Only Good Morning America's Jake Tapper on Thursday mentioned the call by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to investigate those who oppose the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero. CBS's Early Show and NBC's Today both skipped any discussion of the subject. So did Wednesday night's network newscasts. Tapper explained, "And the House top Democrat also called for transparency for who is funding the opposition to the Islamic center." He then featured a clip of Pelosi advocating, "And I have joined those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded." However, Tapper also... continue reading
For two days running, beginning on Tuesday, MSNBC's Morning Joe seemed overwhelmingly in favor of allowing the Ground Zero mosque to be built, despite a poll showing Americans being opposed to the construction of the mosque. The panels included co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, and liberal columnist Mike Barnicle as well as MSNBC contributors Mark Halperin, Norah O'Donnell, and Pat Buchanan. Their toughest rhetoric was reserved for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, due to his comments about the mosque being the equivalent of Nazis hanging a swastika next to a Holocaust memorial. But the talking heads also failed to... continue reading
Time magazine editor Richard Stengel on Thursday appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe to bemoan the United States' "ignorance" towards Muslims and to wonder, " Is America Islamophobic? " That particular question is also on the front cover of the current issue of Time. Leaving only two options, Stengel lectured host Joe Scarborough, "I mean, the extent of the ignorance- where you parse Islamophobia versus ignorance of Islam, I'm not exactly sure. But there is tremendous ignorance of Islam as a religion." Declaring that Christianity Judaism and Islam have great similarities, he derided, " And I think, you know, the American... continue reading
NBC's Matt Lauer invited on Rudy Giuliani to discuss the controversy over the Ground Zero mosque with the former New York City mayor diplomatically addressing most of the religious freedom concerns while still recommending that the site be moved, but Lauer furthered the notion that the imam fronting the project was not at fault for the "vitriol" in the debate, as he questioned the former mayor: "Some would say he didn't create the vicious, angry battle. That it's the people who decided to weigh in on it who add, added the vitriol to the battle." To which Giuliani responded that... continue reading
Russell Simmons, founder of the hip-hop label Def Jam, bizarrely and inaccurately claimed during an interview on Wednesday's Larry King Live on CNN that the perpetrators behind the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 were Christians: " If you're blaming Muslims for the attack on 9/11, then you need to change your mind. We didn't- did we blame Christians at the first World Trade attack? We didn't " [audio clip available here ]. Host Larry King brought on Simmons to discuss the controversy over the New York City mosque near Ground Zero. He appeared immediately after an interview of... continue reading
On Wednesday's Rick's List, CNN's Rick Sanchez returned to his obsession with Fox News , stating that the network " obviously tends to lean way, way, way to the right ." He did acknowledge this his competitors at MSNBC " tends to sway to the left ," but went on to extend his " I play it down the middle " label of himself to his entire liberal network: " We happen to be in the middle, and that's the way we do things " [audio available here ]. The anchor, who denied that he had any ideological leanings less... continue reading
Newsweek, recently sold for one dollar by the Washington Post Company but still in its hands, ranked the United States 11th, just behind Denmark, in this week's " The Best Countries in the World " cover story which put Finland at #1, followed by Switzerland and Sweden. There's hope for improvement, however, thanks to George W. Bush's departure from the White House and Barack Obama's arrival. Michael Hirsh explained the beyond the top ten rank: America hasn't recovered from the serious blows to its stature delivered by nearly a decade of policy debacles. As Obama never tires of reminding the... continue reading
CNN's Ali Velshi engaged in moral relativism on Wednesday's Newsroom as he editorialized on the controversial planned mosque near Ground Zero. Velshi worried about the precedent that might be set if a government "assisted" in moving its site: " Timothy McVeigh was raised Catholic. Do we then entertain petitions of moving Catholic churches away from the Oklahoma bombing site? " The anchor, a Canadian Shia Muslim of the minority Ismaili sect , closed out the 2 pm Eastern hour of Newsroom with his regular "XYZ" commentary, which he devoted to the controversy. Velshi began by stating that it was "an... continue reading
Appearing in the 2:00PM ET hour on MSNBC, New York Daily News reporter Samuel Goldsmith cited a poll featured on the paper's website , about opposition to the Ground Zero mosque: "[it] shows that 70% of New Yorkers say that they think the opposition is out of hatred and religious intolerance." Unfortunately, Goldsmith forgot to mention that it was a completely unscientific poll that only appeared within articles on the topic and allowed people to potentially vote numerous times. The slanted poll question read: "Is opposition to the building of a mosque near Ground Zero intolerant?" The three responses offered... continue reading
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday complained about "ugly" comments arising from the debate over the Ground Zero mosque. She also spun the founder and chief proponent of the construction as a moderate, "despite some criticism of the Imam from the right." [MP3 audio here .] After fellow MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd asserted that the President felt like he had to speak out because "the debate was getting so loud," Mitchell editorialized, " Getting loud, heated, ugly and inaccurate, in fact. " She then proceeded to tout Feisal Abdul Rauf to the Washington Post's David Ignatius. Mitchell enthused, "And despite some... continue reading