Jennifer Rubin

NYT Rips Obama: It Shouldn't Have Taken So Long To Get Involved In Oil Spill
By Noel Sheppard | June 13, 2010 | 3:08 PM EDT

The New York Times editorial board on Sunday absolutely tore Barack Obama apart for his handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 

"The president cannot plug the leak or magically clean up the fouled Gulf of Mexico. But he and his administration need to do a lot more to show they are on top of this mess, and not perpetually behind the curve," wrote the Times. 

"It certainly should not have taken days for Mr. Obama to get publicly involved in the oil spill, or even longer for his administration to start putting the heat on BP for its inadequate response and failure to inform the public about the size of the spill." 

Quite surprisingly, the Times was just getting warmed up: 

WaPo Headline: 'Obama's 17-minute, 2,500-word Response to Woman's Claim of Being "Over-taxed"'
By Noel Sheppard | April 4, 2010 | 11:14 AM EDT

Is the Washington Post losing that loving feeling for President Obama?

Consider the following headline and subsequent article posted by Anne Kornblut at the paper's "44" blog Friday:

Obama's 17-minute, 2,500-word response to woman's claim of being 'over-taxed'

This headline changed when her piece was published in Saturday's paper on page A2, but the seemingly sad song remained the same:

Howard Kurtz: 'Jon Stewart Is An Icon To Many Journalists'
By Noel Sheppard | February 1, 2010 | 10:05 AM EST

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz believes comedian Jon Stewart is an icon to many journalists.

"[E]specially those in television who sometimes copy his quick-cut editing techniques," wrote Kurtz in his column Monday.

But that's not all.

Kurtz sees the "Daily Show" host as "a pop-culture bellweather," and feels his recent attacks on Barack Obama are a significant sea change. Last week Stewart went after the President's use of a teleprompter at a Virginia elementary school.

As a result, the clearly left-leaning Comedy Central star's "barbs are generating partisan buzz" (h/t Jennifer Rubin):

WaPo Columnist: Dems Need Attack Dog To Counter GOP Rhetoric
By Noel Sheppard | September 29, 2009 | 12:29 PM EDT

Barack Obama is President, Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House, Harry Reid is Senate Majority Leader, Bill Clinton is doing the television circuit to revive his reputation, most journalists are still hopelessly in the tank for the current White House resident, and the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza is concerned that the Democrats don't have a voice to counter Republican talking points.

This is almost as silly as a New Yorker losing sleep over the Yankees not having enough money to field an allstar team next year.

Regardless of the apparent absurdity, such was Cillizza's point in a blog posting at WaPo's The Fix (h/t Jennifer Rubin):

Possible Senate Candidate Chris Matthews Pressured To Quit MSNBC
By Noel Sheppard | December 5, 2008 | 10:42 AM EST

If "Hardball" host Chris Matthews is indeed going to challenge Arlen Specter for his senate seat in 2010, he must resign his position with MSNBC.

So say a growing chorus of observers from both sides of the aisle.

As reported by Politico's Michael Calderone Thursday:

Broder: Obama's First Week Goes 'As Well As Anyone Could Imagine'
By Noel Sheppard | November 13, 2008 | 10:22 AM EST

If you want to get an idea of the kind of rose-colored microscope Obama will be scrutinized with by journalists now that he's headed to the White House, you need look no further than David Broder's column in the Washington Post Thursday which actually began:

The first week of Barack Obama's transition to the presidency has gone about as well as anyone could imagine. 

Hmmm. I guess no one could have imagined president-elect Obama being greeted by a bullish show of confidence from Wall Street in the week following his coronation rather than an historic stock market collapse.

For some reason Broder chose to ignore the 14 percent decline in equity values since Election Day, but the Wall Street Journal didn't: 

Media's Road to Recovery: 'The First Step Is Admitting The Problem'
By Noel Sheppard | November 9, 2008 | 7:10 PM EST

As NewsBusters previously reported, the Washington Post's ombudsman admitted Sunday that her paper's coverage of this year's presidential campaign was clearly biased towards Barack Obama.

Although that shouldn't surprise any sane person in this country, such a mea culpa is just good marketing unless the entity confessing the inappropriate behavior plans on doing something to correct it.

Jennifer Rubin of Commentary magazine agreed Sunday, and suggested that the road to recovery is first admitting the problem (picture courtesy Grinning Planet):

Alterman's Got Boca on the Brain
By Mark Finkelstein | August 12, 2008 | 2:26 PM EDT
From a non-Jew, it would smack of anti-Semitism.  From Eric Alterman? You be the judge.

The author of the Altercations column at Media Matters has a running complaint:  Rick Klein, editor of The Note at ABC News, pays too much respect to the work of other Jewish pundits. Jennifer Rubin, one of the chief bloggers at Commentary's "Contentions" blog, was Alterman's first target, in his August 1 column [emphasis added throughout]:
I realize I may be the only person in the world to care about this, and I only care a tiny bit, but what does Commentary's Jennifer Rubin have on The Note's Rick Klein?

I realize that Mr. Klein is, in many respects, a fully-worked ref, citing right-wing publications that have proven consistently wrong about everything throughout the past eight years -- following the requisite ABC advertising which justifies the expense of the effort to his corporate overlords -- while ignoring those on the center-left who have proven right. But even so, Commentary? Come now. The guy cites her every day. Are they dating? Did his mother lose a bet to her mother playing canasta in Boca?