New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal, perhaps prodded by criticism from Bernard Goldberg on The O'Reilly Factor Thursday night , posted an update Friday afternoon to his Tuesday blog post offensively accusing House Speaker John Boehner of racism for asking Obama to delay for one night an address to Congress last September. Unrepentant, Rosenthal berated some of his critics for being 'overtly racist themselves, including bigoted references to my last name.' Rosenthal's only regret, apparently, was that he did not mention 'that racially tinged and outright racist attacks did not begin with the election of Mr. Obama,' and... continue reading
CBS's Early Show repeatedly hit GOP candidate Newt Gingrich on Friday over his comments on African-Americans and food stamps. The network played the quote for African-American Congressman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and engaged Gingrich over the context, even accusing him of trying to start a class war. "You've accused President Obama of trying to start a class war," co-host Nancy Cordes told Gingrich in an interview at the bottom of the 7 a.m. hour. "Aren't you doing the same thing?" she pressed him. The accusation came after CBS correspondent Jan Crawford described his newly-negative campaign as "using a flamethrower and scorching... continue reading
On the campaign trail, Republican candidate Rick Santorum blurted out a word that sounded like "black" and was widely-criticized for making a generalization that black citizens rely on welfare. Though the transcript of the remark is not entirely certain, CNN's Anderson Cooper emphasized the comment anyway with a "Keeping Them Honest" report on his Thursday show. The title "Keeping Them Honest" implies that the subject is being dishonest, but Cooper admitted that he was grilling Santorum for "what he appears to be saying." Santorum, talking about Medicaid and the growing number of people receiving entitlements, stated that "I don't want... continue reading
MSNBC's Martin Bashir on Friday offered an offensive, bewildering comparison, linking the murder of a black British teenager in 1993 to supposedly offensive comments by Republican presidential candidates in 2012. [ MP3 audio here .] After referencing the killing of Stephen Lawrence and a U.K. inquiry finding institutional racism in the British police force, Bashir played clips of Republicans, including Newt Gingrich saying this: " President Obama is the most effective food stamp president in American history." Shamelessly using the murder of a teenager to score political points, Bashir excoriated, "Let's cut out the food stamps rhetoric right now before... continue reading
On Friday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer highlighted The Boston Globe endorsement of Jon Huntsman, and noted how, "Joe Klein in Time magazine wrote this about him...'He has proposed the most thoughtful roster of policy initiatives of any candidate in the race.'" Lauer then wondered: "People say this guy is a great candidate. Why hasn't he broken through? ...why aren't more people talking about him?" Lauer directed that question to Meet the Press host David Gregory, who explained: "I just think that a lot of people view him as slightly discordant in this particular primary season. He doesn't have Tea... continue reading
An hour before CNN screamed 'Breaking News' Thursday night over the Boston Globe's endorsement of Jon Huntsman (basically for not being 'pushed' to the right like Mitt Romney), the CBS Evening News trumpeted the presidential bid by Huntsman who 'has flown under the radar, despite his impressive resume. He's the chopper-riding popular two-term Governor of Utah with a picture-perfect family...' Reporter Bill Whitaker glowing story hailed Huntsman's economic plan as 'deemed best of the campaign by the Wall Street Journal,' before approvingly touting: 'Unlike most of the Republican field, he believes humans contribute to climate change.' Whitaker soon cued up... continue reading
In a Wednesday interview with up-and-coming GOP candidate Rick Santorum, CNN's John King dug up a "controversial" 2003 interview Santorum had with the AP and then proceeded to misquote him on the matter of homosexuality. The AP reporter who had then questioned Santorum was Lara Lakes Jordan – whose husband Jim Jordan managed John Kerry's presidential campaign later that year. King never mentioned any possibility of a conflict of interest there, but used Santorum's "controversial" answer on the question of homosexuality as an example of what Democrats hail as his "extreme" conservatism. King began by telling the candidate "A lot... continue reading
Determined to vet up-and-coming GOP candidate Rick Santorum, CNN's Gary Tuchmann chose Wednesday to pull a number of liberal attacks on the candidate's social beliefs and call it a report. Apparently for CNN, "scrutiny" entails digging up liberal talking points instead of studying a candidate's voting record and economic and foreign policy plans. Tuchman attested on Anderson Cooper 360 that "we can already tell you quite a bit about his vision for this country," adding that Santorum "has established a reputation as a conservative in every sense of the word." He then descended into implying that Santorum was a racist... continue reading
An angry Chris Matthews on Thursday denounced Rick Santorum, smearing the Republican as wanting a "theocracy" to "trump" the Constitution. The "Hardball" anchor ranted about birth control after playing a clip of Santorum on "The Bill O'Reilly Show." [MP3 audio here .] Santorum told O'Reilly on Wednesday that states do have the right to ban contraception, but added, "[States] shouldn't do it. I wouldn't vote for it if they did. But that doesn't mean they don't have a right to do it." Talking to Robert Traynham, a former staffer of Santorum, Matthews interpreted, " Let me tell you what he... continue reading
Thursday's lead story on the aftermath of the Iowa caucuses, ' Romney Showing Financial Muscle For Next Round ,' found New York Times reporters Jim Rutenberg (pictured) and Jeff Zeleny a little label-happy in Manchester, New Hampshire, using twelve variations on the 'conservative' label in a 1,236-word story. By contrast, during the paper's 2008 Iowa caucus coverage of the Democrats, the Times' Michael Powell actually called the liberal 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis a 'pragmatist' and ultra-liberal politicians Sen. Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson 'populists,' while calling Sen. Hillary Clinton a 'liberal pragmatist' a grand total of once. In the... continue reading