BiasAlerts

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday offered up bizarre, revisionist history, insisting that Ronald Reagan "wasn't a social conservative." In an attempt to denigrate the goals of the Tea Party movement, the Hardball host inaccurately asserted that the 40th president "accepted Roe V. Wade." Matthews, who fancies himself a presidential historian , appeared on the Martin Bashir Show and asserted that Reagan wouldn't be comfortable in the "church tent" of today's GOP. He spun, "Although [Reagan] would address the pro-life rallies every year in Washington, for example, he would do so through public address. He never showed up." Matthews added, "... continue reading

Tom Brokaw, on Wednesday's Today show, welcomed Rick Perry into the GOP race for president by trying to scare that show's liberal viewers with the Texas governor's views on Social Security and the Supreme Court. The former NBC Nightly News anchor predicted that Republicans at the NBC News/Politico GOP presidential debate will "take a whack" at the new frontrunner, adding that they will be "looking at a book he wrote...called Fed Up." Brokaw then listed, what he viewed, were controversial points in the book: "He describes Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. He said that the Supreme Court is an... continue reading

Despite all the bad news for Barack Obama, George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday eagerly wondered just how the Republican Party can "blow" the 2012 election. The former Democratic operative turned journalist probed front-runner Rick Perry for limitations, wondering if the candidate will have to "disavow" parts of his 2010 book. Talking to GOP strategist Karl Rove, Stephanopoulos quizzed, " You've also said President Obama is likely to lose next year and I guess my question is, how could the Republican Party blow it? " [MP3 audio here .] Playing up ths supposed controversial nature of Perry's book Fed Up , Stephanopoulos... continue reading

Things must be really going bad for Barack Obama if even members of the liberal media are admitting the fact, which is what NBC News political director Chuck Todd did on Tuesday's Today show when he revealed the President has sunk to "record low" approval. On to analyze results from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Todd told Today co-anchor Matt Lauer that "Just forty-four percent of the job the President is doing" and added he was at a "record high disapproval number at 51 percent." However, before he let any Republicans in the Today audience get too giddy,... continue reading

New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes spent Labor Day with President Obama in Detroit, who spoke at a heavily union rally featuring speakers from organized labor. One of them, Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa, used just the sort of militant rhetoric against the Tea Party that would certainly have been condemned by the Times if coming from Sarah Palin , Rick Perry, or any other conservative politician or activist. Yet Hoffa was completely absent from Calmes' Tuesday story, ' For Obama, a Familiar Labor Day Theme .' What Hoffa said: "President Obama this is your army!...Everybody here has got to vote... continue reading

Good Morning America on Tuesday skipped any mention of James Hoffa's call for war against the Tea Party and the union leader's exhortation to "take these son[s] of bitches out." The ABC program was the only network evening or morning show to ignore the heated rhetoric entirely. All three evening newscasts on Monday and CBS's Early Show and NBC's Today offered brief references to Hoffa's comments in Detroit (although, in many parts of the country, the CBS broadcast was pre-empted for coverage of the U.S. Open). Bill Plante on the Early Show asserted that Hoffa " took aim at the... continue reading

Appearing on Monday's NBC Nightly News, CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera blamed decades of overspending by European governments and borrowing to help provide promised benefits for the continent's current economic problems. Caruso-Cabrera: Well, the general concern, Kate, is that a lot of governments in Europe for many decades now have borrowed a lot of money in order to give very generous benefits to their workers and their retirees. They thought that they would grow enough to generate enough revenue to pay back those debts. That hasn't happened. The CNBC correspondent - known for her libertarian economic views - went on blame the... continue reading

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace displayed to former Vice President Dick Cheney how NBC's Today show on Tuesday had ended Matt Lauer's interview with him by pulling back to highlight an Amnesty International protest sign ('TORTURE IS A CRIME: INVESTIGATE CHENEY') in the crowd on the street. Wallace wondered: 'What do you make of that? I mean, I somehow doubt that if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama were speaking, they would have taken the shot and then suddenly a person with a sign would have been putting their picture up. I mean, simply, do you think there is a... continue reading

On Saturday's CBS Evening News, correspondent Barry Petersen filed a report which highlighted Human Rights Watch's analysis of government records in Libya which document that, during the Bush administration, the CIA sent prisoners to Libya as part of its renditioning program. Anchor Russ Mitchell saw the papers as potentially "troubling" as he introduced the report: Overseas now, newly discovered documents in Libya suggest the regime of ousted dictator Muammar Qaddafi had a working relationship with the CIA. Barry Petersen in Tripoli tells us the once-secret papers could prove troubling. Correspondent Petersen showed a clip of Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights... continue reading