Open Thread

NB Staff
May 12th, 2010 8:58 AM

WaPo's Eva Rodriguez Spins Kagan as 'Hard-Right...Bushie

For absurdly spinning Elena Kagan to the right, consider Washington Post editorial writer Eva Rodriguez, who asked in Tuesday's newspaper: “Is Kagan a bleeding heart or right-wing Bushie?” Specifically, Rodriguez argued Kagan took positions “loathed by the left” that would deny the broadest menu of civil liberties to terrorist suspects: So which Kagan are we getting: the warm and fuzzy defender…
Tim Graham
May 12th, 2010 7:46 AM

Liberal Kagan Moves Court 'to the Right;' Media, Left Fret

Despite evidence to the contrary, liberals believe Elena Kagan will effect a conservative shift on the Supreme Court.
Colleen Raezler
May 12th, 2010 12:00 AM

Big Three Nets' Evening News Dives Deepen

Five weeks ago (covered at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), the Big Three Networks' combined evening news audiences dropped to below 20 million -- an audience about 5% less than what Matt Drudge in the summer of 2006 headlined as “TV’s Lowest Week.” Three weeks ago (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), their combined audience came in at 19.61 million, down over 12% from the previous year. For the week of…
Tom Blumer
May 11th, 2010 11:18 PM

NPR's Totenberg Had No Label for Kagan, But Called Roberts 'Very, Very

Brent Baker remembered NPR reporter Nina Totenberg found Judge John Roberts carried conservatism to wretched excess. On NPR's All Things Considered back in 2005, she prefaced “conservative” with three verys, describing him as “a very, very, very conservative man.” But in a taped soundbite on the next day's Good Morning America on ABC, she cut back to merely “a very, very conservative man.”But…
Tim Graham
May 11th, 2010 10:52 PM

Former Car Czar Rattner's Creative Term For Fibbing: 'Elasticized the

If a conservative or Republican uttered the nonsense to be revealed shortly, we'd justifiably never hear the end of it on the late-night comedy shows and elsewhere. As it is, former car czar Steve Rattner's "creative" term for fibbing has and probably will continue to get little coverage outside of Detroit. Rattner's risible rendition of reality spewed forth before he spoke at a Federal…
Tom Blumer
May 11th, 2010 9:43 PM

Bozell Column: Reagan-Hating Kagan

It’s more than a little tiresome to contemplate that every current liberal Supreme Court justice was touted by the national media as a moderate or even a conservative when they were originally announced, from John Paul Stevens to Sonia Sotomayor. Dan Rather even claimed the last retiree, David Souter, was dangerously “anti-women’s rights” when he was nominated in 1990. So it was less than…
Brent Bozell
May 11th, 2010 7:59 PM

CNN's Cafferty Skeptical of Kagan Nomination to Supreme Court

CNN's Jack Cafferty expressed skepticism of President Barack Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court during a commentary on Tuesday's Situation Room. After outlining Kagan's elite background, Cafferty noted that many thought that "someone who has spent so much time in elite academic settings is out-of-touch with average Americans."The CNN commentator began by pointing out a…
Matthew Balan
May 11th, 2010 6:55 PM

Matthews Desperately Pleads for Republicans to Come on Hardball to Den

A desperate-sounding Chris Matthews, on Tuesday's Hardball, put out a call to a Republican, any Republican, to come on his airwaves to denounce Rush Limbaugh as a liar. At the top of the show the MSNBC host issued the following challenge: CHRIS MATTHEWS: And out on a Limbaugh! We're issuing a challenge tonight and every night to elected Republicans. Come on Hardball please sir and madam and tell…
Geoffrey Dickens
May 11th, 2010 6:45 PM

Video: 'Ecocide

EyeBlast.tv Staff
May 11th, 2010 6:00 PM

CBS's Rodriguez Praises Girl Who Wants to Be President: 'You Sound Lik

Late in Tuesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez interviewed 9-year-old actress Fatima Ptacek and wondered: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Ptacek replied: "I definitely want to be the first female president. But I also want to be a lawyer, so I can protect those innocent people." Rodriguez gushed: "Oh, that's good. You sound like President Obama." Rodriguez then remarked: "…
Kyle Drennen
May 11th, 2010 5:49 PM

CBS's Lesley Stahl Gushes: Obama Picked a 'Mediator' 'in His Own Image

60 Minutes journalist Lesley Stahl on Monday appeared on Morning Joe and touted Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick as a "mediator" who was chosen "in his image." The CBS correspondent enthused that a conciliator is "what [Obama] was." [Audio available here.]Continuing the media spin that Elena Kagan might not be a liberal, Stahl proclaimed the judge's moderation: "And that he went for that instead…
Scott Whitlock
May 11th, 2010 5:14 PM

Conservative Writer Claims Censorship at Associated Content

Update - 5/11, 7:15 PM | Lachlan Markay: Associated Content responded to Mr. Schneker's allegations in an email. Details below.A conservative writer is calling for a boycott of the popular online news site Associated Content after it allegedly heavily edited or deleted much of his work, and refused to compensate him properly.  Marc Schenker, the writer who claims he was censored, says his…
Lachlan Markay
May 11th, 2010 4:26 PM

Media Reality Check: Networks Pretend Kagan's Mind Is a Mystery

When George W. Bush nominated judges John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, the networks routinely described them as "conservative" and even "very conservative" and "ultraconservative." Last year they applied more “conservative” tags to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's critics than “liberal” labels to her. But the early stories on President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan…
Tim Graham
May 11th, 2010 4:23 PM