In Fawning Virtual Press Release, AP Avoids Calling John Edwards a Dem

January 16th, 2012 11:58 AM
In the annals of fawning coverage of scandal-plagued Democrats, Michael Biesecker's Saturday morning report on John Edwards's illness and its effect on his upcoming trail on campaign finance violations surely must be among the worst. Biesecker missed at least a half-dozen natural opportunities to tag Edwards as a Democrat, finally doing so in cryptic fashion in his 15th of 17 paragraphs. He…

Advisory Board: LightSquared, GPS Can't Coexist; Bland News Stories Av

January 15th, 2012 8:50 PM
On Friday, two Deputy Secretaries, one at the Department of Transportation and the other at Defense, in their capacities as co-chairs of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Executive Committee, released a one page letter concluding that the modified broadband deployment plan of LightSquared could not coexist with current GPS devices and their spectrum. That's…

Barely News: North Korea's 'Criticism Sessions' and Reported Punishmen

January 15th, 2012 9:52 AM
Yet another episode being reported from the totalitarian nightmare that is North Korea is getting short shrift in most of the world's press, namely "criticism sessions" (i.e., rat out your neighbor, coworker, etc.) identifying North Koreans who allegedly weren't sufficiently grief-stricken over the December death of Kim Jong Il (pictured at right), weren't sufficiently demonstrative about it,…

'Doomsday Clock' Moves Closer to Midnight; Guess Why

January 14th, 2012 10:19 AM
The "Doomsday Clock" has been with us since 1947. It is a symbolic construct of the now left-leaning Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group which "was established in 1945 by scientists, engineers, and other experts who had created the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. They knew about the horrible effects of these new weapons and devoted themselves to warning the public about the…

CNBC Posts, Retracts 'Bain Advised Obama/GM' Report

January 13th, 2012 12:02 PM
UPDATE: James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute's blog has more, including the possibility that the original story misidentified "Bain Consulting," as well as a theory as to the story's original source. It looks like someone ran with something they thought was too good to check. A retraction described as a "Correction" currently on CNBC's web site tells readers: "A previous…

AP Demotes Unanimity of Supremes' Decision on Religious Workers' Right

January 11th, 2012 5:34 PM
We can forgive Pittsburgh Steelers for avoiding the mention of the name of a certain quarterback who plays for the Denver Broncos in the coming days. Related forgiveness does not extend to Jesse J. Holland at the Associated Press concerning his coverage of the Supreme Court's u-u-u-unanimous ruling today that religious workers cannot sue for job discrimination. As seen here at a Weekly…

CNNMoney.com: Many Docs Are Struggling, and It's Their Fault; Obamacar

January 8th, 2012 10:41 PM
A frequent BizzyBlog commenter tweeted about an online article he saw at CNNMoney.com entitled "Doctors going broke" about how many doctors are struggling in the current economy. His tweet: "Welcome to Obamacare." A frequent BizzyBlog commenter tweeted about am online article he saw at CNNMoney.com entitled "Doctors going broke" about how many doctors are struggling in the current economy.…

AP Wrongly Claims Palin's Figurative 'Death Panels' Contention 'Now Wi

December 31st, 2011 9:25 AM
There are quite a few problems with Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar's December 28 coverage ("New fee coming for medical effectiveness research") concerning a new fee (i.e., tax) which will imposed on health insurance companies for each person they cover starting tomorrow. Several times (twice in the body and once as seen above in the headline), the story refers to the assessment as a "medical…

AP's Kuhnhenn: Obama Only Promised to Make Signing Statements 'More Tr

December 28th, 2011 8:17 AM
At the Associated Press on Friday, reporter Jim Kuhnhenn provided yet another reason why characterizing the wire service as The Administration's Press is perfectly appropriate. In wake of President Obama's use of a "signing statement" objecting on constitutional grounds to congressionally-imposed "restrictions on his ability to transfer detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo…

AP Report on Institute Burning in Egypt an Exercise in Reality Avoidan

December 26th, 2011 10:44 PM
A month ago, Aya Batrawy at the Associated Press's Egyptian bureau described those who ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo as "protesters," and absurdly asserted in the face of contrary evidence I was able to find in about five minutes that "the historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel ... has never had the support of ordinary Egyptians." Last week, in the wake of the burning -- more like…

What Time of Year Is It? In the Press, 'Holiday Shopping Season' Still

December 26th, 2011 12:08 PM
This is the seventh year I have looked into how the media treats two Christmas-related topics: The use of “Christmas shopping season” vs. “holiday shopping season” and the relative frequency of "Christmas" and "holiday" layoff references. Unfortunately, the hints of improvement late last year, when 20% of stories in the late December pre-Christmas search referenced the "Christmas shopping…

Obama Crony-Run LightSquared's Network Now Shown to Disrupt Plane Safe

December 14th, 2011 11:17 PM
Late Friday afternoon, Todd Shields at Bloomberg News broke a story about some guy, who happens to be an Obama and Democratic Party donor (but not disclosed), against whom the Securities and Exchange Commission is formally considering an enforcement action (also not disclosed, though it was noted at the New York Times's Dealbook Blog five hours before Shields's report), whose "wireless service…

In Report on November Deficit, AP's Crutsinger Miscasts Post-9/11 Econ

December 13th, 2011 8:53 AM
Uncle Sam's Monthly Treasury Statement for November came out yesterday. The results: Tax collections through two months of the fiscal year are up 4.4% over fiscal 2010; spending is down 5.5%, but only because about $31 billion in checks which would ordinarily have gone out on October 1 (a Saturday) were sent on September 30; and the deficit of $235 billion is $55 billion less than last year.…

Union Election Requires Photo ID; Politico Fails to Note Irony

December 12th, 2011 8:59 PM
On Wednesday, the Politico ran a story about the International Association of Machinists Union at Boeing agreeing to approve a contract extension, the result of which ultimately led to the National Labor Relations Board dropping its controversial decision to prevent the company from beginning to operate a mostly-constructed plant in South Carolina. Though it deserves separate commentary, that…