AP's Calvin Woodward Does Astonishing Fact Check on Obama

Somebody needs to 'fess up. Who put truth serum in Calvin Woodward's coffee this morning?Whoever it is, they're in a heap of trouble, as Woodward produced a fact-checking critique of Barack Obama that is so good you'd swear most of it was ghostwritten by a conservative talk host.It will be interesting to see how much distribution it gets. I would suggest not counting on too much, but being open…

Newsweek's Clift Examines Biden, Rendell Roles in Specter Switch

Eleanor Clift is by no stretch a conservative apologist, but her reporting in Newsweek on the Specter switch exposes an angle that the broadcast networks are omitting: the Machiavellian maneuvers behind-the-scenes to coax Specter to jump the GOP ship.Of particular interest is Clift's revelation that Gov. Ed Rendell's motive for pushing Specter to become a Democrat was to shut down a potential…

As Specter Switches, the Ira Einhorn Saga Deserves Wider Mention

Ira who?The establishment media is saying almost nothing about the man who co-founded Earth Day, and who also happens to be in jail for life for murder. Arlen Specter's involvement with the Ira Einhorn case is an important event in the party-switching Senator's career that curious readers would want to know about -- if the establishment media cared to note it.You know they would be bringing out…

Newspaper Circs: Another Serious Drop; NYT's Small Decline a Short-Ter

From Editor & Publisher yesterday (bold is mine):The Audit Bureau of Circulations released this morning the spring figures for the six months ending March 31, 2009, showing that the largest metros continue to shed daily and Sunday circulation -- now at a record rate.According to ABC, for 395 newspapers reporting this spring, daily circulation fell 7% to 34,439,713 copies, compared with the…

WaPo Shocker: Obama Staffers Attend Secret Dinners With Lefty Media

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz has let the cat out of the bag in the Post's April 27 issue about a regularly scheduled secret media dinner attended by some of the top left-wing journalists in the country. But it isn't just the lefty scribblers that have attended these secret, off-the-record dinners for these gatherings have each featured a guest. Rahm Emanuel, Sec. of the Treasury Tim…

Pittsburgh P-G Editor Writes of Meeting With Senator Arlen Specter

One thing you can say about Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist and associate editor Dan Simpson (pictured at right) is that he is creative.In his April 22 column, Simpson created a meeting with a certain Senator Arlen Specter in 1974.Here's the relevant verbiage from Simpson's column ("Switch Sides, Sen. Specter"), the primary purpose of which is to lobby for the Keystone State Senator to become a…

CNN's Cafferty: 'Hardliners' in GOP Mistaken to Label Democrats 'Socia

CNN’s resident curmudgeon Jack Cafferty blamed Republican losses in the 2008 election, in part, on their use of the “socialist” label against Democrats during his regular commentary on Friday’s Situation Room. After reporting on a “conservative faction of the Republican National Committee” wanting to use this label against their opponents, and how they petitioned RNC Chairman Michael Steele to…

Word Abuse: Media Ignores Obama's False 'As I've Often Said' Reference

Straight from UPI's transcript of Barack Obama's Earth Day remarks in Newton, Iowa yesterday -- in the midst of flights that reportedly expended 9,000 gallons of jet fuel -- here is the President's take on this country's oil dependency (bold is mine):Twenty percent of what we spend on imports is the price of our oil imports. ..... It's the cost we've known ever since the gas shortages of the…

Trouble Brewing In Caucasus, But Media Silent

Here’s a quick informal poll:  Who has heard news of Russia’s recent troop buildup in the South Ossetia region of Georgia?   Most of our readers would immediately think of the Russian invasion of that region last summer, during the presidential contest, but the Russians are arguably saber rattling again with a fresh buildup of boots on-the-ground ahead of planned NATO exercises.  Last August, the…

CBS ‘Early Show’ Congratulates Couric On Award For Palin Interview

On Thursday’s CBS Early Show fill-in co-host Priya David offered a news brief congratulating CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric on a recent award for the broadcast: "And we at CBS News are pleased to report that our own Katie Couric has received the coveted Walter Cronkite Award for excellence in television political journalism. At a ceremony last night, Katie was cited for her coverage of the…

McClatchy Headline: 'Those Crazy Palins

**Update: McClatchy Changes Headline** OK, before we even get into the latest banal attack on Governor Palin's extended family perpetrated by the McClatchy newspaper chain, I would like to ask a few questions about "Those crazy Palins: Todd's half sister indicted in break-ins." Has McClatchy ever had any headlines like this: "Those Crazy Kennedys"? After all, there is a wealth of craziness with…

SPJ Magazine Finds Media Favored Obama In '08, But It Was 'Distinctly

NYTimes Preparing a Hit Piece on Governor Palin

Joseph Russo over at Conservatives 4 Palin is wondering if The New York Times is about to unleash another hit piece against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin? His suspicions have been roused because there is a Times reporter suddenly skulking around Juneau likely interviewing Palin's enemies at the capitol. The New York Times is not known to have sent too many reporters northward in the past, so this…

Biden's Latest Whoppers on Meetings With Bush: Something You'll Likely

That Joe Biden and the truth have been distant acquaintances from time to time was recently seen in March (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) when the Vice President claimed that Louisiana was losing 400 jobs a day. Louisiana at the time was actually gaining jobs.The math-challenged Biden, who infamously said during the presidential campaign that the word “jobs” has three letters, is now making claims…