Public Broadcasting

My maxim on the media’s use of ideological labeling is “The epic political battles of our time are between the ultraconservatives and the nonpartisans.” Journalists see Republicans as a whole as ultraconservative, or as a wholly owned subsidiary of the ultraconservatives. Exhibit A is NPR's program Fresh Air with Terry Gross, which isn't fresh at all.

On PBS’s weekly journalist roundtable show Washington Week, Nia-Malika Henderson of CNN hit a trifecta of liberal bias, dismissing the import of President Biden’s classified document scandal, taking a crack at the “so-called pro-life movement,” and using a failed Republican candidate from New Mexico to claim that election denialism and violent rhetoric was a…

NPR’s Morning Edition tried to have it both ways Friday, both mocking right-wing concern over banning gas stoves and also suggesting a ban could be in the works after all. The set-up was galling. Why would taking the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission seriously when he said a gas stove ban was on the table require the expertise of NPR’s “conspiracy theory” reporter Lisa…

On Wednesday's PBS NewsHour, the show devoted a segment to allowing a gun control activist to promote federal laws to control how gun owners store firearms in their own homes, picking up on recent cases of small children gaining access to the guns of their parents.

Appearing as a guest on the latest episode of PBS's Firing Line, MSNBC host Al Sharpton let it be known that he has not backed down from his infamous claims from 1987 that a teenage black girl was raped by several NYPD cops, which was ultimately found to be a hoax by a grand jury.

Failed New Mexico politician Solomon Pena, who lost his race for a state House seat in November but refused to concede, has been arrested for allegedly hiring four men to shoot up the houses of local Democratic politicians (thankfully no one was hurt). The PBS NewsHour spent 10 minutes covering Pena, and prominently noted his support for Trump and Pena referring to himself as a “MAGA…

Under the graphic “Exporting Extremism,” PBS News Hour host Geoff Bennett set the table to compare extremism among the right in the U.S. and Brazil in the opening moments of Wednesday evening’s show: New York University history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat joined the show’s White House correspondent as the News Hour engaged in yet another taxpayer-funded attempt to link "…

On Wednesday's PBS NewsHour, viewers received a bucket of happy talk about medication abortions from Dr. Jennifer Villavicencio. Twice, she insisted the use of mifepristone was "extraordinarily safe" -- but it's not safe for the unborn baby, who is expelled from the mother and killed.

On Friday's Morning Edition, co-host Steve Inskeep broadcast some unintentional hilarity when offering a seven-minute attack on conservative talk radio starring Katie Thornton, who has a liberal podcast series called "The Divided Dial." NPR's website summarized the segment as NPR "examines how right-wing radio spreads misinformation." The lodestar of this "misinformation"? The late…

On the Tuesday edition of Amanpour & Co on PBS, host Christiane Amanpour interviewed former moderate Republican Rep. Will Hurd, who served three terms in office but didn’t seek reelection in 2020. Amanpour led off with the fight for Speaker of the House and with unsympathetic labeling of the “hard-line” opponents of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

On Wednesday, NPR boosted Maia Kobabe, author of the comic-book memoir Gender Queer, celebrated throughout Liberal Land for having the “Most Challenged” book of 2021. Not only was there a seven-minute interview on Morning Edition with anchor Rachel Martin. There was also a Kobabe essay on NPR.org. claiming "Struggling kids told me my book helped them talk to parents."

In the final week of 2022, the PBS NewsHour put on display the kind of double standard that the liberal media typically show in its treatment of Republicans and Democrats as defeated Republican Congressman Rodney Davis and retiring Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy were interviewed within days of one another.

One of the silliest myths in TV newscasting is that objectivity is still a lodestar. As PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff was wrapping up her last show in the anchor chair on Friday, pundits David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart both pretended Woodruff exemplified neutrality. Do they think Republicans never watch this show? 

Thursday's PBS NewsHour broke out every term for extremism in reporting on the new Israeli government. The online headline for the segment was "Netanyahu once again prime minister with most far-right government in Israel’s history."