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"There's only one person who's trying to insert the reproductive rights debate into this campaign," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted in the "Media Mash" segment  of the March 8 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity.

It's Barack Obama who made this a live issue when he moved to push religious institutions to provide contraception, even if it violates their religious conscience to do so, Bozell noted.  Sure, the media know that Obama is the one waging a "war" on this issue, but they're aggressively pushing the liberal Democratic spin on the issue as a cudgel to attack Republicans, particularly social conservative ones. [watch the full segment in the video embedded  below the page break]

Today NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center (MRC) president Brent Bozell launched a new website: IStandWithRush.org, where visitors can sign a petition denouncing "attempts by radical left-wing organizations and the media to censor Rush and his commonsense conservative message."

Rush apologized for his initial comments, "but the Left won't accept the apology" and "won't be satisfied until all of Limbaugh's advertisers pull the plug on his show," Bozell noted, before detailing a litany of instances where liberal talk show hosts like Mike Malloy and left-wing comedians like Bill Maher used misogynistic and venomous invective to trash conservative women in politics. You can watch that video embedded below or at IStandWithRush.org, where we encourage you to sign the petition.

Today's starter topic of discussion is "Super Tuesday," a day when many states hold their primary elections simultaneously. In the past, the large number of primaries has been important in presidential campaigns. Not this year, according to Washington Times columnist Joseph Curl:

In a statement released today on his eponymous website, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh apologized for his choice of words in a monologue about Georgetown Law student and political activist Sandra Fluke, who "testified" at a faux hearing conducted by congressional Democrats regarding the ObamaCare contraception mandate. Limbaugh also reiterated his concern over the contraceptive mandate and the larger erosion of  personal responsibility and accountability through federal mandates that social costs for personal expenses onto taxpayers or employers.

You can read the full statement here or below the page break:

"The American Conservative Union just came out" with their latest congressional scorecard and what do you know, retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has "the lowest lifetime conservative record [48.59, just left of center] of any Republican. In Diane Sawyer's book, that makes her the principled voice of reason," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on last night's "Media Mash" segment on Hannity.

The liberal media, of course, have been using the left-leaning senator's departure from the Senate as a club to rebuke the Republican Party as in danger of losing its appeal to moderates and becoming a far-right political party with limited appeal. Also discussed on the popular media bias segment was how the media are skewing their coverage of Rick Santorum to present him as obsessed with social issues and bordering on foisting a "Christian" brand of "Sharia law." [video follows page break]

Department of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu has admitted something that conservatives have long suspected about the Obama Administration: It doesn't really care about the skyrocketing cost of energy.

In remarks to a congressional committee, Chu stated that "the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy" when asked if lowering gas prices was the Administration's top goal:

The crew from MRCTV headed to heart of New York City to see what passers-by thought of the Media Research Center's two giant 'Don't Believe the Liberal Media' billboards in Times Square. Considering New York is the center of the liberal media universe, the response from average New Yorkers was quite positive. Take a look after the jump:

Two big topics of discussion that arose yesterday: Michigan and Arizona both delivered victories to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney over his opponents. Romney swept Arizona with 47 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for Rick Santorum. In Michigan, things were much closer with the former governor taking the state 41 to 38 percent. Romney scored his Michigan win despite  slightly higher than normal participation from Democrats who crossed over to vote for Santorum, a point of contention between the two campaigns in recent days.

The other hot topic for today is the announcement from Republican senator Olympia Snowe that she will retire and rather than seek reelection in her state of Maine. Do you think this will harm the GOP's chances for taking back the Senate?

Appearing on Fox News's Hannity on Monday, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain refuted the notion put forward by Louis Farrakhan that, "Never has a sitting president been spoken of in the manner that President Obama and his family have had to endure." [Watch the video after the jump]

Cain demolished the baseless claim: "If you go to the Media Research Center, Brent Bozell, our friend, they documented the names that they called George Bush. That statement is just simply not true. He presents no facts. But he makes the statement, and he gets away with it to the people who are willing to listen to him, and that's all."

While it is unfortunate to have large numbers of people in positions of political power have no regard for the Constitution in their policymaking duties, it is at least refreshing to see one of them, in this case, Rep. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), admit that she and other Obamacare supporters are "not looking at the Constitution" when it comes to the law's individual mandate for healthcare.

Appearing on the February 23 Hannity on Fox News for the weekly Media Mash segment, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell exposed the media attempts to downplay high gas prices and refusal to hold President Obama accountable for the rising energy costs.

"Why is it, Brent, do you think the media is not so interested" in noting skyrocketing gas prices under President Obama's watch, substitute host Liz Cheney asked [video embedded below page break].

MRC President and Newsbusters publisher Brent Bozell predicted on Feb. 23 that gas prices will keep climbing and the media will keep downplaying that fact to help President Barack Obama.

“The prices are going to continue to escalate and the media are gonna continue to downplay it. This is the kind of story they don't want to cover. It goes against the narrative of the 2012 election and they're gonna do everything they can to get this guy elected. Period,” Bozell said on “Your World with Neil Cavuto.”

After several welcome weeks off from televised debates, the GOPers are tangling again tonight on CNN. If you're watching, please join us for a live chat.

As with all NB live events, you are expected to abide by the NewsBusters terms of service. Vulgarity and general obnoxiousness will get you kicked from the chat room. You will need a Flash-enabled browser to participate.

Update: The debate has ended and so has the chat. Please use this post as an open thread.

Today's starter topic: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear another case on an important issue: racial and gender quotas often known as "affirmative action." This is one of several big issues before the court:

There have been some different numbers thrown about referring to President Obama's chances for being reelected based upon various economic indicators. If one looks at consumer spending an unemployment, the economy hasn't improved enough to assure an Obama win:

MRC Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham appeared late Friday afternoon on Your World with Neil Cavuto to discuss the Yahoo! guesstimate that President Obama would win re-election with 303 electoral votes, the one co-written by a professional Democrat.

Graham said the posting is something they "throw out there to try to say, 'Let's keep the Democrats happy. Let's have a little spring in their step, and let's make sure they keep donating to us.' It doesn't make any sense otherwise." [Video below. MP3 audio here.]

In a one-time only break with his longstanding policy of not discussing the far-left Media Matters, MRC President and NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that the group has been exposed by the Daily Caller as "radicals" doing "the dirty work for the Obama administration."

Bozell praised the Daily Caller series on Media Matters, and predicted that as the group becomes more irrelevant, they could also become more dangerous: "I think the tactics they are employing are the tactics of desperation. When they go this personal, this savage, this ugly, that's desperation. And that's when I say to conservatives: Watch out."

Video and a partial transcript below the jump.

Since the beginning of the debate over Obamacare began, the left has taken to alternatively calling the unconstitutional "individual mandate" provision of the law a tax. In its briefs to the Supreme Court defending the law, the Administration has insisted that the penalty levvied against people who refuse to purchase medical insurance is a tax. Earlier this week, however, the Administration's top budget official was at great pains to avoid calling the mandate a tax: