Barack Obama delivered one gaffe after another in his August 6 interview with Jay Leno, but the networks that usually mock every mistake or slip of the tongue made by Republicans ignored the President's verbal mishaps. ABC’s Good Morning America , CBS’s This Morning and NBC’s Today show, on Wednesday morning, all bypassed the chance to criticize Obama for: downplaying the threat of terrorism; falsely claiming Vladimir Putin once ran the KGB; placing the Atlantic coast cities of Savannah, Charleston, and Jacksonville on the Gulf of Mexico; confusing the Winter Olympics with the Summer Olympics. First up, on the August... continue reading
ABC's Good Morning America , which first covered the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal by ignoring that the politician was a Democrat, did grow to embrace the tawdry aspects of the story. Yet, the morning show on Wednesday avoided the mayoral candidate's latest gaffe: Calling his Republican opponent " grandpa " at an AARP candidate forum. NBC's Today and CBS This Morning both managed to highlight the story. CBS guest anchor Anthony Mason recounted, "Weiner slammed his opponent over age and did so, of all places, at an event sponsored by the AARP." A graphic mocked it as a "senior moment."... continue reading
Some comments are so unbelievable, one would think even liberal journalists would be forced to challenge them. However, even though all three morning shows on Wednesday covered Barack Obama's appearance on the August 6 Tonight Show , none of them noticed his claim to be a supporter of small government. Talking to Jay Leno, Obama discussed the sequester and spending. He seriously insisted, " One of the things I've been trying to get across here is that we don't need a huge government ." He added, "But we need government doing some basic things and we should all agree on... continue reading
On Tuesday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, after host Al Sharpton complained that House Speaker John Boehner's refusal to condemn birtherism feeds an inability to compromise with President Obama, Washington Post political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson agreed with Sharpton and asserted that Speaker Boehner "has not tried very hard to get the more raucous members of his caucus in check," and referred to some Republican House members as "freelance artists" in "overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly conservative" districts. After guest and liberal talk radio host Joe Madison complained about Republicans trying to repeal ObamaCare, Sharpton raised one of Boehner's responses to birtherism. Sharpton: "Well, let... continue reading
On Saturday's The Ed Show on MSNBC, host Ed Schultz went ballistic over conservative columnist and ABC commentator George Will blaming Detroit's bankruptcy on cultural problems, and charged that Will's comments were "about as insulting and as racist as it gets." After playing a clip of Will from ABC's This Week show, Schultz ranted: Conservatives are using the most insulting language possible they can come up with to blame unions, blame black people, blame their culture for Detroit's troubles. But the real parasites, my friends, are their conservative ideals that are coming from the state government and from the feds... continue reading
For CNN, "purist" Republicans are daring to shut down the government to defund Obamacare while those Republicans trying to dissuade them are "pragmatists." New Day co-host Kate Bolduan borrowed from the New York Times to play her label game. "Yeah, and I think the New York Times put it pretty well. It's the difference between the purists and the pragmatists. And there's that struggle in the party right now." [Video below. Audio here .] Bolduan cited this article on Republican governors calling out the House GOP for considering a government shutdown to attempt to defund Obamacare. The Times reports: "The... continue reading
Hardball anchor Chris Matthews on Tuesday unleashed a massive understatement. Talking about the Republican National Committee and Chairman Reince Priebus's decision to boycott NBC if the network produces a pro-Hillary Clinton documentary, Matthews defended MSNBC: "By the way, those who talk about the tight relationship between MSNBC and Barack Obama, for example, count the number of times he's been on this network. Zero." [MP3 audio here .] This made former RNC chair Michael Steele laugh and he retorted, "That still doesn't say anything about what they've said about him." Matthews then unleashed this howler: " Well, he [Obama] agrees with... continue reading
On Monday's The Last Word on MSNBC, host Lawrence O'Donnell claimed to present "proof" that FNC's Bill O'Reilly was wrong in his July 22 comments on race to warn about the negative effects of out-of-wedlock births on the black population. The MSNBC host also managed to take O'Reilly out of context as O'Donnell suggested that the O'Reilly's comments were not relevant to Trayvon Martin because he was the product of a two-parent family, the FNC host, in reality, was arguing that out-of-wedlock birth leads to high crime rates among the black population, which leads to people having elevated fear of... continue reading
On Tuesday, CBS This Morning pounced on a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) showing that President Obama is now the butt of more jokes on late night TV than any other politician. "Since his re-election, late-night comedians have aimed 300 jokes at the President," CBS's Jeff Pegues announced. "That's only 100 fewer than all of those directed at Republican politicians combined." But the real news is how, in two presidential campaigns and in his first term as President, Obama has largely evaded the harsh barbs of TV's comics. In setting up today's piece, co-host... continue reading
Setting up an interview on Tuesday's NBC Today with author Christopher Andersen about his new book on President Kennedy's final days, co-host Savannah Guthrie began with a gauzy introduction: "As we approach November's 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, the facts and folklore surrounding his life and family are still captivating the world....the images of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his young family continue to inspire nostalgia for a bygone era filled with hope and promise." [ Listen to the audio ] After labeling him and Jackie Kennedy "one of the original power couples," Guthrie noted: "But plagued... continue reading