The Last Word

Appearing on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday night, Nina Burleigh of Newsweek crudely joked that Republicans who defended Pence and Indiana’s Religious Freedom Act were experiencing “premature intolerance ejaculation.” 

As NewsBusters has often reported, MSNBC's line-up has led the cable news channel to a freefall in the ratings, with Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik blasting the schedule as “unwatchable” and “24 hours a day of mess.” In an article posted on Thursday, Politico columnist Dylan Byers reported that the channel's daytime year-to-date viewership “is down 21 percent overall and 41 percent in…

On Monday night, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell devoted his nightly “rewrite” segment to challenging former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s claim that he loves America. During his lengthy diatribe, the MSNBC host not only suggested that “when Rudy Giuliani talks about love, he has, and we have, no idea what he’s talking about” and “love of country isn’t easily defined and might not even be…

During a press conference on Friday, Ed Henry -- the Fox News Channel's chief White House correspondent -- stated that former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has been harshly criticized for claiming that Barack Obama does not love America. Henry then compared that remark with one made by then-candidate Obama when he charged that then-president George W. Bush was “irresponsible” and “…

As part of the left’s bashing of Rudy Giuliani for stating his belief that President Obama doesn’t love America, MSNBC’s The Last Word convened a panel on Thursday night to berate Giuliani. Liberal radio show host Stephanie Miller went as far as to compare what the former New York City Mayor told a gathering of Republican donors to using derogatory language toward African-Americans, gays, and…

On Tuesday night, Lawrence O’Donnell devoted nearly four minutes of MSNBC show The Last Word to reading from and professing his complete admiration for President Barack Obama’s memoir Dreams From My Father as the “most honest,” “open,” “artful,” and “finest literary work ever authored by a President of the United States.” He spent no additional time on the book’s many inconsistencies, which…

While discussing answers by former and likely future presidential candidates on whether they have ever used drugs, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell invoked President Barack Obama’s book Dreams From My Father on Tuesday to provide Obama’s answer to the question in what became a gushing tribute that included a nearly three minute reading from the book. O’Donnell proclaimed that the memoir was the “most…

On Tuesday, former Republican Governor of Florida Jeb Bush announced that he is considering running for president in 2016 and that night liberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne predictably had a field day with the announcement. Appearing on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday night, Dionne proclaimed “the irony here is, it`s almost a delicious irony, is that Jeb Bush,…

It would seem that not everyone on the left side of the political spectrum has a tolerant attitude towards Hispanics, if a segment on Wednesday's The Last Word on MSNBC is any indication. Hours before President Obama is expected to take executive action to legalize millions of Latin American illegal immigrants, guest Anita Freeman blamed the "very high Latino population" for California's failure…

At MSNBC, many are rallying behind Barack Obama’s foreign policy, despite his seemingly aimless goals. On the August 12 edition of The Last Word,  host Lawrence O'Donnell mentioned Hillary Clinton's comments about the President's foreign policy, in which she claimed that ‘don't do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle. O’Donnell couldn’t help but defend Mr. Obama, even if it meant…

In a discussion about Rand Paul’s presidential chances on MSNBC’s The Last Word, a panel featuring Josh Barro and Richard Wolffe managed to hit Republicans for being anti-immigrant while also accusing Paul and conservatives – not the Obama administration – of misleading on Benghazi. Paul has received media criticism for supposedly fleeing a dinner with Rep. Steve King when the Iowa Republican…

On the July 23 edition of The Last Word, in an apparent effort to demonize conservatives as being uninterested in protecting children who were victims of sex trafficking, Lawrence O’Donnell deliberately misinterpreted the Republican position on the 2008 immigration law signed by President Bush. O’Donnell played a clip of Congressman Mo Brooks (R-Alabama) expressing his support for sending…

The MSNBC freak-out continued following the surprising split rulings regarding the federal ObamaCare health insurance exchanges. The 2-1 DC circuit court decision determined that, consistent with the text in the law, subsidies must come from state insurance exchanges as opposed to federal ones. The panel was appalled that the court could possibly come to such a conclusion, while at the same…

It did not take long for MSNBC to begin blaming the right-wing “anti-Obama machine” for the backlash against the Bergdahl prisoner swap. Intent on ignoring their own poll in which 65%  of respondents didn’t support Obama’s decision to make the exchange, the June 3 edition of The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell went above and beyond in criticizing Republicans for “swiftboating” Bergdahl…