When it came to assessing Rupert Murdoch’s decision to cede more control of his empire to his sons James and Lachlan, PBS and NPR turned to David Folkenflik, who as NPR’s media reporter is a Murdoch obsessive and author of the book Murdoch’s World.
On Thursday’s PBS NewsHour, Folkenflik floated the idea that eventually Fox News would move to the center and be “a little more measured” in its point of view. He also suggested Fox News made Murdoch look “pugilistic and mean-spirited."
On the heels of the news Thursday that former Clinton aide and ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos gave a previously-undisclosed $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC joined MSNBC in making no on-air mention of the newest scandal facing the foundation. As of Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. Eastern, the scandal was mentioned on ten different Fox News Channel (FNC) shows and only once on CNN, but not a single mention on MSNBC.
Tim Russert used to say “If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press.” Of David Brooks, we might joke, “If it’s Friday, Brooks is bashing Ted Cruz.” On both NPR and PBS Friday, the purported conservative-leaning balance to public broadcasting’s natural socialist impulses insisted the problem was that Cruz was just too smart.
On NPR’s All Things Considered, the headline for the week-in-politics segment was “Sen. Harry Reid's Retirement, Cruz's Appeal To Far-Right.”
In exploring the blooming career of Monica Lewinsky as an anti-cyberbullying activist, it’s not only Lewinsky that’s trying to rehabilitate or reinvent hereself. It’s also a chance for the liberal media to revise feminist history. See The New York Times, with an article last week “Monica Lewinsky Is Back, But This Time on Her Terms.” Reporter Jessica Bennett lauded Lewinsky for “a biting cultural critique about humiliation as commodity.”
She even turned to Gloria Steinem for commentary. “It’s a sexual shaming that is far more directed at women than at men,” Steinem wrote in an email, noting that in Lewinsky’s case, she was also targeted by the “ultraright wing.” She thanked Lewinsky “for having the courage to return to the public eye.”
The birther issue is back. No, not the Obama birther crazies; the Ted Cruz birther crazies.
In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) on Monday's All Things Considered, Sarah Duggin of the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law claimed that Ted Cruz’s eligibility for the Presidency is not “an open-and-shut case” because “we don’t know precisely what the framers of the Constitution meant when they put into Article II that no person except a natural-born citizen shall be eligible to the office of president.”
NPR's Scott Horsley carried water for the Obama administration on Thursday's All Things Considered as he covered the President's green energy executive order. All of Horsley's soundbites during the segment came from the Democratic chief executive and two boosters of his latest environmental policy. True to form, the slanted NPR correspondent failed to include any criticism of the order in his report.
On Tuesday's All Things Considered, NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley gave Sen. Tom Cotton just 26 words to express a conservative view: "The point we're making to Iran's leaders is that if Congress doesn't approve a deal, Congress won't accept a deal, now or in the future."
NPR was more interested in plumbing the small minority of Republicans who did not sign the open letter to Iranian leaders, and interviewed Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona. Anchor Melissa Block repeatedly pressed Flake to attack his fellow Republicans, even suggests the letter aligns 47 Republicans "with Iran's hard-liners." As if Obama isn't negotiating with Iran's hard-liners?
NPR aired a story on how "abortion restrictions complicate access for Ohio women." Jennifer Ludden focused on a Cleveland abortion clinic called Preterm. Abortion advocates complained that pro-lifers were making abortions more dangerous with their restrictions. Nowhere in this story did NPR ever notify their national audience that Lakisha Wilson died from complications caused in the Preterm clinic on March 28, 2014.
The taxpayer-funded propaganda about libertine-left concepts like “gender fluidity” just keeps spewing at National Public Radio. On Thursday night’s All Things Considered, anchor Melissa Block promised a one-sided piece on children who rebel against their gender “assigned at birth.” Polls show a surprising number of young people are willing to ignore nagging scientific truth altogether on gender.
Nanette Thompson, a stringer for Youth Radio out of Oakland, proclaimed that kids are now "torchbearers of gender fluidity."
On Wednesday's All Things Considered, NPR's Ari Shapiro spotlighted Cage, a British organization that ran to the defense of "Jihadi John," the ISIS member who infamously beheaded several hostages on video. Shaprio slanted toward Cage by playing four soundbites from two talking heads from the organization, as well as a clip from the terrorist himself, who has been identified as Mohammed Emwazi.
Although a Texas judge issuing an injunction against Obama’s “executive action” on illegal immigrants came late Monday, national newspapers all put that ruling on the front page on Wednesday. Some headlines buried the judge. USA Today had “Obama immigration plan blocked.” The Wall Street Journal ran with “Obama Dealt Setback on Immigration.” None of the headlines mentioned “illegal” immigrants.
USA Today’s entire nine-paragraph story avoided the “I-word,” using “undocumented immigrants” four times, and “migrants” once. NPR scrubbed the word "illegal" in favor of "unauthorized" immigrants.
NPR’s All Things Considered was surprisingly honest on Wednesday night about Jon Stewart’s departure from The Daily Show. Stewart was credited for “influencing the way a generation of young people, especially liberals, view the news and politics.”
Correspondent Don Gonyea admitted the president of the College Democrats “sees Jon Stewart as being on her side” and cited research that shows Stewart’s audience is overwhelmingly liberal.