NYTimes Art Critic Takes on 'Noxious Vibes Emanating' from the Ultra-R

December 21st, 2011 7:42 AM
New York Times art critic Holland Cotter’s year-i- review piece Sunday opened with an awkward metaphorical shout-out to the lefty park-squatters of Occupy Wall Street and an excoriation of the “noxious” 1 percent: “Complacency Butts Up Against Game Changers”: "...art-worldlings did at least adopt one thing from the Occupy Wall Street movement: a new identifying label for the source of…

'Enigmatic' North Korean 'Rulers' in NYTimes, but Right-Wing 'Dictator

December 20th, 2011 1:27 PM
Can we declare a moratorium on using the word “enigmatic” to describe North Korea’s totalitarian leadership? The death of the North Korea dictator Kim Jong-il made the late edition of the Monday New York Times. The obituary by veteran foreign policy reporter David Sanger appeared under the rather neutral online headline “A Ruler Who Turned North Korea Into a Nuclear State.”

GOP Moderates, Still 'Dwindling' Away After 15 Years in the New York T

December 20th, 2011 9:11 AM
Those GOP moderates just keep “dwindling” away. New York Times Political editor Richard Stevenson Sunday wrote about Americans Elect, a new organization that favors an alternative nominating process for electing a president in the name of nonpartisanship: “Group Clears a Path For a Third-Party Bid.” But what Stevenson called a “process to enable creation of a centrist ticket” was in fact packed…

The Best Notable Quotables of 2011: Battle of Our Readers vs. Media Ex

December 20th, 2011 8:55 AM
It's always interesting to see how the several thousand readers who voted in the MRC's "public ballot" differed from the 48 media experts who selected our Best Notable Quotables of 2011 (a panel which included talk radio hosts Mark Levin and Neal Boortz, Human Events editor-in-chief Tom Winter and Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby). This year, there were six categories where our readers and…

NYT's Savage Again Protects Eric Holder, Downplays Fast and Furious, L

December 19th, 2011 5:16 PM
New York Times legal reporter Charlie Savage played softball with Attorney General Eric Holder on Sunday’s front page: “A Lightning Rod Undeterred by G.O.P. Thunder.” The online headline even more strongly suggested that Holder was standing brave and firm against a torrent of politically motivated Republican criticism: “Under Partisan Fire, Holder Soldiers On.” Savage has previously…

Announcing MRC's Best Notable Quotables of 2011: The 24th Annual Award

December 19th, 2011 10:56 AM
Last week, MRC announced the results of our "public ballot" for the worst media quotes in 2011, sort of the "People's Choice Awards" version of our Best Notable Quotables of 2011. This morning, the official results -- chosen by a distinguished panel of 48 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers, and expert media observers -- are in, and New York Times columnist…

Netanyahu Refuses to Write Op-Ed for New York Times Due to Paper's Ant

December 16th, 2011 5:47 PM
The New York Times learned Thursday that its biases have consequences. In a letter from his senior adviser Ron Dermer obtained by the Jerusalem Post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scornfully declined the Gray Lady's offer to write an op-ed due to the paper's long history of anti-Israel sentiments:

Media Ignoring Expanded Childishness of Obama's 'Taunt a Republican Wh

December 15th, 2011 6:54 PM
On Tuesday (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted an email I received from Obama For America -- I forgot to mention the subject line, which was "In honor of the GOP" -- that encouraged readers to give $3 or more to Barack Obama's reelection campaign and become entered to win dinner with the president and his wife. The email also promised donors that OFA would taunt (my word) a Republican…

At Official End of Iraq War, NYTimes Performs Front-Page Psychoanalysi

December 15th, 2011 4:50 PM
The day the war in Iraq was officially declared over, the New York Times returned to the 2005 Haditha “massacre” on Thursday’s front page. Baghdad-based reporter Michael Schmidt uncovered classified military documents about to be burned for fuel to cook a fish: “Junkyard Gives Up Secret Accounts of Massacre.” Just above the story stood a photo of President Obama greeting crowds at Fort Bragg, N…

Gingrich's 'Apocalyptic...Fierceness' Over the Iran Threat Seen as 'Si

December 15th, 2011 2:23 PM
After trashing his warnings of a potential nuclear-based EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s policy prescriptions are once again in the sights of the New York Times. Campaign reporter Trip Gabriel suggested Gingrich had a simplistic vision of the Iran threat in Thursday’s “Gingrich’s Foreign Policy Words Summon the Cold War, but Enemy Is Iran.”

NYT's Friedman: Netanyahu's Standing Ovation in Congress 'Bought and P

December 15th, 2011 9:03 AM
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who poses as a tough friend of Israel, offensively referred to the “Israel lobby” in his Wednesday column “Newt, Mitt, Bibi and Vladimir." After bashing Newt Gingrich for suggesting the Palestinians are an “invented” people, Friedman reiterated the usual talking points in support of a Palestinian state, but with a hostile and paranoid twist.

Obama Crony-Run LightSquared's Network Now Shown to Disrupt Plane Safe

December 14th, 2011 11:17 PM
Late Friday afternoon, Todd Shields at Bloomberg News broke a story about some guy, who happens to be an Obama and Democratic Party donor (but not disclosed), against whom the Securities and Exchange Commission is formally considering an enforcement action (also not disclosed, though it was noted at the New York Times's Dealbook Blog five hours before Shields's report), whose "wireless service…

NYTimes News Story Asserts Romney 'Overly Polished and Occasionally Ro

December 14th, 2011 2:42 PM
New York Times reporter Ashley Parker, on the Mitt Romney beat, again got cynically snide and personal with the “robotic” candidate in the lead to Wednesday’s "Political Memo" from the campaign trail in New Hampshire, “As Rivalry Tightens, Romney Is Reflective.”

Former NYT Editor Keller: Gingrich Great on Illegal Immigration, But S

December 14th, 2011 8:50 AM
In his Monday column “The Good Newt,” former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller dished out some rare if backhanded defense for Newt Gingrich, at least on Newt’s amnesty-style ideas on illegal immigration: “There are plenty of reasons the thought of President Newt Gingrich makes me shudder. But on this hard, defining American issue, he’s shown a combination of brains, heart and guts…