Instead of fact-checking President Obama's dishonest attack on Paul Ryan for blocking a farm bill, CNN simply reported it three times on Tuesday morning. Correspondent Brianna Keilar actually repeated the false attack in her own words. "[T]hey [the House] failed to pass a bill for drought relief, which as you know is huge right now because of all of the farmers, all of the cattle ranchers who are suffering through this terrible drought in the Midwest," Keilar said, ignoring that the House did pass a different drought relief bill and Ryan voted for it. Her colleagues John Berman and Soledad... continue reading
A cartoonish Chris Matthews on Tuesday managed to mangle a historical analogy and spew liberal propaganda at the same time as he offered this ridiculous assessment of Paul Ryan: " This guy could be worse than Quayle, more trouble than Tom Eagleton ." [MP3 audio here .] Worse than Dan Quayle, who was successfully elected vice president in 1988? "More trouble" than Eagleton , the 1972 Democratic vice presidential candidate who was thrown off the ticket after 18 days? (Eagleton, in earlier years, had been treated for depression with electroshock therapy.) Matthews' argument, history aside, ignores individuals such as John... continue reading
CBS This Morning on Tuesday played up how Mitt Romney's campaign had to conduct "a little more damage control" after the GOP presidential candidate held an event at a popular Miami establishment owned by a convict. Correspondent Jan Crawford highlighted how " Romney held an event yesterday at a well-known restaurant in Miami whose owner - get this - pleaded guilty to cocaine distribution in 1999, and was sentenced to three years in prison ." The program was the only Big Three morning newscast on Tuesday to report on the story. By contrast, CBS found it completely un-newsworthy when the... continue reading
Former Democratic operative turned TV host George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday immediately set to work on the job of parroting Democratic talking points about the new Republican presidential ticket. The network anchor teased the program by hyping, " Mitt Romney and his new running mate under attack from the White House. President Obama says they will end Medicare as we know it ." [MP3 audio here .] Stephanopoulos also used social media to parrot liberal attacks: "President Obama put out a tweet last night to his 18 and a half million followers, saying Romney and Ryan want to end Medicare as... continue reading
In an interview with former House speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday's NBC Today , co-host Matt Lauer worried about vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's commitment to conservative principles: "I've heard Paul Ryan described as a true conservative....Do you honestly think he is someone who will work and reach across the aisle to Democrats or will he be an immovable object on key social issues and issues of ideology?" Earlier in the interview, Lauer pushed Gingrich to criticize Ryan's plan to reform Medicare: "...on the weekend you announced that you wanted the Republican nomination...you were talking about that version, Paul Ryan's... continue reading
Chuck Todd has chutzpah. Jake Tapper has some integrity. For decades, journalists have aided liberals by mischaracterizing proposed slight reductions in the rate of spending hikes on a program as a “cut” or “slash” to it, so many trusting people, naively presuming the words have meaning, thus assumed there’d be an actual reduction. NBC’s Peter Alexander repeated this fallacy on Monday’s Today when he described Paul Ryan as “the architect of a politically polarizing budget plan to slash trillions in federal funding, including cuts to Medicare...” NBC’s chief political correspondent, Chuck Todd, however, had the gall to correct Mitt Romney... continue reading
All three broadcast network evening newscasts recounted President Obama's charge that Rep. Paul Ryan is holding up a farm aid bill as the President campaign in Iowa, but only CBS's Nancy Cordes took the time to forward to viewers the Romney campaign's rebuttal that "Ryan voted in favor of a drought relief package that's currently languishing in the Senate." On ABC's World News , correspondent David Muir set up Obama's complaint: President Obama, meanwhile, with farmers in Iowa, whose fields are bone-dry from the drought, the President with his own volley telling farmers they should ask Paul Ryan about the... continue reading
Liberal MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews on Monday revealed his favorite campaign ad of 2012: The outrageous commercial that features Congressman Paul Ryan murdering an elderly woman by throwing her off a cliff. Before playing a portion, Matthews enthused, "Let me show you the ad that I have to like the most in this campaign." [MP3 audio here .] Spinning the philosophy of the presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee as "screw the poor," Matthews opined on the broader message: "But here is a party that believes this stuff...It is true. It's not just party rhetoric. It is true." Again, the commercial... continue reading
What exactly is Soledad O'Brien arguing? On Monday's Starting Point she slapped away a factual statement that President Obama has cut Medicare funding by $700 billion as "debunked" and "very much political spin." "But I have to tell you as I'm sure you know, that 700 million dollar figure has been – billion dollar figure has been debunked by CNN and the Congressional Budget Office," O'Brien lectured Romney surrogate Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.). What Republicans have been saying is that President Obama chose to cut Medicare by $700 billion to help pay for ObamaCare. And according to CBO estimates, the... continue reading
CNN's Gloria Borger dug deep for disgusting liberal smears of Paul Ryan's budget proposals and aired them without any criticism or outrage on Monday. In her report on the new Vice Presidential nominee, she unearthed past footage of liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman saying the Ryan budget would "kill people." That smear was so egregious that it won the Media Research Center's " Grim Reaper Award " for 2011. Yet Borger featured it as valid liberal criticism of Ryan. And she kicked off her report by quoting other liberals saying his budget would drive America "over the cliff"... continue reading