During MSNBC’s live coverage Friday morning of Pope Francis in New York City and the sudden announcement that House Speaker John Boehner will resign October 30, liberal personality Rachel Maddow couldn’t help but speak in admiration for Boehner, describing him as a “refreshing and lovable” politician as he’s dealt with “a fractious and self-righteously combative caucus.”
Sudden Respect
By Clay Waters | September 22, 2015 | 9:25 AM EDT
The New York Times' Jennifer Steinhauer celebrated the faith of the fiercely pro-abortion former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California under a laugher of a headline, "At Divisive Moment, Pelosi’s Faith Coexists With Belief in Abortion Rights." The online headline is even "stronger" in silliness: "In Pelosi, Strong Catholic Faith and Abortion Rights Coexist." Steinhauer strove mightily to portray left-wing, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage Pelosi as an unconflicted Catholic.
More Sudden Respect for Liberal Religion in NYT: 'Many Conservatives Project Their Fears Onto [Pope Francis]'
By Clay Waters | September 19, 2015 | 9:48 PM EDT More strange new respect for religion on the front page of the New York Times – at least when it comes to the economically liberal Pope Francis. Jim Yardley is the latest: "A Humble Pope, Challenging the World – First Latin American Pontiff Attracts Fans and Stirs Anxiety in Push for Change." Yardley tried to mainstream the left-wing Pope: "But he is hardly a left-winger, either -- at least in the political context of the United States," while portraying conservatives as fearful: "Many conservatives project their fears onto him."
By Curtis Houck | September 16, 2015 | 9:05 PM EDT
Closing out Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, liberal correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell played the role of Ronald Reagan biographer in using the late former president to attack the current Republican presidential field and ruled that Reagan’s “message was infused with sunny optimism” and represents “the flip side of today's angry rhetoric.”
By Curtis Houck | September 11, 2015 | 8:08 PM EDT
During a segment on MSNBC’s The Last Word late Thursday, all three liberal panelists spouted off on the ability of the Soviet Union to follow treaties (in context of the Iran deal), comparing the Iran nuclear agreement to Richard Nixon’s China visit, and lamenting the “partisan...political climate” Republicans have caused the deal to be implemented under.
New York Times Exults on Sunday A1: Pope Francis Entering U.S. Stage Left, Will Attack 'Savage Capitalism'
By Clay Waters | September 6, 2015 | 8:04 PM EDT New York Times religion reporter Laurie Goodstein took a strange angle on Pope Francis's upcoming visit to the United States in her front-page report Sunday, using the liberal pontiff's first trip to America to bash American-style capitalist hegemony and the country's supposedly arrogant, insular view of itself. Goodstein assured readers that the Pope "is not opposed to all America represents. But he is troubled by privileged people and nations that consume more than their share and turn their backs on the vulnerable."
By Clay Waters | August 3, 2015 | 10:03 PM EDT
Strange new respect? Two days after the New York Times labeled real estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a racist on its front page based on thin evidence, the Times is suddenly treating one of his Twitter pronouncements as newsworthy, with Ashley Parker devoting an entire story to Trump's tweet. Perhaps because he's attacking his fellow GOP candidates as "puppets" of the libertarian Koch Brothers, themselves a frequent target of the Times.
NYT Eagerly Cites Pope on Climate Change, Cheers His 'Blistering Criticism of 21st-Century Capitalism'
By Clay Waters | June 19, 2015 | 4:24 PM EDT Strange new religious respect: The formal release of Pope Francis's long-anticipated encyclical on global warming dominated Friday's New York Times, which avidly covered it from both environmental and religious angles -- quite unlike the paper's hostile treatment of the Vatican's stands on abortion and birth control. Laurie Goodstein, the paper's chief religion reporter, seemed to thoroughly enjoy seeing political conservatives "fuming" about the document's hard critiques of capitalism, while breathing not a word about the encyclical's condemnation of abortion.
New York Times Butters Up Jeb Bush to Hit 'His Party's Hard-Liners' -- But How Long Would NYT Flattery Last?
By Clay Waters | December 14, 2014 | 8:23 AM EST Saturday's front-page report on Jeb Bush, "Looking to ’16, Another Bush Stakes Out the Middle Ground," marks the latest New York Times profile to flatter the moderate Republican, at least in comparison to those "hard-line" right-wing conservatives. But such reportorial flattery from the Times would end the day Jeb Bush won the Republican primary, as John McCain found out in 2008.
Veteran NYT Supreme Court Reporter Hits Its 'Steady Regression on Race,' 'Hijacking of the First Amendment'
By Clay Waters | October 3, 2014 | 8:32 AM EDT New York Times former Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse held a dubious celebration of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. in her nytimes.com column, while attacking the Court’s "steady regression on race and its deregulatory hijacking of the First Amendment" and Justice Clarence Thomas's "full-steam-back-to-the-18th-century" approach to constitutional interpretation.
By Clay Waters | September 4, 2014 | 7:24 AM EDT
Last week Newsbusters analyzed the strange new respect granted a local Texas candidate (and Bush family member) George P. Bush: His global warming advocacy which, according to an approving headline, "Stray[ed] From Party Ideology."
Reporter Neena Satija of the Texas Tribune praised Bush, a candidate for Texas Land Commissioner, for avoiding making a "Tea Party talking point" and admitting the threat of global warming “honestly keeps me up at night.” But that's not what Bush actually said, according to the full transcript of the Satija-Bush interview posted at the Texas Tribune, a left-leaning journalism center which partners with the Times. In fact, reporter Satija was the one constantly introducing the subject of climate change, and used egregiously out-of-context quotes to make a phony case that Bush was a true believer in human-caused global warming. Sarah Rumpf at Breitbart has the scoop:
NYT Reporter & Former Dem Staffer Claims 'Conservative Christians' (like Sojourners?) Embrace Strict EPA Regs on Coal
By Clay Waters | July 30, 2014 | 8:12 PM EDT In his Wednesday afternoon posting at nytimes.com, "Religious Conservatives Embrace Proposed E.P.A. Rules," Times reporter Theodore Schleifer lent a megaphone to a prayer circle of alleged "conservative Christians" and "parts of the religious right" who favor more stringent EPA regulations on coal plants. The only thing missing from his report? Actual conservative Christians.
It's the latest gullible "strange new respect" story in which the New York Times embraces religion, at least when allegedly "conservative" religious groups conveniently embrace liberal stands on issues like illegal immigration or the environment. Actual Christian conservatives by the standard definition of the term are nowhere to be found.