Have the AP or Denver Post Actually Read the New Texas Curriculum

May 23rd, 2010 7:06 AM
Probably no more than Janet Napolitano or Eric Holder has read the new Arizona SB1070.  Ann Althouse has described the Washington Post's dereliction of duty in its description of the Texas curriculum.  The AP articles are no better.In two articles over the last two weeks, the AP has written the following (sometimes more than once) about the new Texas curriculum:A far-right faction of the Texas…

Establishment Press Largely Covers Obama's Tracks on Disgraceful Danie

May 22nd, 2010 10:48 AM
President Barack Obama's statement just before he signed the Freedom of the Press Act on Monday painfully avoided reality to the point of giving offense. If it became widely known, it would likely become very problematic. Here is what the President said that was particularly offensive (bolds are mine): And obviously the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s…

AP's Castro Can't Hold In Bias (and Perhaps Ignorance) in Report on Te

May 22nd, 2010 12:19 AM
It would not surprise me if the Associated Press's April Castro has spent the last 10 weeks gritting her teeth non-stop. In March (covered at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), she was clearly peeved at the Texas State Board of Education. In a supposedly objective news story entitled "Texas ed board vote reflects far-right influences," she decried a "faction" (actually a nearly two-thirds majority) of…

AP Wastes Almost 1,000 Words Wondering: 'Is Dora the Explorer an Illeg

May 21st, 2010 7:56 PM
The Associated Press's Sophia Tareen has apparently had a lot of time on her hands the past couple of days, and her wire service bosses couldn't find much for her to do. How else to explain Tareen's devotion of almost 1,000 words to the burning question of whether cartoon character Dora the Explorer is an illegal immigrant? You read that right, but it's worse than that. Tareen claims that images…

Did Sestak Get WH Job Offer? Media Seem Not to Care

May 20th, 2010 6:06 PM
In February, Congressman Joe Sestak, D-Pa., alleged that the White House had offered him a "high-ranking" job in exchange for him refraining from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in that state's primaries. Since Sestak defeated Specter on Tuesday, a number of media outlets have profiled him The White House denies that it ever made such an offer, which means either the Obama administration or…

AP Invokes Favorite Adverb to Describe How Jobless Claims Rose 'Unexpe

May 20th, 2010 11:53 AM
"Unexpectedly." It recent overuse by the Associated Press almost makes me nostalgic for the "green shoots" that the mainstream media kept seeing last year in the midst of rising unemployment and other bad economic news. When you see the AP use that adverb nowadays, you almost always know it involves depressing news on the economic front and this time they did not dissapoint with their story about…

AP, in Playing Defense for Blumenthal, Disses the New York Times (But

May 19th, 2010 12:22 PM
Earlier this morning, I was minding my own business, reading this unbylined Associated Press roundup of yesterday's elections, when I got to the report's final few paragraphs. They involved "other concerns" the two major parties have. After noting yesterday's resignation by Republican congressman Mark Souder, the report's final paragraph read as follows: Well, that's rich. I wonder how the…

Comedy Gold: In Story on Campbell Brown’s Departure, AP Report Cites

May 18th, 2010 10:22 PM
Give Campbell Brown credit. Unlike many of her colleagues, who from all appearances will have to be dragged kicking and screaming away from their microphones once their networks can no longer afford to subsidize their dwindling audiences, Brown recognizes that she's in a business that has to make money. Brown's evening CNN show has consistently failed to reach enough viewers to justify itself,…

Treatment of Souder Resignation Illustrates AP and NYT's Double Standa

May 18th, 2010 2:34 PM
Today, the Associated Press generally did what is supposed to do when reporting on scandal-plagued politicians. Here are the first five paragraphs of the AP's brief report on Indiana Congressman Mark Souder's resignation announcement (link is dynamic and will probably be updated; "where's the worst one we can find?" picture of Souder at top right is via AP): Here's the opening of the coverage…

Media Still Can’t Bring Themselves to Call Chandra Levy Suspect an I

May 16th, 2010 11:02 PM
You would think that in the midst of the liberal media's fight to rip Arizona's Immigration Law, that the phrase ‘illegal immigrant' would be fairly easy to use in an appropriate manner.  Yet that is seemingly only the case when the phrase is used to cast common-sense immigration enforcement as discriminatory.  But when it comes to a story that could shed light on why enforcement is a necessity…

Holder's 'Haven't Read It' Arizona Immigration Law Admission Gets Litt

May 15th, 2010 11:58 PM
This is one of those "you know the ending, but someone has to take note anyway" media bias posts. On Thursday, NewsBusters colleague Noel Sheppard revealed that Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder had told an oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Committee the following about his knowledge of Arizona's recently pass immigration law-enforcement measure: I have not had a chance to…

AP Report on Perceived Quality Notes Ford, Kia Strides, Toyota Decline

May 15th, 2010 9:21 AM
A few weeks ago (covered at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), the Associated Press tried to pass off a poll it had conducted with its partner GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media (inexplicably held for 40 days) as showing that "Americans (are) shifting to US cars." Actually looking at the poll's detailed results revealed that Americans are "shifting to US cars" made by Ford, and either shifting away or…

Reporting on Guv's Call for Eliminating Calif. 'Welfare-to-Work' Progr

May 15th, 2010 12:00 AM
Today was a same-old, same-old day in California.For the second year in a row, a state official has proposed eliminating the former Golden State's "welfare-to-work" program, which the rest of us know as "welfare," or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Last year, it was left to a spokesman for the state's Department of Finance to bring out the idea. This year, Governor Arnold…

Deficit Comes In Just Below CBO Estimate; Economists' Predictions Were

May 12th, 2010 4:19 PM
It doesn't seem like this exercise should be that tough. The government issues Daily Treasury Statements telling everybody what went in and out on a given business day. At the end of the month, the last Daily Treasury Statement has a record (admittedly jumbled and larded with lots of bureaucratic excess) of all receipts and disbursements for the month. The folks at the Congressional Budget…