Open Thread

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: you tell us.
NB Staff
May 30th, 2009 10:13 AM

Never Liberal Enough: Networks Also Doubted Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Pr

Thursday night, as my colleague Brent Baker noted, ABC and NBC fretted that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor might not adhere to a strict liberal orthodoxy on abortion. NBC reporter Pete Williams said Sotomayor’s views on abortion were a “mystery,” while ABC’s Jan Crawford Greenburg declared “both sides in the contentious debate want to know more.”On Wednesday’s CBS Evening News,…
Rich Noyes
May 30th, 2009 9:15 AM

Mancow Muller Accused of Staging Fake Waterboarding

Erich "Mancow" Muller has gotten a lot of publicity for himself over the last few days by subjecting himself to a supposed waterboarding and then immediately declaring it to be torture. As a result, he has been hailed in the leftwing Blogosphere and appeared on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann to report on his experience. Well, now it appears that his "experience" was probably faked and did…
P.J. Gladnick
May 30th, 2009 9:09 AM

Penn. Paper Didn't Know Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and JFK Were Assa

This little report is interesting in a few ways, but the most important is that it seems to show that the publishers of at least one American newspaper are wholly ignorant of American history. It seems that early last week the Warren Times Observer of Warren, Pennsylvania published an ad that basically expressed a desire to see President Barack Obama assassinated and they didn't even know it.…
Warner Todd Huston
May 30th, 2009 3:20 AM

Leary: Obama 'Greatest President in History!,' Sotomayor 'Fantastic

Displaying a caricature of a celebrity enraptured by President Barack Obama, although apparently quite serious in the underlining attitude he conveyed in an over the top manner, on Friday's Larry King Live actor Denis Leary (IMDb page) proclaimed: “I think that President Obama is the greatest President in the history of all of our Presidents and that he can do no wrong in my book.” Asked about…
Brent Baker
May 30th, 2009 2:21 AM

Williams Cues Up Obama to Agree: 'That's One of Those She'd Rather Hav

NBC provided a platform Friday for President Obama to fire back at conservative critics of his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, as Brian Williams cued him up to agree her comment that a Latina judge would make better decisions than a white male one, is “one of those she'd rather have back.” Obama naturally agreed as NBC Nightly News aired his response for an uninterrupted two-plus minutes…
Brent Baker
May 29th, 2009 9:14 PM

Media Ignores Obama's SCOTUS Nominee's Membership In Radical La Raza O

John Stephenson
May 29th, 2009 8:57 PM

Will Tucker Carlson's New Blog Succeed

With all the news aggregator style websites around-the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, Stimulist, and True/Slant just to name a few-why does Tucker Carlson think he can have success with a new one?It's true that none of the news aggregator sites have a conservative slant to them, so this site may attract a crowd of conservatives, but it will require a lot of work on Carlson's part, time that he…
Mitchell Blatt
May 29th, 2009 4:14 PM

Weekend Captionfest

When wind blew over a Teleprompter while he was addressing the commencement crowd at the Air Force Academy on May 27, 2009, VP Joe Biden joked: "What I am going to tell the president when I tell him his TelePrompTer is broken? What will he do then?'' (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
NB Staff
May 29th, 2009 4:00 PM

Actor Craig T. Nelson Decries Govt Bailouts, Wasteful Spending

On Thursday's Beck program on FNC, actor Craig T. Nelson complained about excessive taxation and spending by the California state government, as well as the federal government, as he suggested that people should stop paying taxes to protest the government's handling of their money. Nelson: "If my children, my grandchildren, and my great grandchild who is about to be here, is not going to be…
Brad Wilmouth
May 29th, 2009 2:34 PM

A Matchbox-Sized Argument for Gay Marriage

Singer Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 is a passionate supporter of gay marriage – so passionate that he recently wrote a piece in support of same-sex marriage that was not only wrong-headed, but factually inaccurate, and a clear illustration of why celebrities should shut up and sing.  Featured in the “Huffington Post” on May 27, “The Big Gay Chip on My Shoulder” was written as a response after a…
Matt Philbin
May 29th, 2009 2:33 PM

Washington Times Cites MRC In Detailing Media’s Promotion of Sotomay

Today’s (Friday’s) Washington Times picks up on a recent report from the Media Research Center (you can read it here) documenting the outpouring of positive coverage for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The piece, by reporter Jennifer Harper, quotes NewsBusters senior editor Rich Noyes, but also included a quote from Democratic operative Dan Gerstein claiming, “If President Bush had…
NB Staff
May 29th, 2009 1:39 PM

CNN Uses Two Liberals to Bash Conservatives' 'Judicial Activist' Label

During a segment on Friday’s “American Morning,” CNN correspondent Carol Costello used two liberal talking heads to cast doubt on the “judicial activist” label used by conservatives. Costello used three sound bites from Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School, who branded the use of the term as “perfectly juvenile,” and one from NPR’s Nina Totenberg to cast aspersions on…
Matthew Balan
May 29th, 2009 1:27 PM

NYT's Kantor Pits GOP's 'Bank of White Male Senators' vs. 'Latina Woma

Thursday's "Political Points" podcast at nytimes.com featured New York Times reporters David Kirkpatrick, Adam Liptak, and Jodi Kantor talking about the Sonia Sotomayor nomination and displaying various liberal tics. Kirkpatrick accused Newt Gingrich of "ad hominem attacks" against Sotomayor, while Kantor pondered the Republican dilemma: of possibly seeing "this bank of white male senators grill…
Clay Waters
May 29th, 2009 1:24 PM