Matt Hadro's blog

The host of a new CNN series Inside Man wants stricter gun laws. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock aired his opinions on Monday night's Piers Morgan Live after discussing his upcoming show which will document his time working at a Virginia gun shop. The series debuts June 23.

Spurlock wants to see "universal background checks," a limit on magazines, and a database for the mentally ill so they can't purchase guns. "People aren't tracked. There's no way to kind of know who those people are and really keep the firearms out of their hands," Spurlock told Piers Morgan. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN's Piers Morgan pushed for "federal gun control" and defended the "nanny state" on his Monday night show. CNN has no qualms showcasing such an outspoken liberal on its prime-time programming.

"Isn't he right to be a nanny?" Morgan said of New York Mayor Bloomberg's large soda ban. "People need nannying."  He also excused Chicago's strict gun laws that fail to stop gun crime, instead blaming neighboring states with lax gun laws. "So until you have a federal gun control that stops that happening, this will keep happening in places like Chicago," the CNN host said of gun violence. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

On Monday morning, NBC and ABC ignored a new poll showing President Obama's approval had fallen by eight points in a month, from 53 to 45 percent. CNN reported on its own poll numbers, while CBS and MSNBC picked up the numbers as well.  

While CBS This Morning briefly reported the poll numbers, CNN touted them repeatedly throughout the morning. New Day co-host Chris Cuomo said the President's image was "taking a beating," while correspondent Jessica Yellin noted that his support among young voters has "collapsed" and "is an astonishing cratering."

Chris Cuomo is the co-host of CNN's new morning show New Day, which made its debut Monday morning. Before he came to CNN in February, Cuomo was formerly the co-host of ABC's 20/20. He brings a liberal legacy with him to CNN.

Cuomo hails from a Democratic family. His brother Andrew is the Democratic governor of New York, and his father Mario Cuomo was formerly the state's three-term Democratic governor who gave the keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention.

Before his time at 20/20, Chris Cuomo was the news anchor on ABC's Good Morning America. From before the 2008 presidential campaign through the first months of President Obama's first term, Cuomo echoed the liberal line on a range of issues like health care, immigration, global warming, and the economy. Here is his worst liberal bias from his years at ABC.

CNN sure loves the Clintons. After running a Hillary puff piece on Thursday, the network fawned over Chelsea on Friday morning's Starting Point.

Michaela Pereira, co-host of CNN's new morning show New Day, hyped that "Chelsea Clinton might just be the epitome of girl power." In her first CNN report, she added that Chelsea "is motivated from within. She's got these two extraordinary parents." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

On Wednesday's The Lead, CNN's Erin McPike touted Hillary Clinton's speech at the Clinton Global Initiative and hyped her prospects for 2016. She ignored any controversies from Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, like Benghazi and new accusations of a cover-up of sex scandals abroad.

"[T]here's no question that the big star here was a very relaxed Hillary Clinton," McPike reported. "The political world is abuzz over a potential race for the White House in 2016." A CNN headline trumpeted "Here Comes Hillary." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN tarred the Romney campaign with Todd Akin's infamous "legitimate rape" comment, and now it is trying to do the same to Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) for making a much less controversial remark on rape and pregnancy.

Franks, referring to a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks, and arguing that no exception should be made for pregnancies from rape, claimed that "the incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low." He clarified that the number of those cases was low and should not be the focus of the debate, but Democrats (and the media) pounced and lampooned him for saying that. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN's Piers Morgan will use any and every tragedy to bolster his crusade for gun control in the U.S. On his Tuesday night show he hounded George Zimmerman's brother Robert, Jr. over George carrying a gun the night Trayvon Martin died. Morgan also pushed for an age 25-and-under gun ban.

"Obviously, if George had not had a gun on him that night, the distinct likelihood is that Trayvon Martin would still be alive. Does he regret now carrying a gun around like that, do you think?" Morgan asked Zimmerman. "Do you regret that he had?" The trial of Zimmerman has only just begun. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

[UPDATED BELOW] For hours on Monday and Tuesday, CNN hyped a positive Hillary Clinton story while ignoring a negative Clinton story.

While both stories broke on Monday morning, CNN only touted one of them on Monday: Clinton joining Twitter. And the network spent almost 10 minutes discussing it on Tuesday morning. In contrast, it took until 11 a.m. on Tuesday for CNN to even mention serious accusations leveled against the State Department by its own Inspector General. Clinton was Secretary of State until only a few months ago.

On Monday, CNN ignored a CBS News report that, according to the State Department's Inspector General, the department stymied investigations into allegations of sexual assault by its security employees. Neither NBC nor ABC touched the story either.

As CBS reported, an Inspector General memo detailed specific examples of alleged sexual assault and soliciting of prostitutes by State Department security officials abroad. The department's watchdog tried to investigate the cases but the investigations were "influenced, manipulated, or simply called off." The memo noted that security details engaging prostitutes in foreign countries was an "endemic" problem.

Both NBC and CBS led their Thursday morning shows with news that the Obama administration has secretly obtained the phone records of millions of Americans, but ABC's Good Morning America started its show reporting on Tropical Storm Andrea in Florida instead.

Overall, Thursday's two hour-long GMA spent less than three minutes total on the phone tracking story, giving over five times more coverage to the attempted suicide of Michael Jackson's daughter Paris. Back in 2006, however, ABC showed far more scrutiny to a similar story of the Bush administration tracking phone calls.

CNN's Piers Morgan continues to find every way he can to boost his gun control agenda. On Tuesday night's Piers Morgan Live, he compared the Newtown shooting photos to the open casket of Emmett Till in the 1950's and implied that America would need to see the gruesomeness of the shooting in order to change its mind on guns.

Till was a black teenager who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955, whose mother insisted on having an open funeral casket to show the country the barbarity of the racism and hatred behind the killing. Newtown parents have objected to the publication of photos of their slain children, and Morgan insisted he would "respect" their views. However, he went on to cite Michael Moore and argue that America would need to see the pictures: [Video below the break. Audio here.]

After President Obama appointed U.N. ambassador Susan Rice to be his national security adviser, ABC's Good Morning America lauded Rice on Wednesday as "hard-nosed" and "no-nonsense."

Rice's biggest knock against her nomination for Secretary of State was giving false information on the Benghazi attacks to no less than five different Sunday talk shows just days after the attacks. ABC, though, was sympathetic to her nomination last fall, describing the GOP opposition as a "buzz saw" and glossing over the fact that what she said was, actually, false.

Meet your new late-night CNN host George Stroumboulopoulos, who feels the Toronto Mayor's alleged use of a gay slur was worse than if he had a crack addiction, and thinks New York City Mayor Bloomberg is a "right-winger" whose soda ban revealed that his "heart's in the right place" and whose support for "marriage equality" was "fantastic."

Stroumboulopoulos, currently a nightly CBC television host, will host a weekly talk show debuting on Sunday night June 9 and airing on Friday nights at 11 p.m. ET. CNN announced his show would focus on a variety of issues from sports to pop culture to politics. In an interview with HuffPost Live published on June 3rd, he revealed his beliefs on multiple issues including legalization of pot, guns, gay marriage, and current politicians.

Politico's headline didn't even proclaim that Republicans are "racist" and "old-fashioned," but CNN's Carol Costello had no problem touting the invective of some GOP critics while putting it all under Politico's name.

Costello tweeted on Monday, "Politico: GOP closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned." The Politico article was titled "Report: How GOP lost young voters" and described the findings of a report by the College Republican National Committee on how the party was viewed by young voters after the election.

Is the IRS scandal just not that big a deal in New York City? Perhaps for out-of-touch journos like liberal Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and The New Yorker editor David Remnick, who downplayed the controversy on Sunday's Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Kristof predictably spun the scandals into a "so what?" narrative for the White House: "I think it's true that the White House has often been tone-deaf, but every second term has scandals." Meanwhile, Remnick called the IRS scandal the doing of "very low level" employees without acknowledging that higher-ups in Washington could have orchestrated it.

On his Thursday show, CNN's Piers Morgan compared the NRA's Wayne LaPierre to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and drew parallels between the current gun debate and the civil rights and drunk driving debates of decades ago.

When guest Margaret Hoover described America's "gun culture," Morgan interjected, "There was a racist culture, there was a drunk-driving culture." Even liberal Marc Lamont Hill was taken aback. "A Southern gun owner is not like a Klan member. I mean, come on," he admonished Morgan, who claimed "I'm not saying they are." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN exaggerated poll numbers on Thursday's Newsroom to claim that Americans are writing off the scandals of the Obama administration.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux and Alison Kosik reported that voters were "a lot more concerned about the economy" and were saying "to heck with the scandals." Yet poll numbers showed voters did not say "to heck with" the IRS scandal, as a vast majority still wanted an investigation of the IRS probe of Tea Party groups. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

Chalk this one up to the absurd. CNN's Ashleigh Banfield on Wednesday tried to draw a legal parallel between a Sharia Law execution and a Catholic school firing a teacher for violating her contract by disobeying church teaching on pregnancy. Banfield argued both violated the teacher's Constitutional rights.

"Well if it's an Islamic school and they decide to go with Sharia Law and they decide to stone me for this, they can't do that either," Banfield ridiculously argued. "Then don't sign up to be the teacher," responded prosecutor Christine Grillo, who multiple times reiterated that the teacher had violated her contract.

CNN's Piers Morgan tried to resurrect his desperate push for gun control on Wednesday's Piers Morgan Live. Morgan spat on the NRA and bullied author Wayne Allen Root for joining the organization.

"You joined the NRA after Sandy Hook. Why would anybody do that?" Morgan challenged Root. He also defended Britain's handgun ban: "And guess what, we don't get anybody shot dead in Britain! We have about 30 to 40 murders with guns a year. That's the whole point of banning guns!" [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN couldn't hold back a parting shot at Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) when the Congresswoman announced on Wednesday that she would be retiring after 2014.

On Wednesday morning's Newsroom, anchor Carol Costello said Bachmann became "the butt of a thousand jokes" and CNN dug up a 2012 Saturday Night Live mockery of her, as well as Newsweek's unflattering 2011 cover of the Congresswoman as the "Queen of Rage." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

As CBS and NBC both touted President Obama's Tuesday visit to New Jersey, so too did CNN hype Obama's "bromance" with Governor Chris Christie as the President tried to step away from Washington and his administration's scandals.

White House correspondent Jessica Yellin said it would be a "good chance" for Obama to trumpet the effectiveness of his government as FEMA's performance after Hurricane Sandy was a "bright spot" for Obama. Although a positive CNN headline read "'odd couple' puts politics aside," correspondents admitted that political gain was a part of the visit for both men.

On her Monday show, CNN's Christiane Amanpour celebrated the same "Catholic" Salon.com writer who penned the revolting piece, "So What If Abortion Ends Life?" and who shuddered at an Olympic gold medalist being "so, so, so into Jesus."

Salon.com's Mary Elizabeth Williams is a "pro-choice, liberal Catholic," and Amanpour hyped her "fight" to change the Catholic Church – allowing women to be ordained to the priesthood and thus treated as "equal citizens." Apparently Catholic women are second-class citizens in Amanpour's book.

Touting the Boy Scouts' "landmark" and "historic" decision to allow openly-gay members, CBS, ABC, and NBC gave supporters of the decision three times as many quotes as their opponents got on Friday morning's news stories.

The networks gave 10 soundbites to supporters of the new Scouts policy and only three to its opponents. Supporters included President Obama, gay scout Pascal Tessier, and former den leader Jennifer Tyrell.

[UPDATED BELOW] News broke on Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder approved the Justice Department's seizure of a Fox News reporter's private e-mails. CNN still has yet to report this development, although the network found time to cover Brad Pitt's "face blindness" on Friday.

Host Jake Tapper ripped into the Obama administration on Wednesday for its investigation of Rosen, but on Thursday NBCNews.com reported that Holder personally approved the search warrant, labeling Rosen a "possible co-conspirator" against the Espionage Act. CNN still hasn't reported this, as of Friday afternoon.

Friday's Good Morning America spent a scant 16 seconds on the newest development in the IRS scandal, the suspension of agency official Lois Lerner who oversaw the division responsible for processing tax-exempt status requests. Lerner headed the division while the IRS gave extra scrutiny to Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status.

As NewsBusters reported, Thursday's World News completely ignored Lerner's move. The MRC's Brent Bozell had predicted that the media would "move on" from the IRS scandal, which explains ABC's paucity of coverage on Thursday and Friday.

On Wednesday's Erin Burnett OutFront, lefty radio host Stephanie Miller tried to be funny while downplaying Anthony Weiner's Twitter scandal as just an eighth-grade stunt and a "guy thing."

"Which middle school did you go to, Stephanie?" conservative CNN contributor Reihan Salam shot her down. And host Erin Burnett wouldn't have Miller's hackery, either: "I got to say, Stephanie, I beg to differ with you. This is pretty bizarre." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN's Jake Tapper took Obama's Justice Department to task on his Wednesday afternoon show, sounding alarm over the "precedent" that the administration's investigation of Fox News reporter James Rosen would set.

Tapper directly challenged liberal defenders of President Obama: "But even if you side with this President over those of us in the media who challenge him in his administration, it is important to remember the precedent these actions set going forward. Perhaps when it's not your guy in the White House." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services has come under major scrutiny for bypassing Congress and soliciting donations from health executives to help support ObamaCare, yet CNN has barely mentioned the story.

The Washington Post broke the news on May 10 that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had gone "hat in hand, to health industry officials" to support non-profits promoting ObamaCare. Republicans are questioning Sebelius seeking support from the very sector she regulates, and also want to know if she coordinated with the private sector to bypass Congress in getting financial support for ObamaCare. Also, if Sebelius sought donations as HHS Secretary and not as a private citizen, that would violate federal law.