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An American teenager, along with two Israeli teens, has been kidnapped in Israel. “[T]wo jihadist groups had posted claims of responsibility for kidnapping the teens,” according to The Washington Post. Israel is in an uproar as the government tries to find them.

But in America, the broadcast networks are breathlessly covering the new movie “22 Jump Street.” In fact, ABC, CBS and NBC have devoted more than 10 and a half minutes to the sophomoric slapstick movie comedy. That’s more than twice what they’ve given to the kidnapping.

Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC.com executive editor Richard Wolffe mocked former Vice President Dick Cheney for his recent criticism of President Obama, and inaccurately claimed that "there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq" before Cheney "led the decision to invade Iraq."

After dismissing Cheney as being in his "last throes," Wolffe recalled: "Let's just revisit a little bit of history. Before Dick Cheney led the decision to invade Iraq, and led the disastrous occupation of Iraq, there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He allowed Al-Qaeda to get a foothold in Iraq."

Looks like it's not just in Iraq where civil war is breaking out. Seems that it could also be happening at MSNBC, with Iraq ironically being the flashpoint.

Two nights ago, Rachel Maddow condemned TV shows that book original Iraq war hawks like Paul Bremer. Maddow specifically called out her very own MSNBC for having given Bremer air time.  And just where had Bremer appeared on the Lean Forward network? Morning Joe.  So you have to imagine that Joe Scarborough might well have had Maddow in mind when on today's show he said "I don't know why some people are so intellectually weak that they're afraid to actually listen."  Sniped Scarborough: if people "wanted to watch people just saying what they--what everybody else in a little circle believe, they could watch certain shows on prime time cable." Wonder which show Joe had in mind?  View the video after the jump.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews put his pro-Hillary puffery on the back-burner this evening to lead off Hardball with a screed against his favorite archnemesis Dick "it's pronounced CHEE-knee, by the way" Cheney.

Chris failed to disappoint with his loopy, nonsensical rant against the former vice president, at one point comparing him to a pitch man for the website Diedinhouse.com. Matthews even inspired a little nuttiness in the Huffington Post Media Group editorial director Howard Fineman, who insisted Cheney's hat-wearing was devised by the former vice president as a subtle sartorial dig at Obama's manliness or lack thereof. You cannot make this stuff up (LISTEN to the MP3 audio here; WATCH the video clip below the page break):

It’s been common for a few years to observe that Democrats and Republicans barely talk with each other anymore, but if you believe Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall, these days the two parties aren’t even truly fighting with each other.

In a Tuesday blog post, Marshall claimed that each party now is “operating in [its] own political universe.” In one universe, President Obama ignores obstructionist GOPers and uses his executive powers to accomplish what he can; in the other, Republicans and their media allies are less concerned with thwarting Obama than with revving up their base, largely by flogging Benghazi and other scandals.

Fifty-four percent of respondents in a brand new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll believe that President Obama "can't lead, get the job done," contrasted with 42 percent who say he can. What's more, a healthy plurality, 41 percent, also answered that "the performance of the Obama administration" has "gotten worse" in the past 12 months. Yet the NBC Nightly News ignored those stunning numbers in its June 18 broadcast. [Anchor Brian Williams additionally failed to tease the poll in his opening preview of the night's stories.]

While chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd did touch on how "57 percent disapprove of the job he's doing on foreign policy," that factoid was buried in a story centered on blaming former Vice President Dick Cheney's with stoking yet another inside-the-Beltway partisan "blame game" over Iraq. You can read the full transcript below the page break (listen to the full segment via mp3 audio here; watch video excerpt below page break):

It's not hard to tell where the host of Real Time With Bill Maher stands on the issue of “animal rights.” As with most topics, the comedian hasn't held anything back since before 2003, when he received the Celebrity Animal Advocate of the Year Award at the Animal Rights National Conference in Los Angeles.

During the past week, however, the HBO host set his sights on two interesting targets: the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA -- which he said is a “wonderful cause” -- and actor Liam Neeson, who “should just shut up” about his support for the horse carriage business in New York City.

On Tuesday night, CBS and NBC  led their evening newscasts with the arrest of the supposed mastermind of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya while ABC reported it right after two short stories on devastating tornadoes in the Midwest. 

To their credit, CBS and ABC made a serious attempt at bias-free reporting but NBC’s Nightly News fell short. On top of that, the peacock network continued their biased perspective this morning on the Today show. [See video below. MP3 audio here]

Some readers here may have a tough time discerning why the economy's mediocre to stagnant performance isn't fully registering with the general public, which feels that things aren't going too well but still doesn't how weak the situation really is. The obvious answer is that the press overemphasizes any good news which appears and downplays marginal or bad news — while occasionally, as seen last night in Bloomberg's coverage of yesterday's largely miserable homebuilding statistics, pretending that bad news really was good.

Perfect examples of this problem came in two CNNMoney.com emails I received this afternoon. The emails has news which could be considered news, while leaving out some clearly bad news which delegitimizes their email's optimism:

On June 17, John Stewart invited Daniel Schulman, senior editor of left-wing Mother Jones magazine, onto The Daily Show to discuss his newest book, Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty. The liberal Comedy Central host couldn’t end the interview without making his own political opinion of the famous libertarian donors clear, stating, “it is almost at its core, its such an elitist view but portrayed as a freedom agenda.”

Schulman, who is pitching his book as nonideological on the book tour circuit agreed that since the brothers “have not experienced a single solitary moment of financial insecurity in their lives” they are “the worst poster boys” for debates on say the minimum wage or welfare reform. (See video below. Click here for MP3 audio)

MSNBC’s resident “boy genius” Ronan Farrow made a backhanded slap at our men and women in uniform by referring to the military commissions set up to try unlawful enemy combatants as “kangaroo courts.”

On Tuesday afternoon’s edition of Ronan Farrow Daily, the host was joined by Maryland Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen to discuss Ahmed Abu Khattala capture and where the alleged mastermind behind the deadly September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi could possibly be tried. Van Hollen argued for having him tried in a civilian federal criminal court over a military tribunal. Farrow agreed with him because of the “perception” that our military courts have given the world.

As we’ve noted here at NewsBusters, the liberal media have remained virtually silent on new reports of years and years of emails being lost from Lois Lerner and other IRS employees. So it was refreshing that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough spent some time on his June 18 Morning Joe program to briefly discuss the new developments.

Reactions to the news from USA Today that there were “seven hard drive crashes, no centralized archive, and a regular practice of reusing and erasing backup tapes every six months” were met with mockery from many on the panel. Unsurprisingly, the moderately-conservative host and former GOP congressman Scarborough was most appalled [MP3 audio here; video below]:

MSNBC is the network where ex-host Martin Bashir suggested that someone defecate and urinate on Sarah Palin. Yet, the suddenly sensitive Joy Reid on Wednesday warned viewers that she was about to feature someone saying the word "Redskins," what she deemed to be a "racial slur." [See video below. MP3 audio here.']

Hours after the U.S. Patent and Trademark office had cancelled the Washington Redskins trademark registration, Reid played a clip of Senator Harry Reid attacking the team. The host fretted, "And I just warn people, he does use the name of the team. So, I'm just going to warn you guys about that in advance." 

An article appearing in the Wednesday print edition of the New York Times (“In Wichita, Koch Influence Is Revered and Reviled”), reporter Carl Hulse traveled to the hometown of businessmen and libertarian donors Charles and David Koch in Wichita, Kansas. 

Much to the dismay of the newspaper that has an obsession with peddling Democratic attacks on the Koch brothers, Hulse was unable to find anyone besides three progressive activists that had anything negative to say about them. Instead, he found that the Koch brothers are held in high regard in the community where, among many generous donations, the Wichita State University basketball arena was renamed the Charles Koch Arena in 2003 after he gave $6 million to have it completely renovated. Here’s more from Hulse:

It took six television interviews but Hillary Clinton was finally asked questions that have remained absent during her book tour to promote “Hard Choices.” 

On Tuesday, June 17 Clinton sat down with Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Greta Van Susteren and for the first time on television was asked about the IRS’ targeting of conservatives, the NSA spying on Americans, and the American marine held captive in Mexico. [See video below.] 

Doing her best impression of a moderate, clear-headed patriot on CNN's "town hall" offered to her, Hillary Clinton opined about the thousands of illegal immigrant children flooding the U.S. border from Mexico: “They should be sent back as soon as can be determined who the responsible adults in their family are because there are concerns about whether all of them can be sent back, but I think all of them that can be should be reunited with their families...we have to send a clear message that ‘Just because your child gets across the border, that doesn’t mean your child gets to stay."

But if reporters were trying to pin down her consistency, it should be noted  that while running against Barack Obama for president, Hillary was solidly and vocally pro-amnesty in a CNN debate on January 31, 2008:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney co-authored a blistering op-ed, deriding Barack Obama's handling of Iraq. But you wouldn't know it from the network coverage. ABC's Good Morning America completely ignored Cheney speaking out. Yet, the program devoted three minutes to the deeply irrelevant story of jump suits and fanny packs making a comeback.

On NBC's Today, Savannah Guthrie managed a scant 13 seconds as she introduced a separate story. The co-host chided, "Well, as President Obama weighs his decision here, Dick and Liz Cheney are out with a new op-ed this morning blasting the Obama administration's positions during wartime." She noted that Cheney and daughter Liz slammed, "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many." CBS This Morning offered the most coverage fo the op-ed, 48 seconds. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

The ‘Fox News viewers are racist’ meme hasn’t died yet on MSNBC. Analyzing Hillary Clinton’s interview on June 17 with Fox News, Hardball guest Michelle Bernard insisted that Hillary Clinton was “reaching out to those voters that Barack Obama said were the people who get scared of people who are different than them, and they cling to religion, or they cling to guns or have anti-immigrant sentiment.”

She continued: “And I think she’s got to reach out to that demographic. That's what we saw her doing on Fox tonight.” Host Chris Matthews, despite recently coming to the defense of the right, jumped right in to second Bernard’s analysis: “I believe people have been opposing President Obama, many of them because of his background, because of his race, absolutely.” [MP3 audio here; video below]

CBS This Morning was the only broadcast network news show that covered the latest discovery in the IRS scandal on the morning of June 18. Meanwhile, all three networks devoted at least two minutes to report on Dr. Oz’s appearance before the Senate’s Consumer Protection Committee to discuss the unconsented use of his image to endorse diet products online.

While CBS devoted only 30 seconds to the revelation that the emails of six more IRS employees have been reported lost, the network spent 2 minutes and 32 seconds describing how the celebrity doctor was berated by Democratic Senators for peddling diet products on his show that may not actually work. (See video below. Click here for MP3 audio)

Appearing on Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent and political director Chuck Todd reported on the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showing President Obama's poll numbers taking a nose dive and made this stunning declaration: "This is as if the public is saying, 'Hey, buddy, your presidency is over. You may not believe it is, but your ability to lead and convince us that you have the right policies anymore, we're not listening.'" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

That observation was prompted by co-host Savannah Guthrie highlighting: "Let's show the poll number you call the dagger. 'Can the President lead and get the job done?' 54% say no."

Hillary Clinton sat down with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour for a town hall interview on Tuesday, June 17  to promote her new book “Hard Choices” and was greeted with questions that tilted five to one in favor of liberal issues.

The interview focused on a variety of domestic and foreign topics but it was Amanpour’s question to Clinton about racism towards President Obama that caught a lot of attention. The CNN reporter wondered “Senator Jay Rockefeller said recently and he suggested basically that some of the political opposition to President Obama could have something to do with the color of his skin. Do you agree with that? What do you think about that?” [See video below.]  

On Tuesday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Xerox is funding MSNBC’s new “30 Seconds to Know” initiative. It’s MSNBC’s version of VOX which offers 30 second videos of MSNBC pundits explaining the news. Clearly, reasonable, restrained MSNBC journalists are the best people for that job.

Ursala Burns, the CEO of Xerox, as the Free Beacon pointed out, is a staunch supporter and financial donor to the Democrat Party and is ranked as one of the worst CEO’s in the country.

When CNN held a “town hall” meeting for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, the evidence suggests it would be stacked to the Left. Our analysis of “town hall” presidential debates has shown a persistent two-to-one tilt of liberal questions versus conservative questions from audience members.

True to form, CNN host Christiane Amanpour selected five questioners from the liberal agenda, and only one from the right – wondering if Obama pulled out of Iraq too quickly. There were five neutral questions, but four were softballs like what words she would use to describe herself. [See video below.] 

Yes, I saw it. 

When “Obvious Child” hit theaters this month, conservatives were aghast the media glorified it – without irony – as an “abortion romantic comedy.” Liberals lashed back, claiming, like the movie’s Director Gillian Robespierre, that "[Conservatives bashing Obvious Child] haven't seen the movie; they're basing it on articles and trailers."  

That defense is bogus. We are, after all, talking about the destruction of innocent human life – something nearly impossible to contextualize and utterly repulsive as a romantic comedy plot device. 

Still, I decided to play along. 

On Wednesday, June 17 Bloomberg reported that Bill and Hillary Clinton are taking advantage of financial planning strategies to avoid paying a hefty estate tax, even though the Clintons are prominent supports of the tax. 

Despite the report, ABC, CBS, and NBC have all ignored the story on both their morning and evening newscasts. According to Bloomberg: “The Clintons are using financial planning strategies befitting the top 1 percent of U.S. households in wealth. These moves, common among multimillionaires, will help shield some of their estate from the tax that now top out at 40 percent of assets upon death.” 

At roughly 8 a.m. Eastern Time Tuesday morning, the wire service AFP (Agence France-Presse) had a story entitled "Fighting nears Baghdad as UN warns crisis 'life-threatening.'" AFP reported that "Militants pushed a weeklong offensive that has overrun swathes of Iraq to within 60 kilometres (37 miles) of Baghdad Tuesday." A Skynet video found at Gateway Pundit tells us that "ISIS Terrorists Surround Baghdad From Three Sides."

Meanwhile, as of 12:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday only one of the three Iraq-related stores (here, here and here) at the Associated Press refers — and even then only in a very late paragraph — to how ISIS (or ISIL, using AP's preferred acronym) "overran Mosul then stormed toward Baghdad."

Ronan Farrow, considered the “boy wonder” of cable hosts by MSNBC executives, interviewed his colleague Chris Matthews on June 11 over the stunning primary defeat of Eric Cantor.

Farrow was shocked that the winner David Brat had dared to campaign among the Tea Party rabble, being the professor he is: “Is it rare to see that kind of brazen intellectualism, particularly in populist candidates like this?” Translation: how did he win among knuckle-dragging Virginia racists with that spiel?