Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday, David Rothkopf, CEO and editor of The FP Group, which publishes Foreign Policy magazine, warned against European authorities being too aggressive in fighting Islamic terrorism following the brutal attack in Paris: "I think we have to be just as worried about the reaction to the attack from nationalists, from right-wingers , from people who have sought to drive this wedge...between the Islamic communities and the mainstream communities in Europe.... it's very important that we recognize the value of restraint in response to these things." Moments later, he cited the Abu Ghraib prison scandal... continue reading
The NFL’s San Francisco 49ers moved out of famed Candlestick Park in 2014 after more than 40 years, leaving the stadium with no permanent tenant. As a result, the city of San Francisco announced that the stadium will be demolished but not without criticism from many in the community regarding the environmental impact of destroying a structure built with asbestos and lead paint. On Thursday, CBS This Morning highlighted the ongoing battle surrounding the stadium’s future and featured one San Francisco resident insisting that it would be racist to demolish Candlestick Park. Speaking to CBS reporter John Blackstone, Marlee-I Hand... continue reading
Following the deadly Islamic terrorist attack in Paris on Wednesday, major broadcast networks ABC and NBC joined other news outlets in not showing any of the controversial cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad from the Charlie Hebdo magazine during their evening newscasts. Despite initially telling Buzzfeed that they would not be showing any of the cartoons, CBS News did go forward and displayed three of them on the air during the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley . The three were shown as part of a report by CBS News foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer from Paris that led off the... continue reading
On Wednesday night, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC ignored the contradicting statements made by President Obama in condemning the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris as an attack on free speech, but stating in a 2012 speech at the United Nations that “the future does not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam.” When it came to discussing the terrorist attack in France on Wednesday, the President struck a different tone from 2012 when it came to the freedom of speech and expression: “Our universal belief in freedom of expression is something... continue reading
On Wednesday's Now With Alex Wagner on MSNBC, Eric Bates raised the specter of censorship by Christian conservatives during a panel discussion on the past Muslim backlash against Charlie Hebdo magazine – the target of an Islamic terrorist attack in Paris earlier in the day. Bates, a former executive editor for Rolling Stone magazine, cited Jerry Falwell's lawsuit against porn magazine Hustler in the 1980s as an apparent example of " religious fundamentalists of all stripes and of nationalities have this penchant to say, we want to be able tell you what you can and can't portray ." [ video... continue reading
On the day that 12 people were murdered after publishing satirical cartoons about Islam, Daily Beast foreign editor Christopher Dickey on Wednesday fretted about how the "extreme right" of Europe played a role in increasing the conflict with Muslims. Appearing on MSNBC, he lectured Andrea Mitchell: "Most of the Muslims who are in France, who are in Europe, came here searching for more freedom. Not less. They don't want to impose Islam on the rest of the world." Dickey, a longtime Newsweek foreign correspondent, worried, "What you have, to some extent with the extreme right here, certainly with the extreme... continue reading
ABC's Good Morning America has endured an increasing amount of criticism for ignoring real news in favor of vacuous, irrelevant stories. That trend continued on Wednesday as the two-hour-long program offered no time to the convening of the new Republican Senate and House or of the GOP agenda. Instead, GMA reporters featured a full report on the "new way to fight frizzy hair." Another segment focused on the separation of romance author Nicholas Sparks from his wife. The network reporters may defend themselves by noting that the show extensively covered the terrorist shooting in France. However, ABC also managed to... continue reading
On Tuesday night, PBS aired its latest Frontline documentary aimed at attacking the NRA entitled "Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA." On multiple occasions, the program did its best to promote the activities of anti-gun activists while discrediting the efforts of the NRA to protect the Second Amendment. Throughout the hour long special, Frontline reporter Jim Gilmore highlighted several mass shootings over the past three decades, and the program expressed dismay at how the NRA could continue to successfully promote its agenda despite several high-profile shootings in America. Gilmore introduced the NRA special by discussing the shooting of Gabby... continue reading
Appearing on Wednesday's NBC Today to promote his new film Birdman , actor Michael Keaton oddly started the interview by taking a jab at the new Republican Senate Majority Leader: "...let me just read something. This is just too good. Mitch McConnell – this is from our boy, Mitch...Here's what he says, 'We all know that one of the things the Senate is best at doing is not doing much,' he said. 'Why don't we get started?' Why don't we get started at not doing much? Thanks, Mitch." Keaton was reading from a Wednesday New York Times article in which... continue reading
Tony Barber, associate editor for the Financial Times , slammed the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo mere hours after Islamic terrorists killed 12 people at its main office in Paris. Barber hyped that the magazine " has a long record of mocking, baiting and needling French Muslims ," and asserted that " too often editorial foolishness has prevailed at Charlie Hebdo ." The London-based writer led his piece, " The gunmen in Paris attacked more than a Muslim-baiting magazine ," (available to subscribers only) by noting that French President Francois Hollande labeled the attack "an act of exceptional barbarity," but... continue reading