AP, Reuters Ignore Likely Impact of Bloated Inventories on Growth
August 11th, 2015 3:31 PM
Two wire service dispatches covering the government's June Wholesale Sales and Inventories release either glossed over or completely ignored what others are saying about the report's impact on near-term economic growth.
The final sentence of an unbylined Reuters report vaguely referred to future impact by indicating that current inventory balances, which are bloated by historical standards, "…
AP's Recall of Michael Brown Saga Continues to Distort History
August 10th, 2015 7:01 PM
The Associated Press has been in Ferguson covering the anniversary of Michael Brown's death and the George Soros-funded out-of-towners leading the "festivities."
I'll leave it to others to dissect the wire service's on-the-street reporting during the past several days. What also concerns me is how AP's reports continue to bitterly cling to half-truths and distortions about how Brown died and the…
AP: 25 Percent Tax Increase on Earned Income Would be 'Modest Change'
August 10th, 2015 1:52 PM
Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935.
In anticipation of the New Deal-era program's 80th anniversary, the Associated Press's Stephen Ohlemacher presented as facts several unfortunately widely believed distortions. His worst offense against common sense was an item in his list of "modest changes" which could "save" the actuarially…
Press Downplays, Hides EPA's Responsibility for River Contamination
August 9th, 2015 10:25 AM
On Wednesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency committed an act which would have likely become instant national news if a private entity had done the same thing.
On Friday, John Merline at Investors' Business Daily succinctly noted that the EPA "dumped a million gallons of mine waste into Animas River in Colorado, turning it into what looked like Tang, forcing the sheriff's office to…
AP's Double Standard in Covering States' Reactions to Fetal Parts Vids
August 8th, 2015 11:56 PM
The Associated Press has demonstrated a double standard in covering developments in various states in the wake of the gruesome Planned Parenthood videos posted by the Center for Medical Progress. Bad news for Planned Parenthood gets only local coverage. Exculpatory news, even if artificially concocted, gets national exposure.
In Florida, a statewide review of the state’s 16 Planned Parenthood…
AP Again 'Fact Checks' a Goal: Bush's 4 Percent Annual Growth Target
August 8th, 2015 12:04 AM
On Friday, in his desire to help his employer outdo Politifact as the last place to go for accurate fact-checking, the Associated Press's Josh Lederman "fact-checked" Jeb Bush's belief that the U.S. economy can grow annually at an average rate of 4 percent.
As seen in my Friday NewsBusters post, when the AP reporter "fact-checked" assertions that really are facts, specifically Bush's claim that…
AP: Jeb Bush Is Responsible for Jobs Lost Under Charlie Crist
August 7th, 2015 4:00 PM
The Associated Press seems determined to become even worse at "fact-checking" politicians' statements than Politifact, the current cellar-dwellar in that regard. At the rate things are going, the wire service, in addition to richly earning its nickname "the Administration's Press" since January 2009, appears to be in line for yet another: "Associated Politifact."
In his "fact check" following…
Video
Jon Stewart's Lowest Moment: Hiroshima Makes Truman a War Criminal
August 6th, 2015 1:16 AM
How absolutely serendipitous it is that alleged comedian and actual White House propagandist Jon Stewart’s last broadcast of The Daily Show is today, August 6, the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.
You see, Stewart, whose influence is especially nefarious when he is revising and distorting history for his relatively young audience, committed his most outrageous such act…
AP Buries Judge's IRS Contempt Threat in Final Graphs of Hearing Story
July 31st, 2015 11:11 PM
On Thursday, Curtis Houck at NewsBusters noted how the Big Three networks and the two leading Spanish-language networks ignored the latest developments in the now 813 day-old IRS targeting scandal. As usual, only Fox News covered a congressional hearing on, in Fox's words, "the lack of accountability following the IRS targeting of tea party and other groups" as well as a federal judge's threat "…
More Deadpan at AP: We're 'Entering ... Historically Slow Growth'
July 31st, 2015 6:44 PM
These economics reporters at the Associated Press have become experts at deadpan humor.
Earlier today, I noted how the wire service's Christopher Rugaber told readers, in the wake of a government report showing the lowest wage and benefit increases on record, that "the job market is not yet back to full health." No kidding, Chris. On top of that, the AP's Martin Crutsinger reacted to yesterday's…
Video
AP’s Pace Claims ‘Not Much Diversity’ in GOP Field, Gets Corrected
July 31st, 2015 2:43 PM
Talking to the latest Republican to enter the 2016 presidential race, former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, on Fox News’s Special Report Thursday, Associated Press White House correspondent Julie Pace worried about the makeup of the GOP field: “If you look at the 17 Republican candidates right now, there's not much diversity in terms of gender and race. What does that say to the American public…
Deadpan Humor at AP: 'Job Market Is Not Yet Back to Full Health'
July 31st, 2015 11:22 AM
Christopher Rugaber at the Associated Press and the "expert" he quoted in his writeup on the government's awful Employment Cost Index report seemed to be taking their cues from Steven Wright's deadpan comedy act. The problem, of course, is that they were writing and saying isn't funny at all.
Rugaber, with his "expert" help, assembled an impressive array of understatements and misstatements in…
Video
Ohio Press Mostly Ignores Black Democrat's Inspiring Pro-Life Speech
July 30th, 2015 11:46 PM
Ohio's newspapers have reported that two state legislators, one Democrat and one Republican, are cosponsoring a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in the Buckeye State. But they have mostly failed to note the key points made by Cleveland Democrat Bill Patmon in his inspiring, passionate speech at an Ohio Right to Life rally announcing his cosponsorship.
You see, Mr. Patmon is black, and he has…
Venezuela Orders Food Providers: 'Divert' Output to Empty State Stores
July 29th, 2015 6:23 PM
The news out of Venezuela has apparently become so grim that the arguably Chavista-sympathetic press barely bothers to report it in any kind of sutstantive fashion. Inflation has gone wild, the level of violent crime has become frightening, and the government has taken to jailing citizens who dare to tweet their dissatisfaction with the regime of Nicolas Makuro (note that the linked report was…