After Months of Ripping on Tea Parties, CNN Extols 'Coffee Parties
CNN.com has an article on its website extolling the virtues of the Coffee Party. The glowing language the piece uses to describe the movement stands in stark contrast to the cable network's treatment of Tea Party groups over the past year. CNN doesn't like the Tea Party movement, that much is clear. The cable network's on-air staff and guests have proclaimed it an "anti-government" group of "…
Kyra Phillips Conducts Softball Interview of Woman Who Tweeted Abortio
[Update, 10:48 pm Eastern: Audio & video clips added.] On Monday's Newsroom, CNN's Kyra Phillips sympathetically interviewed a woman who unapologetically Tweeted her chemically-induced abortion as it happened. Instead of offering the pro-life viewpoint, Phillips lamented how her guest received "e-mails and the responses [which] were so brutal." The anchor later admitted that she "didn't want…
Chuck Todd: 'Drudge-driven Journalism' Not the 'Proper Way' to Decide
Old Media's fatal conceit is the belief that it's not news unless it's reported by a major newspaper, magazine, or television station. Reports from new and alternative media, in Old Media's eyes, are tainted, and not to be believed...unlike, of course, the reliable, factual, and always objective mainstream media. NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd, at right in a file photo, has been a…
Deranged: Roseanne Barr Blames Maria Osmond’s Faith for Son’s Suic
Perhaps this was a cry out for relevancy - something she hasn't been since the Clinton administration, but comedienne Roseanne Barr is showing her social commentary knows no bounds. In a March 4 post on her blog, Barr used the suicide of Marie Osmond's son, Michael Blosil, to go on a sick and twisted anti-religion screed. According to the former sitcom star, any underlying issues that led to…
Time's Sullivan to Nancy Pelosi: Stop Spooking the Pro-Life House Dems
Nancy Pelosi is her own worst enemy and Time's Amy Sullivan hopes to get that message across in her March 4 Swampland blog post, "Is This An Abortion Whip Count?"Sullivan did some number crunching and found that, due to concerns about a lack of a restriction on abortion spending in the Senate bill, Pelosi may end up being a few votes shy of the threshold to pass the legislation. Sullivan's advice…
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…
