NB Staff's blog

In his syndicated column, Jonah Goldberg takes to task many of the people who claim to be “fiscally conservative” but in truth are anything but. While there are people who actually are fiscally conservative and socially moderate or liberal, Goldberg makes the point that many liberals try to describe themselves in this way, even though they really do not have any conservative beliefs at all:

For general discussion and comment about the news of the day.

Today's question is "In how many ways can sex columnist/MTV star Dan Savage offend?" In his latest column of "advice," Savage jokes that one kind of sex from behind is useful in mocking the Catholic hierarchy:  It's "known variously as frottage, outercourse, the Princeton Rub, or 'the pearl tramp stamp.' But in Chicago, it's known as 'the Cardinal George.'"

The cardinal is opposing same-sex marriage legislation currently being proposed in Illinois. Last week, Savage answered questions he didn't have time for at a recent event in Madison, Wisconsin, and dismissed Ann Coulter as too much of a hag to be relevant on the gay issues of the day:

For general discussion and comment.

MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham appeared on Neil Cavuto's prime-time show on Fox Business on Thursday night to discuss how the media rained down critiques of House Speaker John Boehner for delaying more federal aid for Hurricane Sandy victims. Cavuto said they tried to turn Boehner into "Satan" as the New York Daily News ran the headline "STABBED IN THE BACK: N.Y. pols blast Sandy betrayer Boehner."

This bias in favor of ever more federal subsidies reminded Graham of the old Daily News headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead." (Video and transcript below)

The way the news media fawned over the Democratic 111th Congress -- which passed the wildly unpopular ObamaCare -- while smearing the Republican House in the 112th is like a bad Saturday Night Live skit, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on the January 3 edition of his eponymous Fox News Channel program.

"Look, what they're saying is, when the Democrats were in charge with the 111th Congress they did all these things moving the agenda to the left, and, oh happy days, look at all the wonderful left-wing things they did," Bozell noted, but then, "The112th Congress comes around and Republicans try to put a stop to the madness and it's called tyrannical." [Watch the full "Media Mash" segment in the embed below the page break]

Discuss the news of the day and anything else you'd like.

Over at CNSNews.com, MRCTV's Dan Joseph and Joe Schoffstall are reporting that nearly two months after homes in Staten Island, New York were devastated by Hurricane Sandy, residents say they’re still struggling with red tape as they try to get the government to help.

FEMA “really hasn’t done much, if anything, and they’re making people go through a whole bunch of bureaucratic tape,” one resident told MRCTV.

MRC founder and president Brent Bozell appeared on Hannity on Thursday night to debate the “fiscal cliff” morass with liberal Fox analyst Juan Williams.

"The issue has been, will continue to be, spending. And that's what no one wants to talk about," Bozell insisted. He hammered away at the idea that politicians speak in vague terms about cuts, but nothing ever gets reduced. "This is insanity. Someone has got to have the backbone to come up with specific cuts."  (Videos below)

MRC founder and president Brent Bozell appeared on the Fox Business Network on Thursday to address the gridlock in Congress over a fiscal-cliff deal. Varney suggested it was “hard-core conservatives” like Bozell who would be blamed if there is no agreement. Bozell insisted there's no focus on spending cuts, only on taxes.

Bozell slammed the "absolute dishonesty on both sides. No one wants to address the fiscal insanity that’s going on in Washington, DC.” Varney also asked Brent for his opinion on the coverage of the pro-Obama media (video below):

Well, so much for “Plan B,” House Speaker John Boehner’s proposal to block tax increases on everyone whose annual income is below $1 million. After already being preemtively rejected by Harry Reid in the Senate, House Republicans told Boehner they would not support the effort to raise taxes. This caught everyone by surprise according to NRO’s Robert Costa who was there with an inside account.

The both houses have gone into recess for the Christmas holiday, what do you think should be done before the New Year? Sound off here on this topic or another topic.

"The blame America crowd has come back, but it's become far more militant. It's the hate America crowd," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on the December 17 edition of Hannity. Bozell was reacting to a now infamous clip from her eponymous July 1 program when MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry trashed the Founding Fathers. "The land on which they formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved," she noted. 

Perry's "footnote for the Fourth of July" was judged by a panel of media bias experts to be the 2012 Quote of the Year. Bozell, the founder and president of the Media Research Center, was in studio with Sean Hannity for a special year-ending "Media Mash" segment devoted to the worst in liberal media bias from this year. Naturally, Harris-Perry's MSNBC colleague Chris Matthews made the cut for his openly admitting that he was glad Hurricane Sandy gave President Obama a much needed boost at the tail-end of the campaign, a remark for which he later apologized on air. [see video below the page break]

For general conversation and discussion about topics not being covered elsewhere on NewsBusters.

Every year a panel of leading expert conservative media observers picks the most-biased media quotes for the Media Research Center's annual awards for the year's "worst reporting." We will announce those results on Monday, but first, the readers of NewsBusters and MRC.org have spoken, and the results of our "public ballot" are in.

The shocking developments in the Jimmy Savile child sex abuse scandal at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) raise disturbing questions about Mark Thompson, the former BBC director general who was named the new president and CEO of The New York Times Company in August.  Given what has come to light thus far, Thompson is at the very least "guilty of gross professional incompetence" and at worst involved in "an indefensible cover-up," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell charged in letters sent yesterday to New York Times publisher Jill Abramson executive editor Jill Abramson and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

"If you did conduct a background investigation during the hiring process, what were your findings? If you knew about Mr. Savile’s alleged crimes while Mr. Thompson was director general, why did you decide to go ahead and hire him anyway?" Bozell inquired in the letters, which he is making public today, "because the public deserves to know the truth." "I want to give you the benefit of the doubt in this matter, and therefore the opportunity to respond," the Media Research Center founder added, concluding, "Your response will be reproduced in full." [You can find the Sulzberger letter pasted below and the nearly-identical Abramson letter is linked here ]

Discuss the news of the day and whatever else you'd like.

Today's starter topic: He hasn't been relevant in a long time but the publicity French movie star Gerard Depardieu is getting for moving to Belgium to avoid France's new income tax laws can't be good. Exit question: How do wealthy leftists who advocate for politicians who want to raise taxes justify evading them once they are raised?