Media
February 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Until very recently, I had a hard time imagining what it would take to get the mainstream media riled up about the Obama administration. After all, even the Benghazi horror failed to accomplish this. But the Bob Woodward flap has remedied my failure of imagination. Whatever the merit of Woodward’s specific charge that the White House, through Gene Sperling, threatened him, the controversy at a minimum has struck a nerve
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February 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
As Scott pointed out yesterday, Bob Woodward has thrust himself even further into the sequestration saga by complaining that a “very senior person” at the White House warned him in an email that he would “regret” his comment that President Obama moved the goal post by asking for more revenue. Politico has presented what purports to be the email containing the threat, which was written by Gene Sperling. In context
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February 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Bob Woodward has been blowing the whistle on Obamaworld full of lies on the sequester, most recently over the weekend in a Washington Post column. It’s a great old-fashioned story in a number of respects, which was the point I tried to make in my Obamaworld post. In any event, it seems to have Woodward’s juices flowing. This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Woodward blasted Obama’s “madness” for letting budget
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February 27, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Over the years, we have often had fun with the ignorance shown by reporters and editors of the New York Times with respect to literature, history, geography, and especially math and science, as reflected in the paper’s corrections section. Today’s corrections include a classic of the genre. It concerns this photo, which was part of an article about an environmental controversy in Maine: A picture caption on Saturday with an
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February 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
President Obama’s transparent mendacity about his responsibility for the sequester is revealing. The obtuse Chuck Todd doesn’t think it’s a story; he characterizes it as a traditionally sterile argument about who is to blame for the unpleasantness (which is the way the New York Times treats the issue it when it deigns to touch it). Todd can’t be that stupid, can he? True, it would be nice to know how
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February 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Politics, it has been said for a while now, is “show business for ugly people.” (The line is said to have originated with either Paul Begala, or Texas political consultant Bill Miller, in a 1991 Dallas Morning News article.) Actually, the ugly part is less and less true; it is slowly becoming a requirement in politics as in Hollywood that you be good looking to succeed. With the appearance at
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February 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson
A cafeteria food fight turned into a riot at South High School in Minneapolis yesterday. The school’s security officers were insufficient to the task. Police officers dispatched to the scene sprayed mace and placed the school on lockdown to get a handle on the situation. Three or four students and a staff member ended up in the hospital. What’s going on? The Star Tribune discreetly reports that parents and students
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February 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker
There isn’t much left of the CNN brand, but there is still a little room to sink deeper–and today, CNN did. Compare and contrast: CNN’s panel is excited about Chris Dorner. They can understand why lots of people think he is a “superhero.” They think his deeds were “exciting,” like a “Denzel Washington movie,” and agree that Dorner shed valuable light on the critical issue of police brutality. Their panel
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February 12, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I’ll be on Bill Bennett’s “Morning in America” radio show tomorrow morning (as a guest, not a host) at 8:05 eastern time to talk about Obama’s State of the Union speech, which I must say I found surprisingly boring and listless. (Check your local radio listings, or listen online at www.billbennett.com.) With all the buildup, I expected a much stronger and more confrontational speech. Did the departure of inaugural speechwriter
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February 12, 2013 — John Hinderaker
As you are probably aware, Esquire magazine has published an interview with the Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden. The interview has made news for a number of reasons, but what does Esquire headline? The claim that the SEAL, now out of the service, has been left without health care by the federal government: Here is how the article’s author, Phil Bronstein, tells the story: “I left SEALs on
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January 31, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The New York Times announced today that its systems have been hacked by the Chinese over a period of months: For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems… Here comes the key bit: and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees. So that explains Tom Friedman’s columns! We probably should apologize for believing Friedman was dumb enough to consider
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January 19, 2013 — Steven Hayward
One of the wonderful things about Fox News is how it drives the Left out of their minds. Talk about having no sense of proportion: even though Fox kills CNN and MSNBC in the ratings, Fox News’s viewership is still just a fraction of audience for the nightly news broadcasts of the Big Three legacy networks, which I confess I still watch for the pure schadenfreude of seeing the unstoppable
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January 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
We have discussed the District of Columbia’s decision not to prosecute David Gregory for violating its gun law. In doing so, we mentioned that the decision was made by District of Columbia Attorney General Irvin Nathan, who turns out to be a social acquaintance of Gregory and his wife. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection first reported this connection (to my knowledge). Now, he considers whether Nathan should have recused himself
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January 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Few will be surprised by the news that David Gregory will not be prosecuted for possessing a high-capacity magazine during his appearance on “Meet the Press.” The decision was made by District of Columbia Attorney General Irvin Nathan, who turns out to be a social acquaintance of Gregory and his wife. The decision not to prosecute Gregory is explained in a statement you can read here. The statement makes it
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January 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson
DC Attorney General Irvin Nathan has declined to prosecute NBC’s insufferable David Gregory despite his finding that Gregory clearly violated DC law. Citing the First Amendment, he has exercised his prosecutorial discretion to decline prosecution in consideration of Gregory’s limited possession and educational purpose displaying the ammunition magazine during his interrogation of Wayne LaPierre. Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple highlights Nathan’s disparagement of NBC: A telling portion of Nathan’s
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January 3, 2013 — John Hinderaker
As you probably have heard, al Jazeera is buying Al Gore’s Current TV for, apparently, several hundred million dollars. Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar, which has a great deal of money, and Al Gore likes money. A lot. That affinity is more than enough to explain the deal, but there is more, as the Wall Street Journal reports: The deal comes several months after Messrs. Gore
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December 30, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Watching David Gregory interview Barack Obama on Meet the Press this morning, I wondered if Obama might have offered to wash Gregory’s feet after the show. Gregory appears to be a disciple of his Lord the President. Gregory seeks to disseminate the Obama gospel. “Is this your Lincoln moment?” Gregory actually asked him. And that may not have been the worst of it. Gregory should have prefaced the broadcast of
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