Tag: media bias

Yesterday's announcement of House Republicans' plan to rescue the state budget from drowning in red ink, free up millions of stimulus dollars to plug directly into the economy and completely avoid the tax hikes the Dillon Majority and the Granholm-Cherry administration have promised didn't just get short shrift... at one "news" outlet it actually got NO shrift.

MLIVE provided a prominent link for part of the day yesterday, the Lansing State Journal has the story and the Detroit News buried the story in fine print half-way down their front page but our friends at the Ivory Tower decided a massive package of reforms and cuts that'd actually solve this dag-blamed budget crisis simply wasn't news worthy.

What do we get instead from the FREEP?  The front page contains "above the fold" stories (as it were) about the Red Wings (which is actually OK with me), Michael Vick, Delphi workers frustrated by part of the "bailout" plan... and a discussion of a boat race.  

Maybe on their dedicated "Politics" page?  Nope.  The top five actual stories, in order:

-Obama defends healthcare plan to Americans
-Dems line up as possible Macomb County Exec
-Michigan Democrats test water for ballot proposals
-Union-tied lawyer joins Michigan governor's race

In between the third and fourth is a pro-Obama puff piece Q & A page ostensibly designed to help viewers better understand what the President said during last night's television address.  

Anyone notice a trend?  National Dems, local Dems, statewide Dems and Dems in the biggest race this election cycle.  

If you only read the FREEP it isn't that you don't know House Republicans proposed a massive spending and regulatory overhaul that ends the state's budget crisis without raising taxes... it's that you don't even know Michigan Republicans exist!

Alas... this morning eeeeeveryone knows that Mark Brewer exists and job providers across the Mitten have already begun looking at real estate listings in other states.  That's the sort of thing that can happen when the Chairman of the Democratic Party stands up in an overwhelmingly Democratic state and tells anyone listening that he may be looking to launch a ballot proposal aimed at using rocket fuel to propel the minimum wage to an astronomical $10 an hour.

(Read on...)

Cross-posted at theblogprof

I wrote just last night about how the Detroit Free Press in an act of utter and blatant dishonesty painted Mike Cox as a rogue politician trying to get a leg up on the Governors race in 2010. (Uberliberal Detroit Free Press Pens Editorial Hatchet Piece On MI AG Mike Cox (and the 2nd Amendment too)) They did this by pointing to the AGs filing an Amicus brief to the SCOTUS regarding an unconstitutional handgun ban in Chicago that mirrors a similar ordinance that was shot down (heh) by the SCOTUS in the Heller decision. The NRA opposed the ordinance. The Free Press totally failed to mention, deliberately versus by shear ignorance I think, that Cox joined 33 other states in the filing. Or that Cox filed an amicus brief, again alongside other states, in said Heller decision. This is a typical function for a state AG when bad law even has a possibility of becoming incorporated thereby forcing all 50 states to abide by that decision.

Mike Cox wrote a letter today to The Detroit Free Press:

cross-posted at theblogprof

You know, the Gubanatorial race has barely started, and the Detroit Free Press is already on the warpath for the head of AG Mike Cox. This is one of the most blatantly dishonest, if not THE most dishonest, editorials that I have ever seen. Even for the freep, which is well known to lean so far left that they are about to fall over any minute. Here is the title of their dishonest hit-piece: Your taxes at work for the NRA (and Cox). Let me just cut to the chase. The freep is wringing its hands because Cox filed an amicus brief with the SCOTUS regarding an unconstitutional ban on handguns by Chicago politicians. The freep says Cox, and Michigan, have nothing to do with this case. What the freep doesn't mention is that 33 other states also filed amicus briefs! They all do this because they don't want bad law to hit their states! Cox is doing exactly what his job requires of him! Here is the press release via The Examiner: Cox   Joins NRA in Fight against Chicago Gun Ban.

Cross-posted at theblogprof

That Tim. What a class act! Seems that Skubick has had quite a busy May bashing conservatives in any way he can. Just this month, he hit conservatives on not having a big enough tent (as if freedom and liberty aren't big enough to encompass everybody), blamed the Republican minority in this state for the budget problems (I kid you not!), and proposed raising taxes while providing flak cover to Granholm for cuts she never made. Like I said, Skubick has had a busy month. He's finishing off May with another hit piece focused on conservatives, but cloaked in non-partisanship: Despite their claims, no candidate can fix economy. In other words, what Tim is getting at here is that we as a state are screwed. It doesn't matter who's Governor, we're screwed.

This sais it for me:
This is another unbelievable story coming out of academia. Being of academia, I see kookiness now and again, but nothing like this. Moreover, there hasn't been a boo or a peep about this in the local MSM. Gee - I wonder why? Maybe the MSM is busy trying to paint the entire populace as a bunch of homophobes? (Media Homophobic Entrapment Fails (Epically)) I had to find this story at the WND: University to student: Endorse being 'gay' or leave. Talk about an offer you can't refuse, ala The Godfather. What happened to that whole "tolerance" thing? Diversity? Anyway, here's the gist:

With west Michigan manufacturing giant Herman Miller now expected to post eight-figure losses this quarter and 6,000 additional GM workers losing their jobs via a new "buyout" effort, we're a good stretch from the bottom yet, too.

Somebody get on the phone and tell the number thirteen we're on our way... because we just arrived at the number twelve's house and he hasn't got nearly enough space.

That's right.  Twelve percent.  12.  Doce in Spanish and twaalf in Dutch.  

According to the Detroit News:

"This would be the highest rate the state's had since January 1984, when the rate was 12.1 percent," said Bruce Weaver, an economic analyst with the state.

Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica Bank, called the jobless figure released Wednesday "grim, quite simply."

We have the highest unemployment rate now in Michigan in 25 years, roughly 4 percentage points above the national average," he said.

The national rate for February was a (relatively) paltry 8.1 percent.  And here in Michigan back in February of 2008?  We were only at 7.6 percent.  Yeah, sure, 7.6 was the worst in the nation then the same way 12 is the worst in the nation now, but ouch.

The News crunched the numbers and they show a 58 percent rise in the number of jobless  Michiganders in the last YEAR of the Granholm - Cherry administration alone.  29,000 fewer jobs in this state in the last month alone.  

How about that leadership!

Meanwhile, the Associated Press continues carrying the Governor's water via a new "analysis" piece that sounds the alarm about how similar the current budget climate in Lansing feels to the climate that produced a government shutdown and a record-shattering $1.5 billion Democratic tax hike in 2007.

Yeah, fine, sure, the AP can't be bothered to mention the biggest tax hike in the history of the state anywhere in the piece and pretends a few hours with the lights out was all that came of the budgetary stalemate, but that's not even the worst of their omissions.

Read on...