Martin Bashir

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir on Friday might have said the wisest thing he’s ever uttered on television.

Speaking with two Democratic members of Congress about goings on in the House Friday, Bashir said referring to Republicans, “If there isn’t a war on women most of us must be ignorant” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

"There is no slur against conservatives that's off the table" for the so-called journalists at MSNBC, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity last night. The Media Research Center president made that remark after viewing a clip of Hardball host Chris Matthews calling the GOP the "Grand Wizard crowd," a not-so-thinly veiled suggestion that conservatives are violent racists.

What's more, "Chris Matthews is lying," Bozell argued, pointing back to a January 13 quote about Romney wherein Matthews called Romney a "moderate." "Even Chris Matthews doesn't believe that lie that he told." Also addressed on the April 26 "Media Mash" segment was how Matthews's colleague Martin Bashir callously suggested that Mitt Romney was "intentionally using" his multiple sclerosis-suffering wife to close a "gender gap." [watch the full Media Mash segment video below page break]

The Obama-loving media just can't stop talking about the President's appearance Tuesday on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

MSNBC's Martin Bashir on Thursday used it as an opportunity to bash conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh as liking "sexist, homophobic, and racist" humor (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

On the April 23 version of Martin Bashir, Liberal journalist Martin Bashir treated Democratic National Committee Chairwoman and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) to a friendly bull session, giving her some free air time to bash Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as well as give her a chance to further MSNBC’s "GOP War on Women" meme.

During the interview, Bashir fed the DNC chief a helpful talking point by insisted that “Pew Polls suggests that the president, as the result of things that were said during the Republican primary, has been attacked more negatively than Romney.” Yet as we at NewsBusters have shown, that's complete malarkey. [Audio can be found here, video after the jump.]

You "can't blame" President Barack Obama for high gas prices. "Desperate" Republicans are hoping for the scandal-free Obama to have a scandal. When a conservative woman denounces absurd gender politics it's simply "a ventriloquist act" for "patriarchal ideas."

Those were the gems which stumbled out of the mouths, respectively, of conservative columnist S.E. Cupp, Democratic strategist Krystal Ball, and Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson, all panelists on today's edition of the Martin Bashir program on MSNBC. The topic at hand was how Republicans were pressing the Obama administration over the Secret Service prostitution scandal.

Geraldo Rivera on Friday accused MSNBC anchors of not caring at all about the evidence concerning the shooting of Trayvon Martin and instead "cheerleading for the conviction of George Zimmerman."

Appearing on Fox New's The O'Reilly Factor, Rivera specifically pointed his finger at Martin Bashir, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Al Sharpton, and Ed Schultz (video follows with transcript and commentary:

As NewsBusters reported earlier, David Chaney, a now fired secret service agent involved in HookerGate, boasted on his Facebook page in 2008 as having ogled former Alaska governor Sarah Palin while guarding her.

On MSNBC's Martin Bashir Show Friday, the host scolded Chaney for "making Sarah Palin relevant" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Have the executives running MSNBC informed their employees that it's completely acceptable to lie on the air if it helps President Obama win reelection this November?

On Thursday, Martin Bashir flat out lied to make the case to his audience that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is going to hell for supposedly lying when he says the current White House resident promised unemployment would not rise above eight percent if his stimulus package was enacted (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Martin Bashir, who previously compared Rick Santorum to genocidal murderer Joseph Stalin, on Wednesday mocked the concept that MSNBC could be biased against Republicans. A network graphic dismissed, "Paranoia? Romney: More Media Should Be as 'Fair' as Fox News."

After playing clips of Mitt Romney decrying liberal media bias, Bashir huffed, "This is pretty rich from a man who hasn't appeared on Meet the Press, whose spokesman won't even accept an invitation to appear on this broadcast." Why would Republicans come on Bashir's show? In addition to comparing Santorum to a dictatorial mass killer, this same anchor linked Newt Gingrich's political comments to the murder of a British teen. [See MP3 audio here.]

It's quite clear that on MSNBC, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's family is not going to be considered off-limits to commentator attacks during this campaign season.

On Tuesday's Martin Bashir show, in a closing segment about rock star Ted Nugent's endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor, the host attacked Ann Romney as being "fake" and "two-faced" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On the April 17 edition of his afternoon program, MSNBC's Martin Bashir mocked Mitt Romney’s unabashed support for our military.  Bashir insulted Romney claiming that, “for all his endless references to military personnel, was this not the same Mitt Romney who managed to dodge the draft during Vietnam and spent most of his time I believe in France as a Mormon missionary?”

Bashir has a storied history of slandering conservatives for what he calls ‘chicken hawks’ as individuals who deliberately dodge the draft.  Last October, Bashir falsely claimed Herman Cain dodged the draft despite serving as a civilian employee in the Department of the Navy during the Vietnam War.  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC political analyst Karen Finney said Friday that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to "go back to a time when women couldn't vote, blacks couldn't vote."

Such was said on the Martin Bashir show immediately following the former Massachusetts governor's speech to the National Rifle Association (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bashing conservatives is nothing new for MSNBC or for Martin Bashir. However, on the April 13 edition of Martin Bashir, liberal British journalist Martin Bashir went on a rant about how Rick Santorum is a hypocrite for giving a small portion of his earnings to charity. Except there is one key fact that Bashir is missing. Rick Santorum is spending a lot of money on medical care for his sick daughter Bella.  [Video below the jump]

The presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of Anglo-American jurisprudence, so surely well-educated British citizen Martin Bashir knows better than to declare in his closing "Clear the Air" commentary on his April 11 MSNBC program that with charges pending against Sanford, Florida resident "George Zimmerman will have to justify his actions in a court of law." "From the very outset, virtually every aspect of this case has raised serious questions about Mr. Zimmerman's actions and the story that followed," Bashir added, before rattling off the as-yet-unproven but widely reported notion that Zimmerman continued to pursue Trayvon Martin on foot after the 911 dispatcher counseled him not to.

But wait, there's more, as Bashir used the opportunity to not only convict Zimmerman but virtually finger gun rights groups that have lobbied for Stand Your Ground laws as unindicted co-conspirators:

On the April 5 episode of his show, liberal MSNBC host and self-proclaimed ‘journalist’ Bashir excused the bounty placed on George Zimmerman by the New Black Panthers because there are only "five or six of them."  This comment came in a segment with TheGrio.com’s Joy-Ann Reid wherein the two mocked conservatives’ objections to the media coverage of the Trayvon Martin case. 

Bashir claimed that, "the one thing conservatives do seem to enjoy about this story is that it lets them talk about how it’s the president they say who’s taken political advantage. Even as they beat the war drum over their favorite target, the New Black Panthers, all five or six of them, I guess."  [Video embedded below.  Click here for MP3 audio.]

Given that the NBC network is currently conducting an internal review of its selective editing of a 911 call from the Trayvon Martin case, it would be reasonable to assume that other networks in the NBCUniversal family would take heed. But then, that would take all the fun out of working for a network like MSNBC.

On his April 2 program Martin Bashir played a clip from a Mitt Romney campaign event which made it seem as though Romney was dodging a question about his faith.  The distorted clip was then used as a jumping-off point for Bashir and liberal contributor Krystal Ball to lament a perceived double standard on reporting on the religious faiths of the president and the former Massacusetts governor.  [Click here for video.] 

Showing that he either knows absolutely nothing about current events, or that he's just willing to blatantly lie on the so-called "news" network that foolishly employs him, MSNBC's Martin Bashir falsely claimed Tuesday that Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc) "previous budget was excoriated by both Republicans and Democrats."

Actually, 97 percent of Republicans that cast votes in the House and Senate approved Ryan's budget last year (video follows with transcript and commentary):

At the end of Martin Bashir’s show Friday, Dylan Ratigan called Martin out for his failure to call Democrats charlatans and hypocrites.  During what is normally a cheerful banter between the two colleagues, Ratigan said Bashir loves to criticize Republicans on policies he disagrees with but never takes critical aim at Democrats.  

Ratigan pointed out Bashir’s failure to ever point out the serious fallacies in his show by never bringing up Democrats’ blunders with health care reform or the financial markets and instead only focusing on Republicans.  Bashir was left speechless, as you can see by the video embedded after the page break.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here]

ABC's Dan Harris trumpeted the "bromance between President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron" on Thursday's GMA. Harris noted the presence of Vogue magazine head Anna Wintour at Wednesday's state dinner, but omitted that she is a major donor to Obama's campaign. Instead, he gushed over how "Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron [were] both looking very regal in blue, floor-length gowns."

The same morning, NBC's Today show chose to play up the "little star power from George Clooney...and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein" at the dinner, but failed to mention Weinstein's $500,000 contribution to the President's campaign. CBS This Morning did report that "many of the guests included some of the President's top fundraisers," but anchor Charlie Rose, who attended the function, and correspondent Bill Plante, spent more time talking about the wines that the White House served [audio clips available here; video below the jump].

According to Joe Williams, the senior White House reporter for Politico, Rush Limbaugh is like the "serial murderer" who was caught with "three bodies in the trunk." The veteran journalist made the outrageous comparison on Tuesday's Martin Bashir show, a program that included other liberal smears against the conservative radio host.

Before making his offensive connection, Williams highlighted his background covering the police. Regarding Limbaugh's comments about Sandra Fluke, the journalist linked: "... [Law enforcement] always would catch the serial murderer because he was driving around with a busted taillight, not because he had, like, three bodies in the trunk." He added, "I mean they would always have some incident to really capture him on and this was Rush Limbaugh's." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

On Wednesday’s edition of his eponymous program, MSNBC anchor Martin Bashir and his liberal panel continued their staunch defense of Bill Maher while ripping into Rush Limbaugh.  MSNBC contributor and former Democratic National Committee communications chief Karen Finney gave her tortured defense of the media's double standard:

You know, he is a public person. Sandra Fluke is not a public person.  Bill Maher is a public person.  Sarah Palin is a public person.   You could make the argument whether you like what Bill Maher says or not, when you are in the public arena,  you do put yourself out there in a way that a private person asked to testify in Congress should not expect to be attacked.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

Joining a daylong drumbeat of hourly segments to hype colleague Al Sharpton's latest project, MSNBC's Martin Bashir pushed on viewers of his 3 p.m. program today that Republicans are trying to suppress if not downright disenfranchise minority voters across the nation.

Bashir opened up the Sharpton "interview" by rhetorically asking if “there is a deliberate attempt at voter suppression being undertaken by the right today?”  To no surprise, Sharpton knocked the softball over the far-left field fence. Sharpton claimed that with less than one percent of prosecutions on voter fraud in the last decade, "one has to conclude it's a deliberate attempt to try and suppress our votes in particularly minority communities that are disproportionately impacted, seniors and students."  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC's Martin Bashir has long been keen on hammering home a message that the GOP in general and candidates like Rick Santorum in particular are anti-woman. So it should come as no surprise that the afternoon host is flabbergasted Republican women in Ohio favor Romney by a double-digit margin.

"We have some shocking numbers from a University of Cincinnati poll. Santorum carrying women voters by almost 20 points. I have to repeat that: 20 points! I mean, can you explain that?" Bashir asked guest Goldie Taylor during today's program. "Why would women rush to support Rick Santorum given what he's said in the last two months?"

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)

Liberal MSNBC anchor Martin Bashir on Thursday declared it "incredible" that Republican candidates such as Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich would "blame the media." A few seconds after making the comment, the host smeared Santorum as having "third century Constantinople" views when it came to social policies.

Bashir mocked the GOP presidential candidates for their debate performances and insisted that Republican voters don't like them. He chided, "They don't seem to see the obvious signs of dissatisfaction. They don't hear the criticism. Instead they just blame the media." Bashir added, "It is incredible to hear the fab four complain about the media." A few seconds later, Bashir, part of the media, was hurling vicious insults at the Republicans. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC's Martin Bashir has been off for a few days, but he was back in the studio and in fighting form today, eager to push the network's leftist talking points on the ObamaCare contraceptive mandate that would force religious institutions to provide contraceptive coverage in their health insurance plans.

Bashir opened up an interview segment with Baptist theologian Craig Mitchell entitled "Full of Grace?" by furthering a misleading liberal talking point about a February 16 hearing before the House Committee on Government Reform, which featured opponents of the mandate affiliated with various religious institutions:

Ultra liberal Martin Bashir hit a new low on Tuesday, outrageously comparing Rick Santorum to mass-murdering dictator Joseph Stalin. In a fit of vitriol, the MSNBC anchor also connected the Republican to George Orwell's Big Brother from 1984. However, the most repugnant moment came when Bashir spewed, "If you listen carefully to Rick Santorum, he sounds more like Stalin than Pope Innocent III." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

What prompted this left-wing hate from MSNBC? Bashir began by playing a clip of Santorum in bad lighting. He then contrasted, "...When we last saw the Republican front-runner Rick Santorum speaking before a crowd yesterday, all we could think of was George Orwell's novel 1984 about a society dominated by the most extreme form of totalitarianism." Before showing a clip of the movie version of 1984, he added, "See if you can spot the similarities."

Talk about your delicious instant karma.

Roughly 24 hours after MSNBC's Martin Bashir strongly implied Republicans were too racist to make Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) their vice presidential nominee, the Florida senator overwhelmingly won the CPAC straw poll for that position on the ticket: