In an interview with Michele Bachmann on Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer actually delayed discussion of job creation as he pushed her to attack Texas Governor Rick Perry: "We'll talk about jobs in a second, but I do want to stick on this controversy over...Perry mandating vaccinations for HPV." Bachmann had attempted to begin on the subject of President Obama's jobs plan, but Lauer quickly steered her toward Republican infighting: "You not only question the policy [of mandating the HPV vaccine], but you questioned the motivation behind it, suggesting rather strongly that this could have been an attempt to... continue reading
Appearing on Tuesday's NBC Today to promote his autobiography, left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore decried "the amount of hatred that was generated on a certain news channel and on AM hate radio" against him, insisting: "They daily encouraged people to essentially commit acts of violence against me." [ Audio available here ] Moore leveled the charges in response to a question from fill-in co-host Savannah Guthrie about his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech that devolved into a rant against President Bush and the war in Iraq. He continued to defend those comments: "I said we're going to war for false reasons and... continue reading
After last Wednesday's Republican debate, Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos turned to a top Democrat for reaction. After last Thursday's jobs speech by Barack Obama, Stephanopoulos turned to a top Democrat for reaction. On Tuesday, after the GOP presidential contenders debated in Florida, the ABC host turned to yet another top Democrat for reaction. Stephanopoulos offered softball questions to David Axelrod, the President's former senior adviser, treating the Democrat as though he were some disinterested political observer. After asserting that Rick Perry had "changed his tune" on Social Security, the GMA anchor wondered, " Did he fix the Social Security... continue reading
A few days after he hit Republicans from the left when he moderated a presidential candidate on MSNBC, NBC's Brian Williams pressed President Barack Obama with the concerns of Obama supporters to the President's left ( 'Members of your base are asking: 'When are you going to get your Harry Truman on?'' and 'What do you say to those Americans who voted for that man on the poster that said 'Hope'?'). In between, he empathized with how Obama had to deal with an irrational House Republican caucus, ie the Tea Party members. ( Video after the jump) Incredibly, in the... continue reading
The day after the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, CNN asked if Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry was being a "bomb thrower" for vilifying Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. After playing a clip of Perry calling the program a "monstrous lie" and a "Ponzi scheme," CNN's Kyra Phillips teed up Democratic strategist Maria Cardona with this question: "Bomb thrower or truth teller, Maria?" Cardona predictably replied that Perry was a "bomb thrower." [Video below the break.] The network zeroed in on Perry's remarks Monday morning, in anticipation of Monday night's CNN/Tea Party debate in Florida. CNN's Jim... continue reading
CNN's business guru Ali Velshi argued that the stimulus did not fail, in a testy exchange Monday with CNN contributor Dana Loesch that followed President Obama's jobs plan speech. "It failed!" exclaimed Loesch when Velshi mentioned the stimulus, to which he excitedly replied that it did not fail. That set off a back-and-forth between the two pundits, where Velshi argued that unemployment could have been higher without the stimulus – a rather tired hypothetical thrown around by liberals. [Video below the break.] Velshi also claimed that Americans were responsible for being duped by a conservative "cuts-only" approach to the deficit... continue reading
So much for respectful commemoration of a tragedy. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is getting a lot of heat for scraping for political points in a nytimes.com blog post on Sunday, the morning of the 10th anniversary of September 11 attacks - ' The Years of Shame ,' in which he claimed 'Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror.' Here's the post, in full, including Krugman's brave refusal to allow dissenters to comment on his tasteless attempt to politicize 9-11. Is it just me, or are the... continue reading
Salon columnist Joe Conason appeared on Monday's Hardball to excoriate former Vice President Dick Cheney: "... You would almost think that Cheney was actually an agent of the nation's enemies... " Host Chris Matthews did not disagree or contest this charge. Conason and Matthews were discussing the war in Iraq and Cheney's continual defense of it. Playing off the Salon.com's columnist's comments, Matthews compared the ex-VP: "That's what they said, by the way, of Joe McCarthy. You couldn't be a better friend to the communist, in effect, than Joe McCarthy." After the segment's other guest, the liberal David Corn, attacked... continue reading
Of all the major regrets she could have about 9/11, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift whined that the attacks on that tragic day sparked this nation's "Obsessive focus on terrorism." As part of a panel retrospective on 9/11, aired on the syndicated McLaughlin Group over the weekend, Clift complained that George W. Bush's war on terrorism was "very costly to this country" as it distracted the nation from its "internal problems." Clift went on to cite, in her view, the great shame that was Barack Obama begging Congress "for money to modernize schools and build science labs" and added: "that's just one... continue reading
Monday's NBC Today featured co-host Ann Curry live in Tehran doing a fawning "day in the life" profile of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At one point, Curry noted the dictator's "grueling schedule" and wondered: "What is your primary motivation, as president? Why do you work so hard?" [ Audio available here ] From beginning to end, Curry's report sounded more like propaganda on Iranian state television rather than a legitimate news story. She sympathetically declared: "A hard-driving schedule is the norm his aides say, claiming he sleeps just three hours a night and that his days often stretch to 2:00... continue reading