather and CBS Over Bush National Guard H

Don Hewitt, the creator and long-time Executive Producer of CBS's 60 Minutes, who passed away this morning (Wednesday) at age 86, had recognized the bias which led Dan Rather to target President George W. Bush with a 2004 story based on forged documents, as he suggested such a flimsy hit piece damaging to the liberal candidate would have earned more scrutiny for accuracy before it ever got onto…
Brent Baker
August 19th, 2009 4:30 PM

'Churlish,' 'Pugnacious' Novak Couldn't Always Document Scoops, NYT Ch

According to the New York Times’ Douglas Martin and Jacques Steinberg, the "often churlish," "pugnacious" Robert Novak "could not always document" his scoops. Littered in the August 19 obituary of the conservative journalist are other snide remarks and asides. Discussing the political column that Novak co-wrote for 30 years with Rowland Evans, the reporters worried, "For all its influence, though…
Scott Whitlock
August 19th, 2009 4:23 PM

WaPo Hypes 'Boycott Whole Foods' Facebook Group

Hyping how "Whole Foods devotees"  are "lash[ing] out" at CEO John Mackey, Washington Post's Ylan Q. Mui paid particular attention to one "Mark Rosenthal, a playwright living in Massachusetts who founded the Boycott Whole Foods group a few days ago." At time of publication, Rosenthal's group had "nearly 14,000 members." Mackey, you may recall, penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed laying out his…
Ken Shepherd
August 19th, 2009 3:06 PM

Looking for a Health Care Scapegoat: Networks Try to Marginalize Talk

Media blame ObamaCare struggles on conservative stations, reminiscent of 2007 immigration reform failure.
Jeff Poor
August 19th, 2009 2:20 PM

Looking for a Health Care Scapegoat: Networks Try to Marginalize Talk

BMI Staff
August 19th, 2009 2:00 PM

Bonnie Erbe: Open Carry Laws Like Letting Kids Play With 'Live Hand Gr

Not one to disappoint her fans at NewsBusters, PBS "To the Contrary" host and U.S. News & World Report contributing editor Bonnie Erbe again shot from the hip with factually-challenged anti-gun rights bluster in an August 18 blog post.Watching CNN between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday, I was treated to the sight of a young man with an automatic weapon strapped to his back across the street from…
Ken Shepherd
August 19th, 2009 1:22 PM

Photo Sharing Website Flickr Takes Down Obama Joker Poster

The popular photo sharing website Flickr has taken down the original version of the now famous Obama Joker poster that's been sweeping the nation.Apparently, management is concerned about a copyright infringement issue due to the appearance of the Time magazine logo in Firas Alkhateeb's parody that ended up being reprinted with the word "Socialism" at the bottom.Oddly, a quick search of Flickr…
Noel Sheppard
August 19th, 2009 1:01 PM

CBS Early Show Praises Teen Global Warming Activist

On Wednesday’s CBS Early Show, correspondent Daniel Sieberg reported on a young global warming activist from California: "...everyday citizens of all ages are doing their part to raise awareness of climate change....15-year-old Alec Loorz takes his message across the country, using poles to illustrate the predicted sea level rise if nothing is done to prevent global warning."At one point, Loorz…
Kyle Drennen
August 19th, 2009 12:33 PM

The Terrible Cost of Eating the Rich

When government bites the hand that feeds it, the hand just may bite back.
Dan Kennedy
August 19th, 2009 11:49 AM

The Peasants Are Revolting

Elites in politics, journalism discover that people have the power and the world is changing.
Dan Gainor
August 19th, 2009 11:14 AM