Government shutdown

Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein unleashed a tirade against House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and “his Republicans” on Wednesday’s Morning Joe. After co-host Mika Brzezinski read a passage from Thomas Friedman’s scathing indictment of Tea Party Republicans in The New York Times, Bernstein promised, “I’ll go farther than Friedman.” He certainly did: “Eric Cantor and his Republican Party are the…

A sure sign that Dear Leader in the White House is under siege? His most ardent followers in media are sounding like denizens of Radio Rwanda circa 1994. Latest example -- liberal radio host Stephanie Miller, aka the "Sexy Liberal" (yes, she actually calls herself that) upping the ante with a bedwetter of a caller who feared for his children's safety because of the partial government shutdown. (…

For two straight days, Nancy Cordes strongly hinted on CBS This Morning that House Republicans were to blame for the ongoing government shutdown. On Tuesday, Cordes hounded GOP Congressman Robert Pittenger: "All the polls show that a majority of Americans don't want to see the government shut down over ObamaCare. How can you say the American people is on your side?" The correspondent tossed a…

On Tuesday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC.com Executive Editor Richard Wolffe -- formerly of Newsweek -- predicted that, because Republicans embraced the Tea Party, setting up the path to a government shutdown, Republican party members are "destroying their brand" and "will not be trusted" "for a generation to come." Wolffe began:

  As Barack Obama wrapped up a speech from the White House on Tuesday, reporter Jon Karl of ABC actually shouted a tough question at the President, wondering, "...If you won't negotiate, how can you get a solution? How can you bring an end to this if you won't talk to the congressional leaders?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Anchor George Stephanopoulos noted that "Obama ignor[ed] a…

On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams sneered that the government shutdown was "being driven by a committed core of Republican members of Congress who are all but assured of re-election in their districts, and just can't be conservative enough for many of the folks back home." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] In the report that followed, chief White House…

Brett Zongker, the reporter the Associated Press assigned to cover the World War II Memorial story yesterday in Washington, apparently felt compelled to try to find someone who would exclusively blame Congress for the memorial's closure. He failed, but pretended that he succeeded. For those unfamiliar with the story, in an overrecation to the partial government shutdown, the White House,…

If NBC’s Tonight Show audience is any indication. Americans aren’t buying into the media’s hysteria concerning the government shutdown. Quite the contrary, when host Jay Leno asked, “How many are worried about the government shutdown,” not one person in the studio audience applauded (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On Monday morning, Time/MSNBC political analyst Mark Halperin explained an obvious political reality to his fellow Morning Joe panelists: “The White House does not have much incentive” to negotiate on the government shutdown, because Democrats expect the liberal news media to hand them a public relations victory. As Halperin put it: “The press is largely sympathetic to their arguments that it’s…

The shutdown fearmongering continues apace, and Time magazine is dutifully passing along the administration's talking points. Here's the latest: the government work stoppage could drive cash-starved spies into the arms of other countries. It would make otherwise patriotic Americans become traitors. Denver Nicks hacked out the short four-paragraph item this morning, excerpted in full below the…

Last evening NBC Nightly News featured the story about WWII veterans who were denied access to the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C. supposedly due to the government shutdown. After being denied entry for about 15 minutes, a group of congressional officials opened the barricades and tape to allow entry of the veterans. To watch this NBC News report you would barely have any idea who lowered the…

On Tuesday's AC360 Later, Tina Brown said that Republicans are fighting ObamaCare with "suicide vests" and that President Obama looks "statesmanlike" in talking to Iran but not the GOP. "Maybe Vladimir Putin can break the logjam here," The Daily Beast co-founder quipped. She added, "it is just incredible to me to watch these Republicans putting on their suicide vests and thinking this is going…

Once again, we’ve reached a government shutdown over irresponsible government spending. Once more, the media are proclaiming the world is coming to an end and blaming conservative Republicans for everything. They are working hand in glove with the Never Enough Government lobby that dominates Washington, without a shred of shame. Anchors and editors continue to insist that if the GOP were smart…

The folks in office administration at the Politico had better put in for extra janitorial help. With all the horse manure their reporters are slinging during the partial government shutdown, it's gotta be getting knee-deep in those hoary halls. One of the more egregious examples of insufferable obsequiousness today came late this morning via Edward-Isaac Dovere and Reid J. Epstein. You see, in…