Newsweek

NewsBusters has been showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala tomorrow evening. (Click here for posts recounting the worst of 1988 through 2011.)

Today, the worst bias of 2012 (so far): Newsweek sees Barack Obama as “grotesquely underappreciated,” afflicted by critics who are simply “dumb;” Chief Justice John Roberts becomes a media hero by voting to save ObamaCare; and an ex-CNN correspondent charges Republicans are trying to take the country back “to the good old days of Jim Crow.” [Quotes and video below the jump.]

NewsBusters is showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala on Thursday night.

Click here for posts recounting the worst of 1988 through 2008. Today, the worst bias of 2009: Journalists are thrilled by Barack Obama’s arrival in the Oval Office, with ABC’s Terry Moran suggesting he’s the “first President since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office,” and Newsweek’s Evan Thomas seeing Obama’s approach to foreign policy as being “above the world. He’s sort of God.” [Quotes and video below the jump.]

Since September 2, NewsBusters has been showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala next week.

Click here for blog posts recounting the worst of 1988 through 2003. Today, the worst bias of 2004: CBS’s Morley Safer eulogized Ronald Reagan by saying “I don’t think history has any reason to be kind to him;” the New York Times asks George W. Bush if he feels “personal responsibility” for 9/11; and Dan Rather finds “exclusive” documents regarding Bush and his Vietnam-era service in the National Guard. [Quotes and video below the jump.]

Each morning, NewsBusters has been showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala September 27.

If you’ve missed a previous blog, recounting the worst of 1988 through 1999, you can find them here. Today, the worst bias of 2000: Amid the custody battle over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, Newsweek touts life under the Castro dictatorship (“The boy will nestle again in a more peaceable society that treasures its children”), while PBS host Bonnie Erbe rudely slams conservative guest Linda Chavez during a gun control debate. [Quotes and video below the jump.]

Once a day for 25 days, NewsBusters is showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala on September 27. (Click here for ticket information)

So far, we’ve published the worst quotes from 1988 through 1993 (you can find those here). Today, the worst bias of 1994, including ABC’s Peter Jennings calling voters “two-year-olds” for electing a Republican Congress (“the voters had a temper tantrum last week”), and a USA Today columnist hoping Clarence Thomas would die. [Quotes and video below the jump.]

Each morning, NewsBusters is showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala on September 27. (Click here for ticket information)

Already this week, we’ve published the worst quotes of 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991. Today, the worst bias of 1992. Highlights include Eleanor “Cougar” Clift ogling the new Democratic ticket of Clinton and Gore (“I was struck by the expanse of their chests. They may have to put out their stats”), and onetime NBC Nightly News anchor John Chancellor opining that it was "embarrassing" that the U.S. had so few casualties in the first Gulf War. [Quotes and video below the jump.]

High unemployment? A $16 trillion debt? Rising fuel prices?

Perhaps the real issue of this campaign is that Vogue editor Anna Wintour wants to be appointed ambassador to France. At least that's the suggestion published in two eerily similar articles in The New Republic and The Daily Beast. The rumor (officially denied) is that dahling Anna is growing weary of New York and would like to make a big splash on the Paris fashion scene by showing up there as ambassador to France.  Both periodicals not only contain this same theme but even their titles are strangely similar. On top of that the quotes in both stories make one wonder if they are reciting the same information fed to both authors (Noreen Malone of The New Republic and Robin Givhan of The Daily Beast). To illustrate the amazing similarities of both articles, I shall place The New Republic quotes first followed by those of The Daily Beast in italics. First, let us look at the two similar titles:

"By the time voters go to the polls in November they’ll be saying ‘Praise the Lord’ about ObamaCare."

So said Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on PBS's McLaughlin Group this weekend (video follows with commentary):

"Arrrrrgh!"

That quote pretty much sums up the reaction of the Democratic Underground and Daily  Kos posters to the Newsweek Obama cover, Hit The Road, Barack. And as you can see in these two DUer threads here and here as well as this Kossack thread, the left is hitting back...hard. A big part of their anger comes from their sense of betrayal from a "friendly," namely Newsweek magazine. The good news is that their very anger and outrage is also incredibly entertaining. So break out the popcorn and soda and enjoy the inadvertent comedy which comes first from the DUers:

As NewsBusters reported, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Sunday called Newsweek's cover story "Hit the Road, Barack" unethical.

Niall Ferguson, the author of the piece, responded at the Daily Beast writing, "I suggest Krugman reads a wee bit more carefully before his conscience next starts blogging":

NewsBusters reported Sunday that Newsweek is out with a truly shocking edition featuring a cover story entitled "Hit the Road, Barack: Why We Need a New President."

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman took to his blog Sunday excoriating the article in a piece he called "Unethical Commentary, Newsweek Edition":

After some of the recent Obama-loving/Romney-bashing Newsweek covers, the one hitting newsstands Monday is guaranteed to turn some heads.

Under the picture of our dear leader are the words, "Hit the Road, Barack: Why We Need a New President."

Make that two mainstream media members singing former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's praises this weekend.

After ABC's Jonathan Karl commended the former vice presidential nominee for her perfect record of endorsing winners in senate primaries this year, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift echoed those sentiments on PBS's McLaughlin Group adding, "She will be a force at the Republican Convention whether she does it from the floor or from the parking lot" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

"There is absolutely no way Barack Obama can win reelection running on his record and the news media know this," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Eric Bolling at the top of today's Your World with Neil Cavuto.

Newsweek's current edition, featuring the headline, "The Wimp Factor: Is he [Mitt Romney] just too insecure to be president?" is just the latest example of the media's attempt to distract the American public from the president's dismal economic record, the Media Research Center president told Bolling, who was substituting for Cavuto. [MP3 audio here; Video follows page break]

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) had some harsh words for Newsweek and its Washington bureau chief Howard Kurtz Monday.

According to Politico, the former Republican presidential nominee said of Kurtz's newest article "John McCain Stages Romney Intervention," "It’s just the kind of liberal left-wing trash that I have to put up with from time to time."

For the second day in a row, Bob Schieffer spotlighted Newsweek's "The Wimp Factor" cover story on Mitt Romney, this time on Monday's CBS This Morning. Schieffer played up the potential negative impact that the liberal magazine's attack could have on the GOP presidential candidate, and concluded that "this did not help Mitt Romney, and my feeling is it probably hurt him."

The Face The Nation host also claimed that "if you gave Governor Romney some truth serum and people in his campaign...I think they would probably say they are concerned about this. I mean, this article was savage. It was brutal. How could you not have some reaction to it?"

25 years ago, Newsweek published a controversial cover story titled "Bush Battles the 'Wimp Factor.'"

On Monday, newsstands will carry an equally controversial albeit derivative Newsweek cover story titled "Mitt Romney: A Candidate With a Serious Wimp Problem":

A left-wing writer for a liberal magazine wrote an article trying to undermine the Republican presidential candidate, a cover story which featured an insulting characterization. But instead of treating the attack as irrelevant, CBS’s Face the Nation decided to showcase it. “I just got a copy of the Newsweek cover that’s going to be hitting the newsstands tomorrow that calls you a ‘wimp,’” reporter Jan Crawford told Mitt Romney in Israel. “Have you seen this?”

In the next segment, host Bob Schieffer put the cover on screen as he cued up DNC chair Deborah Wasserman-Schultz:

I’m going to ask you about this new edition of Newsweek. They have on the cover Mitt Romney and it says “The Wimp Factor.” Now this is reminiscent of a sort of an infamous Newsweek cover back when the first George Bush was running for, running and it said -- they put out a cover that said “Fighting the ‘Wimp Factor.’” Is Mitt Romney a wimp? 

[Update: 2012-07-27 19:04: Newsweek's Tina Brown has sent a notice to staff: "Barry Diller would like to make it clear that he did not say on the earnings call as reported that Newsweek is going digital in September. He made the uncontroversial, industry-wide observation that print is moving in the direction of digital."]

According to an announcement on Wednesday, Newsweek magazine will "likely" go digital and switch to an online presence. Despite hemorrhaging money for years, the publication has been a steady voice of liberalism, both in the magazine and when contributors and editors appeared on  television. On June 9, 2009, managing editor Evan Thomas famously told Hardball anchor Chris Matthews: "[Barack] Obama's standing above the country, above — above the world. He's sort of God." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

As the magazine's circulation plunged, the publication became even more shrill. A January 23, 2012 cover story wondered, "Why Are Obama’s Critics So Dumb?" In 2010, liberal editor Tina Brown took over and Newsweek merged with the Daily Beast. Appearing on the July 6, 2011 edition of Morning Joe, Brown compared conservative Republicans blocking tax increases to "suicide bombers."

On Friday's The Ed Show, MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - compared Mitt Romney's economic plan to a "pre-9/11" mentality as he went along with substitute host Michael Eric Dyson's complaint that Republicans are being "clearly obstuctionist" against President Obama's economic agenda.

Dyson asked the question:

Last Wednesday, vandals smashed windows and spray-painted the home of Colorado pro-life activist Keith Mason, Newsweek/Daily Beast's Abigail Pesta noted in a July 2 post.

Mason, a leader of the Personhood Movement which seeks to change the legal definition of human personhood to begin at conception, was profiled in a June 25 story at the magazine's website. From Pesta's July 2 story (emphases mine):

Perhaps only Tina Brown's Newsweek would be shameless enough to offer a cover story (in a double issue, no less) on "100 Most Powerful Digital Disruptors" and then plug their own writers. In the "Opinionists" category, Newsweek gave a "Lifetime" honor to Andrew Sullivan, who's written several glowing Obama cover stories this year, most recently the rainbow-halo tribute. 

"His insightful, feisty, and voluminous blog on the Daily Beast is a beacon for readers sick of the same old Washington dogmas," they advertised. As in old dogmas like Sarah Palin gave birth to her own son?

As the ObamaCare decision looms large on the horizon, the Left is doing their best to defame the Supreme Court in anticipation of a defeat of the president's signature legislative accomplishment.

In the past two days, liberal journalists Michael Tomasky and James Fallows have published histrionic tirades at their respective publications, the Daily Beast/Newsweek and The Atlantic.

A common media deception is to accuse Republicans of being anti-immigration.

When Newsweek's Eleanor Clift tried this on PBS's McLaughlin Group Friday, US News & World Report's James Pethokoukis quickly scolded, "They’re anti-illegal immigration. They’re not anti-immigration...That’s just wrong" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

On Sunday's Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC, as host Harris-Perry led a discussion of what the presidential candidates will need to do to appeal to white voters, panel member and CNBC contributor Keith Boykin asserted that Republicans have "carefully caricatured" the Democratic Party as the "party of black people," and suggested that Americans have been duped into believing that most federal tax dollars are spent to benefit black Americans. Boykin:

U.S. News and World Report's Mort Zuckerman deliciously smacked down the perilously liberal and unwarrantedly arrogant Newsweek columnist Eleanor Clift on this weekend's edition of PBS's The McLaughlin Group.

When Clift ignorantly said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney didn't create jobs at Bain Capital, Zuckerman quickly dismissed her saying, "I’m not going to argue. I know about Bain Capital since I was involved with it" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

This is quickly becoming Obama's summer of discontent.

On Friday, the perilously liberal Newsweek columnist Eleanor Clift offered readers a shockingly dour piece about the state of the current White House resident's reelection campaign titled "In Focus Group, Independent Voters Souring on Obama":

It's becoming clearer with each passing day the Obama-loving media are now in a full-scale panic that the man they helped get elected in 2008 is in serious trouble to repeat that feat in 2012.

Take for example Newsweek/Daily Beast which published a piece moments ago with the somewhat shocking headline, "Is Barack Obama Too Weak to Win in November?":