Since late January of 2012, the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard has once a week featured a “Mainstream Media Scream” selection in his “Washington Secrets” column. For each pick, usually posted online on Monday, I provide an explanation and recommend a “scream” rating (scale of one to five).
This post contains the “Mainstream Media Screams” for January through June 2016. The newest ones, starting in July of 2016, are here. “Mainstream Media Screams” for July to December 2015; for January to June 2015. (2012-2014 are featured on MRC.org: For 2014; for June 17, 2013 through the end of 2013. And for January 31, 2012 through June 11, 2013, when the Washington Examiner was both online and a printed daily newspaper distributed around the Washington, DC area.)
Check Bedard’s “Washington Secrets” blog for the latest choice and his other Washington insider posts. Each week, this page will be updated with Bedard’s latest example of the worst bias of the week.
(For more of the worst liberal media bias, browse the MRC's Notable Quotables with an every other week compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media.)
■ June 27, 2016: Mainstream Scream: Bill Maher says Constitution ‘sucks,’ needs ‘re-write’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features liberal TV talker Bill Maher using the Brexit vote to call for a rewrite of the U.S. Constitution.
On his HBO show, Real Time, on Friday night he compared the lack of gun control votes in Congress to how the British government reacted to the Brexit vote.
"I saw David Cameron today. You know, I'm up at 2:00 in the morning when this all happens. So I watched his whole speech and it's like 'I lost the vote, I graciously leave office.' It's like their system works so beautifully. We can't even get a vote on something that 90 percent of Americans agree on and can't get a vote. Our system sucks. It really does. The Constitution needs a page one re-write."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "What a cry-baby. A publicity stunt by a bunch of liberals doesn't lead to a vote those gun control advocates would have lost and Maher's reaction is to say the American political system 'sucks' and the Constitution should be re-written because our political leaders aren't as gracious as the Prime Minister of the country we broke from 240 years ago? Not the most patriotic attitude ten days before Independence Day."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ June 20: Mainstream Scream: Joy Behar’s twisted ‘view’ of Trump, ISIS
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features the View's Joy Behar suggesting that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's push to ban Muslims from entering the country makes him the "recruiter in chief" for ISIS.
Behar on ABC's The View, on Tuesday, June 14, reacting to the terrorist attack in Orlando:
"The thing about Trump though, is that he's the recruiter in chief. He is basically working with ISIS to kill us. They are working together. Just remember what I'm saying....Because every time you go after the Muslims and you talk about how they shouldn't come into the country and how they're all a bunch of whatevers, you are saying to ISIS, make another video to show people who are sympathetic to your cause, and don't think they haven't made many videos showing Donald Trump. He is a dangerous menace to the country....
"Do you think that because he is the recruiter in chief and by his words he's getting more people to go on the side of ISIS, that he could be considered treasonous? I mean, that is against the Constitution, that is against America. That's a treasonist act in my opinion."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "No better way to say it: She's gone nuts. Radical Islamists have been waging a terror war on the West for decades, yet she blames Trump for things he's been saying over the past year. If anything, her hateful and anti-free speech accusations, turning views with which she disagrees into a capital crime, makes her more of a 'dangerous menace to the country.'"
Rating: Five out of five screams.
■ June 13: Mainstream Scream: NBC’s Brokaw says Orlando just about guns
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw on Sunday reacting to the Orlando terrorist attack by slapping the nation for becoming a "country where everything seems to get settled by a gun."
Brokaw said:
"I really think it's in the country's best interest, and especially the candidate's best interests, and take a beat here and engage in a thoughtful dialogue, a prayerful dialogue, if you will, about what we've come to in this country where everything seems to get settled by a gun for whatever reasons.
"We don't know whether this was ISIS motivated or was just one deranged individual. We don't know yet, and we deserve to know what the motivation may have been before we can engage in a debate that may lead us to some kind of a resolution of too many mass murders in this country, not just because of Islamic-inspired mass murders, but we have them all across America, now more than three people being killed at a time is designated a mass murder and between Santa Barbara [San Bernardino?] and now there have been clusters of them across America. That eventually has to be part of who we are and how we talk about it as a civilized people. That would be my hope, at least."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Brokaw said he desired a 'thoughtful dialogue,' yet just hours into the horror he followed the predictable for the media – and hardly thoughtful – path of seeing the incident as an issue of gun control instead of radical Islamic terrorism. As if a another gun regulation would stop a terrorist."
Rating: Five out of five screams.
■ June 6: Mainstream Scream: Chris Matthews says ‘good news’ Gingrich won’t be VP
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features our old friend, MSNBC host Chris Matthews, cheering liberal predictions that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich might have disqualified himself for vice president by criticizing Donald Trump's slam on a federal judge with an Hispanic name.
During MSNBC's Sunday night, June 5, coverage of the Puerto Rico primary, Chris Matthews reacted to Gingrich criticizing Trump over attacking Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Matthews saw an up side:
"Maybe the good news is it will knock Newt Gingrich off the chance to be Vice President, anyway. That would be good news for the American people."
(Gingrich called Trump's comments "completely unacceptable," "one of the worst mistakes Trump has made" and "inexcusable.")
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "The liberal media line has been that Trump's lack of basic political knowledge makes him unqualified to be president. No one is more knowledgeable than Gingrich about public policy and how Washington works, yet Matthews rejects him. So it's really all about keeping conservatives out of office."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ May 31: Mainstream Scream: ESPN Mag rips ‘9/11 heroes’ that sing Star-Spangled Banner at sport events
(Washington Examiner post)
ESPN, which dumped baseball analyst and former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling after his anti-transgender Facebook post, has now turned on police singing the National Anthem at sports events, slapping an "authoritarian shift at the ballpark."
In its upcoming June 6 magazine, columnist Howard Bryant went on a rant against police officers singing National Anthem before baseball games. "Why don't more athletes speak out on behalf of their communities? Perhaps more of them would if there wasn't a chilling force looming over them," said the article.
"Policing is clearly one of the most divisive issues in the country – except in the sports arena, where the post-9/11 hero narrative has been so deeply embedded within its game-day fabric that policing is seen as clean, heroic, uncomplicated. Following the marketing strategy of the military, police advocacy organizations have partnered with teams from all four major leagues to host 'Law Enforcement Appreciation' nights, or similar events," Bryant wrote.
He added: "Nobody seems to care much about this authoritarian shift at the ballpark, yet the media and the public are quick to demand accountability from players they consider insufficiently activist. They blame these black players for not speaking up on behalf of their communities, ignoring the smothering effect that staged patriotism and cops singing the national anthem in a time of Ferguson have on player expression. It's indirectly stifled, while the increasing police pageantry at games sends another clear message: The sentiments of the poor in Ferguson and Cleveland do not matter....While athletes are routinely criticized for 'not doing more,' it is conveniently ignored how deeply their employers have mobilized against the most powerless elements of their fan base."
The column follows the end of Schilling's work for the sports network and ESPN's removal of his heroic game in a special about the 2004 Red Sox.
Bryant in his column even slammed the practice of teams using military camo in his rap on law enforcement.
He wrote, "There is not just deceit in these practices but also an insulting distortion of history and images. The Chicago Blackhawks ostensibly honored Veterans Day with a camouflage jersey containing the Blackhawks' logo in the center, clearly uninterested in the colliding imagery — the systematic removal of native tribes occurred at the hands of the U.S. Army. Since 9/11, America has conflated the armed forces with first responders, creating a mishmash of anthem-singing cops and surprise homecomings in a time of Ferguson and militarized police.
Tensions continue to mount in aggrieved communities, yet the LA Dodgers pandered to police by holding Law Enforcement Appreciation Night in September."
His rant is our Mainstream Scream of the Week and wins five out of five screams.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Bryant perfectly reflects the continued decline and fall of ESPN into embarrassing political correctness, censoring Curt Schilling but providing a platform for far-left political pontificating, including the rants of the very angry and race-obsessed Bryant. It's doubtful many in ESPN's audience share Bryant's disgust of police officers singing the National Anthem."
■ May 16: Mainstream Scream: ‘Dumb & Dumber’ actor paints Trump a racist
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features actor Jeff Daniels praising the "great" free programs from Woodstock Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders and slapping Republican Donald Trump as a racist whose motto should be, "Make America White Again."
Daniels appeared on Bloomberg TV's With All Due Respect last week. The Dumb and Dumber star was trying to talk smart on the 2016 presidential race.
"Look at anything that Trump's done. It plays into hatred, it plays into what's the worst possible thing we can create and then fan that flame. That's why you've got racism and bigotry. The hat should say, 'Make America White Again.' That's what it should say. That's what it should say.
"And he knows that. He's playing to that. Whether he can take it all the way to November or not, you want to say no, but where has he tripped up yet? I look at the stats and hope to hell that everyone who does not want him to be President shows up and votes....
"I love Bernie. I love the ideas that he's got. To me, it's like somebody who went to Woodstock who now is running for President. And it's all those ideals, let's just make the world a great place and legalize this and free health care and free college and going for all of that. Great ideas. But, that thing called 'Congress,' you know, is a problem.
"And, I just, it's not just the President of the United States. It's the President of the world. Like Hillary or not, and I do, she's got international street cred and it's a dangerous world and I like that she's been around it several times, certainly as Secretary of State and her whole history and the fact that, like him or not, Bill Clinton is available as a sounding board, just internationally, I feel safer that way."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Daniels reflects Hollywood's political hypocrisy. They have a visceral disgust for those supporting Trump, denigrating them as ill-informed racists. Yet they are excited about Bernie Sanders and all his absurd promises of 'free' stuff which appeals to their base political instincts."
Rating: Four out of five screams
■ May 9 : Mainstream Scream: CBS’s Stahl says media doesn’t love Hillary
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl questioning those who say the media is on the side of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
On Fox's "MediaBuzz" Sunday, she maintained the media are not pro-Hillary Clinton, pushing back against host Howard Kurtz: "I've never bought that."
Howard Kurtz: "Many people think the media love Hillary Clinton, but she's had her own history of testy relations with journalists. Why is that?"
Lesley Stahl: "Who says the media loves Hillary?"
Kurtz: "There's a lot of people out there who think the liberal press wants Hillary Clinton to win."
Stahl: "Yeah, I've heard that, but I don't think — I've never bought that, you know. Having covered the White House through Democrat Jimmy Carter and Reagan following, I mean, Reagan got a much softer, easier press than Jimmy Carter did so, I mean, when people look behind what they're saying and feeling, they'll see that the evidence isn't there. I think that the press is much more biased against power, real power, than you know, against one party or the next."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Talk about living in a bubble. Who outside of the Manhattan-based media elite think the media have been anything but pro-Hillary Clinton since the day she emerged on the national stage, only grudgingly covering any bad news about her? And, between Clinton and Trump, is there any real doubt as to who journalists will favor?"
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ May 2 : Mainstream Scream: CNN pundit hurls ‘white guy’ slam at Trump
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features CNN political commentator Sally Kohn claiming the only reason people are voting for Trump is because he's "a white guy."
Overlooking that Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich also suffer the same issue, Kohn slapped Trump on CNN's Thursday night "Upfront" after Trump said Hillary Clinton is playing the "woman card.""Look, people are only voting for Donald Trump, most of his supporters are only voting for him because he's a white guy. And frankly, if he were a woman or if he were, I don't know, let's pick – Latino, Muslim, any of the groups that he's stoked hatred amongst his supporters — if he were any of those, I don't think he'd be getting support either."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "How easy it must be to blame racism for support of a candidate you don't like. It lets you avoid any real thinking about why this particular white guy, one of many white candidates, has become so popular. Maybe it has something to do with this type of condescension which Kohn displayed."
Rating: Three out of five screams.
■ April 25: Mainstream Scream: Carl Bernstein blames public for media bias
(Washington Examiner post)
Washington Post and Time magazine veteran Carl Bernstein, now a CNN political commentator, knows who to blame for the lack of trust in the media: The public.
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features Bernstein bragging on "unbiased" mainstream outlets, like the Post, then blaming the public for going to other sources that reinforce their personal bias.
He spoke on CNN's on Sunday Reliable Sources show:
"I think we still have an awful lot of great reporting. You see it particularly in old mainstream news — the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal. This particular network, I think, although I've been very critical of some of the things we do in terms of devoting too much airtime to one candidate or another. I think that we are straight in terms of how we present the news and it's unbiased.
"I think there's a much bigger problem, and that is the people who are watching and reading us who are not looking for the best obtainable version of the truth who are not interested in unbiased reporting, rather who are looking for information to reinforce what they already believe, their political beliefs, their religious beliefs, their ideological beliefs.
"It's key to the success of Fox News that no longer do we have a culture interested in the best obtainable version of the truth that we once had in this country. So I think the problem is less the media than it is really a combination of media and our citizenry."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Bernstein defines the arrogant out of touch media. Never mind not understanding Trump's appeal, Bernstein has deluded himself into really believing the media are "unbiased" and news consumers just aren't smart enough to recognize they're the ones who are biased. But when he says the public "are looking for information to reinforce what they already believe," he could be describing the very journalistic approach which has led to distrust of the media."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ April 18: Mainstream Scream: Chuck Todd says GOP has ‘Death Wish’
(Washington Examiner post)
The Republican Party has been accused of a lot of things, but having a "death wish" has to be the most headline grabbing.
Appropriately, it was made by the mainstream media, this time NBC's Chuck Todd, host of Meet the Press, our winner for this week's Mainstream Media Scream.
It came when he plugged an upcoming segment on the April 17 Meet the Press:
"When we come back: The Republican Party has 31 governorships, the most Senators since 2005 and the most members of the House since the Hoover presidency. So why does it seem as though the party has a death wish when it comes to trying to win the White House?"
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Yes, both parties face challenges with their presidential candidates, yet Todd picked out Republicans as having a 'death wish' even though Democrats are picking from a far-left socialist and a candidate few trust who is under FBI investigation."
Rating: Three out of five screams.
■ April 11: Mainstream Scream: CNN's Toobin, Fox’s Rivera slap Cruz as ‘anti-semitic’
(Washington Examiner post)
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign effort in New York got slapped around last Thursday on both CNN and Fox News for his comments about "New York values," a phrase news celebs on both cable networks said amounted to anti-semitism.
On CNN's Situation Room, Jeffrey Toobin said:
"I think the New York values thing is a big problem. I mean. Let's be honest, remember what Ted Cruz said, he said New York values are about money and they're about the media. That's an anti-Semitic trope from a hundred years. It's been around for a very long time. Everyone in New York, everyone in the whole country understands what he was saying...
"Cruz can try to explain it away, but you can't explain what you said when its meaning is obvious."
On Fox's O'Reilly Factor, Geraldo Rivera said:
"I don't think Cruz breaks 15 percentage points, Bill. I think that he's going to get routed in New York and deservedly so. Aside from the stinking, anti-Semitic implications that I see in that whole New York values, money and media coded message that he put out there pandering to those Iowa voters."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "A perfect illustration of how the left and journalists, but I repeat myself, try to shut down political speech by discrediting criticism of liberal policies or officials as racist, anti-Semitic – or some manner of a hostile phobia. Cruz's meaning was obviously not anti-Semitic to non-liberals living in New York."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ April 4: Mainstream Scream: View’s Collins hopes Cruz rumors true
(Washington Examiner post)
When it comes to the mainstream media's dislike of conservatives it was hard to find anything that beat out Michelle Collins of ABC's The View and her nasty comments about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is angling to catch up to GOP presidential front runner Donald Trump.
Collins on March 28 was gossiping about unsubstantiated rumors Cruz had affairs with women, charges he, his campaign, and former aides dismissed immediately.
As a result, she is our featured Mainstream Media Scream of the week.
On the show, she said:
"I for one hope it is true because, not only would I like to see which five women would want to sleep with Ted Cruz, which would be fascinating, but also because I would like — no, I'm being real....It's something I like to call keeping it 100 on The View, like [inaudible]. But then more so than that, just to see and show what a hypocrite he would be, if it is true 'cause it's alleged. But you know, he's such a guy about family values and, you know, he lives by this kind of crazy moral code. So I love to watch people like that fall....
"The point is that if he did cheat, it would be quite satisfying… Someone like Ted Cruz I would like to see him fall, personally. He's not a good guy."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Hard to imagine a better illustration of the cultural left's disdain for conservatives and civic discourse: Ridiculing a moral code as 'crazy' and hoping for moral failure just to be able to succeed in making a political point about hypocrisy."
Rating: Five out of five screams.
■ March 28: Mainstream Scream: ABC ‘This Week’ guest hits Trump’s ‘unsagacity’ on foreign affairs
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features Georgetown University professor and media regular Michael Eric Dyson hitting the "unsagacity" of Donald Trump's foreign policy editorial board interview with the Washington Post and referring to Hillary Clinton's "keen intelligence."
Dyson on ABC's This Week Sunday: "Look at the Washington Post interview, the vast reaches of unsagacity that are revealed there, versus Hillary Clinton, whose keen intelligence..."
Dyson added: "Let's talk about the record in this sense. The things that you named there – what Hillary Clinton has done as the Secretary of State is understood her role as an arbiter of an American will that is not artificially or arbitrarily imposed, but creates a kind of dialogue. What people find problematic about President Obama is that he will not carry a big stick. He will not have the bluster of a Donald Trump. It is intelligent diplomacy in the service of American ideals. And, ultimately, at the end of the day, what you didn't mention was the police brutality issues that are here in America–"
Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal: "That's a different story–"
Dyson: "What you didn't mention – and this is what's at stake, too – what you didn't mention was the ability of Barack Obama to at least speak intelligently to the issues of domestic division that Donald Trump has now exploited to no end. And the Republican Party has to pay the tab for that."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "What an incoherent jumble of left-wing angst over the impending end of the Obama era and the possibility he'll be succeeded, not by Hillary Clinton, but by Donald Trump. Who else but Dyson would, in defending Clinton, go in one sentence from praising Obama's foreign policy to touting Obama's skill at addressing supposed policy brutality?"
Rating: Three out of five screams.
■ March 21: Mainstream Scream: View’s Behar says ‘Transgenders for Cruz is like Jews for Hitler’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream detours into the news entertainment side and to "The View" and co-host Joy Behar.
On the show last week, she just couldn't accept that Caitlyn Jenner could like Sen. Ted Cruz, let alone be a Republican.
During the show, discussion prompted by Jenner telling the Advocate magazine in early March that "I like Cruz" and that she'd like to be a "trans ambassador to Ted Cruz," but then posting a tweet with a picture of herself with Hillary: #learningfrommygirls #willingtolisten
Said Behar, "But what would make her [Caitlyn Jenner] be a [Ted] Cruz fan? He's against everything the transgenders as a group stands for?" She added, "Transgenders for Cruz is like Jews for Hitler."
In the Advocate, Jenner said, "I like Ted Cruz. I think he's very conservative and a great constitutionalist and a very articulate man. I haven't endorsed him or anything like that. But I also think, he's an evangelical Christian, and probably one of the worst ones when it comes to trans issues."
So her offer was to advise him on her issues. "Yes, trans ambassador to the president of the United States, so we can say, 'Ted, love what you're doing but here's what's going on.'"
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Classic example of excessive hyperbole exposing the prejudice of a media personality. So, since Ted Cruz is not an advocate for the specific rights and new laws transgender activists want imposed, that means he's planning a transgender Holocaust? Besides, I thought it was Trump who is the new Hitler according the media?"
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ March 14: Mainstream Scream: Chris Matthews calls the Obama ‘thrill’ the best since JFK
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC Hardball Host Chris Matthews reliving his thrill over Barack Obama, concluding that he's been the best on the Democratic side since John F Kennedy. Sorry Bill Clinton.
Speaking after the Thursday night MSNBC debate on CNN, Matthews recalled candidate Obama:
"I think Obama was so exciting. I think, you know, I was the 'thrill up the leg' and all that. I admit it I was overwhelmed by his speeches 'cause I'd go to all these rooms with 200 people in it and I'd never heard anybody speak like Obama. His presidency obviously couldn't live up to that level. It couldn't. It was so stellar, the excitement in those crowds. First African-American, young guy, incredibly educated and who could give a speech like nobody's been able to do since — well, certainly since, on the Democratic side, since Kennedy."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "How nice that Matthews found a chance to revive his classic 'thrill up my leg' comment from 2008, showing his flame still burns for Obama, his one true love in politics. He may advocate for Hillary this year, but without the over-the-top passion he brought eight years ago."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ March 7: Mainstream Media Scream: NYT’s Brooks says Heil Trump
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks on Meet the Press saying, "If we're going to get Trump, we might as well get the Nuremberg rallies to go with it."
HOST CHUCK TODD: By the way, there was something else that Donald Trump did yesterday that grabbed my eye, and, David, I just have to show it to you and I want to get you to react to it as well. Here it is.
DONALD TRUMP, in Orlando on Saturday: I've never done this before. Can I have a pledge, a swearing? Raise your right hand. 'I do solemnly swear that I no matter how I feel, no matter what the conditions if there's hurricanes or whatever,' that's good enough, 'will vote on or before the 12th for Donald J. Trump for president!' Thank you.
TODD: David, the visual, the hands go up, Trump asks for a pledge. I was flabbergasted.
DAVID BROOKS: If we're going to get Trump, we might as well get the Nuremberg rallies to go with it. No, the number one trait that associates or correlates with Trump's support is authoritarianism, a belief in authoritarian leadership style.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Brooks defines the very kind of media 'conservative' for whom Trump supporters have such disdain, and Brooks sure lived up to his reputation. Trump may not appeal to everyone, but it says more about Brooks than Trump that a ridiculous Hitler comparison so readily jumps to the front of Brooks' mind."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ February 29: Mainstream Scream: Bill Maher mocks Scalia’s death
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features Bill Maher, on his HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night, ridiculing the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and mocking his death.
"Something spooky happened exactly two weeks ago. I was talking – right at this hour right on this show, and we were talking about the fact that the Supreme Court had just scuttled the EPA's clean power plan, okay, and I said, 'How can anything get done in America when you have to run it by Antonin Scalia first?' Apparently, at that very hour, he died. He could have been watching this show thinking, 'I like Bill Maher so much. Ahhh!'"
Smiling, the liberal comedian fell backward in his chair as if he were Justice Scalia dying, inspiring laughter from the audience. After sitting up, he continued: "Okay, but, so, look, you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, so let me not name call. But let me fact call because I have listened for two weeks about he was a brilliant jurist and he was a great intellectual. Excuse me, Antonin Scalia was put on Earth to remind poor people that the law is not your friend."
More: "You know where he was when he died, though?...an all-male [hunting club], yes, with some secret order of St. Hubertus where they wear green robes with big crosses on them, and then they murder birds that are released, not into the wild, like right in front of them. And he was actually too sick that day to do the hunting, but he was in the car because that's great too, to just be around people murdering birds. So to, you know, the idea that this brilliant mind stumbling in the woods like Dumbledore..."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "In the midst of journalistic condemnations of 'juvenile' behavior from Republicans at the latest presidential debate, along comes a liberal hero and big Obama donor to show how low politics can really go: marking the passing of a respected and influential jurist by using him as fodder for cheap insults and ridicule from a 'comedian' who can't dream of matching Antonin Scalia's intellect."
Rating: Five out of five screams.
■ February 22: Mainstream Scream: Roland Martin says GOP ‘Invited Evil In’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features TV One's Roland Martin on Sunday's "This Week" on ABC charging that the Republican Party, in wooing the Tea Party and now Donald Trump, "invited evil in and not evil is taking over."
He said: "This is their problem. They invited evil in and now evil is taking over, okay. 2009, the night of Obama's inauguration, 'we will stop him at every turn.' They loved the Tea Party anger. They took advantage of it in '10 and '12 and '14. They always said, 'we can control it. We can harness it.' Now, all of a sudden, Trump is taking advantage of it. He led the whole birther deal. The Republican establishment at some point has to say, 'you know what, we played with fire and now it's about to consume us.'"
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our scream of the week pick: "There's lots of evil in the world, but Martin, who in 2013 was named 'Journalist of the Year' by the National Association of Black Journalists, sees it so easily in conservatives who want constitutional government. If socialists take over the Democratic Party, will he see them as evil or just compassionate people who want to help others?"
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ February 15: Mainstream Scream: PBS frets Sanders ‘thwarting’ first woman president
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features the recent Democratic presidential debate, with questioner Gwen Ifill of PBS asking Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders if he is "thwarting history" by potentially knocking off Hillary Rodham Clinton.
PBS's Gwen Ifill the Democratic debate on Thursday night, February 11:
"Senator, do you worry at all that you will be the instrument of thwarting history, as Senator Clinton keeps claiming that she might be the first woman president?"
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "I channeled her inner 'I am woman, hear me roar.' In this case less in inspiration than in distress, conveying the fear of women in the press corps that this interloper Sanders will ruin the script the media are laying out of Hillary making history."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ February 8: Mainstream Scream: NBC reporter says it’s ‘crazy’ women don’t like Hillary Clinton
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features Chris Jansing, senior White House correspondent for NBC News, saying on MSNBC that it's "crazy" for young women to not support Hillary Clinton as the first female president.
It came Friday when she was discussing with host Tamron Hall comments from female University of New Hampshire students at a "watch party" for the Thursday night MSNBC Democratic debate. Jansing reported the students "overwhelmingly said Bernie Sanders won the night."
DAYTIME HOST TAMRON HALL: The big headline for me in the randomly selected group of people, the young women there did not care that Hillary Clinton could be the first woman president.
CHRIS JANSING: That's crazy to me. It really is.
HALL: In fact, several of them were offended when she brought the line up pointing to the fact, that, 'How can I be establishment, I'm a woman running for president.' I'm going to play a little of what they said.
FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENT: I also am a woman. I also face discrimination as being a woman. Her feminism does not represent my feminism. And I think that's really important to differentiate that.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Jansing reflects the worst inclination of journalists: identity politics. But, of course, it only works for liberals. Jansing doesn't expect women to automatically back Carly Fiorina."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ February 1, 2016: Mainstream Scream: Lester Holt concerned voters hurt Hillary’s feelings
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features NBC News anchor telling Hillary Rodham Clinton that he "winced" when she was called dishonest by a young voter during the recent CNN Democratic presidential debate.
The interview came on Friday after the debate.
Lester Holt: "I want to ask you about a moment at the town hall the other day. A young man, a Bernie Sanders supporter, stood up and said young people don't trust you."
Taylor Gipple, at CNN's January 25 Democratic town hall: "I've heard from quite a few people my age that they think you're dishonest."
Holt: "And when he said that I winced. And I was wondering, you've obviously been in tough battles, political battles, but do you get your feelings hurt sometimes?"
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Pathetic. A year after the Brian Williams fiasco, his replacement embarrassed himself by treating Hillary Clinton as some kind of sympathetic victim. It's very difficult to tell any difference between the stridently left wing MSNBC and NBC News when NBC's star anchor is so in the tank for the candidate of whom MSNBC's star, Chris Matthews, declared: 'Personally and politically, I think she's great.'"
Rating: Five out of five screams.
■ January 25, 2016: Mainstream Scream: Matthews slaps Mark Levin, ‘One of the Most Distasteful Human Beings’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC's Chris Matthews -- who else? -- sneering at top talk radio host Mark Levin over the conservative's positive comments about Sen. Ted Cruz.
It came during an exchange on his Hardball show January 18 with NBC News correspondent Katy Tur. During the exchange he also mispronounced Rush Limbaugh's name as "Lim-ba" and then "Lim-bo."
Host Chris Matthews: "There's something strange about Cruz. Has Trump got to him with this 'nasty' comment that now Rush Limbaugh is now defending him? Imagine having Rush Limbaugh saying, 'Oh, no. He's not nasty.' This is Rush Limbaugh as your character witness."
NBC News correspondent Katy Tur: "I think it's Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin are defending Ted Cruz."
Matthews: "Oh my God! Mark Levin is one of the most distasteful human beings out there."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the picks: "A classy as always Matthews, disparaging a conservative opinion leader with a personal insult – though I'm sure Levin has the same opinion of Matthews."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ January 18, 2016: Mainstream Media Scream: Chris Matthews slaps reporters for ‘taking Cruz's side’ on citizenship
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features one of favorites, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, taking a shot at "straight reporters" for backing up Sen. Ted Cruz's claim, backed by many Constitutionalists, that he is a U.S. citizen despite being born in Canada.
His comments came to Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, on MSNBC late Thursday night, Jan. 14, after the Republican debate:
Why are these straight reporters out there all taking Cruz's side on his right to run? Is it just they want a bigger number of candidates? I mean, because if you look at the Constitution and the normal original intent of the Republican side and the conservatives – I mean, for example, if Cruz were voting for who gets on the Supreme Court he'd be voting for only somebody, only someone who is a literal interpreter of the Constitution who literally would go by point, what did they mean by that back in the late 18th century? And what did they mean when they said 'natural born?' He wouldn't be talking about liberalizing it.
So why are they getting away with this two-faced Cruz attitude where I can be liberal in my attitude to the Constitution when it's convenient to me personally, politically. How do they get away with that?
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the picks: "Better question: How does Chris Matthews get away with seeing himself as a journalist capable of making impartial judgments? It's nice he has a sudden respect for a strict constructionist view of the Constitution. As he might say, how convenient for him."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ January 11, 2016: Mainstream Media Scream: Tavis Smiley calls Trump ‘religious and racial arsonist’
(Washington Examiner post)
There seems to be no end to the hate spewed by the mainstream media at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. This week's Mainstream Media Scream features the late, from PBS host Tavis Smiley during his appearance Sunday on ABC's This Week.
He was talking about the Trump's comments about challenger Sen. Ted Cruz's birth in Canada.
"I'm happy to see Donald Trump go after Cruz on this issue because, to Donna's [Brazile] point, they did it so — there's nothing to it, but let me be clear, there is nothing to it but we're so aggressive going after President Obama on nothing to that either a few years ago, so I'm tickled by it.
"What troubles me though is that, that Trump is still, to my mind at least, an unrepentant, irascible religious and racial arsonist and so, when we talk about how Trump is rising in the polls, you can't do that absent the kind of campaign he's running, the issues that he's raising and for us to say donald Trump is rising in the polls and not connect that to the base message that he's putting out there, I think just misses the point."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: "Smiley is a perfect representative of the media elite: disdainful of Trump and Cruz, denouncing Trump with the ridiculous exaggeration that he's an 'irascible religious and racial arsonist' and then using Trump to impugn all Republicans. Likely a preview of campaign coverage whether or not Trump is the GOP nominee."
Rating: Three out of five screams.
■ January 4, 2016: Mainstream Media Scream: ABC covers for Hillary Clinton on ISIS-Trump
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features ABC's Good Morning America tossing Hillary Clinton a bone on her claim that Donald Trump's call for a freeze in Muslim immigration is helping ISIS recruiting -- before the group actually used his words in a video.
At the Democratic debate on Saturday, Dec. 19, Clinton declared ISIS was using Trump's words to recruit when it wasn't -- yet.
But over the weekend, when Trump did appear in a video from extremists, the show said, "Does this mean Hillary Clinton may have actually been right?"
From the Jan. 2 Good Morning America:
ANCHOR DAN HARRIS: Good morning, America. Breaking overnight: Donald Trump starring in a new terrorist recruitment video. So does this mean Hillary Clinton may have actually been right?
.....
REPORTER MARY BRUCE: This is the first known instance of extremists using Trump's language to attract followers, although not by ISIS as Hillary Clinton predicted.
HILLARY CLINTON (December 19 debate): He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter.
BRUCE: The Democratic front-runner ignited a war of words with Trump when she warned that his rhetoric would become recruiting fodder.
HILLARY: They are going to be people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the picks: "That didn't take long. Barely 31 hours into the election year and ABC News decided to mislead viewers in order to cover for a false statement by Hillary Clinton. It's doubtful any of the Republican candidates will get such a gift from ABC. Couldn't have started the year with a more vivid example of how the media serve and protect liberal Democrats."
Rating: Five out of five screams.
>> Mainstream Media Screams for January-June 2015; for July-December 2015; starting in July 2016 going forward <<
