UK Journalists Strike Back at WH Press Secretary's 'Sneering and Conde
May 31st, 2009 11:36 AM
There is little argument that the British press is doing a better job than its U.S. counterparts covering the Obama administration's less than perfect performance. If the reactions of Nile Gardiner and James Delingpole at the UK Telegraph to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs's blanket criticism of British journalism are any indication, UK reporters are also more willing to stand up for…
AP Calls Terrorism Financier a 'Muslim Charity Member
May 27th, 2009 4:42 PM
If you saw the headline "Muslim Charity Member Gets 65 Years In Prison," would you assume his crime was funding terrorist activities, or possibly something totally unrelated?Given that this "charity member" was convicted last November on 108 charges surrounding the transfer of more than $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas, one would think a stronger, more direct and informative headline…
Name That Party: Blago’s, Burris’s Party IDs Largely MIA in Latest
May 27th, 2009 4:02 PM
Maybe it should be put to music: Blago and Burris, Sitting in a tree, But they'd rather we not know their political party. There has been yet another revelation about contacts between Democratic President Barack Obama's U.S. Senate successor, Democrat Roland Burris and former Illinois Democratic governor Rod Blagojevich over Blago's pre-Senate appointment, uh, deliberations. A released FBI audio…
Media Singles Out Catholic Church, Goes Wild Over Report of Decades-Ol
May 21st, 2009 10:20 PM
Since when is the media so interested in keeping America abreast of the latest news coming out of Ireland? A commission in Ireland just released a report detailing awful abuse of children who attended Catholic schools "from the 1930's to the 1990's, when the last of the institutions closed." And what's ensued is practically an all-out media frenzy. The AP, Reuters, the New York Times, the LA…
AP Furthers Green Day's Anti-Wal-Mart Whine Over 'Censoring' New Album
May 21st, 2009 6:09 PM
In a classic example of a dog-bites-man non-story, the Associated Press is dutifully furthering the "censorship" whine of a rock band that laments that Wal-Mart won't stock its new album, "21st Century Breakdown."Today, Associated Press music writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody hacked out 13 paragraphs to relay how "Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy." Of course the discount retailer's standards for…
I'll Take Dumb Bush Jokes for $500, Alex
May 20th, 2009 9:31 PM
As has been documented repeatedly, celebrities just don't find much material for humor with Barack Obama. He's just so thoughtful, so articulate, so bright, so. . . Fill in the blank, as long as it's sufficiently worshipful.With former President George W. Bush, it's just the opposite. Show biz types can't get enough of poking fun at him. This is true even at the National Geographic Bee. Yes…
Start of AP Headline Reacting to Fed's Economy Downgrade: ''Fed sees h
May 20th, 2009 4:25 PM
Here's a CNN e-mail alert I just received a couple of hours ago: So how did the Associated Press's Jeannine Aversa report the above raw news? As you would expect an Obama apparatchik to do it (reproduced in full as it existed at 3:15 p.m.; bold after title is mine): Fed sees hopeful signs but downgrades '09 forecast WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve expects the economy to improve in coming…
WaPo Website Merges Photos of Gays With Mormon Church Fire Story
May 18th, 2009 6:30 AM
A 60-year-old Mormon Church in Massachusetts burned to the ground on Sunday. A story about the incident appeared on the Washington Post website last night. It's an AP entry discussing the fire that chased worshippers out of the building in a panic on Sunday. But it is accompanied by a rather odd choice of images. Is it a photo of the fire-damaged church? Perhaps it is a snap of frightened…
AP Blows The Deficit Reporting, Part II: The Invisible April Receipts
May 14th, 2009 11:04 AM
In Part I (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) of my coverage of Martin Crutsinger's Associated Press report about Uncle Sam's Monthly Treasury Statement and the Obama administration's deficit projections, I noted that the government "miraculously" shrunk the deficit through March, the first six months of its fiscal year, by $175 billion, by employing an "accounting change." Even though this "…
AP Blows The Deficit Reporting, Part I: The $175 Billion (Yawn) Accoun
May 14th, 2009 1:43 AM
You have to see this to believe it, and even then you'll have a hard time believing it. It's the Obama administration's deficit reduction program, otherwise known as "change the accounting." Here is what the Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS) from Uncle Sam looked like in March: Here is the report for April:
APs Cheney Analysis: We Read His Mind And Decided What He Really Means
May 13th, 2009 7:49 AM
Did you know that former vice president Dick Cheney is speaking out only because he is trying to protect his legacy? Well just in case you wondered about it Steven Hurst for the Associated Press wants to assure that he has read Cheney's mind and it's all settled. This is what passes for "analysis" at the AP.
The AP has also decided that Cheney speaking out causes "chagrin" in a GOP trying to "…
IL Treasurer’s Intimidation of National Bank, and Union's Invocation
May 8th, 2009 3:56 PM
Shoot, he's only talking about pulling $8 billion in state-controlled money because a bank won't go easy on a business borrower who can't pay. What's the big deal? Well, the story involves the company that makes suits for President Barack Obama (pictured at right). Beyond that, the union at that company is citing the US Treasury Department's Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) as a reason that…