PBS Host Tavis Smiley Claims 2011 Budget Deal 'An Immoral Document

As part of the political panel on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, PBS host Tavis Smiley decried the recent budget deal in Congress to fund the government through the rest of 2011: "I believe that budgets are moral documents....And I'm not so sure that this is not anything more than an immoral document where the poor are concerned." Smiley went on to lament how the budget negotiations "…
Kyle Drennen
April 18th, 2011 11:15 AM

NYT: Republican Policies Will Cause Destruction

Days before his 2012 budget was released, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) predicted that he and it would be demagogued by the Left. Doing its part is the New York Times which began its editorial Monday, "Six months after voters sent Republicans in large numbers to Congress and many statehouses, it is possible to see the full landscape of destruction that their policies would cause — much of…
Noel Sheppard
April 18th, 2011 9:50 AM

AP Falsely Claims Scott Walker Admitted Collective Bargaining Restrict

While Scott Walker has become a hero to conservatives by taking on the public sector unions driving the state's budget into the red, he is as close to universally vilified on the Left as any public figure in America today. Every proclamation and action from Walker is subjected to intense scrutiny. Thus, no doubt, there was much consternation when Laurie Kellman of the Associated Press reported…
Glen Asbury
April 18th, 2011 9:32 AM

CBS Rues Unfairness of Rich Not Paying Enough Without Noting More Than

CBS News on Sunday morning managed to examine incongruities in the U.S. tax system, highlighting those – including a former New York Times reporter – who think the wealthy aren’t paying enough, but without bothering to point out the disproportionate share of the income tax paid by those at the top nor how more than a third of those who file an income tax return pay nothing or even get more back…
Brent Baker
April 18th, 2011 9:06 AM

Open Thread: EPA Doesn't Calculate Regulations' Effects on Employment

Last week EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus testified before a House committee, and really let the cat out of the bag: no, the agency does not consider the toll its regulations take on job creation in its decisions to implement them. The video below the break woud be highly entertaining - Rep. Cory Gardener, R-Colo., grills Stanislaus on the policy for five minutes - if the facts it…
NB Staff
April 18th, 2011 8:46 AM

Daily Kos Week in Review: Obama Budget Edition

This past week's big story in Kosland was the midweek shift in tone in posts about President Obama. Before Wednesday's budget speech, Kossacks portrayed Obama as a wimp, a Reaganite, and worse. After the speech, he was their savvy, aggressive, progressive hero. Meanwhile, conservatives were presented as greedy racists. That's a tone that never shifts on Daily Kos. 
Tom Johnson
April 18th, 2011 7:43 AM

WaPo Inserts Bias in a Borders Bookstore Closing: Jonah Goldberg Not S

The closing of Borders book stores isn’t that newsworthy, but The Washington Post on Monday somehow turned it into a celebration of how liberal books sell well (and conservative titles don’t) in blue Maryland. Reporters Larissa Roso and Michael Rosenwald began at a store at Rockville’s White Flint Mall: Many shoppers, such as Francie Kranzberg, went straight for the political stuff: a copy of…
Tim Graham
April 18th, 2011 7:27 AM

Popular Media Description of Coffee Party and Similar Tiny Lefty Group

Whoever is compiling a list of what journalists really believe when they put forth certain vague but commonly used phrases (e.g., using "some people believe" instead of truthfully saying "in my opinion") should consider adding the following: "small but vocal group" really means "a tiny bunch of people I agree with." That's my assessment as I look at two uses of the term this past weekend,…
Tom Blumer
April 18th, 2011 12:10 AM

CNN Lets Audible 'Bulls--t' Go Totally Unedited

Vulgarity sure seems to be more and more commonplace on cable these days. On CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday, CNN not only let an audible "bulls--t" go totally unedited, but host Howard Kurtz didn't even acknowledge that it had occurred (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
April 17th, 2011 10:52 PM

Since When Is Mercy Validating Abortion

"(T)his is a loving, caring Jesus," is how the New York Times recently profiled a leading man in a play about abortion written by a Notre Dame grad. The script dialogue includes a woman asking Christ: "Did you ever say, 'I'm Jesus, and I say that stupid girls who let guys talk them into going to the back seat of their cars have to have babies?' Did you say that ever?" "No," Jesus replies.
Kathryn Jean Lopez
April 17th, 2011 10:35 PM

David Gregory Invokes Walter Mondale To Push For Higher Taxes - With H

As NewsBusters has been reporting, the media have been on a full-court press in recent days supporting the President's push to raise taxes. Doing his part was NBC's David Gregory who trotted out the words of former Vice President Walter Mondale on Sunday's "Meet the Press" to really drive home the point, and then got a huge assist from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan (video…
Noel Sheppard
April 17th, 2011 10:19 PM

Lowry Calls Obama Classless, Clift Asks 'What Would You Expect From Ke

For the second week in a row, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift and National Review's Rich Lowry had quite a battle on PBS's "McLaughlin Group." This time the fireworks started when Lowry called President Obama classless for the way he treated Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) at Wednesday's speech on deficit reduction which led Clift to ask, "What else would you expect from a socialist born in Kenya…
Noel Sheppard
April 17th, 2011 8:02 PM

AP's Feller Asks Obama About Thursday 'Third World' Comment the Wire S

The Associated Press's Ben Feller interviewed President Obama on Friday. In the transcript, Feller interrupts Obama's long-winded response to his previous softball question ("Are the Republican leaders lacking compassion and they're pessimistic?") by beginning another question, which is shown as having been stopped before completion: Q. You said they might lead us to third world - It's…
Tom Blumer
April 17th, 2011 7:15 PM

Howard Kurtz Doesn't Know Why 'So-called Liberal Media' Ignore Left's

CNN's Howard Kurtz is either astonishingly naive or so strongly in the tank for Barack Obama that he's willing to ignore the totally obvious to assist the President's reelection efforts. On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," Kurtz actually discussed with far-left guests Joan Walsh of Salon and John Aravosis of Americablog.com - without ever disclosing the painfully inconvenient truth! - why the "so…
Noel Sheppard
April 17th, 2011 6:42 PM