Business Coverage

Recent videos from two investigative reporters, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, with the help of Andrew Breitbart, showed that community-group ACORN engaging in scandalous practices. But MSNBC host Rachel Maddow argued Sept. 24 that wasn't the story that mattered.  ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, was hit hard by the videos showing employees giving tax avoidance…

As far as the establishment media is concerned, the Cash For Clunkers program Uncle Sam conducted in July and August was a smashing (excuse the term) success. That's the case, despite the deliberate destruction of hundreds of thousands of perfectly usable vehicles, late payments to dealers (the USDOT is finally catching up), the program's failure to give much relief to government bailout…

Thanks to info "steveegg" at No Runny Eggs linked me to earlier today, I had to add the word "Annual" before "Cash Flow" at this post (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) that originally appeared Wednesday. That's because the system is already running monthly deficits, and significant ones. Back in February, the system also ran a deficit. It was bad news, but because February is an unusual month…

Millionaire Michael Moore says capitalism is evil and that the entire system should be thrown out for one that is "democratic" and "fair." That's the overarching message of Moore's new documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story," which will be widely released Oct. 2. The film won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival and was lauded by critics there and at the Toronto Film Festival. Now Moore is…

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. That's how American business could describe media coverage of their efforts, or alleged lack thereof, to "go green."Witness Newsweek's Weston Kosova gripe about businesses that couch cost-curbing measures as "green" or Earth-friendly. In his September 21 "Web exclusive," Kosova slams the hotel industry for dishonesty for encouraging some conservationist…

Last Wednesday, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, in the wake of James O'Keefe's and Hannah Giles's embarrassing video barrage, went into damage control mode: As a result of the indefensible action of a handful of our employees, I am, in consultation with ACORN’s Executive Committee, immediately ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN’s service programs until completion of an independent review. I…

ABC's "World News" is supposed to be above the fray, right? According to "World News" executive Jon Banner, his program didn't jump into covering the recent ACORN scandal because it is "not in the business of noise." And yet on Sept. 20, ABC compromised the quiet dignity of "World News" by discussing health care reform with Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi, a man that claims Goldman…

Earlier today I blogged about how a Baltimore Sun environment blog is urging readers to confess their most mortal "eco sin." Not to be outdone in the pious-sounding eco-rhetoric, the San Francisco Chronicle's Thin Green Line blog today warns tech geeks and video game aficionados against the original sin of technological advance:Technology, at times, offers a magic key into the environmental…

Michael Moore, the man of many hats - documentary filmmaker, political scientist and now, singer. Moore has been making the rounds to promote his new movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story." On NBC's Sept. 15 "Jay Leno Show," Moore appeared and was asked what was wrong with capitalism. "Capitalism is actually legalized greed," Moore said. "There's nothing wrong with people earning money, starting a…

So what if his network is drawing a larger audience than its combined competition? So what if one of his newest shows has drawn unprecedented numbers for a start-up that airs at 5 p.m.? According to Newsweek's Howard Fineman, Fox News President Roger Ailes is tarnishing his own personal reputation. It could just be sour grapes for Fineman, who is affiliated with rival network MSNBC and was…

This is a notion that hasn't really gotten any traction anywhere yet, but could Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. be a viable 2012 presidential election candidate?  The hosts of Fox Business Network's "Happy Hour," Eric Bolling, Rebecca Diamond and Cody Willard, contemplated that possibility on their Sept. 14 show, which comes on the eve of a vote on a "resolution of disapproval" on Wilson for calling out…

You might have figured this was coming, that when dust settled from the Sept. 12 march on Washington, D.C., the brain trust at MSNBC would attempt to frame it as negatively as possible. And MSNBC's resident left-wing curmudgeon-in-training David Shuster didn't disappoint. The former host of the canceled "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" took a report from the Huffington Post debunking attendance…

If your blood pressure can stand it, you can learn a lot about how the Apparatachik Press -- er, the Associated Press -- operates as you watch a news story evolve, or I should say devolve. The wire service often reworks adequately-written stories with no new developments for no apparent reason other than to add bias and/or remove inconvenient truths. A classic example of this occurred in the…

If you rely only on the three major broadcast networks or one of the top major national papers as your news sources, the name "Van Jones" might prompt you to say,"Who?" But, while the media had difficulty reporting on Van Jones the embattled member of the Obama Administration, it had no such trouble covering Van Jones the anti-Iraq War protestor. Jones, who was President Barack Obama's so-…