Now online: the May 18 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC’s bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This week, as the Clinton Foundation scandal simmers, NBC travels to Africa to tout the "heartwarming" stories of the Foundation's good works, while CBS belittles the scandals as "distractions" and "noise."
Yet, even as they protect Hillary, journalists deride GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, with the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus declaring: "I don't think we would be taking her seriously at all if she weren't a woman." Highlights are posted below; the entire issue is posted online, with two videos and 21 quotes at www.MRC.org.
Hillary’s Scandals Are Just “Distractions” and “Noise”
— Correspondent Julianna Goldman on CBS This Morning, May 5.
NBC Touts Clintons’ “Heartwarming” Africa Successes
“Even while the criticism at home rumbles, the heartwarming stories here in Africa are undeniable. Like here at the Starkey Hearing Foundation program, where 150 children and adults will get hearing aids today....In Africa, he’s greeted as if he’s still president....Bill Clinton says he trusts the American people to see the good work the foundation has done for fifteen years and to realize that criticism is political. He’s off to Liberia today to meet with Ebola survivors, and to see the work of the foundation there.”
— Correspondent Cynthia McFadden on NBC’s Today, May 4.
Excited by Socialist Sanders Pulling Democrats Even Further Left
“Bernie Sanders could be good for Hillary Clinton by focusing the campaign more on economic issues. Let’s list two names who we don’t get to talk about, Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas. This is the most serious socialist candidacy for President since they ran. But Bernie Sanders has a long list of particulars that he wants to put on the table, and I think by shifting the campaigns to economics, he will generally help Democrats.”
— Ex-New York Times and Washington Post political reporter E. J. Dionne on NPR’s All Things Considered, May 1.
Carly Fiorina: Nothing But a Hillary-Bashing Failure
“I don’t think we would be taking her [Carly Fiorina] seriously at all if she weren’t a woman. And I would love to see a woman President....I think she is a failed business leader and a failed political candidate....I just don’t get why we should be taking her so seriously.”
— Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus on NBC’s Meet the Press, May 10.
Ben Carson: A Great Man, Until He Criticized Obama
“For many young African Americans who grew up seeing Carson as the embodiment of black achievement — a poor inner-city boy who became one of the world’s most accomplished neurosurgeons — his emergence as a conservative hero and unabashed critic of the United States’ first black President has been jarring....Some black pastors who were Carson’s biggest promoters have stopped recommending his book. Members of minority medical organizations that long boasted of their affiliations with him say he is called an ‘embarrassment’ on private online discussion groups.”
— The Washington Post’s Robert Samuels in a May 3 front-page article, “Admirers of Carson find his criticism of Obama troubling.”
When Conservatives Lose, It Will Teach GOP a Lesson
— Host Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, May 3. In the May 7 election, the Conservative Party gained an absolute majority of Parliamentary seats, while the left-wing Labour Party had their poorest showing since 1987.
Labour’s Downfall Was Believing Lefty Media
“Many popular media notions of what a restless electorate is against (bankers, corporate power, tax dodgers, economic austerity) and what it is for (fundamental change, leveling the powerful, taxing the rich and big social program promises) came a cropper in the British election last week....”
“Labour not only got the mood of the country wrong, but so did the news media. Indeed, part of Labour’s problem was likely to have only seen its future, and understood the ambitions of the electorate, through its own favored media. The left-leaning BBC was wrong; the left-leaning Guardian was wrong; digitally centric Buzzfeed, trying to make inroads in Britain by targeting news to a young audience, was wrong.”
— Michael Wolff on the front page of the May 11 USA Today.
Seizing on Train Tragedy to Demand More Spending
— Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, May 13. A few hours later, the National Traffic Safety Board announced the train had been traveling at more than 100 miles per hour, double the speed limit.
America’s Real Infrastructure Crisis: Not Enough Abortion Clinics
“This was a drive Emily had never taken for a procedure she hadn’t imagined needing, in a time when fewer clinics and tougher laws were making the geography of abortion more complex....in places such as Texas, where more than half of the clinics have closed since 2013, or in South Dakota, where the single clinic has a mandatory 72-hour waiting period between appointment and procedure, or in Wyoming, where there is one private provider and no clinics in all the state’s 98,000 square miles, and where the nearest facility Emily could find an appointment was six hours away.”
— Washington Post writer Monica Hesse in a May 7 Style section piece, “The long drive to end a pregnancy.”
Departing Dave Tingles Over “Charismatic” and “Impressive” Obama
“On the program last night, we had the President of the United States, Barack Obama....Politics notwithstanding, what an impressive man. I mean, my goodness, he walks out here and you can feel the electricity in the room, and the people in the audience jumped to their feet and it’s very impressive. Smart, handsome, charismatic guy. Just tremendous.”
— Retiring CBS Late Show host David Letterman, May 5.
To read the entire May 18 edition of Notable Quotables, please visit www.MRC.org.
