Latest Blogs

Time's Grunwald: Rick Perry Divorced From Reality
In "Ben Bernanke Embraces Obama's Reality-Based Presidency," Time's Michael Grunwald posited that Republican presidential contender Rick Perry is divorced from reality, especially when it comes to the best policies to fix the economy.
Grunwald opened with snark...
August 29th, 2011 3:59 PM

NY Times Asks: Gee, Why Is 'Civil Rights Activist' Al Sharpton So Quie
The New York Times, once again, feigned ignorance regarding “civil rights activist” Al Sharpton’s racially incendiary past. The front of the New York section on Saturday, N.R. Kleinfield questioned why “the provocative civil rights activist” has been silent on the case of International Monetary Fund bigwig Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of raping a hotel maid in Manhattan. (The charges were…
August 29th, 2011 3:31 PM

Newsweek Reporter's Weird Complaint: Cheney Memoir Doesn't 'Look Forwa
Newsweek journalist Dan Stone appeared on MSNBC's News Live, Monday, to offer a bizarre complaint about Dick Cheney's new memoir. He lamented, "This book is very focused on rehashing. It's very based on the past, from what I can tell."
Responding to a question about whether the book could cause problems for Obama, the White House correspondent added, "Not many people are taking it to look…
August 29th, 2011 3:18 PM
Sex Ed, for Both Good and Ill
Just like that, most of America can move on from any concern about the very existence of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The former head of the International Monetary Fund is a free man, proclaiming his innocence. But what about our innocence? It still seems to be missing.
In May, the once-potential French presidential candidate was accused of sexually assaulting a luxury-hotel maid, and arrested in…
August 29th, 2011 3:03 PM

AP's Pace, Covering Krueger Nomination: Obama Struggles With 'Percepti
Maybe AP stands for "Alternative Planet."
In an early version of Julie Pace's coverage of President Obama's selection of Alan Krueger to be the next head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the following paragraph appeared (bolds are mine):
August 29th, 2011 2:17 PM

NY Times Reporter Justin Gillis Again Uses Natural Disaster to Promote
Never let a natural disaster go to waste. In August 2010, New York Times environmental reporter Justin Gillis reacted to that summer's heat waves and flooding with “In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming” on the front page of the Times. So it was no surprise he took advantage of Hurricane Irene in Sunday’s edition, “Seeing Irene as Harbinger of a Change in Climate.”
Gillis’s latest…
August 29th, 2011 1:21 PM

WaPo Hypes Concern Over Birds Killed by Windmills, Yet Housecats Kill
"Wind farms' turbines drawing static over bird kills" blared the page A4 headline in today's Washington Post.
"Advocates want oversight," added a subheadline. Yet it took until paragraph 11 out of 28 that Post staffer Darryl Fears noted that "power lines kill an estimated 10 million, and nearly 11 million are hit by automobiles," compared to just about 500,000 birds who die each year thanks…
August 29th, 2011 1:02 PM

NBC Brings On Hurricane Hypers to Deny Hyping Irene
On Monday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer introduced a panel discussion on whether media coverage of Hurricane Irene was overdone by proclaiming: "Was this storm over-hyped? In some ways, it's a one-sentence argument, this storm killed more than 20 people and 4 million people are without power, and clearly there's misery and destruction. How could it have been over-hyped?"
Weatherman Al…
August 29th, 2011 1:00 PM

CBS Reruns Slam at Bush Over Katrina; Touted Nagin as 'Expert
CBS's Bill Plante inserted the oft-repeated media spin about the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina into his report on Monday's Early Show. Plante ignored the poor handling of Katrina at the state and local levels, spotlighting instead how "the stranded and homeless wandered the streets of New Orleans" as Bush flew overhead. But three days earlier, CBS brought on former New…
August 29th, 2011 12:53 PM
Joey Vento: Assimilation Warrior
Blunt. Brash. Bold. Politically incorrect. Unapologetically patriotic. Philadelphia cheese-steak king Joey Vento was all that and a side of freedom fries. The 71-year-old owner of Geno's Steaks died of a heart attack last week, but he reignited a national debate over radical multiculturalism that will burn for years to come.
Five years ago, Vento garnered national headlines when a local…
August 29th, 2011 12:18 PM

New York Times Watch Quotes of Note: 'Deep Cuts in Social Services' by
“Deep Cuts in Social Services” By Conservatives Led to London Riots
“Frustration in this impoverished neighborhood, as in many others in Britain, has mounted as the government’s austerity budget has forced deep cuts in social services. At the same time, a widely held disdain for law enforcement here, where a large Afro-Caribbean population has felt singled out by the police for abuse, has…
August 29th, 2011 11:42 AM

Scarborough Takes on Colin Powell: Him Going on TV to Defend Himself M
The liberal media are predictably gushing over Colin Powell's supposed rebuke of Dick Cheney on Sunday's "Face the Nation."
Bucking the trend was Joe Scarborough Monday who on the MSNBC program bearing his name said Powell going on "Face the Nation" to defend himself proved Cheney right about heads exploding over his new book (video follows with transcript and commentary):
August 29th, 2011 11:36 AM
Open Thread: Should Libya Extradite Lockerbie Bomber to U.S
Fred Lucas of NewsBusters sister site CNSNews.com is reporting today that Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney wants to see convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi extradited from Libya to the United States to face prosecution:
August 29th, 2011 11:03 AM

Politico Asks: 'Is Rick Perry Dumb', Goes On to Answer, Basically, No
You have to hand it to Politico, they know how to gin up publicity.
"Is Rick Perry dumb?" asks the top headline on the website today. Yet on balance, the corresponding article by Jonathan Martin isn't all that bad, noting that Perry has often been underestimated politically, much to the peril of numerous Republican and Democratic opponents who are now footnotes at best in Texas political…
August 29th, 2011 10:50 AM