New NewsBusted for Friday

Hey, NBers! Make sure you check out today's all-new episode of NewsBusted. You can watch it in the media player on the right sidebar, or just check out the YouTube version below. Today's episode is Jodi's last before her well-deserved vacation. But 'Busted will be back in 2011.
NB Staff

December 16 Media Mash: Media Gush Over Clinton Briefing Room Appearan

Before the media got thrills and chills over Obama, they were enthralled with Bill Clinton. They still have that lovin' feeling for him to this day, judging by their reaction to President Clinton's return to the White House briefing room lectern on December 10. "This was really a bad moment for Obama. I don't think he realized just how much the media love Bill Clinton," NewsBusters publisher…
NB Staff

Ohio Election Panel Unanimously Throws Out Dems' Complaint Against FNC

Ohio election officials have unanimously dismissed a complaint by the Democratic Governors Association, alleging that the Fox News Channel made an illegal in-kind contribution of nearly $170,000 to then-gubernatorial candidate Republican John Kasich. The DGA had alleged that the 90 seconds Kasich's campaign web address appeared at the bottom of the screen during an interview on Fox amounted…
Lachlan Markay

WaPo's Shales Refers to Big 3 Evening Anchors and Barbara Walters as

It was bad enough when The Washington Post put four heads of Jon Stewart on Mount Rushmore just before Stewart's pompous "Rally for Sanity" on the Washington mall. But when Post TV critic Tom Shales recounted Thursday night's farewell episode of CNN's Larry King Live, he named four network news anchors as the "living Mount Rushmore of News," as if Katie Couric is Lincolnesque and Brian Williams…
Tim Graham

Michael Moore Defends Julian Assange From Rape Charges

As NewsBusters previously reported, schlockumentary filmmaker Michael Moore got himself in trouble this week when he defended WikiLeaker Julian Assange from Swedish rape charges. Moore doubled down with this defense Friday publishing "Dear Government of Sweden" at the Huffington Post: 
Noel Sheppard

Open Thread: Politifact's 2010 'Lie of the Year

"A government takeover of health care." Writes Politifact: ...as Republicans smelled serious opportunity in the midterm elections, they didn't let facts get in the way of a great punchline. And few in the press challenged their frequent assertion that under Obama, the government was going to take over the health care industry.
NB Staff

Incessant: WaPo Promoting Yet Another Protest of Ants-on-Christ Video

The Washington Post simply cannot stop putting protesters of the removal of an ants-on-Jesus video on the front page of the Style section. Once again in Friday's paper, art critic Blake Gopnik is publicizing gay artist A.A. Bronson's request that his huge color photo of his skeletal lover Felix Partz in his bed hours after he died in 1994 be removed from the exhibit:  "I had resisted taking…
Tim Graham

Scarborough, Richard Haass Rip 'Compliant Press' On Obama Afghan Polic

"Why is the press accepting [Obama Afghanistan policy] at face value?"  Good question, and one posed by Richard Haass this morning.  The president of the Council on Foreign Relations and Joe Scarborough ripped a "compliant press" on Morning Joe today for failing to ask the tough questions about Pres. Obama's prosecution of the war in Afghanistan. Scarborough suggested a theory as to why…
Mark Finkelstein

Lefties Attack Time Editor for 'Gutless' Move to Pick Facebook Founder

Michael Calderone at The Cutline blog at Yahoo! devoted a post to controversy on the Left over why radical WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange wasn't Time's Person of the Year. (Lefties have insisted conservatives could win since they're an evil force like Hitler, but Assange somehow isn't put in the Bad Guy camp, or even the Egomaniac camp.) But Calderone picked a long-time Newsweek…
Tim Graham

Matthews Congratulates Coons for Beating Christine O'Donnell: 'That Wa

Chris Matthews on Thursday not only congratulated Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) for beating Republican Senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell in November, but also said his victory was important for life on this planet. It wasn't a tingle up the leg moment on MSNBC's "Hardball," but it sure was close (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard

Sharpton: Rush Limbaugh May Have to Attend FCC Hearings to Explain 'Ra

Al Sharpton said Thursday he spoke to the Federal Communications Commission about holding public hearings next year that Rush Limbaugh would be forced to attend to explain so-called "racist" statements he's made on the air. Chatting with MSNBC's Ed Schultz, Sharpton said he had a "very good meeting on Tuesday" with FCC officials and that "some of the commissioners" were interested enough in…
Noel Sheppard

Ed Schultz Producer's Advice to Obama on Handling CEOs: 'Put a Gun t

Agreed, certain people should not be allowed access to firearms. Here's an example of one of those people. On his radio show yesterday, Ed Schultz was talking with his producer, James "Holmy" Holm, about Obama meeting with 20 of the nation's top CEOs that day. Also mentioned in the discussion was corporations holding back on $1.9 trillion in capital reserves. Such is the context for this…
Jack Coleman

Olbermann Suspends Twitter Account to Avoid Criticism for Assange Rape

Keith Olbermann suspended his Twitter account Thursday as a result of a torrent of criticism over comments he made about the rape charges filed against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The trouble started Tuesday when schockumentary filmmaker and Assange supporter Michael Moore was Olbermann's guest on "Countdown":
Noel Sheppard

Hollywood Defends Terrorists, Dictators, Child Rapists and Cop Killers

Wesley Snipes is in jail.  That’s right, Blade is behind bars.  Passenger 57 is now known as Inmate 224567. And this friends, is a travesty. It’s not just a travesty because we’re going to have to wait at least three years for the next poorly conceived direct-to-video action film starring the Shotokan Karate master. It’s a travesty because of the deafening silence surrounding his…
Leigh Scott