In the litany of network news coverage Thursday night on Pope Francis’s address to Congress, ABC’s World News Tonight largely stayed away from the Pope’s comments about abortion and traditional marriage by relegating them to vague references while CBS and NBC did their due diligence and mentioned them amidst their continued obsession over the Pope’s liberal positions.
Abortion
By Kyle Drennen | September 24, 2015 | 3:25 PM EDT
During a live NBC special report minutes after Pope Francis concluded his address to Congress on Thursday, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd hailed the speech and hoped it would prevent a possible government shutdown over defunding Planned Parenthood: “I can’t help – and I apologize for bringing in crass politics into this, but we are six days from the government possibly shutting down and I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear the Pope give these words.”
By Mark Finkelstein | September 23, 2015 | 9:28 PM EDT
To quote the Church Lady: isn't that conv-e-e-e-e-nient?
On Chris Hayes' MSNBC show tonight, Dem congressman Luis Gutierrez claimed that while he was "challenged" by the Catholic church's teachings on abortion and gay rights and found them "difficult" [but not difficult enough to change his standard liberal positions], no one can really argue the Pope's positions on illegal immigration and income inequality.
By Tim Graham | September 23, 2015 | 2:42 PM EDT
MSNBC.com sure knows how to change the subject from baby-parts sales for their friends at Planned Parenthood. It’s somehow headline news that the abortion giant has made a set of YouTube videos about getting consent before sex. Because their brand isn’t supposed to be about committing more than 300,000 abortions annually. They’re a reproductive health group bettering society, apparently.
The headline was "Planned Parenthood videos show what consent looks like."
By Katie Yoder | September 23, 2015 | 10:18 AM EDT
Yes, the head of the Catholic Church is popular. And it’s because of that, that the liberal media smear his image to their own advantage.
The networks herald the “popular pope” where they agree with him, and censor him where they don’t (abortion, marriage). Media outlets from the Washington Post to MSNBC pit him against conservatives to create the illusion that he is one with them: a liberal. A liberal to the extent that he’s “very similar” to President Obama, as ABC insisted.
Kelly, Kurtz, Cruz Excoriate Media for Painting Pope’s Visit as Bad for GOP, Ignoring His Pro-Life Stance
By Curtis Houck | September 23, 2015 | 7:15 AM EDT At the top of Tuesday’s The Kelly File, host Megyn Kelly joined MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in scorching the liberal media for their portrayal of Pope Francis’ visit to the United States as bad for the GOP while ignoring his steadfast support for life and traditional marriage.
Todd Plays Softball with Liberal Catholic Sen. Cantwell, Beans Conservative Sen. Hoeven Over Planned Parenthood Funding Fight
By Ken Shepherd | September 22, 2015 | 9:00 PM EDT Filling in for Chris Matthews on Hardball tonight, NBC's Chuck Todd noted at the open of the program that Pope Francis's U.S. visit would likely yield moments where he speak out to the discomfit of both Republicans and Democrats on certain policy issues. Yet Todd himself didn't seek the emulate such balance when he interviewed Catholic senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.).
By Matthew Balan | September 22, 2015 | 7:30 PM EDT
Thomas Roberts set aside four full segments on his MSNBC Live program on Monday and Tuesday to a panel of six Catholics who dissent from the Church's teachings on sexuality and abortion. Roberts hyped his guests as "Catholics like me who have been deeply wounded in life by the Church." He noted how a divorced woman stayed with the Church and asked, "Do you feel as if you're almost on a cyclical relationship with someone that is almost abusive to you, but that you still go back seeking acceptance?"
By Tom Blumer | September 22, 2015 | 5:38 PM EDT
The Associated Press, serving as the left's de facto Praetorian guard, came through for its abortion-supporting masters once again today.
The wire service's Alan Fram, in a sentence describing the Center for Medical Progress's Planned Parenthood videos, told readers that they show "how they sometimes send fetal tissue to medical researchers" without noting that doing so routinely generates money for the organization.
By Tim Graham | September 22, 2015 | 3:27 PM EDT
On Monday, The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg got very heated in her defense of Planned Parenthood and attacked those in Congress who want to deny federal funds to the abortion giant by telling them to "get out of my vagina."
This might underline why men click the channel quickly past this show.
By Dylan Gwinn | September 22, 2015 | 9:56 AM EDT
The Black Lives Matter movement has finally run into real opposition, and it’s far stiffer than the resistance offered by Bernie Sanders. Following on the heels of Ray Lewis' insistence that the group re-name itself “lives matter,” and Richard Sherman’s reminder that if Black Lives Matter they should matter “all the time,” now Detroit Lions safety Don Carey has joined the chorus by defending those black lives yet unborn.
By Tom Johnson | September 21, 2015 | 10:03 PM EDT
Hannibal’s gone, but there’s still plenty of horrifying content on television. Cox hinted in a Monday column that some of it’s on C-SPAN, courtesy of congressional Republicans.
Regarding a possible government shutdown over funding for Planned Parenthood, Cox asserted, “Forget shrinking government to the size it can be drowned in a bathtub, the politicians clamoring for another shutdown want government done away with in the most gruesome manner possible—perhaps those Planned Parenthood videos are the inspiration for their actions in more ways than one.”