Regulation

EPA Chief: Climate Skeptics Are Not 'Normal People'; Press Snoozes
By Tom Blumer | June 25, 2015 | 11:58 PM EDT

Though such instances are quite rare, especially from conservative and Republican office-holding politicians and bureaucrats, we've been told time and again by the left that it's people on the right who demonize and dehumanize their opponents.

Well, I don't recall George W. Bush, anyone in his administration, or any Republican congressman or senator serving at the time of his tax cuts or during the Iraq War characterizing their political opposition as not being "normal people." (Considering the out-of-control conduct of and statements made by many opponents, the temptation to do so must have been nearly overwhelming.) Readers can be sure that if they had, outfits like the Hill and the Assocated Press would have reported it. So why did those two news organizations ignore what they heard from EPA head Gina McCarthy at a White House climate change summit earlier this week?

CNN's Cuomo Hits Fiorina Over Her Net Worth, Defends Obama on ISIS
By Brad Wilmouth | June 17, 2015 | 9:43 PM EDT

As GOP presidential candidate and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina appeared as a guest on Wednesday's New Day, CNN co-host Chris Cuomo pressed Fiorina over her wealth and her criticisms of President Obama's handling of the ISIS threat.

After bringing up the former CEO's $59 million net worth, Cuomo made it sound as if he were speaking for 98 percent of Americans as he suggested that they would see her as "the problem" rather than "the solution."

By contrast, when he noted the point of view that her success should be considered an asset, the CNN host made sure to associate this point of view with someone he and other CNN hosts clearly hold a negative view of in the form of newly announced presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Gap Inc. Will Close 140 U.S. Stores This Year — Just As Its Obama-Praised $10 Minimum Wage Takes Effect
By Tom Blumer | June 16, 2015 | 12:10 PM EDT

In February of last year, Gap Inc., which operates Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta stores, announced that it would raise its minimum hourly rate of pay for all U.S. employees to $9 in June 2014 and $10 in June 2015. As a result, it won "praise from President Obama who is pushing to raise the nation's minimum wage by a similar amount." The company said that the move would affect 65,000 employees who were making less.

The linked CNN Money report quoted an apparently confident Lynn Albright, a vice president at Old Navy, as follows: "We're coming from place where we can afford to make this investment." Maybe the company could afford it then, but based on today's store closure announcement, that's not so much the case now:

Net Neutrality Hits the Web, The Media Misses -- Badly
By Seton Motley | June 15, 2015 | 10:29 AM EDT

As we’ve often discussed, the Tech Media is just as hopelessly Leftist and lost as the broader Jurassic Press.  They are both echo chambers - talking points and terrible ideas bounce with great rapidity around their tiny little worlds.  They are the Bubble Boys (and Girls) of news.

When a Tech Media story crosses over to the broader Jurassic Press - their ridiculous Leftist repetitiveness is truly comical.  And highly disquieting.

On Friday, President Barack Obama’s huge Internet Network Neutrality power grab officially went into effect.  A crossover story - with predictable, pathetic Press results.

NYT Blares Emotionally Pro-Union, Anti-Scott Walker Piece As Magazine Cover Story
By Clay Waters | June 14, 2015 | 7:33 AM EDT

The New York Times magazine launched another emotional attack on Wisconsin's Republican (and presidential hopeful) Gov. Scott Walker, whom the paper cannot forgive for successfully taming his state's public unions and then surviving an expensive, union-funded recall election. Contributor Dan Kaufman's romanticized, pro-union 5,700-word cover story was advertised as "Labor's Last Stand -- Scott Walker and the dismantling of American unions." A pull quote from a union official captures the tone: "Wisconsin has become a kind of laboratory for oligarchs to implement their political and economic agenda."

Politico Pair: White House Reax to Trade Bill Setback 'Implausible'; President Obama 'Rapidly Approaching Lame-Duck Status'
By Tom Blumer | June 12, 2015 | 7:40 PM EDT

Even the leftist apparatchiks at the Politico seem to have a limit to their tolerance for the doublespeak the White House and President Obama routinely disseminate.

Reporters Edward-Isaac Dovere and Sarah Wheaton appear to hit that limit this afternoon after Obama's effort to pass Trade Adjustment Authorization (TAA) went down in flames by a shocking margin of 126-302. Since TAA had to pass for the vote on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to have any meaning, TPA's 219-211 "Yes" margin in a later vote was virtually meaningless. The pair used a headline whose lineage traces back to the Vietnam War era, and even asserted that Obama is "rapidly approaching lame duck status" (bolds are mine):

Megyn Kelly Unloads on Obama over Plans to Regulate the Diversity of Neighborhoods
By Curtis Houck | June 12, 2015 | 1:35 AM EDT

Fox News’s Megyn Kelly began Thursday’s edition of The Kelly File by ripping into President Barack Obama and plans for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to regulate and enforce the diversity of neighborhoods. Kelly blasted the President for being “[t]he man who changed your health care system forever” who’s “now pushing to change your neighborhood” and especially “if Uncle Sam feels it is not inclusive enough.”

Networks Skimp on Obama Administration’s Plan to Force Diversity in Wealthy Neighborhoods
By Curtis Houck | June 11, 2015 | 8:19 PM EDT

The major broadcast networks refused to take notice on Thursday night of plans by President Obama and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to force the diversification of American neighborhoods and particularly those mainly consisting of wealthy Americans. With the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC on the sidelines, the FNC's pecial Report offered a full segment on the regulations that host Bret Baier noted has Republicans “charging that President Obama wants control over who lives in your neighborhood and [that] he’s using the power of the purse strings to pursue it.”

Networks Punt on EPA Announcing Plans to Regulate Airplane Emissions
By Curtis Houck | June 11, 2015 | 1:02 AM EDT

For the third time in just under three weeks, the major broadcast networks ignored news related to the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the latest news coming on Wednesday that the agency has announced its goal to regulate aircraft emissions in a similar fashion that it does for automobiles and powerplants. FNC's Special Report and the PBS NewsHour, however, found time to inform their viewers of the agency’s latest foray into the economy.

Press Fails to Note That Weak First-Quarter Economies Have Been a Democrat Phenomenon
By Tom Blumer | June 8, 2015 | 11:13 AM EDT

The business press has gotten really excited about the possibility — some of them are even treating it as a probability — that the first-quarter's recently reported annualized economic contraction of 0.7 percent will go positive if it gets revised for so-called "residual seasonality."

"Residual seasonality" is "the manifestation of seasonal patterns in data that have already been seasonally adjusted." (Supposedly, the way to fix this is add more "seasoning.") On April 22, CNBC's Steve Liesman contended that it's been a chronic 30-year problem. As far as I can tell, no one in the press has followed up on that claim. If they had, they would have found that it has not been a 30-year "problem," and that it's a "problem" remarkably unique to the presence of Democratic Party presidential administrations and policies:

Networks Neglect to Cover New EPA Regulations Expanding Control of Waterways
By Curtis Houck | May 28, 2015 | 12:22 AM EDT

On Wednesday night, the major broadcast networks ignored a series of new regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the agency claims will better explain regulations in the Clean Water Act, but are seen by many as a power grab by the Obama administration to further control America’s waterways. While the story received zero mention on ABC, CBS, or NBC (but full stories from the AP wire on their respective websites), the Fox News Channel’s Special Report devoted a 15-second news brief to the story on its Wednesday program. 

LA Unions Lobby for Exemption From $15/Hr. Minimum Wage Law They Pushed
By Tom Blumer | May 27, 2015 | 11:07 PM EDT

This has to be the month's top entry in the "Just when you think you've seen it all" category — and it will be more than a little interesting to see how the nation's press handles it.

As the Associated Press reported a week ago, the City Council in Los Angeles, by a vote of 14-1, ordered the drafting of a law mandating a citywide minimum wage of $15 per hour by 2020, noting that "the support of Mayor Eric Garcetti virtually guarantee its eventual adoption." Now that it's almost a done deal, labor unions whose members earn less want to be exempt from the law. Seriously. And it's not that the unions were caught off guard, because the person who is most visibly arguing for the exemption "helps lead the Raise the Wage coalition"! Apparently caught completely flat-footed, three Los Angeles Times reporters, in a rare break from the paper's non-stop leftist bias, filed a fair and balanced report on the truly offensive situation.