Media Bias | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 62
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Posted by Amy Miller on June 14, 2015 14 Comments
Early Saturday morning, a man planted explosives outside of, and fired an automatic weapon at, the Dallas police headquarters. Fortunately no one was injured, but the ensuing chase lasted for hours and put both the police and the community in danger. The ordeal ended in a standoff, which ended in a dead perpetrator, which has led to the requisite barrage of commentary. This wasn't a little thing, or a "statement"-type crime. He did major damage: The media, of course, can always be counted upon to twist an emergency into a knot and make it a laughingstock. CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield even went so far as to call the shooter "courageous and brave." Yes, really. Behold:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 11, 2015 29 Comments
I enjoy reading or hearing stories that humanize candidates. The story of Mitt Romney helping to remove a stump from a neighbor's yard was a good one, or how the Perry family adopted Marcus Luttrell -- also a heartwarming, warm fuzzy inducing tale. Even John McCain recounting his time as a POW was powerful stuff. These stories provide insight into how candidates live beyond the flashy lights, teleprompter flanked podiums, and soundbites of the politisphere. They're meaningful. In many ways, these stories explain a core part of who they are. But that's not the case with Politico's latest slobberfest. Thursday morning, Politico published a story called Every wedding should have a Hillary Clinton Bible reading. Obvious disagreement with the premise aside, what are we supposed to take from this story? What does it say about Hillary? That we now have proof Mrs. Clinton can read?

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 11, 2015 7 Comments
The NYT published an article last week pretending Sen. Rubio's traffic tickets from the 90s were scandalicious. Mockery of the "troubling" allegations ensued and the NYT was rightly mocked. This week, the NYT again dropped a ridiculous "scoop." This time, they portrayed the Rubios as spendthrifts who had luxury speed boats and a house with extra-large windows... As these things go, the NYT report found its way into national and local news coverage, providing perfect mashup fodder. Yesterday, the NYT received the Jon Stewart treatment:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 09, 2015 25 Comments
I must've missed the "everyone make stuff up" memo circulating through media channels this week. Thankfully, I'm just a blogger. Tuesday, the Huffington Post published a post with the headline, Jeb Bush In 1995: Unwed Mothers Should Be Publicly Shamed. There's just one problem though -- that's not what Jeb Bush said. Not in 1995 or otherwise. The post focuses on a book Bush wrote called Profiles in Character. The book was published in 1995. Gawker, Wonkette, Raw Story and others then reblogged using the same, incorrect headline. No, Jeb Bush did not say unwed mothers should be publicly shamed

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 09, 2015 45 Comments
Last week, the New York Times dropped the lamest "hit" piece in the history of hit pieces. Pretending a few traffic tickets from the 90s made Sen. Rubio and his wife unfit for public service, the NYT ended up the butt of the joke. On social media, #rubiocrimespree trending nationally for hours with submissions like, "drank milk after it expired," and "Didn't read Apple End User Licence [sic] Agreement but still clicked "I Agree"." Rubio's campaign got in on the fun, and celebrities publicly declared the NYT story dumb. Apparently that wasn't enough embarrassment for the NYT. Tuesday, the NYT released yet another 'scoop' on the good Senator from Florida. This time, the NYT suggested that Rubio had financial problems which have tainted his career. Those "financial problems"? "Student debt, mortgages and an extra loan against the value of his home totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Posted by David Gerstman on June 08, 2015 25 Comments
The New York Times yesterday featured an article on Hillary Clinton's electoral strategy for 2016. In short, she apparently is mimicking President Barack Obama's strategy for his second term.
Instead, she is poised to retrace Barack Obama’s far narrower path to the presidency: a campaign focused more on mobilizing supporters in the Great Lakes states and in parts of the West and South than on persuading undecided voters. Mrs. Clinton’s aides say it is the only way to win in an era of heightened polarization, when a declining pool of voters is truly up for grabs. Her liberal policy positions, they say, will fire up Democrats, a less difficult task than trying to win over independents in more hostile territory — even though a broader strategy could help lift the party with her.
There's a phrase in those two paragraphs, "era of heightened polarization," that's worth reflecting on. I know how all right thinking people lament the growing partisanship in politics, but there's a pretty clear cause and effect implicit here, though the Times won't admit it: Obama in his quest for reelection, pursuing a narrow strategy, has increased the polarization in politics. Clinton plans to follow suit. I question if this is a wise strategy for Clinton to pursue. I'm not alone.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 05, 2015 5 Comments
Last week, reporters with NBC's Atlanta affiliate station crashed the Spring Task Force Summit of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC, an organization that works with state legislators, think tanks, and policy experts to advocate for limited regulation and reduced taxation, is a favorite target of left-leaning media outlets and reporters. The report published by 11 Alive, Atlanta's NBC affiliate, paints ALEC as a group of nefarious money-mongers who buy their way through state legislatures to accumulate power. 11 Alive also suggests ALEC was involved in a "secret back room meeting"... a secret back room meeting to educate part-time legislators.
What is ALEC? "It's really a corporate bill mill," said Sen. Nan Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat who has served in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly for years. "They're cranking out legislation, putting it into the hands of legislators who go back and file it." Orrock would know. She was once a member of ALEC. "The corporations that are there have equal standing with the legislators," Sen. Orrock said. "You mean they can vote?" we asked. "They absolutely can vote, and truth be told, they write the bills," she answered, referring to the lobbyists. There really are back rooms where corporate lobbyists have direct access to lawmakers completely out of sight, with no transparency or public filings. They're also wined and dined after hours at these events with nothing recorded on ethics reports. We know because we saw one of these back rooms with our own eyes, and were kicked out with the aid of off-duty police officers on orders from ALEC staff.
Orrock won awards from the Progressive States Network. It's also not uncommon for think tanks and policy shops to have sample legislation posted on their websites for state house use. But facts and things.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 05, 2015 42 Comments
Friday morning, the New York Times deemed Senator Rubio's driving record news that fit to print. Though it reads like something from the annals of The Onion, the New York Times was completely serious about Sen. Rubio's troubling speeding tickets from the 90s.
Senator Marco Rubio has been in a hurry to get to the top, rising from state legislator to United States senator in the span of a decade and now running for president at age 44. But politics is not the only area where Mr. Rubio, a Republican from Florida, has an affinity for the fast track. He and his wife, Jeanette, have also shown a tendency to be in a rush on the road. ...A review of records dating back to 1997 shows that the couple had a combined 17 citations: Mr. Rubio with four and his wife with 13. On four separate occasions they agreed to attend remedial driving school after a violation.
Sen. Rubio took defensive driving?! IMPEACH.
Mr. Rubio’s troubles behind the wheel predate his days in politics... A dozen years later, in 2009, he was ticketed for speeding on a highway in Duval County and found himself back in driver improvement school. Things got more complicated in 2011 when Mr. Rubio was alerted to the fact that his license was facing suspension after a traffic camera caught him failing to stop at a red light in his beige Buick. His lawyer, Alex Hanna, paid a $16 fee to delay the suspension and eventually it was dismissed.
What kind of elitist is Rubio that he paid a whopping $16 fee to avoid suspension of his driver's license?

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 03, 2015 29 Comments
One of the dominant theories of our time is that police officers are waging a Terminator-like war against unarmed young black men, killing them with a ruthlessness and determination evocative of a genocide, all the while escaping legal sanction. The Washington Post, certainly not a paper to shy away from fanning the flames of discord, seems to have stumbled upon some actual data on the subject.  Their reporting of this data is, as one might have expected, far richer in anecdote than analysis, but nevertheless the snippets of data that slip through are perhaps noteworthy. We start with a data point showing 385 police killings of suspects so far this year. Of these 385 killings, only about 25% involved a black suspect.  While it is certainly true that this 25% is disproportionate to the 13% or so of the US population that is black, it is also true that black suspects are disproportionately represented among those arrested for violent crime in general.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 02, 2015 12 Comments
Now that former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer is joining CNN, the number of Obama administration officials in the mainstream media has shot up to five. David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs are on the payroll at MSNBC, and CNN is also home to former "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones. Jay Carney also went to work for CNN but has since left. As John Nolte of Breitbart points out, two members of the George W. Bush administration (Dana Perino and Karl Rove) went to work for FOX News, but not while Bush was still president. CNN made the announcement yesterday:
Dan Pfeiffer joins CNN as contributor Dan Pfeiffer, a long-time top aide to President Barack Obama, is joining CNN as a contributor, network president Jeff Zucker announced Monday. The 39-year-old Pfeiffer is a Wilmington, Delaware, native and a graduate of Georgetown University. His first presidential campaign role came in a communications post for then-Vice President Al Gore's unsuccessful 2000 campaign. He then worked for the Democratic Governors Association and later Sens. Tim Johnson, Tom Daschle and then Evan Bayh's brief 2008 presidential campaign.

Posted by Jay Caruso on May 31, 2015 13 Comments
"Don't you someday want to see a woman president of the United States of America?" That was a line from a speech Hillary Clinton recently delivered for a gathering of the pro-abortion PAC, EMILY's List. It was delivered with all of the warmth and charm we've come to expect from the former Secretary of State, which is to say none at all. "First woman president" is basically what Hillary Clinton's campaign will be, and the media will do all they can to help her across the finish line in order to accomplish that. Take the latest cover of the New Yorker for example: new-yorker-gop-hillary There's "First Woman President" candidate Hillary standing on the outside looking in. The lone woman staring into a locker room loaded up with white guys, right? The New Yorker had this to say about the group of potential GOP candidates in the photo:

Posted by Jay Caruso on May 30, 2015 22 Comments
Whether one believes in God or not, whenever natural disasters strike and deaths are involved, people often ask, "Why?".  They ask:  "Why did this happen?"; "Why did this have to happen now?"; and sadly, "Why did ________ have to die?" The worst response is when somebody tries to politicize such tragedies, especially in the context of assigning bad weather to an "angry God." Evangelical Christians such as Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell have been known to enjoy the taste of their own feet as they have, at times, pointed the finger of blame at various behaviors by people as the reason for some kind of natural disaster. Pat Robertson, in 2012 was raked over the coals for suggesting deadly tornadoes that ripped through the Midwest could have been avoided if people had merely been more willing to pray about it. News outlets that covered it included The Huffington Post, The Daily News, The LA Times, CNN as well as left wing outlets such as Crooks & Liars, Media Matters, Raw Story and others.

Three days ago, Al Sharpton suggested the following with respect to the floods that have claimed the lives of over 20 people in Texas:

https://twitter.com/TheRevAl/status/603640706104721409 Notwithstanding Sharpton's concern over whether or not the citizens of Texas were spending too much time messing with their thermostats, Sharpton's "question" is really a political statement aimed at a state that is pretty red politically. Governor Greg Abbott handily defeated Wendy Davis and ended her 15 minutes of fame. The state has two Republican Senators in Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. Former Governor Rick Perry is likely going to run for president, along with Cruz.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 28, 2015 37 Comments
I don't suppose it will ever end--the mainstream media will continue to cover trials involving deadly force, will continue to blindly label them Stand-Your-Ground cases, and will continue to demonstrate its utter ignorance of what Stand-Your-Ground actually is. The most recent example comes in the form of a Stand-Your-Ground piece written by a David Love, whose bio describes him as: "David A. Love is a writer based in Philadelphia. His work has appeared on CNN and been published by The Grio, The Progressive, and The Guardian." Looks impressive, no? Well, maybe the bio does. The piece on Stand-Your-Ground? Not so much. I realize that David is almost certainly not responsible for the headline of the post, but let's start there--after all, it's how the piece is introduced to the reading public. It's also where the piece goes immediately off the rails:  "These are the States That Have 'Stand Your Ground' Laws."  This point is then helpfully illustrated, literally, with a graphic image of the United States color coded to indicate which states qualify as "Stand-Your-Ground" states:  red-states are purportedly SYG, blue-states are purportedly non-SYG.  (That image is the featured pic at the top of this post. Interestingly, it was sourced in the Love's piece as being from al Jazeera.com.  Huh.) Before we dive into the errors of the illustrative map, however, let's take a moment to refresh our recollection on what Stand-Your-Ground actually means, legally speaking: it simply means that the state does not impose a legal duty on an otherwise lawful defender to make use of a safe avenue of retreat before they can use force in defense of themselves or another. Got it? Good. Now let's take a look at the 16 states indicated in the map as blue, and thus purportedly non-SYG that impose a legal duty retreat.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 26, 2015 19 Comments
Last week, Bloomberg News' Mark Halperin asked a panel of Iowa Democrats to name one accomplishment from Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State. Just one little accomplishment... One? Something? ANYTHING? A grand total of zero panel members could recall a single noteworthy accomplishment of Mrs. Clinton's. But we should cut them some slack because they're not wrong. To date, Hillary Clinton has done nothing notable aside from being married to a President, serving as a perfectly forgettable and ineffective Senator, and begrudgingly stepping aside in 2008 to make way for the Obama Presidency. She also pushed some button in Russia, and that seems to be going just swell. Do winning elections and screwing up major diplomatic relations constitute resume-worthy fodder? Carly Fiorina said it best shortly after Hillary made her official 2016 candidacy announcement, "Hillary Clinton’s a highly intelligent woman, hardworking, she’s dedicated her life to public service but unfortunately she does not have a track record of accomplishment or transparency." Expecting a Commander in Chief to have some kind of accomplishments that show their qualifications before getting hired for the job is reasonable, right? Maybe, just not if those accomplishments happened while serving has the head of the State Department, according to U.S. News and World Report's Susan Milligan. On Hardball with Chris Matthews' Milligan said the question posed to the Iowa Democratic panel was "unfair."

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 22, 2015 20 Comments
I've long assumed that just about anything written by a journalist has only the most tenuous relationship to reality (see Michael Crichton's "Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect"). Few news agencies are as skilled at the AP, however, at crafting headlines--often the only part of a story a casual reader notes--that communicate a narrative that's precisely the opposite of the underlying facts. As one example, here's a prevaricating AP headline from October 22, 2014: AP Isreali man shoots Palestinian In that case the actual facts turned out to be that the man shot was engaged in a terrorist attack on a bus stop, and had already managed to kill a 3-year-old before being engaged and stopped by Israeli police.  Replace the word"man" with "terrorist" and the headline would have accurately narrated the events.  Instead, the headline falsely implies an act of unjustified violence by Israeli authorities.  (In that case the AP withdrew the headline an hour in the face of considerable outrage.)

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 20, 2015 5 Comments
Last Sunday tens of thousands of Israelis participated in the annual Jerusalem Day march and flag procession, which runs through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter en route to the Western Wall. Jerusalem Day—Yom Yerushalayim—celebrates the reunification of the city following the 1967 Six Day War. As a tribute to the holiday, in an earlier post I offered at least five reasons that Yom Yerushalayim is worth celebrating.
Last week, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a petition to change the “provocative route” of the march to avoid potential confrontations between the revelers and east Jerusalemite Palestinians. Two Israeli leftist NGOs argued that in previous years the flag-bearing procession had sparked violence and “unnecessary disruption for local residents”.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 20, 2015 20 Comments
In 2011, ABC News launched a major rebranding effort focused on the slogan "See the Whole Picture," featuring key news personalities including George Stephanopoulos:
Today ABC News launched a major re-branding initiative. The last time that ABC News spoke directly with its audience about what defines ABC News was over a decade ago with "More Americans Get Their News from ABC News than Any Other Source" - a statement that is still true today. ABC News President Ben Sherwood laid out the foundation of the new campaign to ABC News staff in an email on Monday morning: Starting today and over the course of 2012, you're going to see new on-air promos that feature images of an unprecedented gathering of ABC News anchors and correspondents and a call to action: When viewers turn to ABC News, they will "See the Whole Picture." Believe it or not, it's been more than a decade since ABC News consistently put forward a message or slogan. This new promise - "See the Whole Picture" - will help unify ABC News and differentiate our efforts from the competition.