Taliban

Pace's Pity Party at AP: Obama Still Handicapped by Bush 43's 'Legacy,' 'Security Apparatus'
By Tom Blumer | December 10, 2014 | 6:42 PM EST

Nearly six years into Barack Obama's presidency, it's still George W. Bush's fault.

Early Wednesday morning, Julie Pace at the Associated Press proved yet again why it is more than appropriate to characterize the wire service where she works as the Administration's Press. The headline at Pace's story tells us that poor President Barack Obama still has to confront the "Bush legacy," and is still stuck with his wars and "big chunks of Bush's national security apparatus." Cry me a river, Julie. One of Pace's more important omissions is the fact that the enhanced interrogations program Senate Democrats are decrying was a creation of none other than Bill Clinton.

On Hannity, Imams Deny ISIS's War Crimes, Islamic Faith of Beheading Suspect
By Matthew Balan | September 30, 2014 | 3:58 PM EDT

On Monday's Fox News's Hannity, Islamist cleric Anjem Choudary accused the Western media and Blackwater of framing ISIS for the atrocities that the terrorist group has freely admitted to. When host Sean Hannity raised the beheading of British aid worker David Haines, Choudary contended that "the information that we received...is very biased....I don't take my news from Fox News or the BBC. If you look at the people on the ground, I think you'll find that they have a completely different story. The Christians and Jews are living quite peacefully, in fact, in the Islamic State."

Daily Kos: Proposed Abortion Waiting Period Would Move Missouri Closer to Theocracy
By Tom Johnson | September 8, 2014 | 9:22 PM EDT

The Missouri legislature may override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a 72-hour abortion waiting period. If that happens, it's another victory for social conservatives' quest to impose religious law in America.

NBC and ABC Ignore Obama Admin. Broke Law With Bergdahl Exchange; CBS Gives It 24 Seconds
By Kyle Drennen | August 22, 2014 | 10:09 AM EDT

After Thursday's network evening newscasts ignored a report from the Government Accountability Office that the exchange of five terrorists from Guantanamo Bay for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was illegal, NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America remained silent on the Obama administration scandal on Friday. Only CBS This Morning made any mention of the violation of federal law, providing a mere 24-second news brief on the topic. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Meanwhile, both Today and GMA did find time to produce full reports on a contestant on VH1's Dating Naked reality show suing the cable network for showing her naked on the program.

NBC's Lauer Frets: Is Army 'Succumbing to Public Pressure' By Investigating Bergdahl's Desertion?
By Kyle Drennen | July 17, 2014 | 4:15 PM EDT

In an interview with Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's attorney on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer worried that the former Taliban captive and possible deserter was being unfairly investigated by the military [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]:

There was so much fanfare after his release. The President met in the Rose Garden with Sergeant Bergdahl's parents. Top military officials were quoted as saying they didn't think he would face any major punishment. And then the criticism started and then the controversy started. Now there's a full-fledged investigation. Do you think the military is succumbing to public pressure on this?

Fmr. WashPost Editor Steve Coll Invokes Taliban in Critique of Hobby Lobby Ruling
By Tom Johnson | July 3, 2014 | 12:21 AM EDT

If you’re choosing one person who best represents America’s journalistic establishment, it’d be hard to top Steve Coll, a former Washington Post reporter and managing editor who’s now dean of Columbia University’s journalism school; a member of the Pulitzer Prize board; and a staff writer for the New Yorker.

On Wednesday, Coll posted a piece on the New Yorker’s website in which he argued that if the Supreme Court were to consistently apply the religious-freedom principle it endorsed in the Hobby Lobby case, it would have to allow an essentially Taliban-owned U.S. corporation to deny insurance coverage for polio vaccines for the children of its employees, since the Taliban believe that such vaccines, in Coll’s words, “violate God’s law.”

A-List Actor Leads Standing O for Afghanistan Vet During Awards Show
By Kristine Marsh | June 12, 2014 | 3:07 PM EDT

Well that’s not something you see every day. An A-list actor led Hollywood celebrities at an awards show to give a standing ovation to an American war hero in the audience. At the Spike TV “Guys’ Choice Awards” June 7, Mark Wahlberg accepted the “Troops Choice” award and spent his whole time on stage thanking and praising the U.S. military and former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell.

Wahlberg recently starred in Luttrell’s true-life story told in “Lone Survivor,” and is starring in the upcoming “Transformers 4: Age of Extinction.”

Video after the jump.

Juan Williams Compares Bowe Bergdahl, Who Won't Talk to His Family, to Biblical Prodigal Son
By Tom Blumer | June 9, 2014 | 4:37 PM EDT

Both Time and the Wall Street Journal have reported that Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier released by his Afghan captors in exchange for five hardened Gitmo terrorists — or, in the alternative universe of the Los Angeles Times, five guys aged 43 to 47 who "are pretty old now" — will not contact his parents (WSJ's headline says he "has declined to speak to his family").

That news broke several hours after Fox News's Juan Williams appeared on Chris Wallace's Fox News Sunday and compared Bowe Bergdahl to the biblical prodigal son. The analogy didn't even work at that point, as RedState poster Aaron Gardner explained this morning. Video of Williams's wacky whine follows the jump:

MRC's Notable Quotables: Slamming GOP for 'Swiftboating' Sgt. Bergdahl
By Rich Noyes | June 9, 2014 | 9:27 AM EDT

Now online: the June 9 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC's bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This week, left-wing journalists rally to Obama's defense on the prisoner swap, blasting Republicans for "swiftboating" Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl and claiming that the five newly-freed Taliban leaders would have a "negligible" effect on the war.

Also, NBC's Brian Williams calls Obama's foreign policy "muscular, if not militaristic," ABC is pleased Hillary Clinton has "come out swinging" against Benghazi critics, while a CNN "news" anchor thinks Michelle Obama can sign laws into effect. Highlights after the jump; the entire issue is posted online, with 22 quotes at www.MRC.org.

NYT Goes After Bergdahl's 'Raggedy' Unit Again, This Time in a Sunday Page A1 Report
By Tom Blumer | June 9, 2014 | 12:45 AM EDT

On Thursday, the editorial board at the New York Times, reacting to the growing firestorm over the release of five hardened terrorists from Gitmo in return for the Army's Bowe Bergdahl, went after Bergdahl's "army unit’s lack of security and discipline." It then incredibly claimed that a classified army report described in a separate Times dispatch that day suggested that those alleged conditions were "as much to blame for the disappearance" of Bergdahl as ... well, the sloppy editorial didn't specifically say.

On Sunday, two Times reporters continued the offensive against Bowe Bergdahl's platoon and its members, apparently wanting readers to believe that the unit's occasionally "raggedy" attire and alleged poor leadership somehow explain Bergdahl's "disappearance."

Revised 5 Times, NYT's 'Rush to Demonize Bergdahl' Editorial Attacking GOP 'Operatives' and His Unit Is What Was Rushed
By Tom Blumer | June 8, 2014 | 12:36 AM EDT

The seething anger at seeing the Obama administration being raked over the coals by critics of the Bowe Bergdahl exchange of five hardened terrorists for a soldier who left his post, including many Democrats and most prominently his fellow unit members, was apparently too much for the editorial board at the New York Times. On Thursday, they let loose with a poorly sourced and hastily drafted editorial originally entitled "The Politics of the Bergdahl Case." Tim Graham at NewsBusters alluded to this editorial on Friday in covering fake conservative David Brooks's completely predictable defense of President Obama's decision.

Several revisions later — five in all, tracked by an impressive site called NewsDiffs.org — there is a more pointed title ("The Rush to Demonize Sgt. Bergdahl"). The Times has also had to make two corrections, including an important qualification to a statement made by Arizona Senator John McCain which negated the Times's attempt to go after him (of course, the Times pretended that it didn't). The editorial went on to outrageously impugn the motives, integrity and basic decency of Bergdahl's comrades in Afghanistan and sympathizers who have had the unmitigated gall to help them tell their story to the press.

NBC's Williams Skips V.A. Scandal in Obama Interview; Omits Reid's Claim on Bergdahl Swap
By Matthew Balan | June 6, 2014 | 11:32 PM EDT

Brian Williams glossed over the V.A. scandal during his interview of President Obama on Friday's NBC Nightly News. Williams did devote time to the ongoing controversy surrounding the release of senior Taliban leaders in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl – specifically the White House failing to inform Congress 30 days before the Islamists were let go from Guantanamo Bay, as required by federal law.

However, the anchor didn't mention that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid revealed that he was informed of the trade for Bergdahl on May 27, 2014 – a day before it actually happened. Williams also forwarded the President's own misleading claim about his grandfather's World War II service: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]