Sean Hannity

"In 2008, in the primaries, there were 1,365 stories on Barack Obama" and of those, "not one single story" was devoted to President Barack Obama's admitted youthful use of illicit drugs. By contrast, President Bush's refusal to admit either way on youthful drug use in the 2000 campaign was met with non-stop media scrutiny, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on Friday's edition of Hannity on the Fox News Channel.

What's more, when Hillary Clinton's campaign raised the subject of Obama's drug use in the 2008 campaign, it was denounced by the media as descending "into the gutter," the Media Research Center founder noted on the May 18 edition of Sean Hannity's primetime program. To watch the full "Media Mash" segment, click the play button on the video embed that follows the page break.

If there was a contest each week for the dumbest comment made by a member of the media, this would likely be last week's prohibitive favorite.

On the syndicated Chris Matthews Show this weekend, during a discussion about Barack Obama's America-hating Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page actually said with a straight face, "Right-wing wouldn't have that story if it wasn't for the mainstream media" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

"On this one occasion we can give [NBC News] kudos for telling the truth," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell observed on last night's Hannity program, reacting to video clips of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie and Morning Joe contributor Mark Halperin admitting that the media are completely one-sided on the issue of same-sex marriage, while the American public are about evenly divided in national polling.

"It really does show you, Sean, the complete disconnect between the national news media and America, because in America it's a hugely controversial issue," the Media Research Center founder noted. Indeed, in 31 states, the people have expressed disapproval of same-sex marriage at the ballot box, even liberal California, Hannity noted. [watch the full segment video below the page break]

When then-President George W. Bush visited U.S. troops, saying similar things to what President Barack Obama said in his recent visit, MSNBC's Chris Matthews snarled that it was a mere "photo-op," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted last night on FNC's "Hannity."

Yet when President Obama made his surprise visit to Kabul earlier this week, Matthews ridiciculously gushed that Obama's speech was "right out of Henry the Fifth," alluding to the St. Crispin's Day "band of brothers" speech in the Shakespeare play. [Watch the full "Media Mash" segment below the page break; MP3 audio here]

"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]

Although the list is long and undistinguished, PBS's Tavis Smiley said possibly one of the dumbest things he's ever said on television Wednesday.

In a discussion about class warfare and the politics of envy on Fox News's Hannity show, Smiley actually said with a straight face, "No one who happens to be poor wants what Mr. Romney has" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In the 2008 campaign, "[t]he media were awestruck, embarrassingly so," over Barack Obama and failed to vet him thoroughly, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on last night's edition of Hannity. "In the primaries in 2008, we counted 29 different times when the networks either called him a rising star, an emerging star, a rock star, or a superstar. Twenty-nine different times," but they never, of course, affixed such a label to his GOP opponent John McCain.

Shortly after that, Hannity played a montage of liberal journalists gushing over President Obama -- treating him like awestruck groupies -- since he's taken office. "This is embarrassing, this is journalism today," Bozell, the founder of the Media Research Center observed. [MP3 audio here; watch the full segment below the page break]

Fox News contributor and former Democratic strategist Bob Beckel directed an F-bomb at female Tea Party activist Jennifer Stefano during Monday’s Hannity.

The two were arguing through a commercial break, and Beckel apparently didn’t know they were back live when he made his indelicate remark (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

NBC's apology for its malicious Zimmerman 911 audio edits is woefully inadequate, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on last night's "Hannity." For instance, the network has not given an on-air apology, only a written apology in a press release. What's more, the network has not disclosed the name of the producer it fired, even as it insists his error was not malicious in intent.

That's why, "we've gone to Congress now," Bozell noted, pointing out that NBC's parent company Comcast is looking for approval of a deal with Verizon that raises "potential antitrust issues." "We're asking them what about the public trust?" the Media Research Center founder noted. "This network simply just can't be trusted," he concluded. [See video below page break]

Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart surprisingly took on NBC News Monday for the network’s dishonest editing of George Zimmerman’s 911 call regarding Trayvon Martin.

Less shocking, the Daily Show host also took some punches at conservatives for how they handled this story including Media Research Center president Brent Bozell (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

NBC's "apology" for their selective editing of the  Zimmerman 911 call was "two whole sentences of nothing," complained NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell on the April 5 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity. The network claimed it was a simple "error in the editing process." "This was no error, this was no mistake, this was deliberately done," Bozell protested during the programs "Media Mash" segment

What's more, NBC "never told its viewers," instead simply putting out a press release, Bozell noted. "How about doing it on the air, maybe just, you know, say, whoops, we were wrong," Hannity agreed. [see video below page break]

Reacting angrily to selective editing by NBC that suggested racial animus by George Zimmerman, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell complained to Fox News's Sean Hannity last night that NBC News was engaged in an "all-out falsehood." The story in question was a March 27 Ron Allen report on NBC's 'Today' in which 911 audio was edited to make it sound like George Zimmerman said "he looks black" immediately after saying "this guy looks like he's up to no good."

In the actual 911 audio, Zimmerman only described Martin's race after the dispatcher asked, "And this guy: is he white, black, or Hispanic?" "To edit that out is so distorting," Hannity complained. "Sean, it's not distorting, it's advancing a falsehood, it's worse," Bozell corrected the Fox News anchor. [see video below page break]

Are left-wing hatemongers like Ed Schultz sullying the NBC brand? How do legitimate, albeit left-leaning, journalists like Matt Lauer or Tom Brokaw feel about NBCUniversal's cable news outlet, Fox News's Sean Hannity wondered during last night's "Media Mash" segment with NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell.

"You have to wonder about that. When you think of Tom Brokaw, when you think of the late Tim Russert... these are liberals... but there was almost always a level of civility, and although you could continue disagreeing with one another, it was an honest disagreement," Bozell noted. Unfortunately, "radicals that far exceed anything Tom Brokaw ever did" dominate on MSNBC. [see video below]

As NewsBusters reported, HBO's Bill Maher on Friday disgracefully claimed Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum homeschools his children to keep them locked up in his "Christian madrassa" where they won't be exposed to knowledge and reason.

On Fox New's Hannity Monday, the former Pennsylvania Senator struck back at the vulgar comedian saying, "My 12-year-old will out-reason Bill Maher" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

"There's only one person who's trying to insert the reproductive rights debate into this campaign," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted in the "Media Mash" segment  of the March 8 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity.

It's Barack Obama who made this a live issue when he moved to push religious institutions to provide contraception, even if it violates their religious conscience to do so, Bozell noted.  Sure, the media know that Obama is the one waging a "war" on this issue, but they're aggressively pushing the liberal Democratic spin on the issue as a cudgel to attack Republicans, particularly social conservative ones. [watch the full segment in the video embedded  below the page break]

Sarah Palin on Thursday took Barack Obama to task for not telling his Super PAC to return Bill Maher's million dollar donation.

Speaking to Fox News's Sean Hannity, the former Alaska Governor said, "It does not bode well for our President's character to not speak out against that dirty money" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Access to the controversial video released of President Barack Obama embracing a radical professor was prevented by two groups funded by left-wing donor George Soros. The two – WGBH and Harvard University – were granted more than $3.5 million was granted to WGBH and Harvard by Soros’s Open Society Foundations since 2000.

The late Andrew Breitbart’s websites posted the edited version of this video on March 7 and appeared on “Hannity” that evening to discuss it. Breitbart.com Editor in Chief Joel Pollack told Hannity that WGBH refused to respond to inquiries about the video in question. In a video played from Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree’s class, he told the students, “of course we hid this through the 2008 campaign.” If the video was not incendiary, why did he feel the need to hide it from the voters?

The reason there's a double standard in the media when it comes to conservative versus liberal media personalities making offensive statements about women in politics, Kirsten Powers posited on last night's edition of "Hannity," is because attacking conservatives is a "proxy war" that aids liberal Democrats.

The liberal writer appeared on the March 5 Fox News program to discuss her March 4 Daily Beast post  wherein she blasted the media for fixating exclusively on Rush Limbaugh "slut" comments about Sandra Fluke whilehaving consistently failed to call out liberal journalists, pundits and the like for their misogynistic comments (video posted after page break; MP3 audio here).

As NewsBusters has been reporting, the liberal media have been less than gracious following the surpising death of conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart.

On Fox News's Hannity Friday, conservative author Ann Coulter said it best. "Even in death he shows liberals in their true colors" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

"The American Conservative Union just came out" with their latest congressional scorecard and what do you know, retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has "the lowest lifetime conservative record [48.59, just left of center] of any Republican. In Diane Sawyer's book, that makes her the principled voice of reason," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on last night's "Media Mash" segment on Hannity.

The liberal media, of course, have been using the left-leaning senator's departure from the Senate as a club to rebuke the Republican Party as in danger of losing its appeal to moderates and becoming a far-right political party with limited appeal. Also discussed on the popular media bias segment was how the media are skewing their coverage of Rick Santorum to present him as obsessed with social issues and bordering on foisting a "Christian" brand of "Sharia law." [video follows page break]

As NewsBusters has been reporting, America's press have for the past 48 hours been in a coordinated attack on Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum cherry-picking the same sentences from a lengthy speech he gave Saturday in order to falsely accuse him of impugning President Obama's religious beliefs.

On Monday, the former Pennsylvania Senator discussed the matter with Fox News's Sean Hannity claiming that this is another example of "media trying to destroy conservatives" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In a one-time only break with his longstanding policy of not discussing the far-left Media Matters, MRC President and NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that the group has been exposed by the Daily Caller as "radicals" doing "the dirty work for the Obama administration."

Bozell praised the Daily Caller series on Media Matters, and predicted that as the group becomes more irrelevant, they could also become more dangerous: "I think the tactics they are employing are the tactics of desperation. When they go this personal, this savage, this ugly, that's desperation. And that's when I say to conservatives: Watch out."

Video and a partial transcript below the jump.

I wrote last week about a theory put forth by Washington Post's Sarah Kliff that abortion proponents were shifting strategies to focus on contraceptives rather than abortion, the reason being their own polls show abortion is no longer a winning issue with young people and women, but contraception is.

This week Republican strategist Dick Morris pitched the same theory on Hannity, adding some corroboration:

Former Clinton adviser Dick Morris on Monday accused ABC’s George Stephanopoulos of being a “paid Democratic hitman.”

Appearing on Fox News’s Hannity, Morris also said Stephanopoulos was “under orders” to ask Mitt Romney all those contraception questions during ABC’s January 7 Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire (video follows with transcript and commentary):

According to the Heritage Foundation Barack Obama’s policies, in just two years, have resulted in the number of Americans who rely on a federal program spiking by 23 percent to 67 million. Yet there was no mention of this grim figure on the Big Three network (ABC, CBS and NBC) evening or morning news programs. Since the study was released on Wednesday only Fox News and CNN have mentioned the increase in government dependents was the biggest two year jump since Jimmy Carter was president.  (video after the jump)

Politico correspondent Jonathan Martin's Tuesday morning comment about the "cracker counties" of Florida has gone unaddressed and unrebuked by the liberal media, so Sean Hannity and NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell led off last night's "Media Mash" segment with it.

MSNBC's "Chuck Todd agrees with Jonathan Martin," but he works at the same network which is constantly trying to find hidden racist messages in Republican speeches, particularly those of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Media Research Center president observed. [see the full segment video below embedded below the page break]

"There was nothing newsworthy" about Marianne Gingrich's latest claims about the dissolution of her marriage to Newt Gingrich, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News host Sean Hannity on his January 20 program.

"We looked at the September 2010 Esquire story on the marriage" and found "there's nothing, let me underscore, nothing in the story last night that wasn't in that interview," Bozell noted during the "Media Mash" segment [MP3 audio here; videofollows page break]