Double Standards

If this was intended as a defense of discredited NBC Nightly News anchor/fabulist Brian Williams, ex-MSNBC ringleader Keith Olbermann should have bitten his tongue instead. Appearing on Late Show with David Letterman last night, Olbermann described Williams as a friendly acquaintance of nearly 20 years and scrupulous newsman who takes "personal responsibility" for errors in his newscast, even…

Following in the footsteps of Tuesday’s CBS This Morning, the CBS Evening News worked to paint the 47 Republican Senators who signed a letter to Iranian leaders in a negative light and portraying their actions as meddling in the Obama administration’s negotiations while making no mention of the moves that Democrats made to thumb their noses at Republican administrations.

Imagine if a Republican congressperson called Illinois' senior senator Dick Durbin "Dick Turban" in not one tweet, but two (Durbin has been given the nickname by several center-right pundits and commentators; but as far as I can tell, no national Republican politician has used it). Does anyone think it would take the establishment press over 15 hours (and counting) to report it? Late Monday…

A review of the "Big Story" archive at the Associated Press's national site on Jesse Jackson's name returns quite a few instances where the wire service has treated the "Reverend's" self-injection into stories considered nationally important as noteworthy. In addition to the predictable plethora of stories relating to Ferguson, Missouri and "police-communities tension," Jackson's name has…

After former President George W. Bush failed to make the cut in the New York Times' photo collection of the march commemorating Selma, the Times on Monday showed its idea of political balance. It led the paper with yet another hammering of an incompetent, ultraconservative Republican Congress, while another front-page report critical of Hillary Clinton was hidden under a mild headline and…

This week, journalists lash out at ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani for saying he doesn't think Obama loves America, even as Bloomberg's Mark Halperin agrees Democrats said similar things about George W. Bush: "It's a huge double standard in the media." Also, CNN's Christiane Amanpour scoffs at Benjamin Netanyahu's "Strangelovian" speech warning of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, while Netflix…

A gushing profile of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in Saturday's New York Times captured reporter Jennifer Steinhauer's typical Democratic slant: "Through It All, Pelosi Keeps House Democrats Moving In One Direction." After being compared to Brett Favre and Cher, Pelosi was sympathetically portrayed by Steinhauer as an underestimated politician "positioned to play vital role for President…

Monday night, a Cincinnati-area same-sex "marriage" activist posted on Facebook and tweeted that he had been abducted and was in the trunk of his car. A short time later, police found 20 year-old Adam Hoover and determined that he had (very clumsily) faked his abduction, and would be charged with the crime of "making false claims." In the meantime, news of Hoover's abduction and then its false…

In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry infamously stated, in connection with an Iraq War spending resolution, that "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Florida has done her own John Kerry imitation. She was against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress earlier this week, and…

Political correctness is a pathological disorder. You can't say "niggardly" or "black holes" or "chink in the armor" without provoking protests or risking your job. You can't invoke the Constitution or call illegal behavior "illegal" without being accused of hatred. And now, you can't goof around at a high school basketball game in silly costumes without the world accusing you of "racial…

On Thursday night, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News neglected to mention video that had surfaced earlier in the day of Hillary Clinton attacking the Bush administration in 2007 over their supposed email practices. Instead of mentioning this latest example of hypocrisy by a Clinton, CBS touted a Democratic Congressman who lamented that this story is merely “in the realm of presidential…

On Tuesday night, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC continued to report on the latest scandal involving Hillary Clinton's exclusive use of a private email account while she was Secretary of State in what may have been a violation of federal law. On the CBS Evening News, substitute anchor Charlie Rose flashed his favoritism for his dear “friend” Hillary Clinton by wondering to CBS News…

The Monday editions of ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News aired news briefs on the announcement that Maryland Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski will retire. They both failed to label Mikulski a liberal and heaped only effusive praise on her. On ABC, anchor David Muir hailed the announcement as “the end of an era in Washington” for the 78-year old “longest serving woman in Congress” …

Frank Bruni's latest for the New York Times sported an intriguing title: "Despicable Us -- Scott Walker, the Media and the 2016 Presidential Campaign." Would Bruni be apologizing on behalf of both his paper and other outlets, which have had to retract false criticisms of Wisconsin's GOP governor? No. His media criticism was simply window dressing, an excuse to mock conservative candidates past…