Blogs

Five years ago, CNBC’s Rick Santelli reacted to the possibility of a mortgage bailout with frustration on live television. Quickly, his speech on the trading floor became known as the “rant heard round the world.”

Santelli, an on-air editor who reports live from the Chicago Board of Trade, is frequently interviewed during “Squawk Box” and “Squawk on the Street.” It was during one of those morning discussions on Feb. 19, 2009, that Santelli let loose on a potential bailout of homeowners arguing that “the government is promoting bad behavior” and proposing that capitalists gather in Chicago for a “Tea Party.”

Media liberals are howling at the apparent injustice that the “anti-Clinton” Washington Free Beacon website has dared to paw through old Hillary Clinton history. The hypocrisy is stunning. Let us recall the avalanche of mean-spirited and sleazy “fair game” the networks assembled for us just a few years ago in the last election cycle.

Sarah Palin? She didn’t even run, but NBC and Savannah Guthrie needed no documentary evidence to repeat every scurrilous accusation of leftist author Joe McGinniss: She was a horrible mother who used her children as props. Her marriage was a mess of incessant fighting on the verge of divorce. Both Palins used cocaine. And Sarah Palin once slept with pro basketball player Glen Rice.

Chris Matthews quoted the communists on Tuesday to argue that the unlimited spending allowed by Citizens United is turning U.S. elections into a sham.

"This is becoming, I will argue, like the country the communists accused of us being back in the Cold War, run by the Rockefellers. We'll get there," Matthews warned. "In the four years since the Citizens United decision, we've seen how unlimited political spending, cash, can empower the few over the many," he ranted. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CBS was the only network on Tuesday evening to highlight a CBO report that President Obama's proposal to hike the minimum wage would cost 500,000 jobs.

The CBO report was released Tuesday afternoon and estimated that the wage increase would boost 900,000 Americans above the poverty line but would also result in the loss of half a million jobs. CBS was the only network to report the news; neither NBC nor ABC touched on the CBO report.

Uh, which one, Ed?

At some point in the not so distant future, former president Bill Clinton will pick up a phone, dial the main number at MSNBC/Pravda in Rockefeller Center, ask to speak with resident loose cannon/action hero Ed Schultz, and tell Schultz that if he really wants to help the Clintons, he should refrain from talking about them. At least not aloud and within range of a microphone. (Audio after the jump)

Using a Kentucky pastor's death-by-snakebite as her hook, Daily Beast contributor Candida Moss -- whose day job is teaching New Testament at Notre Dame -- opted to troll Christian readers with a story headlined "Bible Passages That Could Get You Killed."

Moss' story was highlighted by Beast editors this afternoon, placed in the lightbox under the teaser headline "Bible Passages to Die For?" [see screen capture below page break] "A pastor died trying to charm a snake because it says so in the Bible. Professor Candida Moss look [sic] at other Biblical directives that could get you killed," teased the caption accompanying a photo of a man holding a poisonous snake in a worship service. Moss began (emphasis mine):

MSNBC, the cable network where Martin Bashir suggested someone should defecate down Sarah Palin's throat, the network that features a host who trashed Laura Ingraham as a "slut," has developed an aversion to vulgarity. Well, vulgarities that are aimed at liberals. On Tuesday's Ed Show, Ed Schultz highlighted a dinner of wealthy businessmen in New York.

According to Schultz, the attendees "perform variety shows that include jokes that, of course, we couldn't share with you here on the Ed Show." The outraged anchor complained, "Let's see, there was a sexist joke about Hillary Clinton and a homophobic joke made about former Congressman Barney Frank." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] This is the same Schultz who assailed "bastard," "dirthole" conservatives.

During NBC's Saturday coverage of the Winter Olympics, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw spun the United States' worldwide campaign against communism during the Cold War: "In Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, and space, the U.S. spared little to defeat communism – at times, it seemed like a national obsession." [video below the jump]

Brokaw's slanted take on recent history came mere days after NBC glorified the Soviet Union as "one of modern history's pivotal experiments" as they broadcast the opening ceremonies from Sochi, Russia.

Officially, of course, there's no such thing as "the face of the Republican party" or "the face of the conservative movement," but liberals, often with ulterior motives, often suggest candidates for those pseudo-positions. In a Sunday front-page post on Daily Kos, Ian Reifowitz claimed that venture capitalist Thomas Perkins is the very model of a modern conservative.

Reifowitz noted Perkins's recent assertions that people shouldn't be allowed to vote unless they pay taxes, and that voting "should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes." According to Reifowitz, those statements "expose[d] the elitism and fundamentally anti-democratic ideas the Right secretly believes but knows, correctly, it ought never utter publicly if it wants to win elections."

 Is simply retelling the story of Jesus Christ "anti-Semitic?" That's the question that Nightline's David Wright hinted at on Monday night. Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, the producers of the History Channel Bible miniseries, appeared on the program to promote their new Son of God movie adaption.

Wright described Christ's death and resurrection as a "story that everyone knows" and hinted at possible peril: "Mel Gibson went out of his way to make what he thought was the definitive movie and he got into some hot water from the Jewish community over allegations of anti-Semitism." He added, "Were you worried about that?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Now for a dose of MSNBC-style conservatism from Nicolle Wallace, a frequent network contributor and former White House communications director under George W. Bush. On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, Wallace trashed Tea Party members and other conservative Republicans as children while praising House Speaker John Boehner and his moderate ilk as the “grown-ups” of the party. [Video below. MP3 audio here.]

During a discussion about Republicans gearing up for the midterm elections, Wallace praised Boehner for caving in on the debt ceiling earlier this month:

File this under "Pathetic" and "Predictable." On Alex Wagner's MSNBC show yesterday, Wagner set up Timothy Noah, an MSNBC.com columnist, with the latest and most desperate excuse for the UAW's failure to gain the ability to represent VW-Chattanooga workers in a plantwide election last week. She did so by referring to an American Prospect column earlier in the day by Harold Meyerson, who blamed "the politics of race and culture" for the loss.

Noah predictably took the bait, even though "race" was not mentioned once in any coverage I saw in 2-1/2 days after the election until Meyerson went there. Video and a transcript, followed by a couple of jabs at Meyerson by yours truly, follow the jump (bolds and numbered tags are mine):

At MSNBC what’s worse than being a conservative member of Congress? Being a black Republican member of Congress.

That seemed to be the sentiment on February 18 when MSNBC host Craig Melvin asked former Obama official Anton Gunn whether or not Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) would “come with an asterisk” next to his name if he wins election to a full-term in the Senate this November. [See video below.]

Let it not be said that MSNBC is never critical of President Obama. When he runs afoul of the abortion lobby, the Lean Forward network will take up arms and fires a few warning shots at the White House for betraying an ally in the "war on women."

"Liberal revolt over Obama judges grows," blares the teaser headline over a photo of a stern-looking Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). "A revolt against President Barack Obama’s nominees to the federal bench in Georgia has spread from the civil rights icons who paved the way for his presidency to the abortion rights movement," adds a teaser caption [see screen capture below page break], alarming readers that, in the words of NARAL president Ilyse Hogue, “We look to our judicial branch to protect and uphold our values and freedoms." Here's how writer Adam Serwer caught msnbc.com readers up to speed on the controversy [emphasis mine]:

Appearing on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told host David Gregory that former President Bill Clinton had "embarrassed the nation" while in office. However, of the three network morning shows on Monday, only CBS This Morning mentioned the political headline. ABC's Good Morning America ignored it and even NBC's Today skipped the scoop from it's own network. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Nancy Grace blasted Piers Morgan on the latter's CNN program on Monday for unsurprisingly forwarding gun control in the middle of a panel discussion on the controversial Michael Dunn case: "It's not really right for a Brit to jump up and start talking to us about gun control." Morgan shot back by condescending to the HLN host specifically and to Americans in general: "It seems like it's entirely down to a Brit, because your lot can't sort out your own gun problems."

Grace, who is no stranger to controversy, interrupted the British native before he could finish his pro-gun control rant, and threw the American Revolution and the Constitution at the CNN host: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]

As we've documented time and again, MSNBC.com’s Zachary Roth is obsessed with defending the ballot box from his favorite villain: the GOP. His February 18 item may have taken the cake for fear-mongering and outright peddling of liberal talking points.

Roth penned a nearly 1500-word piece in which he threw together examples from the 1800s and 1900s where certain segments of the population were excluded from voting -- by Democrats, of course -- as evidence of the “conservative case to limit voting.”

 George Stephanopoulos, a former operative to Bill Clinton turned journalist, had one question he wanted to ask actor Kevin Spacey about his diabolical character from the political TV series House of Cards: "What would Frank Underwood's advice be to Hillary Clinton on whether to run for president?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Spacey, appearing on Tuesday's Good Morning America to promote the new season of his Netflix series, adopted a Bill Clinton impersonation and joked, "Oh, run." He continued, "Sorry, I did that as Bill. 'Run, baby, run.'" Showing up on the Today show in 2012 to promote season one of House of Cards, Spacey compared fiction to real life, smearing Mitt Romney was a "murderous politician."

Acting like the White House press office, Tuesday's CBS This Morning devoted a 3-minute report to President Obama's habit of binge watching his favorite TV shows, with correspondent Bill Plante gushing: "He may be the leader of the free world, but when it comes to unwinding, President Obama – well, he's a lot like us....The President tunes in to tune out. And when he needs his television, step aside." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Plante described how Obama asked HBO CEO Richard Plepler for early copies of certain shows during the recent state dinner for the president of France. Plante added: "Then later in the week, this appeared on the President's Twitter account. 'Tomorrow: @HouseOfCards. No spoilers, please.' A reference to one of his favorite shows."

You might think that journalists would consider the prospect of sharply rising electricity costs in a nation blanketed by an extraordinarily cold, snowy winter and buffeted by its accompanying high utility bills hugely newsworthy.

You would be wrong. Searches on the last name of Julio Friedmann, the deputy assistant secretary of the Energy Department who testified at a congressional hearing on energy costs and technology last week, return very few results (here and here), none from a major general circulation establishment press outlet. One business-oriented outlet, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, covered Friedmann's testimony on the impact of the EPA's new "carbon capture" rules. In doing so, reporter Mark Drajem included some incoherence and misdirection (bolds are mine):

In the last couple of weeks ObamaCare has been dealt two serious setbacks: yet another delay in the employer mandate, and a devastating CBO report that claimed it will cost the equivalent of two million jobs. However, the reaction of Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network reporters to these latest ObamaCare failures has been to blow them off as just a little “hiccup.”

When the White House announced another delay in the enforcement of the employer mandate to buy health insurance, the networks couldn’t even cover the story for a full day. The first reports arrived on the February 10 evening news, with the final stories filed on the February 11 morning shows. In total the Big Three networks spent just 4 minutes and 26 seconds on the delay. ABC spent the least amount of time on the mandate extension (41 seconds) followed by NBC (53 seconds) with CBS (2 minutes, 53 seconds) devoting the most time to the topic. (videos after the jump)

The folks at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, are really having a hard time processing the UAW's failure to gain the ability to represent Volkswagen's Chattanooga, Tennessee workers in an election held last week. AP journalists, who themselves are members of the News Media Guild, are exhibiting characterstics of still partially being in Stage 1 (Denial) but mostly Stage 2 (Anger) of the grieving process.

A Monday evening report by Tom Krisher and Erik Schelzig comes off more as a "put up or shut up" dare to those who opposed UAW representation than anything resembling objective reporting. The pair wants to know what Republicans are going to do achieve job growth in the wake of the UAW loss. The obvious response is that despite well-known federally-imposed regulatory barriers to job growth, Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Haslam and the Volunteer State's GOP-controlled legislature have been doing a far better than average job, if you will, of creating a conducive atmosphere for payroll employment growth in the state. But first, let's visit our in-mourning AP reporters and headline writer (bolds are mine):

MRC president Brent Bozell appeared on Monday afternoon's edition of "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on the Fox News Channel. Brent and guest host Eric Bolling discussed how the network Sunday shows all pushed "climate change" segments after Senate Democrats complained that the subject had been allegedly ignored over the last few years.

Democrats haven't moved any "climate change" legislation since Republicans took over the House in the 2010 midterms. Over time, the media have insisted on the severity of warming, but have said very little about the severity of proposed government "solutions" for this problem. Now, in one day, the networks devoted more minutes to "global warming" panic than the alleged left-wing figure the Democrats have used for the last several years:

Amidst President Obama's sliding approval ratings, liberal historian Douglas Brinkley stood up for his "above-average" legacy on Monday's Hardball.

"I think he's an above-average president. I'd put him somewhere around what Bill Clinton was able to do," Brinkley insisted. He compared Obama's withdrawal from Iraq to Eisenhower getting the U.S. out of the Korean war, even though al Qaeda is clearly making a comeback in Iraq. [Video below the break. Audio here.]