Campaigns & Elections

Thanks to WikiLeaks, which has released nearly 20,000 emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee — with promises of more to come — we have proof the party that styles itself as inclusive, diverse and tolerant isn’t. Among the delectable tidbits on which Republicans are feasting are these: one male DNC staffer wrote another male staffer saying “I love you” and added “no homo.” Another…

Yesterday's news about the economy was the latest in a 7-1/2 year series of mostly regular disappointments. The government reported that nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of just 1.2 percent in the second quarter, half or less of what most alleged "experts" expected. Additionally, the first's quarter's originally reported 1.1 percent growth was revised down to 0.8…

Amidst all the overwhelming media coverage gushing over President Barack Obama’s Wednesday night speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), there were a few points during MSNBC’s coverage in the early hours of Thursday that couldn’t go by without being chronicled for NewsBusters readers. 

Is media bias just smart marketing? Yes, suggests Taibbi, who claims it’s “irrelevant” that “most individual reporters” are liberals given that their profit-driven, audience-conscious corporate overlords keep them on a short leash. “Whatever their personal leanings, influential reporters mostly work in nihilistic corporations, to whom the news is a non-ideological commodity, to be sold the same…

Johnny Carson delivered, and he did so without revealing his party affiliation. That was then. Now, we have late night comics choosing sides. Some, like Trevor Noah, Larry Wilmore and Seth Meyers, are essentially signing up for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. 

Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer put on his media-critic hat on the GOP.com blog  on Thursday to complain that ABC, CBS, and NBC gave several hours more live coverage of their conventions, largely the overflow into the local-news hour at 11 pm Eastern time. The GOP says across the three networks, it drew 47 minutes of overtime, compared to 261 minutes for the Democrats. Our…

Wednesday night's coverage of protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia delivered by Fox Business Network and the Associated Press could hardly have differed more. FBN reported "thousands" of angry protesters oustide who were in no way mollified by Bernie Sanders' endorsement of Hillary Clinton or calls for unity. Geoff Mulvhill and Megan Trimble at the AP only …

In a few months, Barack Obama will become the fifth post-World War II president to serve two full terms. The Washington Monthly’s Martin Longman thinks Obama tops the other four in terms of “popularity and moral credibility,” as indicated not only by the positive reception Obama got for his Wednesday-night DNC speech boosting Hillary Clinton, but by the public’s curiosity beforehand about what he…

A group of D-List celebrities gathered on Netflix’s Chelsea to discuss their time on NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump and "commiserate" about "Trump f*cking up the country." 

On Friday’s NBC Today, correspondent Stephanie Gosk devoted a full report to hyping concerns that Russia could somehow rig the U.S. presidential election in November. In the wake of the hacking of Democratic National Committee e-mails, Gosk warned viewers: “The incident is raising new questions about the security of our country's overall electoral system. Could voting booths or voting tallies…

This week’s Philadelphia convention is playing host to a string of Democratic speakers promising to alter the First Amendment, to give government more control over who can engage in politics. “The Intimidation Game,” tells the story behind those calls.  

Hillary Clinton’s speech on Thursday was a test of the media’s honesty. If you presented the speech itself as a wonderful oration, then you’re clearly reading from the DNC press release. If you’re acknowledging, hedging, that Hillary is no Obama-raising-the-oceans orator, then you’re acknowledging the political reality outside the DNC-staff bubble. CBS stayed inside the bubble on Thursday night…

After the networks spent the morning going crazy over Clinton’s "emotional" and "historic" Thursday night speech at the DNC, the cable news shows proved they couldn’t get enough either on Friday morning. Carol Costello on CNN’s Newsroom, provided one of the more over-the-top examples from the media’s fan club, calling Clinton women's "white knight."

Acting more like a doorman than a journalist during PBS coverage of the Democratic National Convention Thursday night, CBS This Morning co-host Charlie Rose invited former Attorney General Eric Holder to blast Donald Trump: “You also said that Donald Trump, you questioned his gray matter. You mean he’s not smart enough to be president?”