I find that the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza usually plays things pretty much down the middle, and subscribe to his Fix email blast.
So it came as an unpleasant surprise to find in my inbox a little while ago a Cillizza email, linking to his current Fix column, tthat referred to Mark Sanford as "the turd in the political punch bowl." Cillizza repeated the line in the column itself. View the screengrab after the jump.
Aside from his daily MSNBC hosting duties, Al Sharpton founded and serves as president of the tax-delinquest liberal National Action Network (NAN), which is at present heavily involved in a push for new federal gun control legislation.
This morning, MSNBC dutifully dispatched reporter Richard Lui to cover the NAN conference in New York City, from which Lui reported during the 10 a.m. Eastern Jansing & Co. program. Yet neither Lui nor host Chris Jansing felt it necessary to mention to viewers their colleague's connection to the group.
The Iowa Democratic caucus is a full thirty-three months away but that didn't stop NBC's Today show from promoting a possible Hillary Clinton candidacy. NBC's Andrea Mitchell, on Wednesday's show, once again hyped a potential Hillary Clinton run for president as she proclaimed the former Secretary of State was a "rock star."
Her colleague Savannah Guthrie declared the former Secretary of State: "Would be a field clearing candidate for Democrats. That is nobody gets in if she's in."
Longtime Hillary Clinton fan Claire Shipman isn't waiting for the 2016 push. The Good Morning America reporter on Wednesday launched "Hillary Watch" and regurgitated talking points about a potential presidential bid. She breathlessly related, "But with the launch of an independent super PAC, the question is everywhere. Is Hillary ready to run?"
Shipman also featured a Clinton supporter outside a rally. The man oddly enthused, " I think she'll run and she's got to save the country, right?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.] She's got to save the country? From who? Fellow Democrat Barack Obama? The journalist added that it's "unrealistic" for the former Secretary of State to have a normal life. Shipman gushed, "Hillary Watch is officially under way. Just a few months into retirement, Hillary Clinton is back on stage." Despite the reporter's enthusiasm for the ex-First Lady, Shipman could not get her the nomination in 2008.
The Associated Press has made news repeatedly in recent months for Stylebook revisions: for example, for both relinquishing the term “homophobia” and welcoming the usage of “his husband” and “her wife.”
On Tuesday, they announced the AP stylebook will no longer welcome the term “illegal immigrant,” preferring instead a more politically-correct mumble about residents “without legal permission”:
HBO's Bill Maher is clearly getting tired of liberals.
On ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday, he said of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's nanny statism, "That makes me want to join the Tea Party and marry Ann Coulter" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
I say "political integrity expert," you say "Eliot Spitzer." I say "you're kidding me, right?"
Rachel Maddow actually got off to a good start last evening in her segment on political sleaziness, ripping politicians both Dem and Republican for a variety of venal sins. But of all the people to bring on as your expert to discuss how to raise the moral bar . . . Client 9? Surely you make mirth, Ms. Maddow! View the video after the jump.
Does journalistic insistence on catapulting President Barack Obama into historic greatness and relevance know no bounds? CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley on Tuesday night insisted upon trumpeting Obama’s proposal, to spend $100 million to map the human brain, through the hagiographic maneuver of putting Obama into a trilogy with the triumphs of Thomas Jefferson and John Kennedy:
"Finally tonight, for Thomas Jefferson it was the Louisiana Territory; for John F. Kennedy, the moon. Well today, as Bill Plante reports, President Obama announced a mission to explore and map another frontier filled with mystery and possibility."
Since its founding in 1996, the Fox News Channel has been the subject of much media scrutiny. Part of this was inevitable given that its creator, Roger Ailes, explicitly designed it to be different than the rest of the national media outlets which lean to the left.
As such, there has been a lot of journalism produced about Fox News. Some of it has been excellent. Much of it has been nonsense, including a hoax “study” purporting to show that Fox News viewers have lower IQs than average and actual real study claiming that people who watched the channel were “misinformed” about political issues. As it turned out, the non-hoax was incredibly shoddy as it basically determined that someone was “informed” if he agreed with the political opinions of Democrats and “uninformed” if he agreed with Republicans.
The Associated Press announced Tuesday that it will no longer use the term “illegal immigrant.”
On NBC’s Tonight Show, host Jay Leno said, “They will now use the phrase ‘undocumented Democrat’” (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):
As NewsBusters reported last April, professional golfer Bubba Watson after winning the 2012 Masters Championship told CNN's Piers Morgan that he was a "pr--k" for how he behaved on America's Got Talent.
On Tuesday's Piers Morgan Live, Watson told the travelling Morgan that he was in his office today, and left a message for him again calling him a "pr--k."
The Los Angeles Times is up for sale, and there are super-wealthy conservative bidders. Get out the popcorn and watch the liberals squeal. The hilarious kickoff came when two leftist collectives – the Daily Kos website and the California-based Courage Campaign Institute – set out to buy an ad in the the L.A. Times to protest the Koch brothers pondering a bid.
I kid you not, the ad began: “WE NEED NEWS, NOT MORE SPIN.” This would assume that today’s Los Angeles Times – which just endorsed Obama’s re-election – is an oasis of objectivity in a desert of media bias. They expressed outrage when the Times wouldn't publish the ad -- but then they did.
Married congressman texts pics of his private parts to other women but brazenly denies it. How would you characterize the fact that he was eventually forced to resign?
If "bum rap" springs to mind, you are on the same wavelength as Michelle Goldberg of Newsweek—and probably should seek immediate professional help. Goldberg's assertion, made on day deux of Chris Hayes's new MSNBC show, was even too much for David Axelrod. View the video after the jump.
The recent murders of local prosecutors in a north Texas county -- possibly at the hands of white supremacists -- was the news hook for MSNBC's The Cycle to bring Heidi Beirich of the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on to the April 2 program. In introducing the guest and justifying her expertise, co-host Ari Melber merely described the SPLC as "a group that documents that state of hate groups in America." [video follows page break; MP3 audio here]
It fell to token conservative co-host S.E. Cupp to remind viewers that SPLC leans to the left and has been criticized by conservatives for "smearing religious and far-right groups and ignoring far-left hate groups." "Shouldn't people be aware of your ideological biases before they take seriously [SPLC's] claims of who they should be afraid of?" Cupp argued. A bemused Beirich insisted she had to "dispute the notion of the question on its premise," adding that:
Check out the photo of Kim Jong Un found in a CBS News article. The legend reads: "March 31, 2013 photo released by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and distributed in Tokyo April 1, 2013 by Korea News Service shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un giving speech during plenary meeting of central committee of ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea / AP." Note that the Korea News Service is the official North Korean news agency.
Yo, North Korean media dudes: your photo makes the Supreme Nork look like a dork, as if he's wearing a dunce cap! View the photo of President Obama after the jump to get an idea of how the media should properly portray a truly revered leader!