In his defense of President Obama last night, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes made the bizarre case that too much security is the real problem at the border. The All In host used his opening segment on the July 9 edition of the program to hammer Republicans for their critique of the President's response to the border crisis.
Hayes first cited a few liberal talking points arguing that Obama really is tough on immigration. He contended that “the border has never been more secured than it is now. In some ways, the humanitarian crisis along the southwest border is actually a result of that security.” [MP3 audio here; video below]
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July 10, 2014, 11:45 AM EDT
July 9, 2014, 6:45 PM EDT
The folks on MSNBC's The Cycle have gone on the offensive regarding immigration, moving from defending President Obama to bashing the supposed bigotry that exists on the right, naturally. On the July 9 edition of program, the panel and guest Eric Schneiderman of Salon were virtually unanimous in their criticism of the Republican Party on immigration.
Toure pointed to what he believed is a contradiction within the Republican Party: that the business community which generally supports Republicans tends to be pro-immigration reform, while the base largely opposes such reform. He them attempted to explain this dilemma by accusing the right of bigotry: [MP3 audio here; video below]
July 9, 2014, 6:00 PM EDT
Discussing the growing immigration crisis on the July 9 edition of At This Hour with Berman and Michaela, CNN commentator Sally Kohn and host Michaela Pereira both jumped to defend President Obama from attacks from both Republicans and Democrats on his response to the flood of children arriving at the southern border.
Pereira wondered how people would dare to label the crisis as Obama’s Katrina moment, asking, “is it even fair to compare this to Katrina? You think about the fact that hundreds of people lost their lives, their homes, their livelihoods, is this a fair assessment?” Meanwhile, liberal pundit Sally Kohn went further, rejecting the entire premise that there is even a crisis to begin with: [MP3 audio here; video below]
July 9, 2014, 10:59 AM EDT
Leave it to MSNBC to twist the rhetoric of the Tea Party following Thad Cochran’s upset of Chris McDaniel in the June 24 Mississippi runoff. On Tuesday's Now, host Alex Wagner and David Corn of Mother Jones both strongly suggested that racism is the reason why the Tea Party objected to thousands of Democrats pushing Cochran to victory.
Wagner sneered, “This is particularly pointed for the Republican Party, not just because it's Republican versus Republican but the votes they are questioning are predominantly black votes.” She then took things up a notch, claiming that the Tea Party views black voters as illegitimate: [MP3 audio here; video below]
July 8, 2014, 2:10 PM EDT
On Tuesday, continuing MSNBC’s obsession with Chris Christie, Rachel Maddow attacked the Republican New Jersey governor for his position on guns. Christie recently vetoed a bill that would have reduced the number of bullets in a gun magazine from 15 to 10, much to the chagrin of The Rachel Maddow Show host.
Maddow rejected Christie’s argument that the measure could ultimately lead to a ban on guns entirely. He asserted that “If you take the logical conclusion of their argument, you go to zero, because every life is valuable. And so why ten? Why not six? Why not two? Why not one? Why not zero? Why not just ban guns completely?” Maddow shrugged this off, mocking Christie: "Why save anybody? If you're not going to save everybody, why save anybody? Such favoritism.” Then, Maddow ended her rant by attacking Christie one final time: [MP3 audio here; video below]
July 7, 2014, 4:30 PM EDT
Early this morning The Washington Post published an incredibly misleading article with the headline, “Children of same-sex couples are happier and healthier than peers, research shows”. Staff writer Lindsey Bever’s story cited a study which suggested – based on severely flawed methodology – that children of gay couples are happier and healthier than the general population.
Bever quoted the author of the study, Simon Crouch, claiming that the reason same-sex families are superior is because of the "greater social cohesion among same-sex families com[ing] from an equal distribution of work. He said same-sex couples are likely to share responsibilities more equally than heterosexual ones."
July 7, 2014, 1:30 PM EDT
After introducing his political panel on the July 7 edition of MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown, host Chuck Todd chose to mock Brent Bozell, Media Research Center President and NewsBusters publisher, after realizing he had three titans of the mainstream media on his program at the same time.
Todd described the panel, consisting of The New York Times’ Carolyn Ryan, Dan Balz of The Washington Post, and Susan Page of USA Today as “really a nightmare scenario for Brent Bozell. This is like the mainstream media all in one place, the Times, the Post, USA Today, NBC. Oh my God! Heads are exploding!” [MP3 audio here; video below]
July 2, 2014, 2:00 PM EDT
The July 1 edition of Hannity featured a rare occurrence for television: A liberal, pro-abortion activist had to listen to the conservative cause being articulated. Guest Dana Loesch of The Blaze slammed former NOW President Patricia Ireland's "horrible misunderstanding" of the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling.
Ireland attempted to make the argument that the Hobby Lobby ruling could open up Pandora’s box to denying people health care entirely. Responding to Sean Hannity’s suggestion that Hobby Lobby is a family owned business that can have its own religious views, Ireland argued: “Okay, and what if that family were Christian Scientists, could they deny all health care?” [MP3 audio here; video below]
July 1, 2014, 5:21 PM EDT
In reaction to Georgia’s new gun law that expands legal carry to some schools, churches, government buildings, and bars, MSNBC waxed hysterical about the potential consequences of expanding the freedoms of gun-owners.
On the July 1 edition of The Reid Report, host Joy-Ann Reid and her two guests were skeptical that the law would be effective and were confident that it would increase violent crime. Goldie Taylor, an MSNBC contributor, took things a step further, asserting her ‘right’ to not be around any law abiding citizen who might happen to own a gun [MP3 audio here; video below]:
July 1, 2014, 11:20 AM EDT
Continuing the liberal media narrative that the Republican Party is doomed without passing comprehensive immigration reform, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on Tuesday insisted that the party is in a virtual political trap that it will not find its way out of any time soon.
The Daily Rundown host stated that the Republicans are “in the worst political box I've ever seen. If they pass immigration reform they will split their party in two and it could be disastrous for them for a few years, if not a decade.” Furthering this line of thinking, Todd argued that the short-term prospects for the Republicans in presidential elections are catastrophic [MP3 audio here; video below]:
June 30, 2014, 5:05 PM EDT
MSNBC and the liberal networks have been constantly fearmongering about the implications and supposed disastrous consequences of the Hobby Lobby ruling. However, seemingly by accident, Joy-Ann Reid brought on a liberal guest who was surprisingly defensive of the Court’s decision.
The Reid Report host welcomed Laurence Tribe, a constitutional lawyer, to the June 30 edition of the program, and he was not willing to concede that the Hobby Lobby ruling was transformative in any way. He lashed out at the left for their caricature of the Roberts Court as one that is just trying to screw the little guy in favor of the big corporations [MP3 audio here; video below]:
June 30, 2014, 1:30 PM EDT
Hyperbolic claims about the Tea Party are nothing new from the mainstream media, but now admitted plagiarist Fareed Zakaria is comparing the conservative group to a radical Islamist sect, rehashing the same tired comparison other liberal journalists and pundits have made before.
On the June 29 edition of Fareed Zakaria GPS, the host compared the Tea Party to the Mahdi Army, an Iraqi Shiite paramilitary force that is opposed to both the Maliki regime and the radical Sunni group ISIS [MP3 audio here; video below]:
June 27, 2014, 4:50 PM EDT
Continuous fear-mongering from the left about the supposed cataclysmic dangers of global warming has always been present, but Slate’s Eric Holthaus has taken things to a whole different level. As Iraq and Syria devolve into chaos, the left-wing publication has blamed climate change for the rise of the al-Qaeda offshoot ISIS.
While the purpose of ISIS – imposing Sharia law on captured territory, ethnically cleansing Shia Muslims, and persecuting other religious groups like Christians – is evident to most of the world community, Slate makes the claim that the radical Sunni group was somehow spurred on by recent drought in the region:
June 27, 2014, 12:35 PM EDT
On the June 27 edition of CNN Newsroom, a panel discussed new calls from Ted Cruz that the IRS scandal needs a special prosecutor. John Avlon of The Daily Beast wasn’t buying it, trashing the Texas senator for leading a supposed witch hunt. He also argued that the root of the problem was the Citizens United ruling, and that the real solution is more campaign finance reform.
When host Carol Costello questioned Avlon about the necessity of a special prosecutor, he rushed to dismiss the issue: “I think probably a special prosecutor is at this moment not necessary as is calling for the impeachment of the Attorney General of the United States...Whenever Ted Cruz or Darrell Issa walks into the matter it immediately turns into a partisan hackathon as opposed to a search for the truth.” Thankfully, Will Cain of The Blaze was there to counter Avlon, and offered quite the opposite perspective [MP3 audio here; video below]:
June 26, 2014, 4:54 PM EDT
CNN’s Carol Costello seemed unable to comprehend why Hobby Lobby opposes the federal mandate in ObamaCare to cover emergency contraceptives and abortifacients. On the June 26 edition of CNN Newsroom, the host continually suggested that such exemptions only make sense for actual churches, rather than practicing Christians.
Costello stated in her introduction of the story that critics – they remained unnamed – claim that if Hobby Lobby prevails it could mean “tomorrow’s civil rights disaster.” Costello noted that Catholic bishops are also opposed to the federal mandate, but then questioned her guest, CNN Vatican analyst John Allen, with an exasperated voice if Hobby Lobby is really the “same as the Catholic Church, though.” Costello did not back down from this assertion either; later in the segment she pushed the same argument [MP3 audio here; video below]:
June 26, 2014, 11:15 AM EDT
On the June 25 edition of Hardball, fill-in host Steve Kornacki and his guests discussed the implications of Thad Cochran’s surprising upset of Chris McDaniel in the Mississippi GOP Senate runoff. The panel mocked the Tea Party’s outrage at Thad Cochran over his courting of Democratic voters in the primary.
Kornacki laughed off Chris McDaniel’s assertion that the outcome was unbecoming of the party of Ronald Reagan, explaining: “That is the same Ronald Reagan who we named the Reagan Democrats after because he cultivated all that Democratic support when he ran for President.” David Corn agreed, criticizing the Tea Party because the “Republican Party has been trying to get black people to vote for them for a long time, and finally when it happens Tea Partiers get upset.” [MP3 audio; video below]
June 25, 2014, 5:03 PM EDT
Reacting to Thad Cochran’s surprising victory over Chris McDaniel in the GOP Senate runoff last night, a panel on the June 25 edition of The Reid Report tried to comprehend why Southern states have passed voter ID laws. Host Joy Reid insinuated that there were racial overtones to these laws, believing that Republicans were attempting to “limit minority voter influence,” particularly following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act last year.
Conveniently Reid omitted that in the Magnolia State, prominent African-American Democratic politicians like the mayor of Vicksburg are perfectly fine with the law [MP3 audio here; video below].
June 24, 2014, 5:35 PM EDT
In a discussion on the June 24 edition of The Cycle regarding the heated Mississippi GOP Senate runoff between U.S. Senator Thad Cochran and state senator Chris McDaniel, MSNBC’s Toure immediately expressed skepticism of the tactics being deployed by the two candidates to appeal to voters.
Toure criticized Thad Cochran for reaching out to Democratic black voters at a time of political convenience because “he hasn't really been reaching out to [them] before now, now that he's fighting for his electoral life, now he's reaching out to them.” While the senator has been widely known for bringing home the bacon to Mississippi voters, those dollars only seem to reach white voters in the eyes of Toure. Then, The Cycle co-host warned that this runoff represented a return to Jim Crow era voter suppression [MP3 audio here; video below]:
June 24, 2014, 11:30 AM EDT
Chris Matthews found yet another opportunity to cheerlead in the push for same-sex marriage by promoting HBO’s The Case Against 8 and recommending a book by lawyers David Boies and Ted Olson titled Redeeming the Dream. The Hardball host took every opportunity to compliment the two men on their successful effort to overturn Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state of California.
Rejecting any hint of impartiality, Matthews declared Boies and Olson to be “my heroes and I think heroes to the country.” Later on in the conversation, Matthews could not conceive why a conservative–or anyone–might ever oppose gay marriage aside from it being a “cultural thing,” explaining in a mocking voice [MP3 audio here; video below]:
June 23, 2014, 4:30 PM EDT
MSNBC has been covering President Obama’s White House Summit on Working Families intently thus far today, and the trend continued on the June 23 edition of Andrea Mitchell Reports. Guest host Peter Alexander brought on Charmaine Givens-Thomas to discuss her efforts in petitioning President Obama to set up a meeting with Wal-Mart workers to highlight low wages, inequality, and the lack of recovery for workers following the Great Recession.
Suffice it to say, Ms. Givens-Thomas, a Wal-Mart employee herself, made some truly bizarre arguments in support of her cause, like seeming to place blame on Wal-Mart for the pregnancies of their workers [MP3 audio here; video below]: