While the New York Times was hypersensitive to any signs of racial prejudice among the massive, peaceful Tea Party protests, reporter Joseph Berger raised and dismissed the idea of anti-Semitism at Occupy Wall Street, in Saturday's ' Cries of Anti-Semitism, But Not at Zuccotti Park .' Just two of many references: Reporter David Herszenhorn assumed racism was a force in the movement in an April 1, 2010 podcast : 'One is clearly there's a racial component. Some members of Congress you know, had epithets hurled at them as protesters marched around the Capitol on the day of the big House... continue reading
Appearing on Sunday's NBC Today, Meet the Press host David Gregory cheered "a big week for the President's foreign policy" as a "leadership moment" while smearing Republican presidential candidates: "...there has been the betrayal of a lack of understanding in foreign policy in some sections of these debates that is stunning to a lot of people..." [ Audio available here ] Gregory fretted: "Simple mistakes about geography or a lack of a really well thought out point of view about America in the rest of the world." He then praised Obama as a leader "who has been tested now repeatedly... continue reading
Liberal MSNBC anchor Martin Bashir on Monday compared Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry to former KGB agent Vladimir Putin, citing the fact that both supposedly love guns and "shoot to kill." After playing a clip of Perry expressing his appreciation for the American tradition of firearms ownership, Bashir bizarrely proclaimed that " Mr. Perry's wild west show calls to mind another world leader. Yes, Vladimir Putin ." [MP3 audio here .] To hammer the point home, pictures of the democratically elected Texas governor and Putin, the man who has suppressed journalistic freedom in Russia, appeared on screen. Bashir continued, "[Putin]... continue reading
At the top of Monday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer touted a new plan to address the housing crisis: "After a series of foreign policy victories, President Obama is hitting the road to sell his plan to help turn around the struggling economy and today the focus is on the housing market." Lauer later wondered to chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd if the plan would, "help politically?" Todd declared: "Well, it could....emphasize the fact that they can't get anything done through Congress, right? That Republicans won't do anything....Mitt Romney said of the housing crisis, 'You know what? We're not... continue reading
President Barack Obama's new infrastructure spending plan 'makes all of the sense in the world' and is an 'eminently sensible idea,' ABC's Christiane Amanpour enthused Sunday morning on This Week as if there is no rational reason to oppose the additional federal money and without a look at the impact of the already-spent stimulus spending. Following up on President Obama's boast that 'when you got the AFL and the Chamber of Commerce agreeing on anything, that's a sign that it's a good idea,' Amanpour brought aboard the chiefs of those two organizations to tout the self-interested spending and fret over... continue reading
Won't someone please make New York Times columnist Gail Collins happy, and bring up Mitt Romney's dog Seamus? Collins is apparently frustrated that the image of Romney's habit of strapping the family dog to the roof of the car in a crate on family vacations to Canada has not become the iconic image of the Romney campaign (like the media tried to make Gingrich's big bill at Tiffany's). Since the Boston Globe revealed crate-gate in the summer of 2007, Collins has (according to a Nexis search) mentioned the dog's dilemma in 23 columns since her August 4, 2007 manifesto, '... continue reading
CNN released a poll last month where 61 percent of Republican respondents believed abortion should be legal in "certain" cases and 11 percent believed it should be always legal, while only 27 percent opposed its legalization in all cases. Don Lemon cited this poll and touted that an overwhelming number of Republicans now support the legalization of abortion "under all or certain circumstances." "So Will, 72 percent, 72 percent of voting Republicans think abortion should be legal under all or certain circumstances," Lemon emphasized to conservative guest Will Cain of TheBlaze.com. "So how does such a minority of Republicans come... continue reading
During a panel discussion on Friday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer asked of the Occupy Wall Street protests: "What's the civics lesson in this for our kids as they're watching this on TV?" News anchor Natalie Morales argued: "...there's a huge civics lesson....the idea of having that civil discourse is important to teach our kids and it's something in history we've seen." In contrast, moments later while discussing the latest Republican presidential debate, Lauer lectured Mitt Romney and Rick Perry on a heated exchange between them: "My parents, in teaching me manners, taught me, one, don't interrupt, bad on Rick... continue reading
On Friday's NBC Today , co-host Matt Lauer noted Herman Cain leading the Republican presidential field but wondered: "is he really aiming for the Oval Office or something else?" In the report that followed, correspondent Michael Isikoff proclaimed: "Herman Cain is facing new questions about whether he is profiting from his own campaign." Isikoff reported: "Cain's campaign committee has used $100,000, collected from donors, to pay Cain's own company for thousands of these booklets written and self-published by Cain. That means profits for Cain himself and could run afoul of campaign laws, say watchdog groups." A sound bite was played... continue reading
ABC's Brian Ross on Friday investigated a $500 million government loan to a car company that is now operating in Finland. Ross highlighted how Vice President Joe Biden in 2009 claimed this would create jobs in America. Yet, the Good Morning America reporter left out a key component for the network version of the story: Fisker, the European car company involved, have ties to big Obama campaign bundlers. Ross began the segment by explaining to viewers: "[Henrik] Fisker got a federal loan two years ago of more than $500 million, with Vice President Joseph Biden saying the company would employ... continue reading