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Politico's Maggie Haberman compiled a list of "2011's top political misstatements." Shamelessly, Politico published nine reported Republican misstatements (if you count Donald Trump), and the other one -- number one -- was about Obama. But just to make things perfect, Politico wasn't tagging Obama -- they were blaming Republicans for misstating what he stated. (UPDATE: On January 1 at 8:32 pm,…

The folks at NewsBusters and the Media Research Center would like to take a moment to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. For your entertainment pleasure, here are some fun facts about this annual event provided by the History Channel:

It's hard to say what caused it (spiked eggnog? Panama Red? a few too many bowl games?) but Kossacks hit unusually high peaks of wackiness during the holidays. One actually mounted a defense of the indefensible North Korean government, while another argued that some of the most bloodthirsty left-wing dictators of the 20th century would be at home in today's GOP. As usual, each headline is…

Saturday's NBC Nightly News hyped a poll finding that 64 percent of Californians would be willing to pay more taxes "if the money went to public schools." (Video below) Substitute anchor Kate Snow included a plug for the report in the opening teaser: "Tax hike. Why people in one state are saying 'Bring it on.' Tonight, why they're willing to pay more."

On Wednesday's Good Morning America, ABC staff could be heard laughing in the background when substitute news reader Dan Harris recited the less vulgar part of HBO comedian Bill Maher's infamous tweet mocking Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow's religious beliefs. (Video below) After informing viewers that there were calls for a boycott against Maher's HBO show over the "controversial…

On Saturday, D.C. NPR station WAMU-FM promoted a segment of its weekend "Animal House" talk show with a dramatic twist on the Constitution. The show promoted a lawsuit by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to end "animal slavery" at marine parks. As WAMU put it, The 13th Amendment "was intended to abolish domestic slavery and involuntary servitude. The authors would probably be…

On Thursday's The Early Show, CBS hosted a guest who implicated climate change as one of the factors contributing to many weather disasters in 2011, and he ended up warning of more droughts in the future. After asserting that 2011 was an unusually active year for natural disasters, Dr. M. Sanjayan of the Nature Conservancy including climate change in the list of influences:

On December 31, 2003, looking ahead to the upcoming 2004 election year, an Associated Press reporter -- I think it would have been Jennifer Loven at the time -- wrote about how George W. Bush was going to spend as much of the next 10-plus months as possible figuring that "he no longer needs Congress to promote his agenda." Therfore, he would use "aggressive campaign fundraising and use…

Not just fuzzy math, shabby too. Chris Hayes, guest hosting on "The Rachel Maddow Show" Thursday, opened a segment with the words, "From the Department of Shameless Schadenfraude." Department of Feeble Attempts at Moral Equivalence would be more accurate. (video after page break)

Is there anything more ridiculous than being accused of saying “despicable and ugly things” by...Al Sharpton? On Thursday’s Morning Joe, MSNBC brought in Sharpton as part of a tag-team interview with presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Isn't Sharpton a little too sharp-elbowed for the so-called civility squad at Morning Joe? “I could argue with you about some of your ugly statements on the…

Mediaite's Nando Di Fino reports President Obama has played at least two rounds of golf in Hawaii with a high school buddy, Robert “Bobby” Titcomb, was arrested as part of a prostitution sting, after he allegedly approached an undercover police officer for sex in downtown Hawaii. "What seems particularly interesting (“refreshing”?) here isn’t that President Obama would still hang out with a…

There are quite a few problems with Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar's December 28 coverage ("New fee coming for medical effectiveness research") concerning a new fee (i.e., tax) which will imposed on health insurance companies for each person they cover starting tomorrow. Several times (twice in the body and once as seen above in the headline), the story refers to the assessment as a "medical…

Times Watch’s end-of-year awards issue celebrates the best of the worst quotes that appeared in the paper or were uttered by Times reporters and columnists during 2011. The New York Times spent much of the year in pro-Obama defense mode, excoriating the Tea Party and conservative opposition to Obama's agenda. Yet the paper found one movement it could embrace wholeheartedly – the leftist…

Profanity and pop music go hand in hand these days. The pop star Rihanna recently appeared on the British version of Simon Cowell’s singing competition “The X Factor” dressed in a demure plaid jumper with a prim white collar. It seemed like a bow to younger viewers (and their parents). But a glance at her black sneakers and the mood was shattered: she’d inscribed the words “F— Off.” On her…