North Carolina

NYT's Calmes Cheers Democratic Quest to Hold Senate Through 'Single Women' Strategy
By Clay Waters | July 3, 2014 | 4:26 PM EDT

Jackie Calmes, New York Times reporter (and reliable water-carrier for Democrats), made Thursday's front page with a story on the competitive Senate race in North Carolina, a seat the Democrats desperately need to keep in order to maintain their hold on the U.S. Senate.

The nudging headline read: "To Hold Senate, Democrats Rely on Single Women." In the lead we revealingly learn that the decline of marriage has been a boon for the Democratic party (what it says about the well-being of the country being apparently less vital).

Democrat Clay Aiken Tweeted About Punching Ann Coulter, Urged Folks to Call Her a C**t
By Ken Shepherd | May 21, 2014 | 7:05 PM EDT

As we at NewsBusters have documented, the liberal media have shown no lack of interest in the candidacy of American Idol runner-up turned Democratic politician Clay Aiken.

So it should be interesting to see the coverage, or lack thereof, for Mr. Aiken having tweeted a while back, "Anyone else watching @piersmorgan want to punch Ann Coulter in the face?" What's more, reports blogger Sooper Mexican, Aiken once all but urged fans to call Coulter a c**t. War on women, anyone?

New York Times Nervously Documents North Carolina's 'Abrupt Rightward Swing'
By Clay Waters | May 19, 2014 | 7:32 AM EDT

The New York Times is obsessed with the disturbing rightward shift in North Carolina, and used the uninspiring hook (the start of a state legislative session) to run yet another ominous story. It was reporter Trip Gabriel's turn on Sunday to document how not even North Carolina's governor is right-wing enough for the newly conservative state legislature: "North Carolina Governor Tested by Own G.O.P. as Legislators Return." (Though the North Carolina left still hates Gov. Pat McCory enough to get him disinvited from a local music festival.)

Times reporter Kim Severson has also provided sympathetic coverage of left-wing protests against "the newly conservative Republican leadership in North Carolina [which is] raising its voice against the loss of the state’s centrist government and what they see as diminished recognition of the poor and minorities."

NBC Promotes Democrat Clay Aiken Running for Congress: 'From Pop Singer to Politician'
By Kyle Drennen | May 2, 2014 | 11:55 AM EDT

On Friday, NBC's Today kicked off its 2014 midterm election coverage by doing a fawning puff piece on former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken running for Congress in North Carolina as a Democrat. Co-host Willie Geist proclaimed: "A race that's getting a lot of attention. Clay Aiken is used to being at the mercy of the voters. He came in second on American Idol in 2003 and now he's running for Congress in North Carolina..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In the report that followed, correspondent Kelly O'Donnell touted Aiken on the campaign trail: "When he says hello at Brownie Lou's restaurant or breaks out a smile for selfies, Clay Aiken is campaigning for a big career change. From pop singer to politician."

MSNBC Panel Slams GOP on Global Warming, Predicts 'End of the Republican Party'
By Brad Wilmouth | April 23, 2014 | 11:12 PM EDT

On the Wednesday, April 23, PoliticsNation on MSNBC, Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart asserted that Republican doubts about global warming would be "one more thing that is going to hasten the demise, the end of the Republican Party" as he reacted to a clip of several North Carolina Republican Senate candidates expressing doubts when asked if "climate change" is a "fact."

And, as she appeared as a guest, allegedly right-leaning MSNBC host Abby Huntsman predicted that Republicans would be "out of business" if they lose the elections of 2016. [See video below.]

NYT Touts More Democratic Attacks on Koch Brothers on Sunday Front Page
By Clay Waters | April 6, 2014 | 8:42 AM EDT

Congressional reporters Jeremy Peters and Carl Hulse touted Democratic attacks against the paper's favorite enemy, libertarian donors Charles and David Koch, on the front of the National Edition of the Sunday New York Times, in "To Hit Back at Kochs, Democrats Revive Tactic That Hurt Romney."

It's just the latest in a series of Times reports and editorials highlighting and tacitly approving Democratic attacks against the Koch brothers in the run up to the 2014 elections, while avoiding mentioning Sen. Harry Reid's false allegations against them, some documented by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler.

Anti-Voter ID March Requires Participants Bring Photo ID; Most Media Outlets Omit Hypocrisy
By Tom Blumer | February 9, 2014 | 9:46 PM EST

Leftist protesters trying to portray themselves as mainstream gathered in Raleigh, North Carolina yesterday to protest moves made by the Republican-dominated state government yesterday.

One of protesters' major objections is to a voter-identification law passed last year. That's more than a little ironic, because guess what organizers required march participants to have? That's right: photo identification. Though he waited 13 paragraphs to do so, Gary D. Robertson at the Associated Press, apparently aware that several prominent center-right Internet outlets had already noted the breathtaking hypocrisy (examples here, here, and here), actually told his readers about it; I could not find another establishment press outlet which did. However, Robertson, in classic AP style, cited a Republican critic instead of simply reporting the damning fact (bolds and numbered tags are mine):

Daily Beast's Bouie Slams New 'Republican'-passed N.C. Gun Law, Omits Fact Most Dems Voted for It Too
By Ken Shepherd | September 4, 2013 | 3:33 PM EDT

"For years, police officers in North Carolina had a choice when it came to confiscated guns. They could use them for law enforcement purposes—training, testing, examining—or they could destroy them," Daily Beast writer Jamelle Bouie noted in a post to the website on Wednesday.

But now, thanks to "a new law... passed by Republican lawmakers in the state," that's changed. Now, "Police officers can still use confiscated guns, but as of this week, they can’t destroy them," Bouie groused in his September 4 post, going on later in his piece to whine about how the bill is evidence of an almost religious devotion to guns by conservatives. Left completely out of his story, however, was any note that nearly all the state senate's Democrats and a majority of Democratic state representatives backed the so-called Save the Gun law, Senate Bill 443.

Movie Industry Campaigns for Tax Cuts...For Itself
By Matthew Sheffield | September 4, 2013 | 12:20 PM EDT

Hollywood hypocrisy is nothing new but that doesn’t mean that seeing it does not amuse. That is why your humble correspondent couldn’t help but smile upon reading the news out of North Carolina that the notoriously left-wing film industry is fighting desperately to preserve its tax subsidies in the Tarheel State.

Even more delightsome is the rationale that the Motion Picture Association of America is using as an excuse to preserve its tax breaks: that not only do they directly promote the film business but that they also stimulate economic activity.

The Truth About North Carolina’s Voter ID Law the Media Won’t Tell You
By Kevin Mooney | August 21, 2013 | 10:09 AM EDT

Following a Supreme Court ruling that said that federal restrictions on certain states’ voting laws were invalid, North Carolina passed a law requiring that people who wish to cast a ballot must show photo identification. Predictably, the left-leaning media have gone into high outrage mode.

In doing so they’ve ignored the facts which show that not only do black voters support voter ID more than whites, getting an ID card is not nearly so onerous as anti-reform groups pretend it to be, and that helping people get identification for themselves is a good way of ensuring they are part of the many other parts of societal interaction that require identification. This much should be evident to reporters who continuously amplify incendiary, racially charged allegations that do not square with reality.

Media Mash: Bozell, Hannity Slam MSNBC for Still Insisting Boston Bombers Were Not Islamists
By Ken Shepherd | August 16, 2013 | 1:29 PM EDT

One day before the one-year anniversary of Floyd Lee Corkins's failed terror attack on the Family Research Council -- he was inspired by a "hate map" by the Southern Poverty Law Center -- MSNBC brought on SPLC's Mark Potok to mislead viewers about the nature of the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing, insisting that the Tsarnaev brothers were not motivated by radical Islamic ideology so much as by right-leaning conspiracy theorist websites that investigators found in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's search history.

"This isn't the first time MSNBC has done this," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell reminded Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity during Hannity's August 15 "Media Mash" segment. Indeed, it was Hardball host Chris Matthews who on the day of the attack theorized that it was a homegrown right-wing terrorist responsible for the bombing because it occurred on Tax Day, Bozell noted. What's more, the Media Research Center founder added [for the full segment, watch the embedded video below the page break]:

Daily Beast's Bouie Repeats Faulty, Tired Talking Points About North Carolina's Voter ID Law
By Ken Shepherd | August 14, 2013 | 5:52 PM EDT

In his August 13 story, "North Carolina's Attack on Voting Rights," the Daily Beast's Jamelle Bouie insults his readers' intelligence with tired, discredited left-wing talking points about the new North Carolina voter ID law.

Let's take a look at a few of them below. First there's the Republicans-are-disenfranchising-college-voters meme, which is my personal favorite: