Conservatives & Republicans

Carol Costello, who got a kick out of the assault on Bristol Palin, lamented on Thursday's CNN Newsroom that "the national conversation surrounding sexual assault on campus has taken kind of an ugly turn. It's become this he-said, she-said politically-tinged fight." Costello cited the attention on Lena Dunham's rape claim in her memoir as an example. The anchor also spotlighted how conservative…

In a Tuesday interview with Texas governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate Rick Perry aired on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday, political reporter Kasie Hunt questioned the Republican's intelligence: "Are you smart enough to be President of the United States?"

The House Select Committee on Benghazi that is looking into the 2012 terror attacks in Libya held another hearing on Wednesday and focused on the lack of sufficient security that was in place in Benghazi which, based on the hearing, remains the case across many State Department facilities. When it came to the major broadcast networks reporting on the hearing, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC…

Chris Matthews is no fan of retiring conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann (R), but it's rare that he attacks everyday rank-and-file Republican voters. Tonight was an exception as the MSNBC Hardball host excoriated the voters of Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District for repeatedly having elected her to the House of Representatives.

The Wednesday editions of NBC Nightly News and ABC's World News Tonight both spotlighted many Democratic lawmakers' objections to portions of a proposed budget compromise in Congress. However, the two evening newscasts couldn't be bothered to mention that many congressional Republicans and their conservative allies also object to parts of the bill, especially on immigration and on social issues.

Nearly six years into Barack Obama's presidency, it's still George W. Bush's fault. Early Wednesday morning, Julie Pace at the Associated Press proved yet again why it is more than appropriate to characterize the wire service where she works as the Administration's Press. The headline at Pace's story tells us that poor President Barack Obama still has to confront the "Bush legacy," and is still…

The Talking Points Memo editor and publisher contends that no matter what right-wingers say, Obamacare is “almost certainly the most deeply scrutinized, discussed and argued over piece of legislation of the entire 20th century and early 21st century.”

It's more than fair to wonder why the Associated Press waited until 9:41 p.m. ET Tuesday evening to recognize the existence of Lena Dunham's most recent problems with the truth. The AP's first recognition of the days-old story came roughly two hours after Dunham's first detailed response to convincing allegations that the account in her most recent book of being raped in college by someone named…

After a month in which NBC Nightly News gave more prominence to ugly Christmas sweaters, grape salad, Al Roker's 34-hour weather report, and a live broadcast of Peter Pan starring Brian Williams' daughter, Allison, the broadcast finally discovered Jonathan Gruber. On Tuesday evening, NBC’s evening newscast acknowledged the name Jonathan Gruber for the first time and his insulting comments…

Dylan Scott writes that “Gruber-mania has gripped the conservative mediasphere in a way that few stories have, becoming another brand-name controversy like Benghazi and the IRS,” and that “the larger meaning was baked into Gruber-gate -- there is a hashtag and Gruber can now be used as a verb -- almost immediately.”

On Monday, ABC and NBC's morning newscasts both touted the upcoming congressional report on the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation techniques as "explosive" and "damning." However, neither network pointed out that it was Democratic members on the Senate Intelligence Committee that commissioned the document. By contrast, CBS This Morning reported that "Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are…

During a panel discussion on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report argued that the reason comprehensive immigration reform wasn’t getting passed was because of the racial makeup of House Republican districts: “Here’s the problem with the House, at the end of the day, the House does not look like the country.”

Laura Kipnis of Northwestern University claims that “you can tell a lot about a man by what he thinks about Hillary, maybe even everything,” and that conservatives who’ve written biographies of her tend to be “guys with a lot of psychological baggage, emotional intensity, and messy inner lives.”