2008 Presidential

All in all, I like Politico's list of the Top Ten Media Blunders of 2008, by staff writer Michael Calderone, appearing on the website this evening. How can you be too tough on a list that includes, among other faux pas:MSNBC's use of Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as election night and convention co-anchors; The New York Times's suggestive but unsubstantiated story about John McCain and…

The Media Research Center today announced its Best Notable Quotables of 2008: The 21st Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews "won" the dubious honor of Quote of the Year for gushing over a Barack Obama speech back in February: "I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often….And that is an objective assessment."Top runner-up for Quote of…

It would seem New Scientist magazine recently decided to sacrifice credibility in the field of research.  Journalistic research, anyway.  In their recent article titled, "Science heroes and villains of 2008," New Scientist has taken the liberty of naming some noteworthy individuals in the field.  As their opening salvo states (emphasis mine):  The collective brain of New Scientist has come up…

Don't get me wrong. I love Christmastime. But in many other respects it can be the most dreaded time of the year for us media watchers. It is, after all, the time when liberal journalists decide to assign their year-ending accolades on everything from movies and music to politicians. It's doubly dreadful when we're talking about Time magazine's Joe "Anonymous" Klein.In a December 17 piece doling…

“The View” moderator Whoopi Goldberg is apparently still unaware that the Constitution explicitly forbids slavery. Appearing on the December 21 edition of “Reliable Sources” (video here), host Howard Kurtz played a clip of Whoopi Goldberg questioning John McCain, that is he were to appoint strict constructionist judges, if she should fear a return to slavery. Unfazed, Whoopi replied “I thought…

Parade magazine, a supplement to many of the nation's Sunday newspapers, claims to have over 72 million readers.  Today in the magazine's "Personality Parade" section, readers saw this question and answer:Q Can you give us an update on Elian Gonzalez, the boy rescued off the coast of Florida in 1999, then returned to Cuba over the protests of his U.S. relatives?--Mark Larsen, Calhoun, Ga.A Elian…

**UPDATE** Kieth Olbermann kicks in a few lies of his own on this story. With video below fold. The national news has found its newest way to slam Governor Sarah Palin and that is to report heavily on any untoward actions made by her relatives by marriage -- or even soon to be marriage, for that matter. Next the Old Media will be strenuously looking for Palin neighbors that are unruly, Palin…

Surely no one would view Rev. Jeremiah Wright as closer to the centerpoint of American politics than Pastor Rick Warren, right? Wrong.  Here's Chris Matthews on this evening's Hardball.CHRIS MATTHEWS: It seems like Barack Obama, as much as seems to inspire people, including me, has a problem with pastors.  I don't know what it is. You get him hooked up with a pastor, whether it's Jeremiah Wright…

With Obama-Blagojevich, and many other Dems in distress, the media has suddenly lost interest in the subject Editor's Note: This first appeared in today's Human Events. When It's the Democrats, the Media Falls SilentWe are now a week into the wall-to-wall coverage of the tape recorded fall of Senate seat auctioneer and sometime Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich.  But there has…

Barack Obama is finding out that his honeymoon with the mainstream media may be considerably shorter than he had expected. Inviting Pastor Rick Warren to pray at his inauguration hasn't endeared him to a core constituency and now Time Magazine has joined in the bash fest. Its Web site carries the piece, "The Problem for Gays with Rick Warren — and Obama." Authored by John Cloud, the article…

**VIDEO below fold** CNN has a segment that they call "CNN Student News" that is supposed to highlight the news of the day for the kiddie set. Pursuant to that, in a December 15 segment, CNN floats a question asking if Michelle Obama (or any First Lady) should get a government salary just for being First Lady? But, what we really ended up with is a slight to those same students to whom CNN was…

For the second time since Election Day, CNN's Campbell Brown admonished president-elect Barack Obama for his poor press conference etiquette.During the "Cutting Through the Bull" segment of Wednesday's "No Bias, No Bull," Brown expressed  anger with Obama's treatment of a Chicago Tribune reporter the previous day saying it's "all the more surprising that you could act testy, annoyed, or…