Hillary Clinton

More is the pity that he actually believes it.

Reputed man of the cloth and race-baiter nonpareil Al Sharpton has shown once again how he's the least credible person in media, claiming that a voter registration drive he'll oversee will be "non-partisan." (audio clip after page break)

Good Morning America's Martha Raddatz on Wednesday turned the program into something out of Entertainment Tonight, fawning over the "cool," popular Hillary Clinton who "doesn't care what people think." Former Democratic operative turned journalist George Stephanopoulos enthused, "The Secretary of State has been sporting a new look these days. No makeup. No contacts. No blowouts."

Stephanopoulos, who previously worked for Mrs. Clinton's husband when he was in the White House, introduced the puff piece this way: "She is doing what she wants how she wants and seems to be having a great time doing it." As though she were interviewing Justin Bieber, Raddatz raved, "Let's face it, Hillary is cool. Trending. From the dancing and drinking photos during her trip to Colombia, to the iconic shot of the secretary texting on her C-17." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

In 1998, first lady Hillary Clinton famously claimed there was a vast right-wing conspiracy against her husband.

On Sunday, NBC's David Gregory actually asked Vice President Joe Biden on Meet the Press, "Do you think that there is a modern right-wing conspiracy that has aligned against this president?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

NBC's special presentation of Rock Center on the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's assassination wasn't just a victory lap for Barack Obama.

It was also a chance for host Brian Williams to praise Bill Clinton for going after the former al Qaeda leader without mentioning all the times his administration passed on chances to get him (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Mitt Romney on Tuesday channeled his inner Hillary Clinton by calling the media a "vast left-wing conspiracy."

During an interview with Breitbart TV's Larry O'Connor, the Republican presidential candidate also said, "Many in the media are inclined to do the president's bidding and I know that's a battle, an uphill battle we fight with the media generally" (video follows with partial transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

The D.C. area women's magazine I Am Modern interviewed NPR talk-show host Diane Rehm for their Spring issue, and Rehm’s liberal tilt was unmissable. Rehm warmly declared that her favorite "fascinating" interviews were with Hillary and Bill Clinton and that her “dream guests” were Barack and Michelle Obama. (Her biggest disappointment was Newt Gingrich.)

Not only that, Rehm was asked about attempts to defund public broadcasting and pretended the media was dominated by conservatives. PBS and NPR are seen “as a counterweight to the many outspoken conservative voices who currently dominate the airwaves.”

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):

It appears all those private meetings Fareed Zakaria has with President Obama discussing foreign policy might just pay off for the CNN host.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Zakaria is being considered for a diplomatic post - even Secretary of State - if the current White House resident gets reelected in November:

On Tuesday's CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose rolled over and deferred to chief Obama flack David Axelrod and his talking points defending the President's Monday rant against the Supreme Court and its deliberation on his health care law, along with its attacks on Mitt Romney. Rose tossed softball questions at Axelrod, such as, "Tell me what he [Obama] is saying when he talks about judicial activism."

The anchor even boosted Hillary Clinton as a possible 2016 presidential candidate for Democrats during his interview with the Obama aide: "[Nancy Pelosi] said her candidate is Hillary Clinton. She hopes Hillary Clinton will run....Do you expect that she'll be a nominee in- will be a candidate for president in 2016?" [audio available here; video clips below the jump]

CNN's Piers Morgan on Monday actually asked Karen Santorum if her husband Rick is "anti-women?"

Without batting an eye, Mrs. Santorum gave an answer that would put this entire issue to rest if her husband were a Democrat (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Forget everything New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has written before about Hillary Clinton. In 1996 Dowd was scathing about the disconnect between Hillary's self-serving role as secular saint, and the vengeful politician lurking behind the scrim.

But now Hillary is a feminist heroine (and perhaps a presidential candidate?) once again, at least in a battle with Republican pols suffering an "insane bout of mass misogyny," her term for Republican positions against forcing employers to pay for birth control, and legislation in some states requiring an ultrasound before an abortion: "Women have watched a chilling cascade of efforts in Congress and a succession of states to turn women into chattel, to shame them about sex and curb their reproductive rights."

NewsBusters fan and PoliticalDerby.com blogger Steve Feinstein picked up on an interesting, albeit subtle, thread of bias in a Chuck Todd "First Read" blog post yesterday wherein the MSNBC Daily Rundown host hailed the 2008 Democratic primary as a "clash of political titans" in Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama:

In today's "Don't Bring a Knife to a Gunfight" segment, ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday once again failed miserably in a battle of wits with Newt Gingrich.

After the This Week host claimed past experience has shown long primary battles "[mean] that party loses in the general election," the former Speaker of the House marvelously responded, "George, I'll be glad to swap history credentials with you" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Andrea Mitchell famously said she had to catch her breath after Foster Friess's Bayer aspirin line last week.  Well, call me a bit verklempt myself this morning, after Mitchell said on today's Morning Joe that:

1. She felt "nostalgia" for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. 2. The opposition to Clinton was "vicious". 3. She hates to revert to the "great right wing conspiracy", but "there really was a group out there . . . There really was an enemy." Video after the jump.

Liberal presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said Monday, "Bill Clinton’s really become a folk figure in America."

Participating in an oftentimes hysterical Hardball segment about how the former President will help Barack Obama get reelected, Brinkley added, "He’s more like Babe Ruth or Buffalo Bill than a politician" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

This week the Today show is celebrating 60 years of being on the air, and for over 20 of those years the MRC has been documenting the NBC morning show’s liberal agenda. From past anchors like Bryant Gumbel blaming “right wing” talk radio for the Oklahoma City bombing and  Katie Couric trashing Ronald Reagan as an “airhead,” up through current anchor Matt Lauer wondering how Barack Obama would “manage the expectations” of being called “The Messiah,”
MRC analysts have been documenting the worst the show has offered.

The following are 10 of the most obnoxiously liberal examples of Today show bias from the MRC’s archive; for even more bias from the Today show anchors please visit the Profile in Bias pages of Gumbel, Couric, Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Ann Curry. (Top 10 Video Countdown after the jump)

There's been a lot of chatter about this in the old and new media, but on Monday, the former executive editor of the New York Times called for Hillary Clinton to be Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate.

In Bill Keller's view, "it does more to guarantee Obama’s re-election than anything else the Democrats can do":

CBS revealed its double standard in its treatment of Republican presidential candidates versus Democratic ones on Wednesday's Early Show, as Jim Axelrod and Nancy Cordes pressed Mitt Romney about the challenges ahead in the race the day after he won in Iowa. By contrast, then-anchor Katie Couric gushed over a "humanized" and "emotional" Hillary Clinton the day after the 2008 New Hampshire primary.

After joking with Romney about his eight vote margin of victory at the beginning of the interview, Axelrod asked the former Massachusetts governor about the apparent slim rise in the number of votes he gained in the 2012 Iowa caucuses versus four years earlier: "I'm wondering just one number...six years you've spent out in Iowa, and I think you end up with 66 more votes this time than in 2008. Can you explain this challenge you had in Iowa about getting more traction this go around?"

At this time four years ago the liberal media was just starting its flirtation with Barack Obama in Iowa, while others still carried the torch for Hillary Clinton. On the eve before the Iowa caucus Chris Matthews, on Hardball, hoped that an Obama win in Iowa would send the message to the world that a "despised" America was truly ready to "change." For her part, then Today co-host Meredith Vieira was still caught up in Hillary hype as she touted that, "up close the Senator and former First Lady is natural, confident and warm."

On the January 2, 2008 Nightly News, NBC's Andrea Mitchell did her part to advance the notion of Obama's centrism as she sought out "a lifelong Republican, who twice voted for George Bush, now canvassing for Obama" as "a precinct captain" in Iowa.  (video after the jump)

Bill Clinton on Tuesday said the press favored Barack Obama over his wife for president in 2008.

Not surprisingly, he told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly that he didn’t believe the media were biased towards him when he first ran for president in 1992 (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Just how much does MSNBC's Joe Scarborough despise Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich?

On Thursday's Morning Joe, the supposedly conservative host equated Barack Obama's lack of government-running experience in 2008 to that of the former Speaker of the House (video follows with transcript and commentary):

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?:

In a portion of a softball interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aired on Friday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd invited her to bash the Republican field of 2012 candidates as he skeptically wondered: "Any of these Republican presidential candidates ready to answer the 3:00 a.m. phone call?" [Audio available here]

Clinton dodged the question by simply claiming: "Well, you know, I'm out of politics, happy to be out of politics." However, she did use the opportunity to puff up President Obama: "But I am very proud of the leadership that President Obama has shown. He's demonstrated unequivocally that he's ready, willing and able to do whatever is necessary for our country." [View video after the jump]

She hasn't accomplished a darned thing on television yet, but Chelsea Clinton is already being compared to the late Meet the Press host Tim Russert.

Such almost unthinkable praise emerged from NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight Monday (video follows with transcript and commentary):

There are times when I'm sickened by what I see so-called journalists do on television.

Sunday was one of those times when Politico's Roger Simon, appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources, said being "a little bit racist perhaps, gives you good bona fides in a Republican primary. It shows them you're on the same side as they are" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

There are softballs and then there are softballs.

On Sunday's Meet the Press, host David Gregory teed one up for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was specifically designed to mock the Republican presidential candidates while allowing her to brag uninterrupted about the foreign policy successes of Barack Obama (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In an interview light on substance and heavy on praise with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aired on Monday's NBC Today, correspondent Savannah Guthrie fawned: "Hillary Clinton of course is known for keeping a tireless pace....[her] approach is a combination of blunt talk, personal charm and above all, frequent-flyer diplomacy."

Later, Guthrie sympathetically informed viewers: "She has flown more than 600,000 miles on this government plane, a flying satellite office where she can reach world leaders at a moment's notice or hone her most necessary diplomatic skill, the ability to nap on command....I saw your cabin. For those who think this may be glamorous work, it's a pull-out couch....And there's not a hair and makeup team waiting on board."

Barack Obama might give Chris Matthews a thrill up his leg, but the "Hardball" host said Wednesday, "There’s nobody I like to bump into more and meet than Hillary Clinton."

"I get the biggest giggle out of meeting her," he gushed like a ten-year-old speaking of his first crush. "She is something else in person" (video follows with transcript and commentary):