During the midnight hour of MSNBC's Thursday night Democratic National Convention coverage, host Chris Matthews managed to squeeze in another charge of racism against a black President by "right wingers" as he brought up the birther movement and asserted: But I got to tell you, the fact that he's black is the reason they're asking for his papers. It's so obvious. Doesn't anybody else get it? As he interviewed DNC Chairwoman and Florida U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and New York U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley, Matthews raised the issue: I think the legitimacy question hit me tonight. The President has to... continue reading
During the midnight hour of MSNBC's Thursday night Democratic National Convention coverage, MSNBC analyst Howard Fineman -- formerly of Newsweek -- declared that it was "brilliant" for President Obama to suggest that Republicans are being "unpatriotic" in trying to make an issue of the economy's poor performance during his time in office. Shortly past midnight, Fineman asserted: And especially the Republican convention and campaign has only been about the existing economic condition, and the other brilliant thing he did tonight, the President, was to say that people who doubt the ability of the American people to come back, i.e. the... continue reading
Brian Williams, on NBC’s Thursday night coverage of the DNC, unleashed the biggest howler of the night when he told White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett: “You, I guess have to play mistake-free ball now for 60 days, hope for nothing but positive coverage. That's a tall order.” Given NBC’s coverage that evening that will be anything but a “ tall order” as Williams and his colleagues praised Barack Obama and dumped on Mitt Romney all night. Right before Williams’ question to Jarrett, Chuck Todd labeled the GOP convention a “missed opportunity” for Romney and David Gregory absurdly declared that... continue reading
The liberal personalities on MSNBC reacted to President Barack Obama's Thursday night speech at the Democratic National Convention in the exact same way they did to Bill Clinton the previous evening - with unanimous praise. Ed Schultz's ecstacy was apparent: " He made me feel good tonight . He made the American people feel good tonight, and he gave us confidence.... It was a very visionary speech ." Al Sharpton trumpeted the President's " epic " address, and declared, " I think that Barack Obama won the election tonight ." Unsurprisingly, Chris Matthews rambled on and on about the apparent... continue reading
Last week in Tampa, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley and NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, both hit Ann Romney with a pointed political contention from the left, but tonight (Thursday) in Charlotte, neither challenged Michelle Obama with any political argument forwarded by conservatives. Williams posed a long-winded question about the Obama daughters and cued up the First Lady to assess a New York Times reporter’s take that President Obama is “‘a proud yet humbled President, a confident yet scarred President, a dreamer mugged by reality.’ Does that resemble the man you know?” Pelley reminded Mrs. Obama how “in... continue reading
New York Times reporters Jeff Zeleny and Mark Landler reported on Bill Clinton's long nominating speech for Barack Obama, " Clinton Delivers Stirring Plea for Obama Second Term ." The Times , which rigorously flyspecked the speeches of Republicans Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, left the fact-checking aside when it came to analyzing Clinton's long ramble, though the Associated Press made some hits, and portrayed both the partisan former president and Barack Obama as embodying the essence of bipartisanship. Former President Bill Clinton and President Obama hugged onstage Wednesday night after Mr. Clinton delivered an impassioned plea on behalf of... continue reading
On Thursday, the hosts of NBC's Today could barely contain their glee over former President Bill Clinton addressing the Democratic National Convention, with Savannah Guthrie proclaiming: "Life of the party. Former President Bill Clinton delivers a powerful and partisan speech.... blasting Republicans, and in the throes of a bad economy, making the case for four more years." [ Listen to the audio ] Moments later, Matt Lauer gushed that President Obama had "a really tough act to follow after what was an enthusiastic and powerful endorsement" from Clinton. In a later report, Meet the Press host David Gregory joined in... continue reading
ABC on Wednesday and Thursday buried coverage of the embarrassing spectacle of Democratic delegates booing the reinsertion of God and Jerusalem to the party's platform. World News, Nightline and live coverage of Wednesday's convention completely ignored the gaffe. Good Morning America's Jake Tapper on Thursday breezed by it with a single sentence: "Lots of infighting about the party platform." What was the problem, exactly? Tapper didn't say. (He did explain it online .) NBC's Nightly News and the CBS Evening News both covered it, Wednesday night.( BiasAlert rundown of Wednesday night coverage.) On Thursday, CBS This Morning's Nancy Cordes observed... continue reading
During the midnight hour of MSNBC coverage of the Democratic National Convention, Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman went after what they viewed as "hate" on the Republican side, with Matthews raising the topic by reciting Bill Clinton's contention that he never felt "hate" for his opponents. A bit later, Matthews also managed to bring in a reference to Nazi Germany as he admired Clinton because he "belittled" Republicans. Matthews: Didn't you like the way he belittled the other side? I like the belittling part, you know, I like, you remember Churchill once said during the cold, frozen winter when the... continue reading
Each morning, the MRC is showcasing the most egregious bias we have uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala on September 27. (Click here for ticket information) Already this week, we’ve published the worst quotes of 1988 , 1989 , 1990 and 1991 . Today, the worst bias of 1992 . Highlights include Eleanor Clift ogling the new Democratic ticket of Clinton and Gore (“I was struck by the expanse of their chests. They may have to put... continue reading