Middle East

Chris Hayes & Co. Baffled By San Bernardino Motive
By Mark Finkelstein | December 3, 2015 | 9:36 PM EST

Rudy Giuliani has said that if you can't figure out that what happened in San Bernardino was an act of terror, "you're a moron." But from Chris Hayes, to the FBI, to a representative of the Muslim community, to a Mother Jones reporter, to President Obama himself, one thing emerged from Hayes' MSNBC show tonight: they're all terribly confused and cautious about what possibly could have been the "motive" of the San Bernardino shooters.

Check out the video montage. It would be comical but for the heinous circumstances—and the unwillingness of the country's political, media and religious leaders to call out radical Islamic terrorism when they see it.

ABC and CBS Omit Obama Backpedaling on ISIS Strategy, Disconnect with Joint Chiefs Chairman
By Curtis Houck | December 1, 2015 | 9:45 PM EST

On Tuesday night, ABC and CBS refused to acknowledge a pair of points in its respective stories concerning news that additional U.S. special forces will be stationed inside Iraq to fight ISIS and will engage in combat roles. Along with not mentioning that the move represented the latest example of backpedaling by President Obama on a pledge to not put U.S. troops on the ground, the two networks skipped the admission by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that ISIS is not “contained” in a rebuke to the President’s recent claims.

Former AP Reporters: Wire Service Suppressed 'World-Changing' Story on 2008 Israeli Peace Offer
By Tom Blumer | November 30, 2015 | 12:23 PM EST

In predictably disingenuous fashion, the Associated Press claimed in a November 18 story that "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has shined new light on the breakdown of a potentially history-altering round of 2008 peace talks." Abbas acknowledged that Israel offered Palestinians 93.5 percent of the West Bank and other significant concessions.

The "light" isn't "new" at all. The wire service had the news almost seven years ago, and, according to former AP reporters, refused to publish it. An AP reporter who "discovered the Israeli peace offer in early 2009, got it confirmed on the record and brought it" to the AP in Jerusalem has substantiated the assertion that it "suppressed a world-changing story for no acceptable reason." It is perhaps the most damming validation yet that prudent people should never trust establishment press reports out of the Middle East — particularly in regards to Israel — because of their "pattern ... of accepting the Palestinian narrative as truth and branding the Israelis as oppressors."

Bush-Obsessed Nation Editor Uses Trump to Slam Bush 'Lies,' Calls Trump 'Bush' Twice
By Brad Wilmouth | November 29, 2015 | 1:38 PM EST

Far-left The Nation editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel was still exhibiting signs of Bush Derangement Syndrome on Sunday's Reliable Sources as she appeared on the CNN show to discuss Donald Trump's claims of seeing thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering on the 9/11 attacks.

Vanden Heuvel not only used the controversy to rehash the war in Iraq as she complained that the media before the Iraq War did not press former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney for alleged "lies," but she even accidentally called Trump "Bush" twice, without even catching her flub the first time.

WashPost Columnist: ESPN’s Kornheiser ‘Should Probably Have’ Been Suspended for Linking GOP to ISIS
By Curtis Houck | November 26, 2015 | 2:17 PM EST

Promoting his latest book Wednesday night on Newsmax TV, longtime sports writer and Washington Post columnist John Feinstein surprisingly went off the liberal reservation and told host Steve Malzberg that ESPN Radio 980 personality and Pardon the Interruption co-host Tony Kornheiser “should probably have gotten” suspended for comparing conservative Republicans to ISIS back.

CNN's King Inserts Qualifier 'Whatever You Think About Him' for Bush, but Not Dem Pols
By Brad Wilmouth | November 25, 2015 | 5:42 PM EST

During a discussion of Wednesday's interview with GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush on New Day, CNN's John King gave a glimpse into the negative mindset of media liberals toward former President George W. Bush such that they have difficulty paying any sort of compliment toward him without having to insert a qualifier like "whatever you think about him."

CNN's Lemon: Anti-GOP SNL Parody 'Not Far from What Some Candidates Saying'
By Brad Wilmouth | November 25, 2015 | 1:47 PM EST

On Monday's CNN Tonight, during a discussion of Islamophobia with liberal CNN commentator Charles Blow and right-leaning CNN commentator Buck Sexton, host Don Lemon played a clip of a Saturday Night Live parody exaggerating the views of right-leaning Americans toward Syrian refugees, and then asserted that "it's not far from what some of the candidates are saying."

ABC’s Stephanopoulos Praises Obama’s ‘Forceful Rhetoric’ on ISIS, Paris Attacks
By Curtis Houck | November 25, 2015 | 1:43 PM EST

While awaiting President Barack Obama’s remarks on Wednesday concerning national security as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, ABC News chief anchor, former Clinton staffer, and Clinton Foundation donor George Stephanopoulos couldn’t help but repeatedly gush over the President’s supposedly “forceful rhetoric” on ISIS following the Paris terror attacks.

NBC NN Frets Turkey Shooting Down Russian Jet ‘Managed to Overshadow’ Obama/Hollande Meeting
By Curtis Houck | November 24, 2015 | 8:36 PM EST

In NBC Nightly News’s coverage of President Obama’s Tuesday meeting with French President Hollande, the newscast complained that Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet had “managed to overshadow” the “crucial meeting at the White House” and further “derailed” an attempt to forge a more cohesive coalition to fight ISIS with Russia.

On CNN, The Blaze's Sexton Schools Liberal Marc Lamont Hill on Islam
By Matthew Balan | November 24, 2015 | 6:08 PM EST

On Monday's CNN Tonight, Buck Sexton of The Blaze exposed the left's special treatment of the Islamic faith, after liberal commentator Marc Lamont Hill attacked Bill Maher for his views on Islam. Hill claimed that "Islam is premised on some very basic fundamental values that are in line with what America articulates as its own value." Sexton countered by underlining that a "large portion" of Muslims subscribe to "ideas that, under normal circumstances, would be considered bigoted by American liberals."

IBD Slams Liberals for Their ‘Deadly Denial’ of the Threat Posed by Radical Islam
By Curtis Houck | November 24, 2015 | 4:45 PM EST

An editorial in Tuesday’s print edition of Investor’s Business Daily firmly took President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the rest of the Democratic Party to task for their “deadly denial” of radical Islam and the prominent role it’s played in the war on terrorism and terrorist attacks from 9/11 to Fort Hood to Paris. 

CNN's Cuomo Frets US Will 'Help ISIS' by Barring Refugees, 'Blaming the Victims'
By Brad Wilmouth | November 24, 2015 | 1:47 PM EST

On Tuesday's New Day on CNN, as co-host Chris Cuomo debated Republican Rep. Steve King on whether Syrian refugees should be allowed into the U.S., the CNN host absurdly suggested that barring refugees might "help ISIS" because it would be "playing into ISIS's hands" by "showing that you are against these people who are desperate."

As he closed the interview for breaking news, he also got in a last-minute dig as he suggested that opponents of bringing refugees to America were "blaming the victims."