Category: Journalism

Exceptionally Bad Reporting on the Glossip Case

by · Jul 24, 2025 9:29 am

Reporting on court cases is often bad, but NBC has an exceptionally atrocious report on the Glossip case here. The article says:

The witness, Justin Sneed, admitted killing Van Treese but told prosecutors that the killing was at Glossip’s direction in exchange for $10,000. Sneed, a motel handyman, was sentenced to life for the crime, while Glossip was given the death penalty.

In the Supreme Court’s majority ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that prosecutors “knew Sneed’s statements were false” and that “because Sneed’s testimony was the only direct evidence of Glossip’s guilt of capital murder, the jury’s assessment of Sneed’s credibility was necessarily determinative here.”

Anyone reading that who did not already know the facts of the case would take it to mean that the Supreme Court held that the prosecutors knew Sneed’s statements about the crime were false. That is, a reader would naturally read it to say that the statements referred to in the second paragraph are those described in the first.

But that implication is false. No court has ever held that Sneed’s statements about the crime are false. The statements in the Supreme Court case involved collateral matters about Sneed’s treatment with lithium while in jail. Continue reading . . .

Dispatch Acquires SCOTUSBlog

by · Apr 26, 2025 10:12 am

SCOTUSblog has been acquired by Dispatch Media. Amy Howe has this post on SCOTUSblog, and Dispatch editor Steve Hayes has this post on the Dispatch.

I am pleased to see that Amy is staying with SCOTUSblog as a member of Dispatch’s team. Her posts on SCOTUSblog and her own blog have long been my go-to source for thorough and unbiased reports on Supreme Court cases that are outside my own field of expertise.

The usual squawkers are squawking that The Dispatch is “right-wing.” See, e.g., this post at Above the Law. But a quick look at The Dispatch’s home page illustrates how meaningless such simplistic designations are. They are certainly not Trump fans. One post is titled “Trump’s Team of Losers.” The Founding Manifesto states, “The goal was to create a place where thoughtful readers can come for conservative, fact-based news and commentary that doesn’t come either through the filter of the mainstream media or the increasingly boosterish media on the right.” That’s a long way from the image usually conjured up by the term “right wing.”

Continue reading . . .

Soros-Funded Victims’ Groups

by · Apr 20, 2022 9:33 am

As National Crime Victims’ Rights Week kicks off on April 24, three California groups, which support shorter sentences and the early release of criminals, will be holding rallies and events portraying themselves as the voice of victims.

The three progressive groups funded by liberal billionaire George Soros—Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, Californians for Safety and Justice, and Prosecutors Alliance of California—support defunding police departments, declining to prosecute most criminals, and seeking the shortest possible sentences for those who are prosecuted.

As reported on Fox 40 News, earlier this week, representatives of these groups met with legislators in Sacramento to encourage more state-funded services for crime victims, while ignoring the laws and policies that have flooded California communities with criminals.

Continue reading . . .

Media Lies Exposed in Capitol Police Officer Death

by · Apr 20, 2021 3:58 pm

A January 9, 2021  New York Times story by Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt reported that “President Trump has not ordered the flags on federal buildings to fly at half-staff in honor of Brian Sicknick a police officer who was killed after trying to fend off pro-Trump loyalists during the siege at the Capitol on Wednesday.  Mr. Sicknick, 42, an officer for the Capitol Police, died on Thursday from brain injuries he sustained after Trump loyalists who overtook the complex struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials.”  This description of the officer’s death was broadcast nationally by virtually every major news network.  For example here’s NBC News citing the Times and the Associated Press as the source.  The problem is, they were lying.  Officer Sicknick was not hit with a fire extinguisher and did not die from injuries from fending off supporters of President Trump.  Hours after the storming of the Capitol had ended, Sicknick died in his office from a stroke according to the Medical Examiner.  A real reporter could have gotten better facts on January 6th, but the false version was reported into February.

Continue reading . . .

Another Loss for Open Debate

by · Apr 16, 2021 8:04 am

The anti-police forces who seek to suppress every voice that disagrees with them have claimed another kill, and freedom of expression has suffered another loss.

In a notorious incident in 2020, Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police serving a warrant. Unlike most of the high-profile use-of-force incidents of the last few years, there is no indication that Ms. Taylor brought the use of force on herself.

Even so, it does not follow that the police necessarily did anything wrong either. Hearing their side of the story would inform the public debate. Continue reading . . .

Shocking News: Attorney General Claims to Be Head of the Justice Department

by · Sep 16, 2020 8:51 pm

Like much of the press, the Washington Post has walked away from its honorable role as a liberal but generally honest reporter of the news, and has become instead a relentless bullhorn for the Biden campaign and anything it thinks will assist that campaign.  Today’s breathless story starts off with, “Attorney General William P. Barr delivered a scathing critique of his own Justice Department on Wednesday night, insisting on his absolute authority to overrule career staff, who he said too often injected themselves into politics and went ‘headhunting’ for high-profile targets.”

What have we come to?  The AG thinks he can overrule a GS 15?  Gads, I need my smelling salts. Continue reading . . .

Violence Gets a New Name

by · Jul 26, 2020 9:40 pm

The new name is “mostly peaceful.”  That’s the phrase the media use to describe the five or ten minutes Antifa and other thug groups take to organize themselves before they begin the evening’s “entertainment” of arson, rock throwing and assault in one major city after the next.  But sometimes the, uh, peacefulness “intensifies.”

Continue reading . . .

The Major Media Spin on Rising Crime

by · Jul 10, 2020 11:49 am

While many local papers, television and radio news broadcasts have been reporting widespread increases in violent crime in most large U.S. cities this year, the focus of the national media has been on the dominant issues of the liberal narrative.  These include systemic racism, particularly in law enforcement, horror stories about the pandemic, particularly in states where Republican Governors have ended lockdowns, and endless criticism of the President and anyone who supports him.  Yesterday NBC news broke ranks, and actually reported on the spike in shootings, but still managed to spin it to fit the narrative.

Continue reading . . .

Tom Cotton’s Op-Ed and the Ensuing Gnashing of Teeth

by · Jun 13, 2020 1:12 pm

Sen. Tom Cotton, a combat veteran and a leader for sober, law-oriented criminal justice, wrote an op-ed for the NYT arguing that, if civilian police were unable or unwilling to restore order to cities ravaged by riots, arson and looting, the military should be called in.  Immediately there ensued an uproar inside the Times, which then apologized for running the piece.  The Times said the op-ed did not, on reflection, meet its “standards,” never explaining, however, what those standards consist of.  It has since become obvious that they consist, not of honest debate  —  which used to be the standard for the discussion of public issues among opinion leaders  —  but of abject obedience to the new, “woke” party line of the extreme Left.

We are left to wonder whether the Times’ apology is the beginning of the end of journalism as we have known it and, even more ominously, of classical liberalism itself, now to be replaced by an updated version of the Cultural Revolution and enforced conformity of thought.  Ross Douthat, a committed NeverTrumper, explains why he’s worried.