NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Wednesday evening hit presidential deficit commission co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles from the left, the New York Times left. Without ever raising conservative criticism of proposals to raise taxes, Williams charged: It seems to me there's two arguments. There's what you're trying to accomplish and then there's how you're trying to accomplish, and there are, as you know, critics of what you're trying to do. James K. Galbraith writes in the New York Times , "Bowles-Simpson proposal is an assault on the middle class, the working class and the poor." This wasn't... continue reading
In his newest Politico column , Joe Scarborough rips Sarah Palin whose "anti-intellectualism" threatens the GOP's success in 2012. With a scathing indictment of Palin's presidential aspirations, Scarborough asks Republicans secretly critical of Palin to stand up and voice their opposition to her presidential run. Scarborough questions former Alaska governor's basic intelligence for even considering running for the presidency, although he admits later in the article that Palin "is not a stupid woman" but "does not know what she does not know." "What man or mouse with a fully functioning human brain and a resume as thin as Palin's would... continue reading
On Tuesday's Parker-Spitzer on CNN, ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer ironically worried that too many of his fellow former politicians, who are also contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, are on Fox News: " Never before in our history ... has one media outlet with one coherent ideology had almost a monopoly on ... half of the presidential nominees and controlled one political party this way ." The disgraced former politician of Client Number Nine infamy raised the apparent problem during the first part of an interview of former MSNBC personality and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams. After noting that "Sarah Palin,... continue reading
During Wednesday's 12PM ET hour on MSNBC, anchor Contessa Brewer attacked those who want to maintain the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy: "...the Marine Corps and Catholic chaplains, who say they support the policy on moral grounds. It doesn't make a lot of sense...if it's homosexuality that they have a problem with - they're basically saying, 'Yeah, just keep lying about it.'" Later in the hour, Brewer interviewed Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman about his support for repealing the policy. She labeled Arizona Senator John McCain as the villain preventing repeal: "So John McCain has been one of the most... continue reading
Asking a wife if she loves her husband isn't exactly the most insightful question, but that's one of the softballs that Barbara Walters tossed to Michelle and Barack Obama during 20/20 on Friday. She also asked the President if he curses and what Lincoln means to him. At one point, the journalist lauded Michelle Obama as "comfortable" and "outspoken." Walters then cooed, " You love him very much, don't you? " (The First Lady's unsurprising answer? "Yes, I do.") Digging for answers, the reporter investigated Mr. Obama, "Do you ever curse?...You pray?" Walters also allowed the President the chance to... continue reading
On Wednesday's Today show NBC's Ann Curry managed to thread the theme of global warming through three different news stories, during her 9am news update. The co-anchor began by notifying viewers about the "wild weather" of record rainfall and tornadoes in the South to snow in the Midwest and then told her audience that "unusual weather seems to be a growing trend" as she delivered the latest bit of alarmism coming out of a climate conference in Mexico. Curry then wrapped up her update with a quirky eco-friendly news story about a Tokyo aquarium that is using an electric eel... continue reading
In his November 30 Politico column , Joe Scarborough rips Sarah Palin whose "anti-intellectualism" threatens the GOP's success in 2012. With a scathing indictment of Palin's presidential aspirations, Scarborough asks Republicans secretly critical of Palin to stand up and voice their opposition to her presidential run. Scarborough questioned the former Alaska governor's basic intelligence for even considering running for the presidency, although he admits later in the article that Palin "is not a stupid woman" but "does not know what she does not know." "What man or mouse with a fully functioning human brain and a resume as thin as... continue reading
On Tuesday, MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing labeled Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa "one of the most radical right-wingers in Congress" during the segment immediately before she interviewed him. Nothing was said of the comment in the interview, and her questions proceeded as normal. Following a debate on the extension of unemployment benefits, Jansing remarked that "up next we're going to talk to one of the most radical right-wingers in Congress and talk about what he plans to do when the GOP takes control of the House." In the next segment, she interviewed Rep. King. Jansing asked King about the... continue reading
Former Clinton operative George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday hyped a call for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to resign over the revelations in the WikiLeaks release. While talking to Robert Gibbs, the GMA host quoted Jack Shafer of Slate : " Diplomacy is about face. And the only way for other nations to save face will be to give them Clinton's scalp. " The attack on the wife of his former boss may seem out of character for Stephanopoulos, but it still came from a default liberal perspective. The anchor began his badgering of Gibbs by noting, "...The State Department brushed... continue reading
At the top of Wednesday's CBS Early Show, fill-in co-host Erica Hill fretted over Republicans pledging to focus solely on economic issues in the lame duck session of Congress: "Gridlock alert. Just one day after promising to work together while meeting with President Obama, GOP leaders may now put a halt on cooperating with Democrats on Capitol Hill. So will Washington find itself at a standstill?" Moments later, co-host Harry Smith lamented how "the spirit of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats after yesterday's White House summit seemed to fade quickly." In the report that followed, senior White House correspondent Bill... continue reading