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mod-er-ates: [noun] Fans of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi -- The CBS Dictionary

It would be funny if it weren't so outrageous . . .

CBS is trying to pawn off the rally organized by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart—the guy who had Barack Obama on his show for for a half-hour this week—as a gathering of "moderates."

CBS correspondent Wyatt Andrews used the m-word to describe the assembling masses in his report on this morning's Early Show. View video after the jump.

Looks like the MSNBC-Obama merger is complete . . .

Janet Napolitano did double-duty on Good Morning America today, describing administration anti-terrorism efforts while serving as an MSNBC shill by parroting the liberal network's new marketing catchphrase, Lean Forward.

To complete the daisy chain, Napolitano was interviewed by ABC's Bianna Golodryga, wife of . . . former Obama budget director Peter Orzag. View video after the jump.

The topic was the foiled plot to send explosives to synagogues in Chicago.

Americans are voting with their "lizard brains" and leaning Republican simply out of fear, according to Arianna Huffington. Although challenged by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Friday that the 2008 election of Obama was out of fear, Huffington responded that it was driven by "hope" and that Bush won in 2004 because of fear.

Now Americans are now driven by fear to vote the Republicans into the House and Senate. "This is not a rational election," Huffington complained to MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Friday's "Morning Joe."

"People are operating out of fear and anxiety at the moment. And when they operate out of fear and anxiety, they operate out of what they call their 'lizard brains.' And 'lizard brains' are not susceptible to rationality," Huffington explained.

Apparently, our "lizard brains" are our primordial fearful reactions to a dangerous situation. Huffington described it in a 2006 Huffington Post column as when the amygdala – "deep in the brain...an almond-sized region that generates fear" – activates, the "lizard brain responds by clicking into survival mode."
 

Is there anything that Sarah Palin says that doesn’t get twisted by the liberal media?

In response to a clip of an “Entertainment Tonight” interview with Sarah Palin, the ladies of ‘The Talk’ misconstrue Palin’s response in order to project her as ignorant.

The highlighted interview question was “How does it feel to be one of the most polarizing figures in America today?” Palin replied “I think that that is a bit perplexing, because I think what is polarizing about believing in the United States Constitution and our Declaration of Independence and all those things that it stands for and what our founding mothers and fathers in this country meant for America to keep building upon? Those are the things that I believe in. Wha’s extreme about that? How is that polarizing? So I'm still perplexed by that.”

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Media Research Center’s President Brent Bozell appeared on “Fox & Friends” Oct. 29, to discuss the broadcast networks’ spin on unemployment.

“Well, it confirms what many conservatives have said for years. It absolutely confirms it, but when you look at the numbers it really does rattle you because it is so obvious when the same reporters are taking two completely different positions because of their political proclivities,” Bozell told Steve Doocy.

After showing this video of network coverage of unemployment leading up the mid-term elections under Bush in 2005-2006 and Obama in 2009-2010, Doocy said, “OK Brent, so there they are trying to put on the happy face. I’m still struck by the comment during the Bush administration where they were talking about ‘Oh, unemployment’s at 4.8 percent. The sky is falling’.”

Call it Chuck Todd's Profile In Pusillanimity . . .

Given a chance to express his personal opinion of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, Todd--NBC's chief WH correspondent--mumbled, stuttered, stumbled and ultimately punted, saying it was "an awkward thing."

Chuck's duck-and-cover came during a Morning Joe segment today devoted to analyzing Gibbs in light of a GQ article about him by Robert Draper, who appeared on the show. After Draper, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough gave their brief takes on Gibbs, Scarborough offered the floor to Todd . . . who proceeded to give his best deer-in-the-headlights impersonation.  View video here.

While slamming Rand Paul supporters who assaulted a MoveOn.org worker in Kentucky, Ed Schultz claimed Wednesday there was simply no other side to the story – that he had not seen "any violence, anywhere, from anybody on the Left." Furthermore, Schultz blamed GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul for inciting the violence.

[Click here for audio.]

There's just one problem – evidence exists of a possible assault on a Rand Paul supporter at the very same event.

Joy Behar admits she made a "mistake," sort of.

After angrily denouncing Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R) as a "bitch" who will "go to Hell" for her "Hitler youth commercial" in which she criticizes Democrat Harry Reid's position on illegal immigration, "The View" co-host sarcastically retracted part of her joyless insult.

"I really shouldn't have called her a bitch because to me that's a term of endearment," snickered Behar. "I reserve that word for people that I know and love. That was a mistake and I take it back. I mean, the fact that she approved a racist ad, that is the point that I wanted to get through to the people – not the word bitch."

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With the recent accounts of anti-gay bullying in the news, there has been a backlash against people and organizations that promote traditional values.

Call it a relentless pursuit to find someone to blame. As politicians like Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and organizations like Focus on the Family express their concerns over the promotion of homosexuality in the public square, they are regularly blamed for aggressive ignorant anti-gay bullying that results in horrible things, like the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University student. 

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Spinning the Numbers When Conservatives in Charge: During the year leading up to the 2005-06 mid-term elections, the economy was strong and unemployment never went above 5 percent. That wasn’t how the media reported it. Negative reports and stories spun negatively accounted for 58 percent of the stories (38 out of 65).

Spinning the Numbers When Left in Charge: Despite the near 10 percent unemployment throughout the year leading to the 2009-10 elections, positive reports and stories spun positively accounted for 52 percent of the stories (46 out of 88).

Just days before the mid-term elections and jobs remain the major campaign issue. Unemployment stands at 9.6 percent with nearly 15 million people out of work. Gallup’s analysis argues things are even worse, with unemployment hitting 10 percent again – a number voters wouldn’t see until the Friday after the election. As Gallup explained, it’s “up sharply from 9.4% in mid-September and 9.3% at the end of August.” That means heartache and struggle across the United States.

That’s not the story being told this election. What voters are left with are false impressions from the broadcast news shows – that somehow the worst unemployment in 25 years is not that bad. CNBC’s Steve Liesman called it “self-sustaining job growth,” on NBC’s April 2, 2010 “Nightly News.”That’s also exactly the opposite of how those same networks handled low unemployment during the last mid-term election. Then, with a Republican in the White House, journalists worked hard at undermining the positive news with the possibility that bad things might occur.

We won't try to weave too much political-cultural significance into the spat that erupted on Morning Joe today.  Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle as Joe Scarborough struggled to get in a word edgewise with Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation.

Scarborough was seeking to cite statistics showing that by a ratio of about 40:20, more Americans identify as conservatives than as liberals.  That, he argued, makes it hard for Dems like Obama to govern from the left, and suggests that lefties like vanden Heuvel should cut the prez some slack.

Somehow, a certain Frank Sinatra song comes to mind.  Or not.  View video here.

If you’re a left-of-center media personality and you use your national TV platform to call a candidate for the United States Senate a “bitch,” how might you be rewarded? Apparently in this day and age, you’re granted an interview with a former sitting president of your political party.

Even though he wasn’t one of the most distinguished presidents of the United States, former President Jimmy Carter appeared on Joy Behar’s HLN program to promote his book, “White House Diary.” During his interview, Behar asked Carter to offer his assessment of Barack Obama’s performance as president.

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It’s hard to tell what the end goal of HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s is with his constant barrage of elitist shots at the American public. Does he think demeaning the average citizens is the best way to win people over on whatever issue he is carping about on that given day?

On the Oct. 26 broadcast of TBS’s “Lopez Tonight,” Maher took a couple of cynical and contemptible jabs at the America people. After expressing his disappointment in the Obama administration for not agreeing to abide by the will of California voters should Proposition 19 pass and decriminalize marijuana, he explained it was the role of President Barack Obama’s party to steer the country in a particular direction, albeit in some very unflattering terms.

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The National Public Radio (NPR) executive who fired Juan Williams is behind an effort lobbying for a new tax to be levied on private media outlets in order to finance a BBC-style state media, NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center Brent Bozell told viewers of Fox Business Network's "Varney & Company" at 10:45 a.m. today.

NPR president Vivian Schiller is "part of a group which wants to essentially tax existing media companies... and use that tax money to create a national network of public broadcasting companies to put out a news broadcast on a national basis, like an American BBC," Varney noted.

"Let's put it another way, the attack on Juan Williams... wasn't really an attack on Juan Williams," Bozell replied.

If only Sarah Palin hadn't promoted the likes of Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell, Republicans would be on the verge of winning the Senate majority.  That was Joe Scarborough's thesis on Morning Joe today, culminating in Scarborough saying that he hopes Sarah Palin "is proud of herself" for having killed the GOP's chances.

Scarborough sought to inoculate himself against criticism from the right, insisting he would have wanted to see a "mainstream conservative" in the Nevada and Delaware races.  Warned Joe: "right-wing freaks, don't email me going 'you're a RINO.'"  View video after the jump.

Last night Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly aired an ambush interview that "O'Reilly Factor" producer Jesse Watters sprung on Vivian Schiller, National Public Radio's president.

Last week, Schiller fired Williams over the phone in reaction to a comment the Fox News contributor made on the October 18 edition of O'Reilly's eponymous program.

Schiller, no stranger to cable news -- she used to head up CNN's documentary division --  also put her foot in her mouth last week by flippantly dismissing Williams's comments on the "Factor" as something he should have kept between himself and his psychiatrist.

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The potentially historic midterm elections are a week away and left-wing voices  are getting more shrill and paranoid than ever before.

On CNBC’s Oct. 26 “The Call,” left-wing talker and frequent MSNBC guest Mike Papantonio went on a nearly six-minute conspiratorial, anti-corporation, anti-conservative candidate rant suggesting GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Sharron Angle was raising secret money from the Chinese government in order to help them ship American jobs overseas.

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Conservative Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell (R), a popular target of the mainstream media, was questioned on CNN’s “American Morning” for her statements about faith and prayer in her interview with Christian Broadcasting Network White House Correspondent David Brody. The Christian candidate cited prayer as playing a central role in her campaign, and her comments drew raised eyebrows over at CNN.

“For some people, they think this seems so arrogant, to pray to win a senate race, um, but how is it viewed in the evangelical community?” anchor Kiran Chetry asked Brody. Brody quickly responded by saying that O’Donnell isn’t praying for a victory, but rather, “God’s protection, and for, you know, people within her staff and the eyes of the voters to be open, so to speak.” Brody quickly pointed out to Chetry that the power of prayer is a mainstream concept among average Americans and that O’Donnell is being singled out because she is a political candidate. [Video after page break]

Comparing her latest campaign spot to a "Hitler Youth commercial," "The View" co-host Joy Behar angrily pronounced that Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R) is a "bitch" who will "go to Hell" for her ad.

While none of the four co-hosts agreed with the tone of Angle's ad, Behar was the most vicious in her attack on Angle, calling her a "moron" and insisting she should try out her campaign rhetoric in the south Bronx [Video embedded after the page break]:

Whatever happened to Ed Schultz's solidarity with the working man? Isn't that supposed to be the essence of Schultz's shtick?  But on his MSNBC show this evening, Ed played the paid-by-management Pinkerton, busting his nightstick over the head of . . . Juan Williams.

Proclaimed anti-worker Ed: "when you fire somebody: it's over, move on. Don't go back over spilled milk."

Ed Schultz, tool of the bosses--who knew? Video after the jump.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell claimed the GOP's top goal was to ensure Barack Obama is a one term president – and Joe Scarborough thinks that is "pathetic." Apparently, Scarborough was hoping that the Republicans would work with President Obama on bipartisan legislation, and put the political battles on the backburner.

Ron Brownstein, columnist for the National Journal and President of Atlantic Media, reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has, as the GOP's top goal, to unseat President Obama in 2012.

"That is embarrassing!" Scarborough exclaimed. "I want to take control of the Senate so I can worry about an election two years away," he mockingly imitated the Republicans.

Brownstein cast it as a sign of the times. "In a Juan Williams-fired world, everybody is looking to sharpen the divisions, clarify the differences, and fire up the base, and that may be more of what we see over the next two years than in '95-'97," he remarked.

Scarborough, however, was still up in arms. "Can I just say it for the record?" he remarked of the GOP's goal. "That is pathetic."
 

On Monday's "Morning Joe," co-host Joe Scarborough cast Fox News as an unabashedly conservative network while trumpeting his own show as a neutral voice of sanity in a polarized news environment. "In this world of Balkanized cable news outlets...it is kind of nice being Switzerland," he gloated, asserting the neutrality of his "Morning Joe" program.

"This show is a safe house where people can come and talk whether they are on the right or the left," Scarborough described his MSNBC morning show. "But there aren't many places left like that outside these three hours."

"Morning Joe" by-and-large leaves guests the freedom to express their own opinion. But Scarborough's assumption leaves out the fact that an overwhelming number of liberal guests and analysts appear on the show. Jon Meacham of Newsweek, former MSNBC host Donny Deutsch, and Tina Brown of The Daily Beast are three of many liberals who appear regularly on "Morning Joe."

In contrast, a far-right conservative appearing on "Morning Joe" is rare. MSNBC analyst Pat Buchanan is one of the few conservative voices appearing regularly on the show. RedState's Erik Erickson appears infrequently and contributors from publications like National Review appear rarely if ever.
 

Someone should tell CNN anchor Ali Velshi that attacking the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its political activities is so last week.

During the “XYZ” segment of the hour he anchors of “CNN Newsroom” on Oct. 25, Velshi did his best impersonation of an MSNBC anchor and railed against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its political activities. Velshi lamented the barrage of negative advertising in this campaign cycle and all but tied the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to it.

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MSNBC's Chris Matthews and CBS's Lesley Stahl were two of the targets in the latest "Media Mash" segment on Fox News Channel's "Hannity" program.

NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell appeared on the October 22 edition of the program  to look at how the media have been denigrating the Tea Party movement.

[Video of the segment available after the page break]

“Why is it okay for Nina to express opinions, as she has tartly, sharply, unashamedly and openly” while serving as “an honored correspondent” for NPR, while Juan Williams, “because he expresses his opinions, gets canned from NPR?” So Charles Krauthammer demanded while sitting Friday with Totenberg on the same Inside Washington set. “In fact, the standard ought to be lower in the case of Juan because he’s an analyst, whereas Nina is a correspondent.”

Krauthammer had picked up on NPR CEO Vivian Schiller’s contention that the network had canned Williams because he violated the policy that “news analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts, and that's what's happened in this situation.”

An uncomfortable Totenberg asserted “it’s a very, very difficult line to draw. And NPR tries to draw it, in my view, using rules that don’t exist anymore.” To which, Krauthammer wondered: “But what’s the difference between you and Juan expressing opinions? You on this show, and him on Fox?” He condemned NPR: “It’s completely illogical and hypocritical.” (Audio: MP3 clip)

It appears Juan Williams’ firing is just what the public needed to realize their tax dollars are being poorly handled through subsidies from the federal government given to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to prop up National Public Radio.

However, “Red Eye” host Greg Gutfeld makes the most reasonable case not to deprive NPR of its taxpayer subsidies. On the Oct. 23 broadcast of his program, Gutfeld explains to his viewers his case for not defunding the radio organization, but not without taking some jabs their decision to fire his Fox News colleague.

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Prefacing his remarks by proposing “you never get into a political discussion unless you bring the word Hitler in. You have to have Hitler, so let's put Hitler out there,” as if that caveat lessened the vulgarity of his impending comparison, on Friday night’s Real Time actor/director/writer Rob Reiner (IMDb page) contended all the Tea Party needs to match Adolph Hitler is a charismatic leader:

He wasn’t a majority guy, but he was charismatic and they were having bad economic times – just like we are now – people were out of work, they needed jobs and a guy came along and rallied the troops. My fear is that the Tea Party gets a charismatic leader, because all they're selling is fear and anger and that's all Hitler sold. “I’m angry and I’m frightened and you should hate that guy over there.”

“Right,” Bill Maher chirped in as Reiner, to applause from HBO's Los Angeles audience, declared: “And that’s what they’re doing.”

(Apparently, that means he at least doesn’t consider Sarah Palin to be a Hitler-like charismatic leader.) Audio: MP3 clip.

Hey, it's Friday night.  Time to kick back, relax, and have a few chuckles, courtesy Ed Schultz.  On his MSNBC show this evening, Schultz, somehow managing to keep a straight face, claimed that NPR is "as down the middle as you can get."

Schultz served up his side-splitter in condemning Jim DeMint and other Republicans for proposing the federal defunding of NPR.  In the world according to Ed, the Republican suggestion to withdraw NPR's taxpayer subsidies reflects a GOP plan to "shut down any dissenting voices in this country."  Ed, buddy: Dems control the White House and both houses of Congress.  NPR is the voice of pro-government flackery, not dissent.  The rebels are . . . the Republicans!