Noel Sheppard's blog

Please see correction at end of post.

After the media spent the week praying the Boston Marathon bombers wouldn't have ties to radical Islam, it's now going to be interesting to see how they report the religious beliefs of the Tsarnaev brothers.

Failing miserably Friday was NBC's Nightly News which despite airing a 90 minute special broadcast on the ensuing manhunt in Watertown, Massachusetts, according to an examination of the closed-caption transcript didn't once mention the Tsarnaev's Muslim connection.

Bill Maher on Friday proved once again that when it comes to insulting Republicans, there's no floor to his indecency.

During the New Rules segment of HBO's Real Time, the host joked about Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) being gay lovers (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported last week, the CEO and editor-at-large of Foreign Policy magazine claimed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), as a result of his position on gun control legislation, is "more dangerous to America" than North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

On Thursday, Daniel Altman, a Foreign Policy contributor as well as an adjunct associate professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, tweeted, "This is in no way an incitement to violence, but, given Rob Portman's example, does Mitch McConnell have to get shot to support gun control?"

Harrison Ford made a brutal critique of the news industry Thursday.

Appearing on PBS's Tavis Smiley Show, the actor said the "divisiveness and fractiousness in our society" is caused by "what passes for journalism" today "fostering and supporting our prejudices" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported earlier, unabashedly liberal commentator David Sirota published an article at Salon Tuesday with the disgusting title, "Let’s Hope the Boston Marathon Bomber Is a White American."

As a result of all the negative attention he's gotten due to this piece, rather than doing the right thing by apologizing, Sirota on Wednesday actually doubled down with a new article titled "I Still Hope the Bomber Is a White American."

We have seen some disgraceful reporting of the Boston Marathon bombing the past few days, but this headline at Salon Tuesday could be the worst.

Let’s Hope the Boston Marathon Bomber Is a White American

If you’re looking for someone to come on your program and bash conservatives – especially in the wake of an incident such as Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing – the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok is your man.

On CNN’s Piers Morgan Live Tuesday, Potok disgracefully said the perpetrator of Monday's attack likely wasn't a member of the "radical right" because the target wasn't "black people or Jewish people or gay people or Muslims" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

With all the buzz surrounding Jeff Zucker taking over the reins at CNN, it appears to be sister station HLN making a ratings move.

In the week ended April 12, HLN - formerly known as CNN Headline News - bested both CNN and MSNBC in total viewers and in the all important demographic aged 25 to 54.

As NewsBusters reported earlier, MSNBC's Chris Matthews seems hell-bent on trying to blame the Boston Marathon bombing on a domestic terrorist, preferrably a conservative one.

After saying shortly into his Hardball program, "Normally domestic terrorists, people, tend to be on the far right," Matthews later asked his guests if Tax Day had something to do with the event since it doesn't mean a "whole lot to the Arab world or Islamic world or the, certainly not to al Qaeda" (video follows with transcript):

It appears that even the most classic kids movie of all time isn’t sacred to Seth MacFarlane and the gang at Fox’s Family Guy.

Sunday’s episode began with a fantasy sequence featuring Peter Griffin and his neighbors going to a “Canadian Nudie Bar” with Glenn Quagmire leading them in a vulgar rendition of “The Merry Old Land of Oz” from “The Wizard of Oz” (video follows with transcribed lowlights and commentary):

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean clearly doesn't like President Obama's budget.

Moments ago he tweeted his dismay actually saying, "If this is true I may have to become an independant [sic]":

Many media observers were wondering if CNN's Howard Kurtz was going to expose on his Reliable Sources program Sunday the press's horrible coverage of the Kermit Gosnell murder trial.

As fate would have it, Kurtz's reporting was just as pathetic as virtually everyone else's to date giving the matter a total of 90 seconds while sharing bogus statistics including the truly preposterous claim, "The conservative media didn't do much either" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

NewsBusters readers know that I never miss ABC's This Week, and that as I almost always write something about each and every installment, I use the transcripts provided at the network's website as a resource.

This Sunday a very peculiar thing happened: the words "CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST" were placed next to George Will's name when it first appeared in the transcript.

On ABC's This Week Sunday, George Will made a comment about the need for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants that is likely to raise eyebrows on both sides of the aisle.

"As the baby boomers retire, and as the birthrate declines, we need something to replenish the workforce to sustain the welfare state" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The media are starting a full-court press to assist disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) in becoming mayor of New York City if he decides to run.

Jonathan Karl tried to do exactly that on ABC's This Week Sunday, and was surprisingly snubbed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who three times refused to comment on the issue (video follows with transcript and commentary):

There are going to be some serious LGBT surprises in the season finale of Fox's hit series Glee.

According to a Friday report at E!, Oscar winner Patty Duke and longtime television star Meredith Baxter will play a lesbian couple.

"The Newtown families and Gabby Giffords are in the gun debate to stay, and over time their voices will be more powerful than the NRA."

So said Newsweek's Eleanor Clift during the predictions segment on PBS's McLaughlin Group Friday (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Bill Maher has said a lot of REALLY dumb things throughout his career, but this howler uttered with a straight face on HBO's Real Time Friday might possibly be his stupidest.

"Do you know who the role model for every president should be? Jimmy Carter" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HBO's Bill Maher made a statement Friday that should deeply concern all Americans.

During the panel discussion segment of his Real Time program, he said to loud applause from the audience, "The Second Amendment is bulls—t!" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters readers are well aware, Bill Maher is not someone that should be casting aspersions on other people’s intellects.

Despite this, the host of HBO’s Real Time Friday said of the conservative magazine the Weekly Standard, “Everything in it is a lie told to an idiot” (video follows with commentary):

Bill Maher proved once again Friday night that there’s no floor to his indecency.

During the opening monologue of HBO’s Real Time, the host actually joked that Paul Ryan’s mother considered aborting him (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

You may not be familiar with Foreign Policy magazine or its CEO and editor-at-large, but on Thursday, David Rothkopf published an op-ed at Philly.com with the following headline:

Mitch McConnell's No Kim Jong Un, But He's More Dangerous to America

There comes a point when one has to wonder if Bill Maher is willing to say anything, no matter how disgusting or controversial, to attract viewers to his HBO program.

On Thursday, Maher published a piece wherein he stated, and I quote, "It turns out that Ben Carson is as stupid as every other conservative hero...Remember, this is the Great Black Hope of the GOP."

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough got an endorsement Thursday that he might live to regret.

In an exclusive Morning Joe interview with Joe Biden, the Vice President told Scarborough, "The two guys that deserve - if anything gets done [on gun control] - an award here are you and Michael Bloomberg" (video follows with transcript and commentary):