Name that Party: Over 100 Media Outlets Fail to Tag Racine, Wis. Mayor

This one's a particularly egregious example of party-ID dodging, even for those of us who are used to seeing the establishment media avoid mentioning the political party of almost any disgraced or troubled Democratic public official. Former Racine, Wisconsin mayor Gary Becker, a Democrat, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for child enticement and attempted sexual assault of a…

Time Reporter's Advice to Endangered Dems on Health Care Vote: Think o

"As the House prepares for its final push on health care, there are Democratic members, particularly those from conservative districts, who are facing a hard truth: This is the kind of vote that can end a career," Time magazine's Karen Tumulty lamented in a March 3 Swampland blog post entitled "When A Hard Vote Ends A Political Career." Eh, suck it up, the veteran journalist practically counseled…

Roger Ailes on Arianna Huffington's Paranoia Hypocrisy: 'You Ever Read

Define hypocrisy: Arianna Huffington claiming that Fox News President Roger Ailes plays off of Americans' fear and paranoia.Indeed, while Huffington Post columnists call American political leaders criminals, terrorists, and Nazis and occasionally fantasize about their deaths, Huffington has the gall to claim, "If you’re looking for the usual flame-throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog…

Seattle P-I, AJC Offer Slightly Loaded Headlines on AP Gun Case Story

Headlines can be an excellent window into the biases, albeit sometimes subtle, of editors. An AP story about a gun rights case, McDonald v. Chicago, challenging the Windy City's handgun ban before the Supreme Court today is one such example. "High court looks at reach of Second Amendment" reads the headline the Associated Press assigned its story by Mark Sherman. The AP's headline is pretty…

Time's Joe Klein Gleeful Over Bunning Stand; Sees 'Reactionary Radical

"Jim Bunning is doing all of us a favor," Time's Joe Klein tells his Swampland blog readers in a post published last night. Gee, Joe, is that because his stand is exposing the hypocrisy of Democrats who often preach the virtue of pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) budget rules? Of course not. Instead, Klein sees a potential anti-GOP blowback as Republicans show themselves to be positively out of touch with…

Newsweek's Sarah Ball Cheers HuffPo Take on Obama's Smoking: It's GOP

"Wait, What? Obama Still Smokes?!"That was the reaction of Newsweek's Sarah Ball to Navy physician Capt. Jeffrey Kuhlman noting ongoing "smoking cessation efforts" by President Obama in a publicly-released memo regarding the results of Sunday's physical exam of the commander-in-chief.After going over a few takes from other media outlets about the story, Ball shared with readers of the magazine's…

MSNBC Won't Release Video of Van Jones Calling Saddam's Human Shields

Remember Van Jones? He's trying to make a comeback, and the mainstream media seems to be lending him a helping hand in getting back into the Washington power structure. Jones, in case you don't remember, was the administration's Green Jobs Czar. He resigned after it came to light that his name appeared on a 9/11 Truther petition.That, it turned out, was not the extent of his wackiness. He led a…

Guilty Pleasure: Prank Caller Pretends To Be Team USA Goalie, Fools MS

Although yours truly emphatically does not approve of the stunt, I have to acknowledge that whoever pranked MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist Friday by pretending to be Team USA hockey goalie Ryan Miller (pictured at right) did the nation two small favors: First, he embarrassed a network that seems incapable of being embarrassed by much of what its hosts and guests say on a daily basis…

Time's Joe Klein: 'Unflappable' Obama Wins Day at Health Care Summit

Poor Joe Klein. The Time magazine writer missed yesterday's epic health care lecturefest summit. I can't blame him. Olympic curling is much more fascinating. Anyway, he's catching up and he's come to the conclusion that Professor Obama totally schooled the GOP. Why? Because the president talked a lot but observers found the event boring, ergo proving both Obama's brilliance and the dimwittedness…

Media Attack GOP for Filibuster Flip-flop, Silent About Dems' Newfound

"I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing." - Joe Biden, 2005Few Americans would be shocked to hear that members of Congress are not always consistent, and occasionally outright hypocritical. Very often, however, the liberal media attempts to downplay Democratic double standards and highlight Republican ones. Each recent change in…

WaPo Blog Compares Black Conservatives to Genocidal Dictators

It's hardly news that black conservatives are reviled among much of the left. There seems to be a sense among much of the liberal media that they have betrayed their own interests through their conservative principles.Few, however, would have the (dare I say it) audacity to lump prominent and accomplished African American political figures in with oppressive genocidal dictators and serial killers…

WaPo Fails to Identify Partisan Bent of Blogs Pushing Bob Marshall Con

Updated below (Feb. 24)The Washington Post was curiously silent about the ideological and/or partisan bent of blogs that prompted its coverage of a controversial statement made last Thursday by Virginia Delegate Robert Marshall (R), who suggested, the Post reports, "that women who have abortions risk having later children with birth defects as a punishment from God." Kunkle noted that Marshall…

Newsweek Denigrates ObamaCare Opponents with Derisive 'Town Hall Face

As my colleague Tim Graham brought to my attention this morning, Newsweek is not content to let its advocacy for ObamaCare lie in the realm of biased writing. Nope, it appears the gang at Newsweek wants to help along President Obama by lampooning earnest Americans who expressed their displeasure last year at town hall meetings.Why Newsweek chose now to roll out its photo gallery on "The Town Hall…

The False Toyota 'Brag' and 'Win' Memes Turn Into an Establishment Med

If the goal of whoever leaked the contents of a presentation originally made internally at Toyota's Washington, DC offices and turned over to congressional investigators was to drum up an intense level of negative press coverage against the company, they can sit back and say, "Mission accomplished." It seems to have started Sunday with David Shepardson of the Detroit News, who reported that the…