MSNBC

Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's All In show on MSNBC, Newsweek senior writer Michelle Goldberg -- also of The Daily Beast -- observed that the House Republican push for a vote to ban abortion seems "wacky and counterproductive," and later asserted that "Most people intuitively know that an embryo is not a human being."

When host Chris Hayes raised the issue by asking why House Republicans were pushing the issue, she responded:

Is the sun racist?

Perhaps that isn't such an absurd question when using the logic of Chris Matthews in which almost all forms of opposition to Barack Obama can be attributed to racism. And since the setting sun almost ruined Obama's speech in Berlin by making it impossible to read his teleprompter, thus making it difficult for him to finish his speech, could old Sol be a closet racist?

Here is the video of a freelancing Matthews whining against the sun for ruining what could have been Obama's shining moment:

On Tuesday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes complained about an "anti-food stamp jihad" by House Republicans, and attacked the GOP for putting on a "shameful spectacle" in trying to cut the food stamp program.

With the words "War on the Poor" and an image of House Speaker John Boehner displayed on screen behind him, Hayes railed:

Who was Morning Joe protecting: the sensitive ears of its viewers, or Hillary Clinton?

During a discussion of the death of the feisty and fearless reporter Michael Hastings, Morning Joe bleeped out Joe Scarborough's reading from an email from Hastings to Philippe Reines, Hillary's personal spokesman during her Secretary of State tenure.  Hastings had accused Reines of "b---s---" answers on the State Department's handling of Benghazi.  The extended bleeping wasn't simply of the offending word, but of Hastings' entire sentence, so listeners never learned the thrust of his accusation.  View the video after the jump.

A search at Google News on "households food stamps record" done at 9 p.m. ET (not in quotes, sorted by date, with duplicates and similar items) returned three items. Two are at the Daily Caller (here and here); and the other is at Reason.com. Program statistics for March, the latest month available, show that a record 23.12 million households -- one in every five in the U.S. -- received food stamp benefits. At 47.73 million, the total number of persons receiving benefits was only 65,000 below the record set in December. In 2008, average participation was less than 29 million.

That search result shows, despite the fact that records are supposed to be news, that the establishment press is completely uninterested in communicating the fact that the food stamp program continues to grow, though very slowly, even as the economy supposedly recovers. There is one number that the press has been citing frequently, namely the number of people who might be removed from the food stamp rolls if language attempting to limit the program to people who are truly in need remains in the otherwise bloated disaster known as the farm bill. 

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is none too pleased about President Obama’s decision to send arms to Syrian rebels.

On Tuesday’s Hardball, the host asked, “Why don't we just change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of Killing Islamic People on Global Television Department, because that's what we've been doing for a dozen years?” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Craig Melvin typified MSNBC’s stance on abortion Tuesday morning. Filling in for Thomas Roberts as the anchor of MSNBC Live, Melvin conducted a rabid attack-dog interview with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) about an abortion bill before the House of Representatives that would ban abortion after 20 weeks with a few exceptions, such as rape and incest. Minutes later, Melvin brought on hard-left abortionist Irin Carmon from Salon.com for a gooey softball interview which served as a platform for Carmon to rip into Blackburn's stance on the bill.

Melvin was ticked off that this abortion bill, proposed by Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), only allows exceptions for rape and incest when those crimes are reported. He condescended to Blackburn: “Congresswoman, do you know how many cases of rape and incest go unreported in this country every year?” [Video below the break.]

MSNBC's Martin Bashir on Tuesday snarled at a fellow liberal, Congressman Alan Grayson, for daring to compare the National Security Agency's spying program to Nazi Germany. This is the same Bashir who, on January 14, 2013, compared conservatives to Hitler.

Linking Grayson to the dreaded National Rifle Association, Bashir attacked, "The NRA says a bill which prohibits a gun registry is actually an echo of Hitler. And, of course, you've mentioned the Nazis in connection with the NSA." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] In January, however, Bashir lectured, "If anyone deserves to be equated with Hitler on the issue of firearms, then it's not the President. It's the NRA." Mr. Bashir, are Nazi comparisons wrong or not?

If you need any further proof that the Lean Forward network is all in for the Democratic Party, look no further than the weekend program Disrupt. The newly-minted show is hosted by Karen Finney, frequent MSNBC contributor and former Director of Communications for the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Finney decided to rewrite history on Sunday, suggesting to guest Heather Hurlburt that NSA surveillance is acceptable under the Obama administration, but was unacceptable under the Bush administration, because fighting a “global war on terror with these unseen foes” is the “new normal.”

On her eponymous 1 p.m. ET show on MSNBC on Thursday, host Andrea Mitchell ranted against House Republicans daring to introduce pro-life legislation to limit abortions: "The House is expected to vote by tonight on controversial new restrictions that would go against Roe v. Wade. And if they were to pass the Senate, the President would of course veto it...So what's the point?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Turning to Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, Mitchell derisively wondered: "Here we have another abortion fight that seems to be just House Republicans, or those who are against abortion rights, picking a fight even though they know they won't win. What is going on politically?" Coles replied: "If you look at what happened to the Republicans at the last election, when they chose to make social issues – they put it at the front of the agenda, it didn't do them any good."

It’s becoming rather commonplace for a liberal so-called “journalist” to point out the double standard by which media members are in general quite accepting of domestic surveillance under the current administration.

Count former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert amongst those willing to acknowledge this, for on MSNBC’s Now Tuesday, Herbert said, "There would be just tons of outrage on the left if Bush, Cheney or any Republican were pursuing the same policies that Obama is pursuing in the war against terror" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

According to James Carville, all Democrats want to do is “get behind” Hillary Clinton for the 2016 elections. It’s definitely easier for them to do so when the media is throwing their full weight behind the former secretary of state.

The liberal panelists on Tuesday’s Morning Joe hyped the “very, very, very big news” that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is endorsing former Secretary Clinton for the 2016 presidential race – three and a half years before the election. McCaskill announced she was supporting Clinton Tuesday morning through the Ready for Hillary Super PAC.

It looks like some liberals in the media are now judging the Republican Party’s actions through the prism of the party’s supposed need to change. On Saturday’s Weekends with Alex Witt, Ms. Witt and MSNBC contributor Perry Bacon Jr. were scrutinizing the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, held over the weekend, when Witt asked about the conference’s ability to help the GOP evolve. According to Bacon, the conference was not doing the job:

"I mean, if you look at the core problem – the RNC released this report earlier this year that says the GOP needs to really expand out to young voters and expand out to minority voters. You’re hearing very little of that at the conference. I mean, jokes about the IRS are not going to bring any new voters to the table." [Video below. MP3 audio here.]
 

On Saturday's Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC, substitute anchor Ari Melber hosted a panel of liberals fretting over Republican efforts to restrict abortion, with one guest even theorizing that Republicans are motivated by a racist desire to prevent white women from having abortions as a way of "reproducing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege."

Melber seemed quite accepting of University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor Salamisha Tillet's preposterous idea of pro-lifers being motivated by racism as he responded:

Amidst the rising tide of scandals plaguing the Obama administration, good ol’ Ed Schultz is eager to turn the conversation away from the controversies and towards divisive social issues. On Saturday’s The Ed Show, the MSNBC host declared the Republican “war on women” was “alive and well,”  blasting new abortion restrictions passed by the Wisconsin state legislature.

Schultz kicked off his segment with a video of Wisconsin Senate President Mike Ellis (R) chiding Democratic legislators for interrupting the roll call on a bill that would require women to obtain an ultrasound before undergoing an abortion. The bombastic host followed up:

On Friday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes compared conservatives to clowns as he praised Republican Governor Jan Brewer for breaking ranks with conservatives and pushing for the implementation of ObamaCare in Arizona.

Reminiscent of the time he recently called various Republicans "jackasses" and used some version of the word "jackass" 11 times in one segment, Hayes on Friday used some form of the word "clown" 10 times in just over four minutes.

After teasing the show, the MSNBC host continued:

On Friday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC's Karen Finney asserted that Rush Limbaugh's "overall mantra" is "us versus them and hate in general," as she responded to a clip of the conservative talk radio host accusing the Republican establishment of being "ashamed" of the conservative base.

A bit later, host Al Sharpton asserted that conservatives are "almost like in an echo chamber. They're talking to themselves" -- an irony considering the scarcity of conservative viewpoints on the liberal MSNBC news channel.

After Sharpton played the clip of Limbaugh criticizing the Republcian leadership, he went to Finney, who responded:

On Thursday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC host Al Sharpton complained about "shameless" Republicans trying to cut food stamp benefits and creating "a whole bunch of ugly names for people who need a little help," as he was joined by MSNBC.com Executive Editor Richard Wolffe and Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia. The MSNBC host grumbled:

Cole Sear from The Sixth Sense sees dead people, and Joe Scarborough, like pretty much everyone else at MSNBC, sees racism. That’s just the way it is. On Friday, the Morning Joe crew was chatting about a recent NRA attack ad against Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) when Scarborough took issue with the image of President Obama shown briefly in the ad:

"[P]eople called me up and said, what do you think of, do you think that they may have shaded that ad to make Barack Obama look more ominous and black?"
 

On Thursday's The Last Word show on MSNBC, host Lawrence O'Donnell and MSNBC contributor Joy Reid asserted that Republicans who oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants are "haters of" and "don't like" Hispanics as the panel discussed the concerns expressed by Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh about  increasing the number of immigrants in the U.S. by tens of millions.

After coining the term "Limbaugh cohort" to refer to those who oppose amnesty, Reid asserted:

Alex Wagner just took the media’s infatuation with the Clinton family to a whole new level. In an interview with Chelsea Clinton on Friday’s Now, the daytime MSNBC host jokingly begged Clinton for “an extra large rolly bag that I can stuff myself into” when the former First Daughter travels.

After Clinton gamely approved, Wagner followed up with an even more bizarre request:

Liberal MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts on Friday used the dumb tweets of a Republican Senator's teenage son to prove GOP homophobia and racism. In a segment on Marco Rubio's comments about not including gays in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Roberts sneered, "Marco Rubio going on the record that he is not interested, really hasn't even looked at the employment nondiscrimination act, but isn't interested in being able to look out for people based on sexual orientation." 

Roberts then somehow connected Jeff Flake's 15-year-old son, Tanner. The younger Flake tweeted about the "faggot" who stole his bike. Roberts wondered if this reflected "an entrenched homophobia on the right, that they're not willing to recognize there's a sea change in this country?" The activist/journalist concluded, "Are they just unwilling to look at how this country is changing?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

According to Chris Matthews, pro-Second Amendment Americans are weird, not "normal," "obsessed" and probably racist. In a segment on Thursday's Hardball, the cable host played a new National Rifle Association ad attacking Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. Matthews lectured, "The gun people, they think about nothing else. And they never change their minds, never change their attitudes and never change the frickin' subject."

Talking to fellow liberal Ron Reagan, the anchor mocked, "How do you keep an interest among normal people that keeps up with that intense, almost, well, obsession that the gun people have?" Unsurprisingly, Matthews jumped to tarring pro-gun-rights Americans as racist. The new NRA commercial features clips of Michael Bloomberg and Barack Obama. The MSNBC host judged, "Ron, do you think there might be a soupcon of ethnic gaming in this, the pictures they put in there? Obama and Bloomberg?"

On Wednesday's PoliticsNation show, MSNBC host Al Sharpton went after Republican Senator Ted Cruz for embracing being called "Obamaphobic" via Twitter, and went on to accuse the Republican party of being "built on fear and obstruction." After reading the tweet from the Texas Senator, Sharpton responded:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced Wednesday it would not provide additional funds to help the town of West, Texas rebuild after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 15 and injured 160. MSNBC’s Alex Wagner seemed positively gleeful over the news.

The daytime host treated the development as a political defeat for Texas Governor Rick Perry (R), implying on Thursday’s Now that the tragedy – and FEMA’s denial of funding – were “the seeds” the governor sowed for his opposition to excessive federal spending and regulation. Wagner introduced Perry’s plea for federal funds by pairing it with a sound bite of the conservative governor’s opposition to excessive spending:

Former DNC Communications Director and NARAL Pro-Choice America board member Karen Finney recently received her own weekend show on MSNBC and it appears that her radical views on abortion will be a regular theme across the “Lean Forward” network.

Appearing as a guest on Now w/ Alex Wagner on June 13, Finney claimed that Rep. Trent Franks’ (R-Ariz.) efforts to ban abortions based on race demonstrate that “the guy is whacked out anyway.” [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]

On Wednesday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes condescendingly compared House Republicans to a "bunch of really ideologically zealous teenagers" who put on events equivalent to "campus conservative clown shows."

As Hayes complained about Republicans pushing votes on restricting abortion and the repeal of ObamaCare that are not likely to pass into law, Hayes complained:

Chuck Todd on Thursday hectored the Republican Party for moving "decidedly to the right" on abortion and daring to take up legislation instead of focusing on immigration and jobs. Talking to other liberal journalists on his Daily Rundown program, Todd lectured, "But, it does strike me as the Republican Party has forgotten how to talk about abortion."

The MSNBC journalist, referring to comments made by Republican Trent Franks and recent GOP legislation in the states, added, "But the Republican Party has moved decidedly to the right on the issue of abortion, the lawmakers." Decidedly to the right? The Republican Party platform on abortion has been explicitly pro-life since 1980.

Chris Matthews on Wednesday took his smearing of conservatives to a new level, comparing Ted Cruz to the Nazi-sympathizing, World War II-era Father Charles Coughlin. After playing a montage of the Republican senator, Matthews sneered, "I think [Cruz] fits in the tradition of Father Coughlin and McCarthy and, of course, maybe to a lesser extent, Pat Buchanan and, of course, [Bill] O'Reilly." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Lumping all these men together, the Hardball anchor generalized, "These guys are hard right-wing guys. They look a lot alike. They have what we call the black Irish look to them." According to Urban Dictionary, black Irish is someone with "dark hair and olive skin." The liberal Matthews is quite sensitive on issues of race, so how is such talk acceptable?