CBS: Ryan ‘Absolutely’ Sees 2016 GOP Nomination as ‘Not Worth Having'

The journalists at CBS This Morning on Wednesday speculated that one reason Speaker of the House Paul Ryan disavowed any interest in the 2016 Republican nomination is because it’s “not worth having.” Talking to reporter Nancy Cordes, co-host Charlie Rose speculated, “Is it possible he thinks this is not a nomination worth having in this political year?” 
Scott Whitlock

Singer Ciara on Russell Wilson Engagement: ‘God Had a Plan’

The big-name couple that once made headlines for practicing abstinence is now capturing attention for their God-centered relationship. Singer Ciara graced the cover of Essence magazine’s May issue. Inside, the Grammy winner revealed that she trusted “God had a plan” after an ugly break-up in 2014 and that she wanted a “God fearing man.” She found that man in her fiancé Seattle Seahawks…
Katie Yoder

Networks Style Bathroom Bills ‘Legal Protection’ for Transgenders

Transgender bathroom bills were a hot topic and a favorite of the media including NBC, ABC, and CBS this past year. The networks have made clear where they stand as state after state decides whether it will require transgenders to use the bathroom corresponding with the gender indicated on his or her birth certificate. Since July 1, 2015, the networks have devoted 48 stories to the array of…
Mairead McArdle

Networks Push Lefty Corporate Campaign Against Religious Freedom Bills

Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010, the broadcast networks have been whining about corporate influence in politics — but not right now. The media often attack the conservative Koch brothers for “trying to influence the political process.” They similarly complained that the Supreme Court was “opening the floodgates for big money” when the Citizens United ruling allowed…
Aly Nielsen

Fmr. Cruz Aide: Trump Now Believes He'll Lose Nomination at Convention

Does Donald Trump think he's going to lose the nomination at the convention? Are his current complaints about RNC "dirty tricks," the system being "rigged," etc. a preview of the explanation he'll be offering when he does indeed lose?  Yes, and yes, if you buy what former senior Cruz aide Rick Tyler said on today's Morning Joe. After the show rolled video of Trump's attacks on the RNC, Joe…
Mark Finkelstein

Bozell & Graham Column: Donald Trump's Rigged Media

Now that the Republican campaign looks like it will last until a contested convention in Cleveland, Donald Trump and his supporters assert the whole system looks undemocratic. But if democracy was organized to give everyone a fair and equal shot to impress the voters based on their knowledge and experience, then this system has been rigged for Donald Trump for the last nine months. The media -…
Brent Bozell and Tim Graham

Brown Touts Bogus Claim 100,000 TX Women 'Have Tried to Self-Abort'

During the daily segment on MSNBC’s Hardball entitled “Tell Me Something I Didn’t Know” on Tuesday, longtime British journalist and former Newsweek head Tina Brown touted the widely debunked claim that “over 100,000 women in Texas have tried to self-abort” since 2011 due to pro-life legislation.
Curtis Houck

O'Donnell Fact-Checks Clinton on 'Obscure and Useless' Guns Stat

Tuesday night’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC took Hillary Clinton to task for her claims about out-of-state guns being brought into New York to commit crimes. In a pretty obvious swing at her competitor Bernie Sanders on Monday, she made the claim that Vermont contributed to the most gun violence in New York. O’Donnell fact-checked Clinton on this, saying her campaign invented an “…
Kristine Marsh

MSNBC’s Howard Dean Stands By Hillary Blaming VT’s Guns on NY Crime

Appearing on Tuesday’s Hardball as both an MSNBC political analyst and Hillary Clinton supporter, former Democratic Vermont Governor Howard Dean firmly defended Clinton’s repeated attacks on his home state for not having strict gun control laws and contributing to Vermont guns being used to commit violent crimes in New York.
Curtis Houck

Heilemann to Ice Cube: Ferguson, Baltimore Were 'Police Brutality'

Question to John Heilemann: what's your proof? On his With All Due Respect show this evening, interviewing Ice Cube of NWA, Heilemann flatly stated that the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Freddie Gray in Baltimore were instances of "police brutality." In the Brown case, the grand jury, which included three African-Americans, declined to bring an indictment against Darren Wilson…
Mark Finkelstein

NBC Spreads Debunked ‘Facts’ On ‘Equal Pay Day’

NBC’s Nightly News Tuesday did itself a disservice by spreading “facts” about pay inequality that have been debunked for years. Anchor Lester Holt opened the program by trotting out the tired old “Women make seventy-nine cents for every dollar a man makes” line before delving into the report, which relies on celebrities and disenfranchised civilians repeating faulty statistics as “proof” that the…
Kristine Marsh

Pelley Frets to Kasich He’ll ‘Tear Out ObamaCare,’ Send U.S. ‘to War'

As part of an interview with GOP presidential candidate John Kasich that aired on Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley fretted that Kasich might “tear out ObamaCare, root and branch, start all over again” and signal to the American people that they will be “going to war” to defeat ISIS. 
Curtis Houck

Jonathan Chait: Conservatives, ‘Acceptable’ Health Reform Don’t Mix

There’s a crucial difference between the Loch Ness Monster and any Republican health-care-reform plan worthy of the name: Nessie almost certainly does not exist, but the GOP plan cannot exist. That, essentially, was the message of a Monday blog post by New York magazine’s Chait. “It is impossible to design a health-care plan that is both consistent with conservative ideology and acceptable to…
Tom Johnson

Andrea Mitchell Hypes Gender Pay Gap Myth for 'Equal Pay Day'

Did you know that Tuesday was “Equal Pay Day,” the day that a woman’s pay supposedly catches up to a man’s from the previous year? Well don’t worry, Andrea Mitchell has got you covered. Mitchell brought on Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Hollywood star Patricia Arquette to bemoan the plight of the oppressed and push their new congressional study.
Nicholas Fondacaro