Other MSNBC

Effete: affected, overrefined, and ineffectual; see "Chris Hayes."  OK, I appended the name of the MSNBC host to the dictionary definition.  But if ever you wanted to see the human embodiment of the adjective in action, have a look at the video from his MSNBC show this morning of the too-refined-by-half Hayes explaining why he is "uncomfortable" in calling America's fallen military members "heroes."  

Hayes is worried that doing so is "rhetorically proximate" to justifications for more war.  Oh, the rhetorical proximity!  View the video after the jump.

As NewsBusters’s own Brent Baker pointed out, Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News Wednesday night called Mitt Romney’s pledge to reduce unemployment to 6 percent "unrealistic."  But apparently Brian didn't get the MSNBC spin memo, as three of his colleagues agreed that 6% unemployment is actually inevitable, and scolded Romney for making such a wimpy prediction.  

During his 6:00 show PoliticsNation on Wednesday May 23, Al Sharpton said that, “according to the Congressional Budget Office, we’re on our way to a 6.3% unemployment economy anyway whether Romney gets us there or not.”  [Video embedded below page break;  MP3 audio here.] 

Why not just call Romney a racist and be done with it? In the most tortured twist of logic this blogger has seen so far during this campaign, Al Sharpton somehow managed to equate Mitt Romney's refusal to roll over and accept Barack Obama's attacks on Bain Capital with, yes, birtherism.

I know what you're thinking: what the . . . heck?  Don't ask me to explain how or why Sharpton came to his nonsensical suggestion.  Just sit back and watch the Reverend Al at work.  It was too much even for liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.  View the video after the jump.

Yet another Obamaoid has joined the Ann Romney-bashing brigade.  Hilary Rosen, with her "never worked a day in her life" line, was infamously first.  As documented at NewsBusters, the president of NOW subsequently derided Ann Romney as lacking in "life experience" and "imagination".  Then, feminist author Michelle Goldberg attacked Ann as "insufferable," her writing as "creepy," and even compared her to Hitler and Stalin.

Latest to join the all-women lineup of Ann bashers: Betsey Stevenson.  A former top economist in the Obama administration, appearing on Chris Hayes's MSNBC this morning, Stevenson accused Ann, along with Mitt, of "really having no empathy for people."  View the video after the jump.

Snark on, Michelle!  On the MSNBC show "Up With Chris Hayes" this morning, feminist author Michelle Goldberg attacked Ann Romney as "insufferable" and derided a phrase in Ann's op-ed on the subject of motherhood as "creepy."

Goldberg's "insufferable" shot drew approving laughter from the all-feminist panel.  And surely the attacks on the Romneys for their traditional family values will play well with a certain segment of the electorate. The problem for President Obama: that segment is one that is already almost entirely in his camp.  But these sort of mean-spirited attacks are likely to alienate the very voters in the middle that PBO needs to persuade.  Video after the jump.

It seems as though the only time Lawrence O’Donnell has something nice to say about Fox News, it comes at the expense of nearly half the country.  Following the incendiary comments Fox News’ Smith made following Obama’s public support for gay marriage, MSNBC’s O’Donnell rushed to his defense and praised him for violating FNC's central value of remaining "fair and balanced."   

O’Donnell claimed that Smith is the lone voice of reason at Fox News and his comments caused the Fox News website Fox Nation to alter a headline reading "Obama flip-flops, declares war on marriage," to "Obama flip-flops."  [Video coming soon.  MP3 audio here.]

On Saturday, left-wing radical turned MSNBC host (is that redundant?) Melissa Harris-Perry was missing only the pom-poms, as she trumpeted the plight of a Canadian beauty contestant she described as "born a male...self-identified as female...and had gender reassignment surgery at the age of 19." Harris-Perry gushed, "You go, girl!..we are all going to be watching and rooting for you."

The leftist columnist exclaimed how "May is going to be an exciting month for my feminist friends and me. For the first time, we're going to be able to watch a beauty pageant with pride." After noting how Miss Universe officials backtracked on their original decision to disqualify the now-Jenna Talackova, Harris-Perry added, "Others might want to take note of this turnaround, like the city of Anchorage, Alaska, that just rejected a ballot initiative to add sexual orientation and trans-gendered identity to a list of protected classes." [audio clips available here; video below the jump].

Apparently the problem for President Obama is that he is just cares too much about America.  That, or he's similar to Jimmy Carter, the last president who caused liberals to wonder if the presidency was "too much." In an interview with Newsweek’s Allison Samuels, MSNBC Live host Thomas Roberts sympathetically asserted, “...President Obama [was] elected to repair the economy, get us out of two wars...repair equality divides in this country and also heal a racial divide. Is it just too much to ask from one president?"

Roberts ridiculously claimed that, as the first African-American president, Obama is “damned if you do, dammed if you don't” and we expect just too much for a "historical" president. Allison Samuels appeared on Roberts’ show to promote an article discussing Obama’s impact on race relations in the country.  The Newsweek journalist insisted that as a black president, many Americans were expecting miracles from him that just weren’t realistic of him.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

Once again, MSNBC has continued to prop up Rev. Al Sharpton’s racist conspiracies that state legislatures led by the GOP are deliberately suppressing minority voters through new voter ID laws.

On Friday’s episode of Jansing & Co., radio host and MSNBC substitute host Michael Smerconish led a left-wing attack on the GOP.  The panelists including Pennsylvania AFL-CIO chief Richard Bloomingdale asserted that a person's signature is sufficient identification to vote in the United States. Indeed, both Smerconish and Bloomingdale insisted they have voted that way for years in Pennsylvania with no problems.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC Live, Thomas Roberts continued the hysteria that fellow MSNBC host Al Sharpton created by claiming there is a concerted assault on minority voters across the country.  In an ‘interview’ with thegrio.com’s Earl Ofari Hutchinson, the two expressed fear that voting rights, particularly racial minorities like African-Americans, aren’t being protected by Congress.

Hutchinson used a National Urban League study to prop up his crazy assertions that voting rights are under attack.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

According to MSNBC's Tamron Hall on Wednesday, a Catholic priest denying Communion to a lesbian in Maryland is an example of "the very reason so many young people are turned off or are cautious about religion when you see moments like this."

The News Nation program featured a one-sided take on the story, which was given front page play by the liberal Washington Post. Hall interviewed Barbara Johnson, the woman involved and then featured Michael Smerconish to criticize the Priest for only choosing to deny Communion to the gay woman: "What about someone who’s in the church who’s utilizing contraception, someone who is supportive of the death penalty, someone who is prone toward profanity or maybe even living in sin?"

Trashing Rick Santorum as an extremist for his social conservatism and faith has become a daily, if not hourly, ritual on MSNBC. On Wednesday’s episode of NewsNation, anchor Tamron Hall took up the torch, furthering the sort of spin one would expect from a partisan Democrat about how Santorum is too far right for the general electorate:

    [H]e's great ad libbing and giving a speech that can connect, but as long as he appears on shows like "Meet The Press" and other programs and he takes on, of all people JFK, and he comes off as this for some people, even Republicans as this frightening character, the reality is, does he look like a general election candidate?  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

This could go down as some of the worst political advice ever.  Then again, consider the source.  Chris Hayes isn't exactly in the business of helping conservatives lead . . . or win elections.

On his MSNBC show this morning, Hayes advised conservatives to call the war that President Bush led against Iraq "criminal."  Yeah, that's the ticket. Video after the jump.

During Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's NewsNation, host Tamron Hall had to admit her audience clearly doesn’t pay attention to basic political facts.  While covering a Rick Santorum speech at a Tea Party event in Arizona Hall said the following: "I don't know if this is a joke or not but some people, many people have Tweeted asking why does he have ash on his forehead?  Asking if he's Catholic.  Yes."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

One would think that when a network mocks Santorum's religious beliefs and calls him extreme on a daily basis that their viewers would know that he is a devout Catholic.  Apparently that is too much to ask of the average MSNBC viewer.  

he have ash on his forehead?  Asking if he's Catholic.  Yes."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

One would think that when a network mocks Santorum's religious beliefs and calls him extreme on a daily basis that their viewers would know that he is a devout Catholic.  Apparently that is too much to ask of the average MSNBC viewer.  

Suffer me to begin with a suggestion: if you ever have the chance to hear the Rev. William Dailey of Notre Dame law school speak, jump on it.  Dailey is a stunningly brilliant advocate, among the best I have ever encountered on any issue.

Dailey appeared on today's Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC, where he masterfully made the case against the Obama administration's order forcing Catholic institutions to provide services that violate their moral principles. Predictably, the panel resorted to an ad hominem argument against him.  Panelist Michaela Angela David implicitly, and Hayes himself explicitly, argued that celibate Catholic priests lack the moral authority to make arguments on the issues at hand.  Dailey deftly turned the tables. Video after the jump.

There are few things the liberal media like more than a Republican renegade.  David Stockman has made a career out of strutting his independence from the GOP.  So little surprise that he was an honored guest on this morning's Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

That Stockman repaid his hosts by attacking Republicans was utterly predictable.  Even so, the absurdity of Stockman's particular assertion was breathtaking.  The former Reagan budget director actually claimed that the notion of American exceptionalism, a focus of Newt Gingrich's campaign, is nothing less than . . . "neo-con code" for an aggressive foreign policy.  Video after the jump.

If anyone's going to destroy Newt Gingrich's presidential aspirations, Hardball's Chris Matthews would rather it be him, or at least someone else in the liberal media. Appearing on colleague Tamron Hall's NewsNation program in today's 2 p.m. Eastern hour, Matthews whined about anti-Gingrich "bombing campaign" of TV ads placed by political action committees that have helped to drive down the former Speaker's poll numbers in the run up to tonight's caucuses.

"My sympathy is not for Newt, it's for democracy," Matthews pontificated, having argued that Romney's "wealthy friends have destroyed" Gingrich with a "Dresden"-style "bombing campaign." [video follows page break; MP3 audio available here]

Q. How do you know when MSNBC has sunk to unimaginable depths of Dem-partisan hackery? A. When even Al Sharpton renounces it.  

On his MSNBC show this evening, Sharpton said the network was right to apologize for the smear MSNBC host Thomas Roberts perpetrated against Mitt Romney earlier in the day, when Roberts suggested Romney had borrowed a campaign slogan from the Ku Klux Klan. Video after the jump.

No wonder President Obama adopted some of the language of the Occupy movement in his class-warfare speech this week.  It's led by the likes of Alfredo Carrasquillo, a fellow "community organizer" with whom the president perhaps identifies.  Carrasquillo specializes in breaking into foreclosed homes to dole them out to people—beginning with himself—to live in.

Chris Hayes gave Carrasquillo a sympathetic platform on his MSNBC show this morning. Making it clear that he was speaking as a "devil's advocate," not, God forbid, expressing his own opinion, Hayes gently inquired of Carrasquillo whether, you know, it could be said he has no right to break into and live in homes owned by others.   Dismissing the notion out of hand, Carrasquillo described theft of others' property as "technicalities."  That seemed good enough for Hayes, who helpfully pointed out that the homes Carrasquillo is breaking into "are just sitting there, no one's making use of them." Video after the jump.

Acting again as a video press release service for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), MSNBC today has repeatedly highlighted the DNC's complaints about new voter ID laws on several programs today.

In the 10 a.m. hour, Jansing & Co. anchor Chris Jansing gave a platform to the DNC's "director of voter protection" Will Crossley to plug he party's new website, protectingthevote.com. The segment was entitled onscreen, "War on Voters?" Jansing failed to bring on either a Republican Party official for a rebuttal nor a state secretary of state to defend voter ID measures.

On his Politics Nation program last night, Rev. Al Sharpton reacted with incredulity to a remark that former Speaker Newt Gingrich made on the campaign trail about there being millionaires collecting food stamps.

"I challenge Newt Gingrich to name one millionaire that he knows that's getting food stamps," Sharpton blustered, apparently unaware of news that broke in May of this year about lottery winner Leroy Fick. The Michigan man won $2 million in a state lottery game yet continued to collect food stamps because, as Ron French of the Detroit News reported: (emphasis mine)

Say, Al Sharpton: if Herman Cain lacks "intelligence" for colloquially referring to "Cuban" as a language, how about Barack Obama . . . who did precisely the same thing when it came to "Austrian"?

On his MSNBC show tonight, Sharpton mocked Cain for asking in an aside while munching on a Cuban delicacy during a campaign stop: "how do you say 'delicious' in Cuban?" Does Sharpton not know that Barack Obama, in a much more formal setting, addressing a NATO audience, said something virtually identical, wondering how a certain phrase was said "in Austrian"? Video after the jump.

The Penn State scandal couldn't be more serious.  Can't MSNBC find someone more serious than Al Sharpton to comment on it?

On his show this evening, Sharpton had another language run-in reminiscent of his "resist we much" moment.  This time, Sharpton mangled the name of Mike McQueary, the suspended Penn State assistant coach.   Sharpton rumbled, bumbled and stumbled before eventually pronouncing it "Muckary." Video after the jump.

MSNBC daytime host Tamron Hall failed to use the J-word -- jobs -- in alerting MSNBC viewers today of President Obama's decision to delay his decision on authorizing the proposed Keystone oil pipeline.

Noting the story on the 2 p.m. Eastern NewsNation program, Hall described the "massive oil pipeline" project as "controversial" because it would run through "an environmentally-sensitive area in Nebraska." As such, Hall added, President Obama wants to explore "other possible routes." Meanwhile "digging is on hold, likely until after the presidential election."

Four hours earlier on Chris Jansing Reports, substitute host Richard Lui very briefly noted that "critics claim the delay will cost the U.S. some 20,000 new jobs." There was no reference to the fact that many of those critics are Democrat-friendly labor unions.

It's one thing for your average, secular liberal not to know the New Testament.  But for the Reverend Al Sharpton not to know better?

On his MSNBC show this evening, Sharpton rolled video of Michelle Bachmann, after making the case for self-reliance, saying "if anyone will not work, neither shall they eat." Even this NewsBuster, who is anything but expert in the area, realized that Bachman was quoting Scripture to the effect that people who are unwilling--not unable--to work don't deserve support.  But Sharpton incredibly claimed Bachmann meant that "if you don't have work, you should starve."  Video after the jump.

Call yourself a Christian?  Then you can't oppose whatever welfare programs the Democrats devise.  So in effect argued Al Sharpton on his MSNBC show this evening.  

In the course of criticizing House Republicans for having passed a bill reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the national motto, Sharpton somehow equated Christianity with support for the liberal agenda.  And although I'm the opposite of an expert on Christian theology, he also came up with a formulation on faith and works that might be surprising to some Protestants.  Video after the jump.

For today's "Gut Check" segment on MSNBC's 2 p.m. Eastern NewsNation program, substitute host Craig Melvin interviewed a South Carolina sheriff who is urging women in his county to carry a concealed handgun for protection against would-be rapists.

During his Skype interview with Chuck Wright, Melvin worried about the poor dead would-be rapists being checked into the Spartanburg County morgue without the benefit of a trial (emphasis mine, video follows page break):