Astro-Tweets: Many Obama-Encouraged Gun Control Messages to Congressme

February 26th, 2013 11:11 AM
At the Hill on Monday, Pete Kasperowicz, employing the establishment press's usual "mean Republicans attack" spin, is packaging something first aggregated on Friday at Michelle Malkin's Twitchy.com exclusively as an accusation coming from GOP Congressman Steve Stockman of Texas. Malkin's credit-denied crew, with the help of citizen activists who did much of the dirty work, detected what I…

NYT: $500K to OFA Gets You Quarterly Access to Obama; Admin's Carney D

February 26th, 2013 9:17 AM
It's hard to imagine that Nicholas Confessore and his editors at the overwhelmingly Obama-friendly New York Times were just making things up when he reported over the weekend in a Page A1 story that the Obama campaign's Organizing For America operation, now "rebooted" as the supposedly independent Organizing For Action, "will rely heavily on a small number of deep-pocketed donors ... whose…

AP Headline Predicts 'Moderate' 2013 Economic Growth; First Sentence o

February 25th, 2013 8:51 AM
You've got to hand it to the headline writers at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press. They sure know how to abuse their power to shape public perceptions. The headline at Martin Crutsinger's report this morning on projected economic growth for 2013, which the wire service is treating as this morning's "Big Story," reads: "ECONOMISTS PREDICTING MODERATE GROWTH IN 2013." Many…

AP Graphic on Supposedly Steep Decline in Government Employment Starts

February 23rd, 2013 10:42 AM
In attempting to make the case that "Even as the private sector has been slowly adding jobs, governments have been shedding them," a chart from the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, shows how public-sector employment (not labeled as "seasonally adjusted," but that's what it is) has declined from a peak of 22.3 million in May of 2010 to 21.3 million in January 2013. There's…

Former New Orleans Mayor Nagin, Arraigned on Bribery Charges, Not ID'd

February 21st, 2013 10:28 AM
At the Associated Press yesterday, Michael Kunzelman managed to write a 500-word story about the arraignment of former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on bribery charges without once mentioning that Nagin is a Democrat. That's probably not a "Name That Party" record for "Most Words Used in an AP Story about a Democratic Politician Tainted by Scandal and/or Corruption," but it's especially galling…

Former Striking Hostess Workers' Eligibility For Govt. 'Trade Adjustme

February 21st, 2013 9:36 AM
Yesterday, the Department of Labor announced that it had certified "more than 18,000 former Hostess workers around the country as eligible to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance." I'll save excerpts from DOL's inane announcement for after the jump. The story has garnered some local coverage in areas affected by Hostess plant closures late last year, including a couple of regional Associated…

Absolutely Petty: AP's Juliet Williams Goes After 'Failed' Rick Perry

February 20th, 2013 9:57 PM
This goes back about ten days, and I originally missed it. Fortunately, though, an Investor's Business Daily editorial got around to mentioning Rick Perry's visit to California last week in an effort to lure businesses to the more commerce-friendly environs of Texas. Associated Press report Juliet Williams and her story's headline writer were not amused by Perry's aggressiveness. Williams…

48 Hours After 'Kill' Order, Bogus AP Rand Paul Item Is Still at Sever

February 19th, 2013 1:53 PM
Following up on an item posted yesterday -- 48 hours after it issued an order to subscribing publications and outlets to "kill" a story it filed on Sunday ("Sen. Paul: Voters want to round up immigrants") claiming that Kentucky Republican Senator Rand "sees voters wanting, quote, 'somebody who wants to round people up, put in camps and send them back to Mexico,'" the story is still present on…

AP's Sidoti Bemoans 'Collective Obsession With the Trivial' as Its Bus

February 18th, 2013 12:33 PM
Liz Sidoti's offering this morning at the Associated Press, which is clearly a serious competitor for Worst AP Item Ever, carries the "column" label. As such, I suppose we're expected to accept the idea that the "analysis" offered is hers alone. But you would think that the self-described "essential global news network" would have enough business judgment to review a reporter's work to make…

Rand Paul Story AP Supposedly 'Killed' Is Still Out There -- At an AP

February 18th, 2013 9:10 AM
Sunday afternoon, the Associated Press issued a supposedly comprehensive "kill" order to all subscribers relating to an erroneous story claiming that Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told Fox News Sunday's that "he sees voters wanting, quote, 'somebody who wants to round people up, put in camps and send them back to Mexico.'" I'm questioning whether the AP is really interested in making sure the story…

AP Withdraws Bogus Article Claiming Rand Paul Said Voters Want To Roun

February 17th, 2013 6:18 PM
The folks at the Associated Press have a lot of egg on their faces Sunday. Politico hours ago released a Bulletin Kill from the wire service withdrawing an article published earlier in the day with the inflammatory headline "Sen. Paul: Voters Want to Round Up Immigrants":

Politico: Jesse Jackson Jr. and His Wife 'Lost Track of the Line Betwe

February 17th, 2013 5:48 PM
In anticipation of Jesse Jackson Jr.'s indictment on Friday afternoon, Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan at the Politico seemed all too willing to hand out sympathy cards to Jackson and his wife, both of whom stand to do time in prison for offenses relating to their raid of the congressman's campaign funds. Specifically, the Politico pair wrote: "It’s a story of a Chicago power couple that…

The True National Average Gas Price Is Likely Higher Than the Press Is

February 17th, 2013 4:34 PM
Here's something to keep in mind in the context of the past several years, as well as during the current runup in gas prices: They're more than likely higher than the press's reported "national averages." On Friday, the Associated Press reported the following concerning gas prices: "The national average is $3.64 a gallon, up a cent and a half from Thursday, with the highest prices in…

Jackson Jr.'s Indictment News Light on Dem Party ID and Questioning of

February 17th, 2013 12:59 PM
Jesse L. Jackson Jr. was indicted on Friday, February 15, the final day before a three-day weekend, even though the information necessary to indict appears to have been in place for some time. Though it may be out there and I'm certainly willing to stand corrected, from what I can tell, the U.S. Department of Justice made no formal announcement when it filed its charges (10-page PDF). Based on…