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The Associated Press's opening four-paragraph unbylined take (also saved here) on the Conference Board's July consumer confidence report comes off to yours truly as a desperate attempt to play "Happy Days Are Here Again" with selective reporting. Start with the item's headline: "US consumers more confident in the economy in July" Uh, no. Given that a value of 90 is what the AP acknowledges in…

With a fragile economy during a heated election cycle, the news media should be focused on economic data. But when it comes to the growth of the U.S. economy as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), the three broadcasts networks were silent. ABC, CBS and NBC news programs ignored the falling GDP numbers for six straight months from Jan. 28 to July 26, 2012, according to Nexis transcripts…

Sunday on ABC, as Rush Limbaugh noted on his show yesterday, Obama campaign senior adviser and former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney a "schoolyard bully." Just a couple of hours later (the time stamp is noon on Sunday), what little is left of Newsweek published "Mitt Romney's Wimp Factor." Zheesh -- So which is it?

During the 1960 presidential campaign, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy was attacked for his Catholic faith, then viewed by many as subversive and un-American. Anti-Mormon bigots are now targeting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his Mormon beliefs, which are now viewed by many “progressives” as a “transparent and recent fraud.” But in those 50 years, the role…

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has successfully founded a private equity company, rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics, and governed the state of Massachusetts. Despite such accomplishments, the Washington Post's Richard Cohen on Monday called Romney "the village idiot":

Imagine that Fox News had run a spoof video of someone seeming to line up a leading Democrat for a high-powered rifle shot. Need we state the obvious? MSNBC and the rest of the MSM would have interrupted all normal broadcasting for at least the rest of the day to condemn the outrage. But if a liberal late-night TV show runs a clip of Sarah Palin seeming to take such a shot at Dick Cheney? …

Last night (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) I critiqued a short Associated Press item posted earlier Monday by reporter John Hanna which seemed quite alarmed at the notion that "Conservatives in Republicans are turning against moderates in their own party." Hanna expanded his report on Monday. Its apparently final version, time-stamped at 5:16 p.m. at the AP's national site, goes further into…

The website Ancestry.com is trying to build an appealing Obama tale...and promote business to its website, and The Washington Post and other pro-Obama media are biting like hungry fish. Washington Post reporter Krissah Thompson was thrilled: "President Obama’s extraordinary family story gained a new layer this week as a team of genealogists found evidence that he is most likely a descendant of…

Presidential candidates these days sure are using technology to advance their campaigns. On Tuesday, Mitt Romney announced via Twitter his "VP App" - a plug-in for smartphones that allows users to be the first to find out who he picks for his running mate.

Gosh, I think John Hanna and the Associated Press need to do something about their use of eliminationist language and violent imagery. Look at how AP headlined Hanna's late morning report on the rise of conservatism in several midwestern and southern states at the likely expense of moderate incumbents (shown in full because of its brevity and for fair use and discussion purposes).

"I guarantee you, Sean, based on what I’ve heard from third parties or I’ve spoken to that William Jefferson Clinton is going to cast his ballot for Mitt Romney." So said former Clinton adviser Dick Morris on Fox News's Hannity Monday (video follows with transcript).

Journalists are quite eager to undermine Mitt Romney’s trip. “A new diplomatic dust-up,” CBS anchor Scott Pelley teased Monday night, citing how “Mitt Romney in the Middle East says culture makes Israelis economically superior to Palestinians.” NBC’s Peter Alexander declared upsetting Palestinians meant Romney’s “day began in Israel with another diplomatic misstep” as ABC’s David Muir saw “…

Is there anything more disgusting than watching a grown, heterosexual, married man gush and fawn over another grown, heterosexual married man for political reasons on national television? Unfortunately, this happens all too often for MSNBC's Chris Matthew who on Monday's Hardball was once again proudly displaying the thrill up his leg, this time for former President Bill Clinton (video…

CBS, which devoted four on-air segments between May 30 and June 1, 2012 to the "hundreds of Catholics" who rallied in support of dissenting nuns, ignored the tens of thousands who came from all over the U.S. to see conservative talk show host Glenn Beck speak on Saturday. In fact, all of the Big Three networks have yet to cover Beck's "Restoring Love" event in Dallas on their morning and…