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One more data point demonstrating the leftward tilt of the purportedly non-partisan Politico: In his Playbook of today, Politico's chief White House correspondent Mike Allen depicts a "grand bargain" on the credit ceiling, which inevitably would include huge tax increases, as an "historic achievement" for which President Obama and House speaker John Boehner would "rightly get credit." In…

Latest dispatch from the Department of Dissent Is No Longer Patriotic: because they won't raise taxes, Republican "maniacs" are more dangerous to US national security than al Qaeda. That is the view of Nicholas Kristof, as expressed in his New York Times column of today, "Republicans, Zealots and Our Security." View excerpts after the jump.

 Saturday’s The Early Show on CBS gave New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg an unchallenged forum to promote his views favoring same-sex marriage as the show celebrated New York’s recent legalization of gay marriage by interviewing a gay couple who are planning to get married. As Mayor Bloomberg will be performing the ceremony because the two are members of his staff, the mayor also took part…

On Wednesday evening (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted the absurdity of Associated Press coverage characterizing the 5-page document with 3-1/2 whole pages of text issued by the "Gang of Six" as a "plan" -- 12 times, plus in the item's headline. Though I didn't bring it up then, an obvious point to make about any of these items floating around Washington is that if the Congressional…

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday mocked news outlets hyping the heat wave gripping much of the nation by reporting the heat index rather than the actual temperatures. On Friday's "Real Time," host Bill Maher proved Limbaugh's point by falsely telling his audience, "It was 123 in Minnesota" (video follows with transcript and commentary, vulgarity alert):

Andy Barr is just the latest political reporter to go through the revolving door into the realm of partisan politics. Oddly enough Barr is leaving the inside-the-Beltway tabloid Politico just as a former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) staffer is joining the paper. NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell discussed the MSM-Democratic politics nexus in an interview on "Fox & Friends" on Friday. You…

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC contributor Michael Smerconish on Thursday, while substitute hosting for Chris Matthews on "Hardball," actually floated the absurd conspiracy theory that Rupert Murdoch had staged the pie throwing event during his hearing before Parliament Tuesday in order to distract from his testimony. On Saturday's "Fox News Watch," Jim Pinkerton referenced this…

Over a span of just four days, the three major networks devoted 12 minutes and 59 seconds to highlighting the "campaign controversy" of Michele Bachmann's migraines. The report first appeared online and then was quickly picked up on ABC, NBC and CBS. On Wednesday, Good Morning America's Robin Roberts warned, " But now a new story is raising questions about her health."  On NBC's Today, Kelly…

Bill Maher on Friday once again got caught in his own hypocrisy. As HBO's "Real Time" host waxed philosophic about socialism and "shared sacrifice" for the good of the country, Reason TV's Nick Gillespie stumped the sometimes comedian by asking if he would give up his cars or his television show to reduce his carbon footprint (video follows with transcript and commentary):

For general discussion and debate about politics, the economy, sports, and whatever else tickles your fancy.

Reason TV's Nick Gillespie was threatened on HBO's "Real Time" by Mayor John Fetterman (D-Braddock, Pa.). After Gillespie made a joke about Fetterman being mayor of the poorest town in Pennsylvania, the Mayor responded, "You want to take it outside?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

NBC and CBS polls released earlier this week determined that a significant portion of the American public remain opposed to any increase in the nation’s debt limit, but neither network has included that fact in their on-air reporting. And a poll released by ABC on Tuesday didn’t even bother to ask for public opinion on whether the raising the debt ceiling was a good idea or not. The networks…

Laura Ingraham calls her newest book "Of Thee I Zing" a “comedic intervention” on the sorry state of our popular culture. It begins with a declaration of independence from the moral soup in which we swim: “When in a coarse state of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bonds between themselves and the cultural blight degrading the Republic...they should declare the…

"Glee" is not just an American TV show, it is also the emotion many people feel and express toward the trouble Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is having, since they consider Murdoch's properties a blight on their formerly pristine media landscape. There are two strains running through the phone-hacking scandal that monopolizes much of the media attention in the UK. One is the attitude of the…