Pew 'State of the Media' Study Bemoans Weakening 'Filter,' 'Shrinking

March 18th, 2013 8:45 AM
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has released its 2013 pity party -- er, annual report -- on the State of the News Media (home page; full overview). Two things struck me in my initial scan-through: First, the whining about newsroom cutbacks, which are largely related to pervasive bias and misplaced priorities; second, the characterization of newsmakers' improved…

'Liberal Intellectual' Chris Hayes's 'Well-Regarded...Thoughtful' MSNB

March 15th, 2013 2:49 PM
New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter's Friday story -- adapted from a longer post on his "Media Decoder" blog -- relayed the changing of the prime time guard at the nation's most liberal news channel: "Weekend Host Chris Hayes to Take Over 8 P.M. Slot on MSNBC." Stelter praised Hayes for his "well-regarded morning program," crediting it for "long, thoughtful conversations about politics…

NYT's Kim Severson Chides 'Fat' Mississippians for Rejecting Food Regu

March 15th, 2013 2:15 PM
New York Times Atlanta bureau chief (and foodie) Kim Severson got rather insulting while writing about a new Mississippi law forbidding any locality from making rules on food size or content, passed in the wake of NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg's thwarted attempt to limit the size of sugary drinks New Yorkers could order: "'Anti-Bloomberg Bill' in Mississippi Bars Local Restrictions on Food and Drink…

NY Times Continues Propaganda Campaign on Amnesty for Illegal Immigran

March 15th, 2013 9:09 AM
The New York Times' long propaganda campaign supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants continued on the front of Thursday's National section, led by the paper's most slanted immigration reporter, Julia Preston -- "U.S. Citizens Join Illegal Immigrants In Pressing Lawmakers for Change." Preston can hardly contain her enthusiasm for the movement, especially when she's discussing the "Dreamers…

New York Times Greets New Pope With Abortion, Gay Marriage, and the 'D

March 14th, 2013 3:20 PM
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires is now Pope Francis, and Thursday's New York Times front-page "Man In the News" profile by Emily Schmall and Larry Rohter, "A Conservative With a Common Touch," opened respectfully. But after a dash of local color and historical context, the Times quickly mounted its old hobby horse: the Church's positions on liberal issues like abortion and gay marriage…

‘Spring Breakers’ Features Disney Stars With Drugs and Threesomes

March 14th, 2013 10:57 AM
It’s like watching the Disney princesses become dragons: seeing starlets like Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens “prove” they’re mature by dabbling in drugs and booze while stripping down for steamy sex scenes. “Spring Breakers,” rated R for sex, drugs, language, nudity, and violence, danced with the absurd by showcasing a threesome and having one star perform fellatio on a gun barrel. The…

As U.S. Debt Exceeds $16 Trillion, NYT Reporter Asks 'What Is So Speci

March 14th, 2013 8:09 AM
New York Times economics reporter Annie Lowrey's "news analysis" on Wednesday downplayed the gargantuan national debt: "Dispute Over a Balanced Budget Is Philosophical as Much as Fiscal." Lowrey, who on March 2 called the hard-to-detect budget cuts of sequestration "painful and stupid," gave the game away in her lead sentence, signaling that she doesn't really think that enormous debt is much…

NYT's Front Page Features Paternalistic Liberal Take on Minority Group

March 13th, 2013 5:00 PM
New York Times campaign finance reporter Nicholas Confessore's 2,000-word front-page story Wednesday took a liberal angle on a judge striking down New York City's controversial new regulation that would have banned soda portions over 16 ounces. Besides the paternalism of lines like "a victory for the industry’s steadfast, if surprising, allies: advocacy groups representing the very…

National Review Eviscerates Racist Smears of Conservatives by NY Times

March 13th, 2013 4:44 PM
National Review magazine has published an excellent and comprehensive response to New York Times Book Editor Sam Tanenhaus's dishonest smear of conservative thought in a cover story for The New Republic. The article by National Review contributors Ramesh Ponnuru and Jonah Goldberg appears in the March 25 issue. After first explaining that for the left, "The explanation for conservatives’…

Bargain, Schmargain: OFA Email Vindicates View That Obama Strategy Is

March 13th, 2013 3:51 PM
In Monday's New York Times, in a report which appeared online late Sunday, reporters Richard W. Stevenson and John Harwood devoted considerable space to the idea that President Obama's latest "outreach" effort is primarily an attempt to "salvage a big deficit-reduction deal," and not a political ploy to show voters in the 2014 congressional elections that he's really interested in achieving a…

NYT’s Tom Friedman Urges Criminal Protests to Stop Keystone Oil Pipe

March 12th, 2013 10:51 PM
Incivility. It is a word that tripped off the lips and pens of liberal commentators great and small after the deadly 2011 shootings in Tucson that ended the political career of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. One of the most vocal critics of the right’s incivility in word and deed was The New York Times, which ran more than one finger-wagging editorial and found column inches for more of the…

Bozell Column: Mourning 'Populist' Hugo Chavez

March 12th, 2013 10:40 PM
Our left-wing media’s somber, mourning coverage of Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez once again demonstrates the double standard journalists reserve for dictators. Seven years ago, the left’s greatest South American hate object, Augusto Pinochet, passed away. Never mind how he used free-market reforms to modernize Chile. Never mind that after 15 years of rule, he allowed a national plebiscite to…

New York Times Again Skips Dem Party ID for Convicted Detroit Mayor Ki

March 12th, 2013 6:03 PM
Detroit's former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted Monday on multiple serious charges, including racketeering, fraud, and extortion. But Times reporter Mary Chapman buried Kilpatrick's Democratic party affiliation in paragraph 19 of her 21-paragraph report. Even then, the Times never even directly labeled Kilpatrick a Democrat:

Is the NYT's Real Concern 'Disproportionate' Small-State Power, or Pas

March 12th, 2013 1:34 PM
On the front page of Monday's New York Times, Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak presented readers with the proposition that "Smaller States Find Outsize Clout Growing in Senate." It's part of "Unequal Representation," a Times series "examining challenges to the American promise that all citizens have an equal voice in how they are governed." But Liptak's analysis of the "disproportionate…