Invented 'News

August 12th, 2008 3:40 AM
Remember during Bush's run for the White House in 2000 when it was announced that Dick Cheney was his choice for vice president and the media meme became that Cheney added "gravitas" to the ticket? This is a small example of manufactured news. It wasn't the fact that Cheney added much to the ticket, but that the media universally adopted a single word to describe the effect that Cheney had on the…

Indymac: Cuomo Shy About Saying 'Schumer

July 16th, 2008 11:36 AM
H/t texascajunWe can debate the propriety of mentioning the name of banks that might be in financial trouble.  But one thing appears clear to Chris Cuomo [file photo]: it would be wrong to mention the name of a Democrat who could be in hot water.  Wouldn't want to cause a run on the Dem's political capital, after all. Cuomo's discretion was on display during today's Good Morning America. …

Obama Threatens to 'Bring a Gun': What If McCain Had Done Same

June 14th, 2008 9:27 PM
Hillary Clinton's mention of RFK's assassination was the final nail in the coffin of her candidacy. Along similar lines, can you imagine the howls of MSM outrage if John McCain were to suggest that he might "bring a gun" to his campaign against Barack Obama? Yet Obama has made just such a statement. Expect the liberal media to . . . yawn.Said the Dem candidate at a Philly fundraiser on Friday…

'Right-wing' Rupert Murdoch Heaps Praise on Barack Obama

May 29th, 2008 6:06 PM
Aside from President Bush, one of the left's favorite boogeymen is Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, owner of the Fox television networks and myriad newspapers around the globe. Murdoch, as the story goes, is deliberately foisting a far-right ideology upon the world, intent upon making it to support his personal political agenda. In order for that to be true, however, paranoid lefties have…

Taranto Nails Recession Obsession of AP's Aversa

May 24th, 2008 9:18 AM
..... But Misses Chance to Refute "Jobs Slashed" Claims. It's good to see that someone else is on the case of the recession-obsessed Associated Press, particularly reporter Jeannine Aversa. But even the estimable James Taranto, in his Best of the Web column yesterday, let Aversa's most obvious and repeated error go by without comment. Aversa started out her report yesterday ("When economy…

Odd Endorser: Buchanan Vouches For Zbig on Israel

May 20th, 2008 8:21 AM
Like choosing Rosie O'Donnell to vouch that someone isn't a 9-11 conspiracy nut? Of all the people Mika Brzezinski might have selected as a character reference for her father when he was portrayed as a problem for Obama with Jewish voters, Pat Buchanan isn't the first one who springs to mind. Yet that's who Mika [subbing as host for Joe Scarborough, home in Florida awaiting the birth of a baby]…

St. Paul Pioneer Press Reporter Botches Food Inflation Report

May 18th, 2008 10:40 PM
Twin Cities news consumers aren't well served, and it may get worse. Avista Capital Partners, which owns the Minneapolis Star Tribune, said earlier this month that its investment in the Strib is performing so poorly that it had to be written down by 75%. Earlier, the New York Post reported the possibility that the paper might go bankrupt. That possibility will loom as long as the Strib, which…

Let Them In: WSJ Editor Argues for Open Borders

May 18th, 2008 12:12 PM
The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal has long been an indispensable voice of conservatism. As President Bush said in 2003 in awarding the Medal of Freedom to editorial page editor Robert L. Bartley shortly before his death, he—and by extension his editorial page—has been "a champion of free markets, individual liberty and the values necessary for a free society."But there is one area in…

WSJ Writers Note Absence of Recession; AP's Crutsinger Still Holds Out

May 17th, 2008 9:50 PM
Someone forgot to tell the Wall Street Journal's Kelly Evans and Justin Lahart, carried here at the Arizona Republic, that they're supposed to portray the economy in a bad light whenever and wherever possible. I'll get to the pair's report later. That "bad light" directive seems seared into the minds of the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger and his AP colleagues, as they continue to "cling to…

WaPo Notes Chavez Backing for FARC Terrorists, Six Days After WSJ Had

May 15th, 2008 11:22 AM
Six days after Wall Street Journal's Jose de Cordoba and Jay Solomon published their front-pager, "Chávez Aided Colombia Rebels, Captured Computer Files Show," the Washington Post turned out its coverage of the development by staffer Juan Forero, who pulled a few punches by failing to directly finger Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez: CARACAS, Venezuela, May 14 -- High-ranking officials in…

News Reports Avoid Mentioning Record U.S. April Tax Receipts

May 13th, 2008 2:40 PM
How do you write an article about Uncle Sam's April financial results without telling readers how much money came in and went out -- especially if what came in was an all-time record? Yesterday and today, many journalists have shown us how. Two of them are Martin Crutsinger of the Associated Press and Michael M. Phillips of the Wall Street Journal. Crutsinger's AP report actually made it…

NBC Universal's Zucker: Katie Couric Among 'Most Talented Journalists

May 9th, 2008 4:01 PM
Interviewed for the "View from the Top" feature in the May 9 Financial Times, NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker praised CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric, formerly with NBC's "Today" show. Zucker also dismissed any notion that he regretted not buying the Wall Street Journal. Here's an excerpt (portion in italics to denote questions by Financial Times):You worked with Katie Couric […

Newspaper Circulations in 3-Year Plunge, with Four Exceptions

May 1st, 2008 10:27 AM
Old Media business reporters have a definitionally-incorrect habit of labeling single industries or economic sectors as being "in recession," when the term, as defined here, can only describe national economies or the world economy. Two examples of this are New York Times reporter David Leonhardt's description of manufacturing as being in recession in February 2007 (laughably incorrect, in any…

No Party Label For Rep. Reyes Donation/Contract Story

April 22nd, 2008 10:17 AM
Let's say the year is 2006 and you're the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. A story breaks that you "received donations from an Alabama contractor" but you flatly deny it has anything to do with "a $2.6 million no-bid contract for the company in a national defense bill."There's no doubt, particularly given the media's Republican "culture of corruption"…