CNN

Appearing as a guest on Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN to plug his book, Exit Interview, former ABC News president David Westin recounted his decision to continue barring journalists from wearing American flag lapel pins on air even after the 9/11 attacks, and ended up defending his decision. Westin: (Video at bottom)

In a teaser for a CNN interview airing next Tuesday, liberal comedian David Letterman denied a partisan bias and said he is a "registered independent." He also pitied former President Bill Clinton for getting "hammered" by the press during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, in an interview that will air on Piers Morgan Tonight with guest host Regis Philbin.

"Poor Bill Clinton. No president that I'm aware of got hammered harder than Bill – President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky situation," mused Letterman. "We beat up on him. We still use him as a reference."

CNN's Dana Bash reported Friday on the irony of President Obama hitting Mitt Romney's connections to Bain Capital when he himself has received donations from Bain employees. CNN has highlighted Obama's hypocrisy on this matter before, but this specific story has certainly not received much air-time – if any at all – in the last two weeks.

"But isn't it hypocritical for the Obama campaign to keep money from employees of a company it goes after as job-killers?" correspondent Dana Bash asked during the segment. Yet this story of Obama's clear hypocrisy has certainly not received the attention it merits on CNN. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN failed to correct bogus numbers claiming that the growth rate of spending under President Obama is the lowest since Eisenhower. Instead, host Erin Burnett reported the news as something positive for the White House.

While most anyone with common sense would label Obama a big spender, the MarketWatch report – re-circulated by the White House – absurdly claims Obama's "spending binge never happened." And CNN did not discount that argument although they twice reported on it.

On Thursday, CNN anchor Carol Costello credited Dan Gainor, the head of the Culture and Media Institute, as a leader in the charge against a new MTV series, which was supposed to follow virgins seeking to lose their virginity. Costello read Gainor’s quote on air: “This is part of the media attempt to mock people who have morals and to treat virginity like a disease that must be cured. She observed that “conservative critics fought back” against the show, forcing its cancellation.

The MTV series, called “My First,” was going to follow virgins preparing to lose their virginity. The casting call for the series read: “We’re looking for adults who are ready to go all the way. Let MTV come along your journey… as you try to lose your virginity!”

Video after the jump.

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Piers Morgan Tonight, actress and comedienne Ali Wentworth brought up "reproduction rights" and Planned Parenthood as issues she is concerned about when host Piers Morgan turned the discussion to politics and what American women will be looking for in the presidential election. Wentworth began her answer by flippantly referring to her anatomy:

On Thursday's Piers Morgan Tonight, during an interview with Obama supporter and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, host Piers Morgan declared that he was "absolutely thrilled" when President Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay, and showed disappointment that Obama "broke that promise."

Apparently at CNN, the phrase "Republicans are the problem" is not challenged, but encouraged. On Thursday's The Situation Room, lame-duck host Wolf Blitzer simply tossed softballs to GOP-bashing Norm Ornstein, who had hit the party before as "extreme" and "unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science."

Ironically, Blitzer was three weeks behind schedule as Ornstein and co-author Thomas Mann penned their critical Washington Post op-ed in late April and were welcome guests on NPR and PBS shortly after. Could he possibly have responded to Media Matters slapping the media the other day for ignoring the two "well-respected, centrist political commentators"?

Unsatisfied with Tony Perkins' explanation of his opposition to same-sex marriage, CNN's Brooke Baldwin flat-out asked him why homosexuals "bother" him "so much," on Thursday afternoon. Apparently for CNN, opposing same-sex marriage is the same bigotry.

"[Y]ou've never been to a home of a same-sex couple. Why do homosexuals bother you so much?" she asked her "personal" question. Perkins brushed off the loaded question saying "They don't bother me," but Baldwin looked surprised and followed up on it. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN's Soledad O'Brien spun Mitt Romney's words into a dodging-the-question moment for the candidate on the matter of Bain Capital, on Thursday's Starting Point. O'Brien was emphasizing Romney's "reluctance" to mention his days at Bain, which had been the focus of attack ads from the Obama campaign that O'Brien herself justified the other day.

Specifically, she took Romney's interview with Time magazine where he was asked if he welcomed attention about Bain. Romney had answered "of course" and then explained why the American people were more interested in President Obama's record. CNN, however, left out that explanation. [Video coming soon.]

Roger Ailes was right. Earlier this week, the Fox News president made waves by asserting that Jon Stewart confessed to being a "socialist" while the two were in a bar once. Outlets such as Huffington Post and Mediaite reported the story as an accusation or an open question. It isn't. Appearing on CNN in the year 2000, the comic openly explained his ideology.

After a caller on the December 15, 2000 Larry King Live asked about being objective, Stewart conceded, "I think I would say I'm more of a socialist or an independent." He added, "No one would ever I think watching our show think that, boy, that guy is just leaning so far right." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

CNN contributor Maria Cardona may have forgotten some history as she tried to spin away President Obama's troubles in the Arkansas and Kentucky Democratic primaries. Cardona, speaking during the 10 a.m. hour of Wednesday's Newsroom, argued that "Arkansas and Kentucky have never been hotbeds of the Democratic Party."

President Obama only picked up 58 percent of the vote in the Kentucky Democratic primary, and 60 percent in Arkansas. "Look, Arkansas and Kentucky have never been hotbeds of the Democratic Party. There's no real infrastructure there. There's no organization by the Obama campaign there," Cardona insisted. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN devoted over twice the air-time to a "stroller moms" protest against toxic chemicals than it did to the biggest religious lawsuit in U.S. history filed Monday.

A dozen lawsuits filed by 43 Catholic institutions against the Obama administration merited only news briefs on Monday with one full segment on Tuesday morning. The coverage totaled under seven minutes. In contrast, CNN gave almost 18 minutes to a march of about 100 people pushing for a Democratic-sponsored bill.

As NewsBusters previously reported, three time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman got his butt kicked by CNN's Anderson Cooper on Jeopardy! last Friday.

Cooper told NBC's Jimmy Fallon Tuesday regarding Friedman's performance, "He's smart, but he's not Jeopardy! smart!" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

CNN's Soledad O'Brien has carried water for President Obama before, and her "nothing to see here" attitude on Tuesday's Starting Point in regards to the Obama's blatant hypocrisy made that all the more clear.

The night before, O'Brien's colleague Anderson Cooper grilled the Obama campaign over the President's personal attacks on Mitt Romney. Cooper maintained that Obama is hitting Romney's record at Bain Capital while fund raising from another head of a private equity firm that did business with Bain, thus committing a blatant act of hypocrisy. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

PolitiFact decided to get cute with words and nail an accurate statement by a conservative advocacy group as "Mostly False" for supposed contextual issues. This is not the first time that the fact-checking outfit has labeled an accurate statement "Half True" or "Mostly False," as it did twice to the Romney campaign.

According to PolitiFact's Bill Adair, who appeared on CNN Monday afternoon, the ad correctly asserts that President Obama broke his promise to families making less than $250,000 a year, that their taxes would not go up. However, since the ad stated that ObamaCare alone raised 18 taxes, and PolitiFact determined that only five of those applied to the specific income bracket, they smacked Crossroads with a "Mostly False" rating.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Sunday continued his campaign to get Barack Obama reelected by misinforming the public about the economy.

Appearing on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, the Nobel laureate falsely claimed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to enact Greece's failed economic policies here in America (video follows with transcript and commentary):

It appears the White House's dishonest, media-assisted plan to concoct a Republican "War on Women" has failed and failed miserably.

Take for example former CNN anchor Campbell Brown who in Sunday's New York Times published an op-ed surprisingly titled "Obama: Stop Condescending to Women":

Even after Mitt Romney condemned a proposed controversial super PAC ad attacking President Obama, CNN's Piers Morgan couldn't help but speculate on whether the candidate was still playing dirty. On Thursday's Piers Morgan Tonight he wondered aloud if the Romney campaign leaked the failed proposal to the press to keep the Reverend Wright controversy in the news.

"And I guess I think the really sinister aspect is, was it part of their intention to just have it leaked to the front page of the New York Times?" the ratings-starved Morgan asked about the Romney campaign. "Then you get all the publicity anyway without actually spending any money." [Video below the break. Audio here.]

Greece is the perfect example of the eventual outcome of unchecked spending – especially as it creeps closer and closer to defaulting on its massive debts, despite multiple government bailouts in May 2011. One recent BBC News headline warned: “Greece: ‘Default within the euro is possible’.”

But, looking back, some journalists predicted the opposite: that the Greek economy would survive because of government bailouts. Huge fan of government-deficit spending, Paul Krugman, has been writing about Greece a lot, arguing that its trouble is proof that austerity doesn’t work.

Zach Wahls is an activist lobbying Congress on behalf of gay rights issues, and yet CNN's Suzanne Malveaux rolled out the red carpet for him with nary a critical question on Thursday's 12 p.m. hour of Newsroom.

When Wahls, the author of a book titled "My Two Moms," made light of the "big gay scourge" that some say America faces, Malveaux laughed and flattered him "That was really funny, Zach." Sensing an opportunity, she added "Do you think that we need to use more humor to get – to further this discussion?" [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN continued its ridiculous narrative of tying gay rights to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, on Tuesday's Starting Point. Anchor Brooke Baldwin and her panel battered Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall for blocking the nomination of a gay prosecutor to the state's bench, even though Marshall argued that he was unfit for the position because of his activism and not his orientation.

Baldwin went so far as to connect the nomination with desegregation and women's suffrage. "Obviously, you know, blacks used to have to sit in the back of the bus. They don't have to anymore. There was discriminate – women couldn't vote. They can vote now. Times have changed. Do you not – do you not agree that he could be given a chance?" she offered Marshall. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

On Tuesday, May 16, CNN did something that hadn't happened to the network since 1997: The 9 p.m. edition of Piers Morgan Tonight drew an audience of only 39,000 viewers in the important 25-54 age demographic.

These numbers come as a huge blow to the host, liberal, former tabloid editor Piers Morgan.

Just how in the tank for Barack Obama is CNN's Piers Morgan?

During an interview with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak Wednesday, Morgan actually said to his guest concerning Iran, "President Obama clearly would prefer not to see Israel take any action before the election" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

After the Obama campaign released an ad on Monday attacking Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital, CNN went so far as to question President Obama's hypocrisy in attacking Romney. In contrast, MSNBC hosts joined Team Obama on the offensive.

CNN first reported the ad during the 9 and 10 a.m. hours of Monday, and by that evening anchor John King hosted a former venture capitalist who defended the business practices of Bain. Meanwhile, MSNBC's Martin Bashir and the network's prime-time lineup were cheerleaders for the Obama campaign on Monday.

News networks should remain objective, especially when approaching a hot-button issue of the present day, but CNN is clearly supporting the cause of same-sex marriage as evidenced by Sunday night's slander and its heavily slanted coverage of President Obama's "historic" gay marriage announcement last week -- and now its newest story that aired Tuesday afternoon.

When a man pushing for same-sex marriage made a viral video of himself and his deceased partner, CNN went above and beyond journalistic standards to boost his "very, very powerful message." Anchor Suzanne Malveaux showed over two minutes of the video and followed that up with a soft interview while more clips of the video played in the background. [Video below the break. Audio here.]