As sick as it sounds liberal journalists actually blamed Donald Trump for a domestic terror attack. They claimed the Poway, California synagogue shooter was inspired by the President, with ABC’s Matthew Dowd charging the President’s words give “permission” to the “craziest people in America.” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough went further as he unashamedly claimed “the blood that is spilled” is on Trump’s hands.
The past month also saw lefty reporters and hosts also prime their audiences to support Democratic candidates new (Mayor Pete Buttigieg) and old (Former Vice President Joe Biden). MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle hyped that “the future is here” as Republicans and Democrats alike were “moved” by Mayor Pete. Mika also attacked women for accusing Joe Biden of being overly “touchy” as she pronounced she was “done” with the controversy “I refuse to give it any more time.”
Liberal media types also came to the defense of Democratic Representative Ilan Omar. When she got into trouble for downplaying the 9/11 attacks the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin and CNN host Brian Stelter pinned Omar’s problems on the “fear-mongering” and “right-wing rage machine” of Fox News.
The following are the most obnoxious moments of media bias over the last month:
Blaming Trump for Anti-Semitic Attacks
“The blood, the blood that is spilled, is on your hands. From white nationalists, from people who listen to that sort of rhetoric, any violence to journalists. ‘Enemy of the people,’ the kill lists....No, we are so past dog whistles now, Donald. You are just inciting violence. It’s just obvious....You are unfit to the be President of the United States.”
— Co-host Joe Scarborough discussing Poway, California synagogue shooting as aired on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 29.
“The level of hateful rhetoric that’s out there and that it’s not enough to be someone’s opponent intellectually but they’re scum and you have to destroy them. That fills the air....This era we’re in with Donald Trump, it’s like the Gates of Hell have been opened.”
— Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawick on CNN’s Reliable Sources, April 28.
“I think the President needs to at some point look in the mirror and understand that the rhetoric, the words he uses in all of this inflame a big part of what’s going on in America, give permission to the most craziest people in America.”
— Political analyst Matthew Dowd on ABC’s This Week, April 28.
Chris Matthews to Dems: “Don’t Blow This One”
“I think the message to Democrats is don’t blow this one. You blew it in 2016. You lost to Trump. Nobody should have ever lost to Trump. You could do it again. So don’t go with having a lot of fun in next year and a half, following the flavor-of-the-month stuff....Sober up. Pick the best candidate to beat Trump. Because nobody wants to be around the Democratic Party the day after losing to Trump twice. Nobody’s gonna be forgiven for that...Eight years of Trump is Hell to pay. And I think the Democrats will never be forgiven if they lose it, again”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, April 25.
Blame the Women, Not Joe
“This is a guy [Joe Biden] who has hugged five to ten million people and they love the fact that he’s touchy and huggy and they run to him and five women are uncomfortable with the way they hugged him....There was a woman who accused him of smelling her hair. He’s not interested in your hair! Okay? He was going on stage, he took a deep breath before he went on stage and you took it deeply personally and now you’re writing a New York Times op-ed about it demanding an apology?...I’m done. You guys can continue to talk about this, I won’t. I refuse to give it any more time. So take it away.”
— Co-host Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 30.
Excited for Mayor Pete
Co-host Mika Brzezinski: “My mom loves Mayor Pete and his speech like put her over the edge yesterday. Our phone started ringing off the hook from reporters, to Republicans to Democrats to people who really feel moved by this candidate.”...
Political analyst Mike Barnicle: “You get young Mayor Pete Buttigieg and he is standing there and is talking to America and he’s calm, and he’s compassionate and he’s intelligent and he’s not speaking down to people, he’s not insulting people...The future is here. You either go forward or retreat into the distant history of the past. It was a remarkable day.”
— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 15.
Fox News Is “Destroying Political Thought”
“It’s not just that Fox is endangering people of color – it’s not just that they are targeting Muslims – they are destroying political thought and political conversation in this country. They have so bamboozled a large segment of the population that we cannot have a rational decision. They have created a hate-mongering, a fearmongering, a reality-defying world, and that is helping to destroy American politics.”
— Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin discussing Fox News coverage of Rep. Ilan Omar’s remarks downplaying 9/11 attacks, as aired on MSNBC’s AM Joy, April 14.
“These outrage cycles corrupt us. Omar’s comment was used as a weapon against her, including by President Trump who has pinned this anti-Omar video to the top of his Twitter page....It tells us something about the right-wing rage machine and about how news priorities are set. The history of the United States is a tug-of-war over who belongs and who’s equal and who has power. It’s the biggest story of all.”
— Host Brian Stelter discussing coverage of Rep. Ilan Omar’s remarks downplaying 9/11 attacks as aired on CNN’s Reliable Sources, April 14.
“So Exciting” to See All these Lefty Issues Being Promoted
“One of the things that has been so exciting to watch in this incredibly crowded, incredibly diverse field of candidates is the kinds of issues that are rising to the national level of conversation that haven’t been part of presidential campaign conversations before...Having conversations about things like reparations and Medicare for all and the electoral college.”
— PBS NewsHour national correspondent Amna Nawaz on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 8.
Journalist or Democratic Strategist?
“If I were the Democrats I would spend this Congress not investigating the president but investigating all of the things this administration is doing to weaken our health and safety laws. The environment is just being allowed to be polluted, drilling off our coasts, food safety.”
— Political commentator Cokie Roberts on ABC’s This Week, April 7.
Spit Take Time
“I just hope that young people, in particular, adhere to the standards of objectivity that we have cherished in our business for the last 100 years.”
— CBS News Radio White House reporter Steven Portnoy at National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, April 9.
Amanpour Offended Comey “Allowed” Anti-Hillary “Hate Speech”
“Do you ever think that you might be responsible for the election of President Trump? Does that keep you up at night?....‘Lock her up’ was a feature of the 2016 Trump campaign. Do you, in retrospect, wish that people like yourself, the head of the FBI, I mean, the people in charge of law and order – had shut down that language? That it was dangerous potentially, that it could have created violence, that it’s kind of hate speech? Should that have been allowed?”
— CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour’s questions to former FBI director James Comey as aired on CNN Right Now with Brianna Keilar, April 2.
Post-Reconstruction Racism Is “Perfect Parallel” to Trump
Harvard Professor and PBS’s Reconstruction: America After the Civil War host Henry Louis Gates: “Voter suppression and a very conservative Supreme Court in 1883 declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. So, think about it. 12 years of black freedom followed by an alt-right rollback and a president who refused to renounce white supremacy.”...
AP reporter Jonathan Lemire: “What parallels do you see to today’s climate where we’re seeing white supremacy, violence. Those numbers are rising according to statistics. What roles did the election of Barack Obama play to this and then now, is President Trump stoking those fears and that violence?”
Gates: “It’s the perfect parallel.”
— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 8.
Hard-Hitting Coverage of Nancy Pelosi
“At the State of the Union, she did her mocking clap and it went viral. Now, if you go to her own campaign website, you’ll see she’s touting herself as ‘The Patron Saint of Shade.’ This is your new branding of Nancy Pelosi. Kind of like a giant slayer almost, or muscular.”
— Correspondent Lesley Stahl during interview of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes, April 14.
Adoration for AOC
“[Ocasio-Cortez is] a democratic socialist at a time when confidence in capitalism is declining, especially among progressive millennials....She’s a political phenomenon: part activist, part legislator, arguably the best storyteller in the party since Barack Obama and perhaps the only Democrat right now with the star power to challenge President Donald Trump’s....Ocasio-Cortez threatens the status quo, bringing a youthful impatience to a set of policies popularized by Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, like Medicare for All and tuition-free public college.”
— National correspondent Charlotte Alter in April 1 Time magazine cover story “The Phenom.”
Crapping on Capitalism
“We know we live in a free-market capitalist society. And in this society, individuals, more today than ever, have been able to amass billions of dollars in personal wealth. Do we need to revisit capitalism, seeing that the disparity between the rich and the poor has become so exaggerated?”
— Host Stephanie Ruhle’s question to Melinda Gates on MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle, April 24.
His Ancestors Hailed from the Spanish-Speaking Nation of Ireland
“O’Rourke also spoke at length in his native Spanish, eliciting loud and sustained cheers.”
— From a March 31 Associated Press (AP) article about presidential candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke. AP published the following correction: “In a story March 31 about a Beto O’Rourke campaign rally, The Associated Press reported erroneously that O’Rourke spoke to a rally in his native Spanish. O’Rourke is not a native Spanish speaker.”
Human Traffickers Are “Helping?”
“The human coyotes helping migrants survive Central America’s grueling Darien Gap jungle.”
— March 30 tweet from official CBS News Twitter account promoting CBS News documentary “Border Business: Inside Immigration.”
Still Captivated by Castro
“It was like Sinatra headlining in Vegas. On April 21, 1959 – 60 years ago this Sunday – thousands of adoring New Yorkers gave a tumultuous welcome to a young celebrity emerging from Penn Station: Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban guerrillas. Less than four months earlier, he had overthrown a vicious military dictatorship after an against-all-odds campaign, and he was wildly popular in the city, drawing crowds larger than any foreign leader in its history. As throngs chanted “Fi-del, Fid-el, Fi-del,” Castro burst through police lines and began shaking hands, as if he were running for office....The highly educated Castro was like James Dean with a progressive political agenda: a rebel with a cause.”
— New York Times contributor Tony Perrottet in April 16 article “Chanting Crowds and Camo Chic, Sixty years ago Fidel Castro came to New York, mesmerizing throngs and leaving an enduring mark on fashion.”
Pro-Life Laws = Jim Crow Segregation
“I liken these to Jim Crow laws because I saw that as the same pernicious intent. Let's codify it, let’s solidify it at the local level so at least we’re starting with a base, and then we'll try our luck and see how long we can keep it this way.”
— Host Chris Cuomo discussing heartbeat bills that protect unborn babies once a heartbeat is detected as aired on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, April 11.
We’re Just Pure Innocent Angels Here on the Democratic Side
“I just feel like you’re playing on an uneven playing field with the Republicans because they will play dirty and we will not – on the Democratic side. And that could kill us.”
— Co-host Joy Behar to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on ABC’s The View, April 24.
Let Terrorists Vote!
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “If they let this terrorist out because he served his time, he gets his – if he’s an American citizen as – why is your mouth open like that?”
Co-host Megan McCain: “Because, Whoopi, he killed people!”
Goldberg: “Yes, lots of people do this!”
McCain: “He is a terrorist. He’s a radicalized terrorist.”
Goldberg: “Our Constitution says if you’ve done your time....we hope, been reformed, you’ve been changed. If they let him out, that means they feel his time is up and he gets to become the American citizen again.”
— During discussion about Sen. Bernie Sanders saying that even the Boston Marathon bomber should be allowed to vote, as aired on ABC’s The View, April 23.
