Comrade Obama?

Press fails to question McCain’s “Obama is a socialist” implication

By Zachary Roth   Jul 18, 2008 at 01:19 PM

Only in our screwy media culture can a candidate imply, on little evidence, that his opponent is a socialist, confident... More

Mr. Obama Goes To Baghdad

Do candidates have to visit Iraq before they can set a war policy?

By Zachary Roth   Jul 17, 2008 at 04:06 PM

Lately, John McCain and the GOP have been attacking Barack Obama for not having recently visited Iraq. (The RNC’s Web... More

MoDowd’s Obama Fixation

First his diet, now his sense of humor. She’s wasting her space and our time

By Zachary Roth   Jul 16, 2008 at 04:17 PM

Another day, another shockingly dumb column by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times. Dowd starts out by complaining that... More

Gramm Trackers

Despite liberal skepticism, media seizes on Phil Gramm’s remarks

By Zachary Roth   Jul 11, 2008 at 11:27 AM

When Phil Gramm’s comment—that we’re in only a “mental recession”, and that America is a “nation of whiners”—first became public... More

Social Distortion

McCain clarifies Social Security remarks, remarks remain confusing

By Zachary Roth   Jul 10, 2008 at 02:21 PM

Yesterday, we wrote about the media’s strange reluctance to cover John McCain’s recent assessment that the way in which Social... More

McCain vs. Accuracy, Round 17

McCain questions Social Security’s central premise, media doesn’t notice

By Zachary Roth   Jul 9, 2008 at 03:38 PM

Amid all the misplaced hand-wringing over whether Barack Obama has changed his position on Iraq (he hasn’t, though both candidates... More

“Attacking” McCain’s Military Record

What Wesley Clark really said; how the press missed it

By Zachary Roth   Jun 30, 2008 at 03:54 PM

So: The latest round of mock outrage—in a presidential race that has turned the tactic into an art form—now comes... More

Forced Neutrality II: Try Harder

Stop treating policy disputes as political squabbles

By Zachary Roth   Jun 26, 2008 at 02:25 PM

Yesterday, I wrote about the mainstream media’s tendency to cover policy differences only as he-said-she-said political controversies, without trying to... More

Facing Down “Forced Neutrality”

Why not have policy experts cover policy speeches?

By Zachary Roth   Jun 25, 2008 at 02:36 PM

In an online chat with readers this week, New York Times political editor Richard Stevenson was asked a question that... More

Howard Kurtz, Buck-Passer

By Zachary Roth   Jun 23, 2008 at 02:40 PM

Is Howard Kurtz a media critic at all? We ask because, yesterday, New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt used... More

CNN’s Attention Deficit

By Zachary Roth   Jun 20, 2008 at 01:57 PM

Does CNN understand the difference between the deficit and the national debt? Doesn’t look like it. Check out this exchange... More

A Cap By Any Other Name…

Mainstream press fails to call McCain’s “mandatory caps” gaffe

By Zachary Roth   Jun 20, 2008 at 10:16 AM

If a candidate for president unwittingly revealed, at a widely attended press conference, that he either didn’t understand a basic... More

Campaign Contretemps Covered Correctly

WaPo reporter digs into McCain campaign claims

By Zachary Roth   Jun 18, 2008 at 03:35 PM

If reporters are looking for a model for how to cover the daily barrage of charges and counter-charges launched by... More

Parsing “Unconditional Diplomacy”

Does John McCain know what the word “diplomacy” means?

By Zachary Roth   Jun 17, 2008 at 03:41 PM

Sometimes, the press can unwittingly redefine the entire political debate on an issue just through its choice of language. The... More