Despite Dismissive Media, Palin's 'Death Panels' Resurface in WH Ratio
PolitiFact called it the Lie of the Year, and journalists left and right (but mostly left) dismissed the claim as hyperbole at best, and fear-mongering propaganda at worst. But Sarah Palin's "death panel" comment may not be as off the mark as so many have claimed. Don't take her word for it. White House budget director Peter Orszag apparently agrees.Well, Orszag didn't specifically address Palin'…
Neil Who? Chuck Who? Press Virtually Ignores Barofsky, Grassley Compla
Ed Whitacre, Chairman of Government/General Motors, took to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday to crow about repaying a loan (link may require subscription). Note the deceptive headline and its accompanying end-zone dance: The GM Bailout: Paid Back in Full The investment of U.S. and Canadian tax dollars worked. Whitacre can try to make a case that the government's loans have been repaid, but…
NPR's Nina Totenberg Distorts Conservative Legal Scholar to Cast Clare
National Public Radio correspondent Nina Totenberg severely misquoted a conservative legal scholar to make it seems as if he considered Clarence Thomas a radical Supreme Court justice. An examination of his full statement clearly demonstrates that this was not what he actually said.In an April 16 NPR segment, Totenberg, picture right in a file photo, sought to paint radical Berkeley law professor…
Joan Walsh Doubles Down, Claims There Are No Violent Liberals
Joan Walsh was unable to name an extreme left-wing media figure yesterday while appearing on MSNBC and today she is digging in deeper on her blog. Now she says that she wasn’t just talking about media figures, of which Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz are just the most obvious examples, but that she was talking also about violent nut jobs who threaten politicians. The title of her post is “…
Bernie Goldberg: Jon Stewart 'Throwing Spitballs at a Battleship' with
Fox News contributor Bernie Goldberg hit back at Jon Stewart today, saying the "Daily Show" host was "throwing spitballs at a battleship" by attacking the Fox News Channel.The back-and-forth between Stewart and Goldberg began when the former leveled accusations of hypocrisy, claiming Goldberg criticized others for generalizing while doing so himself. Stewart responded to Goldberg's retort with a…
Newsweek's Liz White Complains of 'ObamaCare' Label Use Again
Last month I noted Newsweek's Liz White's complaint about the term "ObamaCare" being used as shorthand for the Democratic health care legislation. White griped that the term was "ominous-sounding" and favored by the legislation's conservative opponents as reasons why mainstream media outlets should eschew the term.Now a full 27 days later, White is back at it with her complaint about the term "…
Al Mohler: News Accounts on Abortion of 'Wrong' Baby Speak Volumes Abo
A Sarasota, Florida, doctor recently lost his medical license on the basis of an error he made in 2006 in an abortion procedure where he mistakenly took the life of the healthier fraternal twin of a boy diagnosed in utero with Down Syndrome.In covering the story, most media outlets have noted that Dr. Matthew Kachinas aborted "the wrong baby." Baptist theologian and radio program host Dr. Albert…
Politico Snarks: 'Most Transparent White House Ever' Prevents Reporter
While mainstream media reporters are generally pretty supportive of the Obama administration, they bristle, and rightly so, at incidents where the administration is less than transparent or actively seeks to impede journalists from working.Last week it was liberal Post columnist Dana Milbank snarking about how the nuclear summit was closed off to press scrutiny. Today it's Politico's Ben Smith,…
Newsweek's Kliff Laments 'Lack of Passion' Among Millennial Generation
"How can the next generation defend abortion rights when they don't think abortion rights need defending?"That's the question posed by the subheader to Sarah Kliff's article for the April 26 dead-tree edition of Newsweek entitled, "Remember Roe!" You may recall Kliff as the Newsweek staffer who complained that the House of Representatives has an "anti-abortion rights majority." In her April 26…
Study: Online Media Don't Polarize Like Critics Claim
Update - 12:48 PM | Lachlan Markay: David Brooks weighs in. See his thoughts below.One of the gripes about online journalism often aired by the Helen Thomases and the Chuck Todds of the world is that online news consumers will only consume news that reinforces their worldview or political beliefs. A new scholarly study challenges that assumption.The study, conducted by Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse…
Massa Saga 'Just Heating Up'? Don't Hold Your Breath for Media Obsessi
The "Eric Massa saga [is] just heating up," promises the headline for Jonathan Allen's April 19 Politico story about the latest development in the swift demise of the tickle-happy freshman Democrat:For nearly a year, the allegations of scandalous activity in former Rep. Eric Massa’s office were kept quiet — by the congressman, by male aides who accuse him of sexually harassing them and by other…
Conservative Blogger Takes Flak for Noting SCOTUS Nominee's Presumed H
Here's the thing about the vast right-wing conspiracy: it doesn't really exist. The left's latest attempt to invoke the notion has ended in rebuttals from commentators on both sides of the political spectrum.Conservative blogger Ben Domenech noted the White House's apparent desire to appoint a homosexual to the Supreme Court. He noted in a post at the New Ledger that at least three nominees --…
PBS's Bonnie Erbe Slams 'Offensive' Measure to Call Attention to Traum
Darn! She's on to us pro-lifers! PBS "To the Contrary" host Bonnie Erbe has discovered the real eeeevil secret of the pro-life movement, which she unveiled in an April 15 post at the Thomas Jefferson Street blog on USNews.com (emphasis mine):What is the religious right doing by campaigning against abortion? First and foremost, its efforts seem aimed at trying to keep church pews filled by…
Newsweek's Ben Adler Slams 'Stupid Idea' of Putting 'Tax' On Homeless
Combining bleeding heart bluster with soak-the-rich envy, Newsweek's Ben Adler savaged liberal billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in an April 14 The Gaggle blog post for his green-lighting city homeless shelters to levy a monthly rent on residents who hold down jobs:Don't complain about your taxes today, they are surely less than the 44 percent of one's income that homeless New…
