USA Today

I could not leave this untouched. Joan Biskupic, the same Supreme Court reporter I accused of sounding like a John McCain press flack, has given us a gem of a skewed report on a 5-4 decision today about the use of race as a factor in managing public school registration.Let's walk through it shall we? When reporting on a key Supreme Court ruling, it's kind of nice to give readers a glance of the…

As a follow-up to my previous post, I thought I'd take a look at the inane headlines for coverage of the 5-4 ruling today that restricts school districts from using race to manage school populations. Time and the Los Angeles Times are real howlers:High Court rejects public school diversity plan (AP via Chicago Sun-Times)Supreme Court rejects public school diversity plans (USA Today)Supreme Court…

Here's how USA Today's Joan Biskupic started her June 25 article on the Supreme Court's ruling in FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, the case in which the Court struck down a televised ad ban in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. (emphasis mine)WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday opened the door to corporate and union financing of broadcast ads subtly attacking candidates for federal…

Finally, a review of Michael Moore's “Sicko” that addressed the problems with his Seigfried & Roy style of filming and his one-sided view of health care systems. USA Today's review, by Richard Wolf, did not ignore the problems with US health care, but it put “Sicko's” view into perspective and notes the tricks and gimmicks he used to frame an image of a health care system that is worse than…

When it was announced Tuesday that China surpassed the United States as the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide, NewsBusters asked, “Will Media Notice?”In reality, the answer is a mixed windbag, with most press outlets totally ignoring the revelation, and a few actually blaming the problem on – wait for it! – the United States. I kid you not.However, before we address that stupidity, it…

In a Q & A with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper published Monday, USA Today founder Al Neuharth described Rush Limbaugh's radio show as “one of the funniest programs on the air” and asserted: “I don't become offended by the idiotic things he says; I become amused by them.” Neuharth, however, conceded Limbaugh is entitled to his supposed idiocy: “I also think that from my…

On Saturday, NewsBusters asked two important questions: “Will Media Report Palestinians Fleeing Gaza For Israel,” and will they address the theft of Yasser Arafat’s Nobel Peace Prize by Hamas looters? At this point, the answer to the latter is a resounding “No.” The answer to the former is “Not much.”To be more specific, extensive searches of Google News and LexisNexis have identified that no…

On Thursday, a NewsBusters headline asked “G-8 Statement Regarding Climate Change: Will Media Use It to Bash Bush?”The answer: Most definitely.From print to television, the formal declaration published by the group of eight most developed nations emanating from their summit in Germany was depicted as a winner for the host country’s chancellor Angela Merkel, while George W. Bush was the big meanie…

You know, it seems pretty cut-and-dried to me. Stuffing secret documents down your pants and removing them from a secure room in a federal facility, that constitutes stealing.USA Today's "On Deadline" blog isn't sure, though. (bold/italics are USA Today's):Sandy Berger, the national security adviser under former President Clinton, was disbarred yesterday in the District of Columbia.The…

Color me pleasantly surprised, given the media's past treatment of the issue. The June 7 Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today all gave prominent play to news of a stem cell breakthrough that may make moot the embryonic stem cell ethical dilemma.I don't have a hard copy of the LA Times, but I know the other papers featured the story on their front pages.Of course, it…

While the relatively narrow Dow Jones Industrial Average has been achieving alltime highs for a couple of months, it took until last week for the broader S&P 500 index to beat its previous record of 1527. The index closed at 1536.24 last week. Instead of writing up the big winners in the 77% of companies that have brought the index back from its 2000 low, USA Today writer Matt Krantz looked…