USA Today: 'Weekly Jobless Claims at Lowest Level in Over 3 Years
There's good economic news today, at least for those who only scan headlines. On USA Today's Web site, the headline is "Weekly jobless claims at lowest level in over 3 years." Oh, happy day! The president's stimulus is finally working. But if you read the Associated Press story under the headline, the news isn't quite so sanguine:
The number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose…
CNBC's Joe Kernen Rips John Harwood's Knee-Jerk 'Global Warming' React
After the news portion of a "Warmer Weather Hurting Retail" segment on the impact of the mild winter on retail sales thus far appearing early this morning on CNBC, Joe Kernen and John Harwood got into it over the relevance and influence of so-called "global warming" (I guess Harwood didn't get the memo that it's "climate change" now).
Picking up at the 2:10 mark of the video:
'Rizzoli and Isles' Episode's Arsonist Fireman Blames Boston 'Budget C
I know, we're supposed to give TV shows and the like a bit of dramatic license to push a plot line. But doesn't it seem that an awful lot of the license taken tends to be pro-big government and left-leaning?
One pretty obvious example came along Monday night during the Season 2 finale of TNTs' "Rizzoli & Isles" (which ran again late tonight). The plot of "Burning Down the House" centered…
AP Bemoans Retirement of 'Centrist' Ben Nelson, Who Voted for ObamaCar
In an item which still has a breaking news tag, Josh Funk at the Associated Press (saved here for future reference, fair use, and discussion purposes) call retiring Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson a "centrist," and almost seemed to mourn over "an increasingly polarizing climate" which made it clear that Nelson's reelection would have been a steep uphill fight. Of course, there was no mention of the…
What Time of Year Is It? In the Press, 'Holiday Shopping Season' Still
This is the seventh year I have looked into how the media treats two Christmas-related topics: The use of “Christmas shopping season” vs. “holiday shopping season” and the relative frequency of "Christmas" and "holiday" layoff references.
Unfortunately, the hints of improvement late last year, when 20% of stories in the late December pre-Christmas search referenced the "Christmas shopping…
Charles Krauthammer Schools Margaret Carlson on Payroll Tax Holidays
Like so many of her liberal media colleagues, Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson believes cutting payroll taxes for a short period of time stimulates the economy.
Fortunately for viewers of PBS's Inside Washington, when she tried to make this absurd conclusion Friday, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer was there to give her and others on the panel a much-needed education (video follows with…
CBS Forwards Harry Reid's 'Lecture' of GOP and His Hope They 'Learned
On Friday's CBS Evening News, as correspondent Sharyl Attkisson filed a report to inform viewers that the House of Representatives had approved the Senate plan for a two-month payroll tax cut extension, Attkisson included a clip of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid directing a "lecture" at and blaming House Republican freshmen for the delay, as she recounted his hope that they had "learned a…
Unreported: Private-Sector GDP Still Smaller Than When Recession Began
Yesterday at my home blog, in the wake of Uncle Sam's reduction of third-quarter growth in gross domestic product (GDP) from an annualized 2.0% to 1.8%, I predicted that the establishment press's reaction would be the following: “Yeah, but the fourth quarter will be 3% or more. It really, really will be. Please believe us.”
Martin Crutsinger at the Associated Press made that easy prediction…
CNN Asks McCain Why He's Blaming President So Much for Payroll Tax Sta
When Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blamed not only President Obama but also members of his own party for the payroll tax standoff, CNN's Ali Velshi interjected that perhaps the senator was being too hard on the President. McCain had insisted earlier that previous presidents would have done more to get a deal through a divided Congress.
"Is it really fair to put as much heat as you're putting on…
Ben Stein Argues Against Claims Middle Class Hurt by the Wealthy
Supposedly right-leaning actor, economist and former Nixon speech writer Ben Stein of late has become famous for advocating for higher taxes on the wealthy, but on Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor on FNC, Stein was finally seen arguing from a conservative point of view again as he debated David Callahan of the left-wing group DEMOS, and argued that taxation rates on the wealthy are not to blame…
CBS's Hill to Bachmann: House GOP 'Risks Looking Like The Grinch
CBS's Erica Hill invoked an infamous Christmas season villain on Wednesday's Early Show, stating that "[House] Republicans...risk looking like the Grinch here four days before Christmas" for their refusal to sign onto the Senate's proposed two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday. Hill made that claim during an interview of Rep. Michele Bachmann, and pressed her about the payroll tax…
AP's Kravitz Heralds 'Beginning of Gradual Comeback' After One Mediocr
Lord have mercy, these people are looking anywhere and everywhere to turn an economic improvement molehill into something that sort of looks like a mountain.
Today, the headline to Derek Kravitz's report at the Associated Press ("Rise in home construction suggests a turnaround") reasonably reflected the underlying reality reported by the Census Bureau, but his first six paragraphs most…
Unreported: Red States' Outsized Contributions to Job Growth
The establishment press will never tell their readers, listeners and viewers that the five best-performing states in job growth through the first eleven months of this year, as well as nine of the top eleven, have relatively conservative Republicans occupying their respective governors' mansions. If these eleven star performers had only performed as well as the rest of the nation, over 300,000…
Unreported: Full-Time Employment Barely Up Since Recession Ended
See-no-evil economic reporting during the Obama years has "somehow" missed a number of developments in the makeup of the American workforce which I believe would not have been missed (or deliberately overlooked, take your pick) if a Republican or conservative were in the White House. One of them relates to full-time employment.
Did you know that seasonally adjusted full-time employment in…
