Old Media Ignores Obama's '57 States,' Obsessed Over Quayle's 'Potatoe
May 11th, 2008 11:56 PM
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…
Wash Post: Guantanamo Undermines Criticism of Chinese Repression
May 11th, 2008 4:55 PM
Just as segregation in the South “blunted the force of moral outrage against the Nazis” during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Washington Post arts critic Philip Kennicott contended in a Saturday lead “Style” section piece on a new exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on the 1936 games, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have also undermined arguments against Chinese political repression before the…
Pulling Punches: WaPo Cancels Article for Being 'Too Critical' of Isla
May 9th, 2008 10:01 AM
Left-leaning journalists don't just pull their punches when it comes to criticizing liberal politicians, they also seem paradoxically inclined to do so when it comes to discussing radical Islam. This curious phenomenon (curious in that modern liberalism is highly secular and radical Islam decidedly is not) has repeated itself many times over the years and is really one of the most bizarre…
Star Jones Whacks Barbara Walters: Using Her Adultery to Sell Books
May 7th, 2008 1:56 PM
A funny friend e-mailed me this joke about the ABC special tonight selling the new Barbara Walters boudoir-opening memoir: "Just a few hours now until the most eagerly awaited program of the May sweeps, 'Barbara Walters: Skanky In the Seventies.' I can't wait." From Us Magazine through TV Newser: Star Jones lets her old "View" boss Barbara Walters have it on how she's using her tale of adultery…
WaPo's Vedantam: Racism Behind Effects of Rev. Wright
May 6th, 2008 11:41 AM
There they go again. Once more, a liberal print journalist has seen racism behind conservative concerns about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Yesterday, NewsBusters noted a blog post by a Chicago Tribune journalist which claims that Obama’s “supposed patriotism deficit” is because white Americans view African Americans in general as less patriotic. In a May 5 Washington Post article appearing…
Huffington Cheap Shot: 'John McCain Should Not Be Allowed to Hold Shar
May 6th, 2008 9:20 AM
Shortly after reporting on her Web site that GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000, Arianna Huffington continued to denigrate the presumptive Republican nominee before a Washington, D.C., audience. "Actually, you know what I think - the more I think of it, John McCain should not be allowed to hold sharp scissors," Huffington said. "[Y]ou know he…
While WaPo Opts to Caricature Exxon, FinTimes Reports Biz Fundamental
May 2nd, 2008 5:37 PM
Big bad oil company ExxonMobil is "on the defensive in the face of consumer ire and congressional indignation" as it raked in a "huge" first quarter profit, Washington Post's Steven Mufson informed readers of his front page May 2 article.Mufson later noted that "[d]espite Exxon's colossal profit, the company's stock fell yesterday." Mufson blamed investors "shift[ing] gears" to turn to other…
WaPo Dusts Off McCain Citizenship Non-story
May 2nd, 2008 4:35 PM
Stop me if you've heard this before: McCain, theoretically, might be ineligible for the presidency due to his being born on a naval installation in what was then the Panama Canal Zone. Oh, that's right, we have heard this. Back in February, as a matter of fact.No matter to the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs, who recycled the story a full 64 days later in the May 2 paper.Dobbs breathed new life…
Newspaper Circulations in 3-Year Plunge, with Four Exceptions
May 1st, 2008 10:27 AM
Old Media business reporters have a definitionally-incorrect habit of labeling single industries or economic sectors as being "in recession," when the term, as defined here, can only describe national economies or the world economy. Two examples of this are New York Times reporter David Leonhardt's description of manufacturing as being in recession in February 2007 (laughably incorrect, in any…
Helen Thomas Seizes on Photo of Dying Baby to Accuse US
April 30th, 2008 1:08 PM
Q. Is there any level to which Helen Thomas won't stoop?A. Apparently not.That's my conclusion, based on Thomas's exchange during today's press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. Here is the front page of today's Washington Post to which Thomas refers . A slide-show from WaPo's web edition contains another photo of what appears to be the same child, with this legend:Two-year-…