Media Bias Debate

Sunday’s MediaBuzz on the Fox News Channel (FNC) had a slew of media storylines to discuss from the past week and in one segment, host Howard Kurtz teamed with GOP strategist Mercedes Schalpp and the Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff to lambaste MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews for his fawning interview with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday that featured droves of softballs.

During the panel discussion on the Sunday edition ABC’s This Week, panelist and PBS host Tavis Smiley declared that he was “tickled” by the birtherism surrounding Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz being perpetuated by “an unrepentant, irascible religious and racial arsonist” in Donald Trump who also “troubles” him in that the media haven’t supposedly tried to project Trump on the entire…

Appearing as a guest on Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN to discuss CNN's town hall on guns with President Barack Obama, Washington Post media columnist Erik Wemple derided the National Rifle Association as "utterly cowardly" for refusing to take part. Fellow guest and right-leaning CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp then argued that the NRA had "no incentive" to attend because the President…

Ooops. CNN’s Anderson Cooper seemingly let slip on Thursday night what anyone who has a watched a presidential press conference already knows, but journalists are usually loath to admit: The White House press corps favor President Obama’s policies and so don’t challenge him on them. Following CNN’s “town hall” on guns with Obama, Cooper explained his approach: “I wanted him to actually address…

At the Associated Press, as seen at its "Top Business News" page Friday afternoon, Christopher Rugaber opened his song of praise for yesterday's jobs report ("US EMPLOYERS HIRE AT ROBUST PACE, DEFYING GLOBAL TRENDS") as follows: "American employers added a robust 292,000 jobs in December, suggesting that the U.S. economy is so far defying global weakness and growing solidly. ..." Rugaber's…

Yesterday at NewsBusters, Ken Shepherd noted how quickly and gleefully the New York Times jumped ("an impressive sprint capping off a year of solid job growth") on December's relatively strong jobs report. The Associated Press joined the parade — "US EMPLOYERS HIRE AT BLISTERING PACE, DEFYING GLOBAL TRENDS" – and kept its story as its lead in its Business "Top Stories" until late afternoon.…

Tricia Bishop, the deputy editorial page editor at Baltimore Sun, also writes a biweekly column. Bishop was impressed three years ago when the White Plains, New York-based Journal News published an interactive online map showing "the addresses (and names) of all pistol permit holders" in two Empire State counties. Very few others were. Though the outrage over the paper's move was (excuse the…

Joe Scarborough blew the whistle on the MSM this morning regarding its unwillingess to say publicly what people in major newsrooms have incessantly discussed--Bill Clinton's mistresses and the lurid tales involving Jeffrey Epstein, he of Orgy Island infamy, and Clinton. But if the MSM won't "go there," on today's Morning Joe Scarborough said that Donald Trump indubitably will: "That's what makes…

In the latter portion of Thursday night’s CNN “town hall” with President Barack Obama on gun control, host Anderson Cooper surprisingly pushed back at the President’s slam on opponents of his executive actions and policies on guns as conspiracy theorists.

In the days leading up to President Obama’s Guns In America townhall on CNN Thursday night, the network bent over backwards to hail the President’s side on gun control and belittle those in favor of the Second Amendment. The hour leading into the event at George Mason University was no different as Erin Burnett OutFront and fill-in host Kate Bolduan hailed the upcoming event as “historic event”…

Near the top of the Wednesday monologue of his eponymous TBS show, Conan O’Brien joked that Donald Trump reminded him of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the way he sculpts his hair and interacts with crowds. Upon pretending to form his hair into more like Trump’s, O’Brien remarked: “I like that Mussolini thing he does. He looks out at the crowd. He's got this guy on his head.”

Along with skipping on Wednesday night the successful congressional vote to repeal ObamaCare and defund Planned Parenthood, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC also declined to dedicate a second of airtime to the Canadien energy company TransCanada filing lawsuits against the Obama administration for having rejected the Keystone XL pipeline.

While interviewing Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz for the Wednesday edition of ABC’s World News Tonight, Republican campaign correspondent Tom Llamas demanded Cruz explain how he could “be a president and hate the Democrats and hate the culture of Washington so much and be effective.”

Give columnist Paul Waldman credit for coming up with a real grabber of a lead: “Get ready, America: we're about to take a long and unpleasant journey back down Bill Clinton's pants.” Less amusing is the rest of Waldman’s Monday American Prospect piece, which trashed Republicans for raising the 42nd president’s sexual behavior as an issue in the current campaign. Waldman jeered at GOPers for “…