Not News: Wasserman Schultz and Moran Whine About Staff Budget Cuts

March 24th, 2013 8:03 AM
As hard as the establishment press has worked over the years to make certain politicians appear to be somehow out of touch with the situation of average Americans, you might think that two legislative leaders complaining about cuts in their Congressional offices' allowance might be news. One whined that her aides, some of whom "earn" in excess of $100,000 per year, are being "priced out" of a…

Press Ignores, Minimizes Concerns in Fed's Beige Book About ObamaCare

March 23rd, 2013 10:27 AM
Today, on the third anniversary of the enactment of state-managed healthcare, aka the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka ObamaCare, it's worth noting a precursor of what we can expect from the establishment press as the law's implementation presses on. It can be summed up in eight words: "Hype the alleged good. Ignore the obviously bad." Distilled in four words: "Toe the…

Much of the Press Calls Now-Nixed Partial Account Seizure in Cyprus a

March 20th, 2013 10:29 AM
Much of the press is describing the EU's demand that Cyprus seize a portion of bank account holders' deposits, a demand rejected yesterday by the island nation's legislature, as a "tax." I think it's reasonable to suggest that this characterization is designed to minimize the frightening authoritarianism the EU has just attempted. In a bit of a pleasant surprise, one organization openly…

Not News: Biden Staffer Forces Press-Credentialed Student to Delete Ph

March 17th, 2013 4:39 PM

Concerning a Wednesday incident which would surely have received much wider play if it had involved former Vice President Dick Cheney during the George W. Bush administration, Capital News Service reported that one of its reporters was forced by an aide to Vice President Joe Biden to delete photos he had taken at an event in Rockville, Maryland. Based on a Google News search on "Biden Maryland…

ABC Shows Understated 'Debt Clock,' Uses Creative Rounding to Claim Pr

March 13th, 2013 10:35 PM
In an interview with former Bill Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos at ABC (transcript here), President Barack Obama claimed that “We don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt." Despite his claim, no one can know that for sure, but it's at least consistent with what he said during the 2012 presidential campaign ("we don't have to worry about it short term"). Obama's elaboration on…

Politico's Roger Simon Blames Republicans for Obama's Nixing White Hou

March 12th, 2013 3:55 PM
Here at NewsBusters, we usually ignore commentary and op-ed pieces because there is no pretense that such items are objective news reports. But from time to time we come across something so egregious, so over-the-top, that it merits exposure and derision. Such is the case with Roger Simon's latest screed in Politico, "Save the sequester, crush the children!" which cranks the crazy up to 11…

Roger Friedman: Brooke Shields 'Likely' to Replace 'Extremely Right Wi

March 8th, 2013 11:07 PM
This posts builds on another by Noel Sheppard which appeared earlier today at NewsBusters. At ShowBiz411.com, Roger Friedman, who worked at Fox News for a decade until he was fired in 2009 over alleged film piracy, claims that Brooke Shields is “Likely” to join “The View” as Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck depart. "Likely"? Wow, Rog, way to put yourself on the line. Friedman went heavy on…

WaPo Fact-Checker Twice Calls Out Obama Over Non-existent Sequester-Re

March 6th, 2013 4:07 PM
President Obama's sequester-related press briefing on March 1 contained the usual fibs. Examples include but are certainly not limited to the following: "We've already cut $2.5 trillion in our deficit," when the entire amount involved is something which might happen in the future; his claim that his State of the Union laundry list "is the agenda that the American people voted for," when many of…

Wired Magazine Slams DC Comics for Hiring Gay Marriage Opponent to Wri

March 6th, 2013 11:25 AM
If you're an outspoken religious or political conservative in the entertainment industry, it's open season by the liberal media not just on your beliefs but on your right to work. The latest example of this new outright McCarthyism comes from Wired magazine, which gives a strongly worded condemnation of DC Comics for having hired author Orson Scott Card to write Superman.  Wired’s outrage…

AP Sanitizes Joseph Kennedy II's Quote on Chavez's Death, Avoids Notin

March 6th, 2013 11:25 AM
CNN, which if I recall correctly severed formal ties with the Associated Press some time ago, quoted former congressman Joseph Kennedy II's reaction to the death of Venezuela's authoritarian leader Hugo Chavez as follows: "President Chavez cared deeply about the poor of Venezuela and other nations around the world and their abject lack of even basic necessities, while some of the wealthiest…

NBC Panelist Compares Anonymous Internet Commenters to KKK

March 5th, 2013 4:29 PM
During a panel discussion on Tuesday's NBC Today about whether websites should prevent people from commenting anonymously in order to reduce offensive rhetoric, attorney Star Jones made an over-the-top comparison: "I equate it a little bit to what the KKK used to do, in terms of being under the mask....Well, the mask of the web is giving anonymity to these kinds of people, and it's time to take…

Napolitano Statement on Air Travel Delays Directly Contradicted by Air

March 4th, 2013 10:37 PM
According to the first paragraph of Alicia's Caldwell's report today at the Associated Press, aka the Adminstration's Press, Homeland Security Secretary Janey Napolitano told attendees at a Politico breakfast this morning (Politico's coverage is here) that, in Caldwell's words, "U.S. airports, including Los Angeles International and O'Hare International in Chicago, are already experiencing…

Conn. Legislator Makes Lewd Remark to 17 Year-old Girl at Hearing; Con

March 2nd, 2013 7:52 PM
Did you ever mean to say "If you are shy then I have an acre of land in the Everglades." and have it come out "If you're bashful I got a snake sitting under my desk here"? I mean, those sentences are so close to being identical, and these kinds of misstatements happen all the time, right? Well, that's what you have to believe if you're still a defender of Connecticut legislator Ernest Hewett…

Not News: Projected Growth in Unpaid Bills Shows State of Illinois on

February 28th, 2013 7:26 AM
On Monday, the Insitute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability (IIFS), an outfit associated with the Civic Federation, a "nonpartisan" organization which appears to have leftist instincts and funding, warned that the state government's $8 billion stack of unpaid bills will grow to $22 billion in five years. IIFS correctly blames out of control pension costs, and recommends several reforms which…