The winning 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 and tomorrow the MRC.org’s BiasAlert and corresponding CyberAlert e-mail newsletter will run the winning quotes followed by the top runners-up in 15 categories. The page linked above also has links for the text of the entire issue in MS Word or WordPerfect formats. You... continue reading
Thursday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC displayed a classic example of how liberals fail to grasp the basic logic of people's economic decisions or, even when they are aware of economic principles, they still find reasons to be dismissive of a predictable outcome that goes against how they wish the world would function. As host O'Donnell convened a group to discuss an article by Carl Gibson about why it makes more economic sense for a young, healthy person to pay a $300 fine than to spend thousands of dollars for insurance since they cannot be denied coverage... continue reading
On Thursday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, during a discussion of Republican resistance to extending unemployment benefits, MSNBC political analyst Goldie Taylor charged that the GOP "almost single-handedly blew up this economy," and that it was "as if" they "blew up" the "bridge" and then "dared people to cross to the other side of the canyon on their own." After host Al Sharpton played several soundbites of Republican elected officials and complained that they "act as though" the unemployed are "dependents, that they're some kind of beggars," he turned to Taylor who responded: You know, this is a party who almost single-handedly... continue reading
On Monday's All In with Chris Hayes , host Hayes for a second time griped over Fox News giving attention to reports of primarily black teens playing a "knockout game" in which they target white victims for violence, suggesting that the game does not really exist. As he awarded his choice for the "over-covered" and "under-covered" news stories for the year, Hayes began: "Over-covered is the Fox News/Drudge obsession with the so-called 'Knockout Game,' which this is a flavor of what that, and this has been on Fox all the time." After playing several clips from various FNC shows, the... continue reading
On the Monday, December 23, All In with Chris Hayes show on MSNBC, after Richard Kim of the far left The Nation magazine awarded the "Rookie of the Year" award to 84-year-old gay rights activist Edith Windsor, host Chris Hayes delivered a sappy tribute to gay rights as he imagined that for "thousands of years" same-sex couples have managed to form marriage-like relationships in spite of not being recognized by the state. After bringing up Windsor, Kim referred to an article from the New Yorker as he recalled: And there's this beautiful profile written about her by Ariel Levy in... continue reading
On Monday's All In show on MSNBC, during a discussion of what stories were over-covered or under-covered by the media in 2013, CBS contributor Nancy Giles griped that the HealthCare.Gov glitches were overecovered, and seemed to suggest that hackers may have been to blame for ObamaCare's rollout problems. Giles began: I thought the Healthcare.Gov Web site glitches, I thought they were kind of covered without context, like, there was no mention of whether they could have been hacked. I saw all these different Web sites, you know, KillObamacare.gov, you know, all kinds of problems that could have happened that way,... continue reading
On the Monday, December 23, PoliticsNation on MSNBC, host Al Sharpton led the show by accusing Republicans of "stinginess" and of being "grinches" because of GOP opposition to a further extension of unemployment benefits. With the words "GOP Grinches Steal Christmas" on screen, Sharpton opened the show: Tonight's lead, Republican's grinches launching fist full of coal. This week, as families gather at dinner tables around the country, many are facing extreme economic anxiety that could have been prevented, is due to Republicans' stinginess on key economic issues. More than one million Americans face losing their unemployment benefits in just five... continue reading
For the second straight morning, ABC's Jonathan Karl was merely a White House stenographer when reporting on ObamaCare's year-end deadline, touting enrollment numbers and parroting White House talking points. Tuesday's Good Morning America framed the latest ObamaCare delay as a result of the law's popularity, as opposed to NBC reporting that it was, at least in part, due to website issues. "A crush of visitors to the website yesterday caused the White House to expand this year's deadline for signing up through the end of today," co-host George Stephanopoulos reported. And Karl as well blamed the law's popularity: "That one-day... continue reading
NBC's Today softened any criticism of ObamaCare on Monday at the deadline to purchase health coverage for the new year. White House correspondent Peter Alexander framed long wait times on the Washington, D.C. health exchange as evidence of "a last-minute spike in demand." And even though he reported that current enrollment numbers are "far shy" of what the administration hoped for, Alexander cited "experts" downplaying the importance of the numbers. "[E]xperts say who enrolls is more important than how many enroll," Alexander reported. "Emphasizing the need to get enough young healthy people to balance the costs for older and sicker... continue reading
On Monday, CNN anchors opened fire on "narrow-minded" Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson for his "homophobic remarks," and questioned the Biblical condemnation of homosexual behavior. "I totally disagree with the guy," said outraged fill-in CNN anchor Kyra Phillips. "I think he's so narrow-minded and he really needs to, like, get with the times." Fill-in host Brianna Keilar called Robertson's comments "homophobic" on The Situation Room . [Video below. Audio here .] In that same segment, National Journal 's Ron Brownstein said Robertson was "on the wrong side of history": "I think his comments are clearly on the wrong side of... continue reading