Reuters

AP, NY Times Fail to Report Absence of Power, Kerry From Netanyahu UN Speech
By Tom Blumer | October 3, 2015 | 10:02 PM EDT

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations. As described by George Jahn at the Associated Press, it was "an impassioned speech interspersed with bouts of dramatic silence."

Jahn failed to report the absence of U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power and Secretary of State John Kerry. So did Rick Gladstone and Judi Rudoren at the New York Times. An unbylined Reuters report drily noted that U.S. representation at Netanyahu's speech consisted of "Ambassador Samantha Power's deputy, David Pressman, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro." Breitbart also noted the presence of "Richard Erdman, Alternate Representative to the UN General Assembly." Reuters uniquely explained why Power and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in town, did not attend (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Press Ignores How Sanders Is the Really Angry Candidate — and Person
By Tom Blumer | September 20, 2015 | 9:55 AM EDT

We've been told for over 20 years — at least since pundits falsely claimed that "angry white men" drove the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994 — that Republicans and conservatives have far more issues with anger than liberals and socialists. In the the 2016 presidential election cycle, current frontrunner Republican Donald Trump and especially his supporters have often been described in media reports as "angry," while the left's candidates and followers have largely avoided that tag.

So it's worth noting that Dan Hill, in a guest column at Reuters, claims that the really angry candidate in this election cycle is none other than socialist Bernie Sanders. What's more, an item published in August at SevenDaysVT.com confirms that Sanders is also a serially angry guy in his daily dealings.

Business Wires Pretend That U.S. Weakness Didn't Influence Fed's No-Change Rate Decision
By Tom Blumer | September 19, 2015 | 10:02 AM EDT

The business press is trying to convince readers, listeners, and viewers that Janet Yellen's Federal Reserve kept interest rates at zero not because of U.S. economic conditions, which supposedly "look good" with "steady economic growth." No-no. She stayed the course because of the troubled tglobal economy.

Thursday evening, Reuters wrote that the Fed failed to move "in a bow to worries about the global economy, financial market volatility and sluggish inflation at home." Bloomberg directly blamed "China growth concerns." The Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger cited "a weak global economy, persistently low inflation and unstable financial markets." None of the three noted the deteriorating situation in the U.S., and the only item I could find which cited the Fed's full set of pathetic annual U.S. growth projections was a Wall Street Journal editorial.

The "Zen Master" Tweets His Support for Carly Fiorina During GOP Debate
By Dylan Gwinn | September 17, 2015 | 12:55 PM EDT

NBA's Phil Jackson likes Fiorina during debates, and is not afraid to tweet about it.

China Claims Hosting The Winter Olympics Is A Human Right
By Dylan Gwinn | September 2, 2015 | 9:32 AM EDT

It seems as though the “Chi-coms” have found a new right “enumerated in the penumbras” of human history.

The right to snowboard.

AP Report on Hillary's Email 'Worries' Ignores Judge's Order, Reuters Bombshell
By Tom Blumer | August 21, 2015 | 4:16 PM EDT

The time stamp on an Associated Press report on Hillary Clinton's email "worries" ("CLINTON FACING FRESH WORRIES IN CONGRESS OVER EMAILS") by Ken Thomas and Julie Bykowicz this morning is 11:21 a.m. Eastern Time.

Despite that time stamp, the report fails to mention a bombshell report from Reuters ("Dozens of Clinton emails were classified from the start, U.S. rules suggest") originally posted at 5:17 a.m. (time stamp has since been updated). Going even further back, the AP story fails to mention a Thursday afternoon story about how "A federal judge has ordered the State Department to cooperate with the investigation into the Hillary Clinton private email scandal." The decision to ignore these developments is in all likelihood deliberate.

Reuters Uses Push Poll To Warn GOP It's 'Risky' to Oppose Planned Parenthood
By Tim Graham | August 19, 2015 | 5:20 PM EDT

While critics of Planned Parenthood might wonder how the nation’s largest abortion provider is going to dig out from a video about cutting through baby faces to sell brains, the Reuters wire service is happy to help dig the abortion advocates out. Their story on Wednesday was headlined “Americans back federal funds for Planned Parenthood health services: poll”.

Planned Parenthood boss Cecile Richards was thrilled to tweet out this story about a new Reuters-Ipsos poll. Reporter Emily Stephenson began with the usual tilt: all the risks here in politics land on the Republicans who question Planned Parenthood. 

AP and Reuters Ignore Likely Impact of Bloated Inventories on Future Growth
By Tom Blumer | August 11, 2015 | 3:31 PM EDT

Two wire service dispatches covering the government's June Wholesale Sales and Inventories release either glossed over or completely ignored what others are saying about the report's impact on near-term economic growth.

The final sentence of an unbylined Reuters report vaguely referred to future impact by indicating that current inventory balances, which are bloated by historical standards, "would weigh on manufacturing and economic growth" (i.e., have a negative impact). Both Reuters and the AP's Josh Boak completely ignored a leading GDP forecaster's estimate that inventory buildups seen during the second quarter will cause a significant third-quarter pullback which will also knock down third-quarter economic growth considerably — and that was before today's news that the June buildup was even greater than expected. Boak's report also contained an utterly unsupportable "things are getting better" statement.

Press Downplays, Hides EPA's Responsibility for Western River Contamination
By Tom Blumer | August 9, 2015 | 10:25 AM EDT

On Wednesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency committed an act which would have likely become instant national news if a private entity had done the same thing.

On Friday, John Merline at Investors' Business Daily succinctly noted that the EPA "dumped a million gallons of mine waste into Animas River in Colorado, turning it into what looked like Tang, forcing the sheriff's office to close the river to recreational users." Oh, and it "also failed to warn officials in downstream New Mexico about the spill." Yet here we are four days later, and the story has gotten very little visibility outside of center-right blogs and outlets. That's largely explained by how the wire services have handled the story. After the jump, readers will see headlines and descriptions of the stories which have appeared thus far at the web site of the New York Times:

Reporter: Obama Should Stop U.S. Hunters From Killing Animals Like Cecil the Lion
By Randy Hall | July 29, 2015 | 8:20 PM EDT

During Wednesday's White House press briefing, Julia Edwards -- a reporter for the Reuters news service -- asked Press Secretary Josh Earnest if President Barack Obama would respond to the “growing outcry” over the killing of Cecil, a well-loved lion in a Zimbabwe park that was hunted down by Minnesota dentist Walter James Palmer.

“Is the White House or is President Obama aware of this killing,” she asked, “and what could the president do, on an executive level, to possibly keep U.S. trophy hunters from traveling to Africa and committing other killings?”

AP Fails to Note That Drastic Consumer Confidence Drop Is Worst in Four Years
By Tom Blumer | July 28, 2015 | 6:08 PM EDT

The Conference Board's July Consumer Confidence report released earlier today threw a heavy dose of cold water on the idea that the economy might finally achieve a broad-based, genuine recovery this year.

Despite month after month of "all is well" reporting — and excuse-making when all hasn't been well — from the U.S. business press, the American public has apparently finally figured out that all is far from well. July's overall reading of 90.9 was 8.9 points lower than June's 99.8, the biggest single-month drop in almost four years — something Reuters and Bloomberg News noted, but which, as would be expected, the Associated Press, the nation's de facto news gatekeeper, failed to report.

As June New-Home Sales 'Unexpectedly' Dive, AP's Boak Says They're Just 'Not As Hot'
By Tom Blumer | July 24, 2015 | 6:48 PM EDT

Thanks to year-over-year declines in manufacturing orders, manufacturing shipments, and wholesale sales, along with bloated inventories, apologists for the current condition of the U.S. economy are down to three defenses supposedly demonstrating that all is still really well after yet another rough first quarter (once again excused away as due to supposedly historically awful winter weather).

One of the three is that the housing market, particularly for new homes, is in a genuine recovery. Effective today, we can scratch at least the new-home element of that claim. The Census Bureau told us today that seasonally adjusted new-home sales fell by 7 percent in June, after May's originally strong figure was also revised down by 5 percent. The raw data showed that the number of new homes sold in June — supposedly peak season for new home purchases — was the same as the number sold in February.