Corporate Liberalism

Abandoning All Pretense: Axelrod's Tweet Appears to Foreshadow MSNBC's Move to 'What Progressives Have Been Waiting For'
By Tom Blumer | October 20, 2013 | 7:56 PM EDT

Former Barack Obama campaign manager and current MSNBC senior political analyst David Axelrod today immaturely taunted those who disagree with him on Obamacare by tweeting the following question: "Isn't it ironic that the most ardent opponents of the Affordable Care Act are now complaining that people can't sign up fast enough?"

At first blush, it would appear that Axelrod's tweet might be out of bounds even at MSNBC. Based on the splash which greets those who enter "msnbc.com" in their browser's address bar, you would be wrong:

A Closer Look at the New Owners of the Boston Globe and Washington Post
By Randy Hall | August 8, 2013 | 5:52 PM EDT

Late last week, the Globe was sold by its owner, the New York Times Company, for $70 million in cash to investor and big-time Democratic donor John W. Henry. A few days later, the Graham family -- which owned the Washington Post since saving it from bankruptcy in 1933 -- sold the ailing newspaper to Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Inc., sometimes described as a "liberaltarian" who has donated money predominantly but not exclusively to Democrats.

The value of newspapers has been steadily falling for many years, even before Rupert Murdoch paid $5.2 billion for the Wall Street Journal's parent company, Dow Jones & Co., six years ago.

Gibbs & Mitchell Agree: NBC Hillary Series 'A Bad Idea'
By Mark Finkelstein | August 8, 2013 | 3:37 PM EDT

First Chuck Todd, now Andrea Mitchell and even former Obama spox-turned-NBC-analyst Robert Gibbs agree: NBC's decision to produce a miniseries about Hillary Clinton is a "bad idea."

Gibbs and Mitchell lamented the series on Andrea's early-afternoon MSNBC show today.  View the video after the jump.

NBC's Todd: Clinton Miniseries 'A Total Nightmare' For Us
By Matt Vespa | August 8, 2013 | 11:37 AM EDT

It's not just conservatives who think it's a horrible idea for NBC to run a Hillary Clinton miniseries before the 2016 election. Network anchor Chuck Todd worries about the perception of bias, even as he insists that there's a tall wall of separation between his network's news  and entertainment divisions.

Reported the Washington Post's Aaron Blake in an August 8 Post Politics entry:

Mika: With Biopic, NBC Trying To 'Climb Up' Team Hillary's 'Something'
By Mark Finkelstein | August 6, 2013 | 8:07 AM EDT

Wow: Joe Scarborough just outed something naughty that Mika Brzezinski had to say about the Hillary biopic that her parent network NBC is planning.

After Mika admitted on today's Morning Joe that she doesn't disagree with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus's warning that the RNC might not cooperate with NBC or CNN on Republican debates should the networks proceed with their biopic plans, Joe took things a big step further, saying: "You said off the air, Mika, it was as if they were trying to climb up something of the entire Clinton organization."  "Something"?  You fill in the blanks.  View the video after the jump.

New Haven Register: Fox, Coulter, the GOP, Nugent, Some of Its Readers Embrace 'KKK's Message'
By Tom Blumer | July 30, 2013 | 11:57 PM EDT

Those who falsely smear the other side in an attempt to make an argument tend to do so because they have run out of real ones. It would appear that the New Haven Register's argument cupboard is completely barren of everything but poisonous rhetoric.

In an opinion piece which I can hardly believe is a house editorial, the Register characterizes Ann Coulter, Fox News, the Republican Party, anyone who thinks George Zimmerman really was innocent, Ted Nugent, and Toad's Place, the venue where Nugent is playing next week, as among those who have "embraced" the "same basic message that the KKK has promoted for 148 years." Tellingly, the paper turns on many of its readers, adding "a burgeoning array of fringe 'conservative' media and members of our own community commenting on stories on the New Haven Register’s website" to the KKK-sympathetic cadre. Brace yourself for what follows after the jump, and ask yourself why any person of genuine good will -- left, right, or middle -- would willingly support a publication such as this.

Madonna (Really): 'Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People'
By Tom Blumer | June 22, 2013 | 12:15 PM EDT

There's no word on whether Elizabeth Vargas had to receive smelling salts during her interview of Madonna which appeared on "Good Morning America." But it wouldn't be a surprise if she did.

When the ABC reporter, whose interview was relayed by the network's Sabrina Parise and posted at Yahoo.com, questioned the diva's use of gun choreography in her current tour's stage show, she certainly expected a robust defense. But she probably didn't expect a trip into the land of the Second Amendment. Nonetheless, that's what happened (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary; HT Hot Air; bolds are mine):

Comcast-NBCU Bankrolls Gay Task Force Weekend in D.C.
By Tim Graham | May 2, 2013 | 7:12 AM EDT

Here goes Comcast-NBCUniversal again in doling out its “diversity” dollars for the Left. They are a “platinum sponsor” for this weekend’s “Pink & Purple Weekend” in Washington D.C. for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The NGLTF isn’t just for the gay agenda, but the whole left-wing agenda – for example, it’s pushing immigration reform.

“Opinion leaders and decision-makers will attend this unique weekend of events that honor community leaders who push LGBT equality forward, educate local activists and celebrate the diversity of LGBT people,” they write.

Bozell Column: Who's More Demeaning Than Brad Paisley?
By Brent Bozell | April 13, 2013 | 7:50 AM EDT

Country music star Brad Paisley is either an idiot or a genius. If he wrote the song "Accidental Racist" to stir a whirlwind of (mostly bad) publicity, he's a genius. But the negative cultural consensus strongly suggests he should have never been dumb enough to try to write a racial-harmony song.

Paisley performed the song as a dialogue with rapper LL Cool J, now a star on the CBS drama "NCIS: LA." He says he wrote the song when he felt he had to defend wearing a T-shirt celebrating the country band Alabama, a shirt with the Confederate flag on it. In the song, he tries to suggest to a black man he met that the flag just says he's a fan of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

 

NB's Graham, FNC's Varney Discuss AP Scrubbing 'Illegal Immigrant' From Stylebook
By Ken Shepherd | April 3, 2013 | 7:27 PM EDT

"It seems to me" that the Associated Press's newly announced plan to scrub "illegal immigrant" from its Stylebook is "an attempt to control the language... it's a form of political correctness," argued substitute host Stuart Varney on the April 3 Your World with Neil Cavuto. "You can subtly affect your coverage and your thinking about the issue" by "softening the language," noted Varney, who himself is a legal immigrant to the United States from the United Kingdom.

Yes, agreed Varney's guest, NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham as, "it's a form of political correctness over factual correctness." Graham noted that the Associated Press and New York Times had long held the line on keeping "illegal immigrant" over the nonsensical "undocumented immigrant" alternative, that lobbying by pro-amnesty groups, as well as liberal minority journalism groups pushed the AP to make a politically calculated decision:

Disney CEO Confronted Over Liberal Bias at ABC, ESPN by Shareholder
By Ken Shepherd | March 8, 2013 | 5:05 PM EST

Liberal bias in journalism is not just bad for the profession as an abstract concept, it's bad for the bottom line of media companies and their shareholders. That was the argument of one Justin Danhof of the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) when he attended a Disney shareholders meeting and confronted the entertainment company's CEO Bob Iger about liberal bias at the news division of ABC. "Liberal bias pervades Disney's media outlets" and "it's time to stop denying this bias and start doing something about it," Danhof argued, having cited former ESPN analyst Rob Parker's "cornball brother" crack about black quarterback and alleged Republican Robert Griffin III and ABC News's Brian Ross's infamous episode in which he hinted that Auroroa, Colorado theater shooter James Holmes might be a Tea Party member.

Danhof argued that Disney executives need to take seriously NCPPR's concerns and the concerns of other conservatives who happen to own Disney stock. Danhof appealed not so much to Iger's sense of journalistic integrity but rather the bottom line: Putting out a fairer, more balanced news product may help ABC attract more conservative viewers, and with them, higher ratings and more customers buying products from ABC News program sponsors, leading of course to higher profit margins for Disney. [h/t Huffington Post; Danhof's statement embedded below the page break]

In Pledge Drive, PBS Touts ‘Opposing’ Analysts Liberal Shields and Faux-Conservative Brooks
By Paul Bremmer | March 7, 2013 | 5:41 PM EST

Rejoice, people, it’s pledge drive week on PBS! All of your favorite PBS shows are being interrupted so that a couple of smiling faces can beg you to donate some of your hard-earned income to your local public station. Of course, those of us who pay federal taxes are already subsidizing PBS, albeit involuntarily and indirectly through the federally-chartered Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

It’s not always easy to get folks to part with their money, so PBS is doing more than simply offering a mug to anyone who gives $75 or an umbrella to those who donate $100. They are also aggressively touting their own programming, trying to remind viewers of how much they gain by watching. On Wednesday evening, the pledge drive during the NewsHour attempted to use liberal Mark Shields and quasi-conservative David Brooks as selling points for the network.