New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin hit the New Hampshire hustings for his condescending Page 1 story, "Bush and Walker Point G.O.P. to Contrary Paths." Martin made it clear where those paths lead: Either up to the sunny moderate climes of colorful diversity with Jeb Bush, or down a dispiritingly white conservative lockstep path with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. In Martin's condescending take, Jeb Bush is on a mission to tell hard truths to his party: That Republicans "must accept a changing country: that the path to the presidency will be found through appealing to voters who may not look like them."
Jonathan Martin
NYT's Martin Embraces Sunny Jeb Bush Telling GOP It 'Must Accept a Changing Country...Voters Who May Not Look Like Them'
By Clay Waters | March 30, 2015 | 11:11 PM EDT 
By Matthew Balan | February 23, 2015 | 3:07 PM EST
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times targeted Scott Walker on CNN's New Day on Monday over his "gotcha game" attack on the media." Martin contended that Governor Walker "doesn't want to answer these kinds of questions – which is problematic, but it also gives him an opportunity on the right." He added that "it's all kind of a depressing, cynical exercise, frankly, because...Walker doesn't want to play the game, and by not playing the game, he then gins up sympathy on the right against the media."
NYT's Martin Goes Snide Sizing Up GOP 2016: Huckabee a 'Cheerleader of Artery-Clogging Calories' for Opposing First Lady's Reforms
By Clay Waters | January 10, 2015 | 8:07 AM EST New York Times political reporter Jonathan Martin went snide and condescending in his "Political Memo" on Republican presidential prospects for 2016, "In G.O.P., a Divide of Ideology and Age." Treating the Republican Party like a dour religious sect, whose opposition to Michelle Obama's stringent "health" campaign is equivalent to being "a cheerleader of artery-clogging calories," Martin used all the bad buzz words ("stricter...brand of conservatism," "deviations from orthodoxy," "doctrinaire conservatives") to describe the right.
By Clay Waters | December 25, 2014 | 7:06 PM EST
A Christmas Day article in the New York Times left no doubt which party they would leave a lump of coal for. The paper impressively managed to spin a current controversy into a problem solely for the Republican side -- as if crime has not long been a losing election issue for the Democrats -- by portraying the GOP as making knee-jerk, stiff-necked appeals to white fear.
New York Times Approves of Obama's Cuban 'Audacity' vs. 'Dinosaur,' 'Hard-Line' Conservative Opponents
By Clay Waters | December 19, 2014 | 3:20 AM EST Surprising news that President Obama would normalize relations with Cuba by establishing full diplomatic relations while easing restrictions excited reporters and editorial writers at the New York Times, who saw the demise of the "dinosaurs" and "aging...hard-liners" who opposed liberalizing ties to the authoritarian Cuban government.
New York Times Butters Up Jeb Bush to Hit 'His Party's Hard-Liners' -- But How Long Would NYT Flattery Last?
By Clay Waters | December 14, 2014 | 8:23 AM EST Saturday's front-page report on Jeb Bush, "Looking to ’16, Another Bush Stakes Out the Middle Ground," marks the latest New York Times profile to flatter the moderate Republican, at least in comparison to those "hard-line" right-wing conservatives. But such reportorial flattery from the Times would end the day Jeb Bush won the Republican primary, as John McCain found out in 2008.
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 7, 2014 | 12:31 PM EST
On Sunday, CNN’s Inside Politics spent several minutes hyping the supposed headache Tea Partiers could give GOP leadership despite the Republican Party winning their 54th Senate seat following Saturday’s runoff in Louisiana. During the discussion, Robert Costa of The Washington Post insisted that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is trying “to govern responsibly and he wants to set the party up for major gains in '16. And that started in 2014 by pushing back the Tea Party and it starts now by making sure that all the passions and eagerness in the House don't overtake the party.”
By Matthew Balan | September 8, 2014 | 5:48 PM EDT
On Monday's New Day on CNN, Jonathan Martin of the New York Times and Bloomberg's Margaret Tavel ran to President Obama's defense over his handling of ISIS. Martin hyped that "the President is in a tough spot here....these two beheadings of journalists...have really outraged a lot of folks....and the President is forced to act. But again, there is not any appetite in this country to put ground troops back in that region. And so, the President is somewhat handcuffed."
Overexcited NYT Claims Dubious Gov. Perry Indictment 'Major Roadblock,' 'Stunning Rebuke' to Prez Hopes
By Clay Waters | August 16, 2014 | 9:46 PM EDT Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, was indicted by a county grand jury for abuse of power, after threatening to cut off state funding to a public corruption unit unless the district attorney in charge of it resigned. Perry had pushed for the removal of DA Rosemary Lehmberg after her arrest for drunk driving.
The indictment predictably made the front of Saturday's New York Times, in the prominent off-lead story slot, under a slanted deck of headlines: "Texas Governor Indicted in Case Alleging Abuses --Vetoing a Foe's Funding -- Charges Against Perry Interrupt Presidential Ambitions." According to the Times, the politically motivated indictment is a "major roadblock" and a "stunning rebuke" that "threaten[s] to tarnish his legacy."
By Tim Graham | May 7, 2014 | 8:03 AM EDT
The front of Wednesday’s Washington Post sports section worries “If Michael Sam goes undrafted, NFL might have a public-relations problem on its hands.” Sam announcing his homosexuality apparently makes it mandatory that he be drafted this week. That's a little insincere. The media are promising they'll give the NFL a PR problem is Sam goes undrafted.
For example, Post reporter Kent Babb equated Sam going undrafted with the controversy over lineman Jonathan Martin of the Miami Dolphins being racially bullied and harassed:
By Clay Waters | April 20, 2014 | 2:06 PM EDT
The headlines over the lead story of Sunday's New York Times reduced the fierce opposition to the Common Core education standards among both conservatives and liberals to cynical "wedge issue" anti-Obama politics by the angry right: "As G.O.P. Wedge, the Common Core Cuts Both Ways – Associated With Obama – Education Benchmarks Once Backed by Party Now Divide It."
The actual article by reporter Jonathan Martin was equally shallow, a partisan-driven analysis that failed to mention the bizarre, confusing math problems that have gotten parents up in arms. Martin left out the inconvenient fact that even the liberal governor of New York State is a critic, as reported a few days previous in the Times, and that the state teacher's union had withdrawn its support until fixes are made.
By Matthew Balan | April 15, 2014 | 5:37 PM EDT
On Tuesday's New Day, CNN's John King hyped the Congressional Budget Office's projection about ObamaCare – that "yes, ObamaCare is expensive, but less expensive than they thought – by about $104 billion over 10 years. That's a decent junk of change." King asserted that the health care issue is "the big domestic challenge for the President and for Democrats this election year: that is...trying to defend it – you could say now, maybe, bragging – about ObamaCare."
The journalist then expressed his bewilderment that Democrats weren't playing up this CBO projection: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]