Talking to NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams about President Obama's surprise trip to Afghanistan on Wednesday's Today, co-host Ann Curry hoped the move would quiet Republicans: "Meantime, by using the commander-in-chief mantel to make this visit, to extend an arm and hand to our troops, does he blunt any of the Republican criticism that he is...politicizing, essentially, a milita ry victory?" Curry was of course referring to the Obama campaign team using the anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden to attack Mitt Romney. In response to Curry's DNC-approved framing of the trip, Williams proclaimed: "Presidents do get... continue reading
The same networks that huffed and whined about George W. Bush's secret trip to Iraq over Thanksgiving in 2003, calling it an "embarrassing" "presidential shell game," had no such harsh language for Barack Obama's clandestine visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday. Jake Tapper on Wednesday deemed the visit simply a "surprise." On CBS This Morning , Scott Pelley proclaimed it "remarkable," insisting, "These things are always kept secret, in the Bush administration, in the Obama administration, until the President arrives safely." Yet, on the November 30, 2003 CBS Evening News , Mark Knoller bitterly complained, " It was professionally embarrassing to... continue reading
On Wednesday's NBC Today, panelist and attorney Star Jones fretted over a recent campaign ad mocking President Obama's celebrity status and implied racial overtones in the criticism: "...what worries me is that it's another attempt to paint Obama as an 'other.' You know, they tried that with 'Oh, he ate dog meat when he was a boy.'" [ Listen to the audio ] Even fellow liberal panelist, advertising executive Donny Deutsch, called out Jones for her suggestion: "I hope this is not a black/white issue....Star, you're misreading." Jones stood by her accusation: "When you're pointing the finger saying he's different... continue reading
After CNN's Piers Morgan belittled conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg for upwards of 11 minutes on Monday night, Goldberg fired back Tuesday on his National Review blog and called it a " shameful spectacle ." He accused Morgan of being a partisan hack while claiming journalistic impartiality. "Liberal journalists don't think they have any biases, which makes it very hard for them to compensate for them," Goldberg wrote on Tuesday. He added that Morgan all the while was "making the case for Obama from what he thinks is the centrist position." The interview began innocently, as Morgan asked about Goldberg's newest... continue reading
According to the reporters at Good Morning America , May Day is a "traditional day of protest," one in which members of the Occupy movement can get "fired up about." Reporter John Berman ignored the communist influence that has held sway over May Day . Instead, he blandly announced, " Well, May Day is International Workers Day, a traditional day of protest. And the Occupy movement is expected to use this to stage some of their biggest protests in months ." In a follow-up brief, news reader Josh Elliott similarly insisted, "It's all a part of civil disobedience for May... continue reading
In an interview with senior Mitt Romney campaign adviser Ed Gillespie on Sunday's Meet the Press, moderator David Gregory noted how President Obama was "certainly using" the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden "against Governor Romney" and quickly justified the crass political move by claiming "the same sort of tactics that were used in a lot of people's eyes" by President Bush. After playing a sound bite of Vice President Biden suggesting Mitt Romney would not have ordered the killing of Bin Laden, Gregory proclaimed: "Here's an example, back in 2004, of an ad that he [President... continue reading
Despite Wisconsin's unemployment rate being well below the nation al rate and steadily falling, on Saturday's NBC Nightly News correspondent Ron Allen selectively hyped job losses: "With the protesters serenading Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker and urging voters to recall him from office June 5th, the state's job losses add to the list of grievances. The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics says Wisconsin lost 23,900 jobs between March 2011 and March 2012." That same Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed that Wisconsin's unemployment rate fell from 7.6% to 6.8% in that same time period. Ignoring that reality, Allen featured a sound... continue reading
On Monday's The Ed Show on MSNBC, as host Ed Schultz and MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - discussed Mitt Romney's crack on President Obama that even President Carter would have had the sense to order the killing of Osama bin Laden once the 9/11 mastermind had been found, the two MSNBC personalities fretted that Romney had taken a "cheap shot" at Jimmy Carter. Schultz asserted that "I think he owes Jimmy Carter an apology," with Wolffe chiming in that "It's time to pay a little bit more respect than that." And, without noting that the... continue reading
On Monday, CBS This Morning gave leftist New York Times columnist Paul Krugman a platform to promote his new book and to spout his usual prescription of massive government spending. Krugman also bashed Mitt Romney: " He's going to make Herbert Hoover look good by comparison ." Anchor Gayle King boosted her guest by twice citing President Obama's praise for the author as " one of the smartest economic reporters ." Krugman briefly acknowledged the "long-term budget problem," but quickly added that " now is not the time to be slashing ....Now is the time to be doing public works,... continue reading
In a fawning interview with Barack Obama's half-sister Auma Obama on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry lobbed softballs about the President: "...you describe an almost instan taneous connection when you met your brother Barack Obama. Can you describe why, how, you made this instantaneous connection? ...What void do you think you filled in his life?" Citing Auma's new memoir, "And Then Life Happens," Curry pondered: "So I wonder, reading the book, whether you think that filling these gaps, for your brother, about how he knew his father, if you h ad not been able to do that, if he... continue reading