According to Danny Werfel, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the IRS's aggressive investigation of conservative groups was wider than originally thought. Yet, NBC totally ignored the story on Monday night and Tuesday morning. ABC allowed a mere 19 seconds to the continuing controversy. According to the Associated Press , "The Internal Revenue Service's screening of groups seeking tax-exempt status was broader and lasted longer than has been previously disclosed, the new head of the agency acknowledged Monday." In addition to only mentioning the subject for a few seconds on Good Morning America , news reader Josh Elliott... continue reading
On Monday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes complained about Republicans trying to increase the number of border agents and to bar illegal immigrants from collecting Social Security benefits based on taxes they've paid into the system. After recounting the time when he worked with several illegal immigrants in a bakery who paid Social Security taxes, and the efforts by Republicans to make the border with Mexico "one of the most militarized places in this country," Hayes concluded: Every time Republicans get a chance to, they are making this bill less humane, more expensive, and worse for our country... continue reading
In a desperate attempt to dismiss the ongoing IRS scandal, on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown on Tuesday, host and NBC News political director Chuck Todd seized on reports "that it wasn't just conservative groups who were targeted by the IRS" and wondered if it was "turning into a story of Republicans overplaying their hand." [ Listen to the audio ] Turning to his panel of guests, absent any conservative, Todd proclaimed: "The IRS 'scandal' looks like it's a bureaucratic scandal. Not the political scandal that Republicans were wishing that they had come up with." He made air quotes with his... continue reading
During live coverage, minutes after the Supreme Court struck down a key portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, a hyperbolic Terry Moran on ABC inaccurately spun the whole law as being invalidated. It was left to former Democratic operative turned journalist George Stephanopoulos to correct his colleague. Moran insisted, " Right now, there is no voting rights act operative in the United States. " Actually, the Court struck down section four of act, saying that the formula for which state and federal localities decide pre-clearance for their voting laws must be rewritten. Trying to clarify Moran's remarks,... continue reading
Once again, CNN welcomed liberal comedian Bill Maher despite the vitriol he has spewed about conservative women like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Maher, an Obama donor, actually guest-hosted for CNN's Piers Morgan last summer during the presidential campaign. New host George Stroumboulopoulos let Maher bash Fox News viewers and the GOP in Friday night's interview. Maher implied that Republicans are "knuckle draggers" and lambasted the ignorance of Fox News viewers. Stroumboulopoulos then accepted that premise by asking what could be done about their "intellectual impasse." [Video below. Audio here .] "And the people who watch Fox News live in... continue reading
On Saturday's Melissa Harris-Perry show, host Harris-Perry called the rhetoric from abortion opponents "villainous" as she fretted over Tennessee Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn being a woman who is pushing a House bill banning abortion. And panel members Irin Carmon of Salon.com and Aisha Moodie-Mills of the left-wing Center for American Progress both saw "misgyny" in the measure. After a clip of Rep. Blackburn promoting the bill, MSNBC host Harris-Perry responded: We have become accustomed to the villainous rhetoric from Congresswoman Blackburn's male counterparts when it comes to women's reproductive rights, but it is troubling to see women clamoring to legislate... continue reading
In the last month, ABC's morning and evening news shows allowed a scant four minutes and 51 seconds of coverage for the immigration bill working its way through Congress, this despite describing the legislation as "landmark" and a "blockbuster." In contrast, the same network devoted 16 minutes and 51 seconds, over three times as much, to examining every tabloid detail of actress Amanda Bynes's arrest and subsequent feuds with other celebrities. Since May 24, Good Morning America , World News and Nightline have largely ignored important questions about the proposed immigration bill. Will it actually secure the border? Should Americans... continue reading
CBS kept up its slanted reporting about the proposed border security amendment to the Gang of Eight's immigration bill on Saturday and Monday's CBS This Morning . Nancy Cordes trumpeted how "the plan, worked out by Senate Republicans, devotes even more resources to border security than conservatives were calling for. " Cordes also spotlighted how " some Democrats called it overkill ." The correspondent later pointed out that "some are calling [the amendment] a border surge ", which would end up " flooding the border with infrared cameras, radar equipment, and drones." Cordes detailed in her Saturday report that the... continue reading
In an interview with liberal economist Jeffrey Sachs for Meet the Press's Press Pass segment on Sunday, moderator David Gregory worried about skepticism of big government: "...a lot of it has to do with what role does a government play in creating more structural balance in the economy, creating more jobs...doing what nobody else can do for the economy....but that the country writ large does not support....So what changes that and what happens in the absence of that movement back toward government playing a bigger role and spending all of that money?" [ Listen to the audio ] Sachs began... continue reading
On the Friday, June 21, PoliticsNation on MSNBC, host Al Sharpton brought up former President Ronald Reagan giving a speech in 1980 near the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights activists were famously murdered in 1963. Referring to then-candidate Reagan's first speech after the Republican convention which he delivered at the Neshoba County Fair a few miles from Philadelphia, Sharpton incorrectly claimed Philadelphia was where Reagan "announced he was running for President" as the MSNBC host related: You know, what is interesting is a lot of younger people don't know that blacks and whites, whites died in the... continue reading