Following Obama's Lead, AP Story on Ukraine Avoids Describing Russian

August 29th, 2014 12:29 AM
On Thursday, an impatient Terry Moran at ABC News tweeted the following (HT Twitchy): "Say it: Russia has invaded Ukraine. Any other description is just weasel words." Clearly, both President Obama and the folks at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, haven't been sympathetic to Moran's plea, instead opting for "weasel words." Obama, when directly asked if he "considered…

AP Headline Describes 160 Syrian Soldiers Massacred by ISIS as 'Dozens

August 28th, 2014 11:03 PM
I struggle to come up with a reason, other than an irresponsible attempt to minimize the impact of the horror, why the headline at a Thursday evening Associated Press story by Zeina Karam and Ryan Lucas about "more than 160 Syrian government troops" massacred by ISIS is "JIHADISTS KILL DOZENS OF CAPTURED SYRIAN SOLDIERS." But that's how the wire service is presenting it:

AP, Politico, WashPo Reporters Fail to Completely Read Report on Phoen

August 28th, 2014 4:00 PM
As reported on Tuesday night, two of the three major broadcast networks covered a new report from the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Veterans Affairs on the scandal-ridden agency and its Phoenix VA hospital that led to a nationwide investigation of delayed wait times and secret waiting lists.  While the coverage was mixed with ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer…

AP Relays Left's Charges That Health Insurance Cos. Still Discriminate

August 28th, 2014 1:28 PM
The Golden Age of Obamacare has apparently not led to the Golden Age of access to medical care anywhere, any time its promoters promised. Thanks to non-payments, the true enrollment numbers aren't what we've been told. The networks patients can access — approved by government regulators — are often highly restricted. Sky-high-deductibles are present in most Obamacare plans before any kind of…

As CBO Reduces Its Growth Projection, AP Still Gives Cred to Obama Adm

August 28th, 2014 6:46 AM
In a Wednesday report on the Congressional Budget Office's downward revision of this year's predicted gross domestic product growth to a dismal 1.5 percent, the Associated Press's Andrew Taylor acted as if the Obama administration's prediction of 2.6 percent still has a realistic chance of occurring. While one never wants to absolutely say never, the administration's higher prediction would…

Fantasy at AP: Housing Has Had a 'Steady Rebound' Since the Recession

August 26th, 2014 9:20 AM
Someone must have slipped the wrong data to the Associated Press's Josh Boak yesterday before he composed his dispatch on the Census Bureau's latest report on new home sales. Boak got the current month's news right, though likely by accident (like almost everyone else in the business press, he relies on seasonally adjusted figures, and rarely goes to the unadjusted data), telling readers that…

AP's Matthew Brown Gives 600-Word Story to 'About Ten Demonstrators' a

August 23rd, 2014 10:38 AM
The Associated Press's Top Business News page lists the headlines and opening passages of what the wire service believes are the ten most important business stories at the moment. Its 9:16 a.m. version had a story entitled "JACKSON HOLE DEMONSTRATORS RALLY AGAINST RATE HIKE" listed fifth. Earlier in the morning it was fourth. Surely, I thought to myself, this must be about a group of at least…

Unlike 'Mission Accomplished,' Press Barely Mentions Obama's 'JV Team

August 22nd, 2014 1:39 PM
The press never let George W. Bush forget about that "Mission Accomplished" banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln after Saddam Hussein was overthrown and his government's military was routed in Iraq. They often pretend that Bush said it, or adopted it. He did no such thing, saying only that “Our mission continues.” So while the press has come close to making a claim Bush 43 never made an article…

AP Reporter Slams State Dept. Claim That Journalist Beheading Was 'Not

August 21st, 2014 7:00 PM
During a press briefing on Wednesday, deputy State Department spokesperson Marie Harf condemned the beheading of American journalist James Foley by Islamic terrorists while adding that the threat posed by the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) “is not about the United States and what we do.” That comment led Associated Press reporter Matt Lee to ask if President…

Networks Refuse to Mention Latest Fast and Furious Development

August 21st, 2014 12:25 AM
On Wednesday night, the major broadcast networks ignored the latest news from the Fast and Furious scandal as a federal judge ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) must turn over a list of documents regarding the botched gun-running scheme that was formally called Operation Fast and Furious. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in court hearing Wednesday that the DOJ will…

NYT Blames Hamas, Israel Equally For End of Cease-Fire; Story Ignores

August 19th, 2014 11:59 PM
Over at Hot Air on Tuesday night, Mary Katharine Ham pointed to a headline at the New York Times, present at its web home page as well as at the story itself, which equally blames Hamas and Israel for the end of their cease-fire: "Rockets From Gaza and Israeli Response Break Cease-Fire." Someone needs to tell Isabel Kershner and Jodi Rudoren that it's the "rockets from Gaza" which broke the…

At Least Seven AP Reporters Violated Their Own Stylebook in Describing

August 19th, 2014 2:40 PM
Kudos to Ed Driscoll at PJ Media, Eddie Scarry at Mediaite, and likely others in pointing out that the Associated Press has frequently violated its own stylebook in describing Michael Brown, the 18 year-old who was fatally shot in a scuffle with police in Ferguson, Missouri, as a "teen" or "teenager." The AP's latest stylebook, in sync with the one I have from over a decade ago, states that…

Not National News: Mass. Obamacare Exchange Requires Everyone to Re-en

August 18th, 2014 5:59 PM
Recent news about Obamacare hasn't exactly been good, but the press has been pretty effective in keeping it quiet. To name just a few items, Enrollment is shrinking, because perhaps as many as 20 percent of enrollees aren't keeping up with their premiums. Rising costs have moved insurers to beg for bailouts, which appear to be forthcoming.  Then there's this: Just last week in Massachusetts,…

Vox's Fisher Spins Pope's Support for Stopping ISIS As A 'Crusade

August 18th, 2014 5:01 PM
Vox's Max Fisher shamelessly invoked medieval history in a Monday post about Pope Francis. Fisher highlighted the pontiff's support for action against ISIS's "unjust aggression" in Iraq, and hyped that "there is good precedent for this...between 1096 and 1272 AD, popes also endorsed the use of Western military action to destroy Middle Eastern caliphates. Those were known as the crusades; there…