Campaigns & Elections

ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper appeared on the June 27 edition of Dennis Miller's radio show and conceded to a media blackout of Barack Obama's Medal of Honor gaffe. (The President confused a living recipient with the deceased Jared Monti who died in combat.) Tapper admitted that the President made "a big uncomfortable mistake." He added, "And I don't think that that got the same…

Good Morning America's John Berman on Tuesday offered a condescending, dismissive take on how the money "obsessed" presidential candidates spent their Fourth of July. Yet, four years ago, the same program offered a fawning look at what Barack Obama did on Independence Day. After mentioning Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich, Berman suggested that the Fourth of July could be "a chance to take…

Yesterday, Tim Graham at NewsBusters did an excellent job of addressing a key aspect of a report submitted by Associated Press reporter Errin Haines, who is African-American, of the presidential campaign of Herman Cain, who is also African-American. Haines questioned "voters' ability to look past his skin color and perceive him as a serious candidate." Herman Cain attended the We The People…

Maybe we ought to nickname him Rip Van Geier. In his coverage of this weekend's We The People Convention in Columbus, Ohio early Saturday morning, Columbus Dispatch reporter Ben Geier found it "surprising" that many attendees would "go after the Republican Party and House Speaker John Boehner" in expressing their opinions relating to developments in Washington. It's as if he's totally unaware…

AP reporter Errin Haines couldn't possibly think that being black makes you an un-serious presidential candidate. She's black. But that was the mysterious echo in her (mostly positive) story on GOP contender Herman Cain. Perhaps she meant that a black Republican can't possibly be anything more than a token or a gimmick? Her third paragraph: Already losing some of his cachet to tea party…

"Are you a flake?"  With that question on "Fox News Sunday" to Rep. Michele Bachmann, Chris Wallace may have given a rallying cry to the new feminist revolution in American politics. Except the f-word will likely be nowhere in evidence. Wallace apologized, and in a sense the whole kerfuffle is over -- but only for him. He was only hitching onto the mainstream media's presentation of…

On Thursday's CBS Evening News and Friday's Early Show, CBS glossed over President Obama's aim to break a campaign promise with a proposal to raise taxes on people who make less than $250,000 a year. Both Chip Reid and Bill Plante noted that "the White House is also insisting on...a limit on deductions for people...making more than $200,000 a year," but didn't reference the Democrat's 2008 tax…

"From now until Election Day 2012 it's going to be scorched earth against any Republican who gets in the way of Barack Obama," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Molly Line on the July 1 "Fox & Friends." This past week found Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) the target of the liberal media's attacks in part because she just formally announced her 2012 presidential candidacy…

The left wing PAC Priorities USA Action and Republican Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, who both appear to be using the same stock footage, can teach us a thing or two about image manipulation. The following image was used in January for a web ad promoting Pawlenty's book Courage to Stand. Watch the full video here.

  Jay Carney admits calling MSNBC yesterday to complain about Mark Halperin's crack [that we were first to report] that the President, at his Wednesday press conference, acted like a "d--k."  Did the White House press secretary take the opportunity of his call to pressure the show to bring on more pro-Obama flacks? The question arises because on today's show, Mika Brzezinski revealed that…

While the media have been using fact-checker PolitiFact to bash Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for her gaffes and misstatements of fact, the MSM have been silent about the same organization counting 39 "barely true" statements from Barack Obama and 49 that were outright "false." "In 29 months, you know how many network stories have been done on Barack Obama and his falsehoods?" NewsBusters…

With a poll earlier this month showing that an unnamed Republican candidate could beat President Barack Obama by a narrow margin if the election were held today, Obama's advisers are scrambling to find ways to win his reelection in 2012 amid a $14 trillion debt and three wars. Obama's dismal poll numbers are leaving his nostalgic advisers grappling to assemble an astroturf campaign…

  When Mark Halperin asked if the seven-second delay was working prior to offering his observation on President Obama's performance at his press conference of yesterday, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski seemed to assume he was joking, and invited the normally mild-mannered pundit to proceed.  But it immediately became obvious that the joke was on the Morning Joe hosts, because when he…

Rep. Michele Bachmann told potential voters on Wednesday that the media "want to see two girls come together and have a mud wrestling fight. And I’m not going to give it to ‘em," referring to the media's treatment of herself and her possible 2012 opponent, former Gov. Sarah Palin. With Bachmann's entry into the race this week, there are already a number of comparisons being drawn between…