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Andrea Mitchell touted how "the [Bill] Clinton-[Tony] Blair relationship was, indeed, special" on Friday's NBC Nightly News, as she reported on the release of transcripts of conversations between the two former leaders during the former's presidency. Mitchell spotlighted how "Blair calls Clinton 'mate.' Clinton offers to babysit Blair's son. They chat about everything from Pink Panther movies to the tragedy of Princess Diana." She barely mentioned the Monica Lewinsky scandal during her report. The journalist also played up how Clinton's "legacy is relevant again, because [Hillary] is running for president."

Yesterday at NewsBusters, Ken Shepherd noted how quickly and gleefully the New York Times jumped ("an impressive sprint capping off a year of solid job growth") on December's relatively strong jobs report.

The Associated Press joined the parade — "US EMPLOYERS HIRE AT BLISTERING PACE, DEFYING GLOBAL TRENDS" – and kept its story as its lead in its Business "Top Stories" until late afternoon. While that treatment was defensible, the absence of the wire service's terse coverage on the government disturbing wholesale sales and inventories report from the "Top 10" roster wasn't. Clearly, the good news stays, while the bad news gets memory-holed at the Administration's Press.

The Los Angeles Times hired Dexter Thomas as a “contact reporter” to cover “black Twitter,” to write about black issues as they percolate through social media. But he ended 2015 by doling out advice to white people in an analysis headlined “In 2016, white people must take responsibility for Donald Trump.”

Or as Thomas put it, "White people, come get your boy."

In a Wednesday post, New York magazine's Chait sought to debunk the belief that Marco Rubio is a moderate. As for why some might see him that way, Chait suggested a few reasons, among them that Rubio, unlike fellow Republican presidential contenders Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, “avoids statements that make him appear ostentatiously deranged.”

Chait argued that while Rubio’s focus on positioning himself for the fall campaign “holds him back from viscerally channeling conservative anger,” the Florida senator is nonetheless a hardcore right-winger on economic and social issues and hasn’t distanced himself from “the excesses of the Bush administration’s wild-eyed response to the 9/11 attacks.”

"Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed and supported," Hillary Clinton tweeted in November while temporarily banishing all memories associated with her husband.

Former MSNBCer Ed Schultz, now podcasting daily since getting booted from the cable network last summer and ending his radio show in 2014, apparently agrees with Hillary Clinton -- although there's a specific victim of alleged sexual assault she'd like to banish from everyone's memory.

Movie star Leonardo DiCaprio went into full climate panic on Thursday. Appearing on PBS’s Charlie Rose, he speculated as to weather it’s “too late” to save the planet from the ravages of global warming. Reflecting on last year’s climate conference in Paris, the jet-setting actor pontificated, “The big question is are we too late? That's been the pondering question for everyone. I know we should all remain optimistic and I want to remain optimistic.” 

The New York Times should earn some kind of dubious award for its story in Friday’s newspaper on Obama’s CNN “town hall” event. While other liberal media outlets stressed the back-and-forth with Obama’s critics, Times reporter Michael Shear’s article resembled a press release stuffed with quotes by Obama and his top aide Valerie Jarrett. Only two paragraphs out of 17 focused on critics – in this case, the non-participating National Rifle Association.

Shear’s idea of dividing the quotes was offering five quotations from Obama – two CNN statements, one from Obama’s New York Times op-ed, and two from Obama’s East Room remarks from Tuesday. Other liberal outlets displayed feisty critics.