Newsweek

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 for a vote, she responded:

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who suffer from airborne allergies you should start by blaming “global warming” for your sneezing and itchy eyes. This according to an online piece by Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s Josh Dzieza who claims that “global warming “could be to blame” for increased allergy symptoms.

After hyping “First the heat…Then the storms…Now the…pollen?” Dzieza claimed that “heavy rains, like those brought by Hurricane Sandy that saturate the soil” may be one of the main culprits for allergy outbreaks.

Fox Business’s Don Imus had a delicious trifecta Thursday trashing three perilously liberal journalists in less than 90 seconds.

After telling Jonathan Alter to “shove” his request to come on the program and hawk his new book, Imus called Howard Fineman a “sniveling little weasel” and Jon Meacham a “phony bastard” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift on Friday said something that might explain a lot to conservatives.

After Pat Buchanan commented on PBS’s McLaughlin Group that "the United States is moving towards Third World [education] standards because most of the students coming in now, the principle feeder nation in the country now is Mexico which is at the bottom of the OECD,” Clift replied, “When my ancestors came in they were probably at the low end of the feeder of this also” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Republican Congresswoman and Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann’s announcement on Wednesday that she is not running for re-election marks the end of a four-term congressional career full of vicious attacks from liberal journalists. Over those years Bachmann’s outspoken defense of fiscally and socially conservative issues drew the ire of the liberal media elites. From Lois Romano depicting her as a "maniacal" "knife-wielding" ideologue in an unflattering Newsweek cover story to Chris Matthews demeaning her as a "hypnotized" "zombie" so-called journalists have repeatedly bashed Bachmann and the conservative causes she fought for.

The following is a list of the Top 10 Most Vicious Anti-Bachmann quotes from the MRC’s archive:

The owner of Newsweek, the troubled liberal weekly news magazine, has confirmed reports that it is trying to unload the money-losing operation even despite the fact that it jettisoned its print edition last year. In a letter to employees, CEO Baba Shetty and editor-in-chief Tina Brown confirmed that the parent company of Newsweek, InterActiveCorp, is trying to find potential bidders.

In the letter, Shetty and Brown claimed that Newsweek, which was sold by the Washington Post in 2010 for $1 and an assumption of outstanding debt, was going to become profitable by the end of this year. The confirmation of the efforts to sell the online-only magazine comes as no surprise considering that IAC president, leftist media mogul Barry Diller, stated last month that he believed "it was a mistake" to purchase Newsweek and that "I don't have great expectations" for its long-term success.

Politico’s Dylan Byers reported “The Daily Beast is dropping Howard Kurtz, the veteran media critic who made headlines this week for his erroneous report about NBA star Jason Collins.” Kurtz erred in suggesting Collins hadn’t been forthcoming about his fiancee, even though he discussed her on both ABC and in the Sports Illustrated cover story that made “history.” Kurtz’s story was retracted on Thursday.

On top of Kurtz losing his $300,000-a-year Beast gig (which started in October of 2010), TV Newser reported “A source at CNN tells TVNewser that Kurtz’s current deal with the cable channel will likely be his last.” The New York Times had a source claiming it wasn't just a Collins thing:

Hard-left Daily Beast writer Michael Tomasky has a nasty habit of smearing conservatives every chance he gets, and it seems he has found his newest target, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.).  Writing in a May 1 piece for the online publication Tomasky used the FBI investigation over gifts McDonnell received for his daughter’s wedding to slam the Virginia governor's Christian faith. 

Tomasky started off his rant by throwing harsh language at the governor, calling his actions, “sleazy and cowardly.”  At issue is the controversial relationship McDonnell has with businessman Jonnie Williams and whether or not the governor accepted money for political benefits aimed at Williams’ company, Star Scientific Inc.

Warning: Please remove all flammables, fluids, and food from proximity to your computer as the following statement by Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on PBS's McLaughlin Group Friday could result in a potentially hazardous fit of laughter.

"The concern within the [Obama] administration [regarding cyber warfare] is intense, and it reminds me of the way the Clinton administration was focused on al Qaeda in the ’90s" (video follows with lengthy commentary to really expose the absurdity of this statement):

It appears with each passing day another member of the media is coming out to share unpleasant treatment at the hands of Barack Obama and Company.

On Thursday, in an appearance on NewsMaxTV's Steve Malzberg Show, former Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter said that in 2008, Robert Gibbs sent him an "abusive email" as a result of an article he wrote about Obama and disinvited him to a dinner the candidate was holding for reporters in Berlin (choppy audio follows with transcript and commentary):

On Friday, the now all-digital Newsweek marked Benedict XVI's impending departure from the papacy by turning to British writer Tim Parks, who took the opportunity to air his grievances against the current pontiff's predecessor, John Paul II. Parks bemoaned "how reactionary and old-fashioned" the Polish-born bishop of Rome was for daring to believe in Catholic devotions and in divine providence.

The Cambridge and Harvard-educated novelist later indicted John Paul for daring to speak out against a whole host of left-wing causes:

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes had some harsh words about Barack Obama recently.

In an interview published by the New Republic Monday, Ailes said, "The president likes to divide people into groups."

Mort Zuckerman really schooled Eleanor Clift on PBS's McLaughlin Group Friday.

After Clift commented that if she closed her eyes during House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) speech to the American Enterprise Institute last week, she "would have thought it was Barack Obama," Zuckerman marvelously fired back, "Eleanor, if it had been Barack Obama, you would have supported everything he said" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Throughout her tenure at Newsweek, Eleanor Clift has been one of the national media's most consistently dovish, anti-war figures.

On Friday, while appearing on PBS's McLaughlin Group, Clift twice said drones "are a blessing" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown said something Friday night that should wake up the Left and their media minions.

Appearing on HBO's Real Time, Brown said during the online Overtime segment, "He'd [Obama] be impeached by now for drones if he was W. Bush" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Foreign Policy, “a global magazine of politics, economics, and ideas,” has “just delivered its new issue, and like Newsweek before,” the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard noticed Friday afternoon, “FP dubs Obama ‘The Second Coming.’” Three weeks ago, I observed:

Conservatives have long joked that the national press corps see Barack Obama as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Today, Newsweek – at least what’s left of it, an online product for tablets and e-readers – made it official.

Newsweek's Eleanor Clift got a much-needed education about the Founding Fathers and gay rights this weekend.

After she predictably gushed and fawned over President Obama's inaugural address on PBS's McLaughlin Group, syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan scolded, "If you think the Stonewall riot in a gay bar in Greenwich Village can be traced all the way back to Bunker Hill and the Founding Fathers, you don't read what the Founding Fathers believed or say" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Today is the 40th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., a day that is likely to pass with limited, if any, notice from a national news media which is hostile to the pro-life cause. While the abortion issue has divided Americans for the past four decades, journalists have consistently come down on the pro-abortion side of this debate.

It’s a bias some reporters freely admit. “I think that when abortion opponents complain about a bias in newsrooms against their cause, they’re absolutely right,” Boston Globe legal reporter Ethan Bronner told the Los Angeles Times back in 1990. “Opposing abortion, in the eyes of most journalists...is not a legitimate, civilized position in our society.”

Conservatives have long joked that the national press corps see Barack Obama as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Today, Newsweek – at least what’s left of it, an online product for tablets and e-readers – made it official.

Next to a side shot of Obama’s head, the “Inauguration 2013” cover story pronounces: “The Second Coming.”

While many of us can probably wax nostalgic about a job in our past that was thoroughly challenging and enjoyable, I'd venture to say not many of us would fondly recall unlimited expense accounts, much less free-flowing booze and a sexually promiscuous culture that treated female employees as ready-to-order mistresses. But then, you might if you worked for Newsweek in the 1960s and '70s.

In his "oral history" interview feature that was compiled for the magazine's final print edition, Newsweek.com staffer Andrew Romano chatted with some of the writers and editors from the Mad Men era of the weekly magazine. What particularly struck me was the almost wistful way in which many interview subjects fondly recalled sexual liaisons in the magazine's Madison Avenue office. Also seemingly excused by Newsweek alumni was the blatant sexual harassment female staffers were shown. At one point, one justified the harassment by attributing it to the journalistic profession writ large, practically absolving offenders of any personal responsibility (emphases mine):

As 2012 winds down, we're reliving some of the worst media bias of the year with our Best Notable Quotables of 2012. Yesterday, I recounted some of the nastiest barbs journalists threw at the GOP ticket; today, a look at some of the most egregious favors committed on behalf of Barack Obama's campaign.

While conservatives like Rick Santorum were often cast as radical or weird, journalists lovingly fawned over President Obama as if he was still the rock star of Campaign 2008. Sherri Shepherd, co-host of ABC's The View, won our "Let Us Fluff Your Pillow Award," for obsequious Obama interviews, after a September 25 encounter in which Shepherd seemed intent on casting the President as the Romancer-in-Chief.

As 2012 winds down, it's time to look back at some of the year's most egregious media bias, as documented by the Media Research Center's "Best Notable Quotables of 2012."

Much of what made this year unique was how the so-called "mainstream media" linked arms with the Obama campaign to denigrate and demonize conservatives and Republicans, even those as mild and moderate as GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

The shocking revelation of CIA Director David Petraeus's adultery has rocked Washington and has thrilled the media, perhaps a little too much.

Forget the pain that adultery causes and which Holly Petraeus must be feeling right now. For the Daily Beast/Newsweek's Lizzie Crocker, the whole situation is the perfect news peg to offer aspiring philanderers lessons they can learn from the ex-CIA chief's "rookie mistakes."

With the long-time news weekly on the verge of shifting from a paper publication to an online magazine, the folks at Newsweek have apparently thrown caution to the wind and are publishing whatever they feel like as long as it praises Democrats and hazes Republicans.

Case in point: the cover of the periodical's post-election edition, which shows President Obama dressed like Napoleon Bonaparte in addition to a headline that reads: "GOP: You're Old, You're White, You're History!"

The Des Moines Register shocked many political observers Saturday by endorsing Mitt Romney for president.

Clearly not accepting such a thing, Michael Tomasky, the Obama-loving correspondent for the Daily Beast, came out Sunday claiming the Register's endorsement "is little more than a practical joke":

PolitiFact has received a fair share of criticism from conservatives for their spin-heavy fact-checks. The liberal media, for the most part, has accordingly been dismissive of such conservative complaints. But now even The Daily Beast/Newsweek is joining in on the criticism, with contributor Megan McArdle joining conservatives in noting the fact-checker repeated repetition of a falsehood regarding the Lilly Ledbetter Supreme Court case.

On PBS's Charlie Rose show on Monday, as the group discussed the night's presidential debate, New York magazine's John Heilemann described Mitt Romney's past statements on foreign policy as "relatively harsh and relatively bellicose," as he argued that Romney had faced political "dangers" in his foreign policy positions "because he's been surrounded by some number of neo-conservative foreign policy advisors."

The Associated Press published an article on the reasons for the demise of the print of edition of Newsweek but skipped any mention of the former editor of that magazine, Jon Meacham, who was instumental in ensuring its failure. It's the equivalent of publishing an article on the reasons why the Titanic sunk in which the word "iceberg" does not appear.

What Meacham did to destroy Newsweek was so absurd that he really deserves a plaque in the Bad Business Decisions Hall of Fame. Am I exaggerating? Here is Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post explaining the business "genius" of Jon Meacham in May 2009: