On Tuesday's Nightly News , after news broke of a budget deal in Congress, Capitol Hill correspondent Kelly O'Donnell announced: "...the usual Washington dysfunction is on hold tonight." She touted the agreement to anchor Brian Willams by noting: "It would also roll back some of the harshest automatic spending cuts , the sequester for the Pentagon and domestic programs." [ Listen to the audio ] O'Donnell cautioned that the deal "does not extend jobless benefits for those out of work the longest..." On Wednesday's broadcast, fill-in anchor Ann Curry picked up on that point and fretted: "While the agreement avoids... continue reading
Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, the Daily Beast 's Michelle Goldberg praised Pope Francis as a "voice against the tyranny or the hegemony of global capitalism" during a discussion of whether the Pope should be chosen Time 's "Person of the Year." Goldberg: I think it's great that there is somebody who's kind of a voice against the tyranny or the hegemony of global capitalism. We haven't had that in a very long time, a kind of figure of real moral stature who can make that argument. But she ended up preferring... continue reading
Norah O'Donnell unsurprisingly took aim at Rep. Paul Ryan on Thursday's CBS This Morning over part of his bipartisan budget proposal that he presented with Democratic Senator Patty Murray: " Military members want to know why you asked them to take a cut, in terms of cost [of] living increases ...the men and women in this country, who fight and die for this country, want to know why they should not get a cost of living increase like they have in the past." The Wisconsin Republican replied by pointing out that the Defense Department had asked for this reduction, and... continue reading
All three networks on Wednesday engaged in damage control for the White House following criticism of President Obama's selfie during Tuesday's Mandela memorial service. On CBS This Morning , senior White House correspondent Bill Plante even made this absurd assertion: "The President might have caused a diplomatic incident if he had declined the invitation to be in a photo with two long-time allies." [ Listen to the audio ] The cast of NBC's Today also justified the incident, with co-host Savannah Guthrie arguing: "I think some people thought it's not appropriate because it's a funeral. On the other hand, it... continue reading
Polls have not been kind to President Obama or his health care law lately, and MSNBC has had no choice but to acknowledge that fact. However, on Wednesday’s Andrea Mitchell Reports , NBC News political director Chuck Todd desperately fished for a silver lining in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll numbers on ObamaCare. [Listen to MP3 audio here .] Todd told Mitchell that health care was the key to the president turning around his own low approval ratings. While acknowledging that 50 percent of poll respondents said ObamaCare is a bad idea, Todd found a faint ray of... continue reading
Nancy Cordes heralded the proposed budget deal from Rep. Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray as a " true compromise " on Wednesday's CBS This Morning , and asserted that " the reason it's so important is that it could bring an end to this terrible cycle , where Congress can't agree on a yearly budget." Cordes also revisited her network's slanted language about sequestration , stating that the proposal "partially rolls back those deep, across-the-board spending cuts ." The correspondent also played up how " the agreement won't win support from some conservatives ," and that "there are bound... continue reading
On Tuesday's All In on MSNBC, during a discussion of the federal budget and spending on poverty programs, host Chris Hayes suggesting reducing unemployment by having the government hire workers as he jokingly suggested having another census because unemployment dropped the last time census workers were hired. After guest Tom Colocchio of Food Policy Action called for more "job training programs so they can actually get back to work," Hayes jumped in: How about we just, you know, one of my favorite, we don't have this graph because I didn't think to prepare this for the show, but thre's this... continue reading
On Tuesday's All In show on MSNBC, during a discussion of Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman's primary challenge to Senator John Cornyn, MSNBC political analyst Howard Fineman asserted that, "if you don't make outrageous statements," the Tea Party movement will not consider you to be "serious." Referring to some of Stockman's more controversial statements, Fineman reacted: For the Tea Party people, their whole ethos is, if you don't make outrageous statements, you aren't serious. And it sounds nuts to a lot of the rest of the people in the country, but that's the world they live in. That's what turns... continue reading
After Brian Williams touted President Obama's handshake with Cuban dictator Raul Castro as "one of the better moments" at Tuesday's memorial service for Nelson Mandela, correspondent Lester Holt went further on Wednesday's NBC Today , hailing the encounter as "a true Mandela moment." [ Listen to the audio ] A soundbite followed of Democratic Congressman John Lewis gushing: "It's the power of Nelson Mandela to bring President Barack Obama together and Raul Castro together here in South Africa." Prior to Williams on Tuesday, Holt had similarly declared that "the measure of Mandela [was] so great" that "America's presidents shared a... continue reading
On Monday's All In show, after going through a number of Rand Paul soundbites which he viewed as reflecting poorly on the Republican Senator, host Chris Hayes was impressed by Senator Paul taking a liberal point of view on the war on drugs. Hayes talked up the possibility of the Kentucky Senator being a plus for the GOP with minority voters. Hayes: "Rand Paul might turn out to be the best hope the GOP has. Looking at his history, that is really saying something." Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, December 9, All In with... continue reading