Conservatives & Republicans

On Thursday's NBC Today, congressional correspondent Kelly O'Donnell reported on a war of words between Republican Congressman Allen West and Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "...West, a freshman Republican who hit 'send' on a nasty e-mail to Wasserman-Schultz....Democratic congresswomen accuse West of sexual harassment." While O'Donnell quoted from West's email – in which…

  On Wednesday’s The Ed Show, MSNBC host Ed Schultz came to Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s defense against what he called a "right-wing hit job" from the Daily Caller in the form of an article alleging that the Minnesota Congresswoman suffers from severe migraines. But one may question whether Schultz waded into taking a side in the controversy as an excuse for bolstering…

Hardball host Chris Matthews on Wednesday lied about Ronald Reagan's position on taxes in order to justify his bizarre assertion that the late President would consider the current Republican stance on the debt ceiling to be "economic terrorism." Matthews, who did no fact checking, played a clip provided by the Congressional Progressive Caucus from a  September 26 1987 Reagan radio address.…

On Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd promoted the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, declaring that when it came to raising the nation's debt ceiling, "...it was a landslide as far as what the public preferred. 58% preferring the President's vision on that front versus 36% [for the Republican proposal]." Todd went on to conclude that "most of this poll…

"Your World w/ Cavuto" guest host Stuart Varney interviewed NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham today about the media bias against the conservative Cut, Cap and Balance plan and how the media have boosted the “Gang of Six” plan instead. Guest host Stuart Varney of Fox Business Network will conduct the interview. Video of the nearly 3-minute-long interview follows the page break:

On Tuesday's Morning Edition, NPR's Julie Rovner spun the debate over a proposed mandate for private insurance companies to cover birth control without a copay as being between "women's health groups," which were not given an ideological label, and organizations such as the Family Research Council, which she clearly identified as "conservative." A representative from her example of a "women's…

Referencing the sweet reason of the New York Times's "conservative" David Brooks, CNN's Brooke Baldwin urged Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to listen to the voice of compromise in the debt ceiling debate. Baldwin pleaded with Hatch that "there are folks out there – including conservatives – saying President Obama has already offered Republican [sic] the deal of their dreams," although Hatch later…

On Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry admonished Republicans for trying to pass a balanced budget amendment as part of a debt ceiling agreement: "Tea Party conservatives love this plan. The President has already said that he's going to veto it. Do we really have time for a plan that is really just show?" [Audio available here] In response, congressional correspondent Kelly O'Donnell…

According to Chris Matthews, conservative House Republicans who are holding steadfast on resisting a debt ceiling deal that includes tax hikes are like the apocryphal bovine of doom behind the 1871 fire that destroyed much of Chicago (video follows page break):

Monday's NBC Today decided to devote a six-minute segment in the 8 a.m. ET hour to America's "obsession" with breasts, with co-host Ann Curry declaring: "...they have become an object of sort of undue fascination." As the report was teased throughout the broadcast and during the segment itself, 54 pairs of breasts appeared on screen, with some images repeated. Update:  It turns out that in…

In an interview with the Dalai Lama aired on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry bizarrely asked the Tibetan spiritual leader about the debt ceiling fight in Congress: "The President is in a fierce struggle with his political opponents over the future of the nation's finances. What is the best way, your best advice, in how to find compromise with those you deeply disagree with?" [Audio…

In an unbylined update of the latest developments in the budget-tax-spending-debt ceiling discussions in Washington this morning, the Associated Press committed several blunders in attempting to explain what's going on and how we got to where we are. First and foremost was its list identifying "contributors" to the $8.5 trillion growth in the national debt since 2001. Here's the AP's you-can'…

Per Reuters blogger James Pethokoukis, Goldman Sachs, demonstrating Democratic-friendly timing similar to that seen at the New York Times a month or so ago, published an extraordinarily gloomy economic forecast last night. Here are some of the details he quotes: "Following another week of weak economic data, we have cut our estimates for real GDP growth in the second and third quarter of…

[Update, 11:10 am Monday July 18: Jenn Theis was identified on-screen by CBS as a "laid-off government worker." She wrote us to clarify that she was actually employed by a private business that is regulated by the Minnesota racing commission. Another guest from that segment, Chris Lapakko, wrote the author on Twitter on Saturday to call him a "dick;" see screen cap here.] CBS turned to three…