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On Thursday evening’s news casts, the networks ignored a claim by major insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield that as many as 20 percent of their new enrollees did not pay the first month’s premium for ObamaCare. If that was the case for all insurers, the White House’s brag of 7 million enrollees would be cut down to 6 million or lower.

National Journal had the story, calling Blue Cross Blue Shield “one of the biggest players in ObamaCare’s exchanges. They reported that according to a spokesperson for the company, “roughly 80 to 85 percent of people who selected a Blues plan through the exchanges went on to pay their first month’s premium.”

Thursday’s Washington Post promoted the forthcoming HBO news-satire show starring “The Daily Show” correspondent John Oliver, run by a former head writer for “The Daily Show.” But reporter Paul Farhi passes along claims that it won’t be like “The Daily Show.” Right. By story's end, it's clear he doesn't believe that, either.

But in classic Comedy Central fashion Oliver’s team previewed their tilt by releasing two YouTube videos mocking the Republican National Committee’s “latest outreach ad to young voters.” It suggests that young Republicans wear stupid clothes (too-small leather jackets), ride tricycles,  and engage in “non-vaginal intercourse with girls they met at Christian summer camp" (video below):

On Thursday's Hardball, host Chris Matthews and guest Joan Walsh disparaged conservatives who disputed the administration's ObamaCare enrollment numbers "birthers" and "truthers."

"What can you say about these guys besides they are health care enrollment truthers right now," Matthews insisted. "It's a new firm of birtherism. It's a new way to say it's not legitimate, he [Obama] doesn't belong there," said Walsh. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

His interview with former president Jimmy Carter didn't go quite as Thom Hartmann expected, which made it all the more amusing.

As Carter continues making the rounds to drum up sales for his new book, he was a guest on liberal talker Hartmann's radio show Tuesday, but there was something else that Hartmann wanted to talk about first. (Video after the jump)

A day late to the game, ABC joined the outrage on Thursday over Wednesday's Supreme Court decision that struck down the limit on political donations.

Investigative correspondent Brian Ross decried the "fancy dinners and luxury yachts...where the super rich decide which politicians get their money, and therefore who has a chance to be elected." He interviewed Democrat consultant Bill Burton who admitted "It's absolutely about the money."

Longtime NBC sportscaster Bob Costas appeared on Wednesday's edition of the network's hour-long Late Night program, which is hosted by Seth Myers. The former member of the Saturday Night Live cast threw softball questions at his guest regarding “minor controversies” he caused by inserting liberal political commentary into his sports coverage.

After a discussion that included the TV broadcaster's views on the “gun culture” within the National Football League, his fawning description of Vladmir Putin at the beginning of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and his strong dislike of the name of the Washington Redskins NFL team, Costas was praised by Myers for “making sports a lot more interesting.” Costas suggested mostly "angry" people on "extreme" venues were upset, not so much the average American on the street.

Though he didn't quite get to the "Shut up, he said" threshold, Politico's David Nather, in a Tuesday tome, argued that HealthCare.gov allegedly crossing the 7 million enrollment threshold leaves opponents blubbering, and supports the argument "that government can still solve big social problems" and is "a wake-up call for Republicans and conservatives."

It's as if Nather believes — and maybe he does, in which case he's woefully ignorant — that not achieving the enrollment target is about the only potential problem with HealthCare.gov. Uh, not exactly. Just off the top of my head, there's the lack of site security, the absence of back-office interaction with insurance carriers, miscalculations of subsidies, the system's outrageous cost, and the complete inability of enrollees to add, change or delete elements of what they submitted to correct inadvertent errors or reflect changes in their life circumstances. I'm sure that only scratches the surface. Excerpts from Nather's nattering follow the jump (bolds are mine throughout this post):

MSNBC’s Al Sharpton was incensed by Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) newly-released budget plan on Wednesday’s PoliticsNation. Referencing President Obama’s comment yesterday that “America is a place for everybody,” Sharpton added his own condemnation of Ryan’s budget as he hollered, “America is a place for everybody, not a place for dangerous ideas and a ruthless war on the poor!” [Video below. MP3 audio here.]

This sort of harsh language permeated the opening few minutes of Sharpton’s show. In fact, right from the very top, the reverend made it abundantly clear how he felt about the Ryan budget:

"'Guns Galore' sold weapon to Ft. Hood shooter" blares the teaser headline at msnbc.com for Jane C. Timm's 11-paragraph April 3 story, "After shooting, Fort Hood searches for answers."

At time of publication there's no indication that the shooter, Spc. Ivan Lopez, broke any laws in purchasing the gun nor that Guns Galore broke any in selling them to him, and yet the Lean Forward network's website aims to make the store out as a villain. [see screen capture below page break]

On the Thursday edition of WMAL's Mornings on the Mall radio show, Sharyl Attkisson spotlighted the Obama administration's many inconsistencies in their claims about the September 11, 2012 Islamist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. Attkisson outlined, in detail, "all of the different stories told about the talking points" about the terrorist attack.

Former Fox News anchor Brian Wilson and Breitbart.com's Larry O'Connor turned to the former CBS News journalist for her take on former deputy CIA director Mike Morell's congressional testimony on the Benghazi issue on Wednesday. She zeroed in on how Morell and others were trying to minimize any perception that the talking points were altered for political considerations: [MP3 audio of the full Attkisson segment available here]

After eagerly promoting President Obama's selfie with Red Sox player David Ortiz on Wednesday, Thursday's NBC's Today and CBS This Morning expressed their dismay that Ortiz may have staged the seemingly spontaneous cell phone picture to promote his sponsor Samsung. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]  

On Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie lamented: "Okay, so turns out that wasn't as spontaneous as it looks. The selfie was captured with a Samsung phone and it turns out, mm-hm, you guessed it, David Ortiz has an endorsement deal with Samsung....I think it's kind of ridiculous that it's a product placement. And also because I thought it was a really cute moment, so I guess I'm kind of disappointed."

New York Times writer Sheryl Gay Stolberg on Thursday highlighted glowing supporters of Jimmy Carter as she promoted a new Broadway play about the life of the former president. Stolberg parroted that "acolytes of Mr. Carter hope that 'Camp David'...will be a powerful reminder of the signature triumph of the Carter presidency and perhaps revive the decades-long effort to rehabilitate him." 

The play focuses around Carter's 1978 efforts to negociate a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Stolberg allowed the type of self-aggrandizing comments that – if spoken by a Republican – would prompt the Times to make accusations of mental instability or a messianic complex. She related, "Mr. Carter told the playwright [Lawrence Wright] and the producer that he felt 'God wanted him to play a role' in Middle East peace." 

Liberal “Daily Beast” columnist Michael Tomasky must really dislike Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) because he took to the internet today to rant against his latest budget. Tomasky blared in an April 3rd piece that Paul Ryan was “still a total jerk” before engaging in a long-winded attack against the Tea Party favorite.

Tomasky began his piece by fretting “Remind me not to get in a foxhole with Paul Ryan. At the first sign of trouble, he’ll pack up his gunny sack and head for base camp, running into the latrine to hide. Or so I conclude from the budget he released this week.”

No wonder so many people, especially young Americans, get their news from Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show." They've learned from long experience that they can't get it from places such as "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC that proudly and repeatedly tout themselves as "news" shows.

While attempting to show how balanced she is, Maddow on March 27 responded on a flurry of Democrat scandals so numerous that even MSNBC could not ignore them. But predictably for Maddow, she soft-pedaled what was arguably the most serious of the bunch -- the alleged attempt by California state senator Leland Yee to obtain shoulder-fired missiles and other heavy weaponry from Filipino jihadists in exchange for campaign cash. (Video after the jump)

Matea Gold and Robert Barnes utterly failed this morning as ostensibly objective journalists. In their front-page stories covering yesterday's Supreme Court ruling in McCutcheon v. FEC, the Washington Post staffers front-loaded their stories with melodramatic political language suitable for a left-wing "campaign finance reform" group's press release rather than objective news copy.

"An elite class of wealthy donors who have gained mounting influence in campaigns now has the ability to exert even greater sway," Gold groused in her lead graf. In the column to her right, Barnes, the Post's Supreme Court correspondent began by offering that:

Despite a tragic shooting at Fort Hood, a major Supreme Court ruling and developments on Benghazi, all three morning shows on Thursday devoted time to Bill Clinton's discussion of aliens on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Yet, NBC's Today, ABC's Good Morning America and CBS This Morning ignored a profoundly dumb question from the comic regarding Clinton running for vice president. [See video of the question below. MP3 audio here.]

Instead, GMA's Amy Robach enthused, "And finally, former President Bill Clinton isn't ruling out a possible alien invasion here on Earth. He visited Jimmy Kimmel last night and revealed that he did, in fact, look into the possibility when he was president." Talking to co-host and former Democratic operative George Stephanopoulos, she wondered, "George, was it the common topic of conversation in the Clinton administration?" 

For the second time in five years, Fort Hood was the site of a shooting by a rogue member of the military. While the shooting, which occurred during the afternoon of Wednesday April 2, had fewer victims than the one five years ago, CNN predictably used the tragedy to push for greater gun control in America.

After Piers Morgan's Twitter tirade on Wednesday night, CNN’s Chris Cuomo wondered despite the shooter having mental health issues, why he was “Still able to walk into a private store and get this semi-automatic handgun that he winds up using, not a military issued weapon, his own. Don't you think that's something that needs to be addressed in terms of who's abled to get these conceal carry permits and weapons?” [See video below.] 

On Thursday's NBC Today, White House correspondent Peter Alexander decried Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling striking down some campaign finance restrictions: "So just consider this, in just twelve year from the 2000 elections to those in 2012, total campaign spending in this country doubled from $3 billion to $6.3 billion. And the Supreme Court ruling now opens the door even wider for unlimited money in politics that has obviously already skyrocketed." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Alexander assumed viewers agreed with that liberal narrative: "And you thought there was already too much money in politics. Fasten your seat belts. From now on, there's gonna be a whole lot more. The Supreme Court struck down a decades-old campaign law..."

There is a jobs crisis in the U.S. that is going virtually unnoticed by the broadcast networks. The unemployment rate for African Americans towers over the national average, upsetting conservatives and liberals.

In spite of bipartisan outrage, the three broadcast networks gave just 10 seconds combined to the black unemployment rate around the monthly jobs reports in the past year. Liberal Rev. Jesse Jackson was one of many frustrated people. He has complained that “the media [is] dismissing it as not important.”

It’s Opening Day week and all things are new again. Except the fact that liberals won’t let us just be happy watching our sports. That’s not new. In fact, as anyone who’s read Roger Kahn’s “The Boys of Summer” knows, determined liberals have been trying to suck the joy out of the sporting endeavor for decades.

But it does seem that the space carved out for the care-free enjoyment of our favorite sports is shrinking a little bit every year. Sycophantic ESPN is being used to sell Obamacare in exchange for the president’s bracket picks. Obama’s now annual interview has been ruining the guacamole at Super Bowl parties since 2009. 

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell appeared at the Newseum on Tuesday to launch MRC Latino, a project that will fight for unbiased coverage from Hispanic media outlets. Explaining an analysis of Univision and Telemundo, Bozell announced, "What we're finding with this study, unfortunately, is that the Latino media are not even close to achieving balance." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] 

In his closing remarks, Bozell informed, "It is not a very smart thing for the owner...of that company to say that electing Hillary Clinton is a big dream of his." (This was a reference to Univision's Haim Saban.) 

Sarah Palin made a surprise visit to NBC's Tonight on Wednesday. She conducted a mock interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin, played by host Jimmy Fallon.

Palin mocked Putin as "no match for a mama grizzly" and told him to get out of the Ukraine. Both enjoyed a laugh at Obama's NSA spying program, as well. Below is a video of the highlights:

The Washington Post sometimes lets its very liberal (and artistically challenged) political cartoonist Tom Toles rant with words. On Tuesday, he wrote a little piece called “Obamacare a Huge Success.”

It won’t surprise you that Toles thinks it’s a huge success merely because of its collectivist aims (“humane universal coverage”), not its actual functioning. What’s surprising is that he decries an “endless river of disingenuous carping,” then proceeds to claim disingenuously that media outlets channel only (a) harsh criticism of Obamacare or (b) middling criticism of Obamacare. Did he entirely miss the last 24 hours of Obama trash talk?

When an unmistakable embarrassment to liberalism occurs, a standard establishment press fallback tactic is to accuse conservatives of some form of incivility — and if there really isn't one, to make up a story about it anyway.

That's exactly what Bloomberg Businsessweek's Paul M. Barrett did on Tuesday in covering the NRA's reaction to the arrest of California State Senator and ardent gun control advocate Leland Yee on gun trafficking charges. The story's headline claimed that the group did "a victory dance." Barrett's content claimed that it was "gloating" and "strained to veil its pleasure." In truth, the group was doing nothing of the sort — unless the speech police now believe that making any kind of obvious observation about a liberal's failure is inherently unfair:

Both CBS's Bob Schieffer and NBC's Brian Williams cried foul on Wednesday evening at the Supreme Court striking down the cap on overall political donations, showing sympathy for supporters of the law.

Schieffer lamented that "More and more, the very rich are taking control of our politics" and that "this ruling is just one more sign that we no longer have any campaign laws that really matter."  Brian Williams actually quoted liberal Justice Stephen Breyer and asked what opponents of the decision could do. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

Because the United States should "focus... on preventing more war, terrorism and [nuclear] proliferation," it's probably time that we just "get over" the Iranian hostage crisis, argues Barbara Slavin in her April 2 Voice of America column, "Can We Ever Move on from the Hostage Crisis?"

The career journalist was expressing her annoyance with how there is consternation in Washington over the prospect of the Obama/Kerry State Department granting a visa to an Iranian diplomat who was a figure in the student-led seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979. To Slavin's mind, this is a cynical ploy to scotch Iranian nuclear talks and, besides, haven't we Americans also upset Iranians with some of the things we've done in the past? (emphasis mine):

The New York Times attacked Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's new budget proposal from several angles on Wednesday. Congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman adopted an accusatory pro-Democratic tone in his report, "Ryan’s Budget Would Cut $5 Trillion in Spending Over a Decade," warning that it proposed "steep cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, and the total repeal of the Affordable Care Act just as millions are reaping the benefits of the law," and promised it would give Democrats a big target in the 2014 elections.

Elsewhere, columnist Paul Krugman called Ryan a "con man," and an editorial accused Ryan of having "very dangerous ideas."