Blogs

Reuters Ignores Obama's Venezuela Executive Order About-Face
April 12th, 2015 11:33 AM
A Reuters report published late Saturday evening ("Obama meets Venezuela's Maduro at time of high tensions") is astonishing for what it ignores.
The unbylined report from Panama City opens by referring to how "the United States recently placed sanctions on Venezuela." Indeed, President Barack Obama did just that in an executive order on March 9, stating that he was "declaring a national…

NY Times Editorial Botches NRA Convention Gun Rules and 'Correction'
April 11th, 2015 9:38 PM
A Friday editorial at the Second Amendment-despising New York Times thought it had caught blatant hypocrisy at the NRA relating to gun-carrying rules at its national convention in Nashville, Tennessee. What was really blatant was the editorial's ignorance and the writers' failure to fact-check.
After getting caught, the Times should have decided to retract the editorial. Of course, that didn't…

New Republic Writer: Rolling Stone Failure Due to 'Rightwing Tactics'
April 7th, 2015 2:49 PM
New Republic staff writer Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig has clearly run out of defenses for the conduct of those involved in the disgraceful, scandalous journalistic malpractice which gave rise to the now-retracted and thoroughly discredited "A Rape on Campus: The Struggle for Justice at UVA" at Rolling Stone.
So here's her last refuge: Conservatism deserves some of the blame, because Sabrina Rubin…

Richmond, Va. Hack Reports 'Memories' GoFundMe For 'Fraud' (Updated)
April 4th, 2015 11:28 PM
UPDATE, April 6: An email sent by "Virginia Commonwealth University News" insists, despite the November 2014 tweet originally found at the link about Bryan's "GoFundMe" effort, that Alix Bryan "has not been employed by Virginia Commonwealth University." Accordingly, the text in this post's final sentence now refers to Bryan's claim in her WTVR bio and at her LinkedIn profile to have received a "…

At Memories Pizza, New Threats the Press Continues to Mostly Ignore
April 2nd, 2015 10:41 PM
Update, April 3: The Indiana man who claims to have been hacked now admits that he wasn't, but says he was "joking" about robbing Memories Pizza, and is threatening to sue those who exposed his (ahem) public comments.
Those of us following the Memories Pizza story won't have trouble remembering it as the years go by, thanks only partially to the Walkerton, Indiana store's fairly unusual name…

Local Indiana Station Ambushes Memories Pizza to Gin Up an RFRA Story
April 1st, 2015 11:43 PM
Something hasn't seemed right about the Memories Pizza story from the get-go. Now I know why.
In a Tuesday report, TV Station ABC 57 cited the Walkerton, Indiana business's Crystal O'Connor as saying that, in the station's words, they "don't agree with gay marriages and wouldn't cater them if asked to." In other words, they've never been asked to. The non-story which ignited a national firestorm…

Not News: Black Church Group Cuts Ties With PCUSA Over Marriage
March 31st, 2015 11:24 PM
On March 18, Associated Press Religion Writer Rachel Zoll covered the decision by the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) "recognizing gay marriage as Christian in the church constitution after decades of debate over same-sex relationships."
A search at the AP's national site indicates that the wire service hasn't done a story on the U.S. congregation since then. This means that it has ignored a…

Gov. Cuomo Bans 'Non-Essential' Travel to Indiana, Still Going to Cuba
March 31st, 2015 8:53 PM
The press won't roast New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for this, but it should — at a very high temperature.
Today, Mr. Self-Righteous, who in the past has suggested that anyone who is pro-life, against same-sex marriage, or for the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment as written and adjudicated should leave his state, banned all "non-essential" state travel to Indiana, home of a recently enacted…

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Reid: No Regrets Lying About Mitt's Taxes Because 'Romney Didn't Win'
March 31st, 2015 1:57 PM
So Harry Reid knew he was lying about Mitt Romney not paying taxes for ten years when he made the claim in 2012 from the lawsuit-free zone known as the floor of the U.S. Senate, but didn't care.
That's what one must conclude from Reid's response to CNN's Dana Bash about that statement. Asked on the network's New Day program if he regrets what he said, Reid responded: "Romney didn't win, did he…

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CNN's Dana Bash Goes After Ted Cruz For His ... Lack of Experience!
March 30th, 2015 11:14 PM
On Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, Dana Bash, while interviewing Texas Senator and GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz, attempted to compare his alleged lack of experience to that of Barack Obama when he declared his candidacy in 2007.
It did not go well for her. It's a mystery why Bash might have thought that Cruz wouldn't have an answer for her faux concerns, but he did, and he hit her…

AP Story on Obama Golf Trip Ignores Journos Hung Out at Shed (Updated)
March 30th, 2015 8:00 PM
UPDATE, March 31: This morning in an email, the AP's Lederman pointed me to a Saturday afternoon "Big Story" item time-stamped the day before the report to which this blog post below links. For whatever reason, that earlier "Big Story" item has more detail than what appears, despite the Sunday time stamp, to be Lederman's original report posted at the AP's national site. In that "Big Story" item…

WashPost's Kessler Falls For, Corrects, 1988 Climate Hearing Mythology
March 30th, 2015 1:38 PM
At the Washington Post on March 18, fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave Secretary of State John Kerry "four Pinocchios" for his resume-puffing "whopper" that he helped organize "the first hearings in the Senate" on global warming in 1988.
In the process, Kessler inadvertently perpetuated a related myth and got called out for it. He admirably corrected himself this morning. Additionally, while…

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SNL's Violent Opening Skit: Impossible to Imagine If Parties Switched
March 29th, 2015 11:39 PM
One of the first rules of genuine comedy is that to be funny, a joke or skit needs to have some basis in truth.
On that primary measurement, the cold open on "Saturday Night Live" last night failed miserably on so many fronts, it's hard to know where to begin. Its most offensive aspect is its portrayal of a Democrat inflicting violence on three Republicans to the audience's pleausre. It is…

More PC From AP's Stylebook: Global Warming' Is Now 'Climate Change'
March 28th, 2015 11:37 AM
This is what happens when you have a 17-year "pause" in supposedly human-caused "global warming" and need to maintain appearances.
The Associated Press's Stylebook has now given journalists who pay attention to its guidelines permission to use the term "climate change" when they would previously have felt it necessary to call it "global warming." The agenda-driving clue is seen in the wire…