This week, NewsBusters is presenting the Media Research Center’s “Best Notable Quotables of 2015,” our annual awards for the year’s worst journalism. Today, the “Harsh to the Huddled Masses” award, for attacks on the GOP candidates for their supposed hostility to immigration. Winning the trophy: Yahoo! News anchor Katie Couric for suggesting to GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz that he lacked “empathy” because he didn’t support Barack Obama’s unilateral executive action on amnesty.
Al Hunt
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 15, 2015 | 10:20 AM EDT
During an appearance on PBS’ Charlie Rose on Wednesday night, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman heaped praise on Hillary Clinton’s debate performance and proclaimed that her campaign was popping champagne corks from her New York headquarters “to Nevada where the debate took place.”
By Michael McKinney | October 6, 2015 | 12:55 PM EDT
On MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday, the roundtable turned to the NBC "town hall" Secretary Hillary Clinton had on gun control. Mike Barnicle began the discussion by declaring that it requires courage and hammering gun control for any gun control to be accomplished. Barnicle would then continue on against semi-automatic rifles, in particular the AR-15 and AK-47, because they are "military assault rifles." Mika Brzezinski would bring up the amount of guns owned by the Mercer family, while Joe Scarborough and Eugene Robinson would confront the hardship of parenting and responsibility of adult children.
By Mark Finkelstein | August 18, 2015 | 8:34 AM EDT
Al Hunt did stop short of predicting something so horrible it could never happen in America--federal marshals armed with assault weapons hunting down children cowering in closets to forcibly return them to a Communist dictatorship. Oh, wait, that really did happen, under President Bill Clinton, when Elian Gonzalez was returned to Cuba at the point of a gun.
On today's Morning Joe an Al Hunt on the verge of hysteria predicted that Donald Trump's immigration plan would lead to "federal raids on maternity wards." He claimed that implementing the plan would cost "11 trillion dollars," which assuming 11 million illegals in the country converts to $1 million each. Joe Scarborough chimed in to claim that "we don't have the money to do that."
By Mark Finkelstein | August 7, 2015 | 8:16 AM EDT
Prediction: Al Hunt will pay no price for calling Donald Trump the "Caityln Jenner of American politics." But can you imagine the outraged reaction on the left if a conservative commentator had said something similar about Hillary for her changing positions on everything from the Iraq war to gay marriage?
Reacting to Hunt's crack on Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough told Hunt "I think I can get you a job at Fox," an allusion to the tough questioning to which the Fox News panel subjected Trump last night.
Dr. Carson Brushes Back Al Hunt: There’s 9,000 Years of Experience in Congress, Where Has That Gotten Us?
By Geoffrey Dickens | August 5, 2015 | 3:11 PM EDT When Bloomberg reporter Al Hunt cited Dr. Ben Carson’s lack of political experience as a possible weakness, on Monday’s Charlie Rose show, the GOP presidential candidate delivered a cutting comeback: “If you look at the collective political experience of everybody in Congress today, it comes out to just under 9,000 years and yet where has that really gotten us?”
By Connor Williams | July 13, 2015 | 11:44 AM EDT
On Monday's Morning Joe, panelists Al Hunt, Mark Halperin, and Steve Schmidt discussed Scott Walker’s entry into the race for the 2016 Republican nomination. All three of them voiced concern about the Wisconsin governor and criticized him for “flip-flopping” and for supposedly being inauthentic. Bloomberg’s Hunt: “I think it's a question of authenticity. He has flipped on a number of issues. And you can do some of that, you can change your mind, but, you know, you have to be authentic. And I'm not sure Scott Walker has passed that test yet.”
By Rich Noyes | July 13, 2015 | 8:52 AM EDT
Journalists seize upon one week's good news for President Obama to proclaim he's "clearly" a "transformational President" who has engineered "a massive progressive shift to the left." And ABC champions the "Bernie-mentum" of socialist Bernie Sanders's far-left candidacy, cheering how his campaign events seem "more like rock concerts," while the boomlet for Donald Trump is merely evidence that "xenophobic language sells" among GOP primary voters.
By Mark Finkelstein | July 13, 2015 | 7:43 AM EDT
Liberal media types like Al Hunt haven't called Donald Trump a Hitler. Yet. But Judy Woodruff's husband has branded Trump a modern-day version of an iconic personification of racism.
On today's Morning Joe, Hunt declared that Trump is "George Corley Wallace, 40 years later."
By Geoffrey Dickens | July 1, 2015 | 2:55 PM EDT
On Tuesday’s Charlie Rose show on PBS, the host and his panel were not shy with the superlatives as they celebrated Barack Obama’s “best week.” Rose began the segment by listing Obama’s victories on the Pacific Rim Trade deal, ObamaCare and same-sex marriage as he hailed: “A lot of other people saying this is the man that we thought we were getting in 2008.”
By Mark Finkelstein | June 1, 2015 | 8:26 AM EDT
Is Al Hunt the most oblivious man in Washington, or was he just not telling the truth? On today's Morning Joe, lauding Bob Schieffer upon his retirement, Hunt actually said "I have no idea what Bob Schieffer's politics are."
No idea? Really? Maybe Al hasn't been watching Scheiffer, but NewsBusters and its parent MRC have. Take a look at this link for a compilation of Bob's greatest hits on Republicans and his gushing praise of Democrats. Then come back and see us, Al, and let us know whether you now have an idea of Schieffer's politics.
By Mark Finkelstein | March 16, 2015 | 8:52 AM EDT
Imagine the audacity of a freshman senator presuming to speak out forcefully on foreign affairs! What? You thought we were alluding to Barack Obama, who after less than a year in the Senate and with no discernible foreign policy credentials began a campaign to become Commander-in-Chief?
No, no, no! We were talking about Tom Cotton, of course! On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski castigated Cotton as a "toddler" and a "fool" for writing that letter to Iran. For good measure, Al Hunt said that, like America, Iran has its "crazies" too. Did Hunt just equate Republican senators who sign a letter to those in Iran who have killed Americans and others around the world with impunity? So who's crazy now?