On the December 8 Fox News Sunda y, host Chris Wallace pressed ObamaCare architect Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel repeatedly about how the President’s ObamaCare promises are not turning out to be true. In 2009, Obama told the American Medical Association : “We will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.” But in 2013, Dr. Emanuel insisted there wasn’t a period, but an asterisk: you can keep your doctor if you pay higher premiums for it. WALLACE: President Obama famously promised, if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Doesn't... continue reading
On Friday morning CNN hosted Richard Stengel, an Obama administration nominee for Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, to discuss the President's connections to the late Nelson Mandela without disclosing Stengel's pending State Department position. Stengel is the former managing editor of Time magazine and hailed Obama's "eloquent" words: " I thought the President was very eloquent yesterday , talking about what President Mandela meant to him. I think, in many ways, Mandela was partially responsible for Barack Obama's own political awakening. " Stengel has compared the two men before, noting similarities in "temperament" and calling... continue reading
On Friday's CBS This Morning , former Time magazine managing editor Richard Stengel unexpectedly zeroed in on a part of Nelson Mandela's legacy that apparently wasn't sufficiently left wing. Moments after he lionized Mandela as "the George Washington of South Africa," Stengel asserted that " he [Mandela] had not been very progressive about HIV and AIDS when he was president ." Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon also sang Mandela's praises, to the point that he made an eyebrow-raising comment about the supposed extent that the former South African president stands apart in recent history: [MP3 audio available here ;... continue reading
After he conducted a fawning interview with Barack Obama on Thursday , Chris Matthews turned to his liberal journalist friends for adulation. Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman fawned over Obama and, at the same time, sympathized with the President: " Now, he's gone from Superman to Sisyphus. He's talking about rolling a boulder up the hill." [MP3 audio here .] What kind of metaphor is the journalist trying to make? Sisyphus had to roll a bolder up a hill as punishment for deception. Surely, that's not the liberal reporter's point. Speaking of the President, Fineman, who now is the editorial... continue reading
Filling in for host Chuck Todd on Thursday's MSNBC Daily Rundown , Luke Russert suggested liberal calls for a hike in the minimum wage had created a "tough issue for Republicans" and that by opposing the idea, the GOP would "risk looking like Grinches over the holiday season." [ Listen to the audio ] Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson pushed back: "In a way, but remember, who was president last time a minimum wage increase was signed into law? It was President Bush. And the way they got their was by saying, 'You need to have some tax cuts for... continue reading
Amid the tributes looking back at the life of former South African President Nelson Mandela following his death on Thursday, Friday's NBC Today and ABC's Good Morning America both managed to take shots at Ronald Reagan for not being supportive of Mandela during Apartheid. [ Listen to the audio ] On Today , chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell proclaimed: "The U.S. wasn't always on Mandela's side. In the 1980s, President Reagan supported the Apartheid regime , a cold war ally, even as protests broke out on college campuses across America demanding that the U.S. punish the regime....Finally, Congress, including... continue reading
Chris Matthews received his long-desired wish on Thursday, an exclusive interview with Barack Obama. The Hardball anchor didn't exactly live up to the title of his show, wondering about Republican efforts to "make it difficult for minorities to vote" and questioning who was better, Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden? Talking to the President at American University, Matthews read a question from a viewer via Twitter: "What can we do to stop the GOP, the Republicans, from rigging the states, rigging the votes, state by state, to disenfranchise voters and destroy our democracy?" The host added, "Thirty six states right now... continue reading
On Thursday, ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning newscasts all spotlighted how " fast food workers across the country are holding strikes to demand higher wages, " but failed to point out the involvement of left-leaning groups in organizing the protests. ABC's Good Morning America and CBS This Morning featured spokesmen from the "Fast Food Forward" movement, but didn't include their respective involvement in the SEIU and a successor organization to ACORN. The ABC and CBS morning shows also slanted towards the protesters by a two-to-one margin in the number of soundbites from the protesters and liberal supporters, versus opponents of... continue reading
On MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes show, host Hayes tagged opponents of President Obama's deal with Iran over its nuclear program as "extreme" and "nefarious' even while acknowledging that the opposition is bipartisan. Hayes began the segment: You'll remember that before the holidays, President Obama announced the most significant diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Iran in over 30 years. But there are powerful, extreme forces working to scuttle the deal, powerful, extreme forces known as the United States Senate and the nefarious armies of bipartisan compromise. A bit later, he fretted that Congress would "violate the terms... continue reading
Touting the "huge problem" the GOP has with women voters, CNN dredged up Mitt Romney's "binders full of women" remark from last year and asked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor point-blank "Do you not know how to talk to women, sir?" The obnoxious question came from Capitol Hill correspondent Dana Bash, who challenged Cantor's point that GOP policies will appeal to both men and women. "But they haven't," she insisted. [Video below. Audio here .] "[I]s there a problem with men in the Republican party, your rank and file, who don't know how to communicate to reach female voters?" Bash... continue reading