The Economy: 'Expectations' Are Taking Quite a Beating This Week
June 4th, 2008 5:12 PM
Don't miss the significant reporting errors noted at the end of this post. _______________________________________________ If this were a boxing match, with "The Economy" in one corner, and "Expectations" in the other, we'd be seeing a third-round knockout with "Expectations" taken away in an ambulance. But if you think the news this week has changed the tone of the Associated Press's business…
White House Responds to Media Claims It Hid Science About Global Warmi
June 3rd, 2008 5:55 PM
Last week, the Bush administration released a report warning of the potential dangers of global warming, except there wasn't anything new in it. However, the timing of the release was seen as an act done so begrudgingly - since the Bush administration has previously resisted efforts to propagate climate change alarmism. "For the first time, the Bush administration is conceding what most…
DenverPost.com Slow On Uptake with Headline 'Clinton Set to End Race
June 3rd, 2008 1:26 PM
Earlier this morning the Associated Press's Beth Fouhy reported that Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) is gearing up to concede the Democratic nomination contest to Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in a speech following primary election returns tonight.Not so fast, Clinton aides said, scrambling in short order to protest that Hillary is not going to throw in the towel tonight. Yet the Denver Post as of 1:10 p.…
The S-Word Appears Four Times in an AP Report from Iraq
June 1st, 2008 7:53 PM
Earlier today, NewsBusters' Matt Sheffield caught a Washington Post editorial which told us, "Don't look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war." The editorial noted "a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks -- which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war." The Post also suggested that…
AP Highlights Bush Bashing 'Documentary
May 31st, 2008 2:54 PM
The AP gives us a story about some so-called documentary about what evil befell the poor folks of Crawford, Texas, after Governor George W. Bush bought his ranch property there.I'll start right out with the key section that pretty much describes what we're dealing with, a quote by the director of this film. "I wanted to do a film indicting Bush for this political stagecraft, using this town as a…
Spiked? Reports of UN Peacekeepers' Child Sexual Abuse
May 31st, 2008 7:52 AM
Rush Limbaugh highlighted this report the other day on child sexual abuse committed by United Nations peacekeepers from the charity Save the Childrren UK. He called it's the UN's "Abu Grab." This report came from Edith Lederer of the Associated Press:U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep concern" Tuesday after a leading children's charity said it uncovered evidence of widespread…
AP: Vatican 'Slamming the Door' on Female Priests
May 30th, 2008 1:08 PM
[Update (16:33 EDT): The AP has changed its lede to read "The Vatican insisted Friday that it is properly following Christian tradition by excluding females from the priesthood as it issued a new warning that women taking part in ordinations will be excommunicated." (h/t Damian G. of Conservathink).]According to the Associated Press, the Vatican is "slamming the door on attempts by women to…
'Nightly News': Increase in Spam Sales Indicates a Bad Economy
May 30th, 2008 10:52 AM
You've got to give the media credit for continuing to find new and innovative ways to make the U.S. economy look bad. This time an increase in Spam sales are being touted as a sign that people are suffering as they are being forced to trade in their fancy meats and poultries for something less expensive - a sign of "our times," according to "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams. "And in…
First Quarter GDP Growth Up Higher Than Originally Thought
May 29th, 2008 10:19 AM
May 27: Paul R. La Monica for CNN Money reporting on Warren Buffett's belief that "we are already in a recession." Notice the lede: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's getting harder and harder to deny that the economy is in recession.May 29: The federal government releases an upward revision of the first quarter GDP growth. The ever-pessimistic AP reporter Martin Crutsinger grudgingly admitted that…
Despite Media, Buffett Recession Obsessions, 1Q Growth Revised Up
May 29th, 2008 10:05 AM
Matching predictions from Reuters and Bloomberg, the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis told us this morning that the economy grew at an upwardly-revised annualized rate of 0.9%. As I've said frequently, this is nowhere near acceptable. But it sure as heck isn't a recession.Initial reaction to the news by the Associated Press's Jeannine Aversa was unfortunately predictable (bolds are mine…
Lorain (OH) Councilman's Arrest Is a Group 'Name That Party' Failure
May 26th, 2008 8:12 PM
Also see the compare-and-contrast example in the final paragraph. A city councilman in Lorain, Ohio, a city of about 75,000 west of Cleveland, was arrested during a prostitution sting on Friday. Of the six stories I found covering the event (the Google News search is for May 22-26), only one referred to the political party of councilman Dennis Flores, who is a Democrat (scroll down to "Second…
NYT Bashes Bush on Memorial Day, White House Strikes Back
May 26th, 2008 5:31 PM
It's Memorial Day, and the good folks at the New York Times thought it appropriate to not only attack the President's position on a new G.I. Bill, but also to despicably lambaste him for "[h]aving saddled the military with a botched, unwinnable war," and "having squandered soldiers’ lives and failed them in so many ways."On Memorial Day!Thankfully, White House press secretary Dana Perino has…