As NY Post Builds on Snow Removal Slowdown Story, NYT Calls It All 'Ru

The dictionary says that a rumor is: - a story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts. - gossip; hearsay The dictionaries in use at the offices of the New York Times must include the following backup definition: "Any set of facts and/or allegations reported by the New York Post." After yesterday's blockbuster report ("Sanitation Department's slow…
Tom Blumer
December 31st, 2010 7:07 PM

CBS, NBC Highlight List That Advocates Ban of Two Terms Coined by Sara

 The Early Show on CBS and NBC’s Today show on Friday both gave attention to Lake Superior State University’s "list of words that should be banned in 2011 because of overuse or general uselessness," and both shows mentioned one or two words made famous by Sarah Palin as each show listed four or five out of the 14 words tallied. Both CBS’s Betty Nguyen and NBC’s Thomas Roberts noted the…
Brad Wilmouth
December 31st, 2010 2:48 PM

WaPo Reporter Buys Liberal Line That Abortions Are 'Virtually Impossib

Has The Washington Post ever traveled to Iowa? Obviously, yes for presidential caucuses. But on Friday, Post reporter Sandhya Somashekhar accepted the bizarre premise of abortion advocates that abortions are "virtually impossible" in rural Iowa. No one owns a car? The story centered on a new pro-life cause, protesting the provision of RU-486 abortion cocktails over the Internet. Liberals can…
Tim Graham
December 31st, 2010 10:14 AM

Best Notable Quotables of 2010: Crushing Rush and Damning Conservative

The liberal press likes to scold what it sees as lapses in civil rhetoric, usually from conservatives who fail to properly respect the icons of the Left. But as documented by the MRC's Best Notable Quotables of 2010, the media elite itself lurched into some pretty uncivil rhetoric this year — especially when the targets were Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party and other conservatives. PBS's Tavis…
Rich Noyes
December 31st, 2010 9:10 AM

NPR Talk Show's 'Year for White Americans' Analysis Repeats Anti-Obama

NPR's weekday afternoon talk show Talk of the Nation addressed the year 2010 in terms of how it went for Muslims, gays, blacks, and on Thursday, "The Year for White Americans." All four segments were interviews with guests on the left. While the minorities received a predictable NPR sympathy, the triumph of Tea Party candidates clearly suggested to NPR there's something wrong in white America.…
Tim Graham
December 31st, 2010 8:40 AM

CBS’s Crawford Dismisses Christine O’Donnell’s Response to Accus

 On Thursday’s CBS Evening News, as correspondent Jan Crawford filed a report on the allegations that former Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell misused campaign money, the CBS correspondent seemed dismissive of O’Donnell’s reaction to the accusations as Crawford harkened back to the 2010 campaign and described some of O’Donnell’s recent words as the Delaware Republican's…
Brad Wilmouth
December 31st, 2010 4:14 AM

Nets Bolster Accusers of Christine O’Donnell, Ignore Liberal Nature

 As the broadcast network morning newscasts on Thursday each interviewed former Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell regarding allegations that she misused campaign money, in the setup piece on each network, the correspondent failed to inform viewers of credibility weaknesses on the part of O’Donnell’s accusers and omitted O’Donnell’s contention that she did not use campaign…
Brad Wilmouth
December 31st, 2010 1:39 AM

NYT Begins Playing Defense for Bloomberg, Union in Snow Response Cover

Today, New York Post reporters delivered a bombshell story addressing why New York City's snow cleanup performance has been so poor: Sanitation Department's slow snow cleanup was a budget protest   Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned…
Tom Blumer
December 30th, 2010 9:22 PM

CBS Highlights Armed Shop Owner Who Fought Back Against Robbers

 While it is unusual for the mainstream media to give attention to armed citizens who use guns to defend themselves against criminals before police can arrive, on Thursday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Harry Smith highlighted a smoke shop owner in Texas who fought back when he was the victim of two armed robbers, as he shot and apparently wounded one of them. Smith related to viewers:
Brad Wilmouth
December 30th, 2010 9:15 PM

Newsweek's Sweet Terrorist Helper

Newsweek's year-end Interview Issue included a brief interview with Lori Berenson -- but never provided the reader any context besides the title "Freed Peruvian Prisoner." That might give the wrong impression: Berenson is an American communist who traveled to Peru and allied herself with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), and rented a house in Lima they could use as a…
Tim Graham
December 30th, 2010 9:07 PM

Michael Vick's Abuse of Dogs As Payback for Bull Connor, Slavery

Someone finally -- finally! -- has drawn the obvious correlation between NFL quarterback Michael Vick's killing of animals in an illegal dog-fighting ring and the monstrous injustices committed against blacks during slavery and the civil rights movement. What's hardly surprising is who's making the connection -- Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC's go-to gal for all things…
Jack Coleman
December 30th, 2010 3:44 PM

Aaron Sorkin: Palin is ‘Idiot’ and ‘Mean Woman,’Republicans

 Appearing as a guest in a pre-recorded interview on Wednesday’s Parker-Spitzer on CNN to promote his film The Social Network, television and film producer Aaron Sorkin trashed Sarah Palin as an "idiot" and a "mean woman." Sorkin: "Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on, this is a remarkably, this is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman." After the former producer of…
Brad Wilmouth
December 30th, 2010 3:11 PM

Katie Couric: 'Maybe We Need a Muslim Version of The Cosby Show

In her @katiecouric Web show analyzing the trends of 2010, the CBS Evening News anchor made a serious speech (in her serious, deep-thinker glasses) against the deep "seething hatred" against Muslims in America: I also think sort of the chasm, between, or the bigotry expressed against Muslims in this country has been one of the most disturbing stories to surface this year. Of course, a lot of…
Tim Graham
December 30th, 2010 1:04 PM

Open Thread: NYC Union Delays Snow Removal Deliberately

Today's starter topic: Sanitation workers in New York City deliberately slowed down snow removal operations  there in protest of cuts made to their budgets: Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which…
NB Staff
December 30th, 2010 11:52 AM