Media Bias

Meltdown at the NY Times

Featured image The poor New York Times is pushing its Trump Derangement Syndrome meltdown well past eleven. Here are just a few opinion section headlines from the last couple days: I doubt most Times writers, let alone their readers, can make it four years. »

How About Separation of Media and State?

Featured image Forget separation of church and state: how about we think about instituting the separation of media and state? Rush Limbaugh used to mock what he called our “state-run media” (along with calling it, with equal accuracy, the “drive-by media”), but he turned out to be literally correct, as we learned this week. Not only millions to Politico, but the BBC admitted that it received 8 percent of its revenue from »

Politico and the AP Were On the Government Payroll [Updated]

Featured image Really, the Democratic Party’s payroll, only taxpayers were footing the bill. This is absolutely stunning news: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Wednesday that Politico has been receiving funds from the U.S. government that will dry up as President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cracks down on spending. Leavitt was asked about reports that “media outlets” will be impacted by Elon Musk’s plan to cut funding »

A Collusion Hoax Coda

Featured image In April 2018, the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting was awarded jointly to the New York Times and The Washington Post for their reporting on the Russia collusion hoax that was concocted by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Subsequently, multiple investigations confirmed that the claim of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was false and, indeed, a completely unfounded fraud. President Trump and others then called on the Pulitzer Prize »

Unsolved Mysteries

Featured image This is Abe Greenwald, in the Commentary magazine email. I don’t think there is a link, so I will quote extensively: Here’s a current-events quiz aimed at regular news consumers: Why did Los Angeles officials ignore dozens of warnings about the county’s failing water system in the run-up to this year’s wildfires? What caused the Dali cargo ship to crash into the Francis Scott Key Bridge almost a year ago? »

Trump Impedes Federal Workforce

Featured image I am spending a few days in DC (not for the Inauguration, we came into town when everyone else was leaving). At breakfast this morning, this headline in the Metro section of the Washington Post caught my eye: “Trump is impeding federal workforce’s ability to operate.” The article complains about the fact that the incoming Trump administration has paused many actions by the bureaucracy that were in progress under the »

No Media Honeymoon for Trump: The Hoax Machine Is Up and Running

Featured image The media couldn’t even wait for the sun to go down yesterday before rolling out another Charlottesville-style hoax. Did you hear? Elon Musk made a Nazi salute! Proof that Trump will end democracy by Friday, and have the Handmaid’s Tale camps set up on Saturday. It’s obvious Musk is Hitler! Just like these people: OMG—even AOC is Hitler! Even the ADL, pretty left leaning these days, say people should chill: »

Our Reality, and Theirs

Featured image Today has been a great day for Americans, but not everyone sees it that way. Hard-core Democratic Party spokesmen like the New York Times are spinning furiously, trying to advance DNC messages. Thus, the Times story on Donald Trump’s inauguration calls his speech “grim”: Luke Rosiak’s response is better than mine would have been: Do they know that the speech was public and we could actually hear it ourselves? pic.twitter.com/ZENNCCrmBt »

A Wide-Angle View? You Must Be Joking

Featured image Here’s a headline many people have perhaps expected: ‘The View’ Announces Major Shakeup to the Long-Running Weekday Talk Show So, is that egregiously awful show going to add some actual balance to its panel, ditch Sunny Hostin, who gives ABC’s legal department fresh headaches every day, or add some producers who insist Whoopi and Joy (who inspire neither thing, let alone any brightness from Sunny) include some actual facts in »

The Worst Media Lies of 2024

Featured image There were so many of them, that any top ten list will be controversial. You could have a top 100 and not come close to a complete list. But this one by Grabien is probably as good as any: SUPERCUT! The 10 Most Mortifying Media Moments of 2024 Read our wrap-up:https://t.co/djyeFa86fG pic.twitter.com/xKyLkEq475 — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 27, 2024 We can laugh at these absurd lies now, because the Left’s »

Anatomy of a Media Smear

Featured image President Trump has appointed my old pal Michael Anton to be director of policy planning at the State Department—the senior post made most famous by George Kennan back in the 1940s, but which has also seen luminaries such as Francis Fukuyama, Kiron Skinner, and Peter Berkowitz in the post. The position comes with a staff of about 25, including the speechwriters for Secretary of State designee Marco Rubio. I expect »

The Persistence of the Media Meta-Narrative

Featured image By now you’ve seen the headlines about how “a car” drove through a Christmas market in Germany at high speed, killing and injuring numerous people. I had no idea that Skynet’s self-driving car technology had progressed to the Terminator stage already: The sequel deception is the “reporting” about this “suspected” attack that the driver of the car—yes, it actually had a human driver—was a Saudi “migrant” (Taleb Al Abdulmohsen) who »

The Least Successful Conspiracy

Featured image My law firm was one of those that defended tobacco companies against, among other things, lawsuits brought by state attorneys general. A key claim in those cases was that the tobacco companies conspired to prevent the public from learning that smoking is bad for you. “If so,” said the partner in my firm who was in charge of the case for our client, “it was the least successful conspiracy in »

Times Change

Featured image It is fun to watch the major media adjust to the thumping the election delivered. Last week the New York Times offered up some revealing though sharply limited mea culpas. The first piece, by creative writing instructor David Morris, argued in its headline that “The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone.” Morris begins by recalling a ruckus that erupted in the publishing world back in 2022: Male underrepresentation is »

Pity the Poor Reporters

Featured image The Associated Press reports that journalists are worried about President Trump’s second term: The return to power of Donald Trump, who has called journalists enemies… What have journalists called Trump? The AP, for one, has made itself an arm of the Democratic Party. …and talked about retribution against those he feels have wronged him… Later in the very same story, the AP quotes Trump: “I am not looking for retribution, »

ABC to Pay for Trump Defamation

Featured image Under current law, it is just about impossible to defame a public figure, let alone a politician, let alone Donald Trump. But ABC News and George Stephanopoulos managed the feat, and now they are going to pay: ABC News and star anchor George Stephanopoulos have agreed to pay President-elect Trump $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit. The settlement was publicly filed Saturday, just days before the two sides were »

Not Transgender Women

Featured image Actual women such as Riley Gaines, Paige Spiranac, J. K. Rowling, and the female Israeli soldiers Steve helpfully displays each week, just got the news from the New York Times that they should be known as “non-transgender women.” This drew flak from tennis great Martina Navratilova, British Olympian Sharron Davies, and Rep. Nancy Mace, among others. The dynamics going on here will be of interest to all people. NYT reporter »