Articles

10th Jul, 2006 3:33pm
     Registered nurses, carpenters, and technical writers are unfairly reaping the spoils of the strong economy while hard-working dishwashers and janitors get the shaft.        That might as well have been the first sentence of The Washington Post’s class war-engendering July 10 article “Well-Paid Benefit Most As Economy Flourishes.”       “Wages are rising more than twice as fast for highly paid workers” in the Washington, D.C., area than they are for low-paid laborers, complained staff…
10th Jul, 2006 2:02pm
     Gas prices are on the rise again, but are they really just one penny below “all-time highs,” as CNN business reporter Carrie Lee suggested recently?        “Up 11 cents a gallon over the past two weeks,” Lee reported on the July 10 “American Morning,” citing a Lundberg survey noting that the $2.995-a-gallon cost was “just less than two cents below the all-time high set last year during Hurricane Katrina.” A minute later Lee said it was “about a penny off from the all-time high.”       That…
7th Jul, 2006 1:12pm
     “It’s a financial storm without a shelter in sight,” reporter Mark Strassmann blustered on the July 6 “Evening News.” “Up and down its coast, Florida has an insurance crisis,” Strassmann alarmed viewers.        The CBS correspondent criticized premium increases by private insurers and high deductibles by Florida’s state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. But he left out any conservative critics who would argue that federal flood insurance subsidies have brought on the “crisis” –…
6th Jul, 2006 2:58pm
     Thousands of people may lose their jobs in a seaside resort town in New Jersey, thanks to a Democratic governor’s insistence on raising taxes. But CBS News left out the role tax hikes and wasteful spending played in its recent “Evening News” story.       “Today, with the state government shut down by a budget dispute,” state gambling inspectors were unable to work, substitute anchor Harry Smith noted. That caused Atlantic City casinos to shut down gaming operations.        Correspondent…
5th Jul, 2006 3:45pm
     Hollywood usually gets a pass from the media’s participation in promoting class envy, but NBC’s Michael Okwu found a way to attack A-list Hollywood celebrities: their voiceover work for TV commercials.     “Over the last five years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the use” of those celebrities, Panasonic advertising executive Bob Greenberg told Okwu on the July 5 “Today” show.     The problem, according to Okwu?      “Non-famous, career voiceover artists must audition with hundreds of…
5th Jul, 2006 1:52pm
       Ah, the Fourth of July. Time for fireworks, barbeques … and stern lectures from the food police?       CNN’s Independence Day edition of “American Morning” gave viewers a condescending sermon on how not to shop in the grocery store.        The lecture, courtesy of former Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) advisory board member Marion Nestle, provided a laundry list of dos and don’ts when going to the supermarket consistent with Nestle’s extreme attitudes. In a Sept. 3, 2004…
30th Jun, 2006 4:20pm
     The U.S. economy didn’t grow as strongly as the government first thought this winter. It did far better.      But of the three broadcast evening news programs on June 29, only the CBS  “Evening News” picked up on the story. And CBS soured it by featuring a story focused on one Massachusetts man’s house foreclosure.       “There was good news on the economy today. It’s growing even faster than earlier estimates had it,” Schieffer reported, noting a “sizzling annual rate of 5.6 percent…
29th Jun, 2006 5:13pm
     A June 27 Associated Press article titled “Scientists OK Gore’s Movie for Accuracy” might as well be titled “Gore Supporters Support Gore.”        The AP claimed to “have contacted more than 100 top climate researchers” in the course of its investigation. But of 100 scientists contacted, only 19 had actually found the time to see the film “An Inconvenient Truth” or to read Gore’s book.        Additionally, the AP claimed that some of those contacted “were vocal skeptics of climate change…
29th Jun, 2006 3:15pm
     Detroit is finally wising up about its cars. It’s taking a smaller-is-better cue from Europe, CBS told viewers of the June 28 “Evening News.”      But reporter John Blackstone’s take on DaimlerChrysler’s (NYSE: DCX) plans to sell the tiny Smart USA ForTwo car in the United States left out one big reason the car may not sell well in America: it’s not a good choice for highway driving, with low horsepower and a top speed under 90 miles per hour.      Anchor Bob Schieffer led off his…
28th Jun, 2006 5:02pm
     TV journalists have been warning of “stagflation,” a bursting housing bubble, and even “recession,” but consumers are far more confident about the economy than journalists.      ABC’s Robin Roberts cautioned viewers about a major downturn. “The two-day sell off was sparked by concerns that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates too much, cooling the economy to the point of recession,” she warned on the June 7 “Good Morning America.” That was after first-quarter…