Latest Blogs

Pres.-elect Obama meets in the Oval Office with all the living presidents, past and current, January 7, 2009. Photo Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

During a breaking news brief on Friday’s Newsroom program, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips failed to identify the party affiliation of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, a Democrat, who earlier in the day had been indicted on 12 counts related to a corruption probe by Maryland state officials. She did identify Dixon as “the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor” and “the first African-American female to…

During a contentious interview with filmmaker John Ziegler on Friday's "MSNBC News Live," host David Shuster attacked former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as "clearly unqualified" and asserted that the Alaska governor "wasn't prepared to run for vice president." An incredulous Ziegler, who was appearing to promote his new documentary on the liberal media's role in the election of Barack…

Columnist says stimulus inadequate, shouldn't have tax cuts.

Weighing the pros and cons of a plan, particularly one that could cost $1 trillion taxpayer dollars, should mean all perspectives were considered. But that wasn't what it meant to CNN in one Jan. 9 segment in the 8 a.m. hour. Viewers were right to expect balance as "Pros and Cons of Obama's Stimulus" flashed on the screen and John Roberts said, "President-elect Barack Obama is warning of a dire…

One celebrates movies that people actually watch and the other celebrates movies that critics think people should watch. “Milk,” the biopic starring Sean Penn about Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official, perfectly illustrated the divide between “the people” and “the critics.” Critics loved the movie, as evidenced by a 92 percent favorable rating on the aggregate film review…

A YouTuber has created a fabulous video of 100 years of press headlines involving hysterical claims of catastrophic climate change (h/t Tom Nelson):

A group that "celebrate[s] the inherent goodness of adolescent sexuality" and calls for clergy to "speak out against... coercive parental notification and consent for reproductive health services" has just released a study that concludes by calling on American theological seminaries to go over the birds and bees with their students. Yet in reporting on the study by the Religious Institute on…

Documentarian John Ziegler Friday called MSNBC's David Shuster "a joke" and "an alleged newsperson" for his anti-Sarah Palin bias.Appearing on MSNBC to discuss video clips of an interview that he did with the Alaska governor Monday, Ziegler got into a rather contentious exchange with Shuster claiming "this network played an enormous role" in the character assassination of Palin during last year's…

Correction (Feb. 10, 2009): Corrected from original reporting attributing AP and Getty with the photo editing. In fact it was ABCNews.com, not AP or Getty Images that overlaid the Bush photo on the Gaza rubble photo. AP and Getty Images supplied the respective photos.  Thanks to the folks at StinkyJournalism.org for pointing out the error. I guess, since flat-out fauxtography as practiced in 2006…

Nobel laureate on arcane trade matters, former Enron adviser, and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is at it again. In his latest Times column ("The Obama Gap"), he chides President-elect Barack Obama for not being ambitious enough in his stimulus plan, and, heaven forbid, for including tax cuts in the mix. He complains that Obama is only committing to much less than half of what's necessary…

On Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Julie Chen reacted to a recent interview Sarah Palin gave to film maker John Ziegler for his new documentary about media bias in the 2008 election: "Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is lashing out at the media. She says she was treated unfairly on the campaign trail, and as part of a documentary called ‘Media Malpractice.’" After airing a brief report on the…

Noting that "supply has far outpaced demand," Washington Post staffer David Nakamura filed a story in the January 9 Metro section on how "Inaugural Rentals [Are] Begging For Takers."While I wouldn't hold my breath for say Chris Matthews to notice, the story works against the mainstream media portrayal of the Obama inauguration as such a must-attend historic event that the nation's capital will be…