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CBS This Morning stood out on Monday as the only mention so far on the Big Three's morning and evening newscasts of the New York Times' Sunday item about sheriffs in Colorado who are "refusing to enforce" gun control laws passed earlier in 2013, "saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be 'a very low priority,' as several sheriffs put it."
Anchor Charlie Rose devoted a 14-second news brief to writer Erica Goode's story about the law enforcement officials' stance against the new laws in the Centennial State: [audio available here; video below the jump]
In an attempt to stir tensions within the Republican Party over the recent budget deal, on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, host David Gregory falsely claimed that Florida Senator Marco Rubio had denounced the agreement as "un-American." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Gregory cited the fictional quote twice to Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, one of the architects of the deal: "On the Right, my colleague Kelly O'Donnell spoke to your colleague Marco Rubio. He calls this an un-American deal....when Senator Rubio says it's un-American, is that just because he's running for president, do you think?"
The liberal hosts of The View on Monday took one last chance to fawn over Michael Bloomberg, touting the "bold" actions the exiting New York City Mayor made against guns, soda and cigarettes. Walters, who has joked about flirting with the billionaire, referenced a skit she appeared in with the left-wing politician: "I would like to point out that you and I got married on the program, supposedly. It was never consummated."
Walters introduced Bloomberg by enthusing, "Michael Bloomberg has been more than just the mayor of New York City for the past 12 years. Some people think he's the best mayor we've had." The supposedly neutral journalist touted "his bold actions on issues like gun safety" and "banishing smoking in public places." Whoopi Goldberg hit the mayor from the left, demanding to know why he didn't go further: "This is a question I always ask folks about sugary drinks and cigarettes and things: Why not just ban them outright?" [A montage of the softball questions can be found below. MP3 audio here.]
"Was Santorum Right About Polygamy?" asked a teaser headline on the Daily Beast's website this morning. "The Republican was once savaged for suggesting polygamy could become legal if the Supreme Court killed anti-sodomy laws. Now a judge has ruled against Utah's anti-polygamy statute," noted the teaser caption.
In the story itself, Daily Beast staffer Justin Miller answered the question in the negative, but did note that the court ruling in question did draw from the Supreme Court sodomy law case Lawrence v. Texas and that there's a strong political validation to the slippery slope argument from developments like these (emphases mine):
Liberal filmmaker James Cameron is estimated to be worth $700 million.
Despite this fortune, it was announced Monday that he will be producing the next three installments of his successful "Avatar" movie in New Zealand.
It was also announced Monday that New Zealand is changing its tax incentive structure for films made in the country making Cameron eligible for 25 percent in rebates.
In her continuing campaign to promote Elizabeth Warren's presidential prospects, Mika Brzezinski has attempted to recruit an unlikely ally: Steve Rattner.
Rattner--President Obama's former "car czar"--is an investment manager and what passes for a moderate in the modern Dem party. The notion that he would support leftist Elizabeth Warren in a Dem primary is far-fetched to say the least. But Mika told Rattner he would "root" for Warren "because you will do that for me." A compliant Ratter replied that he would "do anything" for Mika. View the video after the jump.
Earlier this morning, Joe Newby at NewsBusters posted on the Denver Post's scrubbing of the word "socialist" from a fellow student's description of Karl Pierson, who police say shot two other students and then took his own life at Arapahoe High School on Friday. The Post story originally said that classmate Thomas Conrad described him as "a very opinionated Socialist." Sometime later, the Post watered the description down to "very opinionated" without telling readers what it had done.
Wait until you see the lame, condescending attempt at a defense offered by Post Senior Editor for News Lee Ann Colacioppo in a tweeted response to a reader's challenge on Saturday afternoon:
With President Obama's approval rating in the dumps, it's time for softball interviews. We've seen the usual Barbara Walters holiday spit-and-polish. Then Obama sat down with black talk show host/game show host Steve Harvey. You can see why Obama would pick this opportunity to remind people how unbelievably likeable and down-to-earth he is. The show is syndicated nationally by NBC Universal.
In an interview with WRC-TV in Washington, Harvey insisted his interview (airing Friday) left out the politics. "I don’t care about the politics. It’s not important to me. Look, he’s a great guy. There’s a section of people who don’t agree with anything he does, and then there’s those of us who get it. So I don’t have to go into that again." Harvey then went on to defend both Obamas over the "selfie" in South Africa:
In "The Fix" column in Monday's Washington Post, political bloggers Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza loved Speaker John Boehner attacking Tea Party groups so much that it qualified for their weekly prize for "Best Thing That Happened to Republicans." Then you read further...and it's also "Best Thing That Happened to Democrats."
Clearly, the Post thinks the Tea Party is the only thing blocking Washington from functioning properly. They want Obama to have more "signature achievements" like Obamacare. Democrats apparently have no strongly ideological base that doesn't like compromise:
An article originally published at the Denver Post on Friday cited a classmate who described Karl Pierson, the alleged Arapahoe High School shooter, as a “very opinionated Socialist.” But the paper edited the article since it was first published, scrubbing the reference to socialism, Twitchy reported Saturday, citing a post at Bearing Arms.
“Thomas Conrad, who had an economics class with the gunman, described him as a very opinionated Socialist,” the Post originally said.
Democratic strategist and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus Angela Rye picked the wrong panel Sunday to accuse the Tea Party of being "racial."
When he heard this during his appearance on MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry show, Republican strategist Ron Christie strongly objected saying, "Racial! I will not sit here and allow you to say that!” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
My nomination for the dumbest comment of the week by a television host on a news channel goes to CNN's Brian Stelter.
While talking to Slate's Aisha Harris about the reaction to her article calling for Santa Claus to be a penguin, the new Reliable Sources host wondered if Megyn Kelly wouldn't have been so adamant about Santa being white if Fox News had more black viewers (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Right now, the White House press corps is in a shouting match with the Obama Administration over the White House's refusal to allow media photographers to take pictures of various presidential events. While the left-leaning journalists are tossing around words like "propaganda" to describe the official photos which are being released, the recent trip President Obama took to South Africa for the funeral of Nelson Mandela illustrates that the media elite really isn't interested in news so much as it is in preserving its institutional power.
Perhaps the most-discussed news item out of the Mandela funeral trip was a picture that was taken of Obama, British prime minister David Cameron, and Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt taking a “selfie” -- a self-portrait usually shot with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone -- a moment that was caught by Roberto Schmidt, a photographer for the French Press Agency. Now, Schmidt says that the overwhelming interest in the shot makes him “ashamed of mankind.”
Adam Wollner at NPR’s It’s All Politics blog reported that longtime “Price Is Right” host Bob Barker is endorsing a Republican for Congress in the special election to replace Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, who recently died in office.
Barker, who's just turned 90 and retired from the popular CBS daytime show in 2007 after 35 years, appeared in a television ad Thursday on behalf of David Jolly, a lobbyist and former general counsel to Young in Florida’s 13th district.