Latest Blogs

On Thursday's CBS This Morning, co-host Charlie Rose described how most of California was suffering from "extreme or exceptional drought" but fretted that "the crisis is turning into a political football." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] In the report that followed, correspondent Bill Whitaker explained: "House Republicans passed a bill to divert water to California's…

Via JimRomenesko.com, two journalism students in Boston have created a game called "Journalist Guest Speaker Cliche Bingo"  full of repetitive phrases they're tired of hearing. Kyle Clauss Kyle Clauss wrote: “My roommate [Alex Reimer] and I are students at Boston University’s College of Communication. We’ve listened to our fair share of self-righteous, out-of-touch journalist guest speakers, so…

The reporters at Good Morning America want their audience to know that Clay Aiken's chances for making it to Congress are iffy because of the "conservative district" and "very conservative area" in which he's running. [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Reporter Mara Schiavocampo on Thursday labeled the former American Idol runner-up a Democrat, as well as pointing out the Republican-leaning…

Contemporary abortion advocates have moved beyond the Clinton-era “safe, legal and rare” mantra in favor of “safe, legal and accessible” – and the networks oftentimes appear to do the same. When the Guttmacher Institute published a study revealing how the U.S. abortion rate had reached its lowest level since the Roe V. Wade decision in 1973, only one network covered the news: CBS. During the…

Sports fans checking in on coverage of Team USA at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia might want to brace themselves for unexpected outbursts of liberal preaching from reporters covering the games. Over the years the MRC has documented lefty reporters and writers using the games to celebrate socialist policies, bash expressions of patriotism and even work in jabs against Republicans,…

During a panel discussion on Wednesday's Special Report on Fox News, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer denounced the "incredible lack of curiosity of the mainstream media" regarding the Obama administration's IRS scandal and observed: "...had this been a Republican abusing the IRS, you can be sure the mainstream media would have been all over it." [Listen to the audio or watch the video…

Was Bill Kristol kidding—just throwing a sop to the not-inconsiderable ego of his host—or could he have been serious?  On today's Morning Joe, unveiling his line-up of the nine Republicans he sees running for president in 2016, Kristol included none other than Joe Scarborough himself. But in an unkind cut to someone prospectively facing the famously conservative GOP primary electorate,…

With rapidly rising debt and an unprecedented credit downgrade, Puerto Rico is facing a looming default with terrifying implications on American bond markets, though you would never know about it watching broadcast news. The leading credit rating firm Standard & Poor’s Rating services downgraded Puerto Rican debt to “junk” status on Feb. 5, with further downgrades likely. Despite Puerto…

Journalists love to preen as human rights watchdogs, congratulating themselves publicly for their roles – real or imagined – in securing the life and liberty of the downtrodden. That is, as long as it’s the right sort of downtrodden.  Take, for example, NBC’s coverage in the run up to the Sochi Winter Olympics. Because of Russian restrictions on gays’ free speechfor homosexuals, the official…

Network frets over gays in the Games, ignores Syrian ethnic cleansing.

Modern Family is keeping and exposing secrets

On Tuesday’s Nightly News, NBC hyped a “scathing” United Nations report that ripped the Catholic church for covering up sexual abuse crimes. The report also pressed the church to change its teaching on birth control, abortion, and homosexuality. “Tonight, a scathing report by a United Nations human rights group has slammed the Vatican and the hierarchy of the Catholic church,” reported fill-…

On Saturday (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted how the New York Times had made a critical change to a story about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's possible knowledge of lane closures in the area of the George Washington Bridge. The initial story was that a Port Authority official "has evidence" in the matter. A short time later, that claim was watered down to a far more speculative "…

One of my favorite memories from watching MSNBC -- not that there are many -- came a few years back when Rachel Maddow in full-blown, arms-waving smarm insisted that the Constitution does not have a preamble. "That would be the Declaration of Independence," Maddow declared emphatically. It's one thing for an MSNBC pundit to publicly reveal her ignorance of the Constitution (and Maddow made…