CNN's Gloria Borger: Paul Ryan Is 'A Polarizing Figure

The attacks on newly announced Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan came fast and furious on CNN Saturday. Just before Candy Crowley said this "looks a little bit like some sort of ticket death wish," Gloria Borger called Ryan "a polarizing figure" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
August 11th, 2012 12:44 PM

Wolf Blitzer Quotes John Kerry In Plea for U.S. to 'Accelerate' Withdr

CNN's Wolf Blitzer resorted to using old footage of Democratic Senator John Kerry (Mass.) as a soldier to make his point about how the U.S. needs to speed up its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. "And I immediately recalled what Senator John Kerry told Congress when he returned from the Vietnam War four decades ago," Blitzer said Friday of when he got news of the deaths of American soldiers…
Matt Hadro
August 11th, 2012 12:30 PM

CNN's Candy Crowley Claims Some GOPers Think Ryan Pick ‘Some Sort of

As NewsBusters has been noting all Saturday morning, now that Paul Ryan has been chosen as Mitt Romney's running mate, the goal of the Obama-loving media is to rip him to shreds. Doing her part Saturday was CNN's Candy Crowley who claimed some Republicans (unnamed, of course) think this "looks a little bit like some sort of ticket death wish." [[Editor's Note: Since the townhall debate…
Noel Sheppard
August 11th, 2012 12:07 PM

Networks Falsely Slam Ryan as Spending Cutter Who Could ‘Destroy

Previewing the choice of Paul Ryan as the GOP vice presidential candidate, the ABC, CBS and NBC morning shows all used Democratic framing to describe the House GOP budget plan that Ryan championed as a plan to, as CBS’s Bob Schieffer put it, “cut more than $5 trillion over the next ten years.” ABC’s Bianna Golodryga passed along the demagogic rhetoric of liberals: “Democrats, meantime, contest…
Rich Noyes
August 11th, 2012 11:26 AM

MSNBC's Chris Hayes Falsely Names Paul Ryan 'Deciding Vote' for Medica

In the coming days and weeks, the job of the Obama-loving media is to blame all that ails the nation on newly-appointed Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan and to at every turn impugn his record as a member of Congress. Doing his part Saturday was MSNBC's Chris Hayes who falsely claimed Ryan in 2003 "cast the deciding vote" for Medicare's prescription drug benefit "because it…
Noel Sheppard
August 11th, 2012 11:02 AM

ABC Wraps Ryan in ‘Conservative’ Tags; No ‘Liberal’ Labels for

Breaking the news this morning that Mitt Romney has chosen Paul Ryan as his running mate, ABC’s Good Morning America in a single hour employed no fewer than seven “conservative” labels to label Ryan and his supporters. But four years ago as Barack Obama tapped Joe Biden, there wasn’t a single “liberal” label to be found on GMA’s coverage that Saturday morning. Ryan, ABC’s team accurately…
Rich Noyes
August 11th, 2012 9:57 AM

Romney Introduces Ryan As 'The Next POTUS' - Will Media Mention Obama

It seems a metaphysical certitude the big takeaway for the Obama-loving media from Saturday's announcement by Mitt Romney concerning his running mate is that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee introduced Paul Ryan as "the next President of the United States." As they bash Romney for this error, will they mention candidate Obama did the same thing when he introduced Joe Biden as…
Noel Sheppard
August 11th, 2012 9:42 AM

AP's Rugaber Erroneously Claims Obama's Pledge to Cut Deficit in Half

UPDATE: The AP has corrected its story. The related NewsBusters post is here. In his coverage of the latest Monthly Treasury Statement showing July and year-to-date federal budget deficits of $69.6 billion and $974 billion, respectively, Christopher Rugaber at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, cut President Obama a significant break when he wrote that "GOP candidate Mitt…
Tom Blumer
August 11th, 2012 9:18 AM

AP's Fahey Worries That High Gas Prices Might 'Put Pressure' on Obama

Friday afternoon, the Associated Press's Jonathan Fahey couldn't get four paragraphs into his report on higher gas prices nationwide without starting to fret about their impact on President Obama's re-election effort. He also wanted readers to understand without any doubt that President Obama and the by inference his government bear absolutely no responsibility for the recent run-up to a…
Tom Blumer
August 11th, 2012 7:56 AM

Media First ROFL Spin On a Paul Ryan Veep Pick: Too Inexperienced to B

The Drudge Report singled out political writer Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker as having the unintentionally hilarious first spin on the reported pick of Paul Ryan to be Romney's running mate. Lizza immediately started to "tally the risks." "For one thing, Ryan has no significant private-sector experience," he wrote. He wrote this with zero ackowledgment of Obama's private-sector experience…
Tim Graham
August 11th, 2012 7:18 AM

Open Thread: Romney's VP Choice

According to a news release from the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, the soon-to-be Republican nominee will announce his running mate later today. Word has it that the likely pick is Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan although such predictions have been known to be wrong in the past. In 2008, Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty was expected to be John McCain's running mate. Who do you think it will…
NB Staff
August 11th, 2012 6:30 AM

Harry Belafonte: Romney Election Would Cause 'End of Civilization

Previously known for his crooning of smooth Calypso tunes, these days Harry Belafonte is best known for his liberal activism, as indicated in a Q&A session with the Hollywood Reporter in which he states that if GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is elected, it would mean “the end of civilization.” The 85-year-old singer was attending the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on Tuesday…
Randy Hall
August 11th, 2012 4:27 AM

Daily Kos Week in Review: Anti-Life Meat Puppets

Plenty of Kossacks blamed the right for creating the atmosphere that brought about last weekend's Sikh temple mass murder in Wisconsin. Moreover, one argued that the killings dovetailed with conservatives' belief that life itself is the enemy, and that their dream is for "Earth to be as sterile and silent as the Moon."        As usual, each headline is preceded by the blogger's name or…
Tom Johnson
August 10th, 2012 11:10 PM

Politico's Simon Sees Racist 'Dog Whistle' in Anti-Obama Welfare Ad

Appearing as a panel member on Friday's Inside Washington on PBS, Politico's Roger Simon claimed to see racism in a campaign ad against President Obama which criticizes the President for granting waivers to some states to loosen work requirements for welfare recipients. After host Gordon Peterson recalled that fellow panel member Charles Krauthammer had called the ad "accurate," Simon…
Brad Wilmouth
August 10th, 2012 10:25 PM