Top 25 Newspapers' Year-Over-Year Circ Drop Is 'Largest in Decade

October 27th, 2009 3:10 PM
It's a variation on the old riddle, "What's black and white, but read all over?" If you change one word and add two others, the answer to the resulting question -- "What's still mostly black and white, but red all over?" -- would be, based on just-released information about their daily circulation, "all but one of the nation's top 25 newspapers turning in comparative numbers." The figures come…

Unlike Predecessor, Obama As Golfer Gets Mostly Favorable Drops from t

October 26th, 2009 2:21 PM
This wouldn't be particularly important if not for the fact that the press made a point of criticizing our previous president for overindulging in exercise and recreation and supposedly "vacationing" too often at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. But they did, so a Tweet from CBS White House correspondent Mark Knoller is worth noting: Politico's Click blog picked up the story and put this twist on…

AP's Woodward Fact-Checks Health Insurance Company Profits, Finds Them

October 26th, 2009 1:15 AM
It would appear that the Associated Press has nominated Calvin Woodward to be their go-to guy for "Fact Check" pieces that blow up political arguments and assertions by the White House and partisan Democrats. In late April (covered at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), Woodward, in an item headlined "Obama disowns deficit he helped shape," blistered Barack Obama and his administration for its attempt…

AP Waters Down Impact of Romer's 'Stimulus Has Had Biggest Impact' Rem

October 24th, 2009 10:35 AM
It would appear that the Apparatchik Press -- er, the Associated Press -- thinks that part of its job is to soften the impact of embarrassing admissions made by Obama administration members. Take the wire service's Thursday afternoon AP report by Jim Kuhnhenn on Council of Economic Advisers' chair Christine Romer's observations about the stimulus package. Romer said (in AP's words) that "the…

Year-end Deficit Report, Part 2: AP's Crutsinger Misses 'The Year of G

October 23rd, 2009 12:34 AM
As I pointed out Monday night (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), Associated Press reporter Martin Crutsinger, in his Saturday morning report on the federal government's full-year fiscal results, conveniently "forgot" about a major accounting change that enabled President Obama's Treasury Department to report a final "deficit" of "only" $1.417 trillion. That's hundreds of billion of dollars lower…

In the Wake of Philly ACORN Vid, BigGov Calls Out Big Media's Follow-u

October 22nd, 2009 1:56 PM
As noted early this morning, BigGovernment.com posted James O'Keefe's and Hannah Giles's latest video yesterday. That video totally nuked claims by ACORN National and ACORN Philly that O'Keefe and Giles had been "shown the door" and "kicked out" after a "few minutes" in their Philly Office visit -- claims that establishment media outlets continued to repeat even, as shown in the excerpt that…

Year-end Deficit Report, Part 1: AP's Crutsinger Ignores Effect of Acc

October 19th, 2009 11:17 PM
Though its $1.4 trillion red-ink result was mostly known well ahead of its final issuance, the Treasury Department either conveniently got its year-end accounting work done in time for a Friday afternoon release of the final Monthly Treasury Statement, or held it until that time. Last year's report was released on Wednesday, October 15. The final statement shows receipts of $2.105 trillion, "…

Anita Dunn and Mao: Establishment Press Predictably Mostly Muzzled

October 18th, 2009 4:08 PM
This won't surprise anyone who reads this blog regularly, but it needs to get on the record nonetheless: The airing of a June video showing interim White House Communications Director Anita Dunn praising Mao and Mother Teresa as "two of my favorite philosophers" to a group of high school students is barely news in the establishment press. In an August 2008 report on the Obama campaign, Anne E.…

NFL's Double Standard: Dump Rush but Court Sleazy Pop Singer's Ownersh

October 14th, 2009 1:03 PM
"How can the NFL overlook the a sleazy pop diva's questionable background while holding Limbaugh accountable for comments he's never made," wondered Brian Maloney in a Radio Equalizer blog post yesterday.While the NFL is presenting itself as merely gun-shy of the controversy Rush Limbaugh would bring to the ownership table, it hardly seems worried about the controversy that a saucy pop star's…

AP Howler: Snowe, Not Palin, Is 'Real GOP Maverick

October 14th, 2009 8:47 AM

AP Man-on-the-Street Video: 'Public Seems Skeptical of Obama's Nobel W

October 9th, 2009 11:47 AM
The Associated Press took to the streets of Washington, D.C. and Chicago this morning for reaction from everyday citizens about President Obama's Nobel Prize win. All but one of the featured interviewees expressed at least some skepticism about the president's worthiness to receive the award. And no, it seems none of these men (and woman) on the street are rabid right-wingers. The video has…

AP Excited 'Bold Colors' and 'Squiggly Lines Have Arrived' on White Ho

October 7th, 2009 7:41 AM
“You can't see it, but there's a quiet cultural revolution under way at the White House,” gushed the AP's Nancy Benac in the lead to her Tuesday night dispatch headlined: “Modern art hits 1600 Pa. Ave.” Benac heralded: The Obamas are decorating their private spaces with more modern and abstract artwork than has ever hung on the White House walls. New pieces by contemporary African-American and…

Media Outlets Neglect to Mention that Doctor Photo-Op Was Staged

October 6th, 2009 11:27 AM
In his latest push for a health care overhaul bill, President Obama spoke to doctors in the White House Rose Garden yesterday. Painting a nice picture of the event were many media outlets that neglected to mention the White House's doctoring (forgive the pun) of the audience in an attempt at a powerful photo-op.Doctors attending the event were instructed to show up in white lab coats to give…

Chrysler 'May Not Make It Another Year

October 6th, 2009 9:50 AM
In early July, following the very first month after Chrysler LLC emerged from bankruptcy, the Associated Press, in an unbylined report about changes in the company's board, saved this little nugget for the last of its eight paragraphs: Chrysler's poor June performance also casts doubt on whether the U.S. government's $7 billion allocation will be enough to get the automaker through the U.S. sales…