House Speaker Pelosi Claims Al Gore Invented Internet Technology

I'm sure by now we are all aware of the Netroots Nation conference that happened in Austin, Texas last weekend. Well, did you know that without Al Gore it wouldn't have happened? That's right, since Al Gore invented the Internet... I know, I know, that is the old Al Gore joke where he famously claimed that he invented the World Wide Web. Everyone knows that Al Gore had little to do with the…

Vanity Fair Cartoonist Cribs from Seattle P-I's Anti-McCain Cartoon

Update below.Vanity Fair magazine thought it amusing to have artist Tim Bower work up a mock magazine cover that lampoons the now-infamous satirical depiction of Sen. Barack Obama as a Muslim and his wife as a gun-slinging leftist radical (h/t Marc Ambinder). In Bower's cartoon, McCain clutches a walker while his wife waits with vials of prescription medicine. A George W. Bush portrait hangs…

Radio Host Malzberg Cites NewsBusters on MSM's Obama Love

A warm thank you from the NewsBusters editors to Steve Malzberg.The conservative radio host appeared on CNN's "American Morning" today to discuss John McCain's latest Web videos mocking the media's love affair with Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama.Malzberg tipped his hat to NewsBusters for "count[ing] up the stories" that prove the media's Obama boosterism. [audio available here] For our…

Recession, Reschmession: Wesbury Predicts 3% Second Quarter GDP Growth

Brian Wesbury, whose writings I have quoted often, is at it again, puncturing the economic gloom with reality-based analysis. Since his job is to provide useful info for the investor-clients at First Trust, creating unrealized hype is not in his best interest. Wesbury is predicting a stunning improvement in the economy's growth rate (PDF; HT Political Calculations) when Uncle Sam's Bureau of…

Critics Left and Right Agree: NYTimes Goofed by Not Running McCain Op

The Columbia Journalism Review, not previously known as a Republican stronghold, sees liberal bias in the Times's rejection of an op-ed by John McCain supporting the war, a week after the paper ran an anti-war op-ed by his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama. CJR contributor Lester Feder wrote of Deputy Editorial Page Editor David Shipley's rejection:McCain partisans have decried the Times's…

Bloomberg: To Arabs Obama 'Just an American With Muslim Middle Name

Bloomberg News is acting as if they know how "many Muslims around the world" feel about Barack Obama. In Bloomberg's considered opinion, Obama is "just an American with a Muslim middle name" and won't "advance" the "interests" of Muslims. The main point that Bloomberg seems to be trying to sell is that Barack Obama's Muslim past will not make him tend to bow to world-wide Muslim sentiment.…

SD Abortion Provider Closes Doors Instead of Obeying Laws, Old Media S

Now here is an interesting little story that doesn't seem to be getting any media coverage. In South Dakota after being held up in courts since 2005, a new law finally took effect on July 21 requiring any abortion doctor to read a statement covering the possible ill effects that abortions have on women -- both mental and physical -- at least two hours before the procedure occurs. The one Planned…

Couric Showcases Obama Over McCain, Admits Media 'Obamathon

CBS tried to bring some balance Tuesday night to Barack Obama's Magical Media Tour by having Katie Couric interview both Barack Obama and John McCain, and though she pressed Obama repeatedly on the success of the surge, Obama still came out ahead since CBS devoted more than seven minutes (over two excerpts) to Couric's questions and Obama's answers as the two sat together in a foreign setting…

MRC's Graham on McCain Charging Media with Pro-Obama Bias

MRC Director of Media Analysis and NewsBusters Senior Editor Tim Graham appeared on FNC's "Your World w/Neil Cavuto" earlier this evening. The topic: modern liberal campaign bias and how the public often goes against the media's favorites. [audio available here] "Notice they're not attacking Obama, they're attacking Obama's biggest base of support," Graham noted of the latest John McCain Web…

‘American Morning’ Latest CNN Show to Feature Media’s Obama Love

During a report on Tuesday’s “American Morning,” CNN correspondent Randi Kaye detailed how the rejection of an op-ed by John McCain by The New York Times might be part of a wider pattern of media bias for Barack Obama and against John McCain: “Consider this -- network anchors and reporters are following Obama's every move in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the last four months, McCain has gone abroad to…

Helen Thomas Replies ‘Hell No’ To Question of Liberal Media Bias

Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, in the Tuesday edition of the Washington Examiner’s "Yeas & Nays" feature, reported that Helen Thomas gave a vehement denial of whether the media, and the White House press corps in particular, has a liberal bent. "Yeas & Nays got a sneak peak at Rory Kennedy’s new HBO documentary -- ‘Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at The White House’ -- which…

DailyKos Thugs Bully Paper to Pull Netroot Nation Story

Just as I finish a piece laughing at DailyKos for claiming that it is conservatives that feel they have to "create their own alternate reality" because of their "rigid ideology," I find a story out of The Austin American-Statesman where the DailyKos forced that paper to pull a story that had a mildly satirical take on last weekend's Netroots Nation conference in Texas. Apparently, the DailyKos…

So, What Should We Call The Media, Anyway

Many of us have taken to calling the media establishment the "MSM," or "Mainstream Media." But is that a fair and properly descriptive monicker to bestow upon them? A New York Times Blogger pondered that very question on July 21 in a "The Caucus" blog entry -- one that was a barely disguised effort to highlight and advertise the opinion of one Markos Moulitsas of the DailyKos. Still, regardless…

Half See Pro-Obama Bias and Say Media Make Economy Seem Worse

More than three times as many Americans see a media tilt in favor of Democrat Barack Obama than toward Republican John McCain. A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey released Monday, of 1,000 likely voters, “found that 49 percent of voters believe most reporters will try to help Obama with their coverage, up from 44 percent a month ago,” compared to a piddling 14 percent who “believe most reporters…