In the Best of Hands (Not): Even AP's Borenstein Sees Problems With Ob
June 20th, 2010 10:36 AM
The presidential commission tasked with investigating the BP oil spill is so short on technical expertise and packed with left-leaning politicians and knee-jerk environmentalists that even the Associated Press's resident ClimateGate apologist Seth Borenstein is concerned. On December 12, 2009, over two weeks after the ClimateGate e-mails first appeared, Borenstein wrote that "the exchanges don't…
The Real Detroit Three Stories in JD Power’s Latest Initial Quality
June 19th, 2010 6:38 PM
When it comes to the performance of the U.S.-headquartered Detroit automakers once known as the Big Three, the real news in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Initial Quality Study (IQS) is not what the Associated Press's Stephen Manning wrote in his Thursday coverage ("US cars top foreign brands on quality survey") of Power's pronouncement. While barely true and in a sense historic, it's not…
CNN's Cafferty: Obama's 'Serious Disconnect' on Jobs and Spending
June 18th, 2010 6:51 PM
On Friday's Situation Room, CNN's Jack Cafferty tossed cold water on the Obama administration's "recovery summer" claims, stating that the "current recovery has been one of the worst for job creation ever." Cafferty also criticized the dangerous growth in the national debt, underlining that there "appears to be a rather serious disconnect," as the President requested billions in additional…
ABC's Tapper: White House Hails A 'Good Week' After 'Gift' From Joe Ba
June 18th, 2010 1:23 PM
On Friday's Good Morning America on ABC, White House correspondent Jake Tapper described White House reaction to Republican Congressman Joe Barton calling BP's $20 billion escrow fund the result of a government "shakedown": "...the argument they're making, that the Republican Party is too close to corporate America.....And they've been given this great foil by Joe Barton."When co-host George…
Catching Heat From Left, Obama Meets With Liberal Commentators to Disc
June 18th, 2010 1:06 PM
President Obama met with a group of prominent liberal commentators on Thursday to discuss the Gulf oil spill and the administration's response. The meeting came in the midst of a rare firestorm of criticism from the left over the president's response to the spill.It was surely not coincidence that the journalists seen leaving the White House that afternoon--the New York Times's Gail Collins, the…
ABC Focuses Oil Spill Blame on BP and Coast Guard, Not Obama; CBS Give
June 17th, 2010 5:23 PM
On Thursday's Good Morning America on ABC, co-host George Stephanopoulos laid blame on BP and Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen for mishandling the Gulf oil spill response but depicted the Obama administration as having done everything it could. In contrast, on the CBS Early Show, guests from both sides of the aisle gave the President a 'C' grade for his response. At the top of Good Morning America…
MSNBC's Brewer Annoyed at Barton's 'Shakedown' Reference, But Colleagu
June 17th, 2010 5:12 PM
In a satellite interview with Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) held shortly before 1 p.m. EDT today, MSNBC's Contessa Brewer criticized Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) for denouncing the president for pushing BP to agree to a $20-billion escrow account for oil spill damages as a "shakedown": So, there's Joe Barton calling the $20 billion in escrow a shakedown, and as you point out, there are people in…
Chris Matthews Crams Year's Worth of Anti-Tea Party Cliches into One H
June 17th, 2010 12:16 PM
What do Tea Partiers, Truthers, birthers, Birchers, militias, Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell, Barry Goldwater, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Ronald Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Rand Paul, Alex Jones, Orly Taitz, and Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh all have in common? Approximately nothing, but don't tell Chris Matthews.The MSNBC "Hardball" host…
Ed Schultz Hates Country Star Lee Greenwood's Patriotic Song 'God Bles
June 17th, 2010 8:38 AM
Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer found Ed Schultz on his radio show Tuesday mocked country star Lee Greenwood and his patriotic song "God Bless the USA," which he suggested was an anthem for American imperialism. Remember when every time we invaded an oil-rich country or any time there was any kind of confrontation, we were subjected to -- ad nauseam, I might add -- [mock sings, really badly] "…
CNN Airs Gushing Two-Part Report on 'Powerhouse' Anti-Prop 8 Lawyers
June 16th, 2010 8:19 PM
CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger returned to her roots as a slanted journalist on Wednesday's Newsroom with a glowing two-part report on Ted Olson and David Boies, the former rivals in Bush v. Gore who are now fighting to overturn California's Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex "marriage." Borger portrayed their coalition as "a script that could have been written in Hollywood."…
Defending the Indefensible: ABC's Moran, Stephanopoulos Shill for Obam
June 16th, 2010 5:27 PM
Despite widespread criticism of President Barack Obama's Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill–including flak from MSNBC's left-wing posse of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Howard Fineman–ABC's Terry Moran and George Stephanopoulos on the June 15 "Nightline" fawned over the president's speech and ignored its obvious shortcomings.In recapping the address, Moran could not contain his…
NY Times Departing Public Editor Hoyt: We're Not the Fox News of the L
June 16th, 2010 3:16 PM
Clark Hoyt filed his last column as the New York Times's Public Editor: "A Final Report From Internal Affairs," praising the cooperation of Times reporters and editors during his term and fending off accusations that the paper is a "liberal rag." Hoyt admitted the editorial page and columnists are liberal and that the paper "shares the prevailing sensibilities of the city and region where it is…
Politico's Roger Simon: Obama 'Calling Out' Bobby Jindal's 'Hypocrisy
June 15th, 2010 6:04 PM
Appearing on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Tuesday, Politico columnist Roger Simon described a recent interview with President Obama: "...he showed a genuine irritation....when people like Bobby Jindal, you know, standing up, screaming about more federal action...a small-government, no federal aid kind of guy. And the President is calling out those people for hypocrisy."Simon was discussing…
CNN's Soledad O'Brien Sympathizes With Lesbian Teen's Plight
June 15th, 2010 3:57 PM
On Monday's Campbell Brown program, CNN's Soledad O'Brien presented a one-sided report about a lesbian teenager in Mississippi whose senior portrait was left out of her school's yearbook because she chose to have it taken in a tux, defying the school's rules. O'Brien commiserated with the teen, asking her at one point, "I want people to understand because other people will say- oh, for God's sake…