According to Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has " a man-crush " on New Jersey's Chris Christie. The GMA host interviewed the governor on Thursday and hit the Republican on not cutting unemployment fast enough and on his handling of December's blizzard. Regarding the state of New Jersey's turnaround, Stephanopoulos touted the talking points of the state's Democrats: "But some of your critics, some of the top Democrats in the state, say that your priorities are misplaced. One counted the number of the times you used jobs in the speech. Said it was four." After... continue reading
Former Texas Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, on Thursday's Today show, was cornered by NBC's Matt Lauer on his anti-gun control stance, as Lauer pressed: "In the wake of...that shooting out in Tucson, Arizona, do you today feel the same way about gun control that you did when you were an elected official?" DeLay was invited on to discuss being sentenced in his campaign finance case but Lauer felt the need to shoe-horn in a question about the Gabrielle Giffords shooting as he attempted to guilt DeLay into rethinking his support for overturning the assault weapons ban back in... continue reading
At the top of Wednesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric lamented: "The President tries to comfort a nation in mourning, but even on a rare day of unity, politics and controversy intervene." A clip was then played of Sarah Palin's Facebook video reaction to the Tucson shooting and media finger-pointing: "Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel." Later, correspondent Chip Reid reported that in his speech at the memorial service for the victims, "one thing we're told he [President Obama] will not do is get into the political battle that's developed over this tragedy." Reid then added:... continue reading
Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Thursday fretted about Sarah Palin and the use of the term "blood libel," deeming it a "loaded term." Reporter Claire Shipman chided that "what was meant to be statesman like, set off another round of controversy." Shipman even featured clips from angry leftists such as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and ex-Clinton aide Paul Begala. The Democratic operative derided the term, used by Palin as a defense against those who would associate her with Saturday's shooting in Arizona, calling it "narcissism of the extreme." Olbermann mocked, "Sarah Palin, quote, 'could not have come up with a... continue reading
Sarah Palin's use in a video commentary of the "blood libel" phrase, against those exploiting the Tucson shooting in order to discredit her, inflamed television journalists with NBC's Andrea Mitchell ridiculously highlighting on Wednesday's Nightly News how "more than 375,000 people have expressed their views in an online poll on MSNBC.com" and "nearly 59 percent do not agree with Palin." As if MSNBC.com attracts any kind of representative audience. On the CBS Evening News , Chip Reid maintained: "She ignited a new controversy by using the term 'blood libel,' which refers to false allegations from the Middle Ages that Jews... continue reading
Former NBC Nighty News anchor Tom Brokaw visited the Today show set, on Thursday, to play referee, or more specifically daddy, in the debate surrounding the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords as he pontificated that it was "time for the parents to say time out" on the heated political rhetoric. However he then went on to question how Sarah Palin could dare to respond to all the personal attacks on her, many by some of Brokaw's colleagues on MSNBC, as he opined: "I was surprised that she waded back into it frankly." On to discuss Barack Obama's performance at a memorial... continue reading
While journalists such as Brian Williams railed about "extortion" when CBS pulled a historically inaccurate 2003 miniseries about Ronald Reagan, there has been very little outcry over the news that the History Channel has withdrawn a (reportedly) hard-hitting drama about the Kennedys. The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday explained the behind the scenes role Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver played in pressuring the cable network to not air the series created by Hollywood conservative Joel Surnow. According to journalist Matthew Belloni, Kennedy used her leverage regarding a book deal with Disney, the History Channel's parent company, to get the completed miniseries... continue reading
CNN's Jeffrey Toobin falsely claimed on Tuesday's Parker-Spitzer that Barack Obama is " against gun control ." Toobin also seemed to lament that the conservative position on the Second Amendment has become the "conventional wisdom" in politics: " This is how much gun control has fallen off the map politically- that the idea that more guns will mean more protection is widely believed " [audio available here ]. The senior legal analyst for the liberal network appeared during a segment at the bottom of the 8 pm Eastern hour to "break down some of the legal issues" related to the... continue reading
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell hosted Johnson Publishing CEO Desiree Rogers on her show on Tuesday to discuss violent political rhetoric. Johnson publishes Ebony magazine, the current issue of which features articles measuring the level of racist speech within the Tea Party and questioning Obama's toughness in dealing with such vitriol. Mitchell called the articles "provocative" and "recommended" reading. She also asked Rogers if she thought the racist political rhetoric has reached its highest levels now that an African-American is President. "Some very provocative articles here about whether [President Obama] is tough enough and whether or not the politics that we've been... continue reading
Introducing a segment on Tuesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric acknowledged the latest CBS News poll showing that 57% of Americans do not believe heated political rhetoric had anything to do with the Tucson shooting. Even so, she added: "Just the same, nearly half say the discourse has become less civil than it was ten years ago." The poll numbers that appeared on screen showed that 49% of respondents thought political discourse was less civil than a decade ago, while 33% saw the civility level about the same, and 15% thought the current political climate was more civil. In... continue reading