Sudden Respect

MSNBC Explores 'Kinder, Gentler GOP' on 'Ronan Farrow Daily'
By Laura Flint | July 25, 2014 | 5:40 PM EDT

According to MSNBC, Republicans are always making things worse. On the July 25 edition of Ronan Farrow Daily, the cable host began a segment entitled “Kinder, Gentler GOP?” after playing a clip of Rand Paul at the National Urban League annual conference speaking of the “poverty problem.” Farrow asked his guests a stream of leading questions insinuating that Republicans are “catering to a demographic that may have lost Republicans the last general election” rather than actually working to aid low income individuals. 

While the president of the National Urban League Marc Morial tried to avoid being too overtly political, MSNBC analyst and former DNC communications director Karen Finney made it clear that Republicans “tend to be policy ideas that actually make things worse, not better.” They oppose “things like an increase in the minimum wage or equal pay for women that we know could actually help communities of color.” (See video below)

New York Times Suddenly Respects Religion, When It Comes to Sheltering Young Illegals & Limbaugh Bashing
By Clay Waters | July 24, 2014 | 11:41 AM EDT

When the New York Times starts praising religious activists, you know there's a deeper agenda at work. National religion reporter Michael Paulson, whose reporting is preoccupied with gay marriage and the church, praised denominations of all stripes that lined up on the Times' side of an issue -- granting amnesty to the streams of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S. border illegally, while fighting conservative "anger," outrage," and "hate talk."

Paulson let his religious representatives attack opponents as "un-American" (a no-no when done by conservatives to liberals) and take unopposed shots at conservative radio star Rush Limbaugh in his Thursday story, "U.S. Religious Leaders Embrace Cause of Children Streaming Across Border."

Weekend MSNBC Panel Bashes Sen. Cruz: ‘Aren’t We Past' Opposing ObamaCare Yet?
By Paul Bremmer | March 10, 2014 | 5:10 PM EDT

It was an absolute certainty that MSNBC would attack Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) following his Thursday morning speech at CPAC. On Saturday’s Weekends with Alex Witt, the host wrung her hands over Cruz’s continued criticism of ObamaCare. With the air of an impatient mother, Witt fumed, “I know he’s just serving up red meat to the base. Republicans believe this is going to help them in the midterms. But aren't we past that yet?”

GOP strategist Susan Del Percio, a real MSNBC-type Republican, seemed to feel the same way about Cruz. She replied to Witt’s question, “Not if you're Ted Cruz. I mean, that's what he has become known as, is as a firebrander. He just throws this stuff out there.” With timid, apologetic Republican analysts like Del Percio, it’s no wonder MSNBC can’t have any real debates on their programs.

After Bashing Romney Over His Olympic Security Concerns in 2012, NBC Invites Him to Critique Sochi Games
By Kyle Drennen | January 24, 2014 | 4:19 PM EST

While NBC and the rest of the media slammed Mitt Romney in 2012 for daring to voice security concerns about the London Olympics, Friday's Today show welcomed the former Republican nominee with open arms as a suddenly respected Olympic expert and urged him to scrutinize the safety of the upcoming winter games in Sochi, Russia. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

NBC's stunning turnaround just happened to coincide with Romney no longer being a political threat to President Obama.

MSNBC’s Richard Wolffe: Colin Powell a ‘National Treasure’
By Paul Bremmer | August 23, 2013 | 5:45 PM EDT

Nothing warms the hearts of the liberal media more than a Republican who criticizes other Republicans. Perhaps it was no surprise, then, when MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe called retired General Colin Powell a “national treasure” on Friday’s Morning Joe.

The entire Morning Joe panel was praising the former secretary of state for speaking out against North Carolina’s strict new voter ID law in Raleigh recently – and in front of Governor Pat McCrory (R), no less. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson lamented Powell as a sort of voice crying out in the GOP wilderness:

ABC’s Zeleny Prods McCain to Attack Fellow Republicans, Praise Chuck Schumer
By Paul Bremmer | August 8, 2013 | 6:12 PM EDT

There’s nothing liberal media members love more than a Republican who attacks other Republicans in front of the TV cameras. That probably explains the media’s rediscovered fascination with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 GOP presidential nominee. ABC’s Jeff Zeleny interviewed McCain last Friday for the ABC News / Yahoo News online series The Fine Print, and he used the veteran senator as a weapon against some of the younger, more conservative senators.

Zeleny set the tone right from his opening script, in which he proclaimed, “[McCain] is drawing sharp criticism from some of his new Republican colleagues, like Senator Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, but he’s throwing that criticism right back, saying they make him worry about the future of the Republican Party.”

NBC Touts Christie at Clinton Global Initiative While Other GOPers Address 'Religious Conservatives'
By Kyle Drennen | June 14, 2013 | 1:47 PM EDT

During a fawning report on Hillary Clinton's "first time kicking off the Clinton Global Initiative" on Friday's NBC Today, White House correspondent Peter Alexander also cheered the "double feature" of Clinton and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaking at the event: "Today it is Bill Clinton who could soon be advising his wife's next presidential bid, giving her possible rival Chris Christie the reins for a major platform to showcase his own leadership skills."

Continuing to hype Christie hobnobbing with Democrats, Alexander declared: "Chris Christie, the Jersey-shore-reopening, carnival-playing presidential pal is the former President's guest of honor, speaking this afternoon, while his Republican rivals address a conference of religious conservatives. Insiders say, for the moment, Christie is focused on 2013, not 2016, eyeing his own re-election race in a heavily blue state."

Huntsman Plays The Useful Idiot For Andrea Mitchell's Romney-Bashing
By Mark Finkelstein | September 14, 2012 | 3:05 PM EDT

Is Jon Huntsman headed the way of Charlie Crist?  When the 2016 Dem convention rolls around, will we see the also-ran GOP presidential nomination-seeker on the podium, seconding Hillary's nomination? You've got to wonder after Huntsman's toadying performance today as he made the MSNBC rounds.

After appearing on Morning Joe earlier, Huntsman turned up on Andrea Mitchell's show.  Mitchell posed a laughably-loaded question, bashing Mitt Romney's response to the Obama administration's handling of the embassy attacks. The haughty Huntsman was only too happy to play the useful idiot, concurring that there was "a lot to the criticism"  and ripping Romney as an "impetuous candidate" in a time of foreign policy crisis. View the video after the jump.

Anti-Catholic Media Claim Paul Ryan is Not Catholic Enough
By Paul Wilson | September 3, 2012 | 11:04 AM EDT

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan is a Catholic – but not a good enough Catholic in the eyes of the media. Writers, bloggers, and talking heads have hammered Ryan for his supposed “dissent” from Catholic teaching.

Journalists have falsely claimed that the bishops “rebuked” Ryan and called his budget “un-Christian.” Writers who usually scorn the Church and its hierarchy fretted that the bishops found Ryan’s budget “uncompassionate.”

New Yorker Magazine Was Set to Depict Roberts Pushing Granny Down the Steps If ObamaCare Was Stricken
By John Bates | July 10, 2012 | 9:58 PM EDT

Anticipating “a real defeat for Obama and the end of health-care coverage for many,” The New Yorker had several covers ready to go if ObamaCare was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, including one which depicted Chief Justice John Roberts poised to push an elderly woman in a wheelchair down the Court's stairs.

Francoise Mouly was so sure that ObamaCare would be struck down that she instructed her artists to come up with possible sketches for the magazine cover before the ruling. Yesterday, Mouly decided to publish an article showing readers several of the possible covers that the artists came up with but never used.

TV Networks Gush Over Chief Justice Roberts: 'The Man of the Hour' Who 'Might Have Saved' the Supreme Court
By Rich Noyes | June 28, 2012 | 9:09 PM EDT

Chief Justice John Roberts may have angered conservatives with his decisive vote in favor of ObamaCare today, but he was, in CBS anchor Scott Pelley’s words, the “man of the hour” on all three network evening newscasts Thursday night.

ABC’s Terry Moran complimented Roberts’ lurch to the left, saying it “did give heart to many Court watchers,” who were worried the Court “was at risk of becoming just another hyper-partisan place... By joining the liberals, Chief Justice Roberts seemed to have stopped that.”

David Stockman: American Exceptionalism Is 'Neo-Con Code' For Aggressive Foreign Policy
By Mark Finkelstein | January 22, 2012 | 8:49 AM EST

There are few things the liberal media like more than a Republican renegade.  David Stockman has made a career out of strutting his independence from the GOP.  So little surprise that he was an honored guest on this morning's Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

That Stockman repaid his hosts by attacking Republicans was utterly predictable.  Even so, the absurdity of Stockman's particular assertion was breathtaking.  The former Reagan budget director actually claimed that the notion of American exceptionalism, a focus of Newt Gingrich's campaign, is nothing less than . . . "neo-con code" for an aggressive foreign policy.  Video after the jump.