Ari Melber

On Maddow Show, Boston Globe Reporter Coos at 'Wonderful and Refreshing' Bernie Sanders Ideas
By Tim Graham | August 13, 2015 | 10:36 PM EDT

On Wednesday night’s edition of The Rachel Maddow Show, Boston Globe national political reporter Annie Linskey sounded just like a writer from The People’s Republic of Massaschusetts, employing the words “wonderful and refreshing” to describe Bernie Sanders preaching the old-time religion of socialist reform.

Fill-in MSNBC host Ari Melber was asking about how Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was handling this hard-left opponent. Linskey felt she was unexciting and failing to grab on to the Sanders socialist magic

Heritage Analyst Blasts Dan Savage's 'Jim Crow' Claim About Indiana Law
By Matthew Balan | March 31, 2015 | 6:40 PM EDT

The Heritage Foundation's Ryan Anderson defended Indiana's religious freedom law on Monday's All In program on MSNBC, and blasted far-left LGBT activist Dan Savage for likening the new statute to Jim Crow: "It's interesting that Dan says that it's discrimination. It strikes me that all of the businesses that are currently boycotting Indiana are saying that they want to run their businesses in accordance with their values....Why is it the 70-year-old grandmother can't be free to run her business, in accordance with her values?"

MSNBC Guest: 'Nothing Says, Let's Go Kill Some Muslims, Like Country Music'
By Matthew Balan | March 26, 2015 | 1:23 PM EDT

Yet again, MSNBC had to issue an on-air apology, after one of its left-wing guests on Wednesday made an outrageous statement. On Now With Alex Wagner, Ebony.com's senior editor Jamilah Lemieux responded to Senator Ted Cruz's statement about listening to country music after 9/11 by snarking, "Nothing says, let's go kill some Muslims like country music....I mean, really? That's absurd."

Were Those Obama's SOTU Writers, Or the Oscar Nominees?
By Mark Finkelstein | January 20, 2015 | 11:37 AM EST

Tuning into the middle of a Morning Joe segment today, at first I assumed that MSNBC's Ari Melber was chatting with the Oscar nominees.  But no, turns out Melber had scored interviews with President Obama's SOTU speechwriting team. You'll excuse my confusion. As you'll see, just like the Oscar hopefuls, the SOTU writers appear to be a panorama of people of pallor. 

MSNBC Panel Denounces Grimes for Refusing to Answer Simple Question on Her Presidential Votes
By Ken Shepherd | October 14, 2014 | 5:40 PM EDT

Kentucky Secretary of State and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee is "insulting the intelligence" of Bluegrass State voters when she insists she cannot disclose for whom she voted in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. That was the assessment of MSNBC contributor Howard Fineman, appearing on the October 14 edition of The Cycle in a panel discussion handicapping the 2014 Senate races. 

Even MSNBC Acknowledges ‘The Weak Case Against Rick Perry’
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 17, 2014 | 11:31 PM EDT

You know something stinks when even the folks at MSNBC are rejecting what looks like a politically motivated lawsuit against Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry. On Friday, August 15, Governor Perry was indicted by a Texas grand jury for vetoing funding for the state’s public integrity unit, unless the lead prosecutor resigned following her drunk driving arrest. 

The indictment has received condemnation from public officials on both sides of the political spectrum, but now the ultra-liberal MSNBC has joined the ranks of those who see the partisan nature of the indictment. On August 17, Ari Melber, host of the MSNBC program The Cycle, penned an MSNBC.com article in which he admitted that there is a “weak case against Rick Perry.” 

MSNBC's Race-Obsessed Journalists Strike Again
By Laura Flint | August 1, 2014 | 9:55 AM EDT

Although Alex Wagner has donned new glasses for her news show Now, the liberal journalist seems unable to look beyond MSNBC’s favorite response to any Republican: bringing up race. On the July 31 edition, Wagner played a clip of Ari Melber’s July 30 interview with Senators Rand Paul and Cory Booker on their new drug law reform initiative the REDEEM Act – the Record Expungement Designed to ENhance Employment Act –  and then asked the co-host of The Cycle why Paul and Booker were so “reticent to take up” the issue of “racial disparities inherent in our criminal justice system” and “plumb further depths of it.”

Even though the Senators were pushing a bipartisan bill on the traditionally liberal cause of criminal justice reform, Melber and Wagner were unable to resist weaseling race into the discussion, seemingly unhappy that both politicians were unwilling to play the race game. [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]

Paying a Price For Bias? MSNBC Drops to Fourth Place in Crucial Ratings Demo in July
By Tom Blumer | July 30, 2014 | 10:46 PM EDT

Oh, how the pathetic progs have fallen.

Earlier today, the Hollywood Reporter told readers that MSNBC had a horrible July rating period. For the four weeks ended July 27, the self-described "lean forward" network saw "its total day average among the news demo of adults 25-54" drop by "33 percent from July 2013," causing it come in "below HLN by 16,000 viewers for No. 4 status":

Sens. Rand Paul, Cory Booker Hit Back at Race Card-Playing MSNBC Host Melber
By Ken Shepherd | July 30, 2014 | 6:08 PM EDT

This afternoon on MSNBC's The Cycle co-host Ari Melber conducted a live interview with liberal Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) and libertarian-conservative Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) about their bipartisan Redeem Act proposal -- Redeem standing for Record Expungement Designed to ENhance EMployment.

Unfortunately for viewers, Melber insisted on playing the Lean Forward's favorite hand, flopping out the race card twice: by suggesting Sen. Paul once opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the second by pressing Sen. Booker to accept the left-wing premise that the nation's drug laws were intentionally racist by design [LISTEN to MP3 audio here; video follows page break].

Citing ‘Legitimacy of the Court,’ MSNBC's Melber Hopes John Roberts Rides to ObamaCare Rescue Yet Again
By Connor Williams | July 22, 2014 | 6:09 PM EDT

In the aftermath of a DC circuit court ruling today that would effectively end ObamaCare as we know it in the 36 states with federal exchanges, MSNBC's The Reid Report feared the worst, and attempted to rally the troops, so to speak. Host Joy Reid played the part, bringing on two guests who rejected the notion that this ruling would be accepted by the full appeals court panel or the Supreme Court.

One guest, co-host of The Cycle Ari Melber, played the “legitimacy of the court” card, hardly an uncommon practice when liberals feel they are on the short end of the judicial stick. He argued that Chief Justice John Roberts – the swing vote in upholding the ObamaCare individual mandate as a “tax” – would never let this happen: [MP3 audio here; video below]     

MSNBC Gives Platform to Radical Pro-Hamas Attorney
By Connor Williams | July 18, 2014 | 12:25 PM EDT

You can always count on MSNBC to bring on a radical, seemingly pro-Hamas guest in order to get ‘both sides’ of the argument in Israel's struggle for survival against terrorism. On a July 17 special late night edition of All In with Chris Hayes, guest host Ari Melber discussed the news of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza with a panel of guests.

Melber led off the segment by asking Noura Erakat – described as a human rights attorney by MSNBC – whether the invasion was a “proportionate and precise operation?” Naturally, Erakat went unhinged: [MP3 audio here; video below]

MSNBC's Wolffe Contradicted by NBC As He Wrongly Claims No Al-Qaeda in Iraq Before Invasion
By Brad Wilmouth | June 19, 2014 | 9:01 AM EDT

Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC.com executive editor Richard Wolffe mocked former Vice President Dick Cheney for his recent criticism of President Obama, and inaccurately claimed that "there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq" before Cheney "led the decision to invade Iraq."

After dismissing Cheney as being in his "last throes," Wolffe recalled: "Let's just revisit a little bit of history. Before Dick Cheney led the decision to invade Iraq, and led the disastrous occupation of Iraq, there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He allowed Al-Qaeda to get a foothold in Iraq."