Broadcast

NPR may call its segment on the Clinton Foundation 'fact checking' but it sounded to me like the good old days of unsubstantiated rumor leading to nothing:

"Fact Check: Is The Clinton Foundation 'The Most Transparent'?"

First, it's not clear correspondent Peter Overby really is looking at how other Foundations are run.

Equally important, the so-called 'transcript' omits the final sentence of the broadcast version which goes:

Peter Overby: "So at least as things stand now, the Clinton Foundation "transparency controversy" [sic] resembles some of the other episodes of Clinton politics: It's a picture that's not terribly clear, shaped by exaggerations on both sides." (Check out the mp3 file).

So the line about "other episodes of Clinton politics" isn't included in the "transcript". Interesting... I wonder why.

The Bloomberg editorial ('Romney’s Tax Plan: Secret or Just Nonsensical?') reminds us that we've been down the road of Bad Math before:

Actually the segment on NPR's All Things Considered was titled, 'Citizen's United Ruling Benefits Union Campaigners'.

It was about as close to propaganda as NPR can get. The very notion that Unions, in decline for the past 30 years and who represent maybe 8% of workers in the private sector and a bit more in government -- that Unions can come even close to matching what Corporate America is putting together is disingenuous to say the least.

PBS NewsHour commentator, Mark Shields, had an extremely insightful reaction to Mitt Romney's display of "kindness and generosity" during his acceptance speech in Tampa:

The one question that was raised -- and it is a legitimate one -- is that he was -- is enormously kind to people he can see in acts of personal kindness and generosity of time. But policies affect all kinds of people you don't see, millions of people that he will never come in contact with.

Bob Schieffer made this throw-away comment before moving on to more important matters:

"We need health care reform, but I'm a long way from believing the president's plan was the best way to go about it."

Anyone got any idea what Bob Schieffer's preferred solution is beyond making it to 65, taking advantage of Medicare and having CBS make up the difference?

This segment points to everything that is wrong with 'reporting' (yes, in scare quotes) from the PBS News hour.

Paul Solman focuses on nuance and whether what Krugman is saying is 'partisan' or not, to which Krugman wisely replies:

"Except it's true, right? And people like me have been right so far."

From this morning's NPR report on production of solar panels:

Wow, Scott Horsley waited till the tail-end of an almost completely vacuous piece of MSM reporting to add this sudden dose of reality:

via Twitpic

Public Notice, the rightwing ponzi group reported by TBM back in March (see orginal TPM post) is running its 20-30 second piece of mis-information over and over again on the CBS radio affiliate in Chicago, WBBM.

I don't know if they're running it on any other station in the Chicagoland area but it's sure driving me nuts.