Tim Graham's blog

The Washington Post is once again kissing a Washington posterior. Two days after lauding liberal Sen. Patty Murray, the Post hailed Hillary Clinton with the dominant headline on Monday’s front page: “The secretary of 1,000 things.”

Like any other Hillary superfan, Post reporter Stephanie McCrummen could only wonder whether Mrs. Clinton would now prepare a 2016 presidential run or – perish the thought – “this might really be it for one of the most iconic figures in American political history.” Benghazi? That’s a small speed bump on the Road to Gush-gush:

Anyone who doesn’t think Politico is a left-wing rag hasn’t seen their latest gushing profile of Bill Press. Wide-eyed media reporter Mackenzie Weinger began like a fangirl: “Bill Press says there’s a simple difference between him and just about every other pundit in Washington.”

“They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” Press explains. Insert laugh track. But it continues:

On Tuesday’s edition of the Bill Press radio show, fill-in host John Fugelsang (another “star” of Current TV) celebrated being attacked on NewsBusters for five minutes. “It’s like crack and porn for the human id...It’s like your id gets crack and porn at the same time, and the darkest part of your nature can run free, thanks to NewsBusters.”

On Monday, NB’s Ken Shepherd reported that Fugelsang wanted some respect for democratically-elected terrorist groups who like to drop missiles on Israeli civilians: “Hamas for all of their flaws are the only organization they've got there in Palestine right now, until the next Gandhi comes from there.” Merely quoting Fugelsang accurately is apparently pornography on drugs, and Fugelsang inaccurately claimed Ken called him a terrorist: [ video below the page break ]

Saturday’s Washington Post devoted the left-hand corner of the front page to hailing liberal Sen. Patty Murray, the new chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “In a Congress of hot tempers and sharp tongues, Murray doesn’t favor over-the-top rhetoric,” oozed Post reporter Rosalind Helderman. Sen. Harry Reid added: “Everyone takes Senator Murray seriously because she does not bluster.”

She doesn’t? While the Post noted Murray had the “luck” of "intemperate" Republican gaffes on abortion and rape in the last election cycle, nobody in the media wants to remember Murray’s 2002 whopper praising that humanitarian Osama bin Laden:

On Thursday, The Washington Post celebrated Thanksgiving as somehow secular, the perfect day to announce you're gay. Ned Martel's article began: "Word to the wise: Thanksgiving is the proper holiday to tell your family that you’re a homosexual. It’s arguably secular, so you’re confronting tradition, not faith. Even though National Coming Out Day is in October, this is the day when gays and lesbians, newly announced or otherwise, are really driving it all home."

He brought anecdotes to the party: "A few years ago, a friend of a friend told his sister that he was going to tell their parents his news at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Seated and fretful, he listened as she spoke up first. Before he even got his throat cleared, she came out ahead of him." Pass the potatoes? Martel later acknowledged the obvious, that this "secular" holiday has (threatening) Puritan pilgrim origins:

Some left-wingers don’t beat around the bush. Take this Daily Kos blog post, titled “The REAL Pro-Life Movement: Murderers, Rapists, Incest-Enablers, Pedophiles, and Liars.”

The blogger named “Bad Kitties” began: “The ‘pro-life’ movement is absolutely anything BUT ‘pro-life.’ This hypocritical and misleading nomenclature should be discontinued immediately. ‘Anti-choice’ is also far too tame.” They’re slut-shaming slimebuckets: 

One of the funniest headlines of Wednesday was the Huffington Post asking "Will MSNBC Hold Obama Accountable In Second Term?" The actual headline right now is “MSNBC Battles 'Pro-Obama' Label Heading Into President's Second Term.”

HuffPost media reporter Michael Calderone raised eyebrows for quoting radical-lefty Glenn Greenwald on MSNBC insisting that If  the DNC "were to own a network and produce news programming...would look exactly like what MSNBC has become." He even made Soviet analogies:

In a piece for The New York Times “Campaign Stops” blog, liberal political writer Thomas Edsall asked  “Is Rush Limbaugh’s Country Gone?” In other words, is Rush right in his post-election analysis that America is in danger of its producers being outnumbered and outvoted by the government dependents? Did we just prove the old George Bernard Shaw aphorism that “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul”?

Leftists enthusiastically answer in the affirmative. Edsall quoted Robert Borosage in a fit of glee: “In our Gilded Age of extreme inequality, with a middle class that increasingly understands the rules are rigged against them, this was the first election in what is likely to be an era of growing class warfare.”

Peter Nicholas of The Wall Street Journal is playing dumb. He played it straight when When Politico’s Mike Allen asked Obama campaign manager Jim Messina “which Republican would have had the best shot at beating your boss?” and Messina said Jon Huntsman.

“We were honest about our concerns about Huntsman,” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said at a Politico breakfast event Tuesday. “I think Huntsman would have been a very tough candidate.” This is like praising the last player at the end of the bench.

Sesame Workshop announced on Tuesday that Kevin Clash, the long-time puppeteer of Elmo, has resigned. In its statement Tuesday, Sesame Workshop said "the controversy surrounding Kevin's personal life has become a distraction that none of us want," leading Clash to conclude "that he can no longer be effective in his job."

As the announcement was made, AP's Frazier Moore reported “a lawsuit was being filed in federal court in New York charging Clash with sexual abuse of a second youth. The lawsuit alleges that Cecil Singleton, then 15 and now an adult, was persuaded by Clash to meet for sexual encounters. The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $5 million.”

The idea of liberal talk radio being the home of loving, compassionate people was shredded on Friday when Nicole Sandler subbed in for Randi Rhodes. She had two standout messages for Republicans on the show. In the first hour, she slammed Sen. John McCain as a "senile old fart" who is "387 years old." McCain has spoken harshly of UN Ambassador Susan Rice's fractured fairy tales about Benghazi on five Sunday talk shows.

Sandler also disclosed her bitter hatred of Congressman Allen West, who's refusing to concede defeat in his re-election campaign. She described him as a "hateful piece of crap. A sorry excuse for a human being. All right, a waste of space taking up a body!" She has personal issues with West:

The media in Fargo, North Dakota were scandalized when a nearby Minnesota priest informed the parents of Lennon Cihak that he would not be confirmed in the local Catholic church after he posted a picture on Facebook supporting gay marriage (or a No vote on the traditional-marriage ballot initiative). Naturally, the liberal parents – who agree with their son – were shocked, shocked that the church would stand for something.

“You kind of know the Catholic beliefs, but I never thought they would deny somebody confirmation because you weren’t 100 percent. I guess that’s what shocks me,” Shana Cihak said. That’s exactly how the Fargo Forum sold it:

Reuters is trying to take a tight presidential election and turn it into a huge loss for the Republicans. Their headline of a Sunday-show roundup is "Republicans say party needs revamp after Romney drubbing." Losing by ten points might be a drubbing, but not by 51 to 48. That's more of an "Obama squeaker" than a "Romney drubbing."

Reuters also takes Sen. Lindsey Graham's panic on NBC over Republicans being "in a death spiral with Hispanic voters" and highlights it with a heading "DEATH SPIRAL."  It makes it sound like 2012 was more of a "wave election" than 2010. The story began with Gov. Bobby Jindal whapping Romney:

The Washington Post selected the Best Books of 2012 in Sunday’s Arts section...and once again, it seems the judging is biased – not just in favor of liberals, but in favor of current and former Washington Post staffers.

Three of their five best nonfiction books of the year are by Posties – former reporter Katherine Boo, the late war correspondent Anthony Shadid, and current Post columnist Anne Applebaum. But if you’re a liberal journalist pushing a liberal meme, you’re probably included, from Rachel Maddow on down:

On Friday, Scott Whitlock reported ABC's Good Morning America reported the morning show milked the 18,000 jobs lost in the shutdown of Hostess for laughs. The same laughing at pink slips occurred Saturday on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Players were given a question after NPR newscaster Karl Kasell asked in a low growl "Where are you, you spongy yellow delicious bastards?"

Host Peter Sagal explained Kasell was delivering a Woody Harrelson line about Twinkies from the movie Zombieland. After a contestant answered that it was Hostess that shut down this week, Sagal started the wise cracks. "Hostess Incorporated, they make Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, Wonder Bread, Fudge Puppies, Fat Crammers, and Lard Bursts [laughter]...said they would liquidate the company if striking workers didn’t come back to work." Of course, there was also a Chris Christie joke:

On The Daily Show on Thursday night, Jon Stewart interviewed Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox News, and Napolitano began by joking, “You’re not going to make me defend O’Reilly?” Stewart asked “Could you?” As if that were impossible.

Stewart quickly turned to how Fox News is worried about a “tipping point” where minorities can decide elections. Strangely, Stewart assumed O’Reilly said something nativist about restricting immigration, no footnote or video clip to back him up. Napolitano, a free-wheeling libertarian, announced he was for wide open borders, delighting the liberal Stewart:

As she moved into an interview with former Obama spokesman Bill Burton on Wednesday night, Rachel Maddow claimed it was somehow insane to resist the idea of Susan Rice being the next Secretary of State after Rice lied on five Sunday shows about Benghazi. Maddow claimed somehow John McCain was the one inventing Benghazi stories: "But if it's made-up -- like the John McCain crusade against Susan Rice -- that made-up stuff will no longer be entertained at the level of national policy."

Maddow vowed "the idea that Susan Rice is going to be your scapegoat here when she has done nothing wrong, that's the part that is nonsense and I`m not going to go along with that. And you're not using something made up about her to destroy a career that is still on its way up." Picking a Krugman or Spitzer, now maybe that could be a fight:

As CBS, NBC and MSNBC kept trying to use the new Lincoln movie to compare Lincoln to President Obama, it should be said that this is not the first time. Not even this month: Washington Post columnist Colbert King compared Obama to Lincoln and Romney to Andrew Johnson on the Saturday before the election.

Then there was 2008. For example, CNN’s David Gergen found strains of Lincoln in Obama’s Greek-columns convention speech on August 28, 2008: "In many ways, it was less a speech than a symphony. It moved quickly, it had high tempo, at times inspiring, then it became more intimate, slower, all along sort of interweaving a main theme about America's promise, echoes of Lincoln, of King, even of Reagan and of Kennedy....It was a masterpiece." Oh, but wait: Chris Matthews found echoes of Lincoln in Obama’s “race speech”:

If Obama critics thought the reporters in the East Room went soft on President Obama on Wednesday instead of engaging in a Benghazi showdown, they really won't like the even softer headline treatments in Wednesday's newspapers.

The worst on the national stage was USA Today: "OBAMA GETS TOUGH ON GOP: Calls attacks on U.N. envoy Rice ‘outrageous’; withholds judgment on FBI.” In large blue type at the fold is the Obama quote “We should not hold the middle class hostage.”

Andrew Beaujon at Poynter.org unearthed unhappiness inside The Washington Post. Former Los Angeles Times reporter Maggie Farley is married to outgoing Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli (he’s being reassigned inside the company). In a public posting on Facebook Tuesday evening, she lamented “how has The Washington Post of Watergate fame has become the place where you can’t speak truth to power?”

On Tuesday, Post publisher Katharine Weymouth told Beaujon that Brauchli “decided to step down.”  He added: "This doesn’t definitively refute that explanation, but it leaves a nasty dent." In her Facebook lament, Farley suggested the Post now has little dedication to "superior journalism as an essential part of our democracy," as if big staff cuts are looming under incoming editor Martin Baron (Facebook image below):

Fox News reported the man who accused "Sesame Street" star puppeteer Kevin Clash "of having a sexual encounter with him when he was 16 has retracted his statements."

“He wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship,” the statement sent to Fox from his attorneys read. “He will have no further comment on the matter.” Over at Time.com, Bonnie Rochman explored “Why Kevin Clash’s Personal Life Troubles Parents of Elmo Fans.” She thought as a “children’s educator,” he needed to have a cleaner personal life than your stereotypical rock star:

Rob Lewis at the Daily Kos loves the new false and trouble-making line that the conservative media from Rush to Drudge are secret traitors who want Republicans to keep losing to exploit their own victimization narratives. “The Real War Within the GOP” is between people who want to win and those who apparently profit from losses.

He started with David Frum’s comments on Morning Joe about the “conservative entertainment complex” lying with "lupine smiles"  to the Republican base. (Oh, did Joe Scarborough love that one.) Then he added in Steve Kornacki’s line on Monday’s Last Word on MSNBC:

Which one of these liberal radio statements could be less acquainted with reality? On her Monday radio show, Stephanie Miller said to Rep. Maxine Waters Obama won two landslides in a row:

“I’m sure you’ve seen the clips on TV of you know George Bush talking about his mandate and political capital that he earned and you know obviously what the President truly has is a mandate. I mean this is two electoral landslides I mean landslides in a row and he said obviously you know basically what he said this question over and over came up and Americans voted for you know the rich to pay their fair share.” Or there's Al Sharpton saying on Friday that the mainstream media was not defending Obama:

Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo and star puppeteer for PBS, who the taxpayer-funded network promoted with a  documentary called Being Elmo -- "has taken a leave of absence from Sesame Street  in the wake of allegations he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy" when he was 45,  reported TMZ.

Clash "adamantly denies" the allegations, but "has acknowledged to TMZ he had a relationship with the young man -- but insists it only took place AFTER the accuser was an adult." The accuser met with lawyers for Sesame Workshop. Clash said "I had a relationship with [the accuser].  It was between two consenting adults and I am deeply saddened that he is trying to make it into something it was not."  TMZ added: