Foreign Policy

Using clips from the 1973 Watergate hearings, MSNBC’s Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell went off on Wednesday at the House Select Committee on Benghazi for failing to exhibit the Watergate committee’s professionalism and instead being “oblivious and uninhibited” in creating a hearing that he promises will “waste enormous amounts of time on irrelevant questions.”

Previewing Hillary Clinton’s testimony Thursday morning before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 did their best on Wednesday to paint the most flattering picture possible of Clinton being “battle tested” with “steady nerves” despite “withering attacks” and the ability to turn “even a hot seat, if not comfortable, at least cooler.”

It might be apocryphal, but the famous quote attributed to Pauline Kael, the late film critic of the New York Times, is along the lines of "how could Nixon have won? Nobody I know voted for him." Mika Brzezinski had her Pauline Kael moment on today's Morning Joe.  Mika declared herself "really surprised" by poll numbers showing there are more Americans dissatisfied with Hillary Clinton's…

On Tuesday night, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC applauded the victory Monday night by the leftist Liberal Party in Canada and leader Justin Trudeau, whom they declared to be the country’s “young, new leader” possessing “a little northern star power.” In contrast, when looking at reelection victories earlier in the year by the right-leaning David Cameron in the United Kingdom and Benjamin…

When President Obama meets in Washington November 9 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, I would imagine Netanyahu's main concern will be to find out exactly what the U.S. means by "infringement" as it applies to the Iran nuclear agreement. What exactly will the U.S. do when, not if, Iran violates the deal? What if Israel and the U.S. disagree as to whether there has been a violation?

This could be the worst whitewashing since Tom Sawyer suckered people into helping him with that fence... On today's Morning Joe, Joe Klein cleared Hillary of responsibility for American deaths in Benghazi, and blamed the CIA.   According to Klein, "this really was a CIA station there, not so much a consulate, and those guys should be able to protect themselves in most circumstances." Klein…

During MSNBC’s 3 p.m. ET hour on Monday, anchor Kate Snow and Middle East correspondent Martin Fletcher apologized for using false maps depicting Israeli and Palestinian territory during a Thursday segment about escalating violence in the region. Snow began: “Last Thursday, in an attempt to talk about the context for the current turmoil in the Middle East we showed a series of maps of the…

During an appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday, veteran journalist Carl Bernstein trashed the Benghazi committee ahead of Hillary Clinton’s testimony and insisted the Democrat will “murder them because it has been a witch hunt. It has been partisan. It's great opportunity for her.” 

During an appearance on Sunday’s Meet the Press, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell complained to House Benghazi committee member Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) as to why “have you focused to much on e-mails and not on the central question of why was the security failure at that consulate?” 

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, the Washington Post’s Charles Lane helped preview Hillary Clinton’s upcoming testimony before the House Benghazi committee and declared “she comes in brimming with confidence.” Lane heaped praise on Clinton’s debate performance, specifically when she compared the Republicans with the Iranians as a moment when the Democratic frontrunner appeared “humorable…

Michael Kinsley’s second-best-known contribution to political discourse, trailing only the “Kinsley gaffe,” is his observation that “the scandal isn't the illegal behavior -- the scandal is what's legal.” In a Thursday post, Steve Benen, a producer for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show and the primary writer for the TRMS blog, sought to apply Kinsley’s wisdom to the congressional inquiry into the…

Based on a map presented during a recent MSNBC broadcast, I'm left wondring why there's all this hand-wringing over a "two state solution" in the Middle East. After all, according to that MSNBC map and the host of the program involved, "Palestine" has been around for almost 70 years, existing since 1946 (HT Sooper Mexican at the Right Scoop):

Finally getting his chance to interview Hillary Clinton on Friday’s The Lead, CNN anchor Jake Tapper didn’t exactly measure up as while he did what other reporters failed to do in asking Clinton about her relationship with Sidney Blumenthal, he cozied up to her on the recent marking of her and Bill’s 40th wedding anniversary plus sarcastically asking he could “get your e-mail address.”

Thursday's CBS Evening News was the sole Big Three network morning and evening newscast to report on the death of Ken Taylor, the former Canadian ambassador to Iran who helped six Americans escape during the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran. As of Friday morning, ABC's Good Morning America and World News Tonight, along with NBC's Today and NBC Nightly News, have yet to cover Taylor's death.