Doonesbury Lashes Out at Tea Party Movement's 'Incoherence' on Taxes

Sunday's Doonesbury comic strip mocks the tea-party movement -- as if the Obama era were defined by tax-cutting. Gay public-radio talk-show  host Mark Slackmeyer is interviewing "Lamont Whirley," tea party activist: Mr. Whirley, as you know, the original Boston Tea Party was a protest against taxation without representation...But the modern Tea Party movement was formed last spring......in…
Tim Graham
March 21st, 2010 4:52 PM

Hume Predicts Health Bill Win Will Prompt ‘Wave of Gushing Coverage

Not exactly going out on a limb, but Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume predicted President Barack Obama’s success in getting his health bill passed and signed will lead to “a wave of gushing coverage” for “the determination of this President to see his signature initiative through.” Hume, during the panel segment on Fox News Sunday: The early political fallout will be, particularly in…
Brent Baker
March 21st, 2010 3:24 PM

CBS: ‘Mean from the Start’ Health Debate ‘Turned Even Nastier Ye

The morning after CBS News White House reporter Mark Knoller, in a tweet, slurred anti-ObamaCare protesters with the vulgar “tea bagger” sexual terminology, Bob Schieffer began Sunday’s Face the Nation with how the health care reform debate “that's been rancorous and mean from the start turned even nastier yesterday” with protesters “shouting ‘kill the bill!’ and ‘made in the USSR”’ as they…
Brent Baker
March 21st, 2010 1:09 PM

Supposedly Apolitical 'Today' Guest Is HuffPo Blogger Who Urged Reade

Jenna Wolfe's introduction of her guest on health-care on this morning's Today would surely have led viewers to believe he was an objective, apolitical voice.  What Wolfe didn't tell viewers is that Andrew Rubin is a HuffPo blogger and such an avid ObamaCare advocate that he urged his readers to call Congress to lobby for it. Here was Wolfe's intro: "The politics surrounding the health-care bill…
Mark Finkelstein
March 21st, 2010 9:39 AM

NPR Skips Opponents of Amnesty in Story on Latino Liberals and ObamaCa

In Friday's speech at George Mason University, President Obama slammed as one of the "crazy things" conservatives said about his health-care effort was that it would offer federal insurance coverage to illegal aliens. On Friday night's All Things Considered newscast on National Public Radio, reporter David Welna's story underlined that liberals like Rep. Luis Gutierrez expected exactly that, but…
Tim Graham
March 21st, 2010 8:50 AM

ObamaCare Vote Open Thread

NB Staff
March 21st, 2010 8:38 AM

Open Thread

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Is someone REALLY going to give this thing its own show?My sources say that Rosie will fill the void left by Oprah Winfrey starting in the fall of 2011. Rosie was overheard telling pals at Joe Allen’s restaurant in New York last night that deal is almost done to restore her to her place as Queen of DaytimeTalk.Advertisers may welcome…
NB Staff
March 21st, 2010 8:34 AM

Purpose of Insurance Too Obvious for Public Intellectual Rachel Maddow

Back when she had a show on the now-defunct, fringe left-wing Air America Radio, Rachel Maddow ran a regular feature called "Ask Dr. Maddow."It began with an announcer stating, "Rachel Maddow is a doctor. Just not that kind of doctor." You know, the indispensible kind who can save lives. Instead, Maddow is of the academic variety, courtesy of a doctorate in political science from Oxford.  The…
Jack Coleman
March 21st, 2010 6:53 AM

NYT Print Edition: Financially Imperiled ACORN 'Attacked by the Right

Who knew that two brave twenty-somethings and a skilled mentor constituted America's entire right wing? That's apparently how Ian Urbina at the New York Times sees it. In a subheadline employed in a front-page article in the paper's March 20 print edition (relevant portion shown at right) but not used in the online edition's version, the reporter told readers that the poor, put-upon Association…
Tom Blumer
March 21st, 2010 12:17 AM

Drew Carey Says Libertarians Can ‘Get Away’ in Hollywood, but Cons

According to actor and comedian Drew Carey, Hollywood is not the intolerant blackballing liberal utopia many deem it to be. In fact, Hollywood is very accepting of the right-wing crowd - except for that fringe, radical segment known as conservatives. "In Hollywood, you can pretty much get away with being a libertarian," Carey told John Stossel on the Fox Business Network. "But if you're a…
Anthony Kang
March 20th, 2010 10:52 PM

ABC: Anti-ObamaCare Protest ‘Turned Very Ugly’ with ‘Racial and

Though by their own count “thousands” of anti-ObamaCare protesters gathered outside the Capitol building on Saturday, ABC decided to smear the entire cause by stressing the despicable actions of a handful or even fewer as anchor David Muir announced in setting up the first story on Saturday’s World News: “Protesters against the plan gathered on the streets of the capital where late today we…
Brent Baker
March 20th, 2010 8:56 PM

Washington Post Cheapens 'Code Red' Anti-ObamaCare Rally with 'Hundred

Is The Washington Post playing favorites with causes that inspire people to exercise their First Amendment rights and take to the streets to protest? When it comes to opposition to Democratic efforts to reform health care versus opposition to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it appears so. In a March 20 Washington Post story headlined "Obama delivers plea to 'help us fix this system,'" Ben Pershing…
Jeff Poor
March 20th, 2010 8:13 PM

Unreal: AP Cites Teen Intercom Prank As Wal-Mart's 'Latest Minorities

Following up on a post earlier today (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) -- a 16 year-old in southern New Jersey was arrested and charged with "harassment and bias intimidation" for getting onto an area Wal-Mart store's intercom and saying, "Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now." Though the company had told the local press Friday evening that it believe that a non-…
Tom Blumer
March 20th, 2010 6:09 PM

CBS News's Mark Knoller: 'Tea Bagger Protests' Outside Capitol Hill

[Update, 10:21 am Eastern on Monday: Knoller responded on Sunday on Twitter to the criticism he was receiving online, stating that 'I wasn't aware there was any slur or pejorative associated with that term. The moment it was pointed out, I stopped using it." (H/t: Clay Waters of TimesWatch, Stephen Gutowski of NewsBusters).] CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller revived the use of a…
Matthew Balan
March 20th, 2010 4:54 PM