John Broder and James Kanter had a story in the July 7th New York Times titled Despite Shift on Climate by U.S., Europe Is Wary. The article accurately reveals that the U.S. stance on a binding if selective international treaty limiting greenhouse gas emissions remains, in practice if not rhetoric, consistent under President Obama as it was under President Bush. With President Clinton having undertaken the gesture of signing, but refusing to seek ratification of, the Kyoto Protocol, this continues a long chain of consistent U.S. policy. One key characterization, however, presents a materially different circumstance than is the … Continue Reading

Under the header Obama: Job figures sobering, but show recession is slowing CNN’s Chris Isidore and Paul Steinhauser posted an item July 2nd reporting: “Obama has said recovery will take time, predicting the unemployment rate will climb above 10 percent before reversing.” But CNN fails to tell its readers that that “prediction” was made by Obama just this June, which is a bit like predicting the winner of the World Series just before the last strike is called.

In January, when the President was pushing his “stimulus” plan, his Administration was predicting that—if Congress embraced his policies—unemployment would top … Continue Reading

Reporting about President Obama’s upcoming meeting with Mayor Bloomberg, former Speaker Gingrich, and Rev. Al Sharpton, the New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny misreports the administration’s new position about the future of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program:

The private meeting comes on the same day that Mr. Obama will announce his intention to extend the school voucher program in the District of Columbia. The program provides scholarships to about 1,700 poor students so they can attend private schools, but it was scheduled to end this year, creating uncertainty for the students already enrolled.

While Mr. Obama remains opposed to voucher programs,

… Continue Reading

When President Bush and Vice President Cheney claimed that reversing their tax cuts would hurt many small businesses, the fact-checkers of the press zinged them for exaggerating the impact. Most small businesses, they pointed out, would not be affected. Good for the media: Journalists ought to inform the public when their leaders are making false or misleading statements.

But they ought to do so whether the politicians in question are Republicans or Democrats, and whether the claims help liberal or conservative causes. Last night, President Obama said that his liberalized policy on funding for embryonic stem-cell research would aid the search … Continue Reading