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Leave it to PBS to take a local controversy and turn it into a symbol of the class war that is supposedly plaguing this country. On Tuesday’s NewsHour, the taxpayer-subsidized network raised a stink over so-called Google buses that carry San Francisco residents to their jobs at high-tech companies 30 or 40 miles south of the city. [Video below. MP3 audio here.]

Anchor Judy Woodruff drew the battle lines as she introduced the story:

At The Weekly Standard, William Kristol protested the conventional wisdom that Americans are incredibly weary of war, and so won’t project strength against Putin or other geopolitical foes.

He concluded: “Can Republicans do no better than shamefully to emulate Somerset and Obama (‘I assure you nobody ends up being more war-weary than me’)? Will no brave leader step forward to honorably awaken us from our unworthy sleep?” This drove radical lefty Charlie Pierce to verbally explode at Kristol the “sociopath” from his pit at Esquire magazine:

Color The New York Times slightly disappointed that Joe Scarborough is saying he won’t run for president in the GOP primaries in 2016. “He comes with instant credibility, instant recognition of a brand,” the Times quoted Matt Mowers, executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party. That instant brand recognition? MSNBC, the Obama Can Do No Wrong Channel.

But Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg honored his show “Morning Joe” as a “must-see for members of the New York-Washington news media-political axis.” That’s also code for the elites that love Obama. At least Stolberg recognized conservatives aren’t Scarborough fans, to put it mildly:

Appearing on NBC's Late Night on Tuesday – aired early Wednesday morning – New Yorker editor and former Washington Post Moscow correspondent David Remnick defended Barack Obama's poor handling of the Ukrainian crisis by bashing George W. Bush: "I think President Obama was elected not to get into more wars....his predecessor, President Bush, foolishly, at the very best, got into a war in Iraq that was a disaster." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Remnick continued: "And by the way, it gives [Russian President Vladimir] Putin some justification [to invade Ukraine]. He says, 'Don't lecture me. Don't lecture me about invasion and so on.' No matter how justified or not that may be, that's a point he goes out and makes in front of his own people."

In what may be a new low for MSNBC.com, writer Adam Serwer today all but compared Chief Justice John Roberts to his most infamous predecessor, Chief Justice Roger Taney, the author of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision.

"Shameful link in Voting Rights Act decision," blared the teaser headline in the lightbox at msnbc.com. "Legal scholars argue the decision striking down part of the Voting Rights Act is rooted in the Dred Scott decision, considered the worst in U.S. history," noted the photo caption [see screen capture at bottom of post]

Supposedly neutral journalist Barbara Walters dropped all pretense of objectivity on Wednesday, praising guest Anita Hill as her "heroine." The View co-host gushed over how "honored" she was to meet the woman who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in 1991. Walters allowed no tough questions of Hill, just queries about the "cost" of speaking out. 

The veteran journalist introduced her guest as though she were speaking of a world leader: "I would just like to say that I'm honored to be meeting you. I watched those hearings, as did so many other people. And to so many of us, you were our heroine." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Former liberal CNN contributor Roland Martin launched a left-wing tirade on his TV One news program on Wednesday, aimed mainly at conservative opponents of President Barack Obama's foreign policy: "Who the hell is America fooling to tell somebody else in another country who you can invade and cannot invade?...the United States, under President Reagan, invaded Grenada....Yet, here we are telling another sovereign nation what countries you can't invade. It's called being hypocritical. It is called being shameless, and frankly, we look silly."

Despite targeting Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham by name for their criticism of Obama, Martin threw a much wider net in his rant: "So Americans, can you please stop with the hypocritical nature of your criticism?...The fact of the matter is, America has always invaded other countries." The host also included some of the left's usual examples of America's meddling around the world: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]

Harry Reid is going to have a hard time portraying Will Pitt as a Koch brothers shill...

William Rivers Pitt, a leftwing editor at TruthOut,  whose foibles have been chronicled in NewsBusters and is probably best known for his journalism "scoop" of predicting the indictment of Karl Rove on May 12, 2006, is back in the spotlight again. While waiting 24 business hours to elapse for the Rove indictment to finally take place, Pitt shocked many at the Democratic Underground by posting an extremely angry attack, What I've learned about the Affordable Care Act, upon Obamacare due to a bad personal experience with it. In order to fully appreciate how far Pitt has turned against Obamacare, we need to go to his DU post back in December when he was proclaiming his love for Obama's signature plan...before he even experienced it:

It’s election season and MNSBC’s manufactured GOP “war on women” narrative is in full-swing across the network. Appearing on “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Wednesday March 19, the MSNBC host and her entire panel desperately attempted to create a controversy surrounding comments made by two Texas Republicans on the issue of equal pay for women.

Mitchell began the segment by proclaiming that “Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott is making some news. He's getting attention for opposing equal pay legislation for women. And in fact, has reiterated, according to reports today, that he would not sign any legislation that would make it easier for women to sue for equal pay. When two of the state's Republican women leaders then tried to fix the problem, well some argue they made it worse.”  

Interviewing Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on MSNBC's Daily Rundown on Wednesday, host and NBC political director Chuck Todd desperately tried to paint the GOP as anti-woman by ironically citing the top woman in the Texas Republican Party observing that men are better at negotiating higher salaries in the workplace. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Todd melodramatically proclaimed: "...you talked about figuring out better ways to talk to women....But here's the executive director of the Texas Republican Party....I know you're going to say you can't speak and defend everybody's comments, but this is somebody representing the Republican Party in the state of Texas. These things accumulate."

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman went on PBS’s Charlie Rose show Monday night and defended President Obama’s soft foreign policy approach to the crisis in Ukraine. [Video below. MP3 audio here.]

Of that approach, which so far has consisted of sanctions against 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials, Friedman said:

All the major monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity,  Islam – depict God as a “He.” From the beginning of the the Old Testament, God refers to Himself using masculine pronouns. But what’s 5,000 years of tradition and theological understanding against Women’s History Month, 2014?

God, you see, is a she, according to a woman pastor TIME Magazine enlisted to write on religion in honor of the month-long PC hug-fest.

Network journalists on Wednesday fawned over the fact that Barack Obama is again making NCAA basketball picks. On ABC, Good Morning America's Josh Elliott touted, "And finally, the bracketologist-in-chief is at it again. President Obama, as he does every March, making his predictions..."

Elliott played a clip of the President insisting he would use big bracket winnings to "pay down the debt" and buy his wife shoes. The news reader then enthused, "Smart man. Constituents and wife. Keep them all happy." [UPDATED with video below. MP3 audio here.]

This winter the networks have seized on all sorts of extreme weather, making it appear new, exciting or unusual. In the case of the California drought the broadcast networks have been hot and bothered claiming it is “historic.”

ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows hyped the California drought, describing it as unprecedented and the “worst drought on record.” But Dr. Martin Hoerling, a federal climate researcher, disagrees with that assessment. He said that the drought was consistent with previous California droughts.

On Wednesday, the Politico's Dylan Byers, imitating the president his web site so loves and adores, unilaterally decided ("new rule") that those of us who are making the self-evident observation that President Barack Obama's foreign policy performance has been weak can't do so unless we articulate what he should be doing.

How quaint. I don't recall seeing, hearing or reading of anyone at Politico or in the rest of the establishment press trying to place such firm conditions on those who opposed the Iraq War or how it was being conducted, the Bush 43 tax cuts, or any other performance, initiative, or idea during the previous presidential administration. Byers' tweet and several choice responses to it follow the jump (HT Twitchy):

New York Times environmental reporter Justin Gillis declared yet another "global warming" emergency in his latest monthly "By Degrees" column, "Scientists Sound Alarm on Climate," on the front of Tuesday's Science Times section. The text box read: "A stark new report is intended to awaken the public to the urgency of the threat to the planet."

Gillis, who works as an apocalyptic climate activist from his journalist perch at the Times, profiled Dr. Mario Molina, who alerted the world to the hazards that chloroflurocarbons posed to the ozone layer, but now sees an even greater threat to the planet, as shown in a report given before official release to the sympathetic Gillis.

“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski is an unapologetic liberal so it should come as no surprise that she would spew liberal talking points on a regular basis. Unfortunately, Ms. Brzezinski has taken it upon herself to repeat the liberal myth that women get paid less than men.

On both the March 18 and 19th broadcasts of “Morning Joe” Mika hyped “the issue of equal pay in the workplace” before deceitfully claiming that “of course women get paid 77 cents for every dollar men earn for the same exact job so it's something that needs to be rectified obviously.” [See video below.]

Virginia’s new governor, Terry McAuliffe, is returning to form, hosting special fundraising coffees with major donors and policy “experts.” This may be just like the way McAuliffe held White House coffees and sold overnight Lincoln Bedroom stays to donors for Bill Clinton, but it’s a bit troublesome for The Washington Post, which quickly cancelled its own cozy idea of sponsored “expert” dinners at the home of publisher Katherine Weymouth. 

So the Post buried that McAuliffe story on B-2, while the front page of Metro kept pounding the last governor, indicted Republican Robert McDonnell. The judge in his case colorfully ruled his lawyers were “dancing through fantasy land.”

On Tuesday, all three broadcast network evening newscasts devoted full reports to President Obama honoring 24 members of the military – only three still living – with the Medal of Honor. CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley trumpeted how the President "righted a historic wrong. He presented the nation's highest military award to 24 Americans, after a review determined that they had been passed over because they were Hispanic or African-American or Jewish." [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]

However, during the fifth year of former President George W. Bush's presidency, the Big Three channels furiously covered the allegations against several U.S. Marines, who were accused of killing civilians in Iraq in November 2005. Between May 17 and June 7, 2006 – a three week period – ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted three and a half hours of air time to the accusations of misconduct. These same networks aired only 52 minutes of reporting on 20 military heroes from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq during a five-year period between September 2001 and June 2006.

The other day this story hit the New Media. It’s one the Old Media will simply never report.

Two sisters, 16 and 21 and members of Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, were holding a pro-life sign while demonstrating at the University of California-Santa Barbara. A choppy cell phone video caught the scene: students hurl obscenities at the young girls while a large, imposing woman, with two accomplices in tow, march off with the sign, having ripped it from one girl’s hands.

Edward Murrow apparently didn't have the intestinal fortitude to tackle the subject of "Bronies."  However, the winner of the  Cronkite Award for Excellence in Exploration and Journalism about five minutes after his debut on MSNBC, Ronan Farrow, dared to investigate from deep inside the world of Bronies. Forget a missing Malaysian airliner, phony Obamacare numbers, or Russia grabbing Crimea. Farrow reveals a topic of real importance.

So what is a Brony? I could explain it briefly to you but the humiliation would overwhelm me. If you want to risk losing way more brain cells than you are willing to part with, then check out the video below the jump. And after watching it you might want to recuperate with a cup of hot cocoa served up by Pajama Boy.

Next thing you know, Bill Press will be gushing about Obama's ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Press just might be the only sentient person alive who actually believes that Obama's appearance on "Between Two Ferns" at the comedy website Funny or Die was unscripted. At least that's the impression Press gave while talking with Rebecca Sinderbrand of Politico on his radio show March 14. (Audio after the jump)

With the help of research materials from Newsbusters and the Media Research Center, the National Center for Public Policy Research (disclosure: my employer) today challenged Disney chief Robert Iger over media bias at ABC News at Disney's annual shareholder meeting.

National Center Free Enterprise Project Director Justin Danhof asked Iger why, as revealed by the MRC, ABC News devoted only 128 seconds to coverage of the IRS scandal from July 2013-January 2014, even though 53 percent of Americans believe the IRS broke the law and even Democrats, by a 2-1 margin, believe a special prosecutor should be appointed.

(audio after break)

In a refreshing change of pace, CNN's John King skeptically wondered on Tuesday's New Day about the White House touting the five million "enrollments" in ObamaCare: "They wanted to get the seven million by March 31 – unlikely they'll get there....How important are the next couple of weeks, and...if they get to six, can they spin that as a success, or is this baked in as a failure?"

King later pointed out that "even if they get some policy numbers that point them toward success –  maybe not where they wanted to get, but close to that – can they change the political dynamic out in the country? Because if you go to these key states, it seems like ObamaCare is still a liability." Despite this, New Day anchor John Berman still trumpeted the five million figure: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]

"Reporter Sharyl Attkisson has resigned from CBS News. Her major stories -- Benghazi and Fast and Furious -- will now be covered by this CBS reporter," NewsBusted anchor Jodi Miller deadpanned as an image of an empty chair was shown onscreen over her shoulder.

Other targets of Miller's sharp wit in today's edition of NewsBusted include perennial MENSA rejectee Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas), the ever-"bossy" Hillary Clinton, and Colorado potheads. Watch the video here or by clicking play on the embed that follows the page break. Click here to visit and subscribe to the NewsBusted channel on YouTube.

How do the journalists at Nightline define news? On Monday night, co-host Dan Harris and reporter Mariana van Zeller spent an astonishing nine minutes and 33 seconds on the salacious, gossipy phenomenon of "bootleg butt injections." Yet, it's been 123 days, 17 and a half weeks, since the show's hosts have focused on ObamaCare and the problems with the law's implementation. 

Harris educated his audience: "In the iconic rap song, Baby Got Back, Sir-Mix-A-Lot professes his love for women with large rear ends." He continued, "Since that song came out in 1992, the world's obsession with plus-size backsides has only intensified..." Yes, the once-prestigious Nightline investigated why some women "are risking it all on bootleg butt injections." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Townhall's Guy Benson today took Washington Post's Aaron Blake and Vox.com senior editor Sarah Kliff to task for uncritically furthering Obama White House spin that 5 million Americans have successfully registered for ObamaCare.

This is patently false, Benson charges, noting that, at best, the number is somewhere closer to 4 million, assuming the very generous estimate of a 20 percent "non-payment" rate on the registered policies. Benson explains (emphasis mine):

One of the more annoying aspects of establishment press coverage of many controversial issues is the outlets' tendency to act as if opposition to many things (really almost anything) which advance the left's agenda springs exclusively from Republicans. One obvious example is abortion, as if you can't be pro-life and libertarian or liberal (see: Nat Hentoff).

Another budding example has to do with governance of the Internet. Late Friday afternoon, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) announced its "intent to transition key Internet domain name functions" to "the global multistakeholder community." Obviously, there is Republican opposition to this move, but you don't have to be either to be opposed. Predictably, though, Jessica Meyers and Erin Mershon at the Politico headlined ("Defenders of Net transition: GOP off base") and framed their writeup as if that's the case. Excerpts from their report and an an excerpt from a blog post at the nonpartisan Information and Technology Innovation Foundation follow the jump.

In a Facebook posting on Monday, far-left director Oliver Stone touted the "popularity" of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of the move against Crimea. Stone credulously hyped, "The Crimean Referendum now going on, and seems clear more than 90% of Crimeans consider themselves Russian." 

The filmmaker proceeded to shift the blame onto George H.W. Bush for his actions after the fall of the Soviet Union: "The entire world would be a far more peaceful place now if Bush father had any vision or generosity like Roosevelt or Kennedy, but instead he turned out to be another Truman in his time." 

On Monday's MSNBC News Nation, host Tamron Hall teed up Michael O'Loughlin from The Advocate to promote his screed against the St. Patrick's Day parade organizers in New York and Boston for not allowing gay demonstrations at the respective events. Hall wondered: "What do you believe is the hold up at this point?...you see polls across the country where people, in their views of same-sex marriage of people who are gay and lesbian, greatly changed over the past ten years or so." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

O'Loughlin ranted: "You know, no one loves tradition like the Irish. And unfortunately, part of the tradition of Irish Catholicism was a bigotry against LGBT people." Moments later he predicted: "Give it a year and who knows where we'll be." Hall agreed: "Absolutely. And give it a year and the list of sponsors who may pull out of these parades could be longer as well."