Media Bias Debate

The only surprise should be that anyone is surprised. Those who are used to how frequently the word "unexpectedly" appears in reports about disappointing economic data certainly won't be at all shocked at a Friday Bloomberg News report by Steve Matthews and A. Catarina Saraiva telling readers that "U.S. economic data have been falling short of prognosticators' expectations by the most in six…

The business press's ability to keep up the appearances of "recovery is just around the corner" for over 5-1/2 years has been simultaneously amazing and disgusting. One of their strategies has been to define a "new normal" which is only presented that way because everyone knows deep-down that as long as the left controls economic policy, the nation's economy won't ever really get any better than…

The Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, is hard at work putting a brave face on a shaky economy. Just one example: On Thursday, after February consumer spending fell sharply for the third straight month, the wire service's Christopher Rugaber reported that "Freezing temperatures and snowstorms likely weighed on sales in February," and that "steep drops in gas prices dragged down…

LifeNews.com reports that pro-lifers in Ireland held a march on Wednesday night to protest the nation’s broadcast and print media bias in favor of abortion on demand. Several thousand pro-lifers turned out in Dublin outside the Irish parliament for an event they called “33 to 1: Challenging Media Bias.” In a recent two-week period last December, the campaigners asserted that 33 pro-abortion…

The English and Spanish language networks combined to completely ignore the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal on their Thursday night shows. The network evening news blackout, which involved English-language networks ABC, CBS, and NBC and Spanish-language networks MundoFox, Telemundo, and Univision, was only the second such occurrence since the scandal broke after the evening newscasts on March 3 in…

In a writeup which shows that the wire service obviously hasn't studied the hateful examples of liberal-left hate collected by the Twitter curators at Twitchy.com, a Thursday afternoon Associated Press writeup claims that conservative "say" they're happy (with an implication that they don't really mean it), while liberals "show it" (supposedly meaning that they're genuine). The reporter assigned…

Less than five hours after its release, the government's news that retail sales fell by 0.6 percent in February — compared to a 0.3 percent increase expected by economists and analysts — is buried way down (about 6-8 screens, depending on your computer) on the home page of Bloomberg News, where the focus is supposed to be on developments in business and the economy. Instead, the web site's main…

On his MSNBC show tonight, trying to explain away a poll showing Fox News to—once again—be the most trusted national news network, Hayes argued that it was unfair since Fox was the only conservative outlet, pitted against MSNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS.  Hayes analogized the poll to one in which Mike Huckabee was placed against Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, John Kerry and Al…

Laura Clawson of Daily Kos thinks the flap over Hillary Clinton’s private e-mails is a “nothing-burger.” Charles Pierce of Esquire, who may be on a meatless diet for Lent, says it’s simply “nothing.” That left each to blast the media for its supposedly egregious coverage of what DKos is calling “eGhazi.”

The University of Notre Dame won an important victory at the Supreme Court Monday morning when the Court acted in its case involving Obamacare's contraception mandate. Its "GVR" order (grant, vacate, remand) granted Notre Dame a "writ of certorari," vacated a lower court ruling against the school which would have forced it comply or face severe penalties, and remanded the case back to that lower…

On Tuesday, none of the major English or Spanish-language networks devoted any news coverage during their evening newscasts to the decision by the Obama administration to not follow through with a proposed ban on ammunition that is often used in AR-15s. The move by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) comes after an overwhelming response from gun owners, gun rights…

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…