Media Bias Debate

UPDATE: The headline at AP's 9:37 a.m. report now reads "US unemployment claims signal slower hiring." That's nice, but it won't what was broadcast immediately after the report's release until news outlets become aware of the revision. The games the Associated Press's Chris Rugaber and the wire service's headline writers are playing with the weekly unemployment claims from the Department of…

CNN host Fareed Zakaria, who admitted last year that he held off-the-record conversations with President Obama even though he was covering the President's foreign policy, has now expressed his support for the Buffett Rule – legislation that Obama has pushed for in recent weeks. Zakaria is reportedly on the short list of considerations for Obama's next Secretary of State if the President is…

MSNBC's Martin Bashir, who previously compared Rick Santorum to genocidal murderer Joseph Stalin, on Wednesday mocked the concept that MSNBC could be biased against Republicans. A network graphic dismissed, "Paranoia? Romney: More Media Should Be as 'Fair' as Fox News." After playing clips of Mitt Romney decrying liberal media bias, Bashir huffed, "This is pretty rich from a man who hasn't…

Everyone on NBC's Today show payroll ignored foul-mouthed comedian Bill Maher's $1 million donation to an Obama super PAC -- but NBC's Andrea Mitchell went to extravagant lengths on Wednesday to tie Mitt Romney as closely as possible to supporter Ted Nugent, after Nugent made headlines for controversial comments about President Obama. The lone mention of Bill Maher on the Today show in 2012 was…

Yesterday at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, the headline at reporter Jim Kuhnhenn's story on President Obama's latest excuse to add more bureaucrats to the government payroll ("Obama wants to target oil market manipulation") presupposed the existence of oil market manipulation when none has been proven. In 850 words, he didn't find any space for critics of the move, who…

On today's 3:00 pm edition of CNN Newsroom, anchor Brooke Baldwin teased her next segment: BALDWIN: Coming up next, House Republicans they want to cut billions of dollars in food stamps. We will talk about who exactly in terms of numbers this would impact and why my next guest calls this whole suggestion appalling -- back in 60 seconds. Baldwin interviewed Edward Cooney, executive director…

The stunts the folks at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, continue pulling to downplay, minimize, or whitewash bad or embarrassing economic and other news shouldn't surprise us any more. But they continue to disappoint nonetheless. Last month, a consumer sentiment index reported by the Conference Board fell by a relatively modest amount. Headlines and descriptions at…

Of all the myriad scandals of the Obama administration, there is one, largely ignored by the mainstream media, that could actually be its worst. That scandal is the operation run from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the Justice Department, known as "Fast and Furious," through which the federal government actually encouraged and even ordered American gun shops to…

It's not every day that the ombudsman for one of the nation's elite newspapers puts, front and center, his publication's angst about publishing information counter to the Obama administration's spin, but there it is, today, in the Washington Post. The Post's ombudsman, Patrick D. Pexton, frets that conservative bloggers overhyped a “modest” little story on a think tank's study that concludes…

Derek Kravitz and Alex Veiga at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, must have doubled down on the energy drinks over the weekend. A Sunday morning report (HT to a NewsBusters tipster) telling readers that signs are "pointing to a long-awaited recovery" in the housing market went on, and on, and on, and on for over 1,350 words. The factors the AP pair cited were primarily…

New York Times media reporter David Carr's profile of the late Andrew Breitbart, "The Provocateur" was a slightly hostile look at the life and influence of the sleepless conservative activist, that included this unnecessary and petty parenthetical stab: "For good or ill (and most would say ill), no one did it like Mr. Breitbart."

The willingness of the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, to cover for Democratic Party flubs, crimes, and scandals is something to behold. On Sunday, the wire service's Gary D. Robertson (pictured from a recent YouTube video) opened his coverage of North Carolina's Democratic Party executive director Jay Parmley with the following sentence: "The executive director of the North…

There are a few Democrats in Vicki Smith's coverage at the Associated Press, aka the Adminsitration's Press, of the fraud investigation of former Mine Safety and Health Administration Director J. Davitt McAteer. As is AP's derelict custom in cases where Dems are involved in scandal or corruption, the party affiliation of those Democrats isn't mentioned. The first Democrat is McAteer himself,…

Joe Muto, the self-described “weasel,” “traitor” and “sell-out” who for a few days last week was the “Fox News Mole” for Gawker.com until FNC identified him, disclosed on CNN’s Reliable Sources that he tried to leave the network but was unable to get hired elsewhere because the rest of the cable news industry “blackballed” him since they presumed anyone who worked for Fox News is “a nut.” Not…