Chicken Littles: AP Report Casts Texas v. EPA Fight as Risking Health

In his report on the escalating dispute between the State of Texas and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one thing you cannot accuse Ramit Plushnick-Masti of the Associated Press of being is a master of understatement. He claims that "Both sides and conservation groups agree the battle has put the health of Texas residents and the environment at risk." Really? The only problem is that…
Tom Blumer
January 3rd, 2011 10:13 AM

Open Thread: Steele Defends GOP Chairmanship

Starter topic: In an interview with Human Events editor Jason Mattera, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele defends himself against a number of criticisms of his tenture:
NB Staff
January 3rd, 2011 10:02 AM

E.J. Dionne: 'Tax Cuts Add to the Deficit No Less Than Spending Increa

What kind of an idiot must you be to believe that tax cuts have an equal dollar for dollar negative impact on a government budget as spending increases do? The most obvious answer given the charge of this website is a liberal media member, and the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne nicely proved this point with his column Monday:
Noel Sheppard
January 3rd, 2011 9:51 AM

Meacham Calls Disastrous Limo Lib Lindsay 'One Of Greatest Mayors In N

John Lindsay might have been the worst mayor in NYC history. Epitome of the limousine liberal, Lindsay nearly bankrupted the Big Apple. But that hasn't stopped Jon Meacham from lauding Lindsay as  "one of the greatest mayors in New York history."  The former Newsweek editor bestowed the honorific title while appearing on today's Morning Joe. Meacham's comment came in the context of grouping…
Mark Finkelstein
January 3rd, 2011 7:45 AM

Scarborough: Tea Party Congressmen Should Try Not to 'Scare Little Kid

Parade magazine, the Sunday newspaper supplement, interviewed MSNBC host Joe Scarborough for its January 2 issue and praised him by reporting he has "happily confounded expectations. He's a die-hard conservative who has hosted the Morning Joe show on liberal-minded MSNBC for more than three years.  He's openly critical of both President Obama and his own party." They didn't explain Mr. Die-Hard…
Tim Graham
January 3rd, 2011 7:20 AM

NBC Promotes 'Princess Boy' Propaganda

'Today' Show fawned over a cross-dressing five-year-old and his book-touting mother.
Matt Philbin
January 3rd, 2011 12:00 AM

FNC Follows Up on Journalists' Group Push to Change 'Illegal' to 'Undo

As CMI reported last month, Society of Professional Journalists Diversity Committee urges reporters to use pro-immigrant term; SPJ itself now backs off.
Matt Philbin
January 3rd, 2011 12:00 AM

Palin Told Us So

Sarah Palin deserves an apology. When she said that the new health-care law would lead to "death panels" deciding who gets life-saving treatment and who does not, she was roundly denounced and ridiculed. Now we learn, courtesy of one of the ridiculers -- The New York Times -- that she was right. Under a new policy not included in the law for fear the administration's real end-of-life game…
Cal Thomas
January 2nd, 2011 11:06 PM

Where's the Media? L.A. Att'y Declares Many Abuse Accusations Against

In a stunning ten-page declaration recently submitted to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, veteran attorney Donald H. Steier stated that his investigations into claims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have uncovered vast fraud and that his probes have revealed that many accusations are completely false. Counselor Steier has played a role in over one hundred investigations involving…
Dave Pierre
January 2nd, 2011 8:02 PM

NYC Sanitation Workers Absenteeism Double the Norm, As Union Head Says

From the New York Times on Thursday, in an item put together with the help of a half-dozen Times reporters ("Inaction and Delays by New York as Storm Bore Down"; bold is mine): ... Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, said the problems late Sunday (during the initial stages of the Northeast's post-Christmas snowstorm -- Ed.) underscored how the city could…
Tom Blumer
January 2nd, 2011 6:17 PM

AP Item on Martinez's Inauguration in NM Notes 'Place in History,' Omi

A brief January 1 item from the Associated Press's Barry Massey on the inauguration of Susana Martinez ("Martinez becomes NM gov as new year starts") began as follows: Republican Susana Martinez has claimed her place in history as New Mexico's first female governor, taking office with the start of the new year. If it weren't for the "place in history" part, I might have blown right by it…
Tom Blumer
January 2nd, 2011 10:35 AM

Kristof Wants Government To Salve Our Souls Via Income Redistribution

You might have thought that Mike Bloomberg—with his trans fat and smokes snatching—was the epitome of nanny staters.  But the Big Apple mayor's got nothing on another New Yorker--Nicholas Kristof. In his New York Times column of today, Equality, A True Soul Food, Kristof preaches the urgent need for income redistribution as a means of . . . improving our souls. According to Kristof, "the…
Mark Finkelstein
January 2nd, 2011 9:44 AM

Sunday Open Thread

For general discussion and debate about politics, the economy, sports, or whatever else tickles your fancy this first Sunday of 2011.
NB Staff
January 2nd, 2011 9:00 AM

NYT: There's No Way to Reduce Deficit and Grow Economy Without Raising

Despite the bipartisan tax cuts orchestrated by the White House and Congress - and heralded by most Wall Street analysts! - in December, calls for tax hikes by liberal news outlets will be prevalent in the new year. Confirming this was the New York Times on Sunday pounding this drum with predictable certitude in an editorial simply titled "The Economy in 2011":
Noel Sheppard
January 2nd, 2011 8:53 AM