According to MSNBC pundit Michelle Bernard -- best known at NewsBusters perhaps because of her insistence that there is a "war on black boys" in America -- savaged newly-announced GOP presidential aspirant Dr. Ben Carson tonight by alleging his success is all owed to "affirmative action." She also suggested that he's a disgrace to his enslaved ancestors and to the black community in Baltimore, where he's lived throughout his career as an acclaimed neurosurgeon.
Tea Parties
NY Times Editorial Page Defends IRS in Tea Party Targeting Scandal – 'Democratic Groups...Also Scrutinized'
By Clay Waters | January 18, 2015 | 7:42 PM EST Sunday's New York Times editorial page came once again to the defense of the Internal Revenue Service against the depredations of congressional conservatives, even suggesting the IRS's targeting of Tea Party groups amounted to nothing: "...payback demanded by House Republicans to penalize the I.R.S. for daring to scrutinize Tea Party operations that tried to claim exemptions under the tax code for nonpolitical groups. Democratic groups trying the same thing were also scrutinized."
NBC’s Peter Alexander: Mike Huckabee 'Preaching to the Party's Right Wing' Ahead of Possible 2016 Bid
By Curtis Houck | January 14, 2015 | 12:49 AM EST On Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News, NBC News national correspondent Peter Alexander reported on the current makeup of the Republican presidential field in 2016 on the heels of news that the Republican nominee in 2012, Mitt Romney, has begun reassembling his campaign staff to make a third bid for the White House.
In the course of mentioning former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as one of those possible candidates, Alexander declared that Huckabee was already out “preaching to the party's right-wing in his new book” and “skewering the First Family's parenting skills.”
Networks Fret Conservatives Posed ‘a Thorny Obstacle’ to Boehner; Will Force Him to be ‘More Confrontational’
By Curtis Houck | January 6, 2015 | 10:29 PM EST On Tuesday night, each of the major broadcast networks devoted time to covering the swearing in of the 114th Congress and the race for House Speaker that saw John Boehner retain his post, but not without 25 conservatives voting in dissent against the incumbent Republican.
Overall, the networks lamented how the group presented “a thorny obstacle to Boehner's leadership” and, in turn, will force him to be “more confrontational with President Obama” instead of "working with the President on some issues, including tax reform and trade."
By Tom Blumer | January 6, 2015 | 3:58 PM EST
Longtime journalist Tim Russert, who among many other things hosted NBC's Meet the Press for over 17 years, passed away suddenly in June 2008.
His son Luke now works for NBC, and among other things is a Meet the Press panelist. Based on some of his more recent output, Luke is perhaps better described not a journalist, but as the network's desginated childish, mean-spirited namecaller. After House Speaker John Boehner survived a fairly strong challenge from Republicans frustrated with his leadership, particularly the "cromnibus" legislation passed late last year on his watch, Luke took to Twitter and hauled out an insulting, ethnically charged epithet to describe those who opposed the Speaker's reelection (HT Twitchy):
Partisan New York Times Reporter Carl Hulse Pleads for Governing, Not Right-Wing Tea Party Partisanship
By Clay Waters | January 3, 2015 | 10:39 PM EST Reporters Carl Hulse and Robert Pear teamed up in the New York Times to lament the decline of cooperation in Congress -- a hypocritical stretch in particular for Hulse, whose reporting invariably has a partisan Democratic tone. The slant was clear in this survey of wisdom from four retiring congressmen, two Democrats and two Republicans. While dubious talk of compromise emanated from the mouths of fiery liberals Rep. Henry Waxman and Sen. Tom Harkin, painting themselves in flattering fashion, the Republicans were quoted as having to fend off extremists on their right flank.
By Tom Blumer | December 27, 2014 | 10:18 AM EST
As I noted almost two weeks ago, hundreds of protesters in Manhattan repeatedly shouted "What do we want? Dead Cops! When do we want it? Now!" during that city's version of the so-called "Justice For All" marches which took place in several locations around the nation on December 13.
The New York Times failed to report the protesters' rants in its original coverage of the marches. The fact that it finally did so in the 23rd paragraph of a separate story found on Page A18 of its print edition the following day hardly makes up for the paper's original omission. The establishment press in general has largely failed to recognize the existence of the "dead cops" chants — which likely explains why Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel was completely ignorant of them when CNN's Ashleigh Banfield interviewed him on Monday.
By Tim Graham | December 15, 2014 | 9:12 PM EST
The year-end issue of Time magazine includes an enormous article on “The Ebola Fighters,” their Persons of the Year, but there are also five pages on “The Ferguson Protesters: Their refusal to let a life be forgotten turned a local shooting into a national movement.”
Four years ago, Time made “The Tea Party” a runner-up, but they were projected to fall apart. The headline was “The grass-roots uprising that restored the GOP was fueled by anger at the ruling Democrats. But it won’t be easy to hold together.” Oops, conservatives helped the GOP win again in 2014, so Beatles-breakup metaphors sound a little silly.
By Ken Shepherd | December 10, 2014 | 8:50 PM EST
Chris Matthews is no fan of retiring conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann (R), but it's rare that he attacks everyday rank-and-file Republican voters. Tonight was an exception as the MSNBC Hardball host excoriated the voters of Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District for repeatedly having elected her to the House of Representatives.
While Media Obsesses Over GOP Aide Criticizing Obama's Children, Dems Openly Sell Hate, Authoritarianism
By Tom Blumer | December 2, 2014 | 6:49 PM EST Yesterday, I received an email from the Democratic National Committee informing me that they had a "Cyber Monday surprise" just for me.
How nice. All I had to do was click on the link to store.democrats.org. After the jump, readers will see the store's apparent "best sellers," raising a quite obvious question: Does anyone think the press would ignore analogous items on sale in a GOP store?
By Tom Blumer | November 13, 2014 | 4:10 PM EST
Amy Crawford of the Associated Press, who wrote the wire service's original Sunday story about a proposed first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of all tobacco products in the town of Westminster, Massachusetts, covered the town's Wednesday night public hearing.
While it's nice that Crawford followed up on her original story, her opening paragraph, based on the facts as I understand them and coverage I have seen elsewhere, was very misleading:
By Mark Finkelstein | November 6, 2014 | 8:24 PM EST
A shame that Barney Frank retired from Congress. We could really use him as the face of the Dem party.
On this evening's Hardball, Barney, AKA Mr. Congeniality, let it be known that he thought of Tea Party members as "dumb animals."