Campaigns & Elections

In 1992, reporters like Joe Klein and Sidney Blumenthal were mocked as Clinton Conformity Cops, telling other journalists that the goal of electing Bill Clinton was too important to create any obstacle of objectivity that might get in the Democrat's way. This came to mind when watching MSNBC on Thursday night, but Keith Olbermann took it a step further. He attacked ABC’s Charles Gibson and George…

Today's Conventional Wisdom at Newsweek.com gives the imperial thumbs down for public campaign financing system, and all because the all-but-anointed Democratic champion is foregoing federal funding.:[Down arrow] Public campaign financing: Obama decision to forgo funds could signal the end of system.Besides being entirely too premature to make a pronouncement like that, it's a blown opportunity…

Almost two years ago, NewsBusters wondered when media would begin reporting Enron's ties to higher oil and gas prices. Recently, we've gotten our answer: when it could be blamed on the Republican presidential nominee. Such was certainly the case Wednesday evening when Obama advocate Keith Olbermann did a segment on "Countdown" pointing fingers at John McCain for having not done more to repeal the…

CNN’s senior political correspondent Candy Crowley, during a report on Thursday’s "The Situation Room," must have thought it was a foregone conclusion that Barack Obama would give up on his pledge that he would accept public financing for his presidential campaign. "If you raised more than a quarter billion dollars in the primary season, would you limit yourself to $85 million in the fall…

Remember how the media claims they are fair and balanced? Remember how "journalists" say that all they do is "report the facts" and that their overwhelming lefitism is left at home when they ride their eco-friendly bikes to work? Remember how they claim that they are the "watchdogs" of politicians and don't involve themselves in politics? Apparently the Chicago Tribune didn't get that memo…

It's not just the Associated Press that can't get basic facts right. No wonder Barack Obama doesn't get challenged by the media on fundamentals -- y'know, things like how many states there are in the union (he says 57 or so), whether Illinois is closer to Kentucky than Arkansas (he says it's not), or whether Warren Buffett's income (!) is $56 billion (Obama seems to think that income and net…

Recently the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star subjected its readers to another fine example of sloppy journalism aimed at exalting the Obama candidacy. It is so bad, so pointless, so filled with empty platitudes and meaninglessness that one might suspect it was written by Barack Obama himself instead of a reputed journalist. But it is a perfect example of the sort of slavish devotion the Illinois…

On Thursday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Julie Chen teased an upcoming segment on Michelle Obama appearing on ABC’s "The View": "Also this morning, like Cindy McCain did this past spring, Michelle Obama co-hosted 'The View' yesterday. We're going to see how comfortable she was with the women of 'The View' and what she had to say on everything from sexism in politics to who does the housework in…

"Good Morning America" reporter Kate Snow resorted to typical liberal terminology while asking Cindy McCain on Thursday about abortion and "women's rights groups." After observing that her husband, Senator John McCain, has been courting females, Snow simplistically asserted, "...But women's rights groups say once [women voters] discover he's anti-abortion, they may change their minds." So, pro-…

Today Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama issued a statement that he will forego the public financing system for the general election. His announcement goes back on a pledge to use public financing if the Republican candidate would do the same.All three broadcast networks' Web sites have the story, but only ABCNews.com noted in its front page tease that Obama is going back on a previous…

It's rare to hear an MSM figure flatly suggest that a presidential campaign lied, but Joe Scarborough broke out the the l-word today in wondering whether chief Obama strategist David Axelrod did just that when he emphatically denied, on yesterday's show, that there is a concerted "makeover" of Michelle Obama in the works.View video here.An article in yesterday's New York Times, After Attacks,…

The dog ate my transcript.  That's roughly what Susan Rice's response to a pointed question from Laura Ingraham amounted to. Give credit to Rice, Obama senior foreign policy advisor, for appearing on Ingraham's "Just In" FNC show today and taking on the host in a freewheeling conversation.   But she and her candidate are really going to have to learn to do better than the feeble dodge she offered…