CNN Hammers Vicious Obama Super PAC Ad That Networks Ignored Entirely

For the second straight day, CNN blew the whistle on a nasty and misleading Obama super PAC ad that ABC, CBS, and NBC entirely ignored as of Wednesday night. CNN hammered the ad, which links Mitt Romney to a woman's death from cancer, each hour from 6 p.m. through 10 p.m. and twice grilled the man responsible for the ad, Bill Burton of Priorities USA. "I think it is deliberately mendacious…
Matt Hadro
August 9th, 2012 12:15 PM

Huffington Post Tries to Connect Governor Romney to Death Squads

What do Mitt Romney and El Salvadoran death squads have in common?  Well if you’re the Huffington Post the answer is a lot.  If you happened to be one of the few people who went to the Huffington Post website on August 8, you probably saw the following provocative and ridiculous headline: “Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital with Money from Families Tied to Death Squads.”  The article asserts…
Jeffrey Meyer
August 9th, 2012 12:14 PM

Networks Continue Blackout on Romney-Killed-My-Wife Ad, Tout War on Wo

All three evening newscasts on Wednesday continued to ignore a super PAC ad by top Obama supporters that accuses Mitt Romney of, essentially, killing a woman. At the same time, CBS and NBC amplified the Obama administration's "war on women" talking point, playing up attacks from Sandra Fluke, who previously tangled with Rush Limbaugh over contraception. [See video below. MP3 audio here.] NBC…
Scott Whitlock
August 9th, 2012 11:45 AM

Salon's Joan Walsh Equates Matt Drudge's Site to White Supremacist Pag

Good liberals like Salon.com writer Joan Walsh don't believe in racial profiling. But political profiling, well, that's a different story. In her August 8 article, "Spotting white supremacists," Walsh used the recent horrendous Sikh temple shooting as an occasion to dust off a widely-maligned 2009 Department of Homeland Security report that suggested that domestic terrorist incidents were…
Kelly McGarey
August 9th, 2012 11:44 AM

Open Thread: Happy Birthday, NewsBusters

Seven years ago today we launched NewsBusters! Thanks for reading us and helping spread the good word. We couldn't have done it without you! And speaking of birthdays, NB's parent organization, the Media Research Center, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. You can join us for the celebration by clicking here. Please use this as today's open thread as well.
Matthew Sheffield
August 9th, 2012 11:05 AM

Study: In Social Psychology, Left-Wing Agenda is King

Those tolerant liberals! It’s not news that in the arts and the soft sciences academia is intractably left-wing. It is noteworthy to see the bias categorized and quantified. The journal Perspectives on Psychological Science has published an article by researchers Yoel Inbar and Joel Lammers, psychology professors at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. It’s based on their study showing the…
Ryan Robertson
August 9th, 2012 10:49 AM

On NBC's 'Today,' BBC's Katty Kay Laments American Desire for Limited

During a report about "why we love the British" on Thursday's NBC Today, special correspondent Tom Brokaw declared: "In one of our election years, the British watch America with a sense of bewilderment." Left-wing BBC anchor Katty Kay sniffed: "When we talk about God, guns, and government, those are the three big things we don't understand." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the…
Kyle Drennen
August 9th, 2012 10:35 AM

NYT's Trip Gabriel Rides to Defense of Obama on Relaxing Welfare Rules

Riding to the defense of the Obama administration, New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel questionably termed allegations by conservatives that Obama had weakened federal welfare policy "a stretch" in a Wednesday news story, "Romney Presses Obama On Work in Welfare Law." But scholars from the Heritage Foundation disagree and rebut the main point in defense raised by the Times. "[Health and…
Clay Waters
August 9th, 2012 9:35 AM

NBC Hypes July as ‘Hottest Month Ever’ – Doesn’t Bother to Men

“On our broadcast tonight,” Brian Williams teased his lead story Wednesday night, “extreme heat, but more than that: the official confirmation that came today that it has never been this hot in America.” Citing a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report which pegged the average July temperature in the lower 48 at 77.6 degrees fahrenheit, Williams proceeded to hyperventilate over…
Brent Baker
August 9th, 2012 9:07 AM

Maria Conchita Alonso: Obama Reelection Moves U.S. Towards Becoming Ch

As NewsBusters has reported over the years, Venezuelan actress Maria Conchita Alonso is no fan of her native country's current despotic ruler Hugo Chavez. During a Spreecast interview with Steve Malzberg Wednesday, Alonso said that if Barack Obama wins reelection in November, America would be making a step towards becoming like Chavez's Venezuela "in the near future" (video follows with…
Noel Sheppard
August 9th, 2012 8:53 AM

NPR Touts 'Marquee' Harry Reid Boxing Against Romney's Vulnerability o

At the same time that NPR was offended enough to go “truth squadding” on Romney’s advertisements attacking Obama's weakness on welfare, NPR’s Don Gonyea reported on Harry Reid’s unsubstantiated charges of Romney tax evasion by leaving the clear impression that Reid is effectively punching away at a Romney “vulnerability” and sees nothing to lose. He certainly can’t seem to lose with NPR. On…
Tim Graham
August 9th, 2012 8:39 AM

'Arab Spring' Update: Muslim Brotherhood Accused of Attempting to Cont

Let's see if this story gets any meaningful attention in the U.S., or if the Associated Press expands the brief unbylined item currently seen at its national site. I wouldn't bet on it -- and even if that occurs, I don't expect the U.S. establishment press to give what is contained therein much notice. The AP's four-paragraph blurb tells us that independent columnists in Egypt are alarmed at…
Tom Blumer
August 9th, 2012 8:08 AM

Rush Limbaugh Mocks Politico's Burns

Rush Limbaugh was ahead of the crowd on Tuesday in condemning the Obama super PAC Priorities USA and their ad featuring Joe Soptic saying his wife died of cancer due to Mitt Romney and Romney didn't care. Limbaugh read from a fresh report by  Politico's Alex Burns, who quickly determined  this was "a cancer fatality that happened near the end of Romney’s tenure as governor of Massachusetts."…
Tim Graham
August 9th, 2012 7:17 AM

NBC's Mitchell Describes Push for Free Birth Control as 'Contraception

On Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, as correspondent Andrea Mitchell filed a report recounting that President Obama is running ahead of Mitt Romney with female voters, Mitchell referred to liberal birth control activist Sandra Fluke's political activities as a push for "contraception rights" rather than more accurately relaying her desire to force health insurance to pay for birth control pills…
Brad Wilmouth
August 9th, 2012 1:32 AM