CBS Spins New ObamaCare Birth Control Mandate as 'Good News

On Monday's Early Show, CBS slanted towards supporters of a new Obama administration mandate which requires private insurance companies to cover contraception as part of women's "preventative services." Anchor Chris Wragge labeled the development "good news," while correspondent Michelle Miller failed to include sound bites from opponents during her report on the new regulation. After using…
Matthew Balan
August 1st, 2011 4:48 PM

Roll Call 'Political Wire' Features Cartoon Depicting Nazis Winning Wo

Roll Call "Political Wire" editor Taegan Goddard selected a drawing by liberal Arizona Daily Star political cartoonist David Fitzsimmons for his August 1 "Cartoon of the Day." The cartoon (embedded after the page break) depicts a battle-scarred U.S. Capitol and White House in 1942 outside of which Nazi and Japanese Empire flags fly in lieu of the Stars and Stripes. A speech balloon coming from…
Ken Shepherd
August 1st, 2011 4:20 PM

NBC's Curry: Do Tea Party Members of Congress 'Know How to Govern

In a discussion with Meet the Press host David Gregory and Tom Brokaw on Monday's NBC Today about the debt ceiling deal, co-host Ann Curry contemptuously wondered: "...do you think that members of the Tea Party Caucus know how to govern or are they – do they understand that standing up for a cause is not the same as governing?" [Audio available here] Interestingly, Brokaw rejected Curry's…
Kyle Drennen
August 1st, 2011 4:04 PM

Media Reality Check: During Debt Talks, Liberal Media Savaged Tea Part

For the past month, as the debt talks slogged on in Washington, the so-called mainstream media unleashed increasingly hysterical attacks on the Tea Party and anti-tax hike conservatives — epitomizing the liberal elite’s supreme annoyance at the push to curb federal spending and contain the size of government. The media’s disdainful language has ranged from the merely condescending (wondering…
Rich Noyes
August 1st, 2011 3:47 PM

NY Times' Zeleny: 'Both Sides' 'Bruised' in Debt Ceiling Deal; Only Co

In a front-page “news analysis” piece this morning, Times national political correspondent Jeff Zeleny pronounced that “After a Protracted Fight, Both Sides Emerge Bruised.” Yet Zeleny’s analysis was chock full of the typical liberal bias slant that puffs up President Obama, slams the Tea Party as “intractable” and ignores the partisanship of liberal Senate members, particularly Harry Reid (…
Ken Shepherd
August 1st, 2011 3:07 PM

CNN's Lemon Peppers Rand Paul With Dem Talking Points After Asking Pau

After asking Tea Party favorite Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to discard his talking points and be frank on the debt ceiling issue, CNN's Don Lemon repeatedly interrupted the senator, and even lectured him and threw some Democrat talking points at him. Lemon interviewed Paul on Saturday's 5 p.m. EDT edition of CNN Newsroom. "At this point though, and can we do this – let's do this interview without…
Matt Hadro
August 1st, 2011 2:49 PM

NBC Hosts Fret Obama Had to 'Give In' to GOP With 'Not Balanced' Debt

In an interview with White House advisor David Plouffe on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer worried about liberals being unhappy with the proposal deal on the debt ceiling: "So did the President compromise here, David, or did he give in simply so that he wouldn't be labeled as the president who was on duty as the nation defaulted on its financial obligations?" Plouffe defended the plan…
Kyle Drennen
August 1st, 2011 1:02 PM

The Debt Ceiling Argument is the Wrong Conversation

Not another cent for incompetence and corruption.
Dan Kennedy
August 1st, 2011 12:24 PM

George Stephanopoulos Parrots Lefty Paul Krugman to Hit Obama From the

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Monday hit senior White House advisor David Plouffe from the left, highlighting liberal columnist Paul Krugman's complaints about the debt ceiling deal. The morning show also played up a Democratic congressman's attack that the bill is a "Satan sandwich." Quoting from the New York Times' Krugman, Stephanopoulos fretted, "Paul Krugman in the New…
Scott Whitlock
August 1st, 2011 12:19 PM

Openly Conservative Actor Kelsey Grammer Considering Run for Mayor of

The entertainment industry is notably short on actors who are confident enough to express any rightward beliefs in notoriously left Tinseltown, but one of the few who does, actor Kelsey Grammer (best known for his role as Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers and then later Frasier) told the New York Post that once he's done with his thespian career he may end up running for mayor of New York City. The…
Geoffrey Dickens
August 1st, 2011 12:10 PM

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

Sometimes, the yelling stops long enough to remember that there are real people involved in abortions. And not just the youngest one, who doesn't get a say in the decision. I read the other day a piece about the "safe and successful" telemedicine abortions, getting "high grades" in Iowa. That's an abortion where a doctor doesn't even have to be present. The clinical efficiency with which…
Kathryn Jean Lopez
August 1st, 2011 11:34 AM

New York Gets Al Jazeera English

Look out MSNBC. The market for “vicious, inaccurate, and inexcusable” cable news just got more crowded in New York. The New York Times reported August 1 that Al Jazeera English will begin appearing in New York for the first time, “subletting air space from a channel owner.” This marks a victory in AJE’s campaign to gain widespread access to the U.S. cable market. It’s also a victory for the…
Matt Philbin
August 1st, 2011 11:15 AM

Open Thread: Debt Agreement Reached With Bipartisan Support

Late last night, President Obama announced that Democrat and Republican leaders had agreed on a plan with Obama's approval to raise the debt ceiling. The plan would prevent any possible defaults that could occur on August 2 if the deal is not passed in Congress. The plan is still subject to congressional approval, and many Democrats and Republicans are already speaking out against it. Check…
NB Staff
August 1st, 2011 9:42 AM

Krugman: 'Those Demanding Spending Cuts Now Are Like Medieval Doctors

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is not happy with the deal Congress and the President apparently have agreed upon to end the debt ceiling impasse. In his Monday piece, the Nobel laureate wrote, "[T]hose demanding spending cuts now are like medieval doctors who treated the sick by bleeding them":
Noel Sheppard
August 1st, 2011 9:09 AM