NY Times: Walker, Who Became Gov in 2011, Caused Layoffs in 2010

February 14th, 2015 11:47 PM
What an ironic title New York Times op-ed columnist and former editorial page editor Gail Collins used — "Scott Walker Needs an Eraser" — in her February 13 opinion piece blasting Wisconsin's Republican governor. In her nitpicky, selective mind, Walker must already have an eraser, one that's so powerful that it could reach back to the year before he became Badger State chief executive and…

WashPost's Bump Lamely Denies Kitzhaber-Christie Double Standard

February 14th, 2015 2:05 AM
Late Friday afternoon, roughly two hours ("shortly after noon" Pacific Time) after the press release announcing Oregon Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber's resignation effective next Wednesday, Philip Bump at the Washington Post's "The Fix" blog tried to explain away the national press's nearly complete failure to cover Kitzhaber's mounting ethical and now potentially criminal problems for nearly…

AP, NY Times Finally Focus on Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber Corruption Story

February 12th, 2015 7:29 PM
In a sign that the walls are truly beginning to close in around him, the Associated Press's national site and the New York Times, both of which have largely ignored the growing ethical scandals surrounding Oregon Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber and his fiancee Cylvia Hayes for months, have gotten busy during the past 24 hours. The very belated national attention cannot possibly be helpful to…

NYT's Parker-Pope Pushes False Memories Williams Meme 4 Days Late

February 11th, 2015 1:49 PM
Tara Parker-Pope attempted a defense of disgraced NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in an item ("Was Brian Williams a Victim of False Memory?") posted at the New York Times "Well" blog — late Monday afternoon. It even made Tuesday's New York version of the Old Gray Lady's print edition. Parker-Pope's premise, similar to that used by Marison Bello at USA Today three days earlier — even using…

NYRB's Smart Take: Republicans Are Scary, Purist, Nativist, and Racist

February 11th, 2015 9:56 AM
To understand the literary elite's simplistic grasp of politics, look to whom they get their opinions from: Veteran political contributor Elizabeth Drew, a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, explained the Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate for the Review's February issue under the headline: "The Republicans: Divided and Scary." And purist. And nativist. And racist....

NYT Hits Brian Williams for Losing Public’s Trust Following Iraq Lie

February 10th, 2015 12:45 PM
On Tuesday, the New York Times published a blistering critique of NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams following revelations that he lied about riding in a military helicopter that was forced down by enemy fire in Iraq. Authors Emily Steel and Ravi Somaiya highlight some “sobering news” for Williams with a headline that declared “Under Fire, Brian Williams Loses Lofty Spot on a Trustworthiness…

NYT Gushes Over Kennedy Institute; Bush Library Threatened 'Freedom'

February 9th, 2015 10:06 PM
Ted Kennedy, the late liberal "Lion of the Senate" (as he's invariably called) had his hugely exaggerated bipartisan reputation polished to a gleam in a story in the New York Times Arts section by Robin Pogrebin, "In the Mold of a Senator Who Bartered -- Edward M. Kennedy Institute Aims to Teach Collaboration." Yet the George W. Bush Presidential Library was considered by the Times "disturbing"…

NY Times Gets Tangled Into White House Fury at Netanyahu

February 9th, 2015 1:31 PM
In an entry at the Washington Post's Volokh Conspiracy blog yesterday, George Mason University School of Law Professor David Bernstein asked, "Did the Obama Administration lie about Netanyahu?" The issue is whether, when and how the Obama White House learned of the Israeli Prime Minister's plans to deliver a speech to the U.S. Congress. The New York Times got dragged into the discussion, and…

NY Times Sunday Review Columnist: Everyone Lies

February 9th, 2015 9:25 AM
While its appearance at the height of the Brian Williams serial tall-tales scandal seems coincidental, a New York Times Sunday review column by Clancy Martin, a "professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City" who has been "married twice before" (!), reveals quite a bit about the kind of dreck the Old Gray Lady will tolerate in the name of advancing its personal values-free,…

NYT Takes Front-Page Swings at Hillary, Jindal From Economic Left

February 8th, 2015 8:55 AM
On successive front pages Saturday and Sunday, the New York Times hit from the left presidential prospects from each party: liberal Democrat Hillary Clinton and Bobby Jindal, the conservative Republican governor of Louisiana.

NYT Laments 'Damaging Stereotypes' of Vets, Skips Own Notorious Smear

February 6th, 2015 2:46 PM
A New York Times military correspondent filed a useful story on the problem of military veterans being stereotyped as violent and troubled on movies and TV. But what about when the Times was guilty of doing the same thing on its Sunday front page, smearing veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as killers on "a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak"?

On Page 1, NY Times Warned 'Williams Digs Himself Deeper'

February 6th, 2015 1:31 PM
The New York Times caught up to Thursday’s Washington Post and put the Brian Williams phony-RPG scandal on the front page on Friday. This surely explains how ABC and CBS were shamed into acknowledging this was real on TV on Friday morning. “With Apology, Williams Digs Himself Deeper” was the Times headline, and the story continued onto page B-8, which was entirely dedicated to the Williams…

NY Times Targets 'American Sniper' for Promoting 'Insane Behavior'

February 5th, 2015 6:55 PM
What is the moral of the smash hit movie American Sniper? According to an editorial in Thursday's edition of the New York Times, our country's “gun-friendly culture” leads to “insane behavior” that not only threatens the lives of gun owners and their families, but also makes a case for stronger gun-control legislation. “You know the movie, right?” sarcastically asked Gail Collins, who covers…

NY Times's Correction on Vaccines Fixes Misattribution of Walker Quote

February 4th, 2015 11:45 PM
Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh believes that because the center-right media and blogosphere pushed back against the vaccine vendetta campaign against Republicans and conservatives, the establishment press is sharply backing away from trying to capitalize on it, especially because both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been shown to have played to the anti-vaxxer crowd during the 2008…