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Bozell & Graham Column: Propaganda and 'The Danish Girl'
By Brent Bozell and Tim Graham | January 2, 2016 | 7:56 AM EST

As night fell on Christmas Eve, National Public Radio was in its usual holy-day mode, using your tax dollars to mock the traditional Christian creed. This time they promoted an activist movie called The Danish Girl, yet another alleged “true story” about artist Einar Wegener, a married man who wanted to be a woman named Lili. An earlier NPR commercial – sorry, “underwriting announcement” – said he was the first recipient of “gender confirmation surgery.”

Paging Mr. Orwell – it’s NPR on line 1. Focus Features – part of the Comcast “diversity and inclusion” empire of propaganda – is calling this maiming of the male body “gender confirmation surgery.”

NY Times Correlates Trump Support With Racism — Based on Decade-Old Google Searches
By Tom Blumer | January 2, 2016 | 2:19 AM EST

On Wednesday, Nate Cohn at the New York Times, who by some accounts is being anointed the next Nate Silver of polling, made a clumsy and despicable attempt to inject race into his political "analysis" of the Donald Trump phenomenon.

Cohn's tediously long writeup, which made Page A3 in the New York version of the Old Gray Lady's print edition on Thursday, attempted to identify and characterize Donald Trump supporters. Apparently troubled by finding that Trump's support crosses into a number of groups with whom Republican presidential candidates have usually fared poorly, he felt the need to go far afield for evidence of something sinister. Thus, he attempted to correlate the level of current support for Trump's presidential candidacy to regional levels of racism as seen in Google searches. That's right, Google searches — 9-12 years ago.

Obama's NSA Spying on Congress Not a Story at AP — Until GOP Responds
By Tom Blumer | January 1, 2016 | 9:19 PM EST

The Wall Street Journal ran a blockbuster story Tuesday afternoon ("U.S. Spy Net on Israel Snares Congress") about how the Obama administration's National Security Agency's "targeting of Israeli leaders swept up the content of private conversations with U.S. lawmakers." In other words, the NSA spied on Congress. As talk-show host and commentator Erick Erickson drily observed: "Congress began impeachment proceedings on Richard Nixon for spying on the opposing political party."

Whether or not Congress has the nerve to defend itself and the Constitution's separation of powers, what the Journal reported is objectively a major story. Yet the Associated Press ignored it on Tuesday, and most of Wednesday. Finally, at 7:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, the AP ran a story by Erica Werner — about how Republicans are planning to investigate the matter.

Variety Film Critic Slams Michael Moore Movie as 'Embarrassment to America'
By Tim Graham | January 1, 2016 | 8:18 PM EST

The Hollywood trade paper Variety wrapped up the year with its film critics, and it was surprising to read how several liberal-pleasing films were taken to ask for their artistic failings.

Perhaps the most eye-opening was Peter Debruge whapping Michael Moore. "An embarrassment to America, Michael Moore’s latest editorial cartoon of a documentary is as sloppy as its author’s appearance (easily twice his Bowling for Columbine heft). Unlike his earlier, urgent wake-up-call docs, Where to Invade Next cherry-picks aspects in which other countries can be made to appear more progressive than the States, while conveniently overlooking the limitations of each grass-is-greener locale. At the base, it’s a fine idea, implying the humility to ask what we can learn from others, though Moore is a boorish ambassador at best, and his disingenuous approach undermines his own argument."

Three Networks Salivate Over Obama-Seinfeld Comedy Summit Online
By Tim Graham | January 1, 2016 | 3:30 PM EST

On December 22, Kyle Drennen reported  NBC’s Today devoted two full reports to President Obama appearing on Jerry Seinfeld’s web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Once again, Obama plays the part of comedian instead of chief executive, and the networks come running. On December 31 – the day the Seinfeld show was available online – all three networks aired gushy reports.

The longest on Thursday was on CBS This Morning, with Chip Reid reporting from Hawaii with the rest of the “working” White House press corps. It was almost four minutes.

Documentary: Chuck Norris Helped Open Communist Romania to West
By Sarah Stites | January 1, 2016 | 2:14 PM EST

During the darkest days of communism, Romanians had something to brighten their oppressed existence—illicit American movie parties.

Under Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship, the Eastern European country had very little contact with the West. But thanks to Teodor Zamfir who was willing to smuggle VHS tapes, and his translator Ilina Nistor who dubbed them, over 3000 movies made it over to Romania between 1985 and 1989. Millions of lives were changed and uplifted as a result. 

NYT Evades Bill Clinton's Sordid Sexual History, Blames Trump's Friendship Treachery Instead
By Clay Waters | January 1, 2016 | 10:41 AM EST

Donald Trump called out Hillary Clinton for hypocrisy in accusing the GOP of being anti-woman, yet relying on serial philanderer Bill Clinton’s help while running for president. But you wouldn’t have learned that until deep into the front-page story in Wednesday’s New York Times. Political reporter Amy Chozick spent the first several paragraphs piling up shallow evidence of the former friendship between Trump and Bill Clinton in order to accuse Trump of treachery, while dodging and ducking the serious sexual accusations long festering around the former president. As the headline demonstrated, Chozick shifted the focus from Clinton’s sexual past (which led to his impeachment) to Trump’s alleged betrayal of some grand friendship: “Ex-Ally Trump Now Heaps Scorn on Bill Clinton.”

Taking Stock of Big Media's March Toward Oblivion
By Cal Thomas | January 1, 2016 | 9:28 AM EST

Taking stock is a tradition observed by Jews at Yom Kippur and others who examine their lives at the end of a year and vow to improve in the new year.

One group needs to take stock perhaps more than any other: the mainstream media. They continue to lose readers and viewers, but close their eyes and ears to complaints from the public, guaranteeing continued decline in revenue, along with buyouts and layoffs. The conservative Media Reseach Center has compiled some of the more outrageous statements the media made in 2015.

Amanda Marcotte Rips Twitchy's 'Flying Monkeys' for Tweeting Against Joss Whedon for Funding Abortions
By Tim Graham | January 1, 2016 | 8:24 AM EST

At Salon, Amanda Marcotte, one of America’s leading deniers that babies are somehow involved in abortions, turned her talent for dehumanizing people to Twitchy for mocking Hollywood writer-director Joss Whedon’s volunteering to put his money behind Planned Parenthood.

"Twitchy, a site started by Michelle Malkin, portrays itself as a news site, but in reality, its main purpose is harnessing the masses of bitter, angry right wingers online and turning them into an army of social media flying monkeys."

Ebony Editor: Would Liberals Turn on Bill Cosby if He Supported Black Lives Matter?
By Jack Coleman | December 31, 2015 | 8:37 PM EST

Maybe it can be chalked up to a tendency toward reflection at year's end and not the emergence of a refreshing pattern.

This past Sunday on Meet the Press, one of the last people you'd expect to point out that "it's not always policemen" killing black people -- filmmaker Spike Lee -- said just that in plugging his new movie, Chi-Raq, about the endless violence that plagues Chicago.
 

Lefty Pundit: Conservatives’ Opposition to Political Correctness Rooted In Loss of White Male Privilege
By Tom Johnson | December 31, 2015 | 5:06 PM EST

If Paul Waldman had wanted to put the main argument of his Monday American Prospect column in Obamaesque terms, he might have written that conservative opponents of political correctness have gotten bitter and are clinging to their supposed right (and maybe even their duty) to act like jerks.

“For today's Republican, if people think you're a jerk then you must be doing something right, and the political correctness charge has become an all-purpose answer to criticism of any sort,” contended Waldman. “You say my beliefs are abominable? Take your political correctness and shove it! It's a way to pose as a brave truth-teller, even if all that's actually happening is that people are pointing out that you're a brave crap-teller.”

On Economy, AP Wraps Up Year With Two Weak Stories and a Glaring Omission
By Tom Blumer | December 31, 2015 | 3:50 PM EST

This week, the Associated Press wrapped up a year of largely pathetic business reporting with three items exemplifying the wire service's habits of data-twisting, sloppiness, and convenient omissions.

A deceptive AP post-Christmas story pretended that Christmas-season "spending" was twice as high as anyone else has predicted. A report on pending home sales omitted a concerned comment from a normally incurably optimistic economist at the National Association of Realtors. Finally, the AP appears to have ignored today's Chicago manufacturing report from the Institute for Supply Management, even though it came in at a level which has previously foreshadowed a nationwide recession.

ABC Warns: In 'New Assault,' Donald Trump 'Hurling His Harshest Words Yet' at Bill and Hillary
By Tim Graham | December 31, 2015 | 3:33 PM EST

ABC’s World News Tonight arrived on the political scene eleven minutes into the newscast on Wednesday – but still hyped a “war” Donald Trump declared against the Clintons. David Muir warned of Trump’s “new assault,” and Cecelia Vega warned of his “hurling his harshest words yet,” that Bill Clinton was “one of the great abusers of the world.”

Muir noted “there are many pointing to what Trump has said” about Monica Lewinsky in the past. Vega also made sure to note over tabloid visuals “the twice-divorced billionaire, opening up his own private life to scrutiny, too.” ABC showed a reporter asking Trump “Are your own personal indiscretions fair game?”

NBC Churns Out Full Story with Soft Piano Music Looking at Obama's Year in Photos
By Curtis Houck | December 31, 2015 | 1:50 PM EST

Closing out 2015 on the Thursday morning newscasts, NBC’s Today churned one of its most fawning pieces on President Obama as NBC News correspondent Ron Allen reviewed Obama’s top photos by White House photographer Pete Souza while hushed, soft piano music played in the background. 

Unreported: Industrial Revolution and Capitalism Explain Sharp Decline in World Poverty
By Tom Blumer | December 31, 2015 | 12:47 PM EST

In September, President Barack Obama "committed the U.S. to a new blueprint to eliminate poverty and hunger around the world" in a speech at a United Nations "global summit." A review of his speech's transcript indicates that while he acknowledged the ugly reality that "800 million men, women and children are scraping by on less than $1.25 a day," he made no mention of the fact that just three decades ago, the percentage of humanity in that condition was many time times greater.

A Washington Post item on October 5 reported, per the World Bank, that less than 10 percent of the world's population is in extreme poverty" for the first time ever. Both Obama and the Post failed to give credit where credit is due, namely to the Industrial Revolution and capitalism. In an Investor's Business Daily column last week, Terry Jones set the record straight (links are in original; bolds are mine):