By Mark Finkelstein | December 16, 2015 | 8:42 AM EST

When tagging items at NewsBusters, one of our Media Bias sub-categories is "Sudden Respect." The notion is that to win the affection of the MSM, all a Republican or conservative needs to do is turn against members or positions of his party. A great illustration of the phenomenon comes from today's Morning Joe. During last night's undercard debate, Lindsey Graham repeatedly ripped fellow Republicans for their rhetoric on Muslims, at one point even apologizing to Muslims for Donald Trump's comments.

And that of course caused what Rush might call a GrahamGasm by the Morning Joe crew. Mike Barnicle called Graham "fantastic," Nicolle Wallace said "I adore Lindsey Graham." Most amazing was Mika Brzezinski, who beyond praising him as "incredible" actually declared, sounding like she was choking up, "I feel a connection with Lindsey Graham," causing Joe Scarborough to claim [we presume facetiously] that Mika said "where has he been all my life?" Not to be outdone, Joe called on President Obama to award Graham the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Barnicle summed up the panel's sentiment by saying "thank God for Lindsey Graham."

By Brent Bozell | and By Tim Graham | December 16, 2015 | 6:29 AM EST

Our news media are so overwhelmingly obsequious with the Democrats that Hillary Clinton can imply the relatives of the Americans killed in Benghazi are liars on national TV, and no one in the press blinks an eye or finds it newsworthy.

ABC is about to host another one of those hide-and-seek Saturday night Democrat debates. There is something very ironic here: It was on this network where she made that outrageous statement.

By Curtis Houck | December 16, 2015 | 3:16 AM EST

The early Wednesday morning edition of ABC’s Nightline provided the first look at the network reaction to Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate and featured correspondent David Wright ripping it as a “bloody” affair with help from liberal comedians and scolding Chris Christie for remarks about Los Angeles mothers placing their children on school buses only to have classes canceled due to a terror threat.

By Curtis Houck | December 16, 2015 | 12:40 AM EST

Giving viewers his initial thoughts concerning Tuesday’s 2016 GOP presidential debate on the 11:00 p.m. Eastern edition of AC360, CNN political commentator and former Obama administration adviser Van Jones opined that Marco Rubio seemed “rattled” for “the first time” and “lost his cool” as he faced “competition” from fellow Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

By Curtis Houck | December 16, 2015 | 12:08 AM EST

Offering his initial thoughts on Tuesday’s GOP presidential debate on the 11:00 p.m. Eastern edition of CNN’s AC360, CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton super PAC head Paul Begala complained that Republicans possess “dominant emotion” of “fear” that they’ve somehow used to instill fear in Americans following recent terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. 

By Scott Whitlock | December 15, 2015 | 11:15 PM EST

During Tuesday’s debate, CNN featured a question suggesting that Republicans are biblical hypocrites when it comes to the issue of immigration. Co-moderator Wolf Blitzer played a video question from a woman named Carla Hernandez. She suggested, “I'm from the University of Texas at Austin and my question is directed to all the candidates. If the Bible clearly states that we need to embrace those in need and not fear, how can we justify not accepting refugees?” 

By Bruce Bookter | December 15, 2015 | 10:45 PM EST

It took ESPN’s Bomani Jones about an hour and a half into Tuesday night’s CNN GOP debate (pretty strong for him actually) before he did what he does best, and let his race flag fly.

By Scott Whitlock | December 15, 2015 | 10:17 PM EST

In a bizarre exchange, co-debate moderator Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday night pressed Ben Carson as to whether he was “tough” enough to kill thousands of children. Hewitt lectured, “We're talking about ruthless things tonight. Carpet bombing, toughness, war. And people wonder, could you do that?” 

By Ken Shepherd | December 15, 2015 | 8:05 PM EST

Former John McCain presidential campaign advisor Steve Schmidt pushed back against Chris Matthews on tonight's Hardball when the latter whipped out his tired Bush-caused-ISIS talking point.

By Curtis Houck | December 15, 2015 | 8:04 PM EST

Just after the undercard Republican presidential debate began on Tuesday night, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC offered previews of the impending “freewheeling and fiery slugfest” debate and contrasted that with plenty of laudatory rhetoric for “grown up” Hillary Clinton as she spoke in Minnesota about ISIS and “slamm[ed] Republicans for fearmongering.”

By Dylan Gwinn | December 15, 2015 | 7:19 PM EST

Donald Trump is Yuuugely disappointed (I’ll show myself out) at MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred for declining to reinstate Pete Rose. How do we know this? Because he tweeted about it, of course.

By Dylan Gwinn | December 15, 2015 | 6:55 PM EST

Ironic that some of the most vocal support Donald Trump would receive from the sports world, after declaring he wants to ban Muslim entry into the U.S., would come from…well…a Muslim. But Iron Mike Tyson has put the Iron in Irony by doing just that.