Now online: the December 15 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC’s bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This week, journalists seize on a partisan Senate Democratic report to scold the CIA for its conduct of the War on Terror during the Bush era, but deny there's any news value in Jonathan Gruber's admission that ObamaCare was sold using duplicitous tactics, calling it a "nothing burger."
Meanwhile, Univision's Jorge Ramos scolds President Obama as America's "Deporter-in-Chief" for not employing his executive amnesty scheme even sooner, while Chris Matthews says Jeb Bush is superior to the "wacko bird" conservatives he might run against in 2016. Highlights are posted below; the entire issue is posted online, with 23 quotes (four with video) at www.MRC.org.
America: “Morally” No Better than Our Enemies?
“How are we better than our enemies morally, in light of what we all read about today?...What if you, God forbid, members of your family, had to undergo some of the treatments we are reading about in this report?”
— Anchor Brian Williams on the December 9 NBC Nightly News, asking former CIA Director Michael Hayden about the Senate Democratic report on interrogation techniques.
“When you read this, if you envision Nazis doing this, and I even hate to say this, if you envision the Khmer Rouge doing this — it all — you can imagine it. It’s not that far removed from stuff they were doing.”
— CNN’s Anderson Cooper on AC360, December 9.
The Gruber Scandal: A “Sideshow” and a “Nothing Burger”
“On the hot seat this morning, economist Jonathan Gruber....He is expected to be, shall we say, thoroughly grilled over those remarks where he called voters ‘stupid’ and bragged about the law’s lack of transparency. In the words of one GOP staffer in that hearing today, it’s going to be, quote, ‘A lot of fun.’...Kelly, how much of a sideshow are we expecting here?”
— Fill-in anchor Craig Melvin to NBC congressional correspondent Kelly O’Donnell, previewing the House hearing on MSNBC’s The Rundown with Jose Diaz-Balart, December 9.
“I’m sorry, Gruber is a nothing burger and always has been.”
— CNBC Washington bureau chief John Harwood on Squawk Box, December 10.
Scolding Obama for Not Ordering Amnesty Sooner
— Anchor Jorge Ramos to President Obama in a December 9 interview shown on Fusion’s America with Jorge Ramos.
Criticizing Obama as Not Lefty Enough on Race
— BET’s Jeff Johnson to President Obama during the network’s December 8 special, BET News Presents: A Conversation with President Barack Obama.
Anchor Jorge Ramos: “The killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, clearly show that we don’t live in a post-racial society, as many expected when you were elected.”
President Obama: “Well, I didn’t expect it. You probably didn’t either, but (laughs)”
Ramos: “But many people expected you, probably, to do more on race relations, dealing with white privilege. Do you get angry with this? Is it your responsibility?”
— From an interview shown on Fusion’s America with Jorge Ramos, December 9.
Jeb Is Better than Those “Wacko Bird,” “Clown Car” Conservatives
“Lots of noise now about 2016. Jeb Bush seems like he wants to run, but he wants to run on his own terms. He’s not going to become a wacko bird. He’s not going to join the clown car. He believes in education, he believes in Common Core education. He believes in immigration, good immigration. He is different than some of those Ted Cruz-types out there, and he’s not going to cross-dress and pretend he ain’t.”
— Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, December 2.
Journalism Should Be “Weapon for Justice” — Like Opposing Iraq War
“I think we can, and we should, use journalism as a weapon for a higher purpose: for justice. I think the best of journalism happens when we take a stand, when we question those who are in power, when we confront the politicians who abuse their authority, when we denounce an injustice....It is perfectly okay not to be neutral, and to openly take a stand....We stayed silent before the war in Iraq and thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians died unnecessarily. And we have to learn from that.”
— Univision anchor Jorge Ramos receiving the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, November 25, video of which was later posted to YouTube.
Advising Democrats to Write Off “Prejudice-Infested” South
“With Mary Landrieu’s ignominious exit, the Democrats will have lost their last senator in the Deep South. And that’s a good thing. They should write it off — because they don’t need....the reactionary, prejudice-infested place she comes from....Practically the whole region has rejected nearly everything that’s good about this country and has become just one big nuclear waste site of choleric, and extremely racialized, resentment....Forget about the whole fetid place. Write it off. Let the GOP have it and run it and turn it into Free-Market Jesus Paradise.”
— Former Newsweek reporter Michael Tomasky, now a writer for The Daily Beast, in a December 8 piece, “Dems, It’s Time to Dump Dixie.”
Obama May Not Be the Best, But He’s Still a “Hall of Fame” President
— Comedian Chris Rock in an interview with New York’s Frank Rich from the magazine’s December 1 issue.
To read the entire December 15 edition of Notable Quotables, please visit www.MRC.org.
