CBS won't let go of liberal efforts against the new immigration enforcement law in Arizona. A night after Katie Couric focused on "the backlash against Arizona's new immigration law. San Francisco bans official travel to that state," she teased Thursday's CBS Evening News by trumpeting a lawsuit against it from a lone police officer: "The latest response to Arizona's new immigration law? Sue the state. We'll tell you who is." She soon cited how "the first lawsuits were filed today challenging it, including one by a Tucson police officer who claims the law is unconstitutional." Reporter Bill Whitaker presumed Arizona... continue reading
During Thursday's 11AM ET hour on MSNBC, anchor Tamron Hall asked former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean about Florida Governor Charlie Crist's expected announcement to run as an independent in that state's senate race: "Is this a sign that people, perhaps centrists or moderates, like Charlie Crist, have no place in this new emerging Republican Party?" That set up the left-wing Dean to bash conservatives and the GOP: "What effect does the tea party have on the Republican Party? And this is a really good example. They've driven another moderate out of the Republican Party....there just apparently is no... continue reading
On Thursday's Morning Joe, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell appeared and seemed to agree with Britain's Prime Minister that a voter he met was a bigot. Discussing Gordon Brown's April 28 comments, which were caught on a live mic, Mitchell defended, " And what he said is not actually that offensive...I mean, it was an honest opinion. " [Audio available here .] Even the fellow panel members on the mostly liberal MSNBC seemed shocked. Guest Sam Stein of the left-wing Huffington Post recoiled, "Really? To call her bigoted?" Mitchell repeated her charge: "Well, she was decrying immigration and in a lot... continue reading
Timothy Egan, liberal New York Times reporter turned liberal nytimes.com columnist, is the latest former reporter to weigh in on Arizona's anti-immigration law, " Desert Derangement Syndrome ." It would be hard to top former Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse's hysterical conflation in her Tuesday print-edition column of Arizona's stricter enforcement of immigration laws with a Nazi police state, but Egan gets in his share of insults, some courtesy of comedian Jon Stewart, the "Mark Twain of our day." But for all its diversity of land and people, Arizona is also a lunatic magnet . As I drove, I... continue reading
Time magazine's website on Thursday named me [MRC news analyst Matthew Balan] to their tongue-in-cheek " Least Influential People of 2010 " list, ranking me with other notables such as Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, MSNBC anchor David Shuster, and Clarence Thomas. Contributor Joel Stein stated that he was " short on morons " to put on his list, so he picked me [Balan] after CNN anchor Rick Sanchez told him about our recent dispute. The Time writer got to me after listing three-pages-worth of notables. I was immediately preceded by actor Joaquin Phoenix, "political extremist" Lyndon LaRouche, and Justice Thomas... continue reading
ABC's Good Morning America on Thursday gushed over "rising star" Charlie Crist's decision to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the Florida Senate race. Next to a graphic that read "Declaration of Independence," co-host George Stephanopoulos speculated, " Is this trouble for Republicans? Will more independents rise up? " [Audio available here .] Stephanopoulos also oddly called the Florida governor a both a "GOP star" and a "rising star," despite the fact that Crist's popularity has been fading within the party for almost a year. However, when then-GMA host Diane Sawyer interviewed Joe Lieberman on August... continue reading
On April 22 and 27, CNN and The Washington Post both helped forward Islamic advocacy group CAIR's publicity stunt which demeaned an anonymous Virginia motorist as a racist. The Post finally found the driver on Thursday - and apparently, both news outlets jumped the gun, as the owner claimed that the numbers on his license plate were a tribute to his favorite NASCAR drivers, not secret code for "Heil Hitler." Anchor Rick Sanchez devoted a brief on his Rick's List program on Tuesday to presenting CAIR's side of the story on the controversy. After showing a picture of the pickup... continue reading
A night after ABC and NBC championed the supposed "growing national backlash" against Arizona's new anti-illegal alien law, the CBS Evening News caught up as anchor Katie Couric teased her Wednesday newscast by trumpeting a move by a far-left enclave: "The backlash against Arizona's new immigration law. San Francisco bans official travel to that state as pressure grows for a national immigration reform law." After Couric noted "a new travel warning today. This time it's Mexico warning its citizens to be careful if they visit Arizona," reporter Nancy Cordes saw controversy "spreading to all corners of the country" as evidenced... continue reading
Sam Tanenhaus, editor of "The New York Times Book Review" and "Week in Review," and the author of the book, "The Death of Conservatism," went on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC talk show Monday night to discuss her being featured in a fundraising letter from the right-wing John Birch Society. But the friendly chat soon veered off into a comparison of the nationalist John Birch Society to the Tea Party movement, with Tanenhaus confidently proclaiming "there are no serious ideas left on the right." Tanenhaus is pretty assured, for a man who published a book called "The Death of Conservatism" months before... continue reading
NBC's Matt Lauer, on Wednesday's Today show, previewed a segment about an FTC campaign to urge teachers to warn their tween-aged students about the evils of marketing, (something apparently parents are ill-equipped to do themselves) as he alerted viewers: "Plus the barrage of ads our kids see every day and what's being done to protect them from the urge to buy, buy, buy!" Amusingly that teaser, over a video clip of an Apple Jacks ad featuring animated characters, came right before the Today show broke for an actual cereal commercial featuring - you guessed it - animated characters. Later on... continue reading