Politico

Politico Mag's Peterson Falsely Contends That Louisville's Air Quality Has Worsened
By Tom Blumer | December 16, 2014 | 5:37 PM EST

In a December 9 article at Politico Magazine, Erica Peterson went after Louisville's "urban heat island" problem, where "a city’s center experiences significantly hotter temperatures than its less-developed surroundings."

In doing so, Peterson rolled out some very questionable statistics. But it's her contention that "As pollution and stagnant air bake in the sun" in the city's heat island, "air quality worsens" that was really over the top. If that statement were true, Louisville's air quality should have deteriorated as its heat island problem has grown. The truth is, as Powerline's Steven Hayward demonstrated yesterday, that the Derby City's air quality has significantly improved.

Politico Mag Writer Describes Center-Right Sites With More Traffic As 'Fringier'
By Tom Blumer | December 15, 2014 | 2:33 PM EST

One of the more amusing aspects of observing today's left-biased establishment media environment is seeing agenda-driven journalists directly or indirectly convey a clearly inflated sense of their outlets' self-importance.

A recent example of this came Friday from Jacob Silverman at Politico Magazine. In his writeup on conservative firebrand Charles Johnson, Silverman employed the comparative version of a word - "fringy" - rarely used in the political realm. Silverman described Breitbart and The Blaze as "even fringier" than ... well, let's try to figure that one out.

Barely News: Congresswoman Lummis's 'Most Moving Moment' at Gruber Hearing
By Tom Blumer | December 13, 2014 | 11:00 AM EST

Dictionary.com defines "glib" as "readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so."

Jonathan Gruber's apology at his Tuesday congressional hearing included that word. The word, especially the "superficial" element of its definition, applies to how the establishment press covered the hearing. With only rare exceptions, it excluded any mention of what has accurately been called "the most moving moment of the Gruber hearing": Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis's emotional recounting of how her husband died while the status of his coverage under Obamacare was in dispute.

Liberal Media Can't Believe Jeb Bush Described as 'Moderate Squish'
By Tim Graham | December 7, 2014 | 9:24 AM EST

Liberal reporters cannot believe conservatives see Jeb Bush as a Republican establishment figure, a moderate squish. Mark Levin calls him a “very good moderate Democrat.” In Politico magazine, NPR’s S.V. Date couldn’t believe it; neither could Adam C. Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.

Both journalists thought conservatives were just misunderstanding reality.

UVA Newspaper Editor: 'To Let Fact Checking Define Narrative Huge Mistake'
By Mark Finkelstein | December 6, 2014 | 10:39 PM EST

Facts?  We don't need no steenkin' facts. Liberals aren't going to let mere facts get in the way of a good story.

In a Politico magazine article on the UVA rape accusation debacle, in which the accuser's allegations have unraveled, Julia Horowitz, an assistant managing editor at the college paper The Daily Cavalier, claimed "to let fact checking define the narrative would be a huge mistake."

Ferguson 'Hands Up' Gesture Makes House Floor; Politico Fails to Flag It As Bogus
By Tom Blumer | December 2, 2014 | 1:41 PM EST

Certain members of Congress abused their positions Monday to imply that "Hands up, don't shoot" was something Michael Brown actually said before he was killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri in August.

On Friday, the Associated Press irresponsibly gave voice to those who say that the slogan is now a "metaphor" for police brutality targeted against blacks, even though the claim that Michael Brown did or said any such thing has been completely discredited by the physical evidence and the grand jury's credible witnesses. In covering the congressional histrionics, Lucy McCalmont at the Politico, aka Pathetico (HT Seton Motley) took things to the next level.

Politico Gets the Lede Way Wrong - and The Hill Buries It
By Seton Motley | December 1, 2014 | 10:36 AM EST

As we’ve often discussed, the Tech World Media is just as hopelessly Leftist and lost as the broader Jurassic Press. They so often get it so very wrong - often because their absurd political perspective warps their alleged “reporting.” 

Saturday gave us two additional exquisite examples - one each in Politico (henceforth Pathetico) and The Hill.

Politico Downplays Jonathan Gruber as Obamacare Architect
By P.J. Gladnick | November 15, 2014 | 10:01 AM EST

Since Politico was unable to ignore the Jonathan Gruber controversy, they now seem to be switching gears to downplay his role. Politico health care reporter Paige Winfield Cunningham has crafted a story using quotes to demonstrate that Gruber really wasn't an Obamacare architect. Ironically Cunningham herself as recently as July referred to Gruber as an Obamacare architect.
 

Jon Stewart and Sean Hannity In a War of Words
By Melissa Mullins | November 14, 2014 | 8:38 AM EST

Jon Stewart is on a roll this week.  After publicly ridiculing and comparing George W. Bush's retirement to that of another former president, Jimmy Carter, and mocking coal miners for losing their jobs (and that they should go an work for the NFL), he has also had a war of words with Sean Hannity....and Hannity shot right back.

Politico Belatedly Buries Gruber Video Scandal With Brief Misleading Reports
By P.J. Gladnick | November 12, 2014 | 5:51 PM EST

Politico finally got around to reporting on the Jonathan Gruber video scandal in which he boasted about how ObamaCare deception was necessary in order to get the bill passed. However, the two Politico reports on this story in addition to being published days after this story had already gone viral, were notable for their brevity and the fact that they made it seem to imply that it was somehow a Fox News obsession rather than being of wider interest.

Politico: ‘The Democrats’ Favorite Denier’ Senator Jim Inhofe
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.” 

Politico Argues Larry Hogan Didn't Win So Much As Democrats Lost Maryland
By Ken Shepherd | November 7, 2014 | 5:25 PM EST

Over at Politico, Kevin Robillard devoted a story on November 7 to the matter of "How Larry Hogan won in Maryland." But throughout the story, Robillard weaved a narrative that almost if not completely pooh-poohed the idea that the Anne Arundel County businessman had anything to do with his Tuesday night victory. Instead,he noted, the credit goes in large part to Hogan luckily running in a Republican wave year and the Democrats making key tactical blunders on the campaign trail.