On her 12 p.m. ET hour MSNBC show on Friday, host Andrea Mitchell noted that "Chris Christie has been cleared by the federal investigators of any allegations" in the George Washington Bridge closing scandal. However, MSNBC political reporter Kasie Hunt quickly dismissed the development: "But, there's a lot of damage that's been done in the interim. And there's going to be a lot of questions still that Chris Christie's gonna have to answer..." [ Listen to the audio ] Hunt imagined what donors to a hypothetical Christie presidential campaign would say: "People who want to be able to make a... continue reading
On Thursday’s Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, comedian Billy Crystal reminisced about Robin Williams and recounted a hilarious moment, way back in 1988, when his longtime friend and fellow Democrat realized they had a stinker on their hands with presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. The following is a transcript of the segment as it was aired on the September 18 Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon : BILLY CRYSTAL: And he was fearless and, you know, that was what I loved about him so much and his commitment to the comedy was astounding. And we were in Boston, it was 1988, it... continue reading
When the Bridgegate scandal engulfed Chris Christie in January, MSNBC's Chris Matthews went wild, repeatedly comparing the controversy to Watergate. On Thursday afternoon, federal officials revealed that the New Jersey governor had no prior knowledge of the planned traffic backup. Somehow, the Hardball anchor ignored the development. On January 8, 2014, the day the story broke, Matthews muttered, "Nixonian. It's so Nixonian." On January 10, Matthews theorized, "I grew up during Watergate. I got to tell you, it follows a certain pattern." On January 15, the cable journalist fixated, "Well, this is not yet a Watergate, but the more we... continue reading
Talk about tone deaf at National Public Radio. On Thursday’s All Things Considered , NPR reporter Don Gonyea ran a segment on Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.) traveling to New Hampshire to campaign with Scott Brown as he seeks to become the next senator from New Hampshire. Unsurprisingly, the NPR reporter did his best to play up the “Bridgegate” controversy despite the Department of Justice clearing Christie of any wrongdoing in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal. The accompanying story on the NPR website blared “Will bridge scandal jam Gov. Christie’s road show?.” NPR anchor Robert Siegel introduced Gonyea’s... continue reading
On Friday's NBC Today , co-host Matt Lauer brought on political director and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd to discuss the latest NBC News/Marist poll on a major American institution being rocked by scandal. It wasn't the Obama administration getting the bad press, it was the National Football League. That's right, NBC News conducted an entire poll just on the controversies surrounding the NFL and then put its chief political expert on air to analyze the findings. Not a single mention of President Obama's sinking poll numbers was mentioned during the Today segment, not even any reference to politics... continue reading
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice told NBC News that Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.) was innocent of any wrong-doing relating to the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge. Despite Governor Christie’s reported innocence, ABC and CBS have yet to cover the NBC story, but when the story originally broke in January, all three networks eagerly jumped on it. So far NBC has devoted only two news briefs on its Thursday night and Friday morning broadcasts totaling 59 seconds. Following Brian Williams’ 38 second brief on Thursday night’s Nightly News , on Friday morning’s Today co-host Natalie Morales... continue reading
On Wednesday night, it was reported that two Marine Corps veterans are walking from northern North Carolina to Washington D.C. and the White House to demand that President Obama take action to ensure the release of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi from a Mexican prison. However, none of the major broadcast networks have stepped up and covered the actions of the these veterans. One of the two veterans, retired Lance Corporal Terry Sharpe, gave an interview to Greta Van Susteren on her Fox News Channel (FNC) show On the Record Wednesday and told her that he and fellow veteran Alan Brown... continue reading
An enormous development in the Bridgegate scandal broke late Thursday afternoon when federal officials reported that they have cleared New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) of any wrong-doing relating to the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge in September 2013. When it came to the major broadcast networks covering this huge development, ABC and CBS punted on the story and refused to cover it in their Thursday night newscasts. NBC Nightly News did cover the story, however, but only in the form of a news brief that lasted for 38 seconds. This stands in stark contrast to the... continue reading
The pollsters at Gallup reported Wednesday that Americans' confidence in the media's ability to report "the news fully, accurately, and fairly" has dropped to its previous all-time low of 40 percent. That number was at 55 percent in 1999, but hasn’t been above 50 percent since 2005. The media are really struggling among Democrats, who have “traditionally expressed much higher levels of confidence in the media than Republicans have,” but their confidence (“great deal or fair amount of trust”) dropped to a 14-year low of 54 percent. Republican confidence dropped to 27 percent. Pundits on the left often feel despondent... continue reading
On Wednesday's The Lead , CNN's Jake Tapper tried to pull former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney out of acting like an apologist for President Obama. Tapper turned to his guest, who had just spent an entire segment defending his former boss's ISIS policy, and asked, "What is the difficulty in getting Arab allies to kick in with military assistance? Jay, you don't work for the White House anymore . You can be frank. What is the problem?" Earlier, as Carney sparred with Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard over the President's handling of the issue, the former Time... continue reading