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Well, not intentionally. But Jim Ragsdale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune attended a conference in Chicago on covering gun issues, which he describes this way: “Covering Guns” brought reporters with front-line experience covering mass shootings in Tucson, Ariz.; Aurora, Colo.; Newtown, Conn., and Red Lake, Minn., to meet with gun experts and advocates and gun trainers. Sponsored by the Poynter journalism center and funded by the McCormick Foundation of Chicago, we gathered in a city that witnessed 506 homicides last year. The idea, I take it, was to educate reporters so they could do a better job of covering news...

In a new report released today, the Republican National Committee owned up to a number of mistakes made during the 2012 election cycle. While the central party admitted there were too many presidential debates, it only barely touched on the role that unfair media moderators played in both the nominating process and in the general election. Despite its reluctance to criticize media impartiality, the RNC report did open the door to the creation of a new organization that would be assigned to create and host the debates apart from the media. “We are intrigued with the suggestion some have made...

ANALYSIS: Two days before the election, CBS posted additional portions of a Sept. 12 "60 Minutes" interview where President Obama seems to contradict himself on the Benghazi attack. As the Benghazi investigation gets more attention and focus, CBS is once again adding to the Benghazi timeline. In the interview, according to the latest portions, Obama would not say whether he thought the attack was terrorism. Yet he would later emphasize at a presidential debate that in the Rose Garden the same day, he had declared the attack an act of terror. That moment was one of the most intense exchanges...

Disgraced ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather delved into conspiracy theories on Monday, speculating that the Ohio Republican Party could steal the election for Mitt Romney. In a Facebook posting for Dan Rather Reports, the journalist hyped, "The whole upper tier of Ohio state government is in the hands of the GOP now; in very close voting they have the power to influence what votes are counted and how." Linking back to other conspiracy theories, Rather reminded, "Remember Ohio, Bush v. Kerry in 2004 and Florida, Bush v. Gore in 2000)." The former CBS Evening News host seemed to be echoing the...

She got it wrong. She interfered. She took a side. Candy Crowley may finally have done something else as well: so visibly tipping the scales of media bias that the end result makes Mitt Romney the next president. Taken all together, CNN's Candy Crowley, in her zeal to intrude on the presidential debate and save President Obama from himself, may just have provided the televised moment that finally sparks a revolt against the four years of fawning coverage of President Obama. Becoming to the liberal media what the Tet Offensive was to Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War. For four...

I went to Hulu and watched the SNL skit of the Obama/Romney debate. They made Romney into the unlikable person, made him say the most outrageously false statements such as he killed Osama bin Laden (Romney lied-straight out of the DNC talking points), and even had Obama being excused for his performance because he was thinking about what gift to get to his wife on their anniversary (such a romantic fellow!) and SNL even made a centerpiece of Al Gore's buffoonish excuse that Obama was affected by the altitude. I just turned off SNL after I watched their skit on...

"I've been covering politics since way before Tim Tebow was born," Dan Rather, the disgraced former anchor for CBS' "Evening News" said on the Monday night broadcast of MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow" program. "But these things unfold as time goes on. And while right now Ryan looks like he is toxic for the ticket, it could be as we get deeper in the campaign, that this intelligent man, he is intelligent and serious man, will show something that people do not now see." "In the early going, in the early going, Ryan damages the ticket because rightly or wrongly, he's perceived...

Incredible. CBS News has an anti-Romney "fact check" article up this morning supposedly debunking statements made by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan during yesterday's introduction of the veep pick. At the end, CBS actually snuck in the hyper-partisan, DNC-talking-point assertion that it was "clear" that when President Obama utttered his infamous "you didn't build that," he was talking about "teachers and infrastructure." CBS claims that in criticizing "you didn't build that," Republicans "seized on only part of Obama's quote." In fact, it is CBS itself that edited out another, most telling, part of Obama's comments. The network omitted the following...

Don't underestimate Newt Gingrich, warns Dan Rather during an MSNBC roundtable discussion today. "Anyone who has covered Newt Gingrich over the years knows better than to underestimate him," said Rather, referencing his political comeback. "Newt Gingrich on the move politically is as dangerous as a wounded wolverine." Rather added that Jon Huntsman was the best candidate for the GOP in the 2012 general election, but would have a hard time winning the Republican primary.

You might think the British press holds a monopoly on media controversy this month, with the shuttering of a 168-year-old tabloid over a phone-hacking scandal. Still, at least one Yank media concern has won recent unwelcome notoriety--fittingly enough, for airing misleading video footage on the national holiday commemorating American independence from the British crown. CBS has been caught doctoring Fourth of July footage after Bostonians realized Thursday that the network's images of fireworks over various city landmarks were not only breathtaking, but also fake. An area research scientist appears to have been among the first to point out the discrepancy...

That’s what Jim Rendon asks in his piece about Dan Rather and his work on HDNet. Owner Mark Cuban has made little effort to extend Rather’s reach, he writes. New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter hasn’t written about Rather’s show since it first launched because HDNet has never “flagged one of his big stories for me effectively.” See here the article in Mother Jones magazine. http://motherjones.com/media/2011/02/dan-rather-reports-mark-cuban-hd-net?page=1 Dan Rather: Inside Mark Cuban's Gilded Cage At 79, the former CBS anchorman is still kicking ass and winning Emmys. But with his exposés sandwiched between pro wrestling and Girls Gone Wild, is...

Conservative activist James O'Keefe, whose deceptively edited hidden camera videos have made him a star on the right, is out with a new video targeting National Public Radio executive Ron Schiller - and by extension NPR itself. The video purports to show Schiller speaking to a pair of men posing as representatives of a phony Muslim group called seeking to give $5 million to NPR. The men tell Schiller they are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist political movement. It shows Schiller stating that the Republican Party and the Tea Party is "fanatically involved in people's personal lives and...

Like Dogs to Vomit, Media Matters Cleans Up Liberal Media Messes Just like dogs that merrily slurp vomit to the last chunk, bloggers at the Democratic party front group Media Matters for America follow behind liberal media outlets, lapping up their latest noxious dousing of conservatives. Then with a satisfied smirk, Media Matters gloats "what vomit?" when conservatives complain about being puked on by the press. The latest example of Media Matters' vomit fetish is their defense of the attempted smear of Sarah Palin during her humanitarian trip to Haiti last weekend by the Associated Press and others as a hair-obsessed...

After conducting an investigation in response to a recent police report that 36 books treating LGBT topics had been damaged with what appeared to be urine in Lamont Library last month, the University determined Monday morning that the incident was an accident and will no longer be treated as a hate crime, according to a statement sent from College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds to the Harvard community on Monday. On November 24, library staff at Lamont discovered the damaged books—on subjects including lesbian and gay issues and same-sex marriage—along with a bottle assumed to have contained what investigators believed to...

Approximately 40 books dealing with LGBT issues were vandalized with what appeared to be urine in Lamont Library on November 24, according to a report filed Friday by the library security staff to the Harvard University Police Department. HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano wrote in an e-mail that the vandalized books' subject matters included lesbian and gay issues and same-sex marriage. Due to the nature of books, HUPD is currently investigating the incident as a bias crime.

A new poll released by Gallup shows that American distrust in the mass media has reached a record high. This is the fourth straight year that a majority of respondents have said that they have little or no trust in the media, but the 57% who say that this year is a new record for the poll. According to the poll, 48% of respondents say the media is too liberal, 15% say it is too conservative and 33% say it is “just right.” You can see how the responses have changed over the years here: (snip to picture of chart)...

The Washington Post, among other mainstream media outlets, relentlessly stokes claims that Tea Partiers are racist. Eugene Robinson accuses almost everyone who opposes the Obama agenda — but particularly those active in the Tea Party movement — of being motivated by racism and prone to violence. Jonathan Capehart, another WaPo columnist, does the same. So low and behold, the WaPo news writers, citing a WaPo poll, announce that Tea party groups battling perceptions of racism (emphasis mine): As several states with active “tea party” groups prepare to hold important primary elections this month, the movement is struggling to overcome accusations...

Bill Brady, the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois, paid no federal income tax in 2009. In recent weeks, I've written a couple of columns about reports that nearly half the people in the United States will not pay federal income tax for 2009. In part, that's the result of new tax credits aimed at stimulating the economy. Still, as someone who paid the tax, it bothers me that some people don't. Especially people wealthier than I am. When that wealthier person happens to be a political candidate complaining about high taxes, well, it seems sort of wrong. Brady reported...

Timothy McVeigh, executed in 2001 for the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing that killed 168 people, coldly declined to express remorse for his actions in a set of interview tapes aired for the first time Monday night on MSNBC.

HDNet's Dan Rather, in a piece for the Huffington Post, apologized for his use of the word "watermelons" during a segment about Barack Obama's ability to pass health care, that was aired on the March 8 Chris Matthews Show. In his explanation Rather offers his Texas background as an excuse saying, "I used the analogy of selling watermelons by the side of the road. It's an expression that stretches to my boyhood roots in Southeast Texas" but then goes on to plead "I'm sorry people took offense." The following is the most relevant portion of the statement, from the...