Latest Blogs
[UPDATED 4/3 with Reaction from Document Expert] Forged Docs About Bus
Update: Reaction from document examiner Emily Will added at bottom of post (April 3 | 13:02 EDT) Mary Mapes (file photo at right), the former CBS producer behind the Bush National Guard memo scandal that eventually felled Dan Rather's career has a post up at the liberal Nation magazine's Web site insisting that comparisons between Memogate and the L.A. Times falling for fake documents about Tupac…
Network Morning Shows Bash Oil Companies on 'April Fuel’s Day
About once a year, Congress brings in oil executives, with the media piling on, and blames oil company profits for high gas prices. Across the dial, all three network morning shows on April 1 - ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today," and CBS's "The Early Show" - characterized "big oil" as the culprit behind an increase in gas prices. On ABC's April 1 "Good Morning America," which…
ABC's David Wright Again Touts Obama; Bashes Hillary
ABC reporter David Wright used a segment on Monday's "Nightline" to once again fawn over Barack Obama and also take a swipe at Hillary Clinton. Discussing the New York senator's fund-raising woes, Wright mentioned Clinton's unpaid campaign debts and snidely observed that they included "a debt of $292,000 for health insurance premiums for her campaign staff. Ironic for a candidate promising health…
'Today' Promotes Phil Donahue's Anti-Iraq War Doc
Phil Donahue looked across the film landscape littered with numerous anti-Iraq war box-office failures and decided he needed to add one more to the list and the "Today" show was more than happy to help him promote it. The liberal talk show host appeared on Tuesday's "Today" show with anti-Iraq war veteran/activist Tomas Young to plug what NBC's Ann Curry hailed as "a documentary that Sean Penn…
Business Press Spinsanity Over March's ISM Manufacturing Index
The Institute for Supply Management issued its March Manufacturing Report on Business today: PMI at 48.6% Economic activity in the manufacturing sector failed to grow in March, while the overall economy grew for the 77th consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®. The report was issued today by Norbert J. Ore, C.P.M., chair of the…
Media Still Decry 'Anti-Communist Witch Hunt' in Hollywood Obits
Tuesday's New York Times obituary on the life and work of American director Jules Dassin, "filmaker on blacklist," shows that anti-anti-Communism will never die. Times writer Richard Severo unfurls the usual flag in paragraph nine: By the time he wrote and directed "Never on Sunday," a comedy about a good-hearted prostitute (Ms. Mercouri), the anti-Communist witch hunt in the United States had…
Open Thread
For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: It's official -- the Brits think we're in a Depression: We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their…
Google to 'Shut Down' Capitol Switchboard Over Global Warming
Ah, Earf Day. The day when all the Chicken Littles and the occasional boy who cried wolf can get their fifteen minutes of attention. Don't we just love the warm and fuzzies of claiming the mantle of God and "saving" the Earf from global warming? Well, The Washington Times Fishwrap blog reports that Google has joined the fray to save the Earf and they are going to do it by helping Kathleen Rogers…
Olbermann Flops in Primetime
On Sunday, NewsBusters asked readers, "Will NBC Succeed in Making Olbermann Mainstream?"70 percent of respondents said, "No, he's too crazy."Well, Nielsen ratings of his "Countdown" program aired Sunday evening on NBC validate this position, and wonderfully depict Olbermann as clearly not being ready for primetime (h/t Thomas Stewart):
Network Morning Shows Celebrate 'April Fuel's Day' Bashing 'Big Oil
Journalists draw parallels between higher gas prices and tax breaks for oil companies on day of congressional hearing.
ChiTrib's Eric Zorn Hails Earth Hour, Compares to Religious Fast
Chicago Tribune columnist/ blogger Eric Zorn is a liberal, but from what I'm familiar of his writing, he's not a cartoonishly goofy one. So at first I thought his post today -- Coming out of the dark on Earth Hour -- was a bit of an April Fool's joke. But reading and re-reading it, it became clear to me Zorn was being serious, even as he invoked quasi-religious language to describe his joy in…
NBC's Ann Curry Tosses Softballs to Obama on 'Today
On Tuesday's "Today" show, co-anchor Ann Curry traveled with Barack Obama on the campaign trail and mostly threw softball questions to the presidential candidate, questions like who did he prefer: "Beatles or the Rolling Stones?" Curry also tried to broker an Obama-Clinton ticket as she pressed: "They want this. The Democrats want this." The toughest Curry ever got with the Illinois senator was…
Former Saddam Officer, Now NYT Reporter, Apparently Involved in Over
To refresh from what I posted on earlier this morning (NewsBusters; BizzyBlog [third item at post] -- here's the admission from New York Times reporter Qais Mizher, in his report from Basra in yesterday's Times: Early last week, when the assault started, I happened to be in Diwaniya, another southern city, as part of my work as a reporter and translator for The New York Times. Calling on my…