Poll: Majority of Americans believe federal government too powerful

The 54 percent that expressed that belief, however, is only slightly higher than reported in 2012 and slightly lower than reported in 2010 and 2011, Gallup said. Only 8 percent of Americans said they thought the federal government has "too little" power, while 36 percent said the government has about the right amount of power, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Results indicated more than twice as many Republicans as Democrats said the government has too much power, 76 percent to 32 percent. Forty-six percent of Americans said they agreed with the statement that the federal government "poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens," while 53 percent disagree, Gallup said.

Gallup said recent allegations that the IRS targeted conservative organizations and reports of U.S. Justice Department investigations into The Associated Press and Fox News records and emails did not alter Americans' views of the federal government's power. Read more >>

Americans' Confidence in Television News Drops to New Low

Lymari Morales
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' confidence in television news is at a new low by one percentage point, with 21% of adults expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in it. This marks a decline from 27% last year and from 46% when Gallup started tracking confidence in television news in 1993.

The findings are from Gallup's annual update on confidence in U.S. institutions, conducted June 7-10 this year. As such, the findings preceded the erroneous initial reports by cable-news networks CNN and Fox News regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's June 28 decision about the constitutionality of the U.S. healthcare law.
Among 16 U.S. institutions tested, television news ranks 11^th, following newspapers in 10^th place. The 25% of adults who express a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers is down slightly from 28% last year. Confidence in newspapers is now half of what it was at its peak of 51% in 1979.

This year's updates mark a setback from last year for both television news and newspapers, when Americans appeared to be regaining some confidence in these institutions, though they are more in line with 2007-2010 readings. Read more >>

After taking on Fox and the Chamber, the WH takes on Edmunds.com

CSM
Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl is defending his company’s claim that the Cash for Clunkers program was basically a lemon, saying a recent report simply reiterated what’s well known in the car industry: Incentive programs are “eyewateringly expensive.”

After taking on Fox News and the US Chamber of Commerce as part of a new media strategy aimed at perceived political opponents, the White House turned its blog on Edmunds’ critical report of the $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program. In a post titled “Busy covering car sales on Mars, Edmunds.com gets it wrong (again) on Cash for Clunkers,” the White House charged the firm with “trying to grab headlines and get on cable TV” while the analysis doesn’t withstand “basic scrutiny.”

So what did Edmunds do to warrant a snarl from the White House? For one thing, its report did grab headlines, including a well-read Monitor report.

According to Edmunds, only 125,000 of the 690,000 cars sold during the taxpayer-funded promotion were sales inspired by the program as opposed to those that would have happened anyway. Edmunds then divided that number by the total price tag and voilà: Each car purchased cost the American taxpayer $24,000.

Besides the no-nonsense price tag (an Edmunds’ specialty) there’s nothing new about the premise of the report, Anwyl contends. (The White House used dealer reports to highlight the program’s success while Edmunds used comparative historical sales figures to get its numbers.)

“We got real math behind this for the first time,” says Mr. Anwyl in a phone interview, before landing a friendly jab referencing this summer’s “Beer Summit” at the White House. “We need to send an invitation to the President to come out, we’ll have a beer and a photo opportunity, and walk him through the data. He might find it eye-opening.”

More seriously, Anwyl says: “It’s shocking and somewhat troubling that this is something the White House would pick up. This administration more than any other administration is invested heavily in the auto industry, so you would hope that they would had done a little more homework than their response suggests.”

White House War On Fox

Referring to comments made by White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, George Will says that Fox News might be "opinion journalism," but that also "describes The New York Times, and certainly MSNBC."

Will also tells George Stephanopoulos that there is "a bullying aspect" in the Obama administration's tactics toward the cable network.

Laura Ingraham pointed out that when "an esteemed journalist" in Charles Gibson had no clue about the ACORN scandal, there was "a collective gasp across the United States."

Major Networks Threatened Boycott of White House in Support of Fox

Obama has resorted to paranoid Stalinist tactics which simply cannot be tolerated. What's next, dissident concentration camps?

Minneapolis Conservative Examiner

Officials invited the White House press pool to 5 minute interviews with Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg to discuss Feinberg's announcement to cut executive pay at at least 7 companies.

The press pool is made up of the 5 major news organizations including CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. FOX has been a member of the White House press pool since 1997.



Officials invited the entire press corps to the round robin interview process with the express exception of FOX News. The Washington Bureau Chiefs of all of the 5 major networks consulted. The group agreed that if FOX were not allowed to participate, that they would boycott the interview with Feinberg in protest.

The White House eventually relented and granted 2 minute interviews for each network including FOX.

This comes on the heels of several Obama administration officials making the rounds on the weekend talk shows on the other 4 major networks and claiming that FOX News is more like "talk radio" and "not really a news organization" like ABC or CNN.

http://www.examiner.com/x-2927-Minne...corps-protests