Two days after liberal Democratic politician/CNN host Eliot Spitzer told fellow CNN host Fareed Zakaria it "brought a smile to my face" and "makes my heart warm" to learn President Obama "calls you for wisdom and advice about issues around the world," Zakaria took to CNN's site for his Sunday show, Fareed Zakaria GPS , to issue a "clarification on my conversations with the President" in which Zakaria, an in unusual late Saturday afternoon posting, declared: "The characterization that I have been 'advising' President Obama is inaccurate." Zakaria maintained that all he's done is "had a couple of conversations with... continue reading
Saturday's The Early Show on CBS gave attention to a number of liberal faculty members at Catholic University who, in a letter , questioned House Speaker John Boehner's Catholic credentials on helping the poor ahead of the Ohio Republican's speech at the university's commencement. CBS's Betty Nguyen noted that "not everyone" at the university "is looking forward to" his speech, and recounted that some faculty members accused Boehner of having "one of the worst records in Congress on programs for the poor," as the liberal professors recommended that he "re-familiarize himself" with the church's teachings. On the May 14 The... continue reading
On CBS's Sunday Morning show, during his regular commentary, right-leaning CBS contributor Ben Stein gave a pessimistic view of the "Arab Spring" movement to topple authoritarian governments in the Middle East, charged that America would regret allowing Hosni Mubarak lose power in Egypt, and predicted that the radical Muslm Brotherhood would take over there. He also gave rare attention to the Muslim Brotherhood's history of alliance with Nazi Germany during World War II. Stein: The most potent political force in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, hates the U.S., loathes Israel, condemns the killing of bin Laden whom they praise as a... continue reading
With "Cal's High Honor" as the on-screen tag, the Fox News Channel on Saturday highlighted video of Fox News Watch panelist Cal Thomas receiving the Media Research Center's "William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence" at the MRC's May 7 annual Gala featuring the "DisHonors Awards." Video here of what Fox News Watch showed of MRC President Brent Bozell introducing Thomas and some remarks from Thomas. Video of all of what Thomas said at the event held at the National Building Museum. Our DisHonors page with video of presentations of all of the awards at the Saturday night, May... continue reading
CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of the weekend show Fareed Zakaria GPS and editor-at-large for Time magazine, admitted on CNN Thursday that he has been advising President Obama on foreign policy matters. Eliot Spitzer, host of CNN's In the Arena, brought up the fact at the very end of a conversation with Zakaria about Pakistan and foreign policy. Zakaria affirmed it and clarified that "mostly it's been face-to-face meetings...organized by Tom Donilon, the national security advisor." [UPDATE, May 15 : On Saturday afternoon, Zakaria posted the following "clarification on my conversations with the President" to his CNN blog page : The... continue reading
The day after Newt Gingrich announced his candidacy for president, MSNBC's Martin Bashir took the opportunity to rail against the Republican contender for criticizing former President Bill Clinton's adulterous behavior while he was engaging in sexual transgressions of his own. On his eponymous program on Thursday, Bashir admonished the former House speaker's "hypocrisy" but failed to mention even once that the Democratic president didn't just cheat on his wife, but committed perjury to cover up the affair. "So when [Gingrich] commits adultery, it's all about his predicament," spun Bashir. "He was under pressure from work and all kinds of professional... continue reading
PBS's Tavis Smiley offered his own half-baked assumptions Friday on the 2012 GOP presidential contenders. The far-left anchor dismissed the GOP field as a bunch of nobodies on the 9 a.m. EDT hour of CNN Newsroom. "You can't beat somebody with nobody," he quipped when asked what GOP contender poses the biggest threat to President Obama's re-election. "I don't see somebody yet that the president should be all that concerned about, at least to the point of losing sleep." [Click here for audio.] Smiley also hit Obama for not doing more to help unemployed African-Americans. He assumed the reason Obama... continue reading
On Thursday morning, CNN largely dismissed the controversy over the White House invite of rapper Common, using talking points from the White House and Comedy Central's Daily Show to marginalize conservative critics. Anchor Carol Costello deflected attention away from the rapper's violent lyrics by quoting a rap of his that has a pro-life message. She quoted none of his violent lyrics, however. Common has composed work in the past praising cop-killer Assata Shakur in "A Song for Assata," and has also ranted "burn a Bush" in rapping about the former president. Conservatives were outraged over the artist's invite to the... continue reading
Given the issues Ron Paul speaks out on, it seems likely that subjects such as raising the debt ceiling or taxes would come up as questions for an interview. However, Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos didn't ask the 2012 Republican presidential candidate a single question on those topics. Instead, Stephanopoulos pressed Paul on flooding: "Celia from Springfield, Ohio wants to test how just how far your libertarian principles take you. She asks, 'Do you think everyone should just be responsible for themselves and if a flood washes your house away, no FEMA? Sink or swim?" The host then prompted the... continue reading
On Thursday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams incredulously noted how "...it's become fashionable among some to say...that so-called enhanced interrogation, what some define as torture...helped contribute to the death of bin Laden." He then touted: "Today Senator John McCain headed to the floor of the U.S. Senate to refute that." In the clip that followed, McCain declared: "In my personal experience, the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence, but often produces bad intelligence. Because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear whether it is true or false." He then asserted: "The... continue reading