The same networks that have been minimizing and ignoring the growing scandal at the Internal Revenue Service all found time to fawn over 50-year-old footage of President Kennedy vacationing with family. A World News graphic on Sunday night thrilled, "Return to Camelot." Anchor David Muir breathlessly narrated the video to cloying, emotional music provided by ABC: " President Kennedy teeing off. The 46-year-old President putting and, well, missing the shot. The camera trained on him though for the entire round of golf and with the next putt there is more success." Muir gushed over footage of a young Caroline Kennedy... continue reading
On Monday's NBC Today , co-host Savannah Guthrie seized on Hillary Clinton having lunch with President Obama to promote NBC's upcoming four-part miniseries on the former Secretary of State and First Lady: "[She] has been traveling around the country giving speeches as you know, as she considers whether to get into the 2016 presidential campaign. Well, whether she runs or whether she doesn't, NBC says it will move forward with a new miniseries about her life." [ Listen to the audio ] As the headline on screen blared, "Hillary Goes Hollywood," Guthrie touted the casting for Clinton: "This is slated... continue reading
On Monday's NBC Today , following a report on the latest fallout from the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, Hillary Clinton sycophant Andrea Mitchell fretted over the impact of the controversy on the former Secretary of State: "This is terribly painful....this is getting to the point where it is really splashing up against the Clintons because it's almost unavoidable that people are making comparisons to the way Hillary Clinton handled Bill Clinton's difficulties in the 1992 campaign." [ Listen to the audio ] On July 24, it was Today making that comparison between Wiener and Clinton, with chief White House correspondent... continue reading
On Friday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes did not seem to recognize that putting criminals in jail contributes to reducing crime as he declared that it was "frustrating" to him that there has been more "incarceration" while "crime is going down." As the MSNBC host brought aboard California Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee as a guest to discuss some of FNC host Bill O'Reilly's recent commentary on racial issues , Hayes at one point complained: What I find most frustrating is what we have seen is incarceration go up at the same time that crime is going down, and... continue reading
Appearing as a panel member on the Sunday, July 28, Melissa Harris-Perry show, MSNBC political analyst Michael Eric Dyson declared that, when FNC host Bill O'Reilly dined at Sylvia's restaurant in 2007, he was "surprised that black people don't throw bananas at each other or swing from trees." His attack on O'Reilly was the latest example of MSNBC personalities reviving a 2007 smear against O'Reilly claiming that the FNC host was surprised that patrons at a predominantly black restaurant in Harlem behaved in a civilized manner when, in reality, O'Reilly was criticizing the media for its negative portrayal of African-Americans,... continue reading
As singer and liberal activist Harry Belafonte appeared as a guest on Friday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes brought up Civil Rights Movement-era murder victim Emmett Till and wondered if Trayvon Martin's death would have a similar "catalyzing effect" in a "civil rights struggle." While both acknowledged that the circumstances were different, Belafonte lumped in Trayvon Martin as having been "murdered" and observed: Although there are different sets of circumstances under which both of these young men were murdered, I think that there is one thing that's a common thread, and that is the issue of race. He... continue reading
Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew, who oversees the IRS, made the rounds of four Sunday morning TV talk shows (all but CBS’s Face the Nation ) to promote President Obama’s latest “pivot” to the economy, but ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and CNN’s Candy Crowley failed to take advantage of the opportunity to press him on the IRS scandal. NBC’s David Gregory squeezed a question in at the very end of their session, but then didn’t follow up on Lew’s insistence “there’s no evidence of any political involvement.” Gregory: “Mr. Secretary, I’ll leave it there. Thank you as always.” In contrast,... continue reading
On Thursday's PoliticsNation show, MSNBC's Al Sharpton used FNC host Bill O'Reilly's comments on the race issue from this week to resurrect a 2007 smear against O'Reilly which mischaracterized him as being shocked to see patrons at a predominantly black restaurant in Harlem behaving in a civilized manner when the FNC host in reality was criticizing the media for portraying African-Americans so differently from reality. Appearing as a guest, MSNBC contributor Joy Reid attacked "people on the right" as she complained: The exoticization of African-Americans by people on the right is what is so galling, this notion that we are... continue reading
Norah O'Donnell had a memory lapse on Friday's CBS This Morning , as she expressed her disgust over San Diego Mayor Bob Filner's alleged sexual harassment of women. O'Donnell exclaimed, " I know we shouldn't editorialize , but this behaving badly – it's gone overboard at this point." [audio available here ; video below ] The anchor apparently isn't self-aware, because she has regularly injected her personal commentary into her journalism, particularly when she interviews conservatives/Republicans. Her track record during her first several months on the CBS morning newscast: -Before she became CBS This Morning anchor, O'Donnell served as a... continue reading
In case you weren't sure, Chris Matthews wants viewers to know: Conservative opposition to Barack Obama is made up mostly by racist "haters." In a two minute rant on Thursday's Hardball , Matthews used the "hate" label eight times. The anchor sneered, "There are too many people on the American right who hate the very notion of Barack Obama in the White House. It grates on them." Matthews smeared, "Have his haters ever stopped hating him? When we got bin Laden...?" The idea that conservatives didn't celebrate the death of the 9/11 mastermind is absurd. The host prefaced, "You can... continue reading