Newsweek

Chris Matthews must be really getting concerned that the man that gives him a thrill up his leg is in serious jeopardy of losing in November.

On this weekend's syndicated Chris Matthews Show, the host asked his panel of perilously liberal journalists, "Can the president make Mitt Romney scary?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As the national media's political attention turns again to a Wisconsin recall election ginned up by angry labor unions -- that's not counting Ed Schultz, who's never stopped obsessing about ousting Gov. Scott Walker -- it's easy to forget that the national media used to be on the other side of a recall election.

In 2003 in California, it was liberal Gov. Gray Davis who was recalled, and conservatives who ginned up the campaign. Back then, the governor was a hero and the opponents were cranks. As reporters Howard Fineman and Karen Breslau summed up in a Newsweek cover story: "So this is California: in thrall, at least for the moment, to an earnest crank and in the grip of what can only be described as a civic crackup."

During the Today's Professionals panel discussion on Thursday's NBC Today, NBC chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman cheered the latest cover of Newsweek magazine that proclaimed President Obama to be "The First Gay President": "[Newsweek editor-in-chief] Tina Brown has revolutionized how provocative and how much you can push magazine covers. And when magazines frankly aren't selling, she's shown that you can uptick sales by what's on a cover."

Would you say it was heroic to make a blunder on national television that forces the President of the United States to flipflop on an issue six months before Election Day thereby threatening his chances at the polls?

Newsweek editor Tina Brown did exactly that Wednesday when during an interview with the Huffington Post called Vice President Joe Biden "the hero of the hour" for making what could be game-changing comments about same-sex marriage on Meet the Press earlier this month (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Appearing as a guest on Monday's The Tonight Show on NBC, advertising executive and former CNBC host Donny Deutsch praised President Obama for voicing support for same-sex marriage, and predicted that voters will prefer Obama as a person, in contrast with Mitt Romney, as Deutsch raised the story of Romney allegedly "bullying" a fellow classmate in high school.

When host Jay Leno showed Deutsch the latest cover of Newsweek devoted to Obama's stand in favor of gay marriage, Deutsch effused:

NewsBusters reported Sunday that Michelle Goldberg, a senior writer for Newsweek/Daily Beast, compared Ann Romney to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin during an appearance on MSNBC earlier that day.

Moments ago, Goldberg posted a response to all the criticism she's received as a result of her comments, and rather than apologize to Mrs. Romney continued her attack (emphasis added):

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, Newsweek/Daily Beast senior contributor Michelle Goldberg called Ann Romney "insufferable" on MSNBC this morning.

Seconds later, she also compared the wife of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary).

Remember back in 2008 when Michelle Obama said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country?"

The Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan made a similar remark on this weekend's syndicated Chris Matthews Show when he said of Barack Obama's flipflop on same-sex marriage, "I never understood the power of a president's words till today, till that day" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Clinton was the first black president. And now, according to Newsweek, we have the first gay president.

Yes, all the speculation over what cover Tina Brown would choose for Newsweek is over. Despite several suggestions from The New Republic on this crucial subject, Brown refrained from taking their kindly advice and chose a picture of President Obama with a rainbow halo over his head.

In the wake of Richard Mourdock's landslide victory over Republican Senator Richard Lugar in Indiana's primary Tuesday, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift made what some might consider a staggeringly stupid prediction on Friday's McLaughlin Group.

"The Tea Party will cost the Republicans control of the Senate" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Now that Tina Brown's Daily Beast has merged with Newsweek, the magazine's liberal tilt is even more apparent. In a posting, Tuesday, "Newsweek/Daily Beast special correspondent" Michael Tomasky assailed the Republican Party as a "party of whiners" over the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The article's headline mocked, "Republicans love to act like tough guys. Yet it’s the Democrat in the White House who got bin Laden—and the GOP that’s throwing a temper tantrum about a modest Obama ad."

There are times when I'm truly sickened by the total lack of economic acumen possessed by today's so-called journalists.

On PBS's McLaughlin Group this weekend, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift once again said something so totally ignorant that she had to be corrected by US News & World Report's Mort Zuckerman (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Newsweek's Andrew Sullivan got a much-needed education about religion and politics from not one but two evangelical leaders Sunday.

The first came from Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention who in the midst of a heated debate on CBS's Face the Nation told Sullivan, "Any fusion between evangelicalism and Republicanism pales in comparison to the point of anemia compared to the black church and the Democratic Party" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

John McLaughlin on the PBS show bearing his name asked his guests this weekend, "Has America done more to spread peace and prosperity than any other power in human history, yes or no?"

The conservatives on the panel - syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan and the Washington Examiner's Tim Carney - were quick to say "Yes" as their liberal colleagues - Newsweek's Eleanor Clift and the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page - both equivocated (video follows with transcript and commentary):

When ABC’s Jake Tapper held up Andrew’s Sullivan’s “Forget the Church, Follow Jesus” Newsweek cover story on how, as Tapper described Sullivan’s premise, “American Christianity is in a ‘crisis,’ it’s too focused on politics and policy, too little on spirituality,” Pastor Rick Warren took the opportunity to air “a little personal gripe.”

He contended: “I think it’s disingenuous that magazines like Newsweek know that their circulation goes up at Christmas and Easter if they put a spiritual issue on the cover, but it’s always bait and switch. They never tell the stories, never tell the stories of what good the church is doing.”

Here's something you don't see every day from an Obama-loving media member.

Newsweek's Eleanor Clift actually wrote Sunday, "Romney is in better shape than Bill Clinton in 1992, or Ronald Reagan in 1980."

April 15 will mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic, that giant, gilded, floating city that struck an iceberg and rapidly sank, taking with it more than 1,500 lives.

British historian Simon Schama wrote about that “Voyage of the Damned” for Newsweek’s April 8 edition. The article about “all walks of life” above Titanic is certainly worth the read, especially for those fascinated by the ship, its passengers and that fateful night in the North Atlantic when the unsinkable ship, in fact, sank. But in the final paragraph Schama strangely went out of the way to connect that century-old catastrophe to the 2008 financial crisis.

On March 7, Newsweek assistant culture editor Marlow Stern went after "right-wing actress" Patricia Heaton of ABC's "The Middle" in an article headlined "Patricia Heaton's History of Outbursts:Sandra Fluke No Anomaly."  He complained "right-wing actress Patricia Heaton unleashed a Twitter tirade against Fluke. But Heaton, best known for playing the caring, cerebral housewife Debra Barone on the hit CBS television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, is no stranger to controversial political statements." He didn't interview her. He just "exposed" her.

Nine days later, Stern is lauding hard-left actress Susan Sarandon as "brilliant" and "masterful," and setting her up to make outrageous left-wing attacks on Rush Limbaugh and "the wacky GOP." Despite this, she is not labeled as a liberal: "The seemingly ageless actress is, at 65, also not afraid to speak her mind." Stern didn't so much ask questions as offer please-trash-them softballs:

Appearing as a panel member on Sunday's syndicated Chris Matthews Show, as the group discussed Rush Limbaugh's "slut" comment, the Huffington Post's Howard Fineman - also of MSNBC and formerly of Newsweek - asserted that Mitt Romney missed out on the "riskless opportunity" of having a "Sister Souljah moment" by not telling Limbaugh to "stuff it." Fineman:

The host of PBS's McLaughlin Group asked his panelists this weekend, "Is the press in love with Obama?"

Not surprisingly, all in attendance said "Yes" with the exception of Newsweek's Eleanor Clift who predictably protested, "No, they aren't" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Newsweek's Eleanor Clift got a bit of a tongue-lashing from US News and World Report's Mort Zuckerman on this weekend's McLaughlin Group.

After Clift predictably praised President Obama's press conference last week, Zuckerman aggressively shot back, "That's nonsense to say the Israelis don't think through the consequences of war! That’s ridiculous!" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Rick Santorum’s recent rise in the polls in the GOP primary has escalated the liberal media’s attacks on the former Pennsylvania Republican Senator, primarily on his socially conservative views. This is not surprising since journalists have admitted, in several surveys, to being far more liberal on social issues like abortion than even the general public. One such survey of journalists, from top media outlets, found that nearly all of the media elite (97 percent) agreed that “it is a woman’s right to decide whether or not to have an abortion,” and five out of six (84 percent) agreed strongly.” For more please visit the MRC’s Media Bias 101 page. 

The disdain for Santorum from that media elite began almost as soon as he arrived in the Senate in 1995. The following is a collection, in chronological order, of the 10 most vicious anti-Santorum quotes from the MRC’s archive: (videos after the break)

Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on PBS's McLaughlin Group Friday voiced predictable praise for President Obama's just released budget claiming you can't "drastically cut a deficit before you invigorate the economy or you’re going to look at a lost decade."

National Review's Rich Lowry quickly refuted this nonsense telling his progressive co-panelist, "This isn’t a Keynesian budget. It’s a flat out tax and spend big government liberal budget” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, Andrew Sullivan in his most recent Newsweek column claimed, "Obama Set a Contraception Trap for the Right."

Two days later when Sullivan, appearing on MSNBC's Hardball, flipflopped saying, "I think a lot of this was ginned up by the Bishops. They were the ones that set a trap for Obama," host Chris Matthews was seen on the screen doing a facepalm (video follows with transcript and commentary):

You know liberals are desperate if they’re playing the race card so early in the 2012 campaign cycle. The latest edition of MRC’s Notable Quotables is now out, and this week’s collection was heavy with media quotes attacking both Republican voters and their presidential candidates as racist.

Among the lowlights: NBC’s Ann Curry accusing Newt Gingrich of “intentionally playing the race card” when he talked about President Obama’s dismal economic record, and ex-CNN correspondent Bob Franken nastily asserting that conservative voters harbor “a real resentment against blacks,” and “would love to see us return to the good old days of Jim Crow.”

The worst quotes are below the jump; the full issue can be read at www.MRC.org. (PDF version)

The more one listens to Newsweek’s Andrew Sullivan, the more one has to conclude that he either knows absolutely nothing about the economy or he’s lying through his teeth.

Appearing on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Wednesday evening, Sullivan actually said tax “revenues currently are at 50 year lows” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):