Online Media

As the Washington Free Beacon reported today (confirmed here in a chart published two weeks ago), the number of Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), traditionally known as Food Stamps, dropped below 45 million for the first time in almost five years (actually, 57 months) in January. This is hardly cause for cheer, and does nothing to change the fact that in…

On Sunday, I noted how the Associated Press wouldn't let the awful national news from the Federal Reserve on Industrial Production (second straight month of 0.6 percent contraction) stand alone without trying to offset it with phony evidence that U.S. manufacturing is showing "signs of stability." That "evidence" was primarily a positive manufacturing survey result from just one state: New York.…

On April 1, the Associated Press, in an online video which I covered in an April 2 NewsBusters post, interviewed three California business owners about the impact the state's just-passed $15-per-hour minimum wage would have on their businesses. Though the video was headlined "Small Businesses React to Calif. Wage Increase," the owners interviewed weren't representative of the whole state in any…

Three important things happened at Tuesday's hearing of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. The first was the testimony of two mothers of children killed by illegal immigrants. The second was the outrageous and false contention by a Methodist bishop that the mere act of bringing attention to these heinous offenses is a form of "blind vengeance" over "…

In another blow to the U.S. and worldwide economy, chipmaker Intel announced today that it is reducing its worldwide workforce by 12,000 people, a cut of 11 percent. Of course, there are tech-related reasons why the company made the move, most notably the shift by some users to tablets and smartphones, where the company's market penetration has been weak and almost non-existent, respectively, as…

Has Newsweek just admitted to something the rest of the press knows but won't acknowledge? In promoting its insufferably fawning portrayal of California Governor Jerry Brown, the weekly magazine tweeted that Brown is "arming California to meet an economic recession head-on." Recession? What recession?

Vanessa Schipani ran to Bill Nye's defense in a Monday item for FactCheck.org, and underlined that "former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin falsely said she is 'as much a scientist' as Bill Nye...Nye has multiple credentials that make him more of a scientist than Palin, including a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Cornell, experience working with NASA and various patents." Schipani also…

The government reported this morning that seasonally adjusted March housing starts and building permits fell by 8.8 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively, far worse declines than analysts and economists predicted. After the report, the business wires at least communicated the facts accurately, but continued to insist almost to the point of editorializing that there's no reason to be worried…

Longtime readers know that if the current stagnating economy were occurring during a Republican or conservative presidential administration, the press would be searching high and low to find a "respected" economist or analyst forecasting the beginning of an economic contraction while screaming that a recession is just around the corner. Instead, the business press has stuck to saying that "most…

Key data about the U.S. economy's performance released this past week was mostly dismal. Wednesday brought news that seasonally adjusted March retail sales, instead of climbing as predicted, fell by 0.3 percent. Later that morning, the government reported that manufacturing and trade inventories and sales both fell in February. The worst news came on Friday, when the Federal Reserve reported…

Osama Krayem, the 23-year-old Syrian-born Swedish citizen arrested in Belgium last week for his involvement in the March 22 bomb attacks in Brussels, is a former poster boy for Sweden’s efforts at integrating immigrants into their society. Now accused of murder -- and captured on closed-circuit television cameras carrying bags that contained explosive devices like those used to kill 32 civilians…

For better or worse, the press, Wall Street and others routinely place a great deal of faith in the federal government's payroll employment estimates. But when Republican Governor Rick Scott's supporters cited data from Uncle Sam's Bureau of Labor Statistics to defend him against an insufferably rude leftist who started screaming and cursing at him in a Starbucks coffee shop, Associated Press…

Yesterday was supposed to be a glorious day for the people involved in organizing something they called the "Million Student March." On Monday, they had priceless free publicity provided by leftist luminaries at the Huffington Post. They had a new source of support and participation from the "Black Liberation Collective." They had four platforms students could supposedly believe in and get…

Just three months after Arch, the nation's Number 2 coal mining company, filed for bankruptcy, Number 1, Peabody Energy, has followed suit. Five of the industry's largest firms have now gone bankrupt in the past 12 months. Two Associated Press stories on Peabody this week managed to avoid mentioning the name of President Barack Obama, whose hostility toward the industry has been obvious since…