Old Media Ignores Obama's '57 States,' Obsessed Over Quayle's 'Potatoe
During the 1992 presidential campaign, when incumbent Vice President Dan Quayle made a spelling mistake, the New York Times was all over it. It's clear from the Times's story that the rest of the media was also in full pursuit: So Jay Leno has a week's worth of new Dan Quayle jokes. At a school here, everyone was quite hush-hush the day after the visiting Vice President spelled potato wrong…
CW's 'Provocative' Ad Campaign Targets Teens and Blasphemes God
“OMFG” is text-speak for the unspeakable. It's also the tag line for a new ad campaign aimed at teens and featuring a jumble of sexual situations, including teens undressing each other and two girls kissing. The campaign blitz is appearing in print and television, all aimed at drumming up eyeballs for the CW network's teen-themed soap "Gossip Girl."For the uninitiated, “OMG” translates to “Oh…
Reuters Hypes Hugo's Excellent Adventure in Marxist Farming
Leave it to Reuters in this April 29 article, to express surprise that Hugo Chavez' planned economy, complete with “land reform,” price controls and forced production, is failing. Even worse, reporter Frank Jack Daniels relied on a Marxist outlook and socialist jargon to pretend that those tired policies weren't to blam. Chavez wants to increase domestic food production; so, of course, the…
U.S. Receipts Record Broken in April; Media Snooze Continues
This updates the "Supply-Side Stunner" post (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) from Tuesday. The business press has not yet noticed this news. The last Daily Treasury Statement for April published yesterday shows just how impressive what is probably the supply-side tax cuts' last hurrah really was:
Reuters Worries About 'Diplomacy' with News of North Korea-Syria Nucle
Reuters, the British newswire notorious for refusing to call terrorist organizations anything more incendiary than "militant," is now worrying that a Bush administration decision to declassify intelligence that makes Syria look bad may harm "diplomacy."In their April 24 article, "U.S. lays out Syria intelligence, may harm diplomacy," reporters Arshad Mohammed and Paul Eckert seek to lay blame at…
Costco CEO Blames Media For Recent Run on Rice
In case you hadn't heard, the world is running scared about the world running out of rice.As a result, here in America, various food retailers have actually begun rationing the amount of the white stuff consumers are allowed to buy.Deliciously -- pun definitely intended -- the CEO of the nation's leading warehouse club, Costco's James Sinegal, blamed a lot of the problem on the media.As…
CNN Reporter Arrested in Central Park, Most Media Ignore Sex Element
Imagine for a moment that a Fox News reporter was arrested in Central Park early in the morning with a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals. Do you think this little nuance would be included in press coverage of this bizarre event?Probably in the headline and the opening paragraph, right?Well, for some reason, though news outlets did report the odd happenings in NYC Friday morning…
Reuters Anti-Gun Story With Misleading Photo
Reuters highlights a great little tale filled with anti-gun bias and bad reporting, all topped with an extremely misleading photo that presents a wonderful example of biased "reporting" at its worst. The story is about a German man who was "crowded out of his home" by his gun collection but the photo is of a gun store display in America. What the two have to do with each other is anybody's guess…
Here We Kyoto Again: AP Lets Chelsea's Claim That Bush 'Pulled Out' St
In a post earlier this evening, Lynn Davidson at NewsBusters chronicled the myriad errors in a March 31 Reuters "Factbox" relating to the Kyoto Protocol. Among the errors Davidson noted was the wire service's claim that "The United States ..... came out against the pact in 2001" -- implying, but not actually stating, that the US government was perfectly happy with Kyoto until mean old George W.…
Reuters Whitewashes Kyoto's Inconvenient Truth in Factbox
What does it say about Reuters' environmental coverage when the news organization can't even get a basic “factbox” correct? This March 31 Reuters “factbox” was supposed to explain “What is the Kyoto Protocol?” Instead, the media conglomerate pushed a biased eco-agenda and omitted anything that cast a negative light on the treaty or revealed problems. There was no mention of Kyoto participants…
Business Press Spinsanity Over March's ISM Manufacturing Index
The Institute for Supply Management issued its March Manufacturing Report on Business today: PMI at 48.6% Economic activity in the manufacturing sector failed to grow in March, while the overall economy grew for the 77th consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®. The report was issued today by Norbert J. Ore, C.P.M., chair of the…
[Updated: Williams Responds] | MSNBC.com Omits Jefferson's Democratic
Update at bottom of post: Williams responds (18:24 EDT) I have to hand it to the AP this time. They actually noted the political party affiliation of another Democrat in legal hot water. So did CNN.com and Reuters. But for some reason, MSNBC's Pete Williams left out the party affiliation of Louisiana's Rep. William Jefferson (D) in this March 31 item at the First Read blog:In something of a…
Bartiromo Defends Bernanke; Ties Current Woes to Events During Greensp
It's not Ben Bernanke's fault, according to CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. Bartiromo appeared on NBC's March 23 "Meet the Press" with CNBC's "Street Signs" host Erin Burnett as the program's featured guests. "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert asked Bartiromo and CNBC's Erin Burnett if Bernanke was "up to the task" to take on problems with the U.S. economy. Bartiromo didn't blame the Fed chief for…