Herman Cain

As NewsBusters reported last week, now that Mitt Romney appears set to win the Republican presidential nomination, Saturday Night Live is going to do its darnedest to trash him every week through Election Day.

This pattern continued Saturday as for the second week in a row the program began with a segment attacking the former Massachusetts governor while also taking shots at all the other candidates including a disgusting homosexual reference to Michele Bachmann's husband Marcus (transcribed lowlights and commentary follow, video for those that can stand it available at Mediaite):

Appearing on Fox News's Hannity on Monday, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain refuted the notion put forward by Louis Farrakhan that, "Never has a sitting president been spoken of in the manner that President Obama and his family have had to endure." [Watch the video after the jump]

Cain demolished the baseless claim: "If you go to the Media Research Center, Brent Bozell, our friend, they documented the names that they called George Bush. That statement is just simply not true. He presents no facts. But he makes the statement, and he gets away with it to the people who are willing to listen to him, and that's all."

Herman Cain's political affiliation was incorrectly tagged as Democratic in an onscreen graphic during the 10 a.m. Eastern Chris Jansing Reports program today. Jansing was promoting the former Republican presidential contender's appearance on the noon Eastern Now with Alex Wagner program.

It was most certainly an innocent mistake by the graphics designer, but less excusable was yesterday's Hardball with Chris Matthews where former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist appeared as a guest of Matthews's tagged as a Republican. [see screenshots below page break; Update follows at bottom of post]

It's only January and the vitriol being spewed at Republicans by the Obama-loving media is starting to crest.

On Tuesday, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen went after almost every high-profile right-leaning politician in the land in a piece that disgracefully ended "The GOP is brain-dead":

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Chelsea Lately show on the E! network, HBO comedian Bill Maher declared that he recently told former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who will be appearing as a guest on tonight's Real Time show on HBO, that "I don't, like, hate your f------ guts,"  soon adding, "like I hate Newt Gingrich," inspiring agreement on hating the former House Speaker from host Chelsea Handler.

CBS's Bob Schieffer led his interview of Herman Cain on Tuesday's Early Show by asking, "Why did you accept the invitation?" Cain must have been wondering that himself by the end of the segment, as Schieffer and Norah O'Donnell conducted a hostile interrogation of the entrepreneur, pressing him about his qualifications to be secretary of defense, and even asked about the state of his marriage.

The Face the Nation host, filling in as CBS transitions to its new morning show lineup, noted how someone at his network "had the idea...why don't we ask Herman Cain to come on?...Well, of all things he said, yes." Schieffer then turned to the former GOP presidential candidate and asked his "why accept the invitation" question, adding, "Do you have something you want to tell us this morning? Are you going to endorse a candidate? What brings you to television this morning?"

While ideas for Herman Cain's future have been tossed around - including hosting a TV show - Cain knows that he will not be running again for office in the near future, blaming the harmful "false accusations" of "lazy journalism."

According to an interview with the Daily Caller, Cain said "he doesn’t regret running for the White House, saying his 9-9-9 tax reform plan sparked a discussion among the GOP candidates about reforming the tax system," and added that if the media hadn't been so caught up in the accusations, he "would be the front-runner heading into Iowa, absolutely."

What do you think Cain's future will involve? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Washington Post "On Faith" editor and religious agnostic Sally Quinn took time yesterday morning to hack out a blog post offending people of faith entitled, "What will God whisper in Herman Cain's ear next?":

The Washington Post achieved something dubious on Monday. They attacked Herman Cain as “more style and substance” – in an article from the Post dance critic that was all about his hand gestures.

Dance critic Sarah Kaufman concluded that “Cain’s magic involved some sleight of hand. His larger-than-life physical bluster was aimed at churning up an emotional response. It didn’t prompt his audience to think so much as to cheer. As much as Cain’s speeches offered a multi-sensory experience for the audience and performer alike, they were also bodily evidence of more style than substance.”

CNN's Don Lemon attacked the "classic GOP move" of claiming liberal media bias, on Sunday's 10 p.m. edition of Newsroom. The liberal CNN host lampooned Sarah Palin's "lamestream" media line and – rather sloppily – faulted the GOP candidates for their own travails.

"Long story short – maybe it's time for politicians who get caught in unflattering situations or who might have a bit of trouble with the truth to take responsibility for their own actions and stop blaming the media," lectured Lemon, who as a member of the liberal media didn't exactly "take responsibility" in deflecting blame back at the GOP and Fox News without refuting their claims of liberal media bias. [Video below the break. Click here for audio.]

On Saturday's Good Morning America on ABC, a few hours before Herman Cain's announcement that he would drop out of the presidential race, as anchor Bianna Goldryga and correspondent David Kerley speculated about what Cain would do, Kerley mocked Cain as Kerley referred to the GOP candidate's tendency to call himself the "CEO of self," and wondered if he would "fire himself":

Moments ago:

Republican candidate Herman Cain is suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination to avoid continued news coverage of allegations of sexual misconduct that is hurtful to his family.

“I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distractions and the continued hurt caused on me and my family,” Cain told several hundred supporters gathered at what was to have been the opening of his national campaign headquarters.

Cain’s announcement came five days after an Atlanta-area woman claimed she and Cain had an affair for more than a decade, a claim that followed several allegations of sexual harassment against the Georgia businessman.

“But because of these false and unproved accusations, it has paid and had a tremendous painful price on my family,” Cain said, with his wife, Gloria, standing behind him on the stage.

The liberal press, which covered up and defended for Bill Clinton and John Edwards, has taken another Republican scalp. What are your thoughts?

Sad to see Ed Schultz suffer such sudden memory loss on live national TV.  On his MSNBC show this evening, discussing Herman Cain's handling of the various allegations against him, Schultz: found it odd that Cain's wife had come to his defense; said he'd never "seen anything like this in American politics;" and claimed that by criticizing his accusers, Cain had hit "a new low in American politics."

Do any of the following sound an echo with Ed?:

Suggest that infrequent churchgoer Barack Obama may not really be a sincere from-the-heart Christian and MSNBC's anchors will be chief among the media pack to denounce you for questioning the president's religious faith.

But when it comes to Herman Cain, MSNBC's Martin Bashir is comfortable not merely charging the presidential contender as a hypocrite but suggesting he's headed to Hell (MP3 audio here; video follows page break).

CBS's Jan Crawford played up Newt Gingrich's "baggage" on Friday's Early Show, underlining how the Republican presidential candidate is "going to be hit hard for his ties to corporate interests, the ethics allegations...even his personal relationships- his adulterous affairs." Crawford also spotlighted the claim that only Herman Cain's "die-hard supporters...think that he can stay in this race."

The correspondent first reported on the allegation that Cain had a 13-year affair with Ginger White and how the candidate recently admitted to helping White financially. Crawford shifted to Gingrich by stating that "in a crowded field, that could help candidates like Newt Gingrich, who continues to surge ahead." She then used her "baggage" term, and highlighted a "scathing new ad" from GOP competitor Ron Paul, which targeted Newt.

To Alex Wagner, "the rhetoric around immigration in this country is as strident and as divisive as it has [ever] been." But immediately after saying that on the December 2 edition of Now with Alex Wagner, the MSNBC host's British-born colleague Martin Bashir went off the deep end, lumping Rick Perry and Herman Cain in with German neo-Nazis suspected in a string of immigrant murders (MP3 audio here; video update to be posted later):

George Stephanopoulos, who did his best in the '90s to extract Bill Clinton from charges of infidelity, on Friday continued his attacks on Herman Cain. Stephanopoulos appeared to convict the Republican presidential candidate, referring to the latest accuser as Cain's "girlfriend." Isn't that a sloppy, unproven term for a journalist to use?

Talking to Jake Tapper, Stephanopoulos opined that Cain's wife "didn't know anything about Ginger White, the girlfriend that we spoke to earlier this week." After playing a clip of Cain declaring his innocence, Stephanopoulos, who worked to undermine women such as Paula Jones, lectured, "And for his sake, Mrs. Cain better believe him because she made it pretty clear in an interview a couple weeks ago...that she would not be a political prop." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

"The media loves the idea of being able to push someone out of the race by saying they're dead," not because they want to show off they are political prognosticating geniuses but simply because they want to push them out of the race, NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham noted on today's Your World program on Fox News.

"I think you can really hear this with Cain" as we're now into "day three" of the media pushing Cain to drop out of the 2012 race, Graham told anchor Neil Cavuto.

Good Morning America's reporters and hosts on Thursday continued to hype their own impact in the Herman Cain scandal. Co-anchor Robin Roberts gloated that Cain is "under a lot of pressure right now, facing so many questions after George [Stephanopoulos'] interview, Wednesday, with a woman who says she was his mistress for more than a decade."

On Wednesday, co-host Stephanopoulos touted his exclusive with accuser Ginger White, wondering, "Will our interview spell the end of the one-time front-runner's presidential bid?" On Thursday, an ABC graphic pushed, "Can Cain survive? Is he feeling the strain?" Reporter John Berman is known for his snark and a separate graphic featured a doctored Cain sign reading, "I'm getting off this train."

On Wednesday's Joy Behar Show, HLN host Behar was joined by liberal guests Bill Press and Hilary Rosen to trash the GOP presidential field as the group discussed the latest sexual accusations against Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich's rise in the polls. Press took a shot at Gingrich early on as he cracked that Cain would be the frontrunner now if he had had an affair while his wife was "dying of cancer":

Former top Clinton aide turned journalist George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday derided Herman Cain for his lapses in "honesty" and "judgment." Asked by World News anchor Diane Sawyer if Cain can rebound from accusations of infidelity, Stephanopoulos declared, "No. I think this is it." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Stephanopoulos, who, back in the '90s, worked to discredit female accusers of Bill Clinton, sniffed, "There are just too many questions about [Cain's] honesty, his judgment, his experience, his organization. Even if he stays in [the presidential race], he's not going to be a factor."

George Stephanopoulos, who as a Democratic operative in the '90s coordinated with ABC to save Bill Clinton from scandal, on Wednesday teased an exclusive with Herman Cain's accuser, openly gloating, "Will our interview spell the end of the one-time front-runner's presidential bid?" [See video below. MP3 audio here. ]

The Good Morning America co-host could barely contain himself as he opened the show: "Cain's final turn. She claims to be Herman Cain's 13-year-mistress. Now, Ginger White is speaking out live, here, exclusively, on GMA as his campaign reels from her allegations." An ABC graphic hyped, "End of Days for Cain Campaign?"

One might think from the breaking news that a woman has claimed she had a 13-year affair with presidential candidate Herman Cain that someone is being seriously exposed as a hypocrite. That would be the press. The media can’t deny they continue to display a lousy double standard. For Republican candidates, scandal news is instant. For Democrats, it’s eventual, if at all!

Ginger White’s charges sound a lot like Gennifer Flowers in 1992 saying she has a 12-year affair with Bill Clinton. So many in the press pounce on Flowers as unequivocal evidence of the media’s sense of balance. After all, they will remind us, just look how we covered that scandal!