Doing its best to prop up the beyond soggy and now practically underwater Blago/Obama "scandal," The Note works feverishly to convince fellow journalists (news consumers are not the target audience here) that they didn't make fools of themselves hyping the non-story for weeks. That the released report showing Obama's...

We doubt this is how the craft is taught at Columbia J-School [emphasis added]:

Although prosecutors said Mr. Obama was not implicated in their investigation, the accusations of naked greed and brazen influence-peddling have raised questions from some about the political culture in which the President-elect began his...

Another day, another misleading headline from Politico about the Obama transition team. Hey, as long as they keep churning them out, we're gonna keep throwing the flag.

The latest: "Holder pardon makes Dems squirm."

Obviously, it's an article about Obama's pick of Eric Holder...

We've noticed lots of news outlets that have done this. When discussing Bill Clinton and the foundation he heads (and there's been lots of discussion lately about possible conflicts of interest with Hillary perhaps becoming SoS), the word that the Beltway media often refuses to use in connection with the...

Question: Is the press just being sloppy on this issue regarding supposedly pampered autoworkers, or are there issues of class in play? Because honestly, I've had trouble escaping the not-very-subtle elitist, get-a-load-of-this tone that has run through the media's misinformation on the topic; i.e., "These autoworkers get paid that?!"

The conventional wisdom is quite clear: The press always turns skeptical and becomes combative when new presidents come to town. Except, of course, when the press does not.

In truth, the model being touted today by media insiders didn't apply to the previous two administrations. That model didn't apply...

And that's why ABC is including the right-wing hate talker in a primetime special of the year's most fascinating people.

Because naturally, in a year when the country turned blue ABC should definitely celebrate the success of right-wing radio radio, right?

Of course this is how the...

It's worth noting how the treatment of Biden simply accentuated the Beltway press' glaring Achilles heel: its insatiable appetite for trivia and insistence on putting personality and style ahead of substance.

The irony was thick. The media loved pushing the Biden-says-nutty-things narrative. Yet the press whines incessantly about how...

It really is one of the great ironies surrounding conservative media criticism over the years; most of the people doing it don't understand how journalism works, in part because they've never worked as journalists, and therefore they have no respect for the profession.

Right-wing critiques of the press are...

By the end of this month, FNC will likely have mentioned the community organizing group nearly 1,500 times. (The tally currently hovers around 1,480, which is roughly 1,300 more than CNN). The cabler's over-the-top obsession with the group's urban-based voter registration initiative has become something of a running campaign...

In terms of setting the ground rules -- in terms of setting the campaign agenda -- Matt Drudge has been AWOL since mid-September when Wall Street's credit crisis erupted. That's because a sober story like the unfolding economic turmoil knocks Drudge completely out of his element of frivolous, partisan gotcha...

The headline for the Newsweek columnist's latest: "Why Is the Race So Close?"

Doesn't that have a very early-September feel to it?

Any way, Fineman publishes a long laundry list of reasons why Obama should be waaaay out ahead in the polls:

What impresses me--and should...

Bottom line: Do Bill Kristol and David Brooks understand the basic tenets of opinion journalism?

Truth is, when reading a Brooks campaign column, Times subscribers need to ask themselves whether the dispatch reflects the writer's true opinion, or whether he's pulling his punches, the way he did regarding Palin, in...

Yet the story remains woefully under-covered by the mainstream media, where most outlets (New York Times, Wash Post, Newswweek, Time, etc.) have shied away from tackling the touchy topic as a straight news story.

Journalists ought to be reporting the story and asking Palin to give detailed, unambiguous answers, since...

Four years ago to the month, right-wing bloggers were basking in the glow of their CBS Memogate caper. Fast-forward to the autumn of 2008, and the same bloggers are almost unrecognizable in terms of their shrinking clout.

Right-wing bloggers have been reduced to playing small ball. And even then,...

Blinded by its obsession with the presidential campaign (an obsession that has too often revolved around tactics and trivia), the press this summer all but ignored the unfolding financial collapse. At a time when the public announced, week after week, that it was starved for more economic reporting and that...

Instead of recoiling from the media fact-checking, the Republicans have adopted a post-press approach and simply don't care what the press does or says about their honesty. More to the point, the candidates don't think it will matter on Election Day.

They may be right. And that's the media's...

Fifteen thousand journalists in Denver and they couldn't even report what actually happened there. Instead, they invented a storyline of their liking. And (surprise!) it was one that demeaned Democrats.

The concocted narrative simply reflected what some journalists wanted to see happen, which then made it slightly plausible, and therefore...

Another analysis gem from the Associated Press. We'll just highlight one of the more idiotic portions. It's where the AP's Jennifer Loven struggles mightily to keep afloat her divisive, the-Clinton's-stole-the-convention theme. How did she know it was true? Well, because Hillary had the key speaking role Tuesday night. As...

The press has portrayed Clinton's planned convention address, as well as the fact that her name is being placed into nomination, as an unprecedented, heavy-handed power grab.

It's not.

In years past, Democratic candidates who won lots of primaries and accumulated hundreds of delegates (Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, Jerry...