On the December 30 edition of PBS’s Charlie Rose show former NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar decried the state of America’s race relations as he claimed the country was “back sliding” in that area due to recent “Supreme Court decisions” and all the efforts to “suppress minority voters.” Invited on to promote his new children’s book “Sasquatch in the Paint,” the former Los Angeles Laker center sounded like your typical liberal MSNBC host when asked by Rose for his take on how America was doing on the “racial front.” The following exchange was aired on the December 30, 2013 edition of... continue reading
New Years seemed like a good time for ABC to push the marijuana "revolution" taking place in Colorado. World News reporter Clayton Sandell on Wednesday featured an almost entirely positive story, f ocusing on job growth related to pot and featuring one man (wearing green face paint) who enthused, "This is a historical event." Sandell showcased the grand opening of a new store that legally sells the drug for recreational use. [MP3 audio here .] Another man gushed, "We drove 17 hours to get here." The journalist touted, "Other states are now watching to see how this new experiment works... continue reading
Appearing on Wednesday's NBC Today to provide his New Year political predictions for 2014, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd assured co-host Savannah Guthrie that despite the ObamaCare disaster, Republicans would be "in just as bad of a place, if not worse than they were." He explained: "It just doesn't look like it right now because of health care." [ Listen to the audio ] Todd's wishful thinking was prompted by Guthrie observing: "[Republicans] were widely blamed for the government shutdown. I think they were, in some ways, rescued by the debacle with the ObamaCare rollout because the heat was... continue reading
On the Monday, December 30, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC, Richard Wolffe -- executive editor of MSNBC.com -- mocked "ObamaCare haters," tagging them as the "biggest losers of the year," as he appeared as a panel member to select awards in various news categories for the year 2013. As he suggested that the reduction in glitches at Healthcare.Gov solves ObamaCare's problems, Wolffe compared opponents to people still "fighting the Second World War on a lost island." After host O'Donnell asked who was the "biggest loser of the year," Wolffe began his gloating: I'm tempted to say these... continue reading
Appearing on the Monday, December 30, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC, Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart charged that, in the year 2013, Republicans had "told" women, young people and minorities to "go bleep yourself" as he divulged his choices for "worst political move" of the year. The special edition of the show assembled a panel of MSNBC regulars to assign awards in a number of categories for the year 2013. Picking up on the fact that Capehart had cheated in the first part of the segment by having two answers, host O'Donnell posed: "And, Jonathan Capehart, your... continue reading
Appearing as a panel member on the Monday, December 30, PoliticsNation on MSNBC to help assign the annual "Revvy" awards for the year 2013, MSNBC contributor Jimmy Williams ranted that Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz is "biggest fraud to have ever walked in the United States Senate," and went on to bizarrely claim that Cruz "wasn't supposed to be elected," even though the Texas Republican not only won the Republican runoff with over 56 percent of the vote, but even the general election by about the same percentage, beating the Democrat by 16 points. After Sharpton asked for his choice... continue reading
On special edition of MSNBC's PoliticsNation on Monday in which a panel of MSNBC regulars selected awards for the year 2013, MSNBC contributor Joy Reid asserted that the "Knockout Game" was the "most overrated story of the year," as she complained that conservatives "went absolutely ballistic" and "wanted[ed] to stoke issues of race." MSNBC contributor Jimmy Williams then brought up the IRS scandal in which conservative organizations were given closer scrutiny before the 2012 elections, with Williams charging, "Ain't nothing there. Never was, never will be," and with fellow panel member Krystal Ball chiming in that "It's not even a... continue reading
The first runner-up quotes in the MRC’s “ Best Notable Quotables of 2013: The Twenty-Sixth Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting .” As announced in a December 18 CyberAlert Special , the awards issue was posted, with videos, that day, and a category a day has been posted on our NewsBusters blog each day since. Today, the MRC.org’s BiasAlert and corresponding CyberAlert e-mail newsletter will run the first runner-up quotes. ( Monday’s BiasAlert/CyberAlert with the winners.) The page linked above also has links for the text of the entire issue in MS Word or WordPerfect formats. You will also... continue reading
On Friday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, host Al Sharpton asserted that Republicans "don't care" about the unemployed whose unemployment benefits are expiring and went on to accuse Republicans of having a "heartless ideology that says if you're out of work, you're out of luck." Sharpton began the show: Tonight's lead, the axe is about to fall, and Republicans don't care at all. In just six hours, over one million Americans will lose long-term unemployment benefits. Why? Because House Republicans went on holiday break without fixing this. Despite the economic recovery, long-term unemployment is at its highest level since World War II... continue reading
Appearing as a guest on the Friday, December 27, Hardball on MSNBC, comedian and Daily Beast columnist Dean Obeidallah -- who has also been a CNN contributor -- cracked that "conservatives hate a lot of women" as he recounted that the woman whose face appeared on the ObamaCare Web site had been tagged "the most despised woman in America" by "some bloggers on the right," whom he failed to identify. Substitute host Michael Smerconish asked about the background of the woman known as Adriana whose photograph was used for the Web site: "Dean, what was the back story here? She... continue reading