Conservatives & Republicans

In the present, liberals vehemently oppose what conservatives stand for (and vice versa, of course). But do liberals believe there was a time when conservatism was somewhat reasonable, or at least not appalling? Martin Longman offered an answer in a Friday post: It was “the reaction to FDR’s New Deal” that crystallized the suspicious, radical conservatism of today. “Conservatism is supposed to…

During the panel discussion on the Sunday edition ABC’s This Week, panelist and PBS host Tavis Smiley declared that he was “tickled” by the birtherism surrounding Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz being perpetuated by “an unrepentant, irascible religious and racial arsonist” in Donald Trump who also “troubles” him in that the media haven’t supposedly tried to project Trump on the entire…

Appearing as a guest on Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN to discuss CNN's town hall on guns with President Barack Obama, Washington Post media columnist Erik Wemple derided the National Rifle Association as "utterly cowardly" for refusing to take part. Fellow guest and right-leaning CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp then argued that the NRA had "no incentive" to attend because the President…

On Friday's Anderson Cooper 360, CNN correspondent Drew Griffin filed a report painting conservative opponents of President Barack Obama's gun control initiatives as conspiracy theorists, following up on the previous report finding that a number of gun owners in Florida are suspicious that Obama wants to go further with gun control that he is letting on.

Andrea Mitchell touted how "the [Bill] Clinton-[Tony] Blair relationship was, indeed, special" on Friday's NBC Nightly News, as she reported on the release of transcripts of conversations between the two former leaders during the former's presidency. Mitchell spotlighted how "Blair calls Clinton 'mate.' Clinton offers to babysit Blair's son. They chat about everything from Pink Panther movies to…

Yesterday at NewsBusters, Ken Shepherd noted how quickly and gleefully the New York Times jumped ("an impressive sprint capping off a year of solid job growth") on December's relatively strong jobs report. The Associated Press joined the parade — "US EMPLOYERS HIRE AT BLISTERING PACE, DEFYING GLOBAL TRENDS" – and kept its story as its lead in its Business "Top Stories" until late afternoon.…

Friday's NBC Nightly News failed to cover the arrests of two Iraqi refugees in Texas and California on terror charges. This omission came hours after the network's morning show, Today, led their broadcast with the story. The same evening, ABC and CBS's evening newscasts both covered the arrests of Aws Mohammed Younis al-Jayab and Omar Faraj Saeed al Hardan, who are accused of having connections…

In a Wednesday post, New York magazine's Chait sought to debunk the belief that Marco Rubio is a moderate. As for why some might see him that way, Chait suggested a few reasons, among them that Rubio, unlike fellow Republican presidential contenders Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, “avoids statements that make him appear ostentatiously deranged.” Chait argued that while Rubio’s focus on positioning…

Mike and Molly went there. The veteran CBS comedy mocked liberals beloved NPR. GASP! Molly mocks the sleep-inducing monotone voices used by the show hosts on NPR in “Cops on the Rocks.” In her own brilliant comedic way, McCarthy resorts to answering questions in radio interviews as though she is Terry Gross herself. 

In an interview with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday, Yahoo! News anchor Katie Couric grilled the Republican leader on gun control: “Let’s talk about President Obama’s executive action on guns. What did you think when the President cried?...Were you affected by it?” Couric demanded Ryan put “aside” the Constitution: “And I know you vehemently oppose the President’s use of executive actions,…

In the latter portion of Thursday night’s CNN “town hall” with President Barack Obama on gun control, host Anderson Cooper surprisingly pushed back at the President’s slam on opponents of his executive actions and policies on guns as conspiracy theorists.

President Obama’s teary presentation on guns was a teachable moment, contended Salon blogger Marcotte in a Wednesday post, but conservatives, busy directing figurative spitballs at the POTUS, missed the lesson.

In the days leading up to President Obama’s Guns In America townhall on CNN Thursday night, the network bent over backwards to hail the President’s side on gun control and belittle those in favor of the Second Amendment. The hour leading into the event at George Mason University was no different as Erin Burnett OutFront and fill-in host Kate Bolduan hailed the upcoming event as “historic event”…

Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter -- also of the Daily Beast -- tried to link GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz to the anti-Obama birther movement to make the Texas Senator appear hypocritical in brushing off Donald Trump's questions about Cruz's qualifications to serve as President. Alter, who has a history of…