Tag Archives: Barack Obama

The Mysterious 'Special Risks' of the Obama Presidency

Posted on 03/16/2009 by Jim Naureckas

A Washington Post piece this weekend by Scott Wilson (3/14/09) centered around this "gotcha": In his inaugural address, President Obama proclaimed "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long … Continue reading →

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DNI Contradicts Obama Iran Claims: Where Is the Press?

Posted on 03/13/2009 by Steve Rendall

Corporate media outlets treat U.S. intelligence agencies with solemn reverence when those agencies are reinforcing official views about American enemies and friends. This is true even when the same media outlets are duped by intelligence agencies time and again. But … Continue reading →

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David Brooks Loves Data–When It Gives the Right Results

Posted on 03/13/2009 by Jim Naureckas

In a typically half-empty David Brooks piece (3/13/09), the columnist praises Barack Obama for embracing "rigor" in education policy, for endorsing "testing and accountability," for "mak[ing] sure results have consequences." He complains about the "education establishmentâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s ability to evade the … Continue reading →

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I Couldn't Eat Another Bite, I'm…98 Percent Empty?

Posted on 03/12/2009 by Jim Naureckas

Under the Onion-ready headline "Obama Calls for Earmark Reform, Signs Earmark-Laden Spending Bill," (3/12/09), the L.A. Times' James Oliphant and Christi Parsons begin their story: President Obama railed against pork barrel projects on Wednesday. Then he signed a massive spending … Continue reading →

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NYT Steadfastly Lowers the Political Discourse

Posted on 03/10/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Jane Kim of CJR.org (3/9/09) quotes some of the reactions to a New York Times reporter asking Barack Obama if he is "a socialist as some people have suggested": Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post cracks that "the New York … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

WPost: Sacrifice for Sacrifice's Sake

Posted on 03/09/2009 by Jim Naureckas

This column by Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl has received some well-deserved criticism, largely for its peculiar claim that reforming the U.S. healthcare system is a lot like invading Iraq. What jumped out at me was this … Continue reading →

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Strange Questions, Strange Journalism

Posted on 03/09/2009 by Jim Naureckas

Steve Benen of Political Animal points out a couple of strange questions posed by corporate journalists–one to each of last year's major presidential candidates. In this post, Benen quotes an unnamed New York Times reporter (apparently either Sheryl Gay Stolberg … Continue reading →

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Bill O'Reilly's Fact-Checking Failure

Posted on 03/06/2009 by Peter Hart

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly tries to nail Obama on a "no more earmarks" flip-flop in his "talking points" commentary (3/4/09): O'REILLY: We begin with this: BARACK OBAMA: We are going to ban all earmarks, the process by which individual … Continue reading →

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AP's Obama 'Fact-Check' Does Not Meet the 'Gotcha' Threshold

Posted on 02/25/2009 by Jim Naureckas

This AP "fact check" (2/24/09) of President Barack Obama's speech is, as usual, a sad effort. You really need to have some threshold for calling "gotcha," and some of these–maybe all of these–really don't measure up. Obama says, "Regulations were … Continue reading →

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Vogue's Credibility–and Howard Kurtz's

Posted on 02/16/2009 by Jim Naureckas

In the same column (2/16/09) that he cites Sam Donaldson's reputation as a "blowhard liberal," the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz has an item in which he complains that "the Vogue cover story on Michelle Obama, by editor at large André … Continue reading →

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Now Obama Is French!

Posted on 02/10/2009 by Peter Hart

Newsweek's current coverdeclares, "We Are All Socialists Now." But it's actually another story from the magazine that pushes the notion that Obama is likely heading the country in a (gasp!) European direction. Michael Freedman'spiece certainly doesn't start off on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

D'Oh! Reilly Factor

Posted on 02/10/2009 by Peter Hart

After President Obama's press conference last night, Fox host Bill O'Reilly saw one to scorepoints against the White House–by mocking Obama forrelying ona list of pre-approved journalists when he took questions. Unfortunately for O'Reilly, his guest at the time was … Continue reading →

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Dewey Defeats Truman; AP Hopes to Defeat 1st Amendment

Posted on 02/06/2009 by Jim Naureckas

We noted recently Fox News' peculiar understanding of the Fair Use doctrine, which allows writers, artists and others to make reasonable use of copyrighted material so long as they don't infringe on the copyright owners' commercial rights; Fox interprets this … Continue reading →

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O'Reilly's Phony Guantanamo Math

Posted on 01/27/2009 by Peter Hart

In a top-of-the-show rant about the dangers of the Guantanamo detainees, Fox's Bill O'Reilly declared (1/25/09): Just hours after President Obama announced he was going to shut down Guantanamo Bay, the feds confirmed that a released Gitmo inmate, 35-year-old Sahid … Continue reading →

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USA Today: Obama's Lesson to Black Mothers

Posted on 01/07/2009 by Peter Hart

One might not expect much from a USA Today editorial headlined "How to Turn Obama's Success Into Gains for Black Boys," but it's hard to get past the first two graphs without feelingill: You can see the message on brick … Continue reading →

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