On a Friday night, where can you look to find a little anti-religious media bias? No other than MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show."
In her "Ms. Information" segment, Maddow engaged in a rant about Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., opposition to language in the stimulus bill that could forbid the practice of religion in institutions of higher learning where stimulus funds are used, as a Feb. 3 story by the Culture & Media Institute pointed out.
Maddow explained how this provision had been in the bill for over 40 years, then played a portion of DeMint's speech on her Feb. 6 MSNBC show.
"Student's can't meet together in their dorms, if that dorm has been repaired with this federal money and have a prayer group or a Bible study," DeMint said in the clip Maddow played. "[S]omeone is so hostile to religion that they're willing to stand in the schoolhouse door like the infamous George Wallace to deny people of faith from entering any campus building renovated by this bill. This cannot stand."
Only problem with that excerpt Maddow used - she cut out over two minutes in the middle of DeMint's speech to take him out of context (see embed YouTube video to the right). DeMint raised the issue that the bill was susceptible to a potential lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and that's where the potential of the restriction of religious freedom could stem from and the chilling effect such language would create.
"This cannot stand," Maddow mocked. "Actually Senator, this has been standing this way for 46 years and you are making a complete fool of yourself."
According to a spokesman from DeMint's office, this provision is completely different - it denies access of public facilities to student religious groups, which is unconstitutional discrimination. Nonetheless, Maddow threw in her own bizarre analogy.
"The funding bill says, for example, in addition to the religion stuff you're upset about, it also says you can't use the money to renovate your sports stadium and that doesn't mean George Obama Wallace is standing in the schoolhouse door banning football players Christian discrimination in the stimulus bill . You need to take it all back."
There's just one problem with Maddow's analogy - the ACLU doesn't file nearly many separation of church and athlete suits as they do church and state lawsuits. Thus with that language still included in the bill - it's still a threat to organized religion practiced in certain stimulus-renovated college and university buildings.
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What?!
February 7, 2009 - 00:16 ET by dborschjr68Again, who is this chick, and why should we care?
"Liberate tutume ex inferis, liberal puppets." Me.
Who?
February 7, 2009 - 00:51 ET by easygoerMaddow; isn't he the water boy for the Steelers? I thought I saw him on the field last week doling out water.
You mean who is this man,
February 7, 2009 - 01:45 ET by MrSnugglesYou mean who is this man, and why is his name "Rachel".
ha ha. Harsh, but true. "I
February 7, 2009 - 07:03 ET by Jack Bauerha ha. Harsh, but true.
Or........is she this
February 7, 2009 - 01:25 ET by clubchamp6Or........is she this Waterboy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGw7gTve6cQ&feature=related
"He is who we thought he was"
Maddow is an angry
February 7, 2009 - 01:34 ET by SlicksterMaddow is an angry transvestite.
This dude is confusing the
February 7, 2009 - 02:43 ET by Radar_OneThis dude is confusing the bat s#%t out of me...is he a man who wants to be a woman who wants to be a man???
You would think a "Rhodes Scholar" would be a tad bit more of an intellectual EVEN as a Left wing windbag.
Barack Obama= Half Honkey...ALL Donkey
Madcow indeed
February 7, 2009 - 02:44 ET by rockyracoonFor the life of me, I don't understand why anyone would waste his/her time watching this biased shrill harpy teenaged boy. Life is too short.
I've glanced at her show while channel surfing and I can't stand more than a minute. The MSNBC channel is only good, for me, when they have a Manson Family doc. or something similar.
Whoever came up with the moniker of Madcow, is brilliant! LOL
Maddow, acting like an idiot so you don't have to.
February 7, 2009 - 02:44 ET by kg"Forget change, I want improvement!"
How in the world...
February 7, 2009 - 07:31 ET by jdlybrandnewsisblues
do dough heads like her become Rhodes scholars? I can tell you one thing; I'm from Senator Demint's state, and he has more class in his little finger than this Madcow has in her entire being. What a waste of flesh and bones. Wouldn't you just love to slap the hell out of her?
Jdly
February 7, 2009 - 09:22 ET by ricklailThis is just an observation but I think that most Rhodes Scholars are the dumbest "smart" people you will ever see. I have yet to see any that espouse a conservative view, i.e. Bill Clinton, Bill Bradley. I think one of the pre-reqs is to be liberal. The other is to have a lot of book smarts but no common sense.
As for Jim Demint I have written him numerous e-mails praising him for his stance. I wish that Richard Burr would grown a pair like Mr. Demint.
I see him sort of like Strom Thurmond. Here is a bit of worthless triva. I shook hands with Strom in July of 1969 while I was in basic training at Fort Jackson. I had never shook hands with a politician in my life until that day. You can image how he impressed me. Here I was sweaty and dirty from low crawling and he still shook my hand.
We haven't really had senator in NC since Jesse Helms. Elizabeth Dole was sort of OK but she didn't stand her ground like Jesse.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. RWR
Oxford
February 7, 2009 - 13:57 ET by easygoerI agree. But there are exceptions, notably;
Bobby Jindal
Byron White - wrote the brilliant dissent in Roe v. Wade.
I'm sure there are some others. But I gave the list only a quick glance.
I was shocked to see Kris Kristofferson on it.
Here's the list from wikipedia: American Rhodes scholars
Thanks for the list.
February 7, 2009 - 15:25 ET by ricklailThanks for the list. When it opened the first 2 names to jump out were Franklin Raines and Robert Reich. Wasn't Cecil Rhodes pushing a one world government? I remember Clinton taking about Carroll Quigley. He was a one-worlder who is said to have got his inspiration from Rhodes.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. RWR
Rhodes Scholars
February 8, 2009 - 04:20 ET by thebutlerdiditBill Clinton
Franklin Raines
Paul Sarbanes
George Stephanopolos
Russ Feingold
Rachel Maddow
Susan Rice
Rhodes is mostly a lefty club. Also, proof you can have good grades, and still act like a dumb ass.
All a Democrat needs is the upper-story window of public attention and the chamber pot of rhetoric. How else to explain the rise of Joe Biden? P.J. O' Rourke
msDNC..
February 7, 2009 - 08:12 ET by Sergeant ROCK.. is still on the air?
"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason
Bolton/KEYES 2012
Facts? They don't need no
February 7, 2009 - 08:13 ET by motherbeltFacts? They don't need no stinking facts!!
I am so sick of condescending liberal elites with their snobby "that's a fact" and "the fact of the matter is..."
And it's only going to get worse with the cocky teenager in the White House as their role model.
I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows. -Bart Simpson
She lied about what the
February 7, 2009 - 09:55 ET by snaggletoothieShe lied about what the senator said. And I don't like the uppity attitude she put on while doing it.
Really?!
February 7, 2009 - 10:21 ET by iluvdaisiesIs the segment really called "Ms. Information"? Perhaps they forgot to add the hyphen? "Mis.-Information." Or perhaps Miss. "Fomation" of the Mouth?
Welcome to Newsbusters, iluvdaisies!
February 7, 2009 - 10:51 ET by choselife3xI don't know if anyone has already said it, but it's great to have another home-schooling mother around.
LOVE your screen name, by the way.
In order to be pro-choice, one must first be born. Ah, the irony.
thanks!
February 7, 2009 - 12:29 ET by iluvdaisiesThanks, choselife! I always enjoy reading your posts! Have read for months, but finally just joined! I couldn't keep silent any longer! Are there a lot of homeschoolers on NB?
iluvdaisies
February 7, 2009 - 15:42 ET by choselife3xSherylsims is one and I believe vrwc13 is too. I'm sure there are others, it's just a subject that doesn't get covered that much on the boards. Come to think of it, I may start a forum on the subject so we can all find each other!
In order to be pro-choice, one must first be born. Ah, the irony.
Homeschooled and private religious schooling
February 8, 2009 - 04:25 ET by thebutlerdiditis my only hope we will have some intelligent life-form in the coming decades. If we can keep them out of colleges that are for lefties. Hopefully, if they do have to hear that dreck, they will have the sense to revert to what they have been taught. A good number do. I never realized how lucky I was, going to school in the 80's and at the Univ. of Alabama. Very little lefty talk.
All a Democrat needs is the upper-story window of public attention and the chamber pot of rhetoric. How else to explain the rise of Joe Biden? P.J. O' Rourke
switching
February 7, 2009 - 13:40 ET by davehmMSnbc....I don't watch nbc, the only way I know what their doing is by logging on to this site, as far as the MS is concerned I'm switching to Mac.
RACHEL MANCOW...
February 8, 2009 - 06:41 ET by danybhoyA few thoughts,
1.Maddow is doing what is required of her employers, Air America & MSNBC/NBC/General Electric. She quote crops things said & takes the person who said it out of context. Doing it in the manner that she does it is lying by omision. But she only fits in there by doing it.
2. Maddow's presentation is clearly the most smug in all of cablenews. Including BathTubBoy. Her "I'm smarter then you" attitude is funny only because her rating suck. If she ever becomes a real power player in the media, it would make her dangerous. She has a very condescending attitude, & she has not done anything to have earned the right act as she does. Her ratings suck, no matter what the NYSlimes says, & she is on a network that does'nt matter.
3> The bottomline is this, MSNBC has become a hybrid of Air America & hard left blogsites like MoveOn, MediaMatters, ThinkProgress, & DemUnderground. Not much news, just opinion. Far left opinion.
"...it's still We The People, Right?" Megadeth
Interpretation backwards
February 23, 2009 - 17:08 ET by JohnSawyerThe interpretation here on NewsBusters, of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, section 14004, is backwards. It doesn't prohibit religious use of facilities on which the funds are to be spent--it prevents spending the funds on facilities that are currently specifically:
(A) used for sectarian instruction or religious worship;
or
(B) in which a substantial portion of the functions of the facilities are subsumed in a religious mission.
It says nothing about, and doesn't imply, prohibiting students from discussing religion in a dorm, a student meeting room, etc. on which the funds have been spent, since dorm rooms, etc. aren't specifically intended for religious purposes--religious discussions in such facilities could be considered informal dual-use, which is not prohibited by the provision. The provision certainly doesn't prevent anyone who holds religious beliefs, from setting foot in any facility on which the funds are spent. I agree there may be wiggle room in section 14004 for ACLU lawsuits, but it's unlikely any would be filed unless efforts are made to hold regular religious meetings in facilities on which the bill's money is approved to be spent. This section of the bill has, indeed, been boilerplate for spending legislation like this for about 40 years--DeMint is wrong when he says it's a new provision, specifically written by someone for the bill.
If this section of the bill had been as portrayed here on NewsBusters, I'd have complained too.
Here's the White House's official page for the bill (do a search on it for "14004" or "sectarian"):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1enr.pdf