BiasAlerts

On Monday's Charlie Rose show David Remnick exploited the Boston Marathon bombing to push for more gun control as he told the PBS host: "We see yet another act which might have been a Hell of a lot more difficult to pull off with effective gun control." In a discussion about the Tsarnaevs terrorist plot the editor of The New Yorker and former Washington Post reporter, pondered where they got their "pistols from?" and said that while he didn't "want to politicize" the tragedy proceeded to do just that, as he complained: "Within a week's time a very, very, very... continue reading

ABC won't let reality get in the way of good hype. Good Morning America on Tuesday doubled down on the "airline apocalypse" allegedly caused by sequester. Reporter Matt Guttman actually lumped in weather delays with a shortage of Federal Aviation Association (FAA) air traffic controllers. On Monday, George Stephanopoulos warned of an " airport armageddon ." The next day, Gutman seemed to contradict this, admitting, "[We] didn't really find an airline apocalypse." [MP3 audio here .] However, using a slight of hand, he quickly moved on: "But all those little delays, either caused by a shortage of FAA controllers or... continue reading

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Monday predictably worried that Republican "nativism" in the wake of the Boston bombing will imperil the chances of immigration reform passing. While discussing the issue on Hardball , the political director of the Huffington Post complained, " I think that's sort of the impulse behind Chuck Grassley. It's the impulse behind Rand Paul, who is one of the renegades who says let's stop immigration reform ." Connecting Boston to the immigration debate, Fineman fretted, "And what proponents of reform here have to worry about is this sort of notion of nativism coming up again... continue reading

The liberal columnists of the New York Times were in fine fettle in this week's Sunday Review. Thomas Friedman went beyond parody, sliding from the terror bombings in Boston to calling for a carbon tax in just five paragraphs: " How to Put America Back Together Again – A good place to start is with a carbon tax ." Until we fully understand what turned two brothers who allegedly perpetrated the Boston Marathon bombings into murderers, it is hard to make any policy recommendation other than this: We need to redouble our efforts to make America stronger and healthier so... continue reading

On Friday night, during MSNBC's live coverage of the police standoff with bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, host Chris Hayes seemed to still be worried about the issue of "Mirandizing" the terror suspect, as he took time to ask NBC's Pete Williams whether the authorities would be "proceeding according to the textbook" in giving him "due process." A few days earlier on Tuesday's All In show, Hayes had fretted that any terror suspects might not be read Miranda rights as he called it a "disgrace" that Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins had recommended not doing so if any suspects turned out... continue reading

In years past, Good Morning America weatherman Sam Champion would aggressively hype odd environmental protests, such as a man who decided to live in his own filth for a year or another individual who opted to forgo toilet paper. But, as a Democratic president settled into office and the ABC morning show surged in the ratings, the program subsequently lost interest in climate change and other green issues. On Monday, Earth Day, Champion was reduced to celebrating the holiday by interviewing cook Mario Batali. He blandly asked, "What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day in your restaurants?" On Earth... continue reading

Sunday's NBC Meet the Press panel decried gun background check legislation being voted down in the Senate, with liberal historian Doris Kearns Goodwin lamenting: "Maybe the problem is also the structure of the Senate....given the 60 votes that are needed, given who they listen to, given the power of special interests, public sentiment cannot penetrate." [ Listen to the audio ] Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan pleaded: "Something's not working there....we got a thing like Newtown, 90 percent, move it. Small, discrete parts of a bill, push it through, call it a victory, keep going." Special correspondent Tom Brokaw... continue reading

On Monday's CBS This Morning , open liberal Gayle King ballyhooed a guest's fear that Americans might target Muslims in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. The news host thought it was " very important " to point out Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen's " concern about a backlash ", and quoted Cullen's assertion that "these two don't speak for Muslims any more than I speak for overweight Irish-American guys who like to play hockey." [audio available here ; video below ] King didn't mention, however, that Cullen also took aim at the blame-America-first portion of the left in... continue reading

Four out of five liberal journalists, on Sunday's edition of T he Chris Matthews Show , dourly predicted that gun control was "doomed" for the "foreseeable future." When Matthews asked his panel if the NRA would "block wider background checks forever" and if it was a "permanent victory for these guys?" most of the liberal panel begrudgingly agreed. The lone holdout was CNN's Gloria Borger who predicted the defeated bill is "framing the 2014 midterm elections," and that the Democrats would "eventually" win on the gun issue. The other panelists were gloomy in their forecasts. The Washington Post's Bob Woodward... continue reading

On Monday's NBC Today , co-host Savannah Guthrie and legal analyst Lisa Bloom worried about Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev not yet being read his Miranda rights after being taken into custody on Friday, with Guthrie arguing: "...officials are citing what's known as the public safety exception....As time passes, does the justification for that exception grow weaker? Are they on, I guess, less strong ground?" [ Listen to the audio ] Bloom proclaimed: "Well, it sure does, because as you know, Miranda rights are a bedrock constitutional principle....The public safety exception is a very narrow exception, there has to... continue reading