At Last, AP to Enter the Internet Age with 'AP Version
Al Gore must've gotten to the Associated Press and introduced to them his invention, the Internet, because they have announced a refit for the new news age. The New York Times spins some coverage for the venerable news wire service's newest venture, even taking the chance to extend a compliment for AP's creation of the "24-hour news cycle" (I know, that one made my head turn, too). So, at last…
Penn, Glover Demand Travel Ban Lift; Ignore Cuban Oppression
Dictator-groupies Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover are at it again. They are among the “artists, scholars and performers” calling themselves “representatives of the cultural sphere in the US,” who sent a letter to President Bush asking him to “end the travel ban,” allowing a cultural exchange between nations. Most troubling is the group did not address Cuba's lack of freedom and…
CNN Defends Debate, Says Vetting Was 'Focused on the Questions
CNN is defending its job in vetting questions for last night's debate, reports Politico's Kenneth Vogel:The retired general who quizzed Republican presidential candidates about gays and lesbians in the military was not the only person linked to a Democratic presidential candidate who got to ask a question at Wednesday’s CNN/YouTube debate. CNN also aired questions from supporters of Democratic…
Q3 Economic Growth is 4.9%, Yet Media Obsessed with Recession Talk
Economic growth for the third quarter, which was estimated at 3.9% a month ago, was revised upward to 4.9% by the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The BEA announcement is here. This of course explains why a Google News search I just did on "recession" has hundreds and hundreds of articles talking about a possible recession, including 481 in the first 20 listings (/sarc). Key…
Newsweek: Who's Less Liberal? Romney or Giuliani
"Rudy v. Romney: Which one is least [sic]* liberal?"So asks a teaser headline in the Newsweek.com front page "light box" slideshow (pictured at right). The link takes readers to Newsweek assistant editor Andrew Romano's article, "Forget 'Conservative.' Who's the 'Least Liberal' GOP Frontrunner?"Conservatives examining whom to support in the primary elections might do well to welcome an…
The Media, Their Polls and the False News They Produce
First published in Human Events on November 27th, 2007.Wash, spin, rinse, spin. Phone, spin, report, spin, poll, spin. The similarities between the work of the mainstream media and a laundry machine are striking. Yet there is nothing about the cycle -- the spin-report-poll-spin cycle -- that does for political events what detergent does for your boxers or briefs. The media, as One, spend days…
How the Housing Report Changed From Initial E-Mail to Spun Story
Here's what a CNN e-mail I received said when the news was first released: Here's how the headline at the home page turned out mid-morning:
CBSNews.com Employs Scary Graphic to Tease Gun Ban Court Story
Teasing a story about the Supreme Court agreeing to hear an appeal concerning the Washington, D.C. handgun gun and whether it violates the 2nd Amendment's protection of an individual's right to keep and bear arms, CBSNews.com employed an ominous-looking graphic on its home page.Pictured at right is the CBS/AP graphic showing in the foreground a right hand grasping a handgun, with an outline of…
