Meteorologist: Climate Change and Trump Have Driven Me to Therapy
January 8th, 2017 7:43 AM
Meteorologist Eric Holthaus, who has appeared a couple of times on these pages in the past (more on that shortly), is in therapy.
Well, okay, lots of people are. But get a load of what has driven Holthaus into therapy: "I know many ppl feel deep despair about climate, especially post-election." And it's because of this, "There are days where I literally can't work," and "We don't deserve this…
NY Times Won't Admit It When 'Reality' Contradicts Its 'Fact-Check'
January 6th, 2017 8:38 PM
In a Thursday item about urban gentrification at its "Upshot" blog which also appeared in its Friday print edition, Emily Badger at the New York Times took a gratuitous shot at Donald Trump over a mid-2016 statement which was true at the time — and, contrary to her insistence that it's now false, is still true.
Badger, as currently seen at the Times, has written that "Mr. Trump claimed during…
AP Ignores Dems' Pre-Election Filibuster Plans; Garland a 'Moderate'
January 5th, 2017 5:25 PM
Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press's Mary Clare Jalonick served as Democratic Party Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's mouthpiece, relaying his promise to "oppose with everything we have" any Supreme Court nominee who isn't fit the Senator's definition of "mainstream."
Initial AP Coverage of Facebook Torture Avoids Almost All Details
January 5th, 2017 11:19 AM
The Associated Press's initial Wednesday evening report on the horrific beating and torture of a mentally handicapped 18 year-old in Chicago is woefully and predictably weak.
A comparison of what Fox 32 in Chicago was reporting at the time of AP's story will demonstrate how much the wire service chose to ignore.
NPR Bewails Lack of 'Nonreligious' Americans in Congress
January 4th, 2017 3:40 PM
Danielle Kurtzleben played up in a Tuesday item for NPR's website that "just one of the 535 members of the new Congress" is nonreligious. Kurtzleben underlined that "the nation's top legislative body remains far more male and white than the rest of the U.S. population...but religion is one of the more invisible areas where legislators in Washington simply aren't representative of the people they…
Trump Knows, Media Don’t: One-Sided ‘Free Trade’ Isn’t Free Trade
January 3rd, 2017 2:16 PM
The media remain steadfast in their opposition to now-President-elect Donald Trump. In their attempts to deny him first the office and now legitimacy therein, they have come up with all sorts of shorthand descriptives that are either vague or outright disingenuous.
One of the most annoying of these - is “Donald Trump is anti-(free) trade.”
WashPost on Russian Connection to Vermont Utility Hack: Never Mind
January 3rd, 2017 11:20 AM
Monday evening, just three days after causing an uproar by reporting that "Russian hackers penetrated (the) U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont," the Washington Post is now saying that "Russian government hackers do not appear to have targeted Vermont utility, say people close to investigation." In other words (cue the late Glida Radner's famous Saturday Night Live character Emily…
WashPost Keeps Alive Russia-Grid Hacking Story Despite Falling Apart
January 2nd, 2017 2:27 PM
UPDATE, January 3: "WashPost on Russian Connection to Vermont Utility Hack: Never Mind"
A not very funny thing happened to the Washington Post after its Juliet Eilperin and Adam Entous posted a story on Friday (now time-stamped as if it was Saturday) claiming in its headline that "Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont." The claim, according to the utility…
Press Thinks It Owns 'Fake News' Tag; Center-Right Has Had It 10 Years
December 31st, 2016 8:44 PM
On Christmas evening, appearing in print on Sunday, December 26, Jeremy Peters at the New York Times pretended that the term "fake news" has only gained common currency very recently during the social media era. He also effectively contended that the establishment press holds ownership rights over the term, claiming that "conservative cable and radio personalities, top Republicans and even Mr. (…
'Christmas' Makes a Comeback in Media 'Shopping Season' Mentions
December 30th, 2016 9:34 PM
In a column posted at NewsBusters on December 29, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. relayed personal anecdotal evidence indicating that "This Christmas Season Was Different." Based on his interactions and observations, Tyrrell believes that 2016 marked a change in "the way we talk about what is a major holy day for the majority of the American people." In his experience, people this year were far more…
Unproven 'Fake News' Media Meme: Russia 'Hacked the Elections'
December 30th, 2016 2:26 PM
The purveyors of what the establishment press likes to describe as "fake news" have nothing on the fake news the establishment press itself generates at the Obama administration's behest.
For example, the Associated Press, in a very late paragraph in just one of its three reports on the topic Thursday, admitted that "Though the FBI and Homeland Security Department issued a joint report on '…
AP, PolitiFact 'Fact Check' Obvious Obama 'Fake News' Item — From 2015
December 30th, 2016 6:53 AM
Here's an update from the “fake news” front: The Associated Press published an unbylined “Fact Check” of what anyone with an ounce of sense could see is a satirical article published almost 15 months ago.
That’s only the start. PolitiFact also “fact-checked” a December 23, 2016 version it knew was of that same 15 month-old item and gave it a “Pants on Fire" rating. What in the name of Mark…
AP Report: Atlanta Grad Students Still Can't Deal With Trump's Win
December 29th, 2016 1:25 PM
In an item published on Tuesday, Matt Sedensky at the Associated Press reported on what he observed in a graduate "Faith and Politics" class at Emory University immediately after and during the weeks following this year's presidential election.
Class members' immature reactions to the election's result and the reporter's injected commentary are both disturbing, but very useful. That's because…
Feminists Tirade Against Steve Martin for Complimenting Carrie Fisher
December 28th, 2016 11:42 AM
To feminists it’s a sin to compliment a woman’s appearance, apparently. Actor Steve Martin learned that the hard way yesterday after tweeting out his initial memory of actress Carrie Fisher, whose untimely death made headlines Tuesday morning. Thousands tweeted out their respects to the iconic actress who played Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy. But not everyone escaped the wrath…