2012 Governors

Fibbing to the End: AP's Bauer Claims That Act 10 'Stripp(ed) Most Public Employees of Their Union Right to Collectively Bargain
By Tom Blumer | June 5, 2012 | 6:08 PM EDT

As he has for nearly 16 months, the AP's Scott Bauer once again included a false statement about what the budget repair legislation also known as "Act 10" passed by Wisconsin's legislature and signed by Governor Scott Walker last year did to public-sector unions and their ability to collectively bargain.

He wrote: "Enraged Democrats and labor activists gathered more than 900,000 signatures in support of the recall after they failed to stop Walker and his GOP allies in the state Legislature from stripping most public employees of their union right to collectively bargain." Y'know, Scott, you've been writing this garbage for 16 months. You can keep it up for the next 16 months or 16 years, but what won't change is that fact that your statement today and the equivalent statements you've written in the past simply aren't true, and never will be.

'Karl Rove Indictment' Shuster Predicts Same for Scott Walker
By P.J. Gladnick | June 5, 2012 | 6:00 PM EDT

David Shuster is predicting the imminent indictment of Karl Rove.

Oops!

That was Shuster as an MSNBC host back in 2006. In his current incarnation on the no-rated Current TV he is predicting the possible indictment of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. Despite making himself a laughingstock six years ago by projecting visions of Karl Rove being frogwalked across the White House lawn, Shuster now seems intent on delivering an encore performance.

NBC Bemoans 'Demonization' in 'Nasty' Wisconsin Recall...Fueled By MSNBC
By Kyle Drennen | June 5, 2012 | 5:13 PM EDT

Seated atop a high horse on Monday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Peter Alexander lamented the tone of the Wisconsin recall election of Republican Governor Scott Walker: "It is a fiery local campaign that analysts say highlights the country's nasty political landscape, where demonization often drowns out discourse."

What Alexander failed to notice from his lofty perch was that left-wing MSNBC host Ed Schultz has driven much of the nastiness in the campaign. Launching his vicious assault against Walker in February of 2011 on The Ed Show, Schultz spewed: "Governor Scott Walker is trying to balance the budget on the backs of school teachers, prison guards, and snowplow drivers...on a mission to destroy basic human rights, union rights that is, for public employees." From then through May of 2012, Schultz brought on 237 guests to denounce Walker.

NB Live Chat: Wisconsin Recall
By NB Staff | June 5, 2012 | 5:12 PM EDT

Tonight is the big night for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the union drones who despise him. Exit polls are said to be trending in Walker's favor so expect tonight to be very interesting, particularly if Walker's Democratic opponent, Tom Barrett, goes down hard.

Join us tonight as we keep track of the latest news in a live chat to discuss the recall election and the media coverage of it. Will Walker win? Will Ed Schultz have a meltdown on-air? We'll find out sooon.

Maddow Vents About Romney Deceit - After She Lies About Wisconsin Recall Polls
By Jack Coleman | June 5, 2012 | 5:00 PM EDT

You'd think MSNBC's resident brainiac would know better than to engage in the very thing she condemns in others.

Apparently this ethical tenet understood by most children is beyond Rachel Maddow's grasp as she demonstrated once again on her cable show last night. (video, audio clips after page break)

Open Thread: Recall Election Day in Wisconsin
By Matthew Sheffield | June 5, 2012 | 9:39 AM EDT

Today is the big day for Wisconsinites as the long-awaited recall election of governor Scott Walker finally ends. After playing up the contest as important and of national portent, many liberals in and out of the press are now trying to say it doesn't matter. Still, President Obama has made it a point to make himself scarce in the race, refusing to come to the aid of Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee trying to unseat Walker.
Stay with us tonight as we'll have an NB Live chat to keep tabs on the results and monitor the media reaction.

Tina Brown Bops Obama: 'Aloof', Not 'Lovable'
By Mark Finkelstein | June 5, 2012 | 8:40 AM EDT

Et tu, Tina?  Has Maureen Dowd, by her scalding column this weekend, signaled to fellow liberals that it's OK to rap President Obama?   Dowd portrayed Obama as lazy, nihilistic, removed and self-absorbed.  Now comes Brown on today's Morning Joe, calling Obama "aloof" and not "lovable."

Daily Beast editor Brown made her comments in the context of criticizing Obama's decision to stay out of Wisconsin, not deigning to come to the aid of Tom Barrett, the Dem candidate looking to unseat Republican Governor Scott Walker in today's recall election. View the video after the jump.

Ed Schultz Lurches From Panic to Incoherence Over Wisconsin Recall
By Jack Coleman | June 4, 2012 | 7:16 PM EDT

What a difference 48 hours makes in the barren wasteland known as Ed Schultz's mind.

Back on May 29, Schultz warned of giant flaming acorns falling from the sky if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker prevailed in a June 5 recall election against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who was defeated by Walker in the 2010 gubernatorial race. (audio clips after page break)

CBS: Walker Might Become Anti-Union 'Poster Child' If He Wins Recall
By Matthew Balan | June 4, 2012 | 5:12 PM EDT

On Sunday's CBS Evening News, John Dickerson candidly admitted that a failed recall attempt of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker "would be a big blow" to the unions, and that it "would be a sign to any Republican contemplating similar action to limit unions that you could survive, and Walker will become the poster child and hero of that effort." Poster child?

Dickerson predicted that there "would be a lot of infighting in Democratic circles, with unions saying the national Democratic parties and their president didn't do enough" if Walker won. But he immediately added a more sunny spin, that "it might galvanize union supporters for the presidential election, on the theory that they're under threat and they need a president who's on their side. "

AP's Beaumont Gives Away His Viewpoint in Writing About Feingold's 2010 Election Loss
By Tom Blumer | June 3, 2012 | 11:05 PM EDT

The headline at Thomas Beaumont's Sunday item about the possible significance of the Scott Walker recall election in Wisconsin is "Few November clues to be found in Wisconsin recall."

Maybe, but I have a definite clue as to Beaumont's political proclivities, something which I shouldn't be able to glean from a wire service report, thanks to the paragraph which follows the jump. Let's see if readers can pick up that clue:

CNN's Crowley Asks Gov. McDonnell 'Don’t You Credit Obama' for 'Good Fortune Virginia Has?'
By Noel Sheppard | June 3, 2012 | 10:51 AM EDT

As we approach Election Day, it's becoming more and more important for the Obama-loving media to give credit to the President for the economies of swing states governed by Republicans that are doing better economically than the rest of the country.

Candy Crowley did her part on CNN's State of the Union Sunday by asking Governor Bob McDonnell (R-Va.), "Don’t you credit President Obama at all for the good fortune that Virginia has?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

AP Coverage of Walker, Barrett Wis. Recall Campaign Visits Lacks Sense of Direction and (of Course) Fairness
By Tom Blumer | June 3, 2012 | 9:58 AM EDT

As one who has made the occasional dumb mistake (which readers tend to be quite adept at catching), I figured I'd give the Associated Press's Todd Richmond and his editors a while to correct a pretty obvious miscue relating to a Wisconsin gubernatorial recall campaign visit by challenger Tom Barrett. In a report whose first version appeared yesterday morning and currently has a 2:42 p.m. Saturday time stamp, Richmond wrote that Barrett's campaign Saturday started "with the Barron County Dairy Breakfast in Hillsdale, a burg of 1,250 people about 90 miles west of Minneapolis." Well Todd, if Barrett actually was 90 miles west of the Twin Cities, he would not have been in Wisconsin; he would have been about halfway between Minneapolis and the North Dakota border. (Hillsdale, Wisconsin is really about 90 miles east of Minneapolis.)

On more substantive matters, Richmond, with the help of an agenda-driven headline ("Wis. governor works to meet voters before recall"), portrayed Walker as an awkward in-person campaigner, someone not instantly recognized by many people who have lives outside of poltics (imagine that) and, of course (while not mentioning union and leftist spending at all) as a beneficiary of "a jaw-dropping $31 million in campaign cash." He also wrote that polls show the race as close while failing to note that Walker leads in either every one or nearly every one. The relevant paragraphs from Richmond's report are after the jump (bolds are mine):