Politico's Calderone Compiles a Quality 2009 Media Blunder List -- And

December 31st, 2009 11:04 AM
Michael Calderone,Doing it Right UPDATE #2 - ALSO BELOW THE FOLD. UPDATE BELOW THE FOLD - THE ESTEEMED MR. CALDERONE RESPONDS. ------------- CORRECTION: I said the Washington Post was on the hook twice on Calderone's list.  H/t to NBer Dean who pointed out it's three - #s 2, 7 & 10.  A thousand apologies, and thanks to The Man from the People's Republic of…

For Conservatives Online, Plenty of Commentary But Not Enough News

December 13th, 2009 3:54 PM
A number of the conservative movement's prominent online figures are battling to be the right's equivalent of Talking Points Memo or Huffington Post--political organizations that report hard news. Many believe that to truly harness the power of the Web, political organizations must report their own news, rather than comment on reporitng from traditional outlets."The left needs Daily Kos, but they…

Revolving Door: Politico's Jonathan Allen to Head Dem Political Action

December 8th, 2009 1:15 PM
Here's another entry for the revolving door file: Politico's Jonathan Allen (pictured at right), formerly of Congressional Quarterly and former Sen. Paul Sarbanes' office, will take over as the top staffer at Debbie Wasserman Schultz's DWS PAC, according to Roll Call (h/t e-mail tipster Bob Foster). For his part, Allen, whose wife works as the communications director for freshman Sen. Kay Hagan…

MSNBC: ClimateGate ‘A Controversy That’s Not Really There

December 7th, 2009 4:47 PM
Near the end of the 2PM ET hour on MSNBC, anchor Contessa Brewer discussed the ClimateGate scandal only to claim there was no scandal in the emails that seemed to show climate scientists manipulating global warming data: “I mean is someone using differences in semantics to try and play up a controversy that’s not really there?”Brewer spoke with Politico reporter Erica Lovely about the emails in…

MSNBC's Scarborough Points Out NPR's Bias Hypocrisy

December 7th, 2009 11:29 AM
For the dog-bites-man news category: Joe Scarborough had a moment of intellectual schizophrenia today.On MSNBC's Morning Joe, co-host Willie Geist and Politico.com executive editor Jim VandeHei were discussing a Politico story about internal political pressures at National Public Radio (NPR).  Apparently, NPR's top political correspondent Mara Liasson was asked by NPR executives to reconsider her…

Corrected: Politico Makes No Mention of ClimateGate in Al Gore Intervi

December 4th, 2009 4:01 PM
An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly stated that John Harris and Mike Allen of Politico declined to ask former vice president Al Gore about controversial emails from climate scientists who support the idea of anthropogenic global warming after knowledge of those emails was publicly disclosed. In fact, the interview with Gore occurred before the emails were public knowledge, therefore…

White House Reporters Worried About Biased Web Sites in Pool

December 3rd, 2009 6:06 PM
The White House's decision to include prominent left-wing blogs in its reporting pool has some journalists worried. Since members of the rotating pool often base their reports off of reports from outlets that attend, they worry that the presence of openly partisan news outlets could skew coverage of the White House.“This is really troubling,” New York Times reporter Peter Baker told Politico's…

On Mammogram Guidelines, No Fact Checks for Sebelius or Durbin

November 22nd, 2009 2:14 PM
When outrage erupted this week over a government panel's recommendation that women have fewer mammograms, health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius was prepared with the Obama administration's favorite talking point: It's all Bush's fault.  Appearing Wednesday on CNN's The Situation Room, Sebelius told anchor Wolf Blitzer:This panel was appointed by the prior administration, by former…

Jews May Get Frosty Feelings as Obama White House Cuts Hanukkah Party

November 21st, 2009 2:07 PM

Palin Calls Newsweek's Cover Of Her 'Out-of-Context' and 'Sexist

November 17th, 2009 4:41 PM
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has responded to Newsweek's cover of her, and needless to say she was none too pleased.As NewsBusters reported Saturday, Newsweek ran a cover story on Palin in its most recent issue, and the picture they decided to use was of her in jogging shorts and sneakers."The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now," wrote Palin in a posting at…

Chris Matthews: Catholic Bishops 'Should Stay Off Capitol Hill

November 10th, 2009 6:33 PM
"The clergy should stay off Capitol Hill," MSNBC's Chris Matthews flatly declared on the November 10 "Hardball."  Matthews fumed with disgust as Politico's Jonathan Allen told him that Catholic bishops lobbied Democrats to pass the pro-life Stupak Amendment to the Democratic health care reform bill last week. "I understand the [pro-life] argument" that the bishops brought to the table, Matthews…

Politico: Conservatives Ousted Scozzafava Because She's A Woman

November 9th, 2009 3:16 PM
"Conservatives say they pushed Dede Scozzafava out of the House race in New York's 23rd District a week ago because of her left-of-Republican social views - and not because she is a woman. But the growing schism between the Republican Party's ascendant right wing and its shrinking moderate core has clear gender undertones..." So wrote Politico's Meredith Shiner and Glenn Thrush Monday in another…

For Election News, Politicos and Average Joes Turned to Twitter

November 5th, 2009 6:06 PM
Coverage of Tuesday's election night took place during prime time, giving cable news partisans the responsibility of tracking and reporting details on the elections. Many observers, fed up with the substandard coverage of the networks' opinion commentators, turned to Twitter for up-to-the-minute coverage.Election followers on Twitter displayed their discontent towards cable news stations…

Bozell Announces 'Dewey Defeats Truman Awards' for 'Incompetent Politi

November 4th, 2009 12:33 PM
"Last night was a triumph for the conservative movement and repudiation to those who said Republicans had to move away from the conservative ideology to achieve victory," Media Research Center President and NewsBusters Publisher Brent Bozell declared today."I hereby grant the Dewey Defeats Truman Awards for the most incompetent political reporting of the year to the following journalists for…