The New York Times kept on its old Rudy the Racist beat, using the former New York City mayor's recent remarks suggesting President Obama doesn't love America to attack him in a front-page story on Saturday: "His remarks this week mostly drew derision and outrage, and seemed to further distance Mr. Giuliani from the heroic, above-the-fray image he carefully burnished after the Sept. 11 attacks, aligning him more squarely with the hard right of the Republican Party than at any other time in his career."
Alexander Burns
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 11, 2014 | 1:38 PM EST
With the GOP set to officially take control of the United States Senate in January, Politico decided it was the perfect time to play up Democrats’ criticism of Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), incoming Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, for being “the Hill’s most flamboyant critic of climate research.” In a piece published on November 10, authors Elana Schor and Alexander Burns promoted how “Democrats aspire to make Inhofe the face of GOP knownothingism, while at least one Republican consultant says his style of skepticism could create headaches for candidates up and down the ticket in 2016.”
By Tom Blumer | October 30, 2014 | 6:03 PM EDT
At NewsBusters yesterday, P.J. Gladnick justifiably went after the over-the-top hackery pervading Alexander Burns's Politico story on how "Scott Walker limps toward 2016." Burns bitterly criticized Walker's "divide-and-conquer strategy," and the governor himself as "confrontational" and (of course) "polarizing."
Given that his column was allegedly updated this morning, I expected Burns to revise his writeup to react to two recent newsworthy campaign developments. Incredibly, he didn't mention either.
By P.J. Gladnick | October 29, 2014 | 5:57 PM EDT
Politico writer Alexander Burns concedes that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker could win re-election next week but sounds a very sour note by claiming that Walker won't enjoy his victory. Of course, Burns contrasts a gloomy view of Walker with a warm review of the Democrat candidate, Mary Burke.
By Tim Graham | December 15, 2013 | 9:34 AM EST
Alex Burns at Politico was handed the Kennedy Goo bucket for their latest feature, headlined "Ambassador Kennedy: A Star Is Born." The liberal media establishment are very eager to say Caroline Kennedy is packed with charm in her role in Japan as "political royalty," and if she was a terrible candidate to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate, well, diplomacy is more her bag.
After about three weeks, this "iconic daughter of American political royalty" is already a "rock star" in diplomatic circles. In other words, she was born on third base and servile journalists insist she's hit a triple. Someone left the cap off the sugar dispenser:
By Tim Graham | November 1, 2013 | 9:13 AM EDT
Politico’s Alex Burns and Maggie Haberman have designated 2013 as “Year of the Liberal Billionaire,” as progressive titans like Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer unload their money bags on TV ads in off-year elections.
“Their arrival on the political scene, at the same time as many conservative donors remain disheartened from the GOP’s 2012 defeat, represents a shift in power in the arena of big-money campaigns,” Burns and Haberman assert. At least they allowed some more conservative sources to call out the media for giving liberal billionaires a free pass:
By Mark Newgent | April 12, 2013 | 4:59 PM EDT
Martin O’Malley’s One Maryland is a fairy tale, and Politico’s Alexander Burns and Burgess Everett are the Brothers Grimm.
In another Politico puff piece Burns, aided by “transportation reporter” Everett, uncritically report O’Malley spin as fact.
Burns and Everett overly indulge and perpetuate O’Malley’s pragmatism fetish. O’Malley paints himself as a results oriented politician, and the reporters uncritically accept it.
Politico Lets Former Ohio Governor Strickland Whitewash His Disastrous Record and Dishonest 2010 Campaign
By Tom Blumer | January 9, 2013 | 10:03 AM EST Ohioans can give thanks this week for at least one thing: Former Democratic Governor Ted Strickland has announced that won't be challenging incumbent John Kasich in 2014. During 2008 and 2009, Strickland's second and third years in office, the Buckeye State lost 420,000 jobs and saw its unemployment rate zoom from 5.7 percent to 10.6 percent, performances which were worse than nearly every other state in the union. In his final two years, the state ran billions in deficits which the rest of America covered by providing at least $4.8 billion in "direct relief" stimulus fuding. As he left office, Ohio faced an estimated $8 billion budget deficit and credit agencies downgraded its credit rating.
None of these facts about Ted Strickland's record got into Alexander Burns's Tuesday coverage of Strickland's decision at the Politico. Instead, readers were treated to a narrative which made Strickland's fundamentally deceptive attempt to keep his job in the 2010 election seem almost heroic (bolds are mine throughout this post):
China- and Romney-Obsessed Toledo Blade, Politico Fail to Report Fiat's Plans to Import New Jeep Model to Be Made in Italy
By Tom Blumer | October 30, 2012 | 10:23 PM EDT Toledo Blade reporter Tyrel Linkhorn got sucked in by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne's misleading email to Chrysler employees today. The Politico's Alexander Burns relayed Linkhorn's gullibility to the rest of the nation -- or at least the few people scattered throughout the nation who might bother to read it.
Marchionne, as quoted by Linkhorn told employees that "Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand. It is inaccurate to suggest anything different." While that may be true, it doesn't change the fact that the company announced plans to build a new Jeep model in Italy which will be exported to Europe and North America. As Bloomberg reported early this afternoon:
By Tim Graham | August 28, 2012 | 8:51 AM EDT
On Monday night, Politico posted two stories with the same theme: Tropical Storm Isaac seriously threatens to ruin the Republican convention and remind voters of Republican incompetence during hurricanes. Does anyone think this outfit is fair and balanced?
In the story “GOP fears ghost of Hurricane Katrina at RNC 2012,” Politico's Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman just keep skipping over the Democratic mayor of New Orleans and the Democratic governor of Louisiana as they predict the most damaging political scenario they can hope for, er, imagine as the storm spared the GOP convention site in Tampa:
Eleven Democratic State Chairmen, Nancy Pelosi Push for 'Freedom to Marry' DNC Platform Plank; Will Media Ask Obama's Position?
By Ken Shepherd | May 3, 2012 | 3:36 PM EDT "Eleven Democratic state party chairs will announce their support today for a proposed 'freedom to marry' plank in the 2012 Democratic platform," Politico's Alexander Burns reported this morning. Among other high-powered backers of the platform petition is none other than former House Speaker and current Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Yet nowhere in Burns 9-paragraph story did Burns seek comment from the Obama White House about whether the president -- whose 2008 campaign position was that he is "not in favor" of it because marriage is "between a man and a woman" -- takes a stance on the issue of adopting the platform plank. What's more, Burns failed to note that a recent survey shows only 49 percent of African-American voters -- who are among the most loyal of Democratic voters and staunchest Obama backers -- support same-sex marriage. The same survey shows that 42 percent of Catholic voters, a key swing voting bloc, oppose same sex marriage. Thirty-eight percent of political independents also oppose gay marriage.
By Matthew Sheffield | March 15, 2012 | 4:33 PM EDT
Politico editor John Harris--known to some for his tendentious questioning during a presidential debate which provoked Newt Gingrich's first of many attacks on liberally biased debate moderators--stepped forward yesterday to proudly proclaim that that it was his idea to create a story questioning the intelligence of the American electorate.
As noted by Tim Graham here at NB, the piece was a perfect recapitulation of the rant made by former ABC anchor Peter Jennings following the 1994 election which saw the first installation of a Republican congress in decades. Instead of accusing his fellow Americans of having a "temper tantrum," Harris simply repeatedly called them "stupid," heavily emphasizing the word on four separate occasions.