Congressional Dysfunction? New York Times Blames C-Span Cameras, Gingr

New York Times reporter Jonathan Weisman claimed to document the "Senate's Long Slide to Gridlock" on Sunday's front page, but his history was tilted toward blaming obstructionist Republicans, though historically Congress has been dominated by Democrats. He even seemed to pine for the days of Democratic congressional barons, laying the fault of dysfunction on C-Span cameras and Republicans Newt…
Clay Waters
November 27th, 2012 7:40 AM

AP Stylebook Now Discourages Reporters From Using Terms 'Homophobia' a

Some surprising changes arrived in the Associated Press Stylebook online. Politico’s Dylan Byers reported Monday that the online Stylebook now says that "-phobia," "an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness," should not be used "in political or social contexts," including "homophobia" and "Islamophobia." AP Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn told Politico, ""We…
Tim Graham
November 26th, 2012 10:53 PM

Grover Norquist on Buffett's Call for Higher Taxes: 'Write a Check and

Billionaire Warren Buffett said Monday that there should be a minimum tax on the wealthy. Appearing on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, low tax advocate Grover Norquist responded, "If he wants to write a check, he should write a check and shut up about what everybody else should do" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
November 26th, 2012 10:49 PM

NYT Still Wants Readers to Believe 'There Is a Dispute' Over Role of

Others can comment on the entirely of the Sunday New York Times story by Serge F. Kovaleski and Brooks Barnes (used in Monday's print edition) about Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the maker of the infamous "Innocence of Muslims" YouTube trailer the authors characterize as a "film" a dozen times in their write-up. Nakoula has now been in jail for two months. I'm only going to comment on the…
Tom Blumer
November 26th, 2012 10:25 PM

ABC Salivates Over ‘Mutiny’ Against Anti-Tax Pledge That’s Been

ABC anchor Diane Sawyer and correspondent Jonathan Karl on Monday night salivated over Republicans breaking Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge. “We did see a sign the paralysis may be ending,” Sawyer relayed over “Tax Revolt?” on screen, touting “a Republican mutiny against a man who had convinced them to take a pledge.” She soon trumpeted the “new sign of flexibility.” As if that’s a bad…
Brent Baker
November 26th, 2012 8:53 PM

Wolf Blitzer Badgers House Majority Whip to Raise Taxes

After smiling on Republicans who stepped away from Grover Norquist's no-tax hike pledge, CNN pressured the GOP House Majority Whip to raise income tax rates on Monday's The Situation Room. Anchor Wolf Blitzer suggested a tax hike on those making over $250,000 a year, noting "those families and those small businesses did quite well during the years of the Clinton administration when the rate…
Matt Hadro
November 26th, 2012 7:17 PM

Chris Matthews Outrageously Links Unhappy Conservatives to Hitler

Chris Matthews on Monday disgustingly connected conservatives unhappy with the 2012 election to Hitler and the 1936 Olympics. After Huffington Post journalist Howard Fineman mocked the GOP for supposedly considering the African American and Hispanic vote to be "extraterrestrial," Matthews spewed, "The last guy to refer to the black auxiliary was Hitler." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]…
Scott Whitlock
November 26th, 2012 6:07 PM

Video: Alan Colmes Slams NewsBusters for Legitimate Criticism of Hilla

Libertarian media critic Jim Pinkerton and liberal Alan Colmes sparred earlier this afternoon on the Fox News program Happening Now over the question of the media's generally positive treatment of outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, despite unresolved questions about her role in the Benghazi debacle. One item discussed in the segment was NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham's…
NB Staff
November 26th, 2012 6:04 PM

MSNBC Finally Reports Obama's Drone Hypocrisy, Three Weeks After the E

Filling in for Alex Wagner on Monday afternoon, Ari Melber of the left-wing Nation magazine did some thing on MSNBC's Now that Wagner and many of their colleagues have been reluctant to do themselves -- expose the deception and dishonesty of Obama on the subject of drone attacks. While there was a brief mention or two in the weeks and months that preceded the election, the coverage was never…
Ryan Robertson
November 26th, 2012 5:33 PM

ABC's Matthew Dowd Mocks Grover Norquist; 'He’s Named After a Charac

On the November 25 broadcast of ABC's This Week, former Bush advisor Matthew Dowd continued his shift away from the Republican Party by bashing conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, saying he’s a impediment to good government. For good measure he childishly drew the connection to the name of a Muppet character on Sesame Street. "Grover Norquist is an impediment to good governing…and…
Matt Vespa
November 26th, 2012 5:11 PM

'Meet the Press' Panelist Ken Burns Denounces Tea Party: 'Vitriol' Mot

During a discussion of the new film Lincoln on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, documentary film maker Ken Burns ranted about one of the supposed lessons he took away from the movie: "Race is always there in America....Do you think we'd have a secession movement in Texas and the other places, faddish secession movement, if this president wasn't African-American?  Do you think the vitriol that came…
Kyle Drennen
November 26th, 2012 4:50 PM

CBS Lobbies Senator Corker to Renege on Anti-Tax Hike Pledge, Raise Ca

Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell sung from the same liberal sheet music on Monday's CBS This Morning as they tried to get Republican Senator Bob Corker to commit to higher federal taxes. Rose wondered if the Corker was "prepared, as others are doing, to...say, I'm going to forgo the [anti-tax hike] pledge because it is outdated and the country's problems are too big." O'Donnell asked the…
Matthew Balan
November 26th, 2012 4:33 PM

Local News Anchors Resign, Tell Bangor Daily News It's Because Bosses

Last Tuesday night, Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio of ABC 7 out of Bangor, Maine, resigned on air. The Bangor Daily News's Andrew Neff reported that the duo told him that they resigned in part because senior management at their TV station wanted them to deviate from objectively covering the news to bearing a decidedly more editorial slant (see MRCTV video of the on air resignation below;…
Ken Shepherd
November 26th, 2012 4:23 PM

CNN Pleads With Republicans, 'Don't Fear the Grover

CNN broke out the pom-poms on Monday and cheered the Republicans who reneged on Grover Norquist's no-tax hike pledge. CNN contributor John Avlon lauded them as "profiles in courage." Avlon quipped that now "people don't fear the Grover. And that's a good thing, you know." Anchor Carol Costello clearly liked the GOP mutiny, asking "how excited should we really be by all of this talk of…
Matt Hadro
November 26th, 2012 4:18 PM