USA Today Poll Finds 'Biggest Advantage' for GOP 'In 2 Decades'; Nets

"Democrats hoping improvements in the economy's course and the Affordable Care Act's implementation would level the playing field for the fall elections should brace themselves," USA Today's Susan Page and Kendall Breitman warned the president's party in their May 5 front-page story, "Poll shows biggest advantage for Republicans in 2 decades." So naturally the Big Three broadcast networks…
Ken Shepherd
May 5th, 2014 2:42 PM

24: A Day’s Worth of Insanity At Huffington Post

For eight years, Jack Bauer and his elite team of agents fought against terrorists, a drug cartel and would-be assassins. Bauer overcame each crisis in just a 24-hour period. Now, he has returned to face the real-time challenges of stopping a terrorist attack in “24: Live Another Day.” But how would Bauer handle some of the worst denizens of the Internet? Where would he start to combat the…
Dan Gainor
May 5th, 2014 1:21 PM

Politico Mag Natl. Editor Frets Benghazi 'Pseudo-Scandal' May Keep Hil

Michael Hirsh is the recently named National Editor at Politico Magazine, an effort which turning is out to be to the left of the crumbling Time Magazine and the for-now defunct Newsweek. One of Hirsh's career lowlights — he probably thinks it's a highlight — is his December 2008 contention that President George W. Bush having a shoe thrown at him in Iraq "was somehow appropriate." Lest there…
Tom Blumer
May 5th, 2014 1:12 PM

On Arsenio: Remarkable Story of Child Who Saved Himself from Abductor

It’s rare when there’s an open and positive discussion about Christian faith on a late night talk show but it actually happened on Arsenio Hall’s show. On Thursday night Hall invited on 10-year-old Willie Myrick to recount how he saved himself from an abductor by repeatedly singing a gospel song. Myrick was abducted from his Atlanta home on March 31 but kept singing Hezekiah Walker’s “Every…
Geoffrey Dickens
May 5th, 2014 12:55 PM

CBS Downplays Ugly Side of Protests Against Condoleezza Rice's Commenc

In April, CBS and NBC found no time to cover the protests against Michelle Obama's planned graduation speech to high school students in Kansas. But both networks on Monday hyped the bullying of Condoleezza Rice from speaking to Rutgers University. Some of protest signs included an ugly caricature of the first female African American Secretary of State. Instead of discussing this, CBS This…
Scott Whitlock
May 5th, 2014 12:45 PM

AP Omits UN's 'Torture' Slam of Catholic Church's Abortion Dogma; Hype

John Heilprin of the Associated Press played up how the Catholic Church supposedly "sought to limit its responsibility for the global priest sex abuse scandal" in front of a United Nations committee on torture. Heilprin repeatedly underlined how the Holy See underwent a "grilling" by the UN panel for allegedly violating an "international treaty against torture and inhuman treatment" in its…
Matthew Balan
May 5th, 2014 12:27 PM

Networks Give 15 Times More Coverage to Correspondents' Dinner Than Be

On Monday, the three network morning shows provided 12 minutes 24 seconds to Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Dinner but only CBS This Morning reported House Speaker John Boehner on Friday announcing a new investigation into Benghazi – a news brief that totaled a mere 47 seconds. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] This Morning co-host Charlie Rose noted: "…
Kyle Drennen
May 5th, 2014 11:57 AM

Imagine That: Even Politico Questions Whether the Economy Is Set to 'P

In stark contrast to the celebratory "AMERICAN ECONOMY BOUNCES BACK FROM BRUTAL WINTER" headline Friday afternoon at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, Ben White's "Morning Money" report at the Politico is notably concerned about whether Friday's "vexing jobs report" justifies the kind of optimism the AP conveyed with seeming finality in its headline. To be fair, the…
Tom Blumer
May 5th, 2014 9:34 AM

NBC Continues to Fear Monger on Climate Change: ‘A Sobering Forecast

Once again, NBC was out to scare its viewers about the threat of man-made climate change. Appearing on the Sunday, May 4 NBC Nightly News, Ann Curry narrated a 2 minute 30 second piece that attempted to instill panic in its viewers about the supposed dire state of the world’s climate.  Curry began her report by showing video of cars falling off of a street in Baltimore, Maryland after a heavy…
Jeffrey Meyer
May 5th, 2014 9:11 AM

WashPost Admits Its Film Critics Never Bothered to Review 'God's Not D

In Saturday’s Washington Post, they published a letter to the editor from a Paul Whittemore in Spotsylvania, Virginia, who noticed the Post’s movie critics never attempted a movie review of God’s Not Dead, which has so far grossed $55.5 million at the box office and tiptoed back into the top ten this weekend. On March 21, the Post could only report “This movie did not screen in time for…
Tim Graham
May 5th, 2014 8:41 AM

What If Fox News Instead of MSNBC Had Pulled This Cinco de Mayo Stunt

¡Ay caramba! Imagine the cries of offensive ethnic stereotyping or worse if Fox News had observed Cinco de Mayo by having one of its yanqui persons of pallor stagger across the set in a sombrero while chugging from a bottle of tequila? But it happened on MSNBC, so the PC police probably won't make a peep.  At today's transition from Way Too Early to Morning Joe, there pranced producer Louis…
Mark Finkelstein
May 5th, 2014 7:34 AM

Christian Actress Candace Cameron Is 'Controversial' for Being Traditi

Words like “controversial” weren’t used as People magazine recently boosted ABC anchor Robin Roberts in a cover story and how her mother assured her that God approves of homosexuality. Instead, People saved that word for evangelical Christian actress Candace Cameron Bure in the May 5 issue. The headline on the Patrick Gomez article was “Faith, Family, and Full House: The former child star…
Tim Graham
May 5th, 2014 6:12 AM

AP's Friday Jobs Report Coverage Also Ignored Many Predictions of Down

This morning (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that Friday afternoon's coverage of the government's jobs report at the Associated Press by economics writers Christopher Rugaber and Josh Boak carried predictions of "nearly 3 percent" economic growth this year. Those predictions ignore how difficult achieving that will be after the first quarter's miserable 0.1 percent annualized result and…
Tom Blumer
May 4th, 2014 11:57 PM

Did He Inhale? MSNBC's Ronan Farrow Considers His Low-Rated Show a 'Su

Twentysomething MSNBC host Ronan Farrow told New York magazine at the Time 100 Gala that he knew nothing about marijuana vaporizers -- "That is how uncool I am," he insisted -- but his assessment of how his show is performing sounds like it came after he inhaled. How is this show a success beyond his "wildest dreams"? His dreams must be incredibly vanilla:
Tim Graham
May 4th, 2014 9:26 PM