Media Bias Debate

So much for any pretense of balance. Looks like David Shuster has taken a page from Keith Olbermann's playbook: play exclusively to your crowd; exclude any alternative voices.Announcing this evening a new regular feature focusing on the blogosphere on his 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue show, Shuster made it clear that conservatives need not apply.DAVID SHUSTER: Every day at this time, we're going to…

One need look no further than the NewsBusters archives on fashion critic Robin Givhan and TV critic Tom Shales to see that the Style section for the Washington Post is hardly immune from the liberal bias that plagues much of the paper's A-section.But for a change we're happy to note when a Postie in the Style section casts a critical glance at something in the popular arts that unfairly skewers…

The Associated Press is taken with the new e-book full of letters to President Obama published by the National Education Association (NEA) a liberal teachers union. Naturally, all the kids in this book are filled to overflowing with leftist talking points like pushing the anti-military angle -- one kid even said he was "very luckey because I am not part of a military family." The kids were all…

A 1993 Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum made points (HT to Jay Ott at Maggie Thurber's blog) that have seldom been made in media discussions, like this really weak front-page article a week ago at the Toledo Blade, about reinstating the so-called Fairness Doctrine. The Blade's Kirk Baird and Rod Lockwood seem to act as if radio is the only communications medium in existence. Heritage's…

Here's the relative tempest in a teapot that happened on Thursday: Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe made an unusual request for his speech today at the National Press Club: he wanted it off the record. ..... Politico editor-in-chief John Harris said that after hearing of Plouffe’s request, and decision not to reverse course, he backed out from moderating the lunch-time event. Harris…

The battle between New London, Connecticut and the residents of its Fort Trumbull neighborhood began in 1998 when the City decided that it would redevelop the area for ultimate ownership by others and, if necessary, take the residents' properties for that "public purpose" -- not for "public use" (i.e., roads, bridges, schools, etc.), as the Fifth Amendment clearly intended. Susette Kelo and other…

CNN Newsroom anchor Rick Sanchez may want to give stand-up comedy a try if his career in journalism falters.  On Friday's program, Sanchez said - with a straight face:To be clear, we don't fit into any template here, Democratic or Republican or otherwise. I play it down the middle.Anyone who's seen Sanchez at work knows how funny that is.  Throughout his program posts from the microblogging…

This "Name That Party" situation has many of the usual elements. There are several stories about two Democratic judges involved in criminal behavior in Pennsylvania, and, with one exception, they "somehow" don't get around to identifying their party. But this saga is different for two reasons: The crimes to which the judges have pleaded guilty involve "thousands" of juveniles. In one lonely…

On NewsBusters we have for a few years now been chronicling the constant failure of the media to label a criminal or troubled politician with his party affiliation when that politician is a Democrat, we all know. Every couple of days we detail a new "name that party" story where an Old Media outlet reports on a Democrat politician arrested, convicted, or accused of a crime though he seems never…

Images below the fold Like Seinfeld's "soup Nazi," CNN is yelling "No birthday for YOU" to Abraham Lincoln on his 200th birthday -- at least not one for Lincoln alone. Interestingly, the Cable TV Newser can't seem to just give Lincoln his day without shoehorning Barack Obama into many of its stories about Lincoln. It's Lincoln/Obama day as far as CNN is concerned. Certainly it is natural to see…

A month ago, I noted a comment by Chicago Sun-Times writer Carol Marin who was mildly complaining that President Obama never goes before the press without having a list of pre-approved journalists upon whom he'll call during a press conference. She offhandedly quipped that in the press corps, "most of us don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before…

Well, this sports feat is one for the record books.Not as a legitimate accomplishment, mind you. No, this story is a leading candidate to win the "Biggest Sports Hoax Ever Swallowed by a Wire Service" prize.Danica Coto of the Associated Press got duped into believing that 56 year-old Jennifer Figge had completed a 2,100-mile swim across the Atlantic Ocean in a jaw-dropping 25 days (HT to…

Lost in the overall cratering in the stock market yesterday in reaction to Tim Geithner's awful "soiled the bed" TARP II presentation yesterday -- New York Times Company stock closed at $4.23. As of 3:30 PM today, the stock was up 12 cents. Yesterday's close is the stock's lowest point since the company went public in July 1986 (down over 50% in real terms): At yesterday's close, the company was…