Latest Blogs

Returning to form, the last two New York Times updates from the Greensboro, N.C. trial of two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, charged with misusing campaign money to cover up an affair, contain zero mentions of Edwards's Democratic affiliation. The word doesn't even appear in either story. On Thursday, Lizette Alvarez covered the testimony from Elizabeth Christina…

On no issue is the elite/American divide so great as on immigration. For decades, a majority of Americans have wanted to decrease immigration. Not just illegal immigration -- all immigration. Nearly three times as many Americans support reducing immigration as want it to stay the same, according to Gallup polls. A grand total of 5 percent of the population want to increase legal immigration…

Wednesday's nightly newscasts and Thursday's morning shows hyped "steamy," "romantic" journal entries from an ex-girlfriend of Barack Obama, but downplayed or ignored revelations that his autobiography created a "composite" relationship of multiple women. On Thursday's Today, Natalie Morales gossiped like a school girl: "Steamy journal entries from a long-ago ex-girlfriend of President Obama…

Well, we can all stop thinking about the presidential election, because Barack Obama's victory is assured. This morning, Paul Wiseman at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, virtually celebrated analysts' predictions that the unemployment rate will drop a whole 0.3% between now and Election Day to 7.9%. But in searching desperately for a precedent, he claimed that a public…

Unemployment is stubbornly high, mountains of debt are burying the nation, and gas prices appear to be bringing the tepid economic recovery to a halt. Yet MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Wednesday actually spent five minutes bashing Ann Romney for wearing a $990 shirt on television (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

It happened yesterday but still big news today is the exit of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich who announced that he is ending his campaign for the Republican nomination. Now that he's out, what are your thoughts on his campaign? Do you think he ran it as well as he could have? What major flaws or mistakes did he make in your mind that prevented him from winning the GOP nomination? Do you…

There's been a lot of bad economic news lately, but the folks at the Associated Press don't care. In their view - or at least in the opinion of those they surveyed - "[h]iring through the rest of 2012...will be strong enough to push the unemployment rate below 8 percent by Election Day" boosting "Obama's prospects in November":

One of the more colorful anecdotes in the campaign memoir “Game Change” re-emerged yesterday in the courtroom, about what happened when Elizabeth Edwards confronted her husband about adultery stories in the National Enquirer, a scene that didn’t receive any attention on network TV (and obviously not in the Palin-bashing HBO movie). The New York Post reported “John Edwards’ humiliated wife…

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is doing a television tour for his book "End This Depression Now!" Charlie Rose interviewed him twice, once on CBS This Morning Monday, then that night for the full hour of Rose's PBS talk show. Krugman appeared on Bloomberg TV Tuesday debating Ron Paul, and the friendlier confines of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show that night. Krugman's economic recovery plan…

NBC's special presentation of Rock Center on the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's assassination wasn't just a victory lap for Barack Obama. It was also a chance for host Brian Williams to praise Bill Clinton for going after the former al Qaeda leader without mentioning all the times his administration passed on chances to get him (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary…

Andrea Mitchell on the MSNBC program bearing her name Tuesday twice referred to "enhanced interrogation techniques" as "torture." The second time, Jose Rodriguez, the former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Services, set the record straight (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Mockery of religion in general and Catholicism in particular is commonplace in Hollywood– from Showtime’s “The Borgias” to the recent “Three Stooges” movie which features Kate Upton wearing a “nun-kini.” The latest installment of Catholic-bashing, “The Perfect Family,” is slated to come out May 4 – and predictably stereotypes Catholics who believe and practice what their Church teaches as…

Al Sharpton benefits more than most radio hosts by having listeners call his show. It lets Sharpton come across as sane by comparison. The other day, for example, Sharpton wasted little time dismissing the latest bizarre conspiracy theory making the rounds (audio clip after page break) --