ABC Offers Actual Dissenting Voices on Gun Control, Still Frets Over

After spending the first half of the week acting as a stenographer for Barack Obama, Jon Karl on Wednesday night and Thursday morning finally featured some dissenting voices on the rush to promote gun control. The ABC White House correspondent sought out attendees at a gun show and leaders of the NRA. Yet, he still managed to hype the opposition as "ferocious," a word not often used for liberal…
Scott Whitlock
January 17th, 2013 4:06 PM

Despite CNN's Gun Control Advocacy, Polls Show Drop In Support

Despite CNN waging a crusade for gun control over the past month, and host Piers Morgan drawing attention with his incessant activism and bullying of his opponents on the gun issue, CNN’s own poll shows that support for some gun control measures has dropped over the past month. CNN.com reported on its poll Wednesday: "According to the survey, 56% support a ban on semi-automatic guns, but that…
Matt Vespa
January 17th, 2013 3:48 PM

More Pretentious Nonsense from NYT's Movie Critics: 'Transformer' Movi

New York Times movie critics A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis team up for next Sunday's edition (posted early online) to once again pour their peculiar brand of pretentiousness over the latest crop of innocent films: "Movies in the Age of Obama." In the summer of 2011, Dargis lamented "the symbolic phallus" present in the form of a rifle in a Western. Last July she managed to make a villain out…
Clay Waters
January 17th, 2013 3:24 PM

On Violence, Obama Gives His Hollywood Pals a Pass

As Obama investigates ‘the best way to reduce gun violence’ he ignores calling Hollywood to accountability
Kristine Marsh
January 17th, 2013 2:58 PM

As Support for Gun Control Slips, Piers Morgan Picks On Women Gun Righ

Despite Piers Morgan's consistent advocacy, CNN's own polls show support for certain gun laws down from a month ago. That didn't stop Morgan from targeting two female gun rights advocates on his Wednesday night show, asking absurd questions, constantly interrupting them, and throwing a juvenile hissy fit. "Where does it say you can have an assault weapon that can fire 100 bullets in a minute…
Matt Hadro
January 17th, 2013 1:01 PM

NBC Cheers Obama 'Fighting Back' With 'Emotional Plea' for Gun Restric

At the top of Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams enthusiastically touted President Obama playing offense on gun regulations: "Fighting back. President Obama is out with his plan on gun control, the most sweeping in generations. As the NRA uses the President's own daughters in an attack ad." Moments later, Williams framed the debate this way: "President Obama came out with…
Kyle Drennen
January 17th, 2013 12:54 PM

MSNBC's Touré Neblett Upset He Was Included in Exposé of Anti-gun Hy

It's one thing for a journalist to promote stricter gun control but quite another to put that belief into practice. That's the message of a video produced by conservative activist James O'Keefe, who visited the homes of anti-gun reporters -- including Touré Neblett, the co-host of MSNBC's “The Cycle” -- and offered to give them a yard sign that read: “This Home Is Proudly Gun Free.” Neblett…
Randy Hall
January 17th, 2013 12:19 PM

Sally Quinn Waxes Philosophical About Our Need for Inaugural Ceremony

In a 14-paragraph Style section front-pager today headlined "Ceremony is a civic ritual for all of us," the Washington Post's Sally Quinn waxed philosophical about how we as Americans need the pomp and circumstance of the quadrennial presidential inaugural ceremonies to unite us as Americans and swell our hearts with civic pride, regardless of who is president.  "[T]his is America's chance to…
Ken Shepherd
January 17th, 2013 11:19 AM

Weekend at Hugo's: AP Misses That Chavez Decree Was Supposedly Signed

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead! But is Presidente Hugo Chavez of Venezuela still alive? In what might be a case of life imitating art, could the vice-president of Venezuela be attempting to replicate "Weekend At Bernie's?" To refresh your memory of that entertaining comedy movie, two young insurance executives are desperate to maintain the fiction that their boss, Bernie, is still…
P.J. Gladnick
January 17th, 2013 10:55 AM

Wires Trumpet '5-Year Low' in Seasonally Adjusted Jobless Claims, Igno

None of the three major wire services covering today's report from the Department of Labor on initial unemployment claims is reporting the major news: For the first time in a long while, actual claims filed during the most recent week ended January 12 were almost 6 percent higher than the number filed during last year's comparable week, an indication that the current employment market may be…
Tom Blumer
January 17th, 2013 10:49 AM

Mark Levin Calls Bob Schieffer a 'Phony Journalist,' 'Propagandist' an

NewsBusters reported Wednesday that CBS's Bob Schieffer compared President Obama taking on the gun lobby to America defeating the Nazis in World War II. Hours later, conservative talk radio host Mark Levin took on this nonsense calling Schieffer "a Potemkin journalist, a phony" who behaves like a "propagandist" and an Obama "cheerleader" (transcribed highlights follow, audio available at…
Noel Sheppard
January 17th, 2013 9:10 AM

Open Thread Thursday

For general discussion and comment about the news of the day.
NB Staff
January 17th, 2013 9:09 AM

New York Times Again Unfairly Slams Sarah Palin for Giffords's Shootin

New York Times reporter Peter Baker explored the metaphorical challenges of the gun debate: "In Debate Over Curbing Gun Violence, Even Language Can Be Loaded." It was a politically balanced, if perhaps oversensitive, analysis, until an unfair reference tying Sarah Palin, the former GOP vice presidential candidate, to the shooting by schizophrenic Jared Loughner of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. It's…
Clay Waters
January 17th, 2013 8:13 AM

Brokaw: Silence On Gun Violence Akin To Failing To Oppose Segregation

Talk about your strained analogies . . . Tom Brokaw has analogized people unwilling to support measures aimed at limiting gun violence to those during the 1960s who were unwilling to speak out againt the likes of Bull Connor. Brokaw made his remarks on today's Morning Joe.  While asserting that he favored a "holistic" approach to gun violence, including addressing video games and the…
Mark Finkelstein
January 17th, 2013 7:51 AM