Marc Morial

Does MSNBC hype the bogeyman of racist "voter suppression" in a cynical ploy to alarm its liberal voter base? Only on days that end in "y."

Once again, network anchor Andrea Mitchell discarded any pretense of journalistic objective and played a game of softball with a liberal activist today, helping the Urban League's Marc Morial to denounce "voter suppression" laws -- that is voter ID laws -- that have passed in numerous states in recent years.

“There are several battles that are playing out across this country” today, MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts noted as he opened the 11 a.m. Eastern hour of live coverage on what the network is calling this year's "Super Tuesday."

Roberts quickly established that he and his network were in the trenches with liberals on every one of those "battles":

A segment that was billed as a guide to help some of Today's unemployed viewers find work, on Wednesday's show, turned into a platform for the president of the liberal National Urban League to attack those who opposed the President's plans, as he railed against those in Congress who have been filibustering extension of the unemployment benefits. Today co-anchor Matt Lauer, who hosted the segment, even prompted Morial to address how his organization was going to address the obstruction of the Democratic agenda in Congress, in the upcoming midterm elections, as he asked: "How much do you target candidates who have bad job policies...and support candidates who have good ones?" [audio available here]

NBC's Ann Curry, at the top of the 8:30am half hour of Today's July 14 show, teased viewers that "Americans, on average, took about 17 weeks to find a job. Well today the number has actually doubled. It's twice that. So the question is where should you be looking for work? We've got some answers this morning." However when viewers tuned in for those answers they also got a not so veiled anti-Republican diatribe from the National Urban League's Marc Morial as he chastised those who opposed Democratic measures.

It's hard to imagine NBC's Matt Lauer celebrating the birthday of a conservative organization but the Today co-anchor, on Tuesday's program, invited on former Democratic Mayor of New Orleans and current president of the National Urban League Marc Morial to cheer the 100th anniversary of the founding of the liberal group. Of course the birthday announcement served as an excuse for Morial to publicize the Urban League's latest liberal initiative something Lauer eagerly plugged:

MATT LAUER: You've brought some folks here with you. They're all waving the flag. And, and if you look at the buttons here Marc, it says "I am empowered" and this is an initiative that you're creating as a part of this celebration. What exactly do you want people to do?

MARC MORIAL: We want people to go to IamEmpowered.com. We'd like them to consider to sign, to sign a pledge. That pledge surrounds four important goals. One about our kids, one about jobs, one about housing and one about health care. Matt, we're trying to change the conversation in this nation to focus people on goals we need to have for the future.