All you need to see is the picture of a beaming President Barack Obama included in USA  Today’s print assessment of the president’s three-year anniversary to know which way the story is slanted.

Or, just take a gander at the glowing, inaccurate headline:

Obama at Three-Year Mark: Big Wins, Much Undone

Gosh, Obama is so great, but even the greatest need a smidge more time to save the world.

The lede in reporter Richard Wolf’s story strikes a better balance, describing a presidency marked by a “mixed record of historic achievements and unfulfilled promises.”

Then, we hit the DNC talking points – hard.

Obama’s accomplishments include “jolting the economy,” which is news to the millions of people either unemployed or who have given up on finding new work. And do “jolts” normally cause the unemployment rates to go up and the deficit to skyrocket?

His other accomplishments? The deeply unpopular health care legislation, ending the Iraq War (no thanks to the surge which he derided but help make Iraq stable) and killing bin Laden – Obama’s one unexpurgated triumph.

The article goes so far as to take Obama’s biggest problem – a stagnant economy – and transform it into a delayed positive as if David Axelrod himself were furiously hammering away on that trusty USA Today keyboard.

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How do you write a news story about incivility in our politically charged times and not name drop Occupy Wall Street?

Just ask the folks over at USA Today.

The company chided for its brief news stories pulled out all the stops this week to document the lack of civility nearly a year after the Tucson shooting of Dem. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

That savage act had nothing to do with incivility. It was about a mentally deranged man who got his hands on a dangerous weapon. Yet the media meme quickly became how our national dialogue had descended beyond the bounds of decency, conveniently at a time when public criticism of President Barack Obama was reaching a fever pitch.

The media lectured us for weeks on why we all should tone down the rhetoric, but when members of the Left cranked their hate meters to 11 those same scribes didn’t bother to mention it, let alone critique them.

Narratives flow in only one direction, you see.

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You have to give mainstream journalists credit. No matter how high the evidence of liberal bias stacks up, they stick to the notion they don’t play favorites.

Rathergate? An aberration. A Washington Post ombudsman admitting journalists favored Sen. Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election? Nothing but reporters chasing down history in the making.

Press blackouts on the Van Jones controversy? Oops, we missed it.

The New Black Panther case? Not enough reporters to cover it.

Ezra Klein, JournoList founder

Poll after poll after poll revealing journalists vote for Democrats over Republicans by a wide margin? Doesn’t matter, since they don’t bring their political impulses to bear on their work.

Meanwhile, the public’s faith in the media continues to plummet. And the one cable news outlet with enough reporters – and curiosity – to cover subjects like Jones and the New Black Panther Party, Fox News, continues to see its ratings soar. (more…)

The entertainment web site TheWrap has posted a tip sheet for the embattled CNN cable news network.

CNN keeps hemorrhaging viewers, and TheWrap is offering some advice for the network to snap out of its funk.

Why any media organization feels the need to prop up a rival in our competitive culture is a mystery, but let’s assume TheWrap.com has only noble intentions. That’s why it’s a shame the web site doesn’t come close to offering practical solutions to CNN’s woes.

So, in the interest of media camaraderie, here are three steps that would actually help the network come back to life. Suffice to say TheWrap didn’t touch on any of them. (more…)

At least the latest Glenn Beck cover story wasn’t as bad as that Time Magazine hit piece from last year.

USA Weekend, the magazine supplement that comes with many Sunday newspapers, ran a front-page story on the Fox News dynamo over the weekend.

“Ten Things You Never Thought You’d Hear From Glenn Beck” is a mostly sympathetic portrait of the garrulous talker. Such profiles typically are, but even a soft-focused feature can’t help but reveal the inherent biases in today’s mainstream press. (more…)