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Eric Boehlert is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush (Free Press, 2006). He worked for five years as a senior writer for Salon.com, where he wrote extensively about media and politics. Prior to that, he worked as a contributing editor for Rolling Stone. Boehlert has a bachelor's degree in Near Eastern studies from the University of Massachusetts and is a Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 19, 2018 Even Trump lapdog Giuliani can't defend Trump's new ugly attack on Obama
Trump and Giuliani are committed to trying to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation by suggesting there was a rogue faction within the straight-laced FBI to derail both Trump's campaign and then his presidency. But no matter how many times Fox News repeats it, proponents have not presented any facts to support the wild claim.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 5, 2018 White House stunned as Giuliani racks up new possible felonies for Trump
It was a head-scratcher when Rudy Giuliani was announced as Trump's new top defense attorney just a few weeks ago, while the White House struggles to contain mounting legal woes. As a lawyer, Giuliani hadn't practiced inside a courtroom in nearly three decades, and his background was as a prosecutor, not a defense attorney. Turns out the skeptics were right.
SHARE Sunday, May 27, 2018 Trump loses it after "spy" briefing flops with both parties
He's desperately pushing the notion that there was "Deep State" plot to undo his campaign in 2016, and subsequently one to undo his presidency. Republicans still can't produce any evidence to support the wild and reckless claim. Nor can they explain how, if such a conspiracy to sink his campaign existed, he managed to win the election.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 1, 2018 In Rare Public Rebuke, FBI Humiliates Nunes For "Memo" Smear Campaign
Democrats, members of the intelligence community, and officials at the Justice Department and FBI have stressed that the smear memo, which is basically just partisan oppo research, does not provide an accurate description of how the FBI has functioned with regard to the Russia investigation.
(38 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 17, 2012 Struggling Clear Channel And Rush Limbaugh's $400 Million Payday
Whether Limbaugh's show is in the midst of the death throes, only time will tell. But one thing is clear, the radio industry has never seen anything like the sponsorship controversy surrounding Limbaugh's once-untouchable program.
SHARE Friday, March 9, 2018 Trump's trade war backfires as red states defy him
Rushing in to try to stop Trump as he blindly readies his plan to impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, angry Republican politicians, especially red state representatives, are getting an up-close look at what it's like dealing with an erratic, illogical president.
(15 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 28, 2012 How Fox News Is Destroying The Republican Party
Wannabe kingmaker Roger Ailes is facing an open revolt.
More and more despondent conservatives are expressing alarm over the unfolding Republican primary season and what they see as the party's dwindling chances of defeating President Obama in November.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 8, 2015 Trump, the Press, And How to Treat a Liar
Journalists have not let Trump's lies go undetected. There has been aggressive fact-checking. But with his defining lying streak, Trump is trying to rewrite all the campaign rules and bowl over the media's watchdog role, which means polite fact-checking won't be enough. Where are the endless pieces looking into Trump's dark character and the search for clues as to what drives him to be such a cavalier liar?
SHARE Thursday, February 2, 2012 Gingrich Assailed by Conservative Press; Conservatives Blame "Liberal Media"
Spooked by the prospect of a Gingrich nominee, key members of the so-called Republican Establishment orchestrated an attack campaign against the candidate. And where have most of those attacks being launched? In the conservative press.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, February 11, 2011 FOX NEWS INSIDER: "Stuff Is Just Made Up"
A former Fox News employee confirmed what critics have been saying for years about Murdoch's cable channel. Namely, that Fox News is run as a purely partisan operation, virtually every news story is actively spun by the staff, its primary goal is to prop up Republicans and knock down Democrats, and staffers at Fox News routinely operate without the slightest regard for fairness or fact checking.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 24, 2015 Clinton, Trump, And How The Pundit Class Misread 2015
Clinton's campaign was never in the dire state that the press claimed it was. And Trump, it turns out, appears to be a perfect messenger for today's increasingly radical and intolerant Republican Party. He's the Fox News id, which is why he's winning over the demagoguery wing of the GOP.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 2, 2018 Trump team might have obstructed justice even more with latest leak
There's a growing consensus that it was Trump's side that leaked the questions. They may have done it to try to create an image of an investigation that was out of control, allowing Trump to rail against it -- which of course he did.
Or it may have been leaked to send a public signal to Trump that the investigation is deadly serious and that he faces enormous legal peril if he agrees to sit down with Mueller.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 10, 2012 The Self-Destruction Of Limbaugh, Murdoch and Beck
Led by the likes of Limbaugh, Murdoch and Beck, the conservative press has adopted a strange brand of radicalism that embraces falsehoods, smears and even law breaking, all of which places their practice well outside the mainstream culture.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 7, 2018 GOP senators demand prosecution of spy who uncovered Trump's dirty Russia past
Between the new tell-all book where Trump aides depict the president as a childish fool completely incapable of fulfilling his duties, to stunning revelations about how Trump tried to force the United States attorney general to protect him from prosecutors, the Republican Party appears to be in panic mode.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 20, 2010 The Truth About Glenn Beck's TV Ratings
Beck has basically lost all the new viewers he picked up over the last twelve months (blame in on the Massa Moment?), which is why in May of 2010, he's pretty much back where he started in May of 2009. After twelve months of hype, Beck has not significantly grown his TV audience.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 28, 2018 GOP Blocks Investigation Of Chaplain's Firing By Ryan
Last November, when the House was voting on a GOP tax giveaway to billionaires and corporations, Conroy reportedly triggered Republican ire when he urged compassion. Conroy officially exits next month. He has served in the post since 2011 when former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner nominated him.
SHARE Tuesday, December 10, 2019 CNN has yet another GOP problem
CNN should welcome conservatives onto their televised debates and discussions. But they shouldn't make exceptions for conservatives who are unqualified for the job.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, December 29, 2017 Trump's New Record: White House Aides Jump Ship At Twice The Rate Of Any Prior President
In its first year, Donald Trump's White House has obliterated the modern day pace for top aides jumping ship and leaving the administration. The running for the exits unfolds while Trump struggles to post any kind of legislative accomplishments in 2017. In fact, this year, Trump also established a record for legislative impotence.
SHARE Saturday, May 12, 2018 Giuliani willing to trade public humiliation for more TV time
Giuliani was actually hired by Trump to handle negotiations with special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the need for a sit-down interview between Trump and investigators. That was before Giuliani became completely entangled in the hush money story.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, August 26, 2019 "The chosen one": Now more than ever, the press needs to address Trump's manic instability
Trump referred to himself as "the chosen one." He quoted a rabid conspiracy theorist who declared that Israeli Jews love Trump as if he were the "King of Israel" and "the second coming of God," while Trump himself accused American Jews of "great disloyalty" if they voted for Democrats. He attacked the prime minister of Denmark ("nasty") because she will not sell him Greenland and she mocked the very idea as "absurd.
SHARE Wednesday, November 20, 2019 Roger Stone and the media's shame of 2016
A federal court convicted former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone on seven counts, including obstruction of a proceeding, false statements, and witness tampering only added to Trump's woes as the second day of impeachment hearings played out in Washington.
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 31, 2010 What if Fox News actually wants mob violence?
Speaking out of both sides of their mouths with astonishing ease, conservatives denounced liberals who protested Coulter's appearance in Canada, and then played defense on behalf of marauding right-wing radicals who unleashed death threats, threw bricks through office windows, and hurled epithets at politicians.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 2, 2010 Breitbart confirms he was duped by O'Keefe and the ACORN pimp hoax
The pimp hoax is not some footnote that can just be dismissed. The glaring blunder goes to the heart of Breitbart's credibility as a wannabe journalist. The lie was absolutely central to the rollout of last year's ACORN attack campaign.
SHARE Tuesday, June 4, 2019 Here we go again: The campaign press is obsessing over white working-class Trump voters
There's the collection of blue-collar Trump supporters; the interviews conducted inside roadside diners and saloons; and the plainspoken oaths of loyalty offered up to the president. The trusty props are all being dusted off for the 2020 campaign season, as journalists document Trump's "tight bond" with Midwestern working-class voters.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 29, 2019 Why is Facebook trying to re-elect Trump?
Social media and tech giants are doing exactly what traditional media companies did when they faced bogus cries of "bias" from the right-wing swamp: They're running around trying to curry favor with conservatives, desperately trying to explain that they're not really anti-GOP. In the process, they're clearing the field for Trump's re-election campaign to lie its way back into office.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 22, 2014 Ted Nugent and How the Conservative Press Can't Hide Its Hate Streak
Increasingly reliant on bad fringe actors like Nugent to connect with their far, far-right audience, the conservative media have built up Obama-bashing personalities who no longer occupy any corner of the American mainstream. Yet Nugent enjoys deep ties with Republican campaigns all across the country. When those ties receive media scrutiny, they cannot be defended.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, August 16, 2019 The media's obsession with Democratic "gaffes" in the age of Trump insanity
The media's Biden gaffe obsession really seems out of whack, given that it's unfolding against the backdrop of the presidency of Donald Trump, whose entire political career can accurately be described as a verbal gaffe. Famous for being a habitual liar, as well as boasting garbled and often impossible-to-follow syntax that leaves people scratching their heads trying to make sense of his pronouncements.
SHARE Tuesday, August 20, 2019 What Bernie Sanders gets right with his critique of the corporate media
CNN labeled Sanders' recent critique a "dangerous" Trump-like attack on the "free press." A.) That's patently absurd, and B.) That kind of exaggerated rhetoric simply proves Sanders' point about the corporate media and the collective lens it uses.
SHARE Thursday, October 10, 2019 How canceling White House press briefings is now helping Trump fight impeachment
The Trump defense is built on lies, debunked conspiracies, and, perhaps most oddly, public admissions of guilt. In this scenario, the last thing the White House wants is to face a series of detailed questions from seasoned (and skeptical) reporters.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, October 21, 2019 Of course Trump should be kicked off Twitter
The Trump Twitter conundrum gains added importance as the 2020 election season approaches. Trump no doubt will use the social media platform and his nearly 70 million followers to spread endless lies about Democratic candidates (he's already done that to Joe Biden) while inciting fresh political violence, and do it all with the social media company's blessing.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 7, 2019 Confirmed: Trump lies to reporters more often than he lies to any other group
There's something deeply ironic and disturbing about the fact that Trump lies to reporters more than anyone else, yet they're the one group that won't accurately label him a liar. The truth is that the press has never figured out how to cover a president who's a pathological liar, and I suspect they never will.
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 1, 2020 2019, the year the press tried -- and failed -- to stand up to Trump
There continues to be a collective reluctance to grapple with today's difficult reality. Unfamiliar with covering authoritarian regimes or how to respond to them, many news outlets remain committed to treating Trump's spectacle as a reality TV show.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, March 10, 2017 Locked-Out Media Watch While Trump Administration Retreats Into Secrecy
Tillerson's plan to exclude the press from traveling with him overseas represents a stunning State Department policy reversal, while further cementing his image as a secretive cabinet figure who has had virtually no contact with journalists since being sworn in. That veil of secrecy has quickly emerged as the hallmark for this shadowy administration.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Stenography 101: How the press let Palin and Cheney rig the system
If Palin steadfastly refuses to engage with journalists and insists on hiding behind her Facebook page, there's simply no reason reporters should give online press releases from a failed VP candidate (and half-term governor) the slightest bit of attention.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 2, 2012 Birthers, Billionaires and Fox: The GOP Freak Show in Full Effect
With a new breed of conservative media outlets making their presence felt during the 2012 campaign season, the emerging general election is being waged by the right with an unmistakable stamp of irresponsibility and a complete lack of adult supervision. Each passing day draws new revelations and guffaws.
SHARE Saturday, May 26, 2018 Royal wedding minister leads protesters to the White House
After delivering a stirring sermon at last weekend's Royal Wedding in London that turned him into an international media star, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was back home in the United States on Thursday night -- leading a march to the gates outside the White House to protest "a dangerous crisis of moral and political leadership."
(20 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 10, 2015 How Do You Cover The Gun "Debate" When One Side Spouts Nonsense?
How does the press cover the unfolding Republican gun spectacle? And when do reporters and pundits step forward and point out that one side of the gun "debate" has not only lost touch with reality, but at times has lost touch with common decency? That query goes to the heart of informative political reporting.
SHARE Sunday, May 3, 2015 After Forming Clinton Cash "Exclusives," NY Times, Washington Post Fail To Report On Book's Errors
Hyped by its publisher -- the Rupert Murdoch-owned HarperCollins -- as being "meticulously researched and scrupulously sourced," Clinton Cash has instead turned out to be a mishmash of allegations glued together by innuendo and falsehoods. That, according to an array of news outlets that have documented the book's shortcomings.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 30, 2019 The final score as Sarah Sanders exits White House: Sanders, 1, the press: 0
White House reporters, who spent the previous year being lied to by Sanders and scolded by her in public for peddling "fake news," shamefully arranged to have drinks with her as part of a fond farewell. They lifted their glasses to a press secretary who hadn't held a White House press briefing in 100 days.
SHARE Friday, January 19, 2018 GOP plan to shut down government and blame Democrats backfires spectacularly
While Democrats oppose Trump and Republicans support him, independent voters are firmly in the Democratic camp regarding a shutdown: 46 percent would fault Republicans, compared to 25 percent who would blame Democrats. Just another week in the chaos presidency.
(6 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 30, 2016 Farewell To Fox News' Benghazi Hoax
Early indications are that the report, as expected, provides no major revelations. Already undercut by a report from Democratic members of the Benghazi committee that further debunked right-wing myths about the attack, the GOP's long-awaited Benghazi report is in danger of being met with collective shoulder shrugs.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, November 1, 2019 CNN's Sean Duffy problem is only going to get worse
CNN wants to position itself as occupying the center of American politics, which means CNN has to have lots of conservative voices to match the number of liberal voices, all so they can stage Both Sides debates. For decades, that has worked for the network. What no longer works is CNN hiring Trump sycophants like Duffy, because Trump sycophants like Duffy say crazy stuff nonstop.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 7, 2015 Murdoch Media Reach For '90s Playbook: Criminalize The Clintons (Evidence Optional)
A criminal probe sparked by Clinton Cash would be a dream come true for partisan media outlets. The Fox News-led posse is essentially demanding criminal investigations be launched in order to find the evidence first, and then proceed to political prosecutions. It's a bold attempt to criminalize politics.
SHARE Tuesday, June 26, 2012 Why Media's Health Care Reform Coverage Was Even Worse Than You Thought
The news coverage of the health-care debate provided by the "liberal media" represented a godsend to the Republican Party and the larger conservative movement. Coverage was stacked overwhelmingly in their favor in terms of the volume of GOP talking points stressed. The net results from the skewed coverage? Less than 20 percent of Americans say they have a clear understanding of what's actually in the health-care law.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 3, 2011 Ten Reasons Fox News Doesn't Really Care About The Egypt Story
Egypt is killing Fox News' mojo.Why? Fox News is a political organization. Under Obama, Fox News exists in order to attack Democrats and to try to destroy the Obama presidency, while at the same time boosting Republicans. Period.
(17 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 14, 2019 Dangerous liaisons: Fox News teams up with Russian agents to undermine democracy
With the revelation this week that Fox News helped Russian intelligence agents spread the vulgar conspiracy theory about Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich's murder in 2016, we have entered a dark and dangerous place. We're at the point where a major American cable news channel teamed up with forces from a foreign adversary in order to damage a major political party in this country.
SHARE Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Fox News, health care, and the right-wing nervous breakdown
Listening to Limbaugh, they thought they were dictating the agenda. Watching Fox News, they though they reflected the mainstream. And reading right-wing blogs, they thought they had killed health care reform. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. It was the sudden and rude realization that, instead, they'd spent the past few months trapped inside an echo chamber,
SHARE Wednesday, September 11, 2019 Media coverage of Trump rallies is completely broken
The good news is cable news channels, even including Fox News, no longer treat Donald Trump rallies as must-air events. The bad news is that news outlets still cover the redundant, news-free rallies religiously and in the process help spread unchecked Trump lies.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, November 9, 2018 Arizona GOP Sues To Prevent Full Vote Count In Senate Race
Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Rep. Martha McSally remain separated by less than 20,000 votes, in a race where more than 600,000 ballots remain uncounted and nearly two million people voted. Yet Republicans, always eager to suppress Democratic votes, are demanding that an entire category of mailed-in ballots be set aside.
SHARE Thursday, July 19, 2018 GOP congressman in even deeper trouble now for ignoring sexual abuse
In recent weeks, nine former OSU wrestlers have come forward to allege that when Jordan worked as their wrestling coach, he knew that students were being sexually abused by the team doctor -- yet stood by and did nothing. Jordan is mentioned several times in the lawsuit as an example of an OSU official who turned a blind eye to the abuse.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 20, 2016 With Trump-Breitbart Alliance, The Right-Wing Media's Civil War Just Got A Whole Lot Worse
A growing list of horrified conservative commentators have watched Donald Trump swallow the Republican Party this year, convinced he's dooming the GOP with a major November loss. One of their key complaints has been that the erstwhile candidate has embraced dark elements of the far-right media; that Trump is just recycling irresponsible nonsense pushed by sites that are blindly loyal to him, like Breitbart News.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 19, 2014 Ferguson Protests And Fox News' Contempt For Free Speech
Conservative commentators have a long history of condemning, as vile and un-American, citizens who protest on behalf of their causes, whether it's racial injustice, income equality, collective bargaining rights, or raising the minimum wage. The spotlight on Ferguson and its supposed "lynch mob" represents just the latest example of those sweeping condemnations and attacks on civil discourse.
(15 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 6, 2013 How "Liberal Media" Keep Blaming Obama for GOP's Radical Behavior
For four years this nonsensical narrative about how it's up to Obama to change the GOP's conduct has been promoted and celebrated inside Beltway newsrooms. And now all the savvy pundits agree: Republicans' obstinate ways created the sequestration showdown, so that means it's Obama's fault. By failing to lead, by failing to change Republican behavior, Obama must shoulder the blame.
SHARE Sunday, June 16, 2019 Four years ago today Trump launched his campaign. Media still hasn't figured out how to cover him
The campaign press simultaneously showered Trump with nonstop attention, while making sure to give him a pass on policy. Trump's announcement speech on June 16 was just the first of endless campaign addresses he gave that were carried live and in their entirety -- while speeches made by Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were virtually ignored by cable news.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, October 7, 2016 The Media And Clinton's Invisible Supporters
As the presidential campaign heads toward its final month and Hillary Clinton stands poised to become the first woman president in American history, the press continues to be strangely obsessed with profiling the supporters of the losing candidate, while often gazing uninterestedly at Clinton voters.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 6, 2018 Supreme Court Rejects GOP Gerrymandering, Boosting Democrats' Midterm Chances
Democrats in Pennsylvania got more good news ahead of the midterm elections on Monday, when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the state Supreme Court's recent ruling that Pennsylvania's congressional districts must be immediately redrawn in a fairer manner. Pennsylvania is shaping up to be among the key battleground states as Republicans desperately try to hang onto their majority in the House.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 21, 2016 Ditch The Trump Double Standard For The Debates
We're hearing rumblings that Clinton has more to lose at the debate, and that if Trump manages to not insult large portions of the electorate, the event will represent a victory for him. What's doubly concerning is that Trump already appears to be actively trying to intimidate the debate moderators in hopes they'll go easy on him.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 31, 2019 Why the D.C. press isn't equipped to handle Trump's racist re-election crusade
Doubling and tripling down on his bigoted commentary and racist tweets, Donald Trump is all but boasting that his re-election run will be fueled by hate speech and hardcore white grievance. Trump's re-election strategy is to basically spark a rhetorical race war. It would be nice if the news media had the courage to say so, but it's clear that today's overwhelmingly white political press corps is not up to the challenge.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 9, 2012 The Media Myth Surrounding Obama's Negative Campaign
The topic of Obama's supposedly negative campaign has become something of a media obsession, while at the same time the press has shown very little interest in detailing how the Romney campaign is running almost an entirely anti-Obama sales pitch to American voters.
(6 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 13, 2016 Here We Go Again: Media Say Clinton's Winning, But Not Winning The Right Way
Clinton's alternately portrayed as boring and uninspiring, overly aggressive and widely disliked, or sleepwalking through history like a modern day Chauncey the Gardener. Why is Clinton lucky? Because the uninspiring candidate is allegedly so disliked by voters who view her with simmering contempt that there's no way she could beat any other Republican candidate.
(9 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 23, 2015 How the Press Missed the Trump Surge
The idea that Trump's appeal isn't genuine or that the press has lured Republicans into supporting him is likely more comforting than acknowledging the truth: Trump, an ignorant, nativist birther, is appealing to an often-ugly streak within the conservative movement. He's winning over the illogical, demagoguery wing of the Republican Party.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, July 13, 2018 French president debunks Trump's latest whopper about NATO allies
Trump has long insisted that all NATO states should be spending 2 percent of their GDP now, not in 2024 as was agreed -- and that anything less means they are "delinquent" on an imaginary debt. Trump is lying about how NATO defense spending works, and he's lying about what our allies are doing in response to his threats.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, January 27, 2017 Trump's Deep Character Flaws Will Define His Presidency; Media Should Focus Attention There
Journalists are accustomed to dissecting political lies in the context of, "What's the motivation behind the lie?" And, "What's the political advantage of telling that lie?" But that linear approach doesn't always apply to Trump. There's no indication he plots out the falsehoods or even cares if he gets caught. Lying is who he is. He cannot not tell lies.
SHARE Tuesday, January 6, 2015 The Gruesome U.S. Beheadings Fox News Ignored
Fox News ignored the Florida scene of grisly, domestic violence. Apparently, without a Muslim suspect under arrest for the beheading, Fox News wasn't interested. However, in late September 2014, Fox News became almost singularly obsessed with the gruesome work-place beheading in Moore, Oklahoma by a recent Muslim convert, Alton Nolen.
SHARE Wednesday, August 3, 2016 Why Reports About Rush Limbaugh's Contract Renewal Don't Mention The Price
In key major markets such as Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis, Limbaugh has been demoted on the AM dial, onto often struggling, under-performing stations -- the type of affiliates that Limbaugh was rarely associated with during his glory days as the king of talk radio. The Buffalo station, like so many other Limbaugh affiliates, was having trouble selling ads on the program.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, June 22, 2012 From "Racist," To "Dick," To Heckling: How The Press Treats Obama
The GOP Noise Machine has for years depicted Obama as a lowly, un-American dictator/criminal; as someone unworthy of respect, which is exactly how Munro treated him. The only difference was that instead of doing that in the hothouse confines of Daily Caller's website where openly hating Obama in the expected norm, Munro lashed out in a very public setting.
SHARE Wednesday, April 6, 2011 Local Media Covered Monday Union Rallies; National Media Not So Much
In terms of the news pages for national newspapers, USA Today and the Washington Post ignored the King-inspired rallies, according to a Nexis search. The Wall Street Journal's print edition today also contained no mention, while the New York Times devoted 400 words to the union story. But the Beltway press showered attention on last week's Tea Party event that drew "dozens" of supporters to Washington, D.C.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 9, 2010 The Pentagon shooter, insurrectionism, and right-wing bloggers
what the GOP Noise Machine is doing today is embracing, and mainstreaming, the same kind of hate rhetoric and doomsday conspiratorial talk that flourished on the far-right fringes during the '90s. (Think Waco and black helicopters.) And legitimizing that kind of talk is dangerous.
SHARE Thursday, September 8, 2016 Still Waiting For Newspaper Editorials Demanding The Trump Foundation Be Shut Down
The Clinton Foundation's sterling reputation has now been tarnished, in part because the press has decided to go all in with the GOP's smear campaign against the charity. But when the Trump Foundation is found to have illegally donated to a state attorney general who was contemplating fraud charges against a Trump company? Suddenly the referees on newspaper editorial boards fall silent.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, July 2, 2018 Trump is about to drive America's largest nail maker out of business
Harley-Davidson, facing retaliatory tariffs from Europe, announced on Monday that it will be sending U.S. jobs overseas because of the huge hit it's taking, thanks to Trump. According to Harley-Davidson, the tariffs would cost the company an additional $2,200 for each motorcycle it built in the U.S. and then exported to Europe.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 6, 2013 For Rush Limbaugh, The Damage Is Done
Of course, Limbaugh and Clear Channel could hold their ground, refuse to budge on Cumulus' demands and walk away from the radio giant with AM stations from coast to coast. That is an option, but it's also an unpleasant one in terms of what it would mean to Limbaugh's once unvarnished reputation as the AM talk gold standard.
SHARE Saturday, July 16, 2016 Fox News Attacks Black Lives Matter As "Lawless" After Cheering Cliven Bundy's Lawless Militia
In the wake of protests across the country by Black Lives Matter activists following the deaths of two African-American men at the hands of police, Fox has spent days loudly denouncing the group for its allegedly violent ways. Under the headline, "Time to end Black Lives Matter lawlessness," Fox's Todd Starnes recently insisted "the rules of law matters, folks. Without it, we've got anarchy."
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 1, 2017 The Press Shouldn't Believe Anything The White House Tells Them -- Ever
If newsrooms understand that falsehoods are the currency that Trump and his White House aides trade in each day, then reporters should stop treating unconfirmed claims from the White House as fact. Even when the supposed facts revolve around everyday matters like diplomatic phone calls.
SHARE Sunday, April 21, 2013 Boston and the Right-Wing Media's Collapse
any in the far-right media worked to set news standards in mindless, awful behavior in the wake of the Boston attack. Faced with covering the most important American terror news story in a decade, too many players opted to just make stuff up. Prompting witch hunts, they cast innocents as would-be killers and then couldn't be bothered with apologies.
SHARE Saturday, December 3, 2016 Fox News Cheers Trump Over 1,000 Carrier Jobs; Denounced Obama For Saving 1.5 Million Auto Industry Jobs
People might forget, especially in light of the bailout's stunning success, but Obama's push to help the Detroit industry once served as a defining line of GOP attack. The bailout symbolized the dangers of Obama's alleged socialist/gangster leanings. the bailout that Obama championed saved more than one million jobs. If only Obama had saved 1,000 Carrier jobs instead.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 21, 2016 Ailes, Trump, And The Republican Reckoning
The mounting claims of sexual harassment provided a new opening for the Murdoch family to move in and finally root Ailes out of his corner office. As Republicans watch Trump unfold his bizarre and disjointed fall campaign, the one built by Ailes and Fox News, many must be wondering if it's not too late to stage their own coup.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 29, 2016 Trump Becomes Latest GOP Nominee To Get Lost Inside The Fox News Bubble
Of course, they loved Trump on Fox News, even after his debate loss. "A very good night for Donald Trump," announced Sean Hannity. And from news anchor Bret Baier: "I do think he gets credit for just being on the stage." They also tried to spin away his debate lies and conjure up reasons for his lopsided loss. The Republican Party now appears to be trapped in a Fox News cycle that chews up GOP nominees.
(14 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 26, 2010 FLASHBACK: When the New York Times ignored gaping holes in candidate Bush's war record
I'm having a tough time buying the Times' sudden devotion to the Blumenthal military topic, considering that during the 2000 presidential campaign, the same Times staff went out of its way not to report on the web of detailed allegations that Republican George Bush had failed to fulfill his military obligation while defending Texas air space as an Air National Guard pilot.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 1, 2016 The Press Concocted A Clinton Caricature, But That's Not Who Showed Up At The Debate
One of the reasons why presidential debates are so important: They force the campaign press to get off the national stage for 90 minutes and allow candidates to speak directly to viewers, without a heavy-handed media filter and without journalists trying to fit everything into preferred narratives.
SHARE Monday, December 26, 2016 The Year Fox News Flushed Roger Ailes And His Sexual Harassment Scandal Down The Memory Hole
Fox News simply flushed the Ailes scandal down the memory hole and promoted Ailes' longtime lieutenant Bill Shine. Clearly lessons have not been learned, and apparently being Fox News means never having to say you're sorry. Even when your founder and archetype spends 2016 exposing the channel as a haven for sexual harassment.
SHARE Sunday, July 11, 2010 Welcome to a long, hot summer of right-wing race baiting
What's new now is the jaw-dropping notion that Limbaugh's pushing about how Obama's policies, which the AM talker insists are ruining this country, can be explained by the president's burning desire to exact revenge on America for its historical sin of slavery and long-running discrimination against minorities.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, February 9, 2018 GOP faces challengers in 226 House seats while struggling to raise cash for midterms
The GOP is having trouble not only recruiting strong candidates in some districts, but recruiting sane candidates in some districts. In Illinois, an avowed Nazi and white supremacist stands poised to become a GOP congressional nominee simply because he's the only Republican willing to run. Election experts continue to see the pendulum swing toward Democrats. Election experts continue to see the pendulum swing toward Democrats
SHARE Saturday, September 3, 2016 How The Media's Obsession With "Optics" Is Ruining Campaign Journalism
Today, "optics" has become the go-to campaign theme for journalists who can't find evidence of Clinton malfeasance. That's not what campaign reporting is supposed to be, but the misleading craft is thriving. And in this election cycle, the flimsy, malleable standard only seems to apply to her.
SHARE Thursday, January 11, 2018 Trump threatens new law to stop people from making him look bad
Trump has a long history of threatening legal action, and specifically against media outlets, and then failing to follow through. He also loves to whine and pout about his press coverage and has previously threatened to look at libel laws.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 20, 2014 Network News' Shameful Decision To Snub Obama's Immigration Address
Some GOP lawmakers insisted Obama could face a flurry of legal action including impeachment proceedings, while others have urged the entire federal government be shut down if Obama goes through with his plan. Yet according to executives at ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, Obama's address isn't worth covering.
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 9, 2014 Obstruction, and How the Press Helped Punch the GOP's Midterm Ticket
Speaking truth to power and accurately portraying what has happened to American politics and noting without equivocation that the sabotage that has occurred is designed to ensure the federal government doesn't function as designed, and that it cannot efficiently address the problems of the nation. And this week, it all paid off for Republicans.
SHARE Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Post-Hutaree: How Glenn Beck and Fox News spread the militia message
For anyone who thought the dark, Waco-fueled chapter of domestic extremism in this country was behind us, the Hutaree arrests were a jarring reminder that, with the election of another Democratic president, the violent militia message is back. And it's stronger than ever.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, November 2, 2018 Pentagon Has No Plans To Send 15,000 Troops To Border
Trump initially ordered 5,200 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. Then out of the blue on Tuesday he nearly tripled that commitment to 15,000 troops. But over at the Defense Department, officials have no idea what he's talking about, raising doubts about whether Trump's latest claim has any basis in reality.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 19, 2016 As Trump Wages War On The Press, News Outlets Refuse To Fight Back
Trump has shifted his all-encompassing war on the media onto more dangerous terrain this month. Graduating from his previous claims that reporters are "disgusting" and "horrible people," Trump now insists they're all part of the "rigged" infrastructure this election cycle that's conspiring against the former beauty pageant owner.
SHARE Monday, November 11, 2013 How CBS Could Have Avoided The 60 Minutes Benghazi Fiasco
If Fager was so "proud" of CBS's work, why wasn't the veteran journalist willing to discuss the Benghazi issue with a reporter who can ask follow-up questions, rather than Fager issuing a one-way statement and dodging the details? That's not how a "proud" chairman deals with a newsroom crisis. That's how a nervous chairman deals with one.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 23, 2017 Trump Tries To Lead America Down A Fox News Rabbit Hole
Tumbling down a rabbit hole filled with baseless conspiracy theories -- and desperately trying to grab onto any stray root to bolster his case -- Trump has replaced rational discourse with debunked assertions. And he's trying to lead America into the same dark cavern of misinformation where facts are unknowable and the truth represents a constant mirage.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 18, 2011 Why Fox News Will Keep Bullying NPR
The brand of radical conservative who has NPR in their sights today is not the same type of conservative critic who tweaked the network's supposedly liberal bias in the past. This new brand of bully is borderline delusional about NPR and sees it as a genuine force of evil; a hub of sinister activity.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 21, 2019 After the Barr hoax, press has no reason to ever believe Trump team again
Barr's completely dishonest re-imagining of Mueller's sprawling investigation ought to signal a long overdue turning point for the press. This ought to be the moment when journalists acknowledge to themselves, and possibly to the public, that Donald Trump's radical administration is incapable of being honest, about anything, ever.
SHARE Saturday, March 18, 2017 Trump's Budget Is A Deeply Radical Scheme -- The Press Should Say So
Some of the coverage has been accompanied with a bit of a shoulder shrug because lots of journalists assume Trump's proposed budget can't pass through Congress. Therefore, the pitched eviscerations don't really matter because they won't be enacted. But they do matter and they shouldn't be soft peddled. They matter because the deeply destructive cuts represent who Trump is and what his spiteful agenda stands for.
(8 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 14, 2010 Press claims Chamber of Commerce story's too "convoluted." Like Whitewater wasn't?
The Time scribe downplayed allegations that the Chamber of Commerce is using foreign funds as part of its 2010 blitzkrieg to take down the Democratic Party in November. I'm still a bit shocked that a journalist would dismiss any news story based on the premise that it's "convoluted and far-fetched."
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Beck's incendiary angst is dangerously close to having a body count
It's impossible to argue that today's avalanche of insurrectionist rhetoric doesn't have a real world effect. Or that those on the fringes don't find comfort in seeing and hearing their worst fears legitimized on AM radio and Fox News.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 21, 2013 WMD Guilt? With Obamacare, The Press Keeps Trying To Minimize Iraq War
An American city drowned in slow motion following Hurricane Katrina? The United States launched a senseless, pre-emptive war that will drain the U.S. Treasury for decades to come? Well, Obama's Healthcare.gov website doesn't work very well! This is the mother lode of false equivalency. By suggesting the temporary health care woes are like Iraq, the press is doing its best to wash away the Iraq War stain.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 13, 2015 How Fox News and Donald Trump Ate the Republican Primary
Fox and Ailes have grabbed whatever they wanted as their own and the party has been powerless to stop them. Although there has been little indication the GOP ever wanted to interfere with Fox. Perhaps until now. Until Republicans realized Ailes wasn't creating a campaign masterpiece, he was creating a monster.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 8, 2019 New York Times gets caught peddling bogus GOP attack on Democratic candidate -- again
Despite all of that fact-checking and public debunking during the 2016 campaign, the Times couldn't find the time or space to inform its readers that the GOP book the paper wildly hyped turned out to be a dishonest, partisan hit job. Now here we are in 2019, and the Times is doing Schweizer's deceitful bidding once again.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 4, 2011 Is Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Going to Jail?
The crime of Roger Ailes, powerful chairman of Fox News is technically the same crime committed by Bill Clinton, for which he was impeached in 1997. It's "subordoning perjury", i.e., urging someone to lie under oath. No one is above the law, said Fox News at the time. And now?
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 8, 2018 Trump lawyer Giuliani is more unpopular than even Trump himself
This week, while speaking in Isreal, Giuliani warned that America's FBI and the Department of Justice are out to unlawfully "frame" an innocent Trump. He also claimed that prosecutor and investigators represent a "lynching mob." After he was roundly booed at Yankee Stadium, Giuliani insisted people only boo if "they love you."
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 11, 2017 Trump's TV Star Fades: He's No Longer A Ratings Magnet
In television-speak, viewer fatigue seems to have set in and the plot line already appears to be running thin. Keep in mind that Trump just made history by losing the popular vote tally by nearly 3 million votes and remains the least popular new president since modern-day polling was invented. There hasn't yet been a mass refusal to watch Trump in recent weeks, but the shoulder shrug does seem to be spreading.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 4, 2017 President-Elect Trump Is Historically Unpopular; His Press Coverage Should Reflect That
The political press continues to normalize President-elect Donald Trump's often radical behavior. From regurgitating his vague tweets as news while he refuses to grant press conferences, to shying away from calling the serial prevaricator a liar, journalists continue to play nice. He's a wildly unpopular political figure, yet the press continues to gloss over that fact while granting him soft coverage.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 22, 2018 GOP plots to kick failed Speaker Paul Ryan out of his job
Ryan's tenure has been marked by incompetence. Whereas then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was able to help President Barack Obama shepherd historic bills through Congress, such as Obamacare and the Recovery Act, which helped save the U.S. economy, Ryan has proven himself to be nearly completely ineffective, as Congress under Trump has ground to a halt, legislatively.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, May 6, 2016 Pundits' New Lament: Clinton Might Win, But She Won't Win The Right Way
This whole not-winning-the-right-way thing is quite odd, mainly because for decades campaign coverage in America has revolved around one thing: Winning. Media message to Hillary: Jump through these series of progressively smaller campaign hoops while we grade your leaps and bounds as being insufficient.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, September 11, 2015 Trump and How the Media's Birther Blind Spot Keeps Getting Bigger
Rather than having the release of Obama's birth certificate dissuade those on the far right about the birther issue, since 2011 the ranks of Republican birthers have swelled to huge proportions as the GOP base clings to the dark fantasy that Obama is an African-born impostor who's ineligible to be president or to command U.S. military forces.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 4, 2010 Andrew Breitbart's mainstream demise
The so-called "journalism" Breitbart and his bloggers produce is sloppy, unprofessional and unreliable, not to mention weirdly paranoid and more times than not just completely unhinged. And as ABC News discovered, Breitbart himself simply cannot be trusted.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 7, 2017 It's Time To Banish "Trump Says" Headlines; They Don't Work
How does the press treat a new president who is a habitual liar, the likes of which we've never seen in U.S. presidential politics? And, how does the press treat an incoming president whose primary form of communication is Twitter, which means he refuses to take most press questions or be held publicly accountable for his claims?
SHARE Friday, June 15, 2018 White House turns to job fair because no one wants to work for Trump
The flailing Trump White House, which has set modern-day records for departures and firings, is being forced to host job fairs because it's having so much trouble getting people to work for the administration. Working for Trump has simply become toxic for lots of Republicans.
SHARE Monday, May 6, 2019 Trump's cover-up is now in plain sight. Will the press say so?
The corruption and contempt for transparency is out in the open, with united Republicans flaunting their radical ways. This creates a whole new challenge for Beltway journalists, who for generations have been trained to uncover scandals and root out wrongdoing done in private. But how does a press corps deal with a Trump team that doesn't even bother to hide the ugly stuff?
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 17, 2010 The media myth of Obama's "falling poll numbers"
Adopting the polar opposite narrative from the Bush era when pundits and reporters seemed obsessed with trying to boost the president's standing, Beltway scribes today have made it plain that when it comes to Obama and polling, good news is no news.
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 24, 2013 The Bush Years And What A "Lapdog" Press Really Looked Like
During long stretches of his first term, Obama was hammered with "unrelentingly negative" press coverage. By contrast, the lapdog era of the Bush years represented nothing short of an institutional collapse of the American newsroom. And it was one that, given the media's integral role in helping to sell the Iraq War, did grave damage to our democracy.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 24, 2016 How Megyn Kelly's Softball Interview With Trump Signaled Fox News' Complete Surrender
Media observers have been lining up to describe just how awful and boring and disappointing Kelly's sit-down with Trump was, especially after she had made the media rounds promoting herself as a strong, independent journalist who wasn't going to be intimidated by Trump.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 9, 2016 Rush Limbaugh's GOP Primary Season From Hell
Limbaugh continues to fish around for a middle ground. The host seems anxious to defend Trump from attacks, but also wary of offending his legion of listeners, who see the front-runner as a fraud, and see Limbaugh as a hypocrite for playing nice with him.
SHARE Saturday, December 10, 2016 One Month Later, Press Failing Trump Transition Test
If journalists' game plan in dealing with Trump was wishing and hoping that he'd change, then they'd be doomed, and so would news consumers. One month after the election, the doomsday appears to be looming larger.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 21, 2018 Top US allies slam Trump for putting children in cages
This year has featured endless condemnations as Trump has not only shocked the world with his abusive campaign against families, but has needlessly picked fights with allies Canada, France, and the U.K. as he wages a reckless trade war. Trump is now doing his best to dismantle this American ideal.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 1, 2015 Former Conservative Hero Paul Ryan Now Fails The Right-Wing Media's Purity Test
Ryan's amazing free-fall from grace seems to be part of a larger race to the radical right, not only among powerful forces with the Republican Party, which now seem to be fundamentally opposed to governing and legislating, but also within key portions of the right-wing media.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 27, 2016 Study Confirms Network Evening Newscasts Have Abandoned Policy Coverage For 2016 Campaign
Since the beginning of 2016, ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News have devoted just 32 minutes to issues coverage. Part of the purpose of campaign coverage, including at the flagship network newscasts, is to help inform voters about key issues of public concern. It's troubling that the networks have decided this year to walk away from that responsibility.
SHARE Tuesday, February 28, 2017 Trump Has Declared War On The Press. Media Should Come To The Battlefield
The Trump team has repeatedly pushed the press around. (Banning outlets from the gaggle on Friday was just the latest and most high profile example.) And time and again, the Trump team has gotten away with it. The Trump White House bars CNN from a press "gaggle," so CNN punishes the White House by airing its press briefings live most days? With a payoff like that, why would the White House stop its destructive behavior?
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, May 18, 2012 Why Is Roger Ailes Lecturing College Students About Journalism?
Fox has every right to be in the partisan attack business. But for prestigious universities to usher Roger Ailes into their lectures halls under the guise of him being a news executive and letting him spin fantastic tales about how Fox is a fair and balanced news organization is a joke.
SHARE Thursday, November 11, 2010 Memo to media: There is no right-wing "smell test"
There is no right-wing smell test. It no longer exists. In fact, there appears to be no sense of smell at all, which is closely related to the right-wing media's lack of common sense and decency. Day in and day out the right-wing noise machine traffics in utter nonsense pretending they're connected with reality and breaking "news."
SHARE Friday, November 1, 2013 Called On To Explain Big Story, Media Botches Obamacare
The Beltway press rarely bothers to explain, let alone cover, public policy any more. With a media model that almost uniformly revolves around the political process of Washington (who's winning, who's losing?), journalists have distanced themselves from the grungy facts of governance, especially in terms of how government programs work and how they affect the citizenry.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 3, 2016 How Shoddy NY Times Journalism Has Already Marred Campaign Reporting
Rather than being heralded for its groundbreaking campaign work, the newspaper's editors and reporters spent an awful lot of time last year answering criticism about the paper's sloppy and erroneous coverage of Hillary Clinton, and specifically answering for why the Times newsroom and its opinion pages seemed obsessed with knocking down the Democratic frontrunner and getting key facts wrong in the process.
SHARE Tuesday, September 16, 2008 McCain and Palin are laughing at the press -- and it's the press' fault
The press throughout this race has walked away from any semblance of traditional standards, yet journalists seemed oblivious to the long-term implications of their chronic embrace of fluff.
Why their embrace? Because that's what the media feel most comfortable with; that's what they're good at.
But now we're seeing the dire consequences -- when the press wants to inform voters about outrageous campaign conduct...
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, May 9, 2014 From Vince Foster To Benghazi: How Fox News Has Mainstreamed The Fringe
Today's Fox News would have eagerly endorsed the sordid Foster affair, relentlessly demanding that "unanswered questions" be addressed and that sweeping investigations be launched. That in turn, would have forced Republicans into action, which would have sparked endless mainstream news coverage. Today the megaphone's much bigger, much louder, and in many ways much more dangerous.
SHARE Thursday, August 21, 2014 Obama, Race, And The Right-Wing Media's Heckler's Veto
It's fine for pundits to yearn for open dialogue and rhetorical leadership from the White House. It's less helpful for them to ignore the unpleasant realities of nasty partisan politics in the age of Obama. It does no good to pretend race baiting hasn't become a badge of honor and a professional path to success for lots of right-wing pundits.
SHARE Wednesday, December 12, 2012 Is Conservative Media One Big "Racket"?
In the business of media self-promotion, and particularly the carnival barker variety that powers so much of the conservative movement via Fox News and AM talk radio, it's inevitable that the goals of the "conservative entertainment complex," as writer David Frum dubbed it, would collide with the retail politics of the Republican Party.
SHARE Friday, January 6, 2012 Why Conservatives Can't Do Journalism
The right-wing's online Noise Machine today is populated by people like Andrew Breitbart and Dana Loesch who run websites that crank out borderline incoherent bouts of "journalism" that inevitably whip up their Obama-hating readers and have zero impact on the national discussion.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 27, 2016 NY Times Endorses Holding Clinton To Separate Disclosure Standard
While the Times is fixated on Clinton's speech transcripts, Trump, for now, is refusing to release his tax returns, which has been a standard disclosure for every major candidate running for the White House. So when will the Times demand Trump release his tax returns? When will the Times call for transparency from the Republican front-runner?
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 15, 2015 It's Time For The Press To Break Up With Gowdy's Benghazi Committee
The Benghazi committee has been very good to a Beltway press corps anxious to pursue storylines about Clinton's supposed incompetence and crooked ways. This year, the Benghazi committee has helped pundits produce months' worth of baseless speculation about looming email indictments and the potential for a Clinton campaign "collapse."
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, March 7, 2016 The Media's Not Being Honest About Its Trump Obsession
We seem to have entered unchartered territory where campaign coverage, at least Trump's campaign coverage, is based on what's popular (or what makes money for news outlets), and not based on what's newsworthy. Casting aside decades of precedent, campaign journalism seems to have almost consciously shifted to a for-profit model.
SHARE Wednesday, June 1, 2011 One Year After Debunking Breitbart's "Slander," CNN Welcomes Him Back As Newsmaker
The usual Breitbart rhetorical recklessness was too much for CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who appeared right after Breitbart. Dismayed by Breitbart's "outrageous" insinuations about Weiner and "young girls," Toobin said it was "too bad that he got to say that stuff on CNN."
SHARE Friday, April 29, 2016 With The Megyn Kelly Vs. Donald Trump TV Summit, Everyone Wins (Except The GOP)
Much of Fox loves Trump's right-wing politics; Trump loves to bully Fox. Now the latest love/hate chapter is that Trump has agreed to sit for Megan Kelly's interview, which is weirdly being hyped as a major campaign showdown. (Remember when campaigns were focused on voters, not cable news hosts?) Kelly's Trump interview represents good news for her, good news for Fox, and good news for Trump.
SHARE Wednesday, January 20, 2010 Come back, Bob Woodward. Save us from Game Change journalism
let's look also at Game Change's already infamous "coffee" non-quote from Bill Clinton, reportedly spoken to Ted Kennedy. The authors not only couldn't confirm the inflammatory quote (so they printed it as a paraphrase), but then they went on television and improved the story. Out selling their book, the duo seemed to spike the tale with new information not found in the book.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, June 3, 2016 Can Trump Whine His Way To The White House With Complaints About "Biased" Media Coverage?
A sizable portion of the conservative media infrastructure isn't supporting Trump. during the primary season some key conservative media voices have actually criticized the Beltway press for being too soft on the Republican nominee. If there are Republican-friendly pundits on the record saying the press needs to be tougher on Trump, that obviously blunts the candidate's claim that the "biased" media's being too tough on him.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 21, 2016 Trump Bullies The Press -- And The Press Yawns
Trump and his campaign push the press around at will and they pay no real price. If anything, Trump gets showered with more press attention despite calling out reporters as "scum"; despite denouncing them as liars and cheats at his campaign rallies. On and on the bullying goes and the pushback remains minimal.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 19, 2015 When Fox News Didn't Blame The White House For A Huge Terror Attack In Europe
For anyone who's been watching the Fox News coverage since Friday and seen the almost non-stop smear campaign against Obama (it's been part of the larger, right-wing media freakout), it's almost unimaginable what the Fox commentary would sound like if ISIS killed hundreds in America during next year's campaign. (Calls for impeachment would come quickly, I assume.)
SHARE Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Did Glenn Beck Turn A Profit At Wilmington Charity Event?
There seems to be an enormous gap between the $300,000 ticket revenues Beck generated and the $44,000 he donated to charity. Beck's Wilmington costs accounted for nearly 85% of ticket sales? If true, that's one poorly run charity event. Keep in mind the Fox News host pocketed $32 million in 2009. Did he not pick up any of the Wilmington expenses himself, or did he deduct every last penny before making his $44,000 donation?
SHARE Tuesday, November 12, 2013 CBS Still Ducking The Tough 60 Minutes Questions
After Benghazi, 60 Minutes allotted 90 seconds at the very end of its broadcast in order to apologize (in addition to the earlier apology on This Morning). Also, there's no indication that any CBS employees will be reprimanded for the Benghazi mess. The message from CBS News, following the high-profile implosion of its October 27 Benghazi report? We're sorry. But we're not that sorry.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 8, 2017 There's An Obvious Reason Why Trump Has Gotten Some "Negative" Coverage
By wrapping his agenda in radical initiatives, lashing out wildly at his enemies, and generally conducting himself like an adolescent, Trump has provided pundits with scant opportunities to praise him, or to portray him as presidential. The fawning, low-bar coverage of his speech to Congress proved that if given a chance to swoon over Trump, journalists will gladly do so.
SHARE Tuesday, January 29, 2013 Palin, Fox And The End Of An Era
At Fox, Palin represented a particularly angry and juvenile wing of the conservative movement. It's the part that appears deeply obsessed with Obama as a person; an unhealthy obsession that seemed to surpass any interest in his policies. Fox News got steamrolled by Obama's re-election. Palin's departure from the Fox payroll serves as a useful exclamation point to that fact.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 6, 2014 Campaigns in Waiting: The Press Loved Bush's But Dumps On Clinton
For what other politician would editors at CNN look at astronomical polling results (an 89 percent favorable rating in Iowa), and then assign an article on that person's "Iowa problem"? For no other politician, of course, because it defies logic. That kind of fact-free campaign analysis didn't make sense when Bush ran for president, and it doesn't make sense now.
SHARE Thursday, October 21, 2010 Memo to the media: The Tea Party is coming for you
detaining Hopfinger was a political statement. Just like Miller's announcement a week earlier that he would no longer answer questions from Alaska reporters was also a political statement: "We've drawn a line in the sand. The Alaska "arrest" sent an even more disturbing message from the Tea Party to the press: We're coming for you.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 2, 2011 Touting "Innate" GOP Advantage, Wash. Post Ignores Wash. Post
There's "an innate sense" out there that Republicans are the ones to trust on key issues, such as spending and the debt? Well, that "innate sense" might extend throughout the Beltway press corps, but it doesn't reflect mainstream America. Not according to polling data.
SHARE Friday, April 1, 2016 It's Time For Reporters To Break Out Of The Trump Rally Press Pens
It's past time for journalists to demand their freedom from Trump press pens. It's like deciding to finally stop taking Trump's phone-in interviews. Escaping from the pens represents a simple way for news organizations to assert their obvious right to cover the Trump campaign on their own terms, rather than being penned in at campaign events and living in fear of having access denied if coverage is deemed to be too critical.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 28, 2009 Why didn't Washington Post columnists call Cheney a disgrace?
Cheney grabbed top billing following his national security (pro-torture?) speech last week. But the World News Tonight report on Gore's September 23, 2002, anti-war speech was buried mid-broadcast. The dispatch ran 43 words in its entirety. Why? Because Gore, the has-been, was a "disgrace" when he tried to butt in about the Iraq war, according to the press corps--the same pack that awarded Cheney such high marks last week.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 7, 2009 The NY Times' pointless pursuit of right-wing "buzz" stories
The partisan right-wing press this year has morphed into a minefield of paranoia, distrust, and hate. But, hey, if The New York Times thinks it's going to mine some news nuggets in the fever swamps, be my guest.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 28, 2013 Woodward Does Duty With Phony Outrage Machine
Woodward remains the most famous journalist of the Baby Boomer generation. His often methodical, behind-the-scenes reporting can provide real insights. But by signing up for duty with the Phony Outrage Machine and by parading around on Fox News wringing his hands over a fictitious threat, Woodward does serious damage to his reputation.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 23, 2013 GOP Rebranding? Roger Ailes Isn't Buying It
There's been little public acknowledgement that there can be no effective rebranding of the Republican Party if Ailes doesn't sign off. Meaning, the GOP can turn itself inside out if it wants, but if Fox News, the self-appointed face and voice the GOP, doesn't change, none of it matters because Fox will still be pounding home every negative stereotype that party leaders now want to erase.