WashPost: Obama/GOP Budget Cuts Are What the People Ordered
Washington Post reporter Dan Balz (4/10/11) presents the Obama/GOP budget deal asevidence that the White House wasmerelyrespondingto public opinion: Most important was showing the country that he could...
View ArticleRon Paul Is Not a 'Serious' Candidate–Unlike Donald Trump
The first role of the corporate press in an election cycle is to weed out candidates who they deem nonviable. This usually means choosing not to cover candidates whose ideas that fall outside the...
View ArticleDonald Trump's Mysterious Control of the Media
Some mystical power forces the corporate mediato cover Donald Trump. In the New York Times today: But White House officials concluded about a month ago that the falsehoods had moved from "the nether...
View ArticleBush's Palpable Persistence in Pursuit of bin Laden
In today's edition of the Washington Post (5/2/11), Dan Balz puts forth what is probably going to be a popular theme in the coverage of the killing of Osama bin Laden: that catching the Al-Qaeda leader...
View ArticleNewt Gingrich, Intellectual Powerhouse
Washington Post reporter Dan Balz has a front-page piece about Newt Gingrich's announcement that he's running for president. Balz calls Gingrich's Twitter declaration a "milestone in presidential...
View ArticleMore Evidence of Gingrich's Idea-Spewing
Last week, Washington Post reporter Dan Balz explained that Newt Gingrich was "an idea-spewing machine" and a "one-man think tank"–even warning that "a keen intellect can also translate into the...
View ArticleWhy It Matters That There's No Such Thing as Simpson-Bowles
Dan Balz, the Washington Post's chief correspondent (5/20/12), complains that President Barack Obama hasn't solved America's fiscal problems: Obama has drawn criticism for failing to offer more...
View ArticleA Gaffe Is a Gaffe When Reporters Say So
Campaign coverage often gets bogged down in trivia—inconsequential polling data, the latest "off message" comment by an associate, and so on. But then there are the "gaffes," when politicians say...
View ArticleRomney Whistleblower Comes Forward (Not Really)
Washington Post columnist Dan Balz has a big scoop from an anonymous source in today's paper (8/14/12): The choice, like most vice presidential selections, also was a way for Romney to say something...
View ArticleWhen Nonsense Is Your Reality, Reality Naturally Seems to Have a Slant
Washington Post ombud Patrick Pexton (9/30/12) presents conservative opinion as a prima facie case for a left-wing slant in corporate news media: "Republicans think the news media are being too easy on...
View ArticlePundits: In Victory, Obama Must Accommodate His Opponents
With the election over, you're seeing familiar corporate media advice about the need for Obama to move to the right and learn to compromise with Republicans. Some of this is based on a frankly...
View ArticleCutting Social Security and Medicare? That's the 'Middle'
The new White House budget proposal is getting a lot of attention because it explicitly connects the Obama administration to an agenda that includes cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits. Some...
View ArticleGeorge W. Bush Is a Swell Guy, Just Ask His Friends
The opening of the George W. Bush library is generating coverage about the state of the Bush legacy. But if the journalists who were far too generous in their coverage of Bush's presidency are the same...
View ArticleWhat's the Message of Clinton's Noncampaign for the Office She Might Run for...
Hillary Clinton hasn't announced that she's running for president in 2016, and launched a campaign yet. But the Washington Post is already complaining that her nonexistent campaign for an office she...
View ArticleWhat Do You Call Edward Snowden?
CBS's Scott Pelley suggests that Edward Snowden admitted to being a "spy" for Russia. But he's not the only one using odd language to describe the NSA whistleblower.
View ArticleShutdown: Media SHOULD Play the Blame Game
Media like to dismiss the partisan "blame game," but in cases like this placing blame is something that journalism ought to do.
View ArticleObamacare as a 'Big Government' Failure
Pundits' discussions of the Affordable Care Act rollout assumes that the law represents some kind of "activist government" intervention to disrupt the normally smooth workings of the private sector....
View ArticleHas the Right Really Shifted on Police Militarization and Abuse?
It would be wonderful if more Republicans--and, for that matter, more Democrats--were speaking out about police abuses and related issues. But treating one lawmaker's op-ed as a sign of a fundamental...
View ArticlePointless 2016 Election Journalism, 2014 Edition
Trying to cover the 2016 presidential election based on a poll in 2014 is a waste of time.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rebranding McCain and Romney as Moderates to Facilitate a Sharp Right Turn
USA Today depicts Ted Cruz announcing his bid for the presidency. In corporate media, Democrats tend to run as centrists and lose as leftists. As I noted way back in the first Bush administration...
View Article
