Overnight Engine-Starter: Wis. Judge Sumi's Conflict(s) of Interest

Cindy at Fairly Conservative and Mary at FreedomEden broke this story yesterday. RedState, Gateway Pundit, and Doug Ross, among others, have helped promulgate it. I'd rate the odds of the establishment press doing anything with the information at nearly zero. I have a potential tidbit to add. FreedomEden's Mary writes: "Jake Sinderbrand, son of Judge Maryann Sumi, poses a bit of a problem…
Tom Blumer
March 22nd, 2011 1:09 AM

AP's Expired Contract May Explain Much of Its Union-Sympathetic Wiscon

While looking into the News Media Guild's positions in the current standoff between it and the Associated Press, I came across the most recent contract (large PDF file) between the two. It expired this past November; unionized AP employees are continuing to work under the old contract's provisions. Many people don't know that the AP is a "not-for-profit news cooperative" which is "owned by…
Tom Blumer
March 21st, 2011 8:52 PM

Updated: Were Corn and Matthews Anti-Semitic in Discussing Evangelical

This post has been modified from its original version. After discussing with my colleagues the subject of this article, which claimed Mother Jones's David Corn and MSNBC's Chris Matthews engaged in an anti-Semitic conversation on Monday's "Hardball," I have decided that I do not stand by my allegation. I apologize to Corn and Matthews for my misinterpretation. The original article has…
Noel Sheppard
March 21st, 2011 8:26 PM

WaPo/Newsweek 'On Faith' Website Practically Damns Christian Doctrine

As we've noted time and again, "On Faith" -- a Washington Post/Newsweek-run religion news and discussion website -- is biased against, if not outright hostile to traditional religious belief, particularly traditional Christian theology. This weekend's "Discussion" section topic provided more evidence of that. Examining the controversy over Michigan pastor Rob Bell's book "Love Wins: A Book…
Ken Shepherd
March 21st, 2011 6:38 PM

Study: CBS's Couric, NBC's Todd Almost as Liberal as DKos; WaPo Left o

Twitter and other social networks have provided social scientists with unprecedented means of measuring human interaction. As it turns out, that fact has implications for the media bias debate. In a study to be released next month, three Duke University researchers rank politicians and other public figures by political ideology as measured by a formula that incorporates whom they follow on…
Lachlan Markay
March 21st, 2011 6:34 PM

NPR Can't Find Anyone Who Supported Defunding 'Noncontroversial' Title

NPR's Liz Halloran touted the federal government's Title X subsidy of contraceptives as "largely noncontroversial" in a Monday article on NPR.org, despite the House of Representatives' 240-185 vote in February to defund the program. Halloran also quoted exclusively from liberal Title X supporters or from conservatives who had second thoughts about targeting the program. It only took her two…
Matthew Balan
March 21st, 2011 6:32 PM

Media Ignore Anti-Obama Protests In Brazil, Report Him Playing Soccer

Union protests against a Republican governor as well as mass demonstrations aimed at an Egyptian President have been the central focus of our news media the past two months. But as Big Government's Susan Swift reported Sunday, Brazilians protesting the imminent arrival of Barack Obama hours after he launched missiles at a country that didn't attack America is not considered newsworthy to his…
Noel Sheppard
March 21st, 2011 5:49 PM

AP: Obama Playing 'Grand Tourist' in Rio 'Sure to Endear Him Even More

In a report for the Associated Press on Sunday, Jim Kuhnhenn fawned over President Obama's tour of Rio De Janeiro during a trip to Brazil: "Obama played grand tourist....The president's sightseeing Sunday was sure to endear him even more to a diverse and multicultural country where his personal story already makes him popular." The article described how Obama, while visiting a community…
Kyle Drennen
March 21st, 2011 4:38 PM

Andrea Snarks Sarah's Foreign Trip: 'Where Do You Start

Could Andrea Mitchell possibly be more snide and condescending toward Sarah Palin?  On her MSNBC show today, here's how Mitchell introduced her interview with Jeanne Cummings of Politico concerning Palin's current trip to India and Israel: "Well.  Heh-heh.  Where do you start?" Dismissive as was the language, only the video does justice to the derision in Mitchell's tone. View clip after…
Mark Finkelstein
March 21st, 2011 4:23 PM

Oddly, AP's Kravitz Avoids Using 'Existing' To Describe Awful Feb. Exi

The Associated Press's report on existing home sales carries Derek Kravitz's byline today. Apparently the byline withholding temper tantrum thrown by the wire service's U.S. reporters which began last week has ended (further evidence here). What Kravitz's story doesn't carry is the word "existing." How odd, since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) which produces the report, calls it "…
Tom Blumer
March 21st, 2011 4:18 PM

CBS Worries States Are 'Test[ing] the Limits of Roe v. Wade

"State abortion rights test limits of Roe v. Wade" reads a teaser headline on CBSNews.com's front page this afternoon. The link brings readers to an article by Stephanie Condon entitled "Abortion battles spring up nationwide as states test the limits of Roe v. Wade":
Ken Shepherd
March 21st, 2011 3:27 PM

Obama: Now a Hero in Brazil, Too, According to NY Times

Monday's New York Times “news analysis,” “President Underscores Similarities With Brazilians, but Sidesteps One,” found reporters Alexei Barrionuevo and Jackie Calmes with Obama in Rio de Janeiro highlighting the president’s positive reception in Brazil, inspiring the citizenry "because of his African heritage." From a visit to this city’s most infamous slum to a national address amid the…
Clay Waters
March 21st, 2011 3:03 PM

New York Times on Top of the Big Stories: 'Mr. Obama Knows His Hoops

Chief  New York Times “Caucus” blog contributor Michael Shear celebrated Bracket Obama in a Saturday morning post on the president's college basketball tournament pool picks --“Obama’s N.C.A.A. Bracket Is One of the Best.” The wins just keep piling up for the president, at least on the court, in Shear’s telling. Being president is an ego trip. So you would have thought President Obama wouldn’…
Clay Waters
March 21st, 2011 2:03 PM

60 Minutes' Safer Grills 'Right-Wing Conservative' NY Archbishop, Urge

On Sunday's 60 Minutes, CBS correspondent Morley Safer interviewed New York Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan and pressed him on the his commitment to traditional Church teachings: "No question that you're conciliatory, that you like to have dialog, but underneath that you're an old-fashioned conservative. I mean, in the sense of right-wing conservative." Dolan turned Safer's…
Kyle Drennen
March 21st, 2011 12:21 PM