AP Takes Wildlife Federation's Walrus Claims at Face Value

October 5th, 2014 10:24 PM
At the end of each chorus in "I am the Walrus," the Beatles' 1967 song, John Lennon sings what is more likely than not a nonsense line: "Goo goo g'joob." Apparently, Margaret Williams, managing director of the World Wildlife Federation's Arctic program, interpreted that line as "cuckoo-ca-choo," and has gone cuckoo in talking about real walruses in the real world, blaming a large gathering of…

AP-GfK Poll Rates GOP Leaders in 'Congress,' But Not Dems in Senate

October 5th, 2014 7:10 PM
The polling partnership of the Associated Press and GfK Public Affairs & Corporate Communications conducted its final pre-early voting survey of the American electorate during the five days ended September 29. It would be pretty hard to argue against the idea that the polling effort searched for answers it could use, while avoiding getting — or at least publishing — answers it wouldn't like…

AP: 5.9 Percent Unemployed Almost 'Consistent With a Healthy Economy'

October 4th, 2014 7:04 PM
Yesterday's news that the economy added 248,000 payroll jobs, while the official unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent, generated the expected hosannahs from much of the establishment press. One utterly predictable such writeup came from the Associated Press. The headline at Christopher Rugaber's report, "SURGE OF HIRING CUTS US JOBLESS RATE TO 5.9 PCT," utterly ignored the fact that much of…

AP Seems to Think 28 Days of Early Voting Not Good Enough

September 29th, 2014 9:41 PM
Early voting in Ohio was supposed to start tomorrow, a full 35 days before Election Day. But today, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 majority allowed the state to carry out voting law as passed by the legislature instead of what a group of misnamed "civil rights" groups wanted. The final paragraph of Ann Sanner's Associated Press coverage of the ruling illustrated how absurd this controversy has…

Vote Fraud Arrest: AP Relays Conn. Claim It Shows System's 'Strength'

September 29th, 2014 3:07 PM
Democratic State Representative Christina Ayala has been arrested and charged with 19 felony charges of voter fraud. Eight of the counts are for fraudulent voting. Other Ayala family members are under investigation, and criminal charges have been recommended but not made against one of them. The press is letting Connecticut's Secretary of State claim that the Ayala prosecution proves that the…

Des Moines Register Pushes 'No WMD' Lie in Covering Iowa Senate Race

September 29th, 2014 1:45 PM
According to a poll which is described as the state's "gold standard," Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst now leads Bruce Braley, her Democratic Party opponent, in the Iowa U.S. Senate race for the seat being vacated by Democrat Tom Harkin. The Des Moines Register's "Iowa poll" has Ernst up by a six-point margin, 44% - 38%. That Ernst's lead isn't larger is apparently attributable to a…
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Megyn Kelly Provides Okla. Beheading Background the Press Ignores

September 28th, 2014 8:38 PM
The story of alleged Moore, Oklahoma murderer Alton Nolen, who reportedly beheaded co-worker Colleen Hufford, is fading from the headlines. Barring further developments, I don't expect it to be a news topic on any of the Big Three networks' morning or evening news shows tomorrow. That's because it has already disappeared from prominence at the Associated Press. At 10:20 this morning, the latest…

Press Using Older Photos of Alton Nolen Over Recent One in Muslim Garb

September 28th, 2014 9:41 AM
During the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman saga, the press was widely and deservedly criticized for repeatedly and almost exclusively using a photo of Martin as an innocent-looking 13 year-old over others more recently taken which were readily available. Perhaps they're at it again with alleged murderer Alton Nolen. On Saturday morning, the Associated Press described Nolen as having "beheaded a…

AP, MSNBC Trying to Downplay Terrorism in Reporting on Okla. Beheading

September 27th, 2014 9:31 AM
The establishment press, and now apparently the FBI, have a problem on their hands: an alleged killer who converted to Islam; expressed sentiments favored by terrorists; killed a woman by employing terrorists' favored method, i.e., beheading; shouted Islamic slogans while carrying out his evil deed; and was trying to kill someone else when another armed person shot and wounded him. Their problem…

HealthCare.gov Cost Surpasses the $2 Billion Mark; Press Mostly Yawns

September 26th, 2014 10:05 PM
It wasn't that long ago that Obamacare defenders were ridiculing those of us who pointed out that the fully loaded cost of HealthCare.gov would surely top the $1 billion mark. Well, we were wrong — to be so conservative. The real number is "about" $2.1 billion and counting, according to a Bloomberg report which is mostly being kept out of the non-business press.

AP WH Reporter Deletes Absurd Tweet Hyping Obama's Anti-ISIS Coalition

September 23rd, 2014 11:54 PM
Twitter users happening upon a Monday evening tweet by the Associated Press's Josh Lederman can be forgiven if they thought they were visiting a parody account. Lederman is a White House reporter for the AP. His LinkedIn profile indicates that his journalism career began about three years ago. His education, up to and including "a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s…

Exercise in Fantasy: AP's Ludicrous Story on Davis-Abbott Debate

September 23rd, 2014 9:18 PM
This morning (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis's awful performance in Friday's debate with Republican aspirant Greg Abbott was predictably ignored by the Politico, the New York Times, and the Associated Press's national site. The AP did have a story it apparently limited to distribution within Texas. As I also noted this morning,…
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NYT, Politico and AP's National Site Ignore Davis's Debate Meltdown

September 23rd, 2014 10:17 AM
The two major-party Texas gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Wendy Davis and Republican Greg Abbott, debated Friday night. I knew it didn't go well for Davis, once a national media darling, when I searched on "Wendy Davis Abbott debate" (not in quotes) and found no coverage of the event at the Associated Press's national web site, the New York Times and the Politico. Davis, trailing…

NYT, AP Ignore Socialists and Far-Leftists in NYC Climate March

September 21st, 2014 11:46 PM

At Tea Party and conservative events, the press routinely seeks out any shred of evidence of far-right extremism, racism or even uncivil behavior exhibited by attendees. If found, it then tries to portray even one or a few such people out of thousands as somehow typical. Rallies in support of liberals' pet causes get a completely different treatment. The press almost invariably ignores rampant…