Latest Blogs
AP, As Usual, Botches Its Monthly Report on the US Deficit
Last month, it was the Associated Press's Jeannine Aversa's turn to mishandle the reporting on Uncle Sam's Monthly Treasury Statement on the government's receipts, spending, and deficit. Aversa's usual specialty is hallucinating over "blizzards of pink slips" and "jobs vanishing into thin air" when she does her "report," aka her downbeat propaganda piece, on the government's monthly jobs release…
Weekday 2: No Media Benefit for McCain from Obama's Vacation
Just as on Monday night, Barack Obama vacationing in Hawaii while John McCain remains on the campaign trail (he held a town meeting in York, Pennsylvania), failed to change the media dynamic of greater and better coverage for Obama. CBS on Tuesday night gave equal time to comments from both candidates on Russia's invasion of Georgia before Jeff Greenfield, echoing ABC the night before, twisted…
CBS’s Schieffer: Can McCain Win With ‘Same Old Karl Rove Ads
On Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS, host Bob Schieffer talked about John McCain’s latest campaign ads with Republican strategist Karl Rove and quoted previous guest Tim Kaine, the Democratic Governor of Virginia: "But what about John McCain? At this point, as Governor Kaine said, Obama's running positive ads and John McCain is running ads about...Paris Hilton and that sort of thing...What he…
CNN's One-Sided Take on SD Abortion Initiative, 2-D Look at Obama Stan
CNN co-anchor Don Lemon, during a brief report on Tuesday’s Newsroom program about a pro-life measure on the ballot in South Dakota that would greatly restrict abortion, gave only the pro-choice side of the debate over the proposed law. He also oversimplified Barack Obama’s stance on the abortion issue.Lemon stated how the Great Plains state "is becoming a new focal point in the abortion debate"…
FT Headline Softens Blow on Russian Invasion of Georgia
Note to the Financial Times: When one nation sends tanks and troops across the border into another sovereign nation, that's an invasion, not an "invasion," even when you're quoting President Bush. An acute case of Bush Derangement Syndrome needn't cloud editorial judgment. Yet that's precisely what the FT did in the August 12 paper as headline writers chose to dismissively place the word "…
Will Edwards Scandal Teach Media that Lying about Adultery Is Wrong
CMI senior editor Brian Fitzpatrick and intern Julia Seward examine the news
medias complacency toward adultery and lying, as revealed by their refusal to
cover the John Edwards sex scandal.
Stephanie Miller Labels Medved’s Claim of Media Bias a ‘Myth’ on
Liberal talk radio host Stephanie Miller laughed-off Michael Medved’s accusation that the John Edwards sex scandal "reinforces the conviction that a lot of Americans have that the news media aren't on the level, that they're biased" on Tuesday’s American Morning: "You know, this is the myth again... of this, you know, liberal media. It's ridiculous. You can't report something that you don't have…
Plame Lawsuit Against Cheney Et Al Dismissed, Will Media Care
Valerie Plame was dealt another setback Tuesday when a U.S. court of appeals upheld a federal judge's decision to dismiss her lawsuit against members of the Bush administration.Given the media's fascination with this former CIA operative who has claimed for years she was illegally outed by the White House for political reasons, it will be interesting to see just how much attention this ruling…
CBS: People Stealing Manhole Covers In Tough Economy
If any further evidence was needed to prove that the country is in a recession, the CBS Early Show found it, as co-host Maggie Rodriguez declared: "Coming up this morning, during hard times in some U.S. cities, they're as good as gold. Manhole covers being stolen and sold for scrap." Co-host Harry Smith later introduced the segment on this desperate trend: "Across the country thieves are stealing…
Bozell Column: Our Sick Edwards-Excusing Media
You know there are some in the liberal media who have simply lost touch with reality when the headline reads "John Edwards Cheats on Wife With Cancer" and they ask with great detachment whether he'll be able to run for office again soon. These people's morality is so bizarre that they showed more outrage at John McCain featuring a picture of Paris Hilton in a commercial for two eye-blinks than…
Actor Ernest Borgnine: America 'an Amazing Country
Veteran actor Ernest Borgnine, still acting at age 91, does not represent the mainstream ideology of the Hollywood elite, or even a potential first lady named Michelle. Borgnine, unlike most of his fellow Hollywood elitists, believes America is "an amazing country" and that one has to "prove" one is "a good American by being an American."Appearing on the August 12 edition of "Good Morning America…
CBS’s Rodriguez: Edwards Mistress ‘A Fatal Attraction-Like Woman
Surprisingly, the CBS Early Show continued to report on the John Edwards scandal on Tuesday, as co-host Maggie Rodriguez talked to a friend of Edwards’s mistress: "Edwards claims it was a brief liaison, but that's not how a friend of [Rielle] Hunter's remembers it." At one point in the interview, Rodriguez asked that friend, Pigeon O’Brien, about media characterizations of Hunter: "She's been…
La. Sen. Landrieu Not Hosting Obama Fundraiser; AP Not Curious As to W
It's a bit early for politicians to be creating distance between themselves and their party's presidential candidate, is it not? Whether it's because of a (cough, cough) "clerical error" or an exercise in political self-defense, Louisiana Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu has done that. But in a report early this afternoon, Associated Press writer Melinda Deslatte was curiously incurious (saved at…
Alterman's Got Boca on the Brain
From a non-Jew, it would smack of anti-Semitism. From Eric Alterman? You be the judge.The author of the Altercations column at Media Matters has a running complaint: Rick Klein, editor of The Note at ABC News, pays too much respect to the work of other Jewish pundits. Jennifer Rubin, one of the chief bloggers at Commentary's "Contentions" blog, was Alterman's first target, in his August 1…