NYT's Steinhauer Isolates GOP's Conservative House Majority on Front P

Right from the start of her off-lead story Wednesday, New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer dramatically portrayed GOP conservatives (standing firm against a legislative compromise that would temporarily extend the payroll tax cut instead of a long-term solution) as isolated from mainstream politics. “G.O.P. In House Rejects Stopgap On Payroll Tax.”
Clay Waters
December 21st, 2011 12:34 PM

NBC's Curry to Michele Bachmann: Has Boehner 'Lost All Control' of Hou

On Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry led off an interview with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann by wondering if House Speaker John Boehner was a liar or just incompetent: "Did House Speaker John Boehner mislead the Senate into thinking this payroll tax extension was a done deal? Or has he lost all control of Republican Tea Party members of the House?" [Audio available here] Bachmann…
Kyle Drennen
December 21st, 2011 10:53 AM

Huff-Po Top Media Stories of 2011 Include 'Occupy Wall St. Occupies Th

The Huffington Post attempted to chronicle the top 18 media stories of the year. At number one among liberals, of course, was the phone-hacking scandal in Britain surrounding the now-defunct Rupert Murdoch tabloid News of the World. Coming in third was the rise of al-Jazeera English. But number 4 was this candid theme: "Occupy Wall Street Occupies the Media." "The people who helped make this…
Tim Graham
December 21st, 2011 10:52 AM

Open Thread: Labor Unrest at the New York Times

In what could become a major battle between several newspaper unions and the New York Times, according to the New York Post, the Communications Workers of America has already earmarked $350,000 to put towards the conflict that could arise. The Newspaper Guild and the Mailers Union Local 6 have both been without contracts since March 31. Both of these unions sent letters in October to Arthur…
NB Staff
December 21st, 2011 10:32 AM

WaPo Features 'Sex Comedy' Novel for Teens With 'God As a Horny Guy Na

Washington Post book critic Ron Charles reviewed three skeptical-to-scandalous books about God and religion on Wednesday, under the inaccurate headline "Three works of divine comedy." Charles included one targeting teenagers called “There Is No Dog,” which he said was for “the younger heretic-in-training.” The book hasn’t even come out yet, but what better time to review it than days before…
Tim Graham
December 21st, 2011 8:25 AM

NYTimes Art Critic Takes on 'Noxious Vibes Emanating' from the Ultra-R

New York Times art critic Holland Cotter’s year-i- review piece Sunday opened with an awkward metaphorical shout-out to the lefty park-squatters of Occupy Wall Street and an excoriation of the “noxious” 1 percent: “Complacency Butts Up Against Game Changers”: "...art-worldlings did at least adopt one thing from the Occupy Wall Street movement: a new identifying label for the source of…
Clay Waters
December 21st, 2011 7:42 AM

AP's Kravitz Heralds 'Beginning of Gradual Comeback' After One Mediocr

Lord have mercy, these people are looking anywhere and everywhere to turn an economic improvement molehill into something that sort of looks like a mountain. Today, the headline to Derek Kravitz's report at the Associated Press ("Rise in home construction suggests a turnaround") reasonably reflected the underlying reality reported by the Census Bureau, but his first six paragraphs most…
Tom Blumer
December 20th, 2011 11:50 PM

Bill Clinton to Tell Obama to Appoint Fox News's Bill O'Reilly Secreta

Fox News's Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday told Bill Clinton, "You should suggest to President Obama that he appoint me Secretary of Housing." The former President in his first appearance on The O'Reilly Factor seemed to like the concept saying, “I will tell him tonight...That’s probably the best idea he’s had” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
December 20th, 2011 10:41 PM

Bozell Column: The Year of Krugman Thuggishness

In 2008, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics. At that time it wasn’t hard to imagine the Swedes were rewarding Krugman for eight years of blasting George W. Bush. In other words, the Nobel Prize truly matched its namesake: Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. Krugman regularly throws rhetorical dynamite at anything that stands in the way of his radical…
Brent Bozell
December 20th, 2011 10:28 PM

Bill Clinton: Press Favored Obama Over Hillary in 2008, Weren't Biased

Bill Clinton on Tuesday said the press favored Barack Obama over his wife for president in 2008. Not surprisingly, he told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly that he didn’t believe the media were biased towards him when he first ran for president in 1992 (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
December 20th, 2011 8:54 PM

The Feds' War on Religion (Part 1 of

 Anyone who knows me knows that for my whole life, I've been a huge supporter of our U.S. military personnel, whom I congratulate about their victory in Iraq. But when our president and officials in the U.S. Department of Defense exchange a war abroad for a religious war at home, can't we see that something else is seriously awry in this administration? It's one thing to watch "merry…
Chuck Norris
December 20th, 2011 7:14 PM

CBS Guest: 'Insanity of the Lack of Gun Control' Leads to Police Death

Former New York City police commissioner Bill Bratton brought his pro-gun control agenda into a segment about the FBI's latest crime statistics on Tuesday's Early Show on CBS, blaming the "the insanity of the lack of gun control laws in this country" for an increase in police deaths during 2011. Anchor Erica Hill introduced Bratton as the "chairman of Kroll, a worldwide investigative company…
Matthew Balan
December 20th, 2011 6:25 PM

Whoopi Goldberg: Communism Is 'a Great Concept' That 'Makes Perfect Se

According to "The View's" Whoopi Goldberg, communism is a "great concept" that "makes perfect sense" on paper. The comedienne and co-host made the rather astounding comment on Tuesday while discussing the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. After mentioning the background of new leader Kim Jong Un and his education at a Swiss boarding school, Goldberg proclaimed, "...If you say that…
Scott Whitlock
December 20th, 2011 5:40 PM

Wolf Blitzer: Failure to Extend Payroll Tax Cut Would Be ‘Great Ammu

When asked how both parties would handle an ultimate failure to extend the payroll tax cut, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer immediately painted the scenario as a big advantage for the Democrats. “Well it’ll be great ammunition for the Democrats, because they’ll obviously blame the Republicans, especially House Republicans,” Blizter asserted during the 2 p.m. hour of Newsroom. Blitzer didn’t say how…
Matt Hadro
December 20th, 2011 5:30 PM