More Bad News For California’s Finances, Despite NBC's Brown Praise

On Monday’s NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams heaped praise on liberal Democratic Governor Jerry Brown of California, who was sworn in for a record fourth term. Williams hailed Brown as someone who was had “finally been able to turn around California's troubled finances.” As highlighted on this site Monday night, the State of California’s finances are far from stellar when examined more closely.…

At LA Times, Pearce Joins Parade of Brown-Wilson Evidence Distorters

In the final three paragraphs of a "Year in Review" item at the Los Angeles Times on December 31 (HT Patterico), reporter Matt Pearce joined the long list of journalists who have failed to properly characterize the evidence in Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri in August. You had to know that distortions were coming based on the rest of the article content which preceded it. The most…

Dead Baby Headline: 'Two Fetuses Found Beside Road'

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “fetus” as “a human being or animal in the later stages of development before it is born.” So the Los Angeles Times (and other media outlets) are defying the dictionary with “Two fetuses found beside road in Fallbrook.” Times reporter Tony Perry dropped the F-bomb for a baby repeatedly in this short item (only the sheriff's spokesman was acknowledging birth…

LAT Laments How Mega-Donor Steyer Was Not Decisive in 2014 Midterms

Chris Megerian at the Los Angeles Times, in a report first published online on Tuesday, had a difficult time trying to downplay the fact that Democrat and leftist mega-donors outspent their Republican and conservative couterparts by an overwhelming margin during the past election cycle. But Megerian made the best of it, giving readers the impression that David Koch, of the supposedly evil Koch…

CNN Ends 2014 With All-time Low Ratings, MSNBC Falls to Third Place

Just when it seemed that things couldn't get any worse for the liberal Cable News Network and MSNBC channels, the Deadline website released a year-end review by reporter Lisa de Morales on ratings for CNN in prime time, which hit an all-time low of 516,000, and viewers in the vital 25- to 54-year-old demographic fell dramatically to 126,000, the second lowest number ever. Meanwhile, the “Lean…

In LA, CBS Station Pretends There Was a Real Kwanzaa Parade

What follows is an object lesson in why year-end best, worst and other lists shouldn't be published until the year actually ends. A Kwanzaa "parade" was held in Los Angeles yesterday. In reporting on the event, CBS Los Angeles published a work of fiction (saved here for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes) which absolutely belongs on any 2014 list of most embarrassing moments in…

Columnist: ‘Downside’ to Low Gas Prices, Hurt Green Energy Agenda

While low gas prices prompted strong sales last month of trucks and SUVs produced by American automakers, one Los Angeles Times columnist found multiple experts who viewed this as bad news. And his criticism was published online by The Detroit News. Columnist David Lazarus promoted the views of multiple experts critical of low gas prices. One claimed those prices were actually bad news because…

Gruber a 'Household Name' in LAT Editorial, Despite No News Stories

Tuesday afternoon, Kyle Drennen at NewsBusters observed that the Big Three networks "Appear Finished With Gruber Coverage," and that their Tuesday morning shows had no coverage of the de facto Obamacare architect and his congressional appearance. One factor likely influencing the nets' posture is how original news sources like the Associated Press and the nation's largest dailies have managed to…

NBC's Peter Pan Promotion Reveals 'The Tackiest House on the Street'

Washington Post TV critic Hank Stuever didn’t hate NBC’s three-hour “Peter Pan Live” musical. Allison Williams as the flying title character was fine (after becoming become the most promoted stage musical actress in decades, just by being on an NBC stage.) Stuever turned the second half of his review into disgust at how relentlessly tacky NBC-Universal is in promoting its own products that it…

Jonah Goldberg's Rolling Stone-U.Va. Doubts Vindicated

In the Rolling Stone-University of Virginia fraternity gang-rape saga, National Review's Jonah Goldberg's journalistic instincts expressed in his December 1 Los Angeles Times column ("Rolling Stone rape story sends shock waves -- and stretches credulity") obviously ran circles around Los Angeles Times op-ed columnist Diana Crandall's. On December 3, shortly before the story imploded, Crandall…

WashPost Reveals Hillary's Big Speaking Fees Come with Diva Demands

The Washington Post deserves credit for filing a Freedom of Information Act request to get details on Hillary Clinton’s very expensive lectures, but it’s fascinating when and where they decide to report on the results: tucked into the middle page A-2 on Thanksgiving Day. It’s under a story titled “462,000 choose health plans as enrollment begins.” Talk about trying to hide your light under a…

LAT Guest Blogger: Use Thanksgiving to Debate ‘Crazy Right-Wing Uncle'

Sometimes, one has to remember that op-ed writers don't always get to pick their headlines, though I would hope that they're allowed to register their objections. So it's not clear that Los Angeles Times guest blogger Joel Silberman is responsible for the headline at his Monday blog post about how, or even whether, to deal with relatives who disagree with you politically on Thanksgiving. But…
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Not National News: Dem 'Kingmaker' Arrested on Child Sex Charges

Brett M. Decker is a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors and "consulting director at the White House Writers Group." Early this evening, he effectively did double duty for the paper, both as a columnist and a journalist. Decker appears to be the first person to report visibly in a national publication that "influential gay rights advocate and top Obama donor" Terry Bean was arrested on…

Headline Roundup: Obama to 'Shield' Aliens With 'Deportation Relief'

Some of the nation's most influential newspapers sympathetically broke out the euphemisms for Obama as he prepares for unilateral executive action to "shield" some illegal immigrants from the rule of law, which they call "deportation relief." He's "cheered by reform advocates."