CBS's Harry Smith Snarks to O'Reilly, 'Couldn't Hold a Job at Any Othe

April 14th, 2009 3:59 PM
CBS anchor Harry Smith and Bill O’Reilly traded light blows with each other on Tuesday’s Early Show, as the Fox News Channel host marked his 100th consecutive month at the top of cable news ratings. Smith jabbed his guest about his 12 years on the same network: “Couldn’t hold a job at any other place?...Is this the longest continuous employment you have ever had?” O’Reilly didn’t take it lying…

WaPo Photo Caption Bias in Cuba Embargo Story

April 14th, 2009 2:09 PM
Opting to include a photo to supplement the reporting by Michael Shear and Cecilia Kang in their April 14 front-pager "Obama Lifts Broad Set of Sanctions Against Cuba", Washington Post editors made a caption choice that served to skew the story presentation in a way favorable to those who argue for lifting the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba."The president's new policies lift limits on Americans…

AP Writers Seem Sympathetic to 'Pirates' in Latest Dispatch

April 14th, 2009 10:33 AM
In a report this morning  on the situation off the coast on Somalia, Associated Press reporters Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Paul Jelinek seemed oddly sympathetic to the cause of the terrorists in training the world insists on calling "pirates," almost to the point of grudging admiration. Check out some of the words the AP pair used in their 9:15 a.m. dispatch (saved at host for fair use and…

'Star Trek' Cast Visits Soldiers in Kuwait, Media Couldn't Care Less

April 13th, 2009 10:47 AM
When Hollywood movies and their stars trash America's brave soldiers, the anti-war press can't give them enough attention.Yet, when cast and crew members of the soon to be released prequel of the sci-fi classic "Star Trek" visited service men and women in Kuwait on Saturday, newsrooms across the fruited plain couldn't care less.Spc. Howard Ketter filed this report shortly after the event…

WaPo, LA Times Leave President's Name Out of Somalia Pirate Stories

April 10th, 2009 1:36 PM
A search of Nexis between April 7 -- the day when pirates seized the U.S.-registered and American-crewed Maersk Alabama -- and today, April 10, shows that both the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times failed to even mention President Barack Obama in their stories on the ongoing hostage situation. The New York Times did, once, in a page A6 April 9 story by Mark Mazetti and Sharon Otterman, but it…

Krauthammer Tells Us What the Establishment Media Ignored or Avoided A

April 10th, 2009 12:21 PM
As was usually the case during Bill Clinton's presidency, the ascendancy of Dear Leader Barack Obama means that we will often have to consult the output of center-right commentators, and of course the Media Research Center and its affiliates, to cut through the establishment media's puffery to pick up even the most basic pieces of news. Charles Krauthammer's column today in the Washington Post on…

USA Today Writes Pseudo History of 'Transformational' Obama as 'Global

April 9th, 2009 5:05 AM
USA Today's Chuck Raasch has decided that President Obama is a "transformational American leader abroad" and that his America Stinks tour of Europe is a "confirming stamp of that new reality." This effluvia of over indulgent praise heaped on Obama is ubiquitous in the media, we all know, but what makes Raasch's piece egregious is the assumption of historical "truth" that posits that Obama has…

Stephanopoulos: Obama's Trip a Test He 'Passed Pretty Easily

April 7th, 2009 9:02 PM
Assessing President Barrack Obama's overseas trip, ABC's George Stephanopoulos proposed it was “a real test for the President” and, no surprise, decided “he passed it pretty easily” since “he was confident, he had a sense of command in his personal and his public diplomacy, forged strong relationships with his European counterparts...” Furthermore, Stephanopoulos admired Obama's “strong”…

CNN Bemoans Americans' Hostility to Islam, Obama Needs to 'Educate

April 7th, 2009 6:13 PM
CNN latched onto two separate poll results on Monday that indicated that about half of Americans view the Islamic world negatively or don’t trust Muslim allies as much as other allies, and indicated that President Obama and others in authority need to be “educators” for the public about Islam. The network brought up the polls’ results on seven different occasions during their programming that day…

ABC's Robin Roberts Hits Pelosi From Left on Guns

April 7th, 2009 12:14 PM
Interviewing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday, "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts challenged the Democratic politician from the left on guns. After bringing up the tragic shootings that occurred last week in New York and Pittsburgh, Roberts quizzed, "Under the Bush administration, you pretty much said the ball was in their court when it came to reinstating the [assault…

If Obama Believes Austrian Is a Language, So Will AP

April 6th, 2009 11:34 PM
At an April 4 news conference in Strasbourg, France (White House transcript here), President Obama referred to a language that doesn't exist (bold is mine; HT to DrewM at Ace of Spades):It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There's a lot of -- I don't know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing -- and…

NBC Hails Obama's Turkey Visit as 'Shrewd', CBS: Highest-Ever Approval

April 6th, 2009 8:23 PM
Giving a warm wind-up to President Barrack Obama's overseas trip as it comes to an end in Istanbul, NBC's Chuck Todd declared Monday that the decision to make Turkey the last stop “could prove to be one of the shrewder early moves in this young presidency.”On CBS, anchor Katie Couric highlighted how a new CBS News/New York Times poll pegged Obama's approval at 66 percent, the highest ever in that…

Reuters Knowingly Reports Lie About Binghamton Shooting -- The Taliban

April 4th, 2009 8:48 AM
Reuters published a story today, April 4, detailing some nonsense from a Taliban terrorist who has claimed "responsibility" for Friday's shooting rampage in Binghamtom, New York. The question that comes to mind is why? Why did Reuters imagine this idiotic claim, this obvious lie, was worth reporting to the world? Does Reuters not have the good sense God gave a door knob? Why would Reuters pass…

CNN's Fareed Zakaria: Obama 'Failing' as Leader of Free World

April 3rd, 2009 6:11 PM
In an interview on CNN.com on Friday titled “Zakaria: Obama disappoints as world leader,” author and CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria threw cold water on the media’s laudatory coverage of President Obama’s trip to Europe: “Although he brought a lot of star power -- the talk of the week -- at least in certain circles in Washington, New York and London -- has been that President Obama is failing in his…