President Obama held a press conference Friday in which he called for stricter controls over the government’s domestic surveillance system and commented on his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But to ABC’s Good Morning America, those developments were not the primary news. Their main takeaway was that the president showed personality.
Seriously, that was the angle that Saturday's GMA took on this story. Anchor Dan Harris set ABC's premise right at the top: “Switching gears now to all the chatter this morning about President Obama showing a different and very interesting side of his personality in a high-profile moment in front of the assembled White House press corps on Friday afternoon.”
Surveillance
By Paul Bremmer | August 12, 2013 | 6:15 PM EDT
By Noel Sheppard | August 11, 2013 | 1:24 PM EDT
Ted Koppel made a fascinating observation about terrorism and the recent embassy evacuations that certainly won't please President Obama or his supporters in the media.
Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Koppel said, "With a conference call, Al Qaeda has effectively shut down 20 U.S. embassies around north Africa and the Middle East...The terrorists have achieved more with one phone call than we have achieved with all our response" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
By Noel Sheppard | August 11, 2013 | 10:45 AM EDT
Senator John McCain made an interesting observation Sunday about National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, McCain said, “There's a young generation that believe that he is some kind of Jason Bourne.”
By Matthew Sheffield | August 9, 2013 | 7:01 PM EDT
During the Wednesday edition of his program, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, not known as any sort of conservative, attacked the government for being dishonest and witholding critical information from Americans while at the same time also undertaking highly invasive surveillance programs.
“I don’t believe much of anything they say anymore. Because I can’t figure out which parts to believe, so I choose not to believe any of it,” Smith said in an interview with Fox News legal analyst Mercedes Colwin.
By Noel Sheppard | August 9, 2013 | 11:02 AM EDT
Here's a headline you probably never imagined you'd see about Barack Obama at the perilously liberal Huffington Post:
DID HE LIE ON NATIONAL TV?
Yet there it was:
By Kyle Drennen | August 5, 2013 | 11:56 AM EDT
As moderator David Gregory hyped a "feud" over national security between Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, former Senator Rick Santorum called out a stunning media double standard: "...the media has a fascination with how divided the Republican Party is and tends to ignore the divisions within the Democratic Party. And I think they are as very much as real on this issue." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough similarly noted Democratic divisions on matters of national security and surveillance: "Well, but it's not just the Republican Party....there are going to be those battles going on in the Democratic Party."
By Noel Sheppard | July 8, 2013 | 10:02 AM EDT
A former senior producer for MSNBC came out with harsh words for his former network Sunday.
Writing at the far-left AlterNet, Jeff Cohen - the former senior producer of MSNBC's Donahue show - said, "When it comes to issues of U.S. militarism and spying, the allegedly 'progressive' MSNBC often seems closer to the 'official network of the Obama White House' than anything resembling an independent channel":
By Noel Sheppard | July 4, 2013 | 12:44 PM EDT
Dontcha just love it when pompous Hollywoodans speak ill of America whilst traveling abroad on national holidays?
Take Oliver Stone for example who on the Fourth of July actually said of the United States at a film festival in the Czech Republic, "The world is in danger with our tyranny."
By Noel Sheppard | July 3, 2013 | 9:53 AM EDT
It appears Alec Baldwin wants to become America's next Dennis Rodman.
In an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, Baldwin said, "I’m going to fly to Russia and try to interview Snowden" (vulgarity alert):
By Noel Sheppard | July 2, 2013 | 10:07 AM EDT
A group of far-left Hollywoodans has signed a petition asking Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to grant National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden asylum.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this includes Oliver Stone, John Cusack, Roseanne Barr, and Danny Glover.
By Seton Motley | July 1, 2013 | 9:11 AM EDT
The Barack Obama Administration has been on a five-plus-year-long Collect-As-Much-Information-On-Us-As-Possible spree.
With Tens of Millions of Phone Records Grabbed – It’s the Government, Stupid
‘Thousands of NSA Analysts Can Listen to Domestic Phone Calls,’ Read Emails, Texts, IMs
Latest Big Government Data Grab: Justice Sues to Get It Without a Warrant
IRS Tea Party Scandal Shows Government Should Be Kept Away From Our Data
IRS-Conservatives, Justice-AP, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, HHS, EPA – This is Big Government
These incredible, all-encompassing violations of our Constitutional rights actually drew (shocker) some negative coverage from the usually sycophantic White House Stenographer (Press) Pool.
By Noel Sheppard | June 30, 2013 | 5:41 PM EDT
Former head of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency General Michael Hayden made a stunning remark Sunday.
In a CBS Face the Nation discussion about the recent leaks by Edward Snowden, Hayden said, "I can't imagine a government anywhere on the planet who now believes we can keep a secret."