Shhh! Looks Like Economy Didn't Grow That Fast at End of 2014

On February 12, in a report on inventories, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger referred to an economist who believed, in Crutsinger's words, "that the economy expanded at a 2 percent annual rate in the final three months of the year (2014)." That result would be a fairly significant downward revision to the 2.6 percent rate the government estimated in late January. The next day,…
Tom Blumer

Mark Shields: Walker's Idea of Foreign Policy Is 'Beat Ohio State'

Anyone who thinks the PBS NewsHour is a calm, rather nonpartisan forum on politics where no one does any trash-talking hasn’t seen Mark Shields on Fridays. On Friday, Shields trashed Jeb Bush as a bumbler, and then just insulted governors Scott Walker and Chris Christie as “total novices” on foreign policy, like he’s a standup comedian. But eight years ago, Shields said only "serious candidates…
Tim Graham

Capehart: Obama Doesn't Think Differently About America Than Reagan

From a shining city on a hill and Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall, to terrible deeds in the name of Christ and terrorists' legitimate grievances. The chasm between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama when it comes to their views of America and the world could hardly be wider. But on today's Up With Steve Kornacki, when the host asked the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart whether President Obama…
Mark Finkelstein

Bozell & Graham Column: Fifty Shades of Sickness

Here’s one obvious sign that we live in a profane world. Fifty Shades of Grey, the “mommy-porn” book turned into a movie, complete with its whips and chains and erotic punishment, debuted to far less controversy than The Passion of the Christ in 2004. The media toasted Fifty Shades as the biggest February movie opening weekend ever at $83.8 million, just a shade more than The Passion. But Mel…
Brent Bozell and Tim Graham

FBI: Arrested Colorado Springs Bomber Did Not Target NAACP

Earlier today, Thaddeus Murphy was charged in U.S. District Court in Colorado in connection with an attempted January bombing in Colorado Springs. The targeted building houses that city's chapter of the NAACP, a barber shop — and, apparently at one time, a tax accountant's office. Quite a few people leaped to the conclusion that the bomb had to be meant for the NAACP, even though, as syndicated…
Tom Blumer

CBS, ABC Notice New ObamaCare 'Glitch;' NBC Omits

Julianna Goldman spotlighted the latest ObamaCare glitch on Friday's CBS Evening News. The same evening, ABC's World News Tonight aired a ten-second news brief on the "outrage over another glitch to the ObamaCare website – nearly 800,000 people received inaccurate forms from the site." However, Friday's NBC Nightly News ignored this story completely. Instead, the evening newscast hyped Rudy…
Matthew Balan

People Mag Features Lena Dunham Half-Page Promoting Planned Parenthood

People magazine featured HBO star Lena Dunham in its half-page feature “Why I Care: Personal Stories About Giving Back.” The headline in the March 2 issue was “The Girls creator, 28, supports access to birth control and reproductive rights.” Dunham, naturally is “giving back” to the abortion industry. A photo caption read “Dunham, who hosted a Planned Parenthood event in January, says she feels…
Tim Graham

Rush: Did FDR Say We Must Consider Japan's 'Legitimate Grievances'?

Just when you thought what emanates from the White House on defeating the jihad could not get more absurd, Rush Limbaugh provides much-needed historical context. This week brought both a three-day conference on "Countering Violent Extremism" (that'll show 'em!) and an op-ed along the same lines from President Obama that was published in the Los Angeles Times.
Jack Coleman

NBC Expert: Jihadis Aren't Necessarily 'Disaffected, 'Unemployed'

Friday's NBC Nightly News surprisingly (and perhaps, unwittingly) contradicted President Obama and his administration's talking point on combating extremism – that providing "job opportunities for these people" will discourage Muslims from joining terrorist groups. Correspondent Katy Tur's report on three British teenagers who may have traveled to Syria to join ISIS featured a counterterrorism…
Matthew Balan

CBS Marks Start of Lent by Hyping 'Moral Outrage' at Catholic School

One day after Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent, Thursday's CBS This Morning decided to make a resolved two-month old controversy at a San Francisco Catholic school a national news story. Co-host Norah O'Donnell teased the segment: "Controversy at American Catholic archdiocese. Elementary school students are given pamphlets with some blunt language on sex. It's just one of several…

Kyle Drennen

Daily Beast Takes Obama to Task; ISIS = Islamic Death Cult

Earlier this week I noted an excellent piece in The Atlantic examining the very real Islamic theological underpinnings that drive ISIS from the inside-out. Now The Daily Beast is taking President Obama to task for his "tap-dance around whether ISIS is 'Islamic' or not."
Ken Shepherd

MSNBC Guest: Rudy’s Obama Comments Like Using ‘N-Word' and 'C-Word'

As part of the left’s bashing of Rudy Giuliani for stating his belief that President Obama doesn’t love America, MSNBC’s The Last Word convened a panel on Thursday night to berate Giuliani. Liberal radio show host Stephanie Miller went as far as to compare what the former New York City Mayor told a gathering of Republican donors to using derogatory language toward African-Americans, gays, and…
Curtis Houck

AP Avoids Dem Affiliation of Indicted Sheldon Silver For 9 Paragraphs

Former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was indicted on Thursday on charges of "honest services mail fraud, honest services wire fraud and extortion" involving almost $4 million in alleged bribes and kickbacks. It took Larry Neumeister and Jennifer Peltz at the Associated Press nine paragraphs to tag Silver as a Democrat. It also seems likely, based on this unbylined shorter WGY/AP…
Tom Blumer

Sesno: O'Reilly Allegation Nowhere 'Near on That Scale' of Williams

On Thursday's CNN Tonight, former CNN correspondent Frank Sesno brushed aside David Corn's supposed expose of Bill O'Reilly's claims about his reporting of the Falkland War: "It's not a Brian Williams problem. I don't think it's anywhere near on that scale." Sesno later added, "I just don't think that this is on a par...[with] the issues, the exaggerations, and the trouble that Brian Williams is…
Matthew Balan