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ABC: Pope Is ‘King, Attending His Own Funeral’
By Katie Yoder | | February 28, 2013 | 4:20 PM EST

Although the first pope to resign in 600 years, Pope Benedict XVI might as well be dead to the media as cardinals elect a new pope. On the day of the Roman Catholic pope’s resignation, February 28, ABC’s “Good Morning America” offered repulsive input and likened the monumental event to Pope Benedict XVI participating in his own funeral.

A voiceover described how Pope Benedict XVI bade farewell to cardinals in the very room popes lie after death, the Clementine Hall at the Apostolic Palace, before reporting: “Unlike all the past popes whose reigns have ended in this room since the palace was built and the walls covered in frescos, Benedict is the first to leave office still breathing – like a king, attending his own funeral.” [Video below.]

Politico’s Evan Thomas: Ted Cruz a ‘Potentially Dangerous’ Demagogue
By Paul Bremmer | | February 28, 2013 | 4:00 PM EST

The liberal media’s effort to demonize Sen. Ted Cruz continues. On last Friday’s episode of PBS’s Inside Washington, the mostly left-leaning panel of journalists piled on the criticism of the junior senator from Texas. The attacks were focused on Cruz’s questioning of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel during Hagel’s confirmation battle. Moderator Gordon Peterson presented the topic like this: “The Tea Party activists love this guy for being so aggressive. I’m wondering how this aggression so early in his career plays on in the Senate.”

But according to panelist Evan Thomas, a Politico contributor, Cruz is not merely aggressive; he is dangerous: “You need to watch this guy, because there are a lot of demagogues out there, but not that many who are that smart. He is really, really smart, and that makes him potentially dangerous.” [Video below. MP3 audio here.]
 

NPR’s Farewell To Pope Benedict XVI Hypes ‘A Church Mired In Crises’
By Jeffrey Meyer | | February 28, 2013 | 3:43 PM EST

In what NPR thought was a fitting tribute to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the February 28 edition of Morning Edition sought to diminish the legacy of the pontiff emeritus by sharply criticizing his time in the chair of St. Peter. 

Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli claimed that “while the cardinals publicly praise Benedict for his courageous act, privately many are reassessing his legacy.”    

Jay Leno Presents 'Les Miserables' Style Sequester Negotiations
By Noel Sheppard | | February 28, 2013 | 3:16 PM EST

NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno presented a great interpretation of the sequester negotiations Wednesday.

In a mock video, many of our political leaders sang their views as if characters in the hit musical "Les Miserables."

Jezebel Praises UK’s Rise in Abortions
By Kristine Marsh | | February 28, 2013 | 2:54 PM EST

Abortion is often a polarizing issue, but even the average pro-choicer would agree that it is a morally difficult issue to deal with. Not the “Shiny Happy Ladies” of Jezebel.

As Cuts Loom and Public Shrugs, NY Times Suddenly Spins Other Way on Sequestration
By Clay Waters | | February 28, 2013 | 2:45 PM EST

Spinning the sequester in the New York Times. After weeks of cringing over the supposedly damaging federal cuts due to take effect tomorrow (even as the public shrugs them off) Jonathan Weisman made an 180-degree turn on the front of Thursday's paper: "Parties Focus On the Positive As Cuts Near." The text box: "An onerous possibility turns out to be not quite so onerous."

Suddenly the Times is seeing a win-win-win situation, for liberals, conservatives, and the White House.

WashPost's Farhi Laments Newspapers Caving in to Pressure, Backing Away from Publishing Gun Owner Lists
By Ken Shepherd | | February 28, 2013 | 1:30 PM EST

In a 19-paragraph story today, Washington Post staff writer Paul Farhi took a look at how various newspapers around the country are backing away from their initial requests for public records of gun owners. "For the third time in as many months, a newspaper has faced an angry backlash, including threats of violence, after it sought government data on local gun permit holders," Farhi noted. "In the two most recent instances, the newspapers rescinded requests for the documents amid the outcry, with one issuing an abject apology to its readers and the local sheriff for daring to seek the information in the first place," he griped.

In a time when the print newspaper is an endangered species, you'd think Farhi might present the story with the angle being how liberal papers are shooting themselves in the feet with stunts that harm their advertising revenue and subscription base. But no, the thrust of Farhi's piece is how newspapers are cowering away from doing their job. To make this point, Farhi turned to journalism professor Geneva Overholser, who perhaps is most infamous for her call eight years ago for newspapers to identify alleged rape victims (emphasis mine):

NBC Allows 16 Seconds to White House Battle With Bob Woodward, Avoids Using the Word 'Threat'
By Scott Whitlock | | February 28, 2013 | 12:10 PM EST

The Today show on Thursday allowed a scant 16 seconds, out of a possible four hours, to the claim by veteran journalist Bob Woodward that the Obama White House is trying to intimidate him and attack his coverage of the sequester cuts. The NBC program also avoided using the word "threat."

ABC's Good Morning America gave the most coverage to the battle, offering a full report and a news brief.  [See video below. MP3 audio here.] CBS This Morning covered the story as part of a bigger report on the looming cuts. On Today, reporter Kristen Welker blandly explained, "As a backdrop to all of this, veteran reporter Bob Woodward is telling reporters that the White House is lashing out at him for writing an article which claimed that the sequester was all President Obama's idea." She then helpfully presented the President's case: "The White House has made the point that Republicans overwhelmingly supported the plan as well." This was the extent of Today's coverage.

Andrew Sullivan Smears Pope Again
By Bill Donohue | | February 28, 2013 | 11:04 AM EST

Former Time and Newsweek blogger Andrew Sullivan accuses the pope of being a homosexual. His evidence? The pope’s “handsome male companion [Archbishop Georg Ganswein] will continue to live with him, while working for the other Pope during the day.” Sullivan asks, “Are we supposed to think that’s, well, a normal arrangement?”
 
Speaking about what is normal is hardly normal for Sullivan. To be specific, in 2001 he solicited anal sex with anonymous men by posting a picture of his torso on the Internet. He explicitly requested to have sex with men who did not wear condoms, begging for orgies. Unfortunately for him, he was outed by his boyfriends after they recognized it was his body.

Bashing Benedict: Networks Make Pope Butt of Jokes, Center of Scandal
By Katie Yoder | | February 28, 2013 | 10:15 AM EST

A frail, ailing 85-year-old man announces he doesn’t have the strength to continue as the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion people. With the humility of one whose entire life has been in service to God and his Church, he says he will retire to quietly live out his remaining years.

Cue the laugh track and gin up the scandal rumors. It was three weeks full of journalistic contempt for the Pope and the Catholic Church.

Longtime Dem Lanny Davis Also Reports White House Threat
By Tom Blumer | | February 28, 2013 | 10:04 AM EST

I assume no one expected that Bob Woodward would be found to be the first and only ordinarily Democrat-friendly recipient of threats from White House officials over what he has written and said.

Another such person has come forward in the name of Lanny Davis, who among other things was a completely insufferable defender of the indefensible during the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky-impeachment saga in 1998 and 1999. The morning, on Washington radio station WMAL (audio is at the link), Davis said that his editor at the Washington Times received a threat as a result of what Davis was writing there:

Mika Mocks Woodward Over White House Threat: 'Is He Really Afraid Of A Little Aide?'
By Mark Finkelstein | | February 28, 2013 | 9:08 AM EST

How do you go from being a gutsy hero of the MSM to a wuss in one minute? Take on a Democrat president instead of a Republican.  Using her most sarcastic scared-little-child voice, on today's Morning Joe Mika Brzezinski mocked Bob Woodward for saying the White House threatened him over his reporting on the sequester.

Mocked Mika:  "is he really afraid of a little aide who said that to him? Really?"  View the video after the jump.

New York Times Cheerleads for Gay Rights in 'Deeply Conservative' Idaho
By Clay Waters | | February 28, 2013 | 9:05 AM EST

New York Times reporter Kirk Johnson, hypersensitive to conservative defeat and retreat in the Western states, using an upcoming Supreme Court case as an excuse to lead more cheers for gay rights in "deeply conservative" Idaho in Wednesday's "Gay Couples Are Navigating A New Geography of Marriage."

He sympathetically profiled a couple living in Idaho, a state they consider backward: "For them, the battle for rights and recognition is to be waged here at home, in a deeply conservative state where same-sex marriage remains, for now, an unlikely dream."

Leno On Obama Realizing First Term Mistakes: 'Apparently He Does Watch Fox News'
By Noel Sheppard | | February 28, 2013 | 9:04 AM EST

Jay Leno took a marvelous swipe at the Obama-loving media Wednesday.

During the opening monologue of NBC's Tonight Show, the host commented on the President's claim about realizing his mistakes after being in office for four years saying, "So apparently he does watch Fox News" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

WaPo: 'Scale of the (Sequestration) Cuts May Be Overstated'
By Tom Blumer | | February 28, 2013 | 9:04 AM EST

On Saturday, Washington Post reporters Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane fretted, with the help of several leftists they quoted, that sequestration might not cause enough pain. Given that the so-called "cuts" under discussion are really "reductions in projected spending growth," that is a legitimate fear if your perspective is that government shouldn't ever shrink under any circumstances.

Rush Limbaugh was correct on Tuesday when he noted that the Post let the "sky is falling" mask slip in it report. Several paragraphs, followed by a bit of Rush's reaction, follow the jump.