Wire Watch: Rostenkowski Name That Party Round-up (See Update

Wednesday evening, Brent Baker at NewsBusters noted that two of the Big Three television networks failed to tag Dan Rostenkowsi, the former long-time congressman from Chicago who was ousted from his seat in 1994 over corruption charges and ended doing prison time, as a Democrat. Rostenkowski (RIP), who was 82, died yesterday. At the five major wire services whose reports I reviewed -- The…
Tom Blumer

Flashback: Media that Praises Ground Zero Mosque Same Ones that Called

Washington Post even gave Al Qaeda cleric 'religious advice column' during tenure as Virginia imam.
Alana Goodman

ABC and NBC Refuse to Identify Corrupt Rostenkowski as a Democrat

Dan Rostenkowski (?-Ill), 1928-2010. Reporting the passing of Dan Rostenkowski, the ABC and NBC anchors on Wednesday night managed to gently note his ignominious departure from public life while also including a humanizing anecdote about his life (NBC: He “went back to live in the same house he grew up in in Chicago's north side,” ABC: “In 1985, he famously asked Americans fed up with the tax…
Brent Baker

Ed Schultz, Clueless as Usual, Angered by Allegedly Unprecedented Crit

Is Ed Schultz determined to make his mark as the dumbest man in media? Hardly a day passes without the lib radio host and MSNBC action hero providing more fodder for the premise.On his radio show Monday, Schultz rushed to the defense of first lady Michelle Obama for criticism of her winging off to an opulent Spanish resort hotel during -- as Schultz and other liberals oft remind us -- the worst…
Jack Coleman

CNN's Cafferty Takes 'Moron' GOP Candidate's Comment Out of Context

On Wednesday's Situation Room, CNN's Jack Cafferty, following the lead of NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, didn't provide the context of a remark made by Republican Senate candidate in Colorado Ken Buck, thus giving the impression that he was sexist, and went on to label him a "moron."Cafferty began his 5 pm Eastern hour commentary by characterizing Tuesday's primary results as possibly being good news for…
Matthew Balan

NBC's Chuck Todd on Hardball Ponders: Is Ken Buck, 'Sharron Angle in D

NBC's chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd, substitute hosting for Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, managed to question the political viability of two Republican candidates in one sentence as he asked his guest panelist, Jonathan Martin of the Politico, "Is Ken Buck, you know, Sharron Angle in drag?" [audio available here]Going over the results of yesterday's primary races with…
Geoffrey Dickens

Scarborough to Rep. Weiner on 9/11 Responders Controversy: 'You're Not

Love him or hate him as a "conservative," MSNBC host Joe Scarborough just showed he hasn't been completely brainwashed at his network. On his Aug. 11 program, Scarborough demonstrated just how thin the veil is over the parlor tricks going on with in the U.S. House of Representatives controlled by Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At the center of this was the back-and-forth between Reps. Peter…
Jeff Poor

Katie Couric: 'Obama Has Enough Stress to Last a Lifetime

Give the guy a break, he deserves it. That was Katie Couric's message a week ago in her Notebook blog entry about President Obama's 49th birthday (emphasis mine):The job has aged him, as it did his predecessors. Dr. Michael Roizen at the Cleveland Clinic stated constant stress can age the Commander in Chief two years for every one year in office.So I guess that means he's really turning 50.…
Ken Shepherd

CBS: Charlie Rangel Made 'Emotional and Raw Defense' on House Floor

In a sympathetic story devoid of critics on Tuesday's CBS Evening News, correspondent Wyatt Andrews described Congressman Charles Rangel's rant over being charged with numerous ethics violations this way: "In an emotional and raw defense against 13 ethics charges, Charles Rangel mixed small doses of contrition...into a speech of political defiance."Andrews's report featured only sound bites of…
Kyle Drennen

Dan Rather Has Cameo in Forthcoming Alien Invasion Flick 'Skyline

It may well be Dan Rather's finest hour. Make that his finest five seconds.The disgraced former "Evening News" anchor apparently has a brief cameo in "Skyline," an alien invasion flick landing in theaters on November 12. Rather isn't the only liberal journalist featured in the film. Self-described socialist and sometime "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" guest host Lawrence O'Donnell is also…
NB Staff

Sean Hannity Wishes NewsBusters a Happy 5th Anniversary

Sean Hannity on his radio program Wednesday wished NewsBusters a Happy 5th Anniversary.As he talked to a caller about his Freedom Alliance, he thanked NewsBusters for helping to debunk smears against him and his charitable organization.Moments later, he expressed his gratitude for NewsBusters' efforts in "challenging the mainstream Obama-mania media" (audio follows with transcript):
NB Staff

Taxpayers Fund Study Establishing 'Web-Based Sex Diaries' for Gay Male

The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded $126,000 over the past two years to a University of Washington study that established "web-based sex diaries" for gay males as young as 16.By the time the grants end in 2011, taxpayers will have spent more than $250,000 for the study."The study's second aim is to…
Matt Cover

Rick Sanchez: Investigate Vatican, Mormons' Funding as Well as NYC Mos

CNN's Rick Sanchez bizarrely wondered on Tuesday's Rick List whether investigating the funding behind the planned mosque near Ground Zero would lead to investigations into Catholic and/or Mormon funding: "If you start going into who is giving money...you've got to go to Rome and start asking where the money is going into Rome....and you have to go the Mormons and ask...what are they doing with…
Matthew Balan

Top Five Conservative (Fairly) New Films On DVD

If you’re not interested in having Will Ferrell lecture you on the evils of capitalism this coming weekend and would instead prefer to cozy up at home before the warm glow of plasma with a cold one in one hand a Redbox receipt in the other, here are five fairly new-to-DVD flicks that won’t leave you feeling sucker punched. 1. The Road: Director John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s…
John Nolte