Campaigns & Elections

About a month ago, I joked in a column published elsewhere that the reason a certain New York Times column didn't resonate with anyone is because no one pays attention to the Old Gray Lady any more. Unfortunately, that's not true. But the fact that almost no other establishment press outlet has mentioned the paper's disclosure late Wednesday (appearing in Thursday's print edition) that former…

On Thursday's NBC Nightly News, sanctimonious anchor Brian Williams lamented the fact that "spending on 2012 presidential radio and TV ads has now surpassed the half-billion-dollar mark" and proceeded to list other things the money could buy, such as feeding  "9.2 million malnourished children for 50 days" or "provide clean water for 500 million children for 40 days." While Williams's…

One of the things Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate ensures is a series of polling questions over the coming months asking voters what's more important: creating jobs or cutting government spending; helping the economy or cutting deficits; repealing the president's health care law or focusing on the economy. These questions reflect the way official Washington views the…

A Washington Post poll published on Monday shows that 74 percent of Americans favor requiring photo ID to vote. Significant majorities of African-Americans and the elderly -- two groups liberals claim are likely to be "disenfranchised" by such requirements -- support a photo ID requirement. But as Mediaite editor Noah Rothman noted yesterday, in the 19 segments on voter ID that the liberal…

CNN is harping on the "partisan" connections of a group of military veterans criticizing President Obama, likening it to Swift Boat, yet it has helped further liberal partisan attacks in the past through its own biased coverage. "A new group of veterans, including former Navy SEALs, accuses President Obama of taking too much credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden. The group says it's…

On Thursday and Friday, NBC launched an all out assault on Mitt Romney, urging him to release more tax returns. Opening Thursday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams scrambled to resurrect the worn-out line of attack: "Talking taxes. Under intense pressure, Mitt Romney talks about what he has paid." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] Introducing the lead story…

USA Today's Web site features an Associated Press report with the headline "Housing starts, jobless claims in good shape."  For the many readers who just scan headlines, that sounds encouraging.  Yet by the second paragraph the article notes "that construction of single-family homes and apartments dipped 1.1% in July compared with June. . ."  And by the third paragraph: Housing has been…

Generally when a broadcast journalist interviews an activist about a hot-button political issue, it's customary and in accord with sound journalistic practice to interview someone from the other side of the issue for balance. Except, of course, if you work for MSNBC, which has essentially become DNC-TV. On the August 17 MSNBC Live program, news anchor Thomas Roberts interviewed his fellow…

Good Morning America's Josh Elliott on Friday yet again hyped the issue of Mitt Romney's taxes. Guest anchor Elliott touted, "And Mitt Romney finally ready to address that question about his taxes." Amy Robach thrilled, "Mitt Romney, for the first time revealing new information about his tax returns...But why now?" The candidate on Thursday asserted that he had "never" paid lower than a 13…

Remember the days when nightly news anchors were supposed to be serious journalists?  Apparently Brian Williams never got that memo.  Appearing on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on August 15, the managing editor of NBC Nightly News showed the continuing decline of the gravitas of the broadcast news anchor.  Appearing on The Daily Show, Williams continued his routine of making awkward and…

Paul Ryan is radically anti-woman, anti-senior citizen, and if he and Mitt Romney are elected and ObamaCare is repealed, people will die! That, in a nutshell, is the liberal media's spin about Gov. Romney's pick of the Wisconsin Republican as his running mate, with the latter claim being made recently by MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter, formerly of Newsweek. "That sleazeball did…

It might seem like a bad time for a reporter to marvel over Joe Biden’s political gifts, after the load of gaffes this week, but not for Politico reporter Jonathan Martin. He wrote a story headlined “Mission Impossible: Managing Joe Biden.” But he meant that to be positive. Just days after slamming Paul Ryan’s background driving the Wienermobile and “slinging cheap margaritas,” Martin began…

The controversy surrounding Vice President Joe Biden’s offensive claim that Republicans want to enslave black Americans has become such a concern to the Obama White House that the veep’s staff have resorted to trying to directly censor the news coverage about him. In what is widely believed to be an unprecedented move, the Biden press shop has severely restricted access to vice president and…

On Wednesday, August 15, MSNBC’s noon show, “NOW With Alex Wagner,” featured a brief but revealing segment on Vice President Joseph Biden’s recent gaffe. This was the one where Biden addressed a crowd, mostly of African-Americans, and, using what sounded like a Southern accent, said of the Romney/Ryan team: “They’re going to put ya’ll back in chains,” supposedly with deregulation of Wall Street…