New York Post

Cal Thomas: Media Eager to Criticize Bush for Abu Ghraib Now Reluctant to Criticize Obama for Navy SEAL Court Martial
By Jeff Poor | November 28, 2009 | 11:55 PM EST

It's a night and day difference between the media's scrutiny of former President George W. Bush and the current command-in-chief, President Barack Obama. And the coverage of three Navy SEALs now facing a court martial that captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, who allegedly was the mastermind of the murder of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah in 2004, is proof.

John Scott, host of "Fox News Watch" noted this story on the show's Nov. 28 episode and asked why there hasn't been more coverage about it.

"Pretty outrageous story came out, in my view, this week," Scott said. "These three Navy SEALs who were involved in capturing one of the most wanted bad guys in Iraq - the guy supposedly responsible for planning the execution of those four Blackwater contractors. The SEALs are now facing charges because the guy somehow wound up with a bloody lip. Is the media paying attention?"

Did Lou Dobbs's Conservative Views Cause Him to Leave CNN?
By Lachlan Markay | November 13, 2009 | 3:34 PM EST
Lou Dobbs left CNN after years of tensions between him and the network's brass, who consistently objected to his outspoken, often controversial reports. But the issues that seem to have annoyed CNN execs most were ones on which Dobbs took a conservative stance.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that CNN President Jonathan Klein offered Dobbs an ultimatum a few months ago: "Mr. Dobbs could vent his opinions on radio and anchor an objective newscast on television, or he could leave CNN." Klein reportedly complained about Dobbs's reporting on the Birther movement over the summer, and his outspoken opposition to illegal immigration.

According to the New York Post, one "TV insider" said Dobbs was "polluting the CNN brand" of purported political objectivity. Klein issued a statement saying Dobbs had decided to "carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere."
WaPo's Kurtz Offers Weak Excuses for Van Jones Silence
By Lachlan Markay | September 14, 2009 | 5:59 PM EDT
When Glenn Beck reports that a top-level White House advisor has endorsed communism, accused 'white polluters' of poisoning minority communities, called his political opponents a**holes, and believes an American president was complicit in the slaughter of innocent civilians, Beck must have a hidden agenda. When the mainstream media fails to report these facts, it's all an honest mistake.

Or so one might gather from listening to CNN contributor and Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz. Kurtz continues to waffle between a cynical take on Glenn Beck's outing of Van Jones as a truther conspiracy theorist, and an apologetic approach to the mainstream media's virtual silence on the story until after Jones's resignation.

The Times's Managing Editor Jill Abramson offered a number of excuses for the lack of Van Jones coverage last weekend, chiefly that the paper's Washington Bureau was short-staffed. This did not stop the Times from sending two reporters to Boston for the weekend to cover the non-story of Joseph Kennedy II's Senate run (which he later said would not happen).
Team Obama Furious With Gov. Paterson For Saying Obama's Next 'Victim on the List' of a Racist Media
By Tim Graham | August 24, 2009 | 6:50 AM EDT

New York. Gov. David Paterson infuriated Team Obama Friday by suggesting on a radio show that the president would be the next "victim" of a racially biased news media – based on an interview Paterson had with a black reporter, Dominic Carter of the local cable news channel NY1.

Part of Gates Gate Not Getting Much Media Attention
By Warner Todd Huston | July 26, 2009 | 11:04 AM EDT

A recent New York Post story brought up a point about the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. that few in the Old Media have paid much attention to. Apparently, Gates has since the arrest announced he is in the early stages of involvement in a PBS TV series on civil rights in America. It is odd that this single fact has not been a focus of much discussion.

After all, if Gates is about to start a TV show about civil rights, what better way to punch up that participation than to "suddenly" get mixed up in a national civil rights "abuse" case? What better way to highlight America's civil rights problem than to become a nationally known victim of so-called racism?

Why is no one asking how long Gates has been in the planning stages of this TV show? Was he planning it since before the arrest? It all leads one to wonder if Gates saw an opportunity to gin up interest in his TV appearance by becoming a victim? Instead of experiencing any actual racial tension, did Gates invent his own ready-made, sensational incident to turn his scholarly civil rights discussion into the quintessential TV reality show extravaganza? Was all this just a TV stunt in Gates' mind? Was it mere opportunism?

NY Senate Dems Fire 200 for Color Of Their Skin; Where's Media Coverage?
By Mike Sargent | July 9, 2009 | 2:42 PM EDT

The New York State Senate, it appears, has reached an all-time low.One might possibly overlook the legislative wrangling, the blatant power-playing, the use of thuggery to enforce a particular party’s control over the Senate.  One might also overlook the unbelievable childish behavior of the Senate, in which even New York Governor Patterson, owner of the lowest approval rating of any governor in the United States, looks positively Lincolnian.  And one might even ignore the dearth of media coverage – after all, one can be thankful that the national media is not as fixated on this as they are on the burial arrangements of Michael Jackson.But there is a new development that should not be ignored – something so heinous, the media would prove themselves worthless, if they do.Put plainly, the New York Senate Democrats’ behavior, over the course of five months of Senate control, appears to be blatantly racist.  That fact was buried in the 19th paragraph of a 32-paragraph New York Post opinion piece by Post state editor Frederic Dicker, published in the July 9 paper.

More Attempted Government-Sponsored Auto Bailout Plunder; But This Time, A Judge Pushes Back
By Tom Blumer | June 15, 2009 | 11:53 PM EDT
GovernmentMotors0609

First the federal government's auto bailout bullies came for Chrysler's secured, first-lien creditors, and defeated them.

Then they came for General Motors' unsecured bondholders. The feds appear to be in the drivers' seat in shafting them disproportionately to force a better deal for the United Auto Workers' healthcare trust.

Now, in a matter that at first only seemed to interest the Wall Street Journal, they've also come after Delphi's debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing providers as GM attempts to scoop up what it wants from the bankrupt auto-parts supplier. But this time, at least for now, a bankruptcy judge with a richly appropriate name has stopped them:

Newspaper Circs: Another Serious Drop; NYT's Small Decline a Short-Term Obama Strategy Vindication
By Tom Blumer | April 28, 2009 | 4:54 PM EDT
NYThistoryObama0109

From Editor & Publisher yesterday (bold is mine):

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released this morning the spring figures for the six months ending March 31, 2009, showing that the largest metros continue to shed daily and Sunday circulation -- now at a record rate.

According to ABC, for 395 newspapers reporting this spring, daily circulation fell 7% to 34,439,713 copies, compared with the same March period in 2008. On Sunday, for 557 newspapers, circulation was down 5.3% to 42,082,707. These averages do not include 84 newspapers with circulations below 50,000 due to a change in publishing frequency.

Below is a chart showing the specifics for the top 25, including percentage losses for the past four years and during the past year (current year source: Editor & Publisher):

Joy Behar Sees Obama Assassination Threat in NY Post Cartoon
By Noel Sheppard | February 24, 2009 | 8:58 PM EST

"The View's" Joy Behar believes last week's controversial New York Post cartoon which mocked the recently enacted stimulus bill represented an assassination threat on President Barack Obama.

She even wonders if the author should be investigated by the FBI.

I kid you not.

As host Barbara Walters on Tuesday addressed Rupert Murdoch's apology for the cartoon published in his paper, Behar said the following (video embedded below courtesy Ms Underestimated):

CNN Talking Heads Unanimously Praise Holder's 'Coward' Remarks
By Matthew Balan | February 19, 2009 | 1:47 PM EST
Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst; Roland Martin, CNN Contributor; & Soledad O'Brien, CNN Special Correspondent | NewsBusters.orgAnchor Campbell Brown’s show on CNN is subtitled “No Bias, No Bull,” but the show displayed plenty of bias during a Wednesday night segment about Attorney General Eric Holder calling America “a nation of cowards” on race issues. Brown praised Holder for “cutting through the bull,” and a panel discussion was utterly unanimous: Gloria Borger, Soledad O’Brien, and Roland Martin all toed the liberal line and praised Holder for lambasting the nation. Martin wholeheartedly agreed with Holder’s characterization. Borger defended the first black attorney general, stating that he was “trying to be provocative on purpose,” while O’Brien thought the Obama appointee was trying to start a “honest conversation” on race.

As for ‘cutting through bull,’ Brown should have corrected O’Brien when she repeated the old radical line that somehow Black History Month is the shortest month on the calendar due to some racial slight, which completely mangles the facts. It began as “Negro History Week” and was founded by African-American historian Carter Woodson in mid-February to honor Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, whose birthdays are on the 12th and the 14th respectively.
ABC Frets That NY Post Comic Could Harm 'Post-racial Glow' of Obama
By Scott Whitlock | February 19, 2009 | 11:51 AM EST

"Good Morning America" reporter David Wright on Thursday worried that a comic strip appearing in yesterday's New York Post could harm the "post racial glow" that America has been enjoying since Barack Obama's inauguration. Wright recounted the outrage expressed by the Reverend Al Sharpton and others over an editorial cartoon depicting a chimp shot by police and connecting it to the just passed economic stimulus bill. (Host Diane Sawyer, above, introduced the segment.) 

Wright derided, "Ever since the inauguration, America has seemed to bask in a post-racial glow. But not so fast. Yesterday, the New York Post published a cartoon likening President Obama to a violent monkey shot by police." The GMA journalist chose to accept the most sinister view of the comic, that the dead ape was intended to represent the President. (Of course, since the comic refers to the chimpanzee as the writer of the stimulus bill and Obama didn't author the legislation, that argument doesn't seem to make the most sense.)

Wright featured no one who offered a different interpretation of the cartoon. He simply stated, "The paper refused to apologize for the cartoon, calling it a clear parody of a current news event." Instead, Wright used the controversy as an opportunity to uncritically repeat Attorney General Eric Holder's comments on Wednesday that America is a "nation of cowards." Wright lectured, "Despite evident progress on race, America still has a long way to go, according to the nation's first black attorney general who spoke yesterday at a separate black history month event."

New York Post's Dead Chimp Cartoon Draws Media Ire
By Noel Sheppard | February 18, 2009 | 5:47 PM EST

A cartoon using the bizarre story of a recently killed pet chimpanzee to depict how terrible the just-enacted economic stimulus package is has drawn the ire of media outlets around the world.

Appearing in Wednesday's New York Post, the cartoon (full version available here) shows police officers shooting a chimpanzee with one commenting, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

For those missing the reference, a pet chimpanzee was shot to death by police in Connecticut earlier this week when it mysteriously attacked a friend of the owner's. 

Media aren't laughing: