Politico's Hounshell: Are These 'Five Taliban Guys' 'Ninjas With Super

June 4th, 2014 5:19 PM
Politico Magazine Deputy Editor Blake Hounshell has made a fool of himself yet again. Three months ago, Hounshell grudgingly and bitterly had to acknowledge that former Alaska Governor and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was right — and he was wrong — when she predicted in 2008 that Barack Obama's weakness might cause Russia's Vladimir Putin to calculate that he could invade…

Politico Produces 5,900 Words on 'Less in Control' Obama; All Scandals

June 3rd, 2014 11:46 PM
For evidence that no one looking for objective reporting should seriously consider reading output from the Politico, look no further than the 5,900-word puff piece propagated by Carrie Budoff Brown and Jennifer Epstein on Sunday. Their "Special Report: The Obama Paradox" told readers what that President Obama supposedly "recognizes that he is less in control of the Washington agenda than ever…

AP Memory-Holes How Troops Met Hagel 'With Silence,’ Possibly Due to

June 3rd, 2014 4:36 PM
Establishment press outfits have an annoying and in my view fundamentally deceptive tendency to make the content of news reports disappear once they have been "updated" with new information. The Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, is one of this technique's most egregious practitioners. There's really no good reason for this practice. Storage is cheap. But far more important, so…

Agenda-Driven Much? CNBC's Dan Mangan, on Kaiser Poll: 'Shut Up About

May 30th, 2014 11:08 PM
In a report at CNBC on Thursday, Dan Mangan covered a "Kaiser Health Tracking Poll" which appears to have been pre-cooked for an administration which would love to have the press give Obamacare even less than the disproportionately low coverage that it has received since a few weeks after HealthCare.gov's diastrous initial rollout. Mangan eagerly took the bait. His opening sentence: "And the…

Low-Info Voter Outreach: USAT Tweets and Makes Excuse For GDP Contract

May 30th, 2014 10:17 AM
In an apparent attempt to reach those who usually don't pay much attention to the economy, USA Today sent out a tweet Thursday afternoon in the wake of the government's report earlier in the day that the U.S. economy contracted by an annualized 1.0 percent — on its weather feed. The tweet (HT Zero Hedge), plus evidence that the economy has somehow managed to "weather" previous cold and stormy…

Nancy Pelosi: VA Wait List Manipulation Isn't a 'Scandal With Intentio

May 29th, 2014 11:59 PM
Imagine the press letting a Republican or conservative get away with trying to avoid uncondtionally calling something as infuriating and outrageous as the Veterans Administration waiting list scandal a real scandal. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did that on Monday (HT Patterico and Real Clear Politics) in an interview with Vox's Ezra Klein, who naturally let it slide right on by:

LAT Reports (Now Corrected) That Plame Was Exposed by Libby, But Still

May 28th, 2014 7:36 PM
Monday afternoon, in an error which made it into the paper's Tuesday print edition, reporter Paul Richter at the Los Angeles Times, in a story on the Obama administration's inadvertent leak of a CIA director's name in Afghanistan, was apparently so bound and determined to include a "Bush did it too" comparison that he went with leftist folklore instead of actual history. Specifically, Richter…

FT's Giles Finds Piketty's 'Wealth Inequality' Work Riddled With 'Data

May 23rd, 2014 6:57 PM
French economist Thomas Piketty has become a darling of the left for allegedly "proving" that, as paraphrased by Chris Giles at the Financial Times, "wealth inequalities are heading back up to levels last seen before the first world war." The Media Research Center's Julia Seymour has described Piketty as a "'rock star' of the far-left," an accurate assessment given praises heaped upon his book…

In a Month, TV News Gives Less Airtime to VA Scandal Than Christie Con

May 22nd, 2014 4:22 PM
In nearly four and a half weeks, the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows have offered 110 minutes to an evolving Obama administration scandal involving secret lists designed to keep veterans from receiving proper medical treatment. Back in January, it took those same network shows just four and a half days to churn that much coverage for Chris Christie's Bridgegate.  Since the VA…

At AP, Wis. Dem's Plan to Pass Out Klan Hoods at GOP Gathering Was a

May 11th, 2014 8:48 AM
While I was aware that a fever-swamp Democrat in Wisconsin was planning to pass out Ku Klux Klan hoods at some kind of Wisconsin Republican gathering, I had no idea until this morning that the Associated Press actually considered it a national story back on May 1. It was really even more than a national story at the self-described "essential global news network." It was so vital that the nation…

Bitter AP Focuses On Politics and Not Free-Speech Import of Wis. 'John

May 7th, 2014 3:07 PM
In his "analysis" on Tuesday's U.S. District Court ruling which called a halt to "a secret investigation into his 2012 recall campaign and conservative groups that supported" Scott Walker, Wisconsin's Republican Governor, Scott Bauer at the Associated Press basically gave away what the prosecution's agenda really has been all about. It really hasn't been about cleaning up political campaigns…

Politico Mag Natl. Editor Frets Benghazi 'Pseudo-Scandal' May Keep Hil

May 5th, 2014 1:12 PM
Michael Hirsh is the recently named National Editor at Politico Magazine, an effort which turning is out to be to the left of the crumbling Time Magazine and the for-now defunct Newsweek. One of Hirsh's career lowlights — he probably thinks it's a highlight — is his December 2008 contention that President George W. Bush having a shoe thrown at him in Iraq "was somehow appropriate." Lest there…

Hours Before John Paul II's Canonization, Networks Hype Priest Sex Abu

April 28th, 2014 7:57 PM
ABC, CBS, and NBC spotlighted the issue of child sex abuse by priests on their Saturday morning and evening newscasts – twenty-four hours or less before the Catholic Church canonized Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. CBS and NBC both uncritically turned to the president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), but didn't mention her controversial affiliations with prominent anti…

Nutritionist Goes After Bubba Watson For Celebrating Masters Win at Wa

April 15th, 2014 9:27 PM
After his Masters victory, pro golfer Bubba Watson celebrated with his family at a Waffle House. Pictures tweeted from there went viral. Waffle House appreciated the appreciation. What's not to like about this great story? Apparently some self-appointed nanny state-loving guardians of nutrition like Katherine Tallmadge believe that Watson set a bad example for Americans by eating there. Oh,…