NewsBusters Archive

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN, former CBS News anchor expressed agreement with GOP presidential candidate  Ron Paul in opposing U.S. involvement in the civil war in Syria to protect the civilian population from the terror regime of authoritarian ruler, President Bashar Assad. After describing what he believes should be done to put pressure on Assad, he brought up Congressman Paul's left-leaning views on the Middle East:

On Thursday night's Politics Nation program on MSNBC, Al Sharpton accused Republicans of "totally misleading the people listening to them at CPAC" on the Obama administration forcing Catholic schools, hospitals, and charities to fund contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations in their insurance plans. "This has nothing to do with their church," he mysteriously proclaimed.

"This has nothing to do with directing religious institutions to do anything," Sharpton said as he denied reality. The newest MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry called the Catholic position "particularly obscene because they feel fine taking religious beliefs and pushing them into secular areas," like abortion and "gay marriage." 

Sometimes you read the most interesting things in those supposedly boring trade publications.

One such item of interest comes from an article in Manufacturing News (HT to an emailer) written by Richard A. McCormack which is primarily about the Mainland China's designs on the worldwide auto parts industry, including the U.S. Some of the larger American unions are demanding that the administration and Congress take action on what they see as unfair trade practices. One sentence is indicative of a more pervasive problem, and it directly contradicts what the establishment press has been telling Americans for months. It's of particular concern to all Americans because the U.S. government still owns over 25% of General Motors, and reads as follows: "China has told GM that it will not be able to sell its Volt electric vehicle in China unless GM transfers technology to China and produces the vehicle there."

Something extraordinarily rare happened on MSNBC Thursday.

One of the network's admittedly liberal anchors, Hardball's Chris Matthews, scolded a liberal guest, New York magazine's John Heilemann, for echoing Obama administration talking points (video follows with transcript and commentary):

A festering three-fer for the odious Martin Bashir.  Not content to inflict him on the viewing public him during his own slot, MSNBC put Bashir on The Ed Show this evening, where he proceeded to slime, in one fetid fell swoop, Mormons, evangelicals, and Mitt Romney.  With Schultz all too quick to agree, Bashir claimed most evangelicals wouldn't support Romney because of his membership in the LDS church.

For his purposes, Bashir badly misrepresented a Mark Twain quote. Bashir claimed that "the vast majority" of evangelicals share Twain's view that the Book of Mormon is "chloroform," perhaps implying there was something poisonous about it. But reading what Twain wrote, it's obvious he was merely claiming to find the book boring. Video after the jump.

Only two days after admitting that Barack Obama has a problem with his "frightening" birth control decision, Chris Matthews on Thursday was back on offense. He berated Rick Santorum as a "theocrat" and knocked Reverend Franklin Graham as a "disgrace."

The Hardball host singled out Family Research Council President Tony Perkins as the representative of all those who would question Obama's faith. Matthews interrogated, "Tony, do you think this president is a Muslim?" He added, "Why [do] your people" make such allegations?

Barack Obama today deflected reporters from questions about the growing controversy surrounding religious organizations having to provide contraception to their employees.

As MSNBC's Chris Matthews reported on Hardball moments ago, the President stonewalled reporters saying, "Come on, guys" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In a live interview with John F. Kennedy mistress Mimi Alford on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry fretted over her sharing unflattering details about the late president: "What about Caroline [Kennedy], who is still alive?...Did you think about, as you talk about unburdening yourself, the idea that you've burdened other people now with this?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Alford stood by her decision to go public with the affair: "Well, I don't intentionally burden someone else. I'm telling my story. And that is what – that is what I needed to do." Curry followed up: "Any push-back from the Kennedy family? Yes or no?" Alford replied: "No, nothing."

After almost three weeks, CBS finally brought on a member of the Catholic hierarchy on Thursday's CBS This Morning to discuss the Obama administration health care mandate that forces Catholic institutions, like hospitals and colleges, to violate their consciences and pay for abortion-inducing drugs and contraception [audio clips available here; video clips below the jump]. On Good Morning America, ABC ignored the controversy for the second straight day.

It was also the second straight day that the CBS morning newscast brought on a Catholic cleric for his take about the prominent issue. By contrast, on Tuesday, NBC 's Today turned to their in-house radical feminist, Rachel Maddow, who blasted the completely warranted opposition to the new policy as a "pretty far-right perspective" and "an extension of anti-abortion politics."