diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 45997033b4..3e37a55e67 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ pep8:
 	pep8 -r --ignore=E501,E221,W291,W391,E302,E251,E203,W293,E231,E303,E201,E225 lib/ bin/
 
 pyflakes:
-	pyflakes lib/ansible/*.py
+	pyflakes lib/ansible/*.py bin/*
 
 clean:
 	@echo "Cleaning up distutils stuff"
diff --git a/bin/ansible b/bin/ansible
index 0d79b1ddf0..480112abd4 100755
--- a/bin/ansible
+++ b/bin/ansible
@@ -181,6 +181,9 @@ class Cli(object):
         if utils.has_dark_hosts(results):
             buf += utils.dark_hosts_msg(results)
 
+        if not utils.has_hosts(results):
+            print "ERROR: no hosts matched"
+
         print buf
 
 ########################################################
diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner.py b/lib/ansible/runner.py
index aabcbea232..02705f3ebc 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/runner.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner.py
@@ -22,8 +22,6 @@ import fnmatch
 import multiprocessing
 import signal
 import os
-import ansible.constants as C 
-import ansible.connection
 import Queue
 import random
 import jinja2
@@ -31,17 +29,14 @@ import traceback
 import tempfile
 import subprocess
 
+import ansible.constants as C 
+import ansible.connection
 from ansible import utils
 from ansible import errors
 
 # should be True except in debug
 CLEANUP_FILES = True
 
-try:
-    import json
-except ImportError:
-    import simplejson as json
-    
 ################################################
 
 def _executor_hook(job_queue, result_queue):
@@ -170,7 +165,7 @@ class Runner(object):
             cmd = subprocess.Popen([host_list], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, shell=False)
             out, err = cmd.communicate()
             try:
-                groups = json.loads(out)
+                groups = utils.json_loads(out)
             except:
                 raise errors.AnsibleError("invalid JSON response from script: %s" % host_list)
             for (groupname, hostlist) in groups.iteritems():
@@ -309,7 +304,7 @@ class Runner(object):
             out, err = cmd.communicate()
             inject2 = {}
             try:
-                inject2 = json.loads(out)
+                inject2 = utils.json_loads(out)
             except:
                 raise errors.AnsibleError("%s returned invalid result when called with hostname %s" % (
                     Runner._external_variable_script,
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils.py b/lib/ansible/utils.py
index 8acee184d8..993762e6e7 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/utils.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils.py
@@ -149,6 +149,14 @@ def has_dark_hosts(results):
     ''' are there any uncontactable hosts? '''
     return len(results['dark'].keys()) > 0
 
+def has_contacted_hosts(results):
+    ''' are there any contacted hosts? '''
+    return len(results['contacted'].keys()) > 0
+
+def has_hosts(results):
+    ''' did ansible run against any hosts at all? '''
+    return has_contacted_hosts(results) or has_dark_hosts(results)
+
 def contacted_hosts(results):
     ''' what are the contactable hosts? '''
     return sorted(results['contacted'])
@@ -186,7 +194,11 @@ def async_poll_status(jid, host, clock, result):
     else:
         return "<job %s> polling on %s, %s remaining" % (jid, host, clock)
 
+def json_loads(data):
+    return json.loads(data)
+
 def parse_json(data):
+    ''' this version for module return data only '''
     try:
         return json.loads(data)
     except: