ABC's Tapper: White House Hails A 'Good Week' After 'Gift' From Joe Ba

On Friday's Good Morning America on ABC, White House correspondent Jake Tapper described  White House reaction to Republican Congressman Joe Barton calling BP's $20 billion escrow fund the result of a government "shakedown": "...the argument they're making, that the Republican Party is too close to corporate America.....And they've been given this great foil by Joe Barton."When co-host George…

Catching Heat From Left, Obama Meets With Liberal Commentators to Disc

President Obama met with a group of prominent liberal commentators on Thursday to discuss the Gulf oil spill and the administration's response. The meeting came in the midst of a rare firestorm of criticism from the left over the president's response to the spill.It was surely not coincidence that the journalists seen leaving the White House that afternoon--the New York Times's Gail Collins, the…

ABC Focuses Oil Spill Blame on BP and Coast Guard, Not Obama; CBS Give

On Thursday's Good Morning America on ABC, co-host George Stephanopoulos laid blame on BP and Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen for mishandling the Gulf oil spill response but depicted the Obama administration as having done everything it could. In contrast, on the CBS Early Show, guests from both sides of the aisle gave the President a 'C' grade for his response.  At the top of Good Morning America…

MSNBC's Brewer Annoyed at Barton's 'Shakedown' Reference, But Colleagu

In a satellite interview with Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) held shortly before 1 p.m. EDT today, MSNBC's Contessa Brewer criticized Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) for denouncing the president for pushing BP to agree to a $20-billion escrow account for oil spill damages as a "shakedown": So, there's Joe Barton calling the $20 billion in escrow a shakedown, and as you point out, there are people in…

Chris Matthews Crams Year's Worth of Anti-Tea Party Cliches into One H

What do Tea Partiers, Truthers, birthers, Birchers, militias, Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell, Barry Goldwater, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Ronald Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Rand Paul, Alex Jones, Orly Taitz, and Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh all have in common? Approximately nothing, but don't tell Chris Matthews.The MSNBC "Hardball" host…

Ed Schultz Hates Country Star Lee Greenwood's Patriotic Song 'God Bles

Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer found Ed Schultz on his radio show Tuesday mocked country star Lee Greenwood and his patriotic song "God Bless the USA," which he suggested was an anthem for American imperialism. Remember when every time we invaded an oil-rich country or any time there was any kind of confrontation, we were subjected to -- ad nauseam, I might add -- [mock sings, really badly] "…

CNN Airs Gushing Two-Part Report on 'Powerhouse' Anti-Prop 8 Lawyers

CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger returned to her roots as a slanted journalist on Wednesday's Newsroom with a glowing two-part report on Ted Olson and David Boies, the former rivals in Bush v. Gore who are now fighting to overturn California's Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex "marriage." Borger portrayed their coalition as "a script that could have been written in Hollywood."…

Defending the Indefensible: ABC's Moran, Stephanopoulos Shill for Obam

Despite widespread criticism of President Barack Obama's Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill–including flak from MSNBC's left-wing posse of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Howard Fineman–ABC's Terry Moran and George Stephanopoulos on the June 15 "Nightline" fawned over the president's speech and ignored its obvious shortcomings.In recapping the address, Moran could not contain his…

NY Times Departing Public Editor Hoyt: We're Not the Fox News of the L

Clark Hoyt filed his last column as the New York Times's Public Editor: "A Final  Report From Internal Affairs," praising the cooperation of Times reporters and editors during his term and fending off accusations that the paper is a "liberal rag." Hoyt admitted the editorial page and columnists are liberal and that the paper "shares the prevailing sensibilities of the city and region where it is…

Politico's Roger Simon: Obama 'Calling Out' Bobby Jindal's 'Hypocrisy

Appearing on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Tuesday, Politico columnist Roger Simon described a recent interview with President Obama: "...he showed a genuine irritation....when people like Bobby Jindal, you know, standing up, screaming about more federal action...a small-government, no federal aid kind of guy. And the President is calling out those people for hypocrisy."Simon was discussing…

CNN's Soledad O'Brien Sympathizes With Lesbian Teen's Plight

On Monday's Campbell Brown program, CNN's Soledad O'Brien presented a one-sided report about a lesbian teenager in Mississippi whose senior portrait was left out of her school's yearbook because she chose to have it taken in a tux, defying the school's rules. O'Brien commiserated with the teen, asking her at one point, "I want people to understand because other people will say- oh, for God's sake…

ABC's Stephanopoulos Lobbs Softballs to Gibbs; CBS and NBC Provide Cha

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made the rounds on the network morning shows on Tuesday, ahead of President Obama's prime time Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill. While he had confrontational interviews on CBS's Early Show and NBC's Today, on ABC's Good Morning America, co-host George Stephanopoulos made sure Gibbs's appearance was low-stress.Stephanopoulos kept the questions…

Follow-up: AP TV Says Etheridge 'Manhandles' Questioner; Text Coverage

It would appear, based on the graphic tease reproduced at the right and the underlying content, that the folks putting together videos at the Associated Press didn't get the memo that they should go as soft as possible on North Carolina Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge. Etheridge arguably committed assault "last week" when approached on a public street. The description of what occurred and…

Poll Finds Plurality of Voters Think Dems Are Too Liberal, Undermining

The legacy media love to paint steadfast conservatives as "far right" "ideologues" who are destroying the GOP's "big tent" and "purging" moderates. The notion that the Republican Party has drifted too far to the right, however, is contradicted by a new Gallup poll showing that Americans are more concerned about Democrats' fringe elements.About half (49%) of poll respondents told Gallup that they…