Acting as if he were trying out for a MSNBC gig, Piers Morgan used his half hour of CNN's prime time, following President Barack Obama's 9 PM EDT speech on the debt ceiling and House Speaker John Boehner's response, to hit his guests from the left, presuming Obama holds the reasoned moral high ground while Boehner represents an obstinate and selfish position. 'A lot of people blame the financial crisis on Bush tax cuts and expensive wars,' Morgan told GOP Senator Rob Portman of Ohio in repeating a liberal talking point, demanding: 'Isn't it time you guys took one for... continue reading
Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Monday berated Tea Partiers for engineering a " slow motion succession " in relation to the budget impasse in Congress. Appearing with Hardball host Chris Matthews, Fineman summarized the conservative position this way: "This is an ending of the social compact. This is two, three generations worth of agreement about Social Security, about Medicare, about the role of the federal government. The Tea Party people are saying, we want to secede from that society ." The evidence for this Republican succession? The GOP's refusal to agree to Democratic deals to increase the debt ceiling... continue reading
Appearing on Saturday's NBC Today, CNBC's John Harwood solely blamed House Republicans for the ongoing debt ceiling gridlock: "Speaker Boehner and President Obama, were negotiating in good faith. They wanted a deal... .the House Republican caucus...would not accept what President Obama needed to make a deal, and that is real and significant tax hikes as a component." Harwood argued conservative House members were intimidating Boehner and declared: "That's why Boehner left the talks. That's why the United States' risk of default, while still low in my opinion, is higher than it was 24 hours ago." Later, Harwood touted how "Independents... continue reading
The three major networks trumpeted the news this weekend that the man behind a mass shooting spree in Norway is also a Christian, highlighting the fact in eight different programs from Saturday through Monday. The Sunday, July 24 New York Times used page one to declare, " As Horrors Emerge, Norway Charges Christian Extremist. " Yet, these same journalistic outlets were far more reticent to identify the religion of past Islamic killers. On Saturday's Good morning America, ABC's Miguel Marquez trumpeted, " Police have identified the shooter as a 32-year-old Norwegian and Christian fundamentalist. " He made sure to note... continue reading
A possible debt ceiling crisis? Mass murder in Norway? These are important stories, but Sunday on the 6:00 pm EDT hour of CNN Newsroom they took a backseat to the first day of legalized same-sex marriage in New York. Openly-gay anchor Don Lemon devoted much of the hour's coverage to the same-sex marriages, highlighting one conducted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Less than ten minutes were spent on a potential debt ceiling deal in Washington, and the terrorist attacks in Norway warranted even less air time. "This hour, you're going to be a guest at a gay wedding... continue reading
On Friday's Last Word on MSNBC, as host Lawrence O'Donnell brought up his belief that President Obama had succeeded in a strategy to appear to be the "reasonable man willing to make compromises" without actually having to make those concessions in the end, MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe at first seemed to buy into O'Donnell's "cynical" theory of Obama's true intentions, but the MSNBC analyst also suggested that Obama was indeed being "reasonable" and "the grownup in the room," while Republicans were not being "responisible' or a "serious party about deficits," and that they were behaving as "irresponsible children." Wolffe:... continue reading
Adopting the spin of President Barack Obama - who on Friday insisted 'one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is: Can they say yes to anything?' – on Sunday's Face the Nation CBS's Bob Schieffer demanded of Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl: 'Is there a problem for Republicans that might emerge as just the party of no? The party that can't say yes to anything?' Kyl delivered a fine retort, pointing out the Republican-controlled House has 'said yes to something and gotten strongly criticized,' the Cut, Cap and Balance plan as well... continue reading
Saturday's The Early Show on CBS gave New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg an unchallenged forum to promote his views favoring same-sex marriage as the show celebrated New York's recent legalization of gay marriage by interviewing a gay couple who are planning to get married. As Mayor Bloomberg will be performing the ceremony because the two are members of his staff, the mayor also took part in the interview. Early Show co-anchor Rebecca Jarvis set up the segment: Tomorrow, New York becomes the sixth state to make same-sex marriage legal, so this is a huge weekend for gay rights supporters,... continue reading
NBC and CBS polls released earlier this week determined that a significant portion of the American public remain opposed to any increase in the nation's debt limit, but neither network has included that fact in their on-air reporting. And a poll released by ABC on Tuesday didn't even bother to ask for public opinion on whether the raising the debt ceiling was a good idea or not. The networks' selective coverage of their own polls corresponds with CNN on-air hosts scandalously ignoring the fact that their polling found 66% of Americans supported the House GOP's 'Cut, Cap and Balance' plan... continue reading
Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) twice told CNN's John King Thursday night the results of CNN's own poll showing Americans favor a Cut, Cap, and Balance plan. King would not affirm his claims and instead reported other poll results showing that Americans favor compromise on the debt ceiling. Throughout Thursday afternoon, the network selectively touted results from its newly-released poll showing a majority of Americans favor President Obama's positions on the debt ceiling debate. What they ignored was that almost two-thirds of Americans want a balanced budget amendment to be passed, along with spending cuts and caps on spending in the... continue reading