SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 A.M.

WRIGHT IS RIGHT – FROM FOX BUSINESS:   Former NBC Universal CEO Bob Wright said you don't have to look far to find examples of the mainstream media's bias against President Trump. "It's everywhere," Wright told the FOX Business Network's Stuart Varney. “It’s just unfortunate, but it doesn't seem to be hurting...he's accomplishing a great deal."   Wright pointed to the US trade agreement with China and the government’s budget surplus as examples of the administration’s achievements so far.  “I saw [Commerce Secretary] Wilbur Ross this morning.  This trade agreement with China, that’s usually a four-year discussion to get something like that moving. Things that are happening, you know, hitting that surplus was just billions and billions of dollars.”  When Varney pressed Wright on whether he was correct that the media was going after Trump in a very extreme and personal way, Wright responded, “Of course you are.”  I'd like to see more veterans of the mainstream media speak out about the intense bias of the media.  It's a national disgrace.

A FOOD REVOLUTION – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  A trip to Whole Foods may no longer consume your whole paycheck.  Faced with declining same-store sales in recent years, Whole Foods is transforming itself into a supermarket with lower costs and prices. That’s likely to be a boon for customers who have been enticed away from the high-end organic grocer by cheaper competitors like Trader Joe’s and Kroger, where prices on comparable products are as much as 15 percent lower. Indeed, Kroger has overtaken the high-end organic grocer as the largest seller of organic and natural food in America.  “There’s a lot of pricing pressure because their customers can get the same type of healthy food at lower costs at places like Walmart,” says Michelle Grant, head of retailing research at Euromonitor.  Most immediately, this means price cuts for frozen food and milk and butter are coming your way. In a recent conference call with stock analysts, Whole Foods execs said that they had been testing price reductions in the former category with “really great results.” It’s also launching a pilot program this summer to cut costs — and price tags — of dairy products.   Competitive free enterprise at work.  The customer benefits.

GONE? – FROM FOX:  “President Trump took on the media and James Comey in a string of fiery tweets Friday morning, warning the ousted FBI director not to leak details of their conversations while suggesting he could cancel future press briefings -- in response to the media uproar over his team's changing narrative on Comey's firing.   In doing so, the president also gave cover to his embattled representatives who have scrambled to reconcile the president's recent statements and the administration's original explanation.   “As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” Trump wrote. “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”  Not a bad idea, actually.  I've always thought most press briefings are a waste of time.  The questions often seem to be attempts by reporters to show that they're respectably liberal.

May 12, 2017