CNN.com's Breaking News Bias on 'Cut, Cap and Balance' Rejection by Se

As soon as the Senate rejected the "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan, CNN.com shot out a biased Breaking News alert to e-mail subscribers that labeled the measure as one "favored by hard-line conservative [sic]" (screen capture attached below page break):  
Ken Shepherd
July 22nd, 2011 11:10 AM

Fareed Zakaria Blames Tea Party For Debt Ceiling 'Sideshow

CNN's Fareed Zakaria Thursday called the debt ceiling battle a "sideshow" caused by the Tea Party. Appearing on "In the Arena" as a supposed "astute observer of the economy," Zakaria proceeded to bungle economic and historic facts like a high school dropout (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
July 22nd, 2011 10:55 AM

Media Mash: Despite MSM Slamming 'Cut, Cap and Balance,' 66% of Americ

While the media have been busy persistently denouncing the Cut, Cap and Balance plan as Republicans "wasting time" with a "show" plan that has "no chance of passage," the public aren't accepting the media spin. A CNN poll shows nearly 2/3rds of Americans favor that approach to tackling the national debt and balancing the budget, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on the July 21 "Hannity…
NB Staff
July 22nd, 2011 10:37 AM

Open Thread: Rick Perry's Chances

Today's starter topic: Rick Perry. He's continuing to generate buzz in the context of the 2012 Republican presidential primaries and now for the first time, the Texas governor is favored by bettors on the oddsmaking site Intrade to actually get the nomination: Texas Gov. Rick Perry may not have formally declared his presidential candidacy yet, but bettors on the news-futures website…
NB Staff
July 22nd, 2011 10:21 AM

No Media Reckoning for Harkin's False Deficit History

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin was at his worst Wednesday morning in a press conference. Sure, there was the usual immature Democratic Party name-calling -- calling Republicans "dead-beat debtors" and characterizing Republicans who oppose raising the debt ceiling as a "cult fringe," even though polls seem to be showing that 60% of Americans are in that "fringe." But beyond that, Harkin uttered a…
Tom Blumer
July 21st, 2011 11:29 PM

MSNBC Regular Dyson: Reaganism Imposed 'In Fascist Fashion

logorrhea: excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness. -- Merriam Webster When watching lefty professor and MSNBC regular Michael Eric Dyson, the notion often occurs to me that the man suffers from the condition described above.  Just yesterday, as James Taranto noted in his Best of the Web column at WSJ online, Dyson digressed, during an MSNBC appearance, into a riff to the…
Mark Finkelstein
July 21st, 2011 9:26 PM

CNN Ignores Poll Results Showing Strong Support for 'Cut, Cap, and Bal

CNN touted results from its newly-released poll Thursday showing Americans favor a balance of spending cuts and tax increases in the debt ceiling debate, as well as raising the debt ceiling. What the network completely failed to report -- although NewsBusters reported it -- was that Americans also favored two conservative positions – passage of a balanced budget amendment, along with spending…
Matt Hadro
July 21st, 2011 7:51 PM

PieGate: MSNBCer Floats Conspiracy Theory Murdoch Staged Pie Throwing

The media's attention on Rupert Murdoch and the British hacking scandal hit a new low Thursday. Filling in for MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Michael Smerconish finished "Hardball" with a segment floating the conspiracy theory that Rupert Murdoch staged Tuesday's Parliamentary pie throwing incident to distract everyone's attention from his testimony (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
July 21st, 2011 7:10 PM

Bachmann and the Pope

It seems Rep. Michele Bachmann is under increased scrutiny for her religious views, even as she climbs ever higher in the presidential polls. With tea party support, she is now No. 2 in the Republican polls even though she has been in the race for only a short time. The numero uno, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is himself the victim of gentler bigotry for his religious views. He is a…
R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.
July 21st, 2011 5:54 PM

CNN Belief Blog Contributor Damns GOP Taking Political Pledges As 'Unb

The CNN Belief Blog's latest hit-job on Republicans involved Boston University religion scholar Stephen Prothero pronouncing that Republican politicians taking conservative pledges is "unbiblical" and "unchristian." Republicans have made news recently for taking pledges that are anti-tax, pro-life, and opposing same-sex marriage. According to Prothero, the Bible argues that the "recent orgy…
Matt Hadro
July 21st, 2011 5:40 PM

CNN Poll Finds Media on Wrong Side of 'Cut, Cap and Balance

In the past week, you couldn't swing a debt cat without hitting a press report about how irresponsible the "Cut, Cap and Balance" bill passed by House Republicans is. A new CNN/ORC poll released a few hours ago finds the media very much on the wrong side of public opinion concerning this issue:
Noel Sheppard
July 21st, 2011 5:24 PM

MSNBC Disses Boy Scout, 66% of Americans Who Want Federal Govt. to Liv

Halfway through the July 21 edition of "NewsNation," MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall brought on Time magazine assistant managing editor Rana Foroohar to diss a Boy Scout cited by John Thune (R-S.D.) on the Senate floor. After Hall aired a clip of Thune reading the Boy Scout's letter admonishing senators to spend only what the government can afford, she and Foroohar set about to dismiss his concern…
Ken Shepherd
July 21st, 2011 5:12 PM

CBS Slants Towards Supporters of Online Sales Taxes

CBS's John Blackstone apparently couldn't find many opponents of imposing sales taxes on online retailers for his report on Thursday's Early Show, as all but one of his sound bites came from proponents. Blackstone also warned that "states that are already suffering under huge budget deficits will lose more than $11 billion in uncollected sales taxes next year." The correspondent first…
Matthew Balan
July 21st, 2011 5:09 PM

Video Proves Chris Matthews Totally Distorted Ronald Reagan's Position

On Wednesday's Hardball, Chris Matthews took a clip from a 24 year-old Ronald Reagan press conference and disingenuously passed it off as the Republican's take on "raising taxes to deal with the ballooning deficit." Matthew's version was out of context and video from October 22, 1987 proves it. [See below for video. MP3 audio here.] After playing a snippet of Reagan that had nothing to do…
Scott Whitlock
July 21st, 2011 4:47 PM