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Chrystia Freeland has called the US prison system an "American Gulag Archipelago."  The Global Editor-at-Large of Reuters made her comment during today's Dylan Ratigan show on MSNBC.   The context was a discussion of the recent WikiLeaks document dump about Gitmo, but Freeland was clearly speaking of the domestic US prison system, not our military prisons.  Ratigan picked up on her theme,…

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Monday spun Paul Ryan's blueprint for reforming Medicare as saying to younger Americans "screw you." Appearing on MSNBC's Hardball, the senior politics editor for the Huffington Post eagerly went along with host Chris Matthews' hyperbolic description of the Republican plan. Responding to the idea that Ryan would exempt Americans 55 and older from…

Disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) may find a January 2009 appearance on Rachel Maddow's program coming back to bite him. According to the Chicago Tribune's Bob Secter and Jeff Coen, federal prosecutors are hoping to use an excerpt of an interview in Blago's retrial:

The New York Times’s coverage of Easter Sunday was sparse, but the paper did mark the Christian holiday in its own inimitable way, by spotlighting anti-traditional gay rights activism. Reporter Liz Robbins was at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan on Sunday morning to hear Archbishop Timothy Dolan delivers his Easter homily to nearly 3,000. St. Patrick’s also marked the “finish line” of the…

This past Friday, April 22, 2011, marked the simultaneous celebration of Good Friday and Earth Day and ABC, CBS and NBC treated the two “holidays” as equals. Though Good Friday has been celebrated by millions around the world for nearly 2,000 years, the 41-year-old liberal eco-celebration of “green living” known as “Earth Day” was put on the same platform as the sacred day that Christians…

According to New York magazine, Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is a "versatile" humorist who now has a "second career" making people laugh. In a gushing, 3600 word piece, writer John Swansburg went so far as to fawn, "He’s a confident, kempt success in a profession dominated by neurotics and Apatovian man-children. Isn’t it time we took the comedy of Brian Williams seriously?" For proof…

In Florida, New York Times reporter Lizette Alvarez buttered up Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida (aka Superwoman) the new head the Democratic National Committee, in Monday’s “In a Life Filled With Firsts, One More.” In case there weren’t enough superlatives in that headline, the subhead had another: “Energetic Florida Congresswoman to Be Democrats’ New Leader.” By contrast, in March…

Networks have refused to connect administration to steadily rising gas prices.

The "erosion" of progressive policies in the U.S. has led to a "dramatic" rise of economic inequality in the past few decades, writes Princeton historian Julian Zelizer in a CNN.com op-ed. The incline has been so steep that Zelizer's headline asks "Are we heading for royal weddings in the U.S.?" According to Zelizer, the upcoming British royal wedding "reminds some Americans of what America…

NBC's Today show actually gave Tavis Smiley an opportunity to criticize the President, but it was from the left, as the PBS commentator claimed that Barack Obama has devoted "too much attention to the rich and the lucky." Invited on Monday's show to promote his new book Fail Up: 20 Lessons On Building Success From Failure, Smiley was prompted by NBC's Ann Curry about what he thought was…

Until now, MSNBC's "Lean Forward" ad campaign had largely avoided wearing the network's leftward slant as a badge of pride. Sure, there were hints here and there that "Lean Forward" really means "left-leaning," but the older ads were subtle compared to the latest batch which beat you over the head with their liberal take on major political issues. For example, you can expect to see MSNBC's…

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Monday described the country's "gas gripes" over rising fuel costs, adding, "Soaring prices lead to new pain for the President as big oil gets ready to report record profits." (MP3 audio here.) The former Democratic operative turned journalist tried to put the best spin on Barack Obama's growing problems: "And, Jake, these gas prices are also…

In the midst of all that ails our nation comes a story that has to make you feel good. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) has been cleared to attend Friday's shuttle launch which includes her astronaut husband Mark (video of the annoucement follows with commentary):

The average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline hit $3.86 on April 25, more than $1-a-gallon higher than a year earlier and less than 25 cents away from the record high price of gasoline set in July 2008. In fact, per gallon prices are more than $2 higher than when Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009. Yet the president has been nearly exempt from criticism on the issue of rising prices,…