As Usual, Press Fails to Note How Last Week's Jobless Claims Were Revi

Last week, what the Department of Labor had originally reported as a dip in new unemployment claims the previous week (from 368,000 to 367,000) was revised into an increase (to 370,000). This week, what DOL originally reported was a no-change situation (i.e., 370,000) was revised into an increase (to 372,000). It's getting ever more difficult to accept DOL's ongoing underestimations, which…
Tom Blumer
May 24th, 2012 11:42 AM

White House and MSNBC Cite Bogus Report Claiming 'Obama Spending Binge

A bogus report published by MarketWatch Tuesday claiming "under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s" has been all the rage at the White House and MSNBC. Conservative columnist Ann Coulter correctly observed Wednesday:
Noel Sheppard
May 24th, 2012 10:47 AM

CBS Leads Evening News With Catholics -- The Accused Abusers, Not the

The CBS Evening News led with the Catholic Church on Wednesday night. It wasn’t about the 43 Catholic groups suing the Obama administration. It was yet another story on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy decades ago. CBS's newscast is the only one of the Big Three evening shows to notice the lawsuits -- for 19 seconds on Monday night. Anchor Scott Pelley began at the top of the Wednesday…
Tim Graham
May 24th, 2012 8:55 AM

Open Thread: How About That Arab Spring

Supporters of the recent revolutions in several Arab countries were insistent that these uprisings would yield more democracy and freedom for people formerly oppressed by dictators. In Egypt, it's become clear that while people have indeed been allowed to vote, what they want to vote for is a far cry from freedom. A political party affiliated with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group…
Matthew Sheffield
May 24th, 2012 8:54 AM

NYT Claims 'An Uneventful Weekend' in Chicago...Except for the Mass Ar

Monica Davey and Steven Yaccino reported for Tuesday's New York Times from Chicago, the site of the NATO summit and left-wing protests and put the best spin on the violent clashes that led to 90 arrests over the course of a week: "Day of Subdued Protests Follows Night of Clashes in Chicago." The text box: "The prospect of widespread chaos does not materialize." Apparently left-wing protests…
Clay Waters
May 24th, 2012 8:20 AM

PBS for Obama: USA Today Puts Gushy 'Essay by Ken Burns' on Front Page

On Tuesday, USA Today topped their front page with an "Essay by Ken Burns" headlined "National parks feed the American soul." Naturally, this liberal PBS filmmaker/sermonizer began by celebrating Barack Obama, which the newspaper put in large type. "Just before our documentary film series on the history of our national parks was first broadcast on PBS in the fall of 2009, I had a once-in-a-…
Tim Graham
May 24th, 2012 8:17 AM

Brian Williams Asserts Romney ‘Called Out’ on ‘Unrealistic’ Pl

NBC anchor Brian Williams on Wednesday night ridiculed Mitt Romney’s quest to reduce the unemployment rate to six percent by 2016, a level enjoyed fewer than four years ago. “Back when Newt Gingrich pledged $2.50 a gallon gasoline, if elected President, he was called out at the time for an unrealistic number. Today,” Williams charged without naming any source, “some of the same thing happened…
Brent Baker
May 24th, 2012 2:36 AM

AP Reaction to One-Month 3.3% Seasonally Adjusted New Home Sales Incre

To be fair, the full text of what Martin Crutsinger at the Associated Press wrote in the first sentence of what I believe was the final version of his report today on the Census Bureau's new-home sales release was that "Americans bought more new homes last month, the latest evidence that the U.S. housing market could be starting to recover." The other "evidence" he cited related to a small bump…
Tom Blumer
May 23rd, 2012 11:18 PM

Sharpton Suggests Romney's Rejection Of Bain-Bashing Makes Him . . . A

Why not just call Romney a racist and be done with it? In the most tortured twist of logic this blogger has seen so far during this campaign, Al Sharpton somehow managed to equate Mitt Romney's refusal to roll over and accept Barack Obama's attacks on Bain Capital with, yes, birtherism. I know what you're thinking: what the . . . heck?  Don't ask me to explain how or why Sharpton came to his…
Mark Finkelstein
May 23rd, 2012 10:39 PM

With a Straight Face, Matthews Spins: It's a 'Fact' That Obama Is Not

Chris Matthews managed to keep a straight face, Wednesday, when he seriously repeated the "fact" that Barack Obama is "not" a "reckless spender." Highlighting a seriously flawed analysis by MarketWatch, Matthews marveled, "Every once and a while I come across a fact that just blows me away." The Hardball anchor insisted that "federal spending is rising at the slowest rate" in 60 years.…
Scott Whitlock
May 23rd, 2012 6:24 PM

CBS Presses White House on Catholics' Anti-Obama Lawsuit, But No On-Ai

The Big Three networks' evening newscasts have all but punted so far on the 12 lawsuits filed on Monday against the Obama administration, challenging the abortifacient/birth control mandate which is part of ObamaCare. However, CBS actually followed up on their exclusive interview of New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan on the regulation on Tuesday's CBS This Morning. Correspondent Norah O'…
Matthew Balan
May 23rd, 2012 6:03 PM

Cal Thomas Column: The Media's Religion Deficit

Evidence of big media's bias against religion that doesn't advance the secular and liberal agenda of the Democratic Party is beyond dispute. Any faith attached to a conservative agenda is to be ridiculed, stereotyped and misrepresented. Islam is a notable exception. The media appear to bend over backward not to offend Muslims. The Washington Post on Monday, reporting from Carrollton, Ark.,…
Cal Thomas
May 23rd, 2012 5:38 PM

On Page A6, WashPost Notes 'Narrow Win in Arkansas Indicates Unrest in

Once again last night, President Obama faced an embarrassing showing in Democratic Party primaries, winning only 58.3 percent of the votes of Arkansas Democrats and 57.9 percent of Kentucky ones. Once again, in covering the story, the Washington Post buried the news placing the development on page A6. The last time the president faced such an embarrassingly low showing, the Post put its…
Ken Shepherd
May 23rd, 2012 5:30 PM

CNN Contributor Foolishly Argues Kentucky, Arkansas Have 'Never' Been

CNN contributor Maria Cardona may have forgotten some history as she tried to spin away President Obama's troubles in the Arkansas and Kentucky Democratic primaries. Cardona, speaking during the 10 a.m. hour of Wednesday's Newsroom, argued that "Arkansas and Kentucky have never been hotbeds of the Democratic Party." President Obama only picked up 58 percent of the vote in the Kentucky…
Matt Hadro
May 23rd, 2012 5:04 PM