Barack Obama

Alex Wagner and her two left-wing panelists on the Wednesday edition of her MSNBC program – Salon's Brittney Cooper and The Nation's Ari Berman – likened the use of the word "thug" to describe the rioters and looters in Baltimore, Maryland on Monday to a notorious racial slur against blacks. Wagner played up how "there are folks, like CNN's Erin Burnett, who don't understand why it's offensive;…

The headline is already gone from the Associated Press's national site, but it's still present elsewhere. In the context of events in Ferguson and elsewhere since August of last year, one could argue that it contains more truth than the wire service and the headline's accidental creators will ever admit.

Did President Obama do a standup comedy routine at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Not as much as he performed “a recital of brutal truths,” asserted Vox’s Klein in a Monday article. For example, regarding Obama’s remark that his executive actions on climate change and immigration were “the right thing to do,” Klein noted, “That's not a joke. That's Obama's actual…

Friday's NBC Nightly News stood out for its coverage of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which began on April 24, 1915. Anchor Lester Holt gave a 27-second news brief on the "somber hundredth anniversary being marked around the world today – remembering what Pope Francis recently called the first genocide of the 20th century." ABC's World News Tonight and CBS Evening News both…

While Chris Matthews's April 21 interview with President Obama was not brimming with obsequious fawning nor visible leg tingles, he nonetheless squandered an opportunity that a more assertive journalist might have taken to scrutinize President Obama, particularly on his handling of the Iranian nuclear negotiations. 

Maureen Dowd's Sunday column ostensibly centers on the problem of Hillary's persona being alternatively too masculine or too Chipolte-granny feminine. But in passing, Dowd discharges a major diss in the direction of President Obama. Analyzing lessons learned from 2008, Maureen writes [emphasis added] that "Hillary saw the foolishness of acting like a masculine woman defending the Iraq invasion…

Time.com's Zeke Miller tweeted yesterday that a "reporter" asked recently declared presidential candidate Marco Rubio of Florida the following question: "Is 43 old enough to be president?" Meanwhile, two weeks ago, a column at Time.com claimed that Hillary Clinton is "biologically primed to be a leader." Seriously. Since he either can't or won't tell us who asked the question, we're unable to…

Marco Rubio’s leap into the Republican presidential race has provoked a variety of reactions, but the most unhinged Rubio backlash goes to Donny Deutsch, who reduced himself to a mess of inconsistency by claiming Rubio isn’t qualified for job, while defending the even less experienced President Obama. (This is the same Deutsch that infamously insulted Rubio as a "coconut" -- brown on the outside…

Hours after President Obama moved to strike Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News cheered the decision by the President as “another historic step” and “another remnant of the Cold War” tumbling down. Interim anchor Lester Holt began with the announcement that “[w]e are witnessing tonight another historic step in thawing relations between the U.S. and Cuba”…

The title of a famous essay by Jonathan Swift and that of Tuesday's article by Brian Beutler each starts with “A Modest Proposal.” There are, however, many differences concerning the two pieces. One is that Swift’s was a satire, whereas Beutler’s is a fantasy. Another is that pretty much anyone who somehow took Swift’s proposal seriously would find it horrifying, while Beutler’s suggestion --…

CNN's Chris Cuomo played defense for the Obama administration on Tuesday's New Day as he interviewed Senator Bob Corker on his proposed legislation to "give Congress a say on the Iran deal," as the anchor put it. Cuomo wondered, "How can they negotiate a deal if the Iran side of the table says – well, you really can't give me any assurances, because you have to go to your Congress after this? You…

Journalists' and leftists' (but I repeat myself) misguided love for Cuba goes back decades. Y'know, free healthcare (cough), yada-yada. Now that President Obama is unilaterally changing the relationship between the two nations, and as usual getting nothing in return, you'd think that they'd be happy. Heck no. It started several months ago when Fox News's Shepard Smith fretted about how a thaw in…

Late Monday afternoon, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger produced a typically dodgy dispatch on the government's Monthly Treasury Statement. The Treasury Department released the March version of that report covering the first six months of the current fiscal year early Monday afternoon. The odd thing is, while it has been published elsewhere at the web sites of certain of its subscribers…