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Media Bias Tag

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 10, 2015 14 Comments
Team Hillary has a sad because the New York Times published articles that were critical of the embattled former Secretary of State. Clinton's response? Declare war on the NYT and any other publication that publishes content portraying Mrs. Clinton in a negative light, naturally. Heaven forbid a newspaper do their one and only job. Never mind that the NYT endorsed Hillary over Barack in 2008, or that they've largely danced around the whole FBI investigation thing. WAR. The best part? That while Team Hillary is launching mortars at "hostile" press, Mrs. Clinton is publicly declaring she's infinitely and sincerely transparent. Tuesday, the Weekly Standard noted how the NYT recent editorial shakeup followed complaints from the Hillary Clinton Fan Club.
Ever since the start of the campaign, Hillary Clinton boosters have been complaining about coverage of their candidate in the New York Times. And today the paper announced that Washington bureau chief Carolyn Ryan is being demoted -- or shifting roles! -- at the paper. As the Huffington Post outlines, "The New York Times announced Tuesday that Elisabeth Bumiller, a veteran reporter and current Washington editor, will take over as Washington bureau chief -- one of the paper’s most prestigious posts. Carolyn Ryan, who was named bureau chief in late 2013, will transition to a new role as senior editor for politics." Hillary boosters are publicly connecting what they see as bad coverage with Ryan's new role at the paper.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 09, 2015 5 Comments
Earlier today, we shared a story unearthed by The American Mirror that exposed USA Today political reporter Madeleine Behr. Though Behr is covering Scott Walker's presidential campaign, she signed a petition to recall the Wisconsin Governor in 2011. "The leftist media!" might be a tired line, but as we discussed this morning, it's no less true today than it was in years past. It's an issue that grows increasingly more concerning with each new Democratic-operative-masquerading-as-objective-reporter byline. Gone are the days when progressive skew was subtle, we are now in a time where though they refuse to admit it outright, legacy media behemoths are intentionally aligning themselves with Democratic party operatives. But they're still fair and objective, of course... NBC recently dropped major coin when it bought stakes in Buzzfeed and Vox Media, and now the network has entered into a partnership with a Democratic political firm. According to the Washington Examiner, NBC's latest alliance is with TargetSmart, a political data firm that also works with the DNC:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 09, 2015 29 Comments
Scott Walker is no stranger to political challengers or an adversarial press. But what does it do to Walker's national political aspirations when a homegrown reporter who once signed a petition to recall the Governor, happens to be covering his presidential bid for a nationally circulated paper? Tuesday, Media Trackers reported Gannett reporter Madeleine Behr, political writer for USA Today, signed a petition to recall Walker in 2011. Gannett media company knows Behr signed a recall petition because she disclosed as much during the interview process.
A Gannett reporter who writes for both the Appleton Post-Crescent and USA Today covering local and Wisconsin politics, including Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential bid, signed a petition in 2011 to recall Walker from office. Madeleine Behr is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison, and she wrote for a number of publications before joining Gannett earlier this year.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 07, 2015 8 Comments
Hans Rosling from Gapminder explains why the media cannot and does not provide us with an accurate understanding of what's happening globally. The idea seems a bit obvious, but how often is it actually articulated? If it's not doom, gloom, scandal, or a puppy doing something cute, it doesn't make the nightly news cut. The resultant product leaves the casual viewer with a skewed view on the state of global affairs.
You need more than the media to grasp the world

You need more than the media to grasp the world

Posted by Gapminder on Friday, September 4, 2015

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 02, 2015 20 Comments
A few years ago, liberals in politics and media insisted that rhetoric coming from the Tea Party was violent and that we needed a new tone in political discourse. Now that #BlackLivesMatter activists are openly advocating violence, those folks are nowhere to be found. Last night on FOX News, Megyn Kelly brought this double standard into focus. Josh Feldman of Mediaite has more:
Megyn Explodes: Liberals Rip Dangerous Tea Party Rhetoric But #BlackLivesMatter’s Is Fine?! Megyn Kelly really went off tonight on the hypocrisy of Democrats and liberal media figures who were quick to condemn dangerous tea party rhetoric for the 2011 Tucson shooting but are now keeping silent about dangerous rhetoric from #BlackLivesMatter protesters. After some protesters were filmed chanting “pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon,” Kelly was amazed that not only have Democrats avoided the issue, but they’ve been recently trying to establish a connection between them and the movement.

Posted by Jay Caruso on August 31, 2015 25 Comments
The murder of Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth in Texas, sent shock waves around that community and around the police community at large due to the senseless nature of the crime. Goforth was merely filling his cruiser up with gas when Shannon Miles (allegedly) came up behind Goforth, shot in the head and then proceeded to continue shooting him when Goforth was on the ground. Sheriff Ron Hickman has been pretty bold in stating he believes the motive was in part based on all of the police bashing that has been going on as of late, particularly in the #BlackLivesMatter movement:
"This rhetoric has gotten out of control," said Goforth's boss, Harris County, Texas, Sheriff Ron Hickman. "We've heard 'Black lives matter,' 'All lives matter.' Well, cops' lives matter, too. So why don't we just drop the qualifier, and just say 'Lives matter,' and take that to the bank?"
Critics were quick to point out that no such connection could be determined: "There's no evidence that there's a connection between this rhetoric, or this sort of national discourse ... and what happened," CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill said. "It's an awful tragedy, but I don't think it's connected."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 28, 2015 21 Comments
The effort by liberal media to delegitimize Clarence Thomas as a powerful legal scholar is not new. From his confirmation hearings through to the present, Thomas has endured relentless denigration of his intellect in places like The NY Times. Yesterday brought a stark example. NYT Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak has an article focusing on the frequency of Thomas using language in his writing similar to briefs submitted by parties, amicus briefs, and lower court opinions, Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court Justice of Few Words, Some Not His Own. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/us/justice-clarence-thomas-rulings-studies.html?_r=0 Someone casually reading the headline would suspect Thomas of plagiarism (in spirit, if not technically) and being unique among the Justices. The Headline matters -- Thomas alone is singled out. The opening paragraphs of the article seem damning:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 27, 2015 14 Comments
On July 17, 2015, two senior political reporters at Huffington Post announced that all future coverage of Donald Trump's campaign would take place in the Entertainment section of HuffPo, not the Politics section. HuffPo played it up on its Homepage, with a graphic meant to get attention: HuffPo Donald Trump Politics Entertainment Homepage We reported about the decision at the time:
Ryan Grim (Washington bureau chief for The Huffington Post) and Danny Shea (Editorial Director, The Huffington Post), have announced that because Donald Trump in their eyes is a sideshow, any news about Trump will be banished from the “Politics” section of HuffPo News to the Entertainment section, A Note About Our Coverage Of Donald Trump’s ‘Campaign’:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 26, 2015 3 Comments
This is the 6th in our look back at the summer 2014 Gaza conflict. On August 26, 2014, the active Gaza fighting stopped with agreement on a ceasefire. How long that lasts is anyone's guess. Hamas is bragging that it has rebuilt tunnels leading into Israel and its rocket stockpiles and production. Hamas had a deliberate strategy of firing from crowded civilian areas both to use civilians as shields and also to run up civilian casualties as part of a media campaign. The international media was bullied on the ground by Hamas operatives, a fact that slowly has leaked out. The latest report from Polish reporter Wojciech Cegielski, I Saw Hamas' Cruel and Selfish Game in Gaza, who describes two specific incidents he witnesses while in Gaza during the fighting:
The first incident happened late in the evening. I was in the bathroom when I’ve heard a loud rocket noise and my Spanish colleague, a journalist who was renting a flat with me near the Gaza beach, started to scream. He wanted to light a cigarette and came to one of the open windows. The moment he was using his lighter, he saw a fireball in front of his eyes and lost his hearing. From what our neighbors told us later, a man drove up in a pickup to our tiny street. He placed a rocket launcher outside and fired. But the rocket failed to go upwards and flew along the street at ground level for a long time before destroying a building. It was a miracle that nobody was hurt or killed.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 17, 2015 7 Comments
A few months ago Gawker staffers successfully formed an employee union. Why? Because they wanted a union. Yes really, that's the only reason. Whether the move spooked other prominent trash click sites or because their own employees were mumbling uniony things is unclear, but both Upworthy and Buzzfeed have discouraged their employees from going the way of Gawker. Last week, Buzzfeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti reportedly explained in a staff meeting that, "he doesn’t think unionization is “the right idea” for BuzzFeed," writes Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed reports:
“I think unions have had a positive impact on a lot of places, like if you’re working on an assembly line,” Peretti said at a company meeting. In such cases, “if you’re negotiating with management it can make a huge difference, particularly when labor is more replaceable.” In contrast, he said BuzzFeed patterns itself after companies like Google and Facebook, which compete for less replaceable talent by offering better compensation and benefits.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 16, 2015 20 Comments
While small acts of kindness from citizens can touch the lives of police officers many miles away, police officers across the country increasingly face public aggression, disrespect, and violence.  In the wake of Ferguson and the execution of police officers in NYC and across America,  America's police face an untenable situation as they attempt to do their jobs. Watch this report on police under attack: The recent attention has brought with it a heightened awareness among police officers . . . and hesitation.  An Alabama police detective, saying that he was concerned about media attention, was pistol-whipped with his own gun last week.  CNN Wire reports:
An Alabama police detective is pistol whipped with his own gun. He says the coverage of deadly police shootings across America is partly to blame.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 15, 2015 9 Comments
Comcast subsidiary NBC Universal recently purchased large shares of Buzzfeed and Vox Media. NBC Universal, "owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses." With NBCU sinking about $200 million into each respective media conglomeration, both Vox Media and Buzzfeed are reportedly valued at over $1 billion each. Though Buzzfeed is valued around $1.5 billion. Re/code reports:
...in addition to the NBCUniversal investment, the two companies now have a commercial partnership. That means, among other things, that they will collaborate on digital advertising, will work together on video advertising and video programming, and that you will likely see Vox Media employees more frequently on NBCU-owned networks like CNBC. (Re/code already had and continues to have a news partnership with CNBC).
Does this mean proliferation of Voxsplaining and cat gifs? Will the internet overtake television?! Is the future NOW?!

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 09, 2015 35 Comments
Scott Walker appeared on CBS This Morning Friday to talk about his campaign and how he did in the debate. Oddly enough, as soon as Walker started talking about Hillary Clinton, Norah O'Donnell wanted to shift the conversation to Donald Trump and obviously wanted Walker to answer for Trump's words and actions. Walker handled it well and tried to steer the conversation back to his campaign but O'Donnell persisted. She clearly wanted Walker to comment on Trump. Partial transcript via NewsBusters:
Rather than accept Walker’s rejection of Trump’s language, the CBS host continued to press the governor over Trump’s comments and demanded that he “denounce” his opponent:
You know that your own party did a full dissection of what happened in the last presidential campaign about how the Republican Party does among women and how they do among minorities. If you have the leading candidate in the Republican Party saying those things about women, when it was the largest gender gap in history in the last presidential election, can you denounce those comments here today, or is it just part of a freewheeling debate?
Here's the full video:

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 06, 2015 13 Comments
It's ironic and perhaps not accidental that tonight marks both the first Republican Primary debate on FOX News, and the final episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I look forward to a ratings comparison next week. Stewart's political shell game occupies two sides of the same coin. On the first side rests Stewart's claim that he speaks truth to power---as long as Republicans are in charge, anyway. Once Obama became president and Democrats controlled everything else, Stewart became a protector of the powerful. On the second side we find what the Daily Caller's Jim Treacher calls the "clown nose on, clown nose off" routine. When Stewart says something that helps Democrats, he's hailed as a serious news analyst. When he says something outrageous about Republicans, hey---he's just a comedian. In honor of his last show, Justin Monticello and Alexis Garcia of Reason TV have put together a reel you won't see on Comedy Central any time soon:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 04, 2015 5 Comments
On August 2, 2014, in the middle of the Gaza conflict, we ran the A.F. Branco cartoon that is the featured image to this post. It's a fitting occasion to revisit the media bias that frames the international view of the 2014 Gaza conflict, as the fourth in our series looking back at our coverage. Our first three posts were: As before, we are focusing on revisiting our contemporaneous coverage. The international media is extremely sensitive to discussions of its bias, so much so that when, in June of 2015, the Israeli Foreign Ministry produced a comical short cartoon video poking fun at international media bias, the international media blew a gasket. The Foreign Ministry took down the video, though it was captured by others: Was this unfair to the international media? No, it was very fair, though overly simplified (just like the media's coverage of Gaza). Our posts from the summer of 2014 reflected the media bias. In that conflict, the media played a key role in covering up Hamas use of civilians as shields:

Posted by Anne in Petah Tikva on August 03, 2015 9 Comments
All of Israel is reeling with shock at the news of the firebombing of the Dawabshe family's home in the Palestinian village of Duma, in which 1 year old baby Ali Saad was killed and his parents and siblings very severely injured. Prof. Jacobson covered the story in his post which also covered the 2011 stabbing death of Hadas Fogel in her crib by Palestinian terrorists. [caption id="attachment_136619" align="alignnone" width="550"][Ali Dawabsheh and Hadas Fogel] [Ali Dawabsheh and Hadas Fogel][/caption]I covered baby Ali's story, the stabbing attack by an ultra-Orthodox man on the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade (in which one Israeli girl was killed and 5 others injured) and the reaction in Israel to these terrible attacks in my post on my own blog. The reality is that firebomb (Molotov cocktail) attacks are frequent, and almost always by Palestinians against Israelis. In fact, barely a day goes by without such firebombings.

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 01, 2015 14 Comments
MSNBC has pulled the plug on three shows. The Cycle, Now with Alex Wagner, and The Ed Show will no longer grace the TV screens of the struggling network's viewers. Dylan Byers of Politico broke the story this week:
MSNBC cancels three shows amid transition Alex Wagner and Ari Melber, a "Cycle" co-host and MSNBC's chief legal correspondent, will remain with the network. Ed Schultz, the host of "The Ed Show," will leave the network, as will "Cycle" co-hosts Abby Huntsman, Krystal Ball and Toure. MSNBC President Phil Griffin announced the news in a memo sent shortly after the initial version of this item was published. The cancellations, which have been expected for some time, come as NBC News chief Andrew Lack moves to refashion the liberal cable channel as a straight-forward news and politics offering, at least in daytime. In September, MSNBC will add a 5 p.m. program hosted by "Meet The Press" moderator Chuck Todd, while Brian Williams, the former "Nightly News" anchor, will serve as the network's breaking news and special reports anchor.
In honor of this occasion, NewsBusters has opened up their vault to look for some "worst of" moments from Alex Wagner and Ed Schultz. Here are a couple of examples:
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