Meet the Press

As NewsBusters’s own Brent Baker pointed out, Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News Wednesday night called Mitt Romney’s pledge to reduce unemployment to 6 percent "unrealistic."  But apparently Brian didn't get the MSNBC spin memo, as three of his colleagues agreed that 6% unemployment is actually inevitable, and scolded Romney for making such a wimpy prediction.  

During his 6:00 show PoliticsNation on Wednesday May 23, Al Sharpton said that, “according to the Congressional Budget Office, we’re on our way to a 6.3% unemployment economy anyway whether Romney gets us there or not.”  [Video embedded below page break;  MP3 audio here.] 

Newark's Democratic Mayor Cory Booker started a firestorm Sunday when he said on NBC's Meet the Press the Obama campaign's attack on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's private equity career is "nauseating."

"To continue his damage control efforts," Booker's only interview Monday was with his "good friend" Rachel Maddow, and despite having a twelve minute exclusive with the mayor, the MSNBC anchor never once asked him what his opinion was of private equity (video follows with commentary, full transcript at end of post).

On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer followed Obama campaign talking points perfectly as he decried Mitt Romney's business record at Bain Capital: "Romney's known as a job destroyer, not a creator....I think Bain sticks. I think the idea that you bring in Bain...they fire a lot of people and that's how they get prosperity for the rich." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

At the same time, Cramer dismissed a positive forward-looking Romney ad outlining specific policy proposals: "I just don't think that this will stick." He concluded the Bain attacks against Romney were "a more resonant theme" and better "than anything that Romney's come up with."

On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, American Conservative Union president Al Cardenas squared off against a group of left-wing pundits on the subject of President Obama announcing his support for gay marriage. The liberal bloc of guests included MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, and Washington Post columnists Jonathan Capehart and Kathleen Parker. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Parker cheered Obama's use of the word "evolving" to describe his flip-flop on gay marriage: "I think that's the perfect word to describe this conversation because the American people are evolving on this issue. And increasingly they're coming on the side of same-sex marriage being the right side of history..."

Following Vice President Biden praising the NBC sitcom Will & Grace for changing attitudes toward homosexuality on Sunday's Meet the Press, on Monday's Today, co-host Ann Curry made a similar declaration: "...there weren't a lot of gay role models on television....Now, there – this is, we're in the wake of Will and Grace, you know, we've seen Glee on television..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Curry made the observation while talking to openly gay Bravo network executive and talk show host Andy Cohen detailing his coming-out story in a new memoir. Noting gay characters on television, Curry wondered: "Is it any easier for people?" Cohen declared: "I think with more visibility of gay people on TV you feel like you know them. And you feel wow, maybe it's okay. So I hope so, yes."

Providing a forum to actor and Obama supporter Robert De Niro on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, host David Gregory teed up the celebrity to praise the President: "...you talked about your inspiration and your support for President Obama. Are you as inspired? Are you as hopeful? Are you as satisfied with what he's done as president as he stands for re-election?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

De Niro gave a predictably positive review: "You know, it's very easy to criticize people. I think he's done a good job....as far as Bin Laden and other things that he stepped up – being a liberal president, supposedly – that were effective." De Niro then predicted: "I know he'll do better in the next four years, when he won't have to worry whether he's going to be elected or not."

Talking to Meet the Press host David Gregory on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry pushed for Mitt Romney to move away from conservatives: "...does he have to work really hard now to backtrack off of some of his positions in the past, as he was trying to win the primary...?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In a stunning double standard, in her very next question, Curry fretted about President Obama distancing himself from Vice President Biden's support of gay marriage: "There's been some backtracking, it seems, by the White House. Is it possible that the White House could cause itself some damage in backtracking too much off of this?"

In 1998, first lady Hillary Clinton famously claimed there was a vast right-wing conspiracy against her husband.

On Sunday, NBC's David Gregory actually asked Vice President Joe Biden on Meet the Press, "Do you think that there is a modern right-wing conspiracy that has aligned against this president?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Talking to Meet the Press host David Gregory on the NBC Sunday show's web-based feature Press Pass, Saturday Night Live cast member and Obama impersonator Fred Armisen confessed: "I've grown to like him more and more. You know, I was always – I've just been a fan of his, if you could say that about a president. So that's the other kind of good part of it, is you know, getting to like him more and more."

By contrast, fellow cast member Jason Sudeikis told Gregory he wished he could impersonate someone more exciting than Mitt Romney: "I'd prefer that he did something scandalous or something and, you know, incredibly stupid, as opposed to just boring....I mean, he's like a butter sandwich with unsalted butter and the crust cut off."

In an interview with senior Mitt Romney campaign adviser Ed Gillespie on Sunday's Meet the Press, moderator David Gregory noted how President Obama was "certainly using" the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden "against Governor Romney" and quickly justified the crass political move by claiming "the same sort of tactics that were used in a lot of people's eyes" by President Bush.

After playing a sound bite of Vice President Biden suggesting Mitt Romney would not have ordered the killing of Bin Laden, Gregory proclaimed: "Here's an example, back in 2004, of an ad that he [President Bush] ran as he was running for reelection....Using images from the World Trade Center. A lot of people see that as the very same thing. Is it not?"

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos got into quite a heated debate about the gender wage gap on NBC's Meet the Press.

CNN's Situation Room decided to find out who was right about this controversial issue Monday, and despite going to great lengths to side with Maddow, correspondent Lisa Sylvester grudgingly admitted at the very end of the segment, "It's about 5 cents of a difference, but it still is there, it's still real, and the truth is, men make more than women" (video follows courtesy Mediaite with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Sunday's Meet the Press tried to advance the bogus liberal position that women in America still only make 77 cents on the dollar compared to men.

Fortunately for viewers actually interested in the truth, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos was on the panel to correct her after marvelously teasing, "I love how passionate you are. I wish you were as right about what you're saying as you are passionate about it. I really do" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Is the New York Times afraid of white men?

One certainly got that feeling watching Sunday's Meet the Press as guests David Brooks and Helene Cooper both expressed concerns about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney potentially picking a "white guy" to be his running mate (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Can NBC's Chuck Todd be any more obvious about being a White House shill?

On Sunday's Meet the Press, he actually said of the Ann Romney-offending Hilary Rosen, "This is not an Obama surrogate. This is a paid CNN commentator" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Updated [14:38 et]:  Audio available here and video added after the jump.

Appearing on NBC's Sunday web-based feature Press Pass, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley tore apart the media obsession with the contraception debate: "The media thinks that women only care about contraception, that's not true. They care about contraception, and education, and health care, and jobs, and the economy."

Haley leveled the criticism after Meet the Press host David Gregory grilled her on the "gender gap" in Republican support being an obstacle to Mitt Romney defeating President Obama in November. Haley took Gregory to task for the question: "I find it comical that the news media wants to continue to talk about a gender gap, and so I'll challenge you to ask a man about the gender gap as well."

Mormon Congressman Raul Labrador (R-Id.) scolded David Gregory on Sunday for his network's horrible treatment of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's faith.

Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Labrador specifically named MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell as one of the offenders (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On Wednesday's NBC Tonight Show, host Jay Leno asked Meet the Press host David Gregory if Mitt Romney's religion would be fair game in the general election: "...with Obama....you know, 'Oh, he's a Muslim. He's not a Christian.' Do you think that Romney will get the same thing about his faith that Obama got?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

While Gregory acknowledged Romney potentially becoming the Republican nominee would be "a huge moment for religious tolerance in the country," he then argued: "But I think it's an issue, I mean, I think a lot of people have questions about the Mormon faith. There's a lot of ignorance about the Mormon faith. And let's be honest, this is the core of who Mitt Romney is....And yet, he doesn't talk about it."

Appearing on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman slammed Mitt Romney by suggesting even Aborigines tribes in New Zealand and Australia were mocking him: "I just came back from New Zealand, okay? I mean, you have people living in the outback of Australia who look at Mitt Romney and say, 'Ha, ha. Not authentic.' I mean, it's just so – it is just so obvious." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Fill-in host Joe Scarborough chimed in: "That's just not good." Friedman proclaimed: "I mean, you know this is a guy who is running against everything he's believed his whole life. I mean, and it is just so staggeringly obvious."

Note to Friedman, New Zealand and Australia are actually different countries. So much for being an expert on international affairs.

Reeling from the possibility the Supreme Court might undermine ObamaCare, two members in good standing of the liberal media elite, both with the New York Times, took to the Sunday shows to lament the lack of public recognition for the great benefits of the law. “On health care,” columnist Tom Friedman rationalized on NBC’s Meet the Press, “that’s partly a failure of communication.”

A befuddled Friedman advanced the liberal narrative that blames communication, not facts, as he wondered: “How do you go a year and a half where so many Americans don’t even understand the benefits of this legislation when they apply to them? And that gets to this administration, which I think has been abysmal at communicating some of its most important agenda items.”

Appearing on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward mounted his high horse in condemning the role of Super-PACs in the 2012 race: "...under the Supreme Court decision all of the new 21st century robber barons, let's call them what they are, can put tens of millions of dollars into the campaign. It's negative, it's poison, it's venom..."

Woodward then laughably told viewers who would protect them from the villains: "...we – NBC, The New York Times, Washington Post, the people in the media...we're going to be tested to say can we present a clear-eyed view of who the candidates are and not just have this negative atmosphere." The only problem with that call to action is that the media have acted like the largest Democratic Super-PAC money can buy.

While interviewing Arizona Senator John McCain on Sunday's Meet the Press, host David Gregory took a line from the Democratic script as he wondered: "Are you concerned at all to see a focus with certain elements of the Republican Party on social issues?...Do you think that there is something of a war on women among Republicans?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

If only President Barack Obama were a Republican, then the public would realize he has been “a very successful” President, but Democrats, actor/activist George Clooney fretted, “are just very poor...at explaining” their accomplishments. The assessment from Clooney, who also declared “the President that I voted for, I’m very proud of,” came in a Meet the Press online “Press Pass” sit-down with David Gregory aired on the real Meet the Press. Clooney imagined that if he and Obama were Republicans:

Trying to help Democrats come up with a line of attack against the GOP in November on Sunday's Meet the Press, host David Gregory teed up Maryland Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley to slam fellow guest, Republican Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell: "Do you think your counterpart here in Virginia would be a good running mate for Romney or would you cast him as an extremist?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

What would justify such a label? The answer to that can be found in this earlier question Gregory hit McDonnell with: "You backed an abortion bill initially that included a very invasive procedure as part of an ultrasound that the state would have required and then you backed off of that. Were you wrong to support that initially or did you simply back off because the political heat got turned up the way it did?"

In a panel discussion on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press that included left-wing bomb-thrower Al Sharpton, host David Gregory worried: "Where has civility gone in politics?" He declared the source of incivility: "I talked to John Lewis, the civil rights leader, recently, who said he does think there's something particular, if it's racism or something else, about Obama that brings out a level of hatred." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

The entire discussion focused on recent comments by Rush Limbaugh but completely ignored Sharpton's history of offensive remarks as well as the vile insults continually hurled from million-dollar Obama donor Bill Maher. The most Gregory could manage was this vague observation: "And let's be clear, there are plenty of pundits and others on the Left who use, you know, inflammatory and corrosive language."

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich scolded Meet the Press host David Gregory for beginning their interview with a question about the Rush Limbaugh-Sandra Fluke controversy.

On Fox News's On the Record Monday, Karl Rove said of this exchange, "God bless Speaker Gingrich for taking David Gregory out behind the barn and giving him a whooping" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, after the panel roundly bashed Rush Limbaugh and Republicans for not denouncing him enough, correspondent Savannah Guthrie surprisingly criticized President Obama's response to the controversy: "The President also in danger, perhaps, of an overreach by calling this law student [Sandra Fluke]....that seemed a little nakedly political."

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), in response to the Rush Limbaugh-Sandra Fluke controversy, told the host of Meet the Press Sunday, "I don't know any woman in America, David, that thinks that being called a slut is funny."

This hysterically comes less than two months after the Florida Congresswoman appeared on vulgarian Bill Maher's HBO program Real Time (video follows with transcript and commentary):

No love on the Sunday morning television talk shows for Rush Limbaugh, not even a mild defense as the unifying theme was disappointment in Mitt Romney for not denouncing the leading national conservative talk radio host. “The problem with Rush Limbaugh,” NBC News White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie complained in pretending to care about the fate of Republicans, “is that he re-framed the debate on Democrat’s terms” and “Romney lost an opportunity there to speak out forcefully against” Limbaugh which “would have shown some political courage, some backbone and ultimately,” she argued, “that would help him with conservatives.”

Meet the Press host David Gregory jumped in to assert “Sister Souljah’s not just a rap reference, it’s a political reference.” He cued up Republican strategist/Romney backer Mike Murphy: “Was this a ‘Sister Souljah Moment’ that Romney missed?” Murphy, naturally, agreed as he added in a snarky shot at Limbaugh: “It could have been and it should have been. The big myth about Rush Limbaugh is he can’t deliver a pizza let alone a vote.”

With all that ails the nation, Meet the Press host David Gregory actually began his interview with Newt Gingrich by asking him about contraceptives and Rush Limbaugh.

Showing obvious disgust for the topic, the Republican presidential candidate marvelously responded, "You know, David, I am astonished at the desperation of the elite media to avoid rising gas prices, to avoid the President's apology to religious fanatics in Afghanistan, to avoid a trillion dollar deficit, to avoid the longest period of unemployment since the Great Depression, and to suddenly decide that Rush Limbaugh is the great national crisis of this week" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):