This Week

Friday's revelation that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups prior to last year's elections was certainly reported but not with nearly the outrage as if a Republican administration went after liberals this way.

Driving home the point, George Will just before reading from the Impeachment Articles of Richard Nixon said on ABC's This Week Sunday, "If the George W. Bush administration had IRS underlings, out in Cincinnati of course, saying, 'We're going to target groups with the word progressive in their title,' we would have all hell breaking loose" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

White House press secretary Jay Carney had a tough week last week concluding with an absolutely deplorable press conference wherein he continued to spin totally unbelievable yarns about the administration's talking points regarding Benghazi.

This led George Will to say on ABC's This Week Sunday that Carney's "usefulness to this administration is diminishing rapidly" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

NewsBusters readers know that I never miss ABC's This Week, and that as I almost always write something about each and every installment, I use the transcripts provided at the network's website as a resource.

This Sunday a very peculiar thing happened: the words "CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST" were placed next to George Will's name when it first appeared in the transcript.

On ABC's This Week Sunday, George Will made a comment about the need for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants that is likely to raise eyebrows on both sides of the aisle.

"As the baby boomers retire, and as the birthrate declines, we need something to replenish the workforce to sustain the welfare state" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The media are starting a full-court press to assist disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) in becoming mayor of New York City if he decides to run.

Jonathan Karl tried to do exactly that on ABC's This Week Sunday, and was surprisingly snubbed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who three times refused to comment on the issue (video follows with transcript and commentary):

There was a lousy jobs report from the Labor Department last Friday that has led some people to fear the already soft economic recovery might be slowing down.

Despite this, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, during a lengthy This Week interview with Barack Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer Sunday, didn't ask one single question about that report or the state of the economy.

The liberal media have been gushing and fawning for weeks about Hillary Clinton beginning her obvious campaign for president.

Don’t count Arianna Huffington among them, for on ABC’s This Week Sunday, the founder of the Huffington Post actually said that Clinton not taking some time off to recharge herself is “sending a bad message to women that the only way to succeed, the only way to run is to drive yourself into the ground” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As religious people are bludgeoned with secular views by America's media practically 24/7, it would be nice if they could be given a break on their holiest days.

George Stephanopoulos clearly doesn't feel that way for on Easter Sunday he invited an atheist on ABC's This Week to join a panel discussion about - wait for it! - religion (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former President Bush adviser Karl Rove said something Sunday that is guaranteed to raise a lot of eyebrows on both sides of the aisle.

When asked by ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos if he could imagine a Republican candidate in the next presidential cycle coming out for gay marriage, Rove answered, "I could" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former President Bush adviser Karl Rove had a heated exchange about gun control with ABC's Terry Moran on This Week Sunday.

At one point Moran told Rove, "You're scaring people with this Orwellian sense that black helicopters and the government if we register guns are going to confiscate Americans’ guns" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The liberal media have for days been trashing virtually every speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

On ABC's This Week Sunday, George Will exposed the hypocrisy particularly at the New York Times (video follows with transcript and commentary):

George Will on Sunday took a swipe at the media's love affair with Barack Obama.

Appearing on ABC's This Week, Will marvelously said, "Any charm offensive that is labeled a charm offensive thereby loses some of its charm" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CNN's Dana Bash fact-checked President Obama's falsehood about the sequester on Friday, but the major networks didn't exactly follow CNN's lead in reporting the distortion that Capitol Hill janitors and police would receive a pay cut because of the sequester.

In his Friday press conference, Obama claimed, "They're going to have less pay, the [Capitol Hill] janitors, the security guards. They just got a pay cut." Shortly after that, CNN's Bash obtained from the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms that the workers would not receive a pay cut, just a limit on overtime pay. NBC ignored the distortion on its weekend newscasts, while CBS and ABC reported it one time each.

As NewsBusters reported, NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman had a truly disastrous appearance on ABC's This Week Sunday.

According to TVNewser, this apparently has led the good friend of North Korean despot Kim Jong Un to cancel subsequent television interviews:

Ping-pong diplomacy worked with China, so why not b-ball diplomacy with North Korea? Mika Brzezinski is clearly not buying that line of logic. On today's Morning Joe, Brzezinski confessed to being "angry" with George Stephanopoulos for having the extraterrestrial otherwise known as Dennis Rodman on This Week to discuss his recent trip to North Korea, which included meeting with its new leader, Kim Jong Un.

Mika didn't spare her fellow MJ panelists, calling them "idiots" when they persisted in discussing Rodman's trip and TW appearance.  View the video after the jump.

NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman made news this week when he travelled to North Korea to meet with leader Kim Jong Un.

Rodman made more news Sunday telling George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week that the Korean despot wants President Obama to call him (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Syndicated columnist George Will on ABC's This Week Sunday made a marvelous observation about the upcoming Academy Awards.

In his view, “Zero Dark Thirty” should win as best picture as a “rebuke to Senators Levin, Feinstein, and McCain who have enough to do without being movie critics and falsely accusing that movie of taking a stand on torture it does not take” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

While new White House chief of staff Denis McDonough was grilled about the Benghazi terrorist attack on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, NBC Meet the Press moderator David Gregory only lobbed a single softball on the scandal, while fill-in host Jonathan Karl ignored the topic all together on ABC's This Week. The White House was unwilling to even allow Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace to interview McDonough.

On Meet the Press, after providing a fawning biographical intro of McDonough, Gregory only briefly touched on Benghazi, hoping the controversy was over: "I've talked to Republican senators, they've wanted to get additional information about what the President did the night of the attack...Has the President finished on the Benghazi matter? Is there anything else he's going to say or anything else he's concluded that should've been done that was not done?"

Newt Gingrich had a fabulous exchange with the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus on ABC's This Week Sunday that really speaks volumes about the media's reaction to Republican Senators filibustering Chuck Hagel's confirmation as Defense Secretary.

When Marcus spouted the typical liberal commentator line "Republicans just want to make themselves look even more obstructionist with a country that’s frustrated with that," Gingrich struck back saying, "This is just such Washington nonsense" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Allegations of shady campaign contributors and procurement of prostitutes are usually the ingredients of a political scandal that send the media into a feeding frenzy – unless, of course, the figure involved is a Democrat.

When news broke that the FBI opened an inquiry into New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez’s jaunts (that may have included solicitation of prostitutes) to the Dominican Republic with a longtime campaign contributor, the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks responded with barely a murmur.

ABC on Tuesday ignored the ongoing prostitution scandal of Robert Menendez. The network's morning and evening newscasts have skipped the news that federal agents raided the office of a Florida doctor connected to the Democratic senator and his flights to the Dominican Republic. (There, Menendez allegedly engaged prostitutes.) The Senate Ethics Committee is also investigating. ABC avoided the story last fall when it was broke by the Daily Caller.

The New Jersey senator took several flights with Salomon Melgen, using the doctor's plane to leave the country. Last week, both CBS and NBC covered the latest details. ABC, alone, ignored it. Menendez actually appeared on the January 27 edition of ABC's This Week. But guest host Martha Raddatz failed to ask about the controversy. George Stephanopoulos mentioned Menendez on the February 3 program. Finally, the scandal came up, but only vaguely and for one minute in the hour-long program.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Sunday once again perfectly illustrated the intolerance of America's liberal media.

Appearing on ABC's This Week, he said the National Rifle Association is - and I quote! - "an insane organization" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Isn't it fascinating how in this supposedly "post-racial society," media members feel comfortable bashing white people at the drop of a hat?

Take New York Times columnist Paul Krugman who on ABC's This Week Sunday, in the middle of a discussion about immigration, felt it was necessary to talk about how Republicans are "doomed if they are only the party of old white people" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On Friday it was revealed that the FBI is investigating Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) for allegedly sleeping with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

Despite this, when Menendez was given a six-minute interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC's This Week Sunday, he was not asked one question about the investigation or the allegations (commentary follows with full transcript at end of post):

ABC and CNN contributor Donna Brazile - posing as one of Barack Obama's trusted defenders in the media like she always does! - got a much-needed education Sunday about the President's profligate spending.

Countering Brazile's propaganda on ABC's This Week, George Will said, "A dollar spent on A cannot be spent on B...This is our future. We're going to be an assisted living home with an Army. That's going to be the American government" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

George Will had an interesting take on the fiscal cliff agreement reached by Congress and the White House last week.

Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Will said, “I think people will look back on this deal as where liberalism passed an apogee and went into decline” (video follows with transcript and commentary):