Media Bias Debate

WSJ and WashPost's Marcus Agree: Bill Clinton's Sexual History 'Is Fair Game'
By Tom Blumer | December 29, 2015 | 11:46 PM EST

Just one week after CNN's Don Lemon shut down a guest who dared to raise the issue, there is now an agreement across the ideological spectrum that if Hillary Clinton is going to use her husband Bill as a campaign surrogate and go after her opponents' real or imagined sexism, then, as the headline at liberal Ruth Marcus's Monday evening Washington Post column says, "Bill Clinton's sordid sexual history is fair game."

Meanwhile, a Wall Street Journal editorial, while citing Marcus's column, agrees: "if Mrs. Clinton wants everyone to forget about Bill’s harassment of women, she ought to stop playing the sexism card, or drop Bill as surrogate, or both."

Hewitt Schools Lemon on Need for Trump, GOP to Educate Millenials on Bill Clinton Sex Scandals
By Curtis Houck | December 29, 2015 | 8:00 PM EST

A week after he cut the mic of conservative guest Kurt Schlichter for bringing up Bill Clinton’s history of sexual misconduct, CNN host Don Lemon found himself trying to shut down another guest during Monday’s CNN Tonight when conservative radio host and CNN GOP debate co-moderator Hugh Hewitt argued that Donald Trump should use his Twitter account to educate millennials on the former President’s past.

Guthrie Briefly Tries to Tell Trump That Bill Clinton's Extramarital Affairs Were Only ‘Alleged’
By Curtis Houck | December 29, 2015 | 3:46 PM EST

During his latest phone-in interview Tuesday morning, Donald Trump appeared on NBC’s Today where co-host Savannah Guthrie attempted to convince Trump that former President Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs (and specifically what occurred with Monica Lewinsky) were merely “alleged” and thus might not be fair to bring up in a campaign involving Hillary Clinton.

ABC, NBC Tout Clintons Strolling in NYC, Decline to Explain Clinton Sex Scandals
By Curtis Houck | December 29, 2015 | 11:58 AM EST

On Monday, the major network evening newscasts all alluded to Donald Trump criticizing Bill and Hillary Clinton by bringing up Clinton’s numerous bouts of sexual misconduct from the 1990's, but chose not to remind viewers of what those scandals actually were and instead deflected away from that by touting the Clintons going for a walk over the weekend with daughter Chelsea and granddaughter Charlotte. 

Virtually No Media Repercussions for Minn. Councilwoman Who 'Doxed' Constituents
By Tom Blumer | December 29, 2015 | 5:37 AM EST

Did you hear the story about the conservative city councilman who was so incensed at his private-citizen critics that he or she published their names and addresses and accused them of racism in the process?

Of course you didn't. If it happened, press coverage of "right-wing intimidation" would be everywhere. Instead, "doxing," the term given to such exposures, is a technique predominantly practiced by hardened leftists and even occasionally by their politicians, more often than not with little in the way of media or other repercussions. One such person who appears to be skating virtually scot-free is Minneapolis City Council member Alondra Cano.

New York Times Perpetuates the Social Security 'Trust Fund' Myth
By Tom Blumer | December 28, 2015 | 11:52 PM EST

After serving as the virtual mouthpiece for the "there is no crisis!" crowd for at least a decade since George W. Bush's attempt to partially privatize Social Security in 2005, someone at the New York Times has finally recognized that there is one — but still won't level with readers about the system's true condition.

Eduardo Porter "writes the Economic Scene column" for the Times. Before that, "he was a member of the Times editorial board, where he wrote about business, economics, and a mix of other matters." As such, he may well have been the author of some of the Old Gray Lady's opinion pieces opposing any kind of meaningful reform of out-of-control entitlement programs while its reporters gave favorable treatment to demagogues like Harry Reid.

Hillary Gaffe (Unreported or Excused): Close Any School Not 'Doing a Better Than Average Job'
By Tom Blumer | December 28, 2015 | 8:08 PM EST

According to NewsBusters' own Blonde Gator, Hillary Clinton has, in the 8-1/2 months since she declared her candidacy, committed 51 gaffes and goofs. That's an average rate of six per month. Imagine how many there would be if Mrs. Clinton genuinely campaigned among the people instead of among preselected groupies.

One of her latest gaffes, which occurred last week at an elementary school in Iowa, was a humdinger. Predictably, the establishment press almost completely ignored it, while a couple of journalists who noticed the center-right's reaction tried and failed to excuse it.

NYT Theater Critic: ‘Grumpy Guys’ in GOP Would ‘Be a Lot Looser’ If They Were Like Drag Queens
By Curtis Houck | December 28, 2015 | 5:37 PM EST

Reviewing the new drag queen-centered Broadway show Kinky Boots in Monday’s New York Times, critic Ben Brantley chose to dedicate a few paragraphs to the bizarre suggestion that the show should make one think “that maybe all those grumpy guys who populate the Republican debates might be a lot looser if they traded in their navy suits for rainbow-colored ball gowns.”

AP Claims Christmas Season 'Spending' Is Up 8 Pct. — Based on Number of Transactions
By Tom Blumer | December 28, 2015 | 5:27 PM EST

As I noted in a pre-Christmas post, "The desperation is palpable at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, over how the Christmas shopping season is going."

Desperation has clearly descended into outright deception at the wire service, where an unbylined story claims that spending is up 8 percent, but that the source involved "does not include spending by dollar amounts." As will be shown shortly, this is a clear attempt to make this year's Christmas shopping season look more than twice as good as it was expected to be.

WashPost Columnist Whines Black Character Isn’t Main Hero in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
By Curtis Houck | December 28, 2015 | 2:57 PM EST

READER WARNING: The following post contains spoilers pertaining to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
------------------------------------------

Writing in the December 24 print edition of The Washington Post, Style section columnist Lonnae O’Neal expressed her disdain for the hit film Star Wars: The Force Awakens due to how Daisy Ridley’s character Rey emerges as the lead heroine of the film who saves the day instead of black British actor John Boyeda’s Finn.

Another Gaffe Ignored: Sanders Doesn't Understand Why Mortgage Interest Rates Are Lower Than Student Loan Rates
By Tom Blumer | December 28, 2015 | 2:06 PM EST

While the establishment press lies in wait for Republican and conservative candidates to make some kind of off-color or foolish statement — or one that can be twisted to become one, even if it originally wasn't — it consistently ignores howlers made by leftists and liberals. The list of President Barack Obama's gaffes alone, all totally or almost completely ignored by the press when they were made, is quite long.

The most telling gaffe is the kind made in all seriousness by its deliverer which betrays a level of cluelessness not thought humanly possible from a supposedly educated and informed adult. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders committed one such gaffe in a Saturday morning tweet.

Investor's Business Daily Notes Three Global Warming Stories The U.S. Press Has Ignored
By Tom Blumer | December 27, 2015 | 10:17 AM EST

Yesterday, I noted that Associated Press reporter Karl Ritter actually wrote, and AP actually published, a story about how complying with the Paris climate agreement would require greenhouse gas emissions "To Drop Below Zero."

Perhaps Ritter, whose beat includes "cover(ing) climate change, from UN negotiations to Arctic melt," looked around and realized that if he didn't put out something distracting, no matter how absurd, he'd have to cover one or more of three other "climate change" developments during the past couple of weeks — none of them favorable to the warmists' cause. An editorial on Thursday at Investor's Business Daily, one of the key places readers need to regularly visit to get important news the establishment press won't report, addressed them (links are in original; bolds are mine):