Lisa Miller: Catholic Church's 'Authoritarian Meddling' Against Dissid
May 28th, 2010 2:52 PM
Newsweek's Lisa Miller again lashed out against the Catholic Church in her column on Thursday, defending an excommunicated Catholic nun in Arizona for her "compassionate and impossible decision" in supporting a hospital patient's abortion. Miller also condemned a Vatican cardinal's investigation into American nuns as a whole as "authoritarian meddling."The religion editor for the dwindling…
Time's Grunwald on Sestak Job Offer: 'Criminally Stupid, Not Criminal
May 27th, 2010 11:57 AM
Imagine if, in 2004, Karl Rove had offered then-Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) a cushy administration post if only he dropped his primary challenge of then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, whom the Bush White House was backing for reelection. Surely the media would merely smell "stupid politics" rather then the stench of corruption and complain that Democrats making hay of the matter were cynically making…
Slate's Shafer Praises McGinniss's 'Stalking' of Sarah Palin
May 26th, 2010 3:06 PM
"It's called legwork, it's called immersion journalism, and it doesn't look pretty. But it should come as a surprise to only naive newspaper readers that every day journalists treat the subjects of investigations the way [Joe] McGinniss is treating Palin," Slate's Jack Shafer argued in a May 26 post subheadlined, "In defense of a journalist's stalking of a politician." Shafer wrote his post…
Gibbs Scolds WH Reporters for Asking So Many BP Questions
May 26th, 2010 12:33 AM
Doesn't everyone remember in 2005 when George W. Bush's Press Secretary Scott McClellan (bless his back-stabbing heart) called reporters into the West Wing of the White House and scolded them for asking too many questions about Hurricane Katrina? That followed a similar admonishment earlier in the year about the press's obsession with anything and everything to do with the Iraq War. You don't…
IBD Rips 'Mob Rule from SEIU'; Media Virtually AWOL
May 25th, 2010 3:32 PM
Investors Business Daily called attention to an alarming story that goes back to Sunday, May 16 in a Monday evening editorial. A protest noticed by the target's next-door neighbor who happened to be home at the time, namely journalist Nina Easton (who also took the photo at right), occurred in a Metro DC suburb in Maryland marked the next round of a national labor union's attempt at persuasion…
Oklahoma, Which Passed Serious Immigration Reform in 2007, Continues t
May 23rd, 2010 10:36 AM
Why is Oklahoma's economy more than OK these days? The latest piece of evidence supporting that truth arrived on Friday, when Uncle Sam's Bureau of Labor Statistics released April's Regional and State Unemployment Summary. The report tells us that Oklahoma had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 6.6% last month. That's far lower than the 9.9% reported for the entire USA two weeks ago. No…
Newsweek Alum Devin Gordon Mocks GOP Congressman's Tweet with '@IHeart
May 21st, 2010 3:41 PM
Perhaps you could call it #footinmouthfriday for Devin Gordon.The former Newsweek editor snarked on GQ.com's The Wire blog earlier this afternoon about Missouri Republican Roy Blunt's "follow Friday" (#ff) tweet urging his Twitter followers to check out and follow Best Buddies International and the Special Olympics.In a post entitled, "Really? You're Using #FollowFriday To Score Cheap Political…
Pakistan Blocks Facebook in Response to 'Draw Mohammed Day' Pages
May 21st, 2010 1:54 PM
The government of Pakistan has blocked social networking site Facebook due to a page encouraging users to "Draw Mohammed." The page, and the larger movement, have outraged Muslims, who believe it is blasphemous to physically depict Islam's prophet."Death to Facebook!" shouted protesters in Karachi, demonstrating against a group called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day," designed to further the cause…
Newsweek's Adler Furthers Meme That Conservatives Are Obsessed with Ka
May 21st, 2010 12:20 PM
Another day, another liberal meme.Yesterday I tackled how Newsweek's Howard Fineman was attacking Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul for picking a fight that the liberal media, in fact, was whipping up.Today, it's Fineman colleague Ben Adler and his insistence that conservatives are fixated on smearing both Elena Kagan and softball players everywhere as gay.Adler made his argument in…
Bonnie Erbe: 'Congress Handling the Gulf Oil Spill Crisis Better Than
May 20th, 2010 4:21 PM
"What the hell is wrong you you people?!"That's essentially what PBS "To the Contrary" host and US News & World Report contributor Bonnie Erbe wrote in her May 19 Thomas Jefferson Street blog post "Congress Handling the Gulf Oil Spill Crisis Better than Most Americans.""Although the Gulf spill has lowered the percentage of Americans who support offshore oil drilling, a new Pew Forum poll…
Time's Newton-Small: 'Toomey/Sestak Race Starts Ugly
May 20th, 2010 3:34 PM
The general election campaign for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania between Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Sestak has started "ugly," according to Jay Newton-Small. In her May 20 Swampland blog post, the Time magazine staffer offered as evidence the former's press conference yesterday in which:[H]e spent much of the speech blasting Sestak. In his 7-minute opening remarks he said “I” or “me” 52…
US News's Erbe Suggests Justices Thomas, Scalia Soft on Sexual Predato
May 19th, 2010 3:24 PM
"In a 7-2 ruling [on Monday], the Supreme Court expanded Congressional powers just a mite, by allowing the federal government to keep sexual predators in prison beyond their terms if they are deemed too dangerous to be released," U.S. News & World Report contributor Bonnie Erbe noted in a May 18 Thomas Jefferson Street blog post.The PBS "To the Contrary" host later snarked that: [T]he two…
Newsweek's Romano: Twitter Made Me Sound Like a Michelle Bachmann Hate
May 18th, 2010 5:28 PM
Newsweek's Andrew Romano isn't really anti-Michelle Bachmann, he argues that he just sounds like one on Twitter. In a May 17 "Web Exclusive," entitled "Tweet the Press," the Newsweek staffer explained to readers how an editor assigned him to write a "Twitter profile" of the Minnesota Republican:My editor had just stepped into my office to discuss a new assignment. The NEWSWEEK brass is…
Texas Considering Giving State Funding to Anti-Arizona Immigration Fil
May 18th, 2010 1:10 PM
Taxpayers may be forced to foot a portion of the bill for a new movie that has become a stark -- and violent -- message against the recently passed Arizona immigration law. The liberal political stance is nothing new in the movie world. That the film is still being considered for indirect public funding, however, is quite striking.An online trailer for the film "Machete," released on Cinco de…