The Situation Room

There were some potentially interesting and concerning admissions on CNN Monday night when Wolf Blitzer said he thought he could identify a marijuana plant by its smell, and Lou Dobbs followed by saying he could recognize it "rather readily" by sight.Unfortunately, neither mentioned whether or not they inhaled.Somewhat comically, Dobbs, speaking with Blitzer and Jessica Yellin during the 6PM…

CNN’s Candy Crowley made an oblique reference to her colleague Anderson Cooper’s infamous “teabagger” remark on Monday’s Situation Room. As she reported on the race in New York’s 23rd congressional district, Crowley referred to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman as “the choice of many on the right, including Sarah Palin, former House leader Dick Armey and ‘tea bag partyers’” [audio clips…

On Friday’s Situation Room, CNN forwarded an idea proposed by The New Republic’s Peter Beinart- that Democratic losses in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey this year would result in the reelection of President Obama in 2012. An on-screen graphic during a discussion of Beinart’s hypothesis read, “If The Dems Lose Next Week: How it might help them in the long run.”Anchor Wolf…

On Tuesday’s Situation Room, CNN’s Jack Cafferty highlighted a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll which found that Americans apparently support the public option and mandatory insurance, and most of the viewer responses that he read supported these left-wing positions. Cafferty didn’t explicitly voice his agreement with the poll results, but presented his own liberal proposal for health care.…

After months of investigation, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released a report addressing accusations from some humanitarian groups that its use of white phosphorus (WP) munitions in the Gaza War was a violation of international law, as the report distinguishes between the use of WP as a weapon and the more common non-weapon purposes such as providing smoke screens to conceal troop movements.…

On Friday’s The O’Reilly Factor on FNC, as host Bill O’Reilly and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace discussed recent comedy directed at President Obama and the First Lady – including a re-dubbed clip of Sesame Street’s Big Bird grilling Michelle Obama from the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien – Wallace opined that he hopes that there would be more such comedy and that the Obama’s should be…

UPDATE AT END OF POST: Fox officials agree that all this attention is helping ratings.Three days before Howard Kurtz talked with White House communications director Anita Dunn about the Obama administration's attacks on the Fox News Channel, a number of CNN contributors pointed out how this strategy is helping FNC's ratings while hurting Democrats. Such was discussed on Thursday's "Situation Room…

The Situation Room on CNN’s “fact checking” of Saturday Night Live’s skit from October 3, which made fun of President Obama as a “do-nothing,” has generated criticism, according to the TVNewser blog on Wednesday. Meanwhile, CNN’s sister network, CNN International, has been airing a “global edition” of Comedy Central’s Daily Show since 2002, a program which has apparently received less scrutiny.…

Democratic strategist Paul Begala can be relied upon to use the “drug card” against Rush Limbaugh whenever the talk radio host is brought up, and he was true to form on Tuesday’s Situation Room. When anchor Wolf Blitzer asked what it would mean if Limbaugh bought the St. Louis Rams, Begala snarked, “Just don’t put him in charge of the team’s drug policy....Don’t give him access to that medicine…

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer highlighted the latest study from the Center for Science in the Public Interest during a news brief on Tuesday’s Situation, but omitted the left-wing bent of the organization, referring to it as merely an “activist watchdog group.”The CSPI released their “Ten Riskiest Foods Regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug and Administration” earlier in the day, and the CNN anchor noted…

CNN’s Jack Cafferty and Wolf Blitzer endorsed Thomas Friedman’s “scary and sobering column” in the New York Times on Wednesday’s Situation Room, where the liberal writer compared the current American political climate to that of Israel in 1995 prior to Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. After Cafferty remarked that “Friedman’s right,” Blitzer labeled the column “powerful.”The CNN commentator began…

Media sycophancy for the Clintons is so 1990s, but every now and then the MSM muster up a bit of nostalgia and pour lavish praise on the former first couple. Take CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Jill Dougherty at the close of the 5 p.m. EDT hour of today's "The Situation Room." "Often times, a kiss is just a kiss, but when you're a former president planting one on your wife, the secretary of state, it can…

CNN correspondent Brian Todd featured anarchist protesters at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh during a report on Friday’s Situation Room, but despite their clear political affiliation, didn’t mention their extreme background.Todd devoted the first half of his report from the western Pennsylvania city to the protesters’ march. As the correspondent noted the “audible frustration on the streets by…

In today's "When Are You Going to Realize the Democrats Control Congress?" moment, CNN's Jack Cafferty attacked Tom DeLay Tuesday in a segment that had absolutely nothing to do with the former House Majority Leader.In fact, his piece during the 4PM installment of the "Situation Room" dealt with whether it was more important for a president to be liked or feared outside the country.Unfortunately…