Olbermann Blames Iraq War Spending for Bridge Collapse

On Friday's Countdown, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann charged that the "endless war and endless spending" had "crippled our ability to repair or just check our infrastructure," as he hosted Air America's Rachel Maddow in a discussion blaming the Minneapolis bridge collapse on Iraq war spending and unwillingness by conservatives to raise taxes. Olbermann quoted Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar'…
Brad Wilmouth

Soldier Prevented From Speaking at YearlyKos Convention

Pajamas Media is reporting that some fireworks broke out Friday morning during the YearlyKos convention in Chicago (h/t NBer Saw the Light).During a breakout session ironically titled "The Military and Progressives: Are They Really That Different," an as of yet unidentified soldier in uniform stood up to address the panel -- which included Wesley Clark -- to discuss how the surge is going.…
Noel Sheppard

Broadcast Networks Ignore Murder of Oakland Post Editor

When a member of the journalism community is murdered, wouldn't you expect most news agencies to report it? Well, on Thursday morning, Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the Oakland Post, was gunned down by an at that time unknown assailant. On Friday morning, Oakland police arrested seven people at Your Black Muslim Bakery in connection with Bailey's murder. Yet, ABC, CBS, and NBC haven't said a…
Noel Sheppard

'Big Search': The Same Old Biased News Coverage for the Digital World

The high-tech giants of search are attempting to position themselves as successors (or is it heirs?) to Old Media. Hold the pompoms. Given the political proclivities and selective indifference to human rights on the part of many of those who run the search giants, it behooves bias-watchers to pay close attention to what these companies are up to, and how they play the news they carry. It appears…
Tom Blumer

NYT Deceives on Dem Vote Dodge

Aren't the MSM and the Dems the "let every vote count" clan? But when the Dems snuff out a GOP win on the House floor in a manner that would send the New York Times into the mother of all snits were the shoe on the other foot, the Gray Lady camouflages the facts, and even manages to place blame on the Republicans.Take the headline from the Times' story on the way in which the Democrat wielding…
Mark Finkelstein

Abnormally Cold Temperatures in Texas Threaten Cotton Crop

If summer heat and drought were jeopardizing crops in the Midwest, would a climate change obsessed media be having a field day (pun intended) reporting the news whilst connecting it to manmade global warming? 24 hours a day, seven days a week, right? CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC would likely have correspondents in the cornfields giving daily updates about the gravity of the situation. Yet, further…
Noel Sheppard

Unreported Poll: Congress Gets 3% Approval Rating For Handling Iraq Wa

If in the run-up to last year's elections a poll identified a three percent approval rating for the way Congress - which was controlled by Republicans at the time in case you forgot - was handling the war in Iraq, do you think you would have heard about it? Maybe on every morning and evening news program for days, and on the front pages of every newspaper, correct? Well, on Wednesday, Zogby…
Noel Sheppard

The NewsBusters Weekly Recap: July 28 to August

Grilling Cheney, Gushing For GoreLarry King, best known recently for his scintillating interviews with thinkers such as Paris Hilton, proved that he can still ask tough questions, to conservatives that is. In an interview with Vice President Cheney about Guantanamo, he wondered, "You have to torture them when they’re there?" Former VP Al Gore, on the other hand, received puff questions about…
Scott Whitlock

Open Thread

Your chance to talk about everything...including maybe the preseason college football rankings.
NB Staff

Journalists Slam N.Y. Times for 'Paranoia,' Light Proof on Ailes-Giuli

Tim Graham

AP Legitimizes Genderbender With Idaho Inmate Who Castrated 'Herself

Is it so hard to tell a male human being from a female one? I guess to the AP it is because in a story from the 31st, the tale they told of a male inmate castrating himself with a broken disposable razor blade became the story of a male inmate castrating "herself" with a razor blade. One wonders what the AP Stylebook says about that little gem? BOISE, Idaho - An inmate who castrated herself with…
Warner Todd Huston

Margaret Carlson Regrets Lack of 'Will' to Raise Taxes as '$4,000 a Mi

Time magazine veteran Margaret Carlson, now with Bloomberg News and The Week magazine, used the Minnesota bridge collapse tragedy as a fresh excuse to tout how the public really wants a tax hike while she regretted the lack of political “will” to raise taxes and that the government can't find more money for infrastructure but can afford “$4,000 a minute on the Iraq war.” Citing a poll conducted a…
Brent Baker

Top Two Biased Reports of the Week - Economy and Business Division

Runner Up One of the Associated Press's earliest articles following Friday morning's release of the government's Employment Report, which showed July's unemployment ticking up 0.1% to 4.6% and new jobs increasing by 92,000, had this outrageous paragraph (backup link is here in case the article is revised or removed; bolds are mine): Construction companies slashed 12,000 jobs in July.…
Tom Blumer

CBS: 'Cash-Starved' Governments Must 'Collect...More Tax Dollars' for

A night after CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, without any consideration for cutting other spending, presumed taxes must be hiked to pay for infrastructure repair, CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson ludicrously described federal and state governments as “cash-starved” as she relayed the expert view of just one person, a Democratic Congressman, whom she said blames the lack of courage to “collect…
Brent Baker