Fading

Hey, do you remember that civil war story from Syria? Not that many people do these days, at least judging by the headlines we see each week in the American media. But it’s not over.. not by a long shot. Just this weekend we saw another sign that Bashar Assad’s strategy of waiting it out [...]

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"I think some in the media were not as curious as I think naturally journalists ought to be.”

Via the Brody File, here’s big-media’s most dogged Benghazi reporter confirming, as tactfully as she can, that she too thinks the press is in the tank. Lest you doubt her conclusion about a certain, shall we say, curious incuriosity among her colleagues, look around at the news today and see how many reporters you find [...]

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Disqualifiers.

Politico reported earlier today that Washington DC has begun to turn against Barack Obama and his administration.  Thanks to Obama’s own arrogance, write Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, he has little good will inside the Beltway anyway, and that leaves him with few passionate defenders in the latest scandal cascade: The town is turning on [...]

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Big Brother is watching. And reading. And ... ?

Yesterday, Jay Carney held a news briefing in which he repeatedly claimed that the White House really has no idea what happens in executive branch agencies, which certainly stoked all sorts of confidence in Barack Obama’s executive abilities.  At one point, when asked about whether the Department of Justice might have seized records of other [...]

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The most transparent administration ever.

If there’s one thing you want to do when accusations are flying about an attempted cover up and a disinterested, collusive media, it’s holding an off-the-record briefing. Time for the team to huddle. The White House held an off-the-record briefing with reporters on Friday afternoon to discuss recent revelations about the Benghazi investigation, sources familiar [...]

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"Glaring."

How significant? Well, we don’t know that precisely, because Sen. Tom Coburn can’t tell the Morning Joe crew what got omitted.  Suffice it to say, Coburn explains, that the omission from State on what happened in Benghazi was significant and will cause big problems for the Obama administration … if it ever gets declassified: Sen. Tom [...]

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Oversight.

One question left mainly unaddressed by yesterday’s hearing on Benghazi — and by others, as well — is the lack of preparation by the Obama administration and the US military for the potential for attack in Benghazi.  After all, terrorist attacks had been increasing steadily since the fall of the Qaddafi regime in 2011.  Other [...]

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Just about everything.

Not much, if you listen to apologists for the White House and State Department, even after the testimony of two previously-excluded whistleblowers yesterday at a House Oversight Committee hearing on the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans.  Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker, says that while some of what was said has already come out [...]

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Whitewash.

Partisan politics loomed over a House hearing Wednesday on the deadly September 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, as Republicans and Democrats clashed over the meaning of testimony from three witnesses who had little new to add to the story… The three State Department officials, one of whom had testified before, [...]

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Neutrality.

I tweeted this link last night and John Ziegler replied, “Isn’t this guild statement the ultimate smoking gun of liberal media bias? Didn’t do same for David Geffen’s efforts to buy LAT”. Precisely my point in yesterday’s post. If the media was as neutral as they pretend to be for professional (and political) advantage, any [...]

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Showtime.

Ed had his say about the WHCD earlier this afternoon and I’ve had mine, over and over, in various annual threads since 2006. Let me add two thoughts. One: For better and for worse, the atmosphere is different when there’s a Republican in office than when there’s a Democrat. When the GOP holds the White [...]

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Choice.

Former abortion clinic worker James Johnson testified today during the murder trial of Kermit Gosnell and provided jurors with a nauseating account of the horrific conditions at the abortion facility… His job was to collect abortion remains and take them to basement — but he eventually refused to participate and bags began piling up. He [...]

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Media matters.

Something truly remarkable happened yesterday. After days and weeks of pushing by New Media and social media, the mainstream media has not only admitted that they should have covered the ongoing capital murder trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, they have promised to immediately remedy that mistake… This is not the usual-usual from our media. [...]

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Medicine.

“If Dr. Gosnell had walked into a nursery and shot seven infants with an AR-15, it would be national news and the subject of presidential hand-wringing,” said Rep. Smith… “Will the decades-long major national news media cover-up of the brutality—and violence—of abortion methods ever end?” Rep. Smith continued. “Will Americans ever be told the horrifying [...]

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Gruesome.

This story just keeps getting more and more revolting. Like a lot of high school sophomores, 15-year-old Ashley Baldwin found a job. Baldwin, however, wasn’t working retail or fast-food. She was doing ultrasounds, administering intravenous medicine and, ultimately, assisting in abortions performed by West Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell. Baldwin, now 22, and the mother of [...]

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Access, denied.

The Obama White House has taken a lot of heat for a media strategy that seems to include limiting traditional access to the president in favor of less hard-hitting venues, but be reasonable, people! They’re merely approaching coverage of the president with a more fair “all of the above” policy that can help them reach [...]

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Plus, Cardinal George to David Gregory: "The categories you use are conservative and liberal ... our categories are what is true and what is false.”

(VATICAN CITY) Earlier today, Pope Francis offered the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer, as well as blessings on the citizens of Rome.  At least 150,000 crowded into St. Peter’s Square and the Via Conciliazione to hear the new pontiff offer some spontaneous thoughts before and after the Angelus prayer, speaking only in Italian — a bit [...]

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“Don't forget the poor!”

(VATICAN CITY) Pope Francis gave his first public audience yesterday morning, speaking for twelve minutes to some of the gathered media and a few of their guests.  As you will see in the very beginning of the video, the line to get into the hall for the audience stretched forward from roughly my place in [...]

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Hype.

Well. That was anticlimactic. CPAC announced they were inviting Trump last week, ostensibly because his “previous CPAC appearance was hugely popular” and “he’s an American patriot and success story with a massive following among small government conservatives” (small-government conservatives, say what?); but if, as Allahpundit speculated, this was supposed to be some kind of rip-roaring [...]

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Theater.

Look surprised. “This is a joke. We’re wasting the president’s time and ours,” complained a senior White House official who was promised anonymity so he could speak frankly. “I hope you all (in the media) are happy because we’re doing it for you.” Another said the president was sincerely trying to find common ground with [...]

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A view

In a news flash which will, beyond a doubt, profoundly and disturbingly affect a majority of Hot Air readers, various media outlets are now reporting that Elisabeth Hasselbeck will be leaving her current television employment situation next season. She is currently one of the hosts of a show called, “The View,” which I believe is [...]

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"... as requested by the senator's staff"

A relatively quick hit for Sunday evening comes to us from West Virginia. As we’ve covered on a number of occasions, formerly staunch Second Amendment advocate Senator Joe Manchin has apparently experienced some sort of “revelation” after the Newtown shootings, and has been in back room talks regarding at least some forms of new gun [...]

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"Regret."

Woodward said he stands by the idea that Sperling’s language was over the line but stops short of suggesting outright intimidation. “I never characterized it as a ‘threat,’” he said. “I think that was Politico’s word. I said I think that language is unfortunate and I don’t think it’s the way to operate. . . . [Sperling’s] [...]

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Bias.

Via Mediaite, I’m going to cut this guy a bit of a break, for two reasons. One: He’s not denying that the media’s on Obama’s side. He’s quibbling with the phrase “in the tank,” which he seems to define, roughly, as being unwilling to ask uncomfortable questions under any circumstances. By that definition, he’s right [...]

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Accountability.

What makes this moment extra precious, of course, is that the audience is a roomful of fellow elected officials. Literally everyone there is accountable to voters. So naturally the voters’ window on the proceedings needs to be shut. WaPo’s Erik Wemple drops the O-bomb on O: Seems there’s a contest of sorts going on within [...]

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