Latest Blogs

Given the chance to interview Katie Couric, I wouldn't ask her what newspapers she reads.  I'd want to know how she understands her role as anchor, and why she thinks it's appropriate to express opinions on controversial issues of the day. For that's just what she's done on the subject of gun control, expressing disappointment that Pres. Obama didn't raise it in his SOTU. Describing her…

Not to worry, Ed Schultz told his radio listeners on Jan. 11 -- the bellicose "Psycho Talk" segment of his MSNBC program would remain on the show. Here's a clip of Schultz claiming that in the wake of the Tucson shooting, with liberals blaming an amorphous "climate of hate" for triggering the bloodshed, "Psycho Talk" would endure (audio) -- Let me just start it right out today, I am not…

Several media outlets are trumpeting a recent study out of Denmark that asserts that having an abortion does not increase the risk of mental health problems for women. Yet there are serious problems with the study that major media are not reporting: 1. The Danish study flies in the face of over 30 professional studies just in the past five years that conclude that there is a serious negative…

The White House on Thursday named Jay Carney, the husband of ABC News reporter Claire Shipman, to be the new White House Press secretary. Carney is also an ex-journalist, formally of Time magazine. Will this appointment prove to be a conflict of interest for Shipman? Will she continue to report on the Obama administration? Shipman whose title is senior national correspondent, often covers…

New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman was granted the front page of Wednesday’s Arts section for a snobbish chiding of uncouth American conservatives who helped squelch a video some found sacrilegious, by a featured artist in a Smithsonian gay art exhibit: “In Britain, Separation of Art and State.” ("Separation" except for when it comes to actually subsidizing the art, which Britain does…

On Wednesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric proclaimed: "The federal commission that investigated the financial meltdown has reportedly concluded it could have been avoided. The New York Times says a report due out tomorrow finds plenty of fault to go around, including mismanagement by corporations and lax regulation by the government." Couric made sure to point out: "The report…

MSNBC loves to interview and pamper Meghan McCain to stir up trouble in the Republican Party. Rachel Maddow honored her on January 17 as the "very reasonable" Meghan McCain, the "unwilling irritant to her own beloved Republican Party." It happened again on Wednesday night's Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell. The graphic behind him read "MIND OF McCAIN," as if the audience were about to be…

The Associated Press is reporting that former TIME magazine reporter and current Biden director of communications Jay Carney has been tapped to replace Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary. Carney is being credited for softening (and even destroying) the image of Vice President Biden as a gaffe machine -- as if the media haven't tried to help. For our NewsBusters archive on Carney,…

Yesterday, in this piece about Stephen Colbert, I mentioned Jon Stewart’s attack on Fox News but couched it with as much skepticism as possible because, frankly, it didn’t pass the smell test, especially in the area of context.  To have those suspicions confirmed last night by Bill O’Reilly came as no surprise (see the video below). Furthermore, I respectfully disagree with O’Reilly that…

Last week, the president wrote in the Wall Street Journal an article titled "Toward a 21st-Century Regulatory System" in which he announced that he had issued an executive order to review all government regulations on a cost-benefit ratio basis. In itself, this is a good idea, although the president makes it explicit that the cost-benefit analysis must take account of — as benefits — intangible…

Some on the left have been crying foul at CNN's decision to air live Rep. Michele Bachmann's response to the president's State of the Union address Tuesday night. None have been more vocal than MSNBC libtalker Rachel Maddow. One media critic had enough. On Thursday, the Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik laid into Maddow's criticism, saying it derives from "the mentality of a lockstep party member…

To those who follow the news fairly closely and look at underlying reports, CNN's email alerts are sometimes entertaining. Much less frequently are the accurate and informative. Even though they tend not to realize it, those who don't follow the news closely and attempt to stay informed by relying on CNN's alerts are regularly deceived by the network that used to call itself "the most trusted…

In what was perhaps a move to make Barack Obama appear more moderate than he is, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, on Thursday's Today show, played up a "rift" between him and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over government spending. In her piece, O'Donnell hyped that Reid was "calling out the White House" on his State of the Union claim that he would veto any bill with earmarks in it.  The…

As it turns out, mainstream media outlets that lauded President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech as "downright Reaganesque" might be on to something. While ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC exalted the commander-in-chief, at least one observer charged the Democratic president with crafting a speech that was "tantamount to plagiarism." In a column on the U.S. News site, presidential…