MSNBC's Thomas Roberts surprisingly pursued Hillary Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney on his Wednesday program over the ongoing controversy surrounding the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of the organs of aborted babies. When Finney admitted that Mrs. Clinton had only seen clips of the videos, Roberts wondered, "Why not see the videos?" He later underlined that "not having seen, in full context, what the videos represent...makes a vulnerability for those people that are out there trying to defend it."
Budget
By Matthew Balan | August 5, 2015 | 12:31 PM EDT
CNN's Jake Tapper went after Josh Earnest on Monday's The Lead, after the White House press secretary admitted that he hadn't seen any of the undercover Planned Parenthood videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, and was "relying on news reports that I've seen" about the controversy. Tapper pointed out that "the whole video is put up on the website of this anti-abortion group that put them out." When Earnest blasted the pro-life group for their "ideological games," the anchor retorted that "somebody at the White House should maybe watch the videos in full."
By Brad Wilmouth | August 5, 2015 | 10:38 AM EDT
Appearing on Wednesday's New Day, CNN political reporter Sara Murray sounded more like a liberal CNN political commentator as she slammed GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush's comments about the federal government perhaps spending more money than it should on women's issues, as she called his remarks "cringeworthy" and "demeaning." She went on to declare that the Bush soundbite was a "gift" for Hillary Clinton and, referring to these women's programs, oddly asserted that "this is how we reproduce in America," as if federal programs were necessary for human reproduction.
By Javier Zurita | July 30, 2015 | 5:33 PM EDT
“California sigue siendo uno de los estados más generosos con los inmigrantes”, fue frase usada por la presentadora de Univision, Satcha Pretto, al anunciar una nueva iniciativa californiana para canalizar 15 millones de dólares del contribuyente a organizaciones tales como la Hermandad Mexicana, “para ayudar a quienes intentan adquirir su ciudadanía”.
By Javier Zurita | July 30, 2015 | 3:48 PM EDT
“California continues to be one of the most generous states with immigrants,” was how anchor Satcha Pretto launched into a recent Univision morning news story about the implementation of a new California initiative that will channel $15 million of taxpayer money to organizations such as Hermandad Mexicana (the Mexican Brotherhood), in order to “help those who are trying to acquire their citizenship.”
By Matthew Balan | July 30, 2015 | 3:36 PM EDT
CNN's Alisyn Camerota regurgitated common liberal talking points in defense of federal funding for Planned Parenthood on Thursday's New Day as she interviewed Senator Joni Ernst. Camerota noted that Senator Ernst "sponsored a bill to defund them," and spotlighted that "the argument against that is that Planned Parenthood provides a whole host of services beyond abortion services. They provide birth control; they provide cancer screenings that...tens of thousands of women and men rely upon."
By Matthew Balan | July 29, 2015 | 5:41 PM EDT
As of Wednesday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning and evening newscasts have yet to cover the third video from the Center for Medical Progress, which featured a whistle-blower's account of "picking" through the remains of aborted babies in order to find organs that could be sold for medical research. The Big Three networks have actually devoted more time to the slaying of a lion in Zimbabwe than all three videos from pro-life organization. CNN's The Lead on Tuesday actually stood out for covering this latest video.
By Matthew Balan | July 28, 2015 | 5:33 PM EDT
On Tuesday's New Day, CNN's Alisyn Camerota made no mention of the outrage over Planned Parenthood varying its abortion techniques in order to preserve unborn babies' organs for medical research, as was revealed in two undercover videos. Instead, Camerota zeroed in on "these representatives from Planned Parenthood negotiating" over prices for these organs. She even touted how the "exchange of fetal tissue...obviously, does a lot of good. There's a lot of research – cures for diseases that come from it."
By Tom Blumer | July 10, 2015 | 6:39 PM EDT
Of all the media memes ever attempted, the one blaming Republicans for the fact that now-resigned Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Aruchleta was confirmed is high on the list of the most ridiculous ever. A reasonably close runnerup is the idea that Congress failed "to adequately fund OPM."
Matt Balan at NewsBusters covered CNN's ridiculous tweeted claim that "Republicans acknowledge ... they didn't properly vet Archuleta's qualifications." It's as if only Republicans — who, I must remind the media herd, were in the minority in the Senate in late 2013 when she was confirmed, and who opposed her by a 35-8 margin — were the only ones responsible for vetting this woman. Why isn't the press asking Harry Reid why his Senate Democratic Party majority didn't do its job? Far more fundamentally, did the president's responsibility for selecting competent people vanish when Barack Obama was elected?
By Tom Blumer | June 30, 2015 | 11:47 AM EDT
The current headline at a June 29 New York Times story by Peter Eavis, also appearing on the front page of today's print edition, is "Loads of Debt: A Global Ailment With Few Cures."
But the last portion of the story's web address is "... trillions-spent-but-crises-like-greeces-persist.html." That's because the original headline, the one used at the Times's Twitter account — was "Trillions Spent But Crises Like Greece Persist." Of course without admitting it, Eavis's writeup is an ode to the worldwide failure of Keynesian economics — a term which naturally never appears in any form — and the closed minds of those who don't understand why shoveling vast sums of money created out of thin air into the financial system is only marginally helpful in the short-term, and serious harmful, over the long-term.
AP's Crutsinger on May Deficit Ignores Debt Ceiling, Regurgitates 5 Paragraphs From Month-Earlier Missive
By Tom Blumer | June 11, 2015 | 4:31 PM EDT In addition to his usual tired historical revisionism, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger, in his report on May's budget deficit of $82 billion, failed to mention that the nation is once again operating at the legal limit of its authorized debt. Additionally, he mailed in his final five paragraphs, virtually copying what he wrote on May 12 in covering April's surplus.
The nation's debt ceiling has been stuck at $18.15 trillion since mid-March. Since then, the Treasury Department has taken "so-called extraordinary measures to allow continued borrowing for a limited time" (i.e., engaged in accounting and bookkeeping gimmickry) to keep the official debt total at that amount. Treasury's ability to do this is now expected to run out in December. A few paragraphs from Crutsinger's report follow the jump (bolds are mine):
By Tom Blumer | June 10, 2015 | 9:16 PM EDT
Will Deener, who has been a business reporter since at least before the turn of the century, considers his most unforgettable experience on the job to be "Covering the crash of the Internet stocks and Enron in 2000-2002."
Sunday evening, the Dallas Morning News columnist moaned about how big U.S. companies engaged in real businesses are avoiding paying billions in taxes because "the nation’s largest companies stockpile billions of dollars in profits overseas." In the process, he assumed that companies would pay the highest federal income tax rate of 35 percent on all overseas profits repatratriated. That's simply wrong, and it's astonishing that someone with his experience doesn't know any better. That level of ignorance largely explains why President Barack Obama, earlier this year, was able to package what was effectively a reversal of decades of tax policy as a "one-time tax" on such earnings — whether or not they were repatriated.