On Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, during a discussion of Mitt Romney's recent altercation with rapper Sky Blu on an airplane, host Maher seemed to suggest that Romney might have been motivated by anti-black racism in confronting the rapper as the Real Time host brought up racially tinged quotes from former Mormon church president Joseph Fielding Smith - who died in 1972 at the age of 95 after serving two years as president - as if the words were relevant to Romney's scuffle. Maher: "I just couldn't help but think maybe this has something to do with... continue reading
Howell Raines was executive editor at the New York Times for 21 turbulent months before being forced out in June 2003, felled by the journalistic malpractice committed by a young reporter he supported, Jayson Blair, and his personal callousness and autocratic management style, as well as launching a feminist crusade against the Augusta National Golf Club (home of the Masters golf tournament) that embarrassed even fellow liberal journalists. In his retirement, the admitted " liberal to radical " Raines has settled into a Captain Ahab role against his sworn enemy, that two-headed white whale in charge of Fox News: news... continue reading
Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Friday moderated a group of mostly liberal voices to sympathize with Democratic Congressman Patrick Kennedy and, at times, former Representative Eric Massa. Speaking of the politician who spent the week talking about naked showers arguments and tickle fights, Stephanopoulos fretted, "Too much time on Eric Massa?" The former Democratic operative turned journalist's liberal guests included DailyBeast.com editor Tina Brown and former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner. (Republican strategist Kevin Madden was the lone conservative.) Speaking of Massa's now infamous Glenn Beck interview, Hefner tried to highlight the positive: "...I actually thought the most thoughtful thing... continue reading
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, on Friday's Today show, remarked how similar the Eric Massa case was to the Mark Foley sex scandal in 2006, and back then Scarborough went with Matt Lauer's premise that Hastert should be "Thrown under the bus" - a point some Republicans and conservatives agreed with then. However when NBC's Meredith Vieira questioned if Pelosi needed to testify, let alone resign, over the Massa mess Scarborough demurred: "I don't think so." So much for holding a Democratic Speaker to the same standards. The following is what Scarborough told Lauer on the October 4, 2006 Today show: MATT... continue reading
Liberal comedian Jon Stewart featured a rare conservative voice on Tuesday's Daily Show, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen. As he often does during the occasions he talks to right-leaning guests, Stewart turned combative, attacking Thiessen for "living in a selective world." The ex-Bush aide appeared to promote his new book Courting Disaster , which defends and advocates for the administration's CIA's interrogation program. After Thiessen argued that the tactics stopped another terror attack in the U.S. after 9/11, Stewart lectured, "The bombings in Britain, the bombings in Afghanistan, the bombings in a Iraq. It's a selective world that you live... continue reading
Four months after "ClimateGate" exposed top climate scientists trying to manipulate data and suppress dissent, USA Today has brought forth a front-page feature article that seems aimed at rehabilitating one of those exposed by the scandal, Penn State professor Michael Mann (pictured at right). Reporter Brian Winter fretted how "the setbacks have contributed to a growing skepticism of climate science in the USA," and noted a "fundamental shift" by the environmental left (Winter refers to them merely as "environmentalists") in an effort to "try to win back an increasingly skeptical American public." And in its Thursday, March 11 "Cover Story,"... continue reading
In an interview with Matt Damon near the end of Thursday's CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith helped promote the actor's latest film, 'Green Zone,' which attacks the Bush administration over the Iraq war: "What was it like to make a movie like this? Because it's a little - it's - I'm not sure if this is an apt analogy, but it's a little 'Bourne' meets 'Hurt Locker.'" Smith alluded to Damon's role as Jason Bourne in the action movie series and the Oscar-winning film 'Hurt Locker,' which chronicles bomb defusing teams in Iraq. Smith introduced the pre-recorded interview by... continue reading
Good Morning America's Jake Tapper on Thursday forced a completely unrelated rant by Patrick Kennedy into a story entirely on health care. Tapper pivoted off a statement by Senator Mitch McConnell that legislation on the subject is a "farce." He then spun, "For one Democrat, the force driving that farce- the media- who earned the scorn of Democratic Congressman Patrick Kennedy for focusing away from substance." Tapper then played a clip of the Rhode Island Representative screaming, "If anyone wants to know where cynicism is, cynicism is that there's one, two, press people in this gallery! We're talking about Eric... continue reading
When conservatives take to the House floor to criticize the news media's liberal distortions, that's not newsworthy to NBC, but Wednesday's NBC Nightly News made time to showcase an unhinged liberal Democrat, Representative Patrick Kennedy, screaming against the media during House floor remarks in favor of a Dennis Kucinich-backed resolution to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, a fringe proposition which was soundly defeated 356 to 65. Left wing blogs, such as Huffington Post , also jumped to publicize Kennedy's rant, with Talking Points Memo calling it "a must-see moment." Anchor Brian Williams characterized Kennedy's... continue reading
In his "Notebook" segment at the end of the 3PM ET hour on MSNBC Wednesday, anchor David Shuster took a moment to commemorate the passing of a "hero" of his, well-known liberal advocate Doris 'Granny D' Haddock, a staunch supporter of campaign finance "reform" (really more government regulation of campaign speech). Shuster celebrated how she "at the age of 89...decided to walk across the nation....All in all, 3,200 miles to underscore her message that we need to change our current campaign donation system and have publicly financed elections instead." He proclaimed that Haddock "was committed to fair and open democracy"... continue reading