Funny With Numbers: AP's Crutsinger Minimizes Federal Spending Level

February 14th, 2011 1:00 AM
Sadly, one could write a term paper identifying and correcting the clever misstatements and obfuscations contained in Martin Crutsinger's Sunday report (since updated; original is still present here) for the Associated Press on the impending submission of the President's 2012 budget by the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Lacking such space, I'll concentrate on what I believe…

Major Media Miss: Muslim Brotherhood's Stated Goal Has Long Been 'To S

February 9th, 2011 1:56 PM
UPDATE: The full text of the referenced Dallas Morning News item, courtesy of Rich Noyes at the Media Research Center, is here (posted for fair use and discussion purposes). While looking for something else, I accidentally stumbled across a 2007 item in my blog's archives that makes the current soft media treatment of the Muslim Brotherhood even more outrageous than it already appears. In…

MSNBC Sells False Idea Taxes are Lowest in 60 Years

February 9th, 2011 12:27 PM
Do you think you're paying less in federal income taxes than you ever have in your entire life? If you watched Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, or Cenk Uygur on MSNBC Tuesday, you might believe that (video follows with transcripts and lots of commentary):

How 'Clever': AP Item Calls Fed's Bond-Buying Program 'Stimulus,' Avoi

February 8th, 2011 1:16 PM
The search for ways to rehabilitate the Obama administration in the eyes of the public is seemingly a never-ending enterprise at the Associated Press. Oh, they slip up occasionally. Late last week (covered yesterday at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), in an item primarily about how Congress really, really can't stop planned stimulus spending (uh-huh), the wire service's Brett J. Blackledge let…

'Spin Meter' Out of Control; AP Claims Almost All Unspent Stimulus Mon

February 7th, 2011 2:34 PM
According to Brett J. Blackledge at the Associated Press, when it comes to unspent stimulus money, cue the MC Hammer ("U Can't Touch This") and go away. In a Friday "analysis" in the wire service's "Spin Meter" category (HT Sweetness & Light), Blackledge, using words which clearly communicate which side he's on, in essence tells those whose goal it is to reduce federal spending to a more…

NYT on +250k Jobs Report in 1984: 'Surprisingly Strong Growth' Despite

February 6th, 2011 11:20 AM
April 1984 was the U.S. economy's 19th post-recession month while Ronald Reagan was President. It was a month during which the government initially reported that the unemployment rate remained at 7.7%, while the number of jobs added was 269,000. By the time the government made all its subsequent revisions over the next few years, the final jobs-added figure was 363,000. On May 5, 1984, in an…

AP Pair's Employment Report Howler: 'More than half a million people f

February 6th, 2011 9:22 AM
Someone needs to tell the Associated Press's Jeannine Aversa and Christopher Rugaber that just because the number of unemployed people declines, it doesn't mean that they "found work." That must be what the pair believes. Their error-riddled and suspect supposition-driven Friday afternoon report, whose title predictably focused on the unemployment-rate drop while ignoring the pathetic…

AP's Crary Does All He Can to Instill Doubt About LiveAction.org's Pla

February 3rd, 2011 3:31 PM
Poor Associated Press National Writer David Crary. He doesn't seem to like what LiveAction.org did at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Perth Amboy, New Jersey in mid-January, and wants to make sure his readers leave his writeup with some level of doubt about the legitimacy of the group's undercover video showing a clinic manager willing to provide assistance to a pimp for his underage hookers.…

AP's Taylor Ignores Suffering, Obsesses Over Unemployment Rate's Effec

January 30th, 2011 10:48 AM
On Wednesday, the Associated Press's Andrew Taylor covered the latest deficit projections released by the Congressional Budget Office. In his treatment of the predicted unemployment rate, Taylor betrayed no concern whatsoever about the plight of the millions of unemployed who are in that position largely because the Obama administration attempted to bring about an economic recovery through…

AP's 'Fact Check' of HHS Scare Stat Also Factually Challenged

January 29th, 2011 10:17 AM
Ten days ago, on the eve of the House vote to repeal ObamaCare, Kathleen Sebelius's Department or Health and Human Services issued a fearmongering press release saying that "129 million Americans with a pre-existing condition could be denied coverage without new health reform law." Ten days later, on a Friday afternoon (naturally), the Associated Press's Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar finally got…

Oops: AP Says GDP Report Was Causing Stock Market Rise in AM, Quietly

January 29th, 2011 8:35 AM
It seems that Associated Press Business Writer David K. Randall made a bad call yesterday. But he only has himself to blame for engaging in what he should have known was wishful thinking. Shortly after the government's report on economic growth during the fourth quarter of 2010 came in with an annualized 3.2% reading, Randall put out this this short report: Stocks edge up after stronger…

Media Trumpets Biased and Problematic Abortion-Mental Health Study (w

January 27th, 2011 9:34 PM
Several media outlets are trumpeting a recent study out of Denmark that asserts that having an abortion does not increase the risk of mental health problems for women. Yet there are serious problems with the study that major media are not reporting: 1. The Danish study flies in the face of over 30 professional studies just in the past five years that conclude that there is a serious negative…

In Pro-life Homily On Eve of March for Life, Cardinal Criticizes 'Jade

January 25th, 2011 1:39 PM
On Sunday evening, an event in Washington preemptively made mincemeat of the usual press claims that "thousands" would participate in the next day's March for Life. The next day at the Washington Post, Michelle Boorstein and Ben Pershing followed form ("Thousands of abortion opponents rally in march on Mall"), but did make an interesting, seemingly reluctant observation: "Some attending the…

While Toyota Is Barely Edging GM in Worldwide Unit Sales, AP Report 'F

January 25th, 2011 12:24 AM
In a Monday Associated Press dispatch, reporter Tom Krisher virtually celebrated the idea that Government/General Motors "may be Number 1 again," with happy talk of "dethroning" and "overtaking" Toyota. Nowhere did Krisher mention the inconvenient fact that Toyota's revenues dwarf GM's to the point where comparing unit sales is an absurd waste of time. Specifically: