AP Headline Jumps on the Apple-Bashing Train on Taxes ('Phantom Taxes

July 23rd, 2012 7:52 PM
Gosh, if Apple would only send the money it has parked overseas back to the United States and pay income taxes on it, the federal government's situation would be so much better, the budget would would balance, and ... no, not really. According to Peter Svensson at the Associated Press, the company has $74 billion in cash parked overseas, meaning that it would owe federal income taxes of about $…

ABC Plays Up Bloomberg's Call for More Gun Control, But Admits It Won

July 23rd, 2012 12:48 PM
Good Morning America Sunday co-host Bianna Golodryga played up calls by liberal Mayor Michael Bloomberg for more gun control in the wake of Friday's mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado. This occurred even as George Stephanopoulos conceded that no new gun control legislation would be passed. Golodryga touted, "One person who is very outspoken about it, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that no other…

Why Did AP Do a 1,500-Word Expected Poverty Rate Writeup Months Before

July 22nd, 2012 10:31 AM
In September 2010, the Associated Press prepared an advance report on the expected surge in the Census Bureau's official poverty rate, which rose from 13.2% to a 15-year high of 14.3%. Their stated preoccupation was not with the associated pain, but with "the unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before important elections when Congress is at stake." Well, this year's…

AP Pair Upset at Lack of Gun Control Calls and Clout of NRA in Aurora

July 21st, 2012 10:22 AM
Poor David Espo and Nancy Benac. A six-paragraph squib this morning headlined "Calls for gun control stir little support" at the wire service's national site and "Despite a string of high-profile shootings, calls for gun control stir little support" at Newser.com really should have been titled "Why Aren't You Guys Politicizing This, D**nit?" The two AP "reporters" bitterly wail and gnash…

Reuters Thinks Big Unemployment Claims Jump Is a 'Rebound

July 19th, 2012 5:26 PM
In case you missed it (which wouldn't be surprising given how quiet the press has been since the related report's release, the Department of Labor reported that initial claims for unemployment rose to a seasonally adjusted 386,000 from a review (up, or course) 352,000 the previous week. An unbylined Reuters report carried at CNBC (HT to an NB tipster) bizarrely described this result as a "…

At AP, Big Jobless Claims Miss Due to 'Seasonal Issues'; Consistent Ca

July 19th, 2012 9:59 AM
Todays unemployment claims release from the Department of Labor reported that initial jobless aid applications for the week ended July 14 were 386,000 after seasonal adjustment. Business Insider's email this morning carried a prediction of 364,000. Bloomberg's consensus prediction was 365,000. At the Associated Press, in his 8:45 a.m. dispatch (saved here for future reference, fair use and…

AP's Peoples Tells Readers What Obama 'Intended' in 'You Didn't Build

July 19th, 2012 1:46 AM
On July 13, President Barack Obama told a campaign audience in Roanoke that "If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen." As Geoffrey Dickens at NewsBusters pointed out on Wednesday, it wasn't until July 17 that any of the Big Three broadcast TV news networks recognized the existence of the remark -- and two of them failed to run the actual quote. Part…

AP Calls HHS's Gutting of Welfare Reform a 'Proposal

July 18th, 2012 8:22 AM
On July 12, the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children & Families, the group which administers the entitlement program known to most as "welfare" or "traditional welfare, issued an "Information Memorandum" entitled "Guidance concerning waiver and expenditure authority under Section 1115" (i.e., not "proposed guidance"). After navigating the thicket of…

Media Fail: Chevy Volt Makes NO Money, Costs Taxpayers Hundreds of Tho

July 17th, 2012 9:54 AM
The Jurassic Press is missing much in their reporting on the $50 billion bailout of General Motors (GM).  The Press is open channeling for President Barack Obama - allowing him to frame the bailout exactly as he wishes in the 2012 Presidential election.  The President is running in large part on the bailout’s $30+ billion loss, uber-failed “success.”  And the Press is acting as his…

Wishful Thinking at AP: 'Some Argue' That Jan. Tax Increases Won't Be

July 17th, 2012 9:33 AM
One useful interpretation of a journalist's use of "some people say that" or "some argue that" without an accompanying reference to or quote from a subject matters expert is that such phrases really mean "in my opinion." This is the very likely case in a disingenuously headlined Associated Press story yesterday by Andrew Taylor concerning the standoff between the Republicans, who want the…

Gasparino at NY Post on 'Lie-bor' Scandal: 'Geithner Yawned at Epic Fr

July 16th, 2012 4:53 PM
Here's how a "Business Highlights" item at the Associated Press summarized the situation between Timothy Geithner and London banks whose officials had admitted to rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate ("Libor") on Friday evening: "The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released documents Friday that show it learned five years ago of big banks understating their borrowing costs to manipulate a…

AP Report Claims GOP Governors Have 'Awkward Task' Explaining Their Su

July 15th, 2012 11:17 PM
Democrats are at it again, claiming that Republicans, particularly House Republicans, are sabotaging the economy, while ignoring the quite effective job President Barack Obama has done to ruin the economy both on his own (regulatory and anti-fossil fuel hostility, wasteful green "investments," etc.) and with the help of Congressional Democrats when they controlled both Houses of Congress (…

Jobless Claims Report Affected by Year-Over-Year Change in Seasonal Ad

July 14th, 2012 6:47 PM
One might think that yours truly, who has been nagging the establishment press for years over its blind acceptance of seasonally adjusted data in government economic and employment reports, would be pleased to see that the Associated Press's Christopher Rugaber finally got around to making such adjustments the primary focus of his final report on the most recently released unemployment claims…

AP's Protection of Geithner in 'Lie-bor' Scandal Continues

July 13th, 2012 11:40 PM
My, it was awfully nice of Marcy Gordon at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, to give Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner such excellent protection in her report on the New York Federal Reserve Bank's release of documents relating to its knowledge of the manipulation of the "Libor" (London interbank offered rate) used as the basis for the pricing of trillions of dollars of loans…