Dylan Ratigan

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Gives 'Kudos' to Arizona Basketball Team for Protesting Immigration Law, 'a Slam Dunk'
By Scott Whitlock | May 5, 2010 | 5:32 PM EDT

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan on Wednesday gave "kudos" to the Phoenix Suns basketball team for protesting Arizona's tough new policy on illegal immigration. The host touted, "The team is set to wear Los Suns jerseys tonight on Cinco de Mayo in response to Arizona's controversial [law]."

Ratigan enthused that congratulations were in order and added, "Around here we call that a slam dunk." The cable anchor quoted the team's owner playing up the move as one to honor Hispanics.

Clearly, however, there is a political angle. The same Robert Sarver also derided the legislation as "a flawed state law." Suns point guard Steve Nash attacked the bill as "very misguided, and unfortunately, to the detriment of our society and our civil liberties."

MSNBC's Ratigan Worries About 'Racism' Toward Muslims After NYC Bomb Attempt
By Kyle Drennen | May 4, 2010 | 5:43 PM EDT

Near the top of Tuesday's Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan fretted over American Muslims being harassed in the wake of the failed Times Square bombing: "how do you deal with these types of crimes without resulting in racism, effectively, towards people of Pakistani or Middle Eastern descent?...is there not a natural backlash to this?" [Audio available here]

Ratigan asked that of Sofian Zakkout, the director of the American Muslim Association of North America, who replied: "We should calm down, it's – thank God nobody got hurt. We all know – and also I spoke today, this morning, with CAIR and other Islamic organizations....we denounce what was going to happen." Zakkout's organization has had links to questionable Islamic organizations on its website and has voiced support for the terrorist organization Hamas.

Ratigan seemed to be following the lead of his MSNBC colleague Contessa Brewer, who appeared on Tuesday's Stephanie Miller radio show and lamented the ethnicity of the would-be bomber: "I get frustrated...There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country."   

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Snickers Over Perry's Coyote Kill: Kind of Like 'Shooting a Moose in Alaska'
By Scott Whitlock | April 28, 2010 | 5:12 PM EDT

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan on Wednesday chuckled over the assertion by Rick Perry that he killed a coyote while jogging, misrepresenting what happened. After explaining that the Texas Governor shot the creature for menacing his dog, Ratigan intoned, "For the record, the Texas Wildlife Commission does not allow laser sited guns to be used in hunting as it is seen as cowardly, too easy, with a laser site, to shoot anything." [Audio available here.]

He then snidely added, "Though, this is said to be self-defense. Perry probably gets off. Although hunting coyotes with a laser sited gun is kind of like shooting a cow on the farm or maybe a moose in Alaska." First off, as Ratigan (sort of) explained, the Governor wasn't hunting.

Media Run to NYT's Defense, Accuse Vatican of 'Killing the Messenger'
By Kyle Drennen | April 1, 2010 | 6:26 PM EDT
Dylan Ratigan, MSNBC On Thursday's Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan went after the Vatican for criticizing the slanted New York Times reporting on the priest sex abuse scandal: "Blame the messenger. The Vatican blasting the New York Times for telling the truth about Church – the Church and its harboring of sex abusers. It's the paper's fault."

Ratigan spoke with Democratic strategist Steve Hildebrand, an openly gay ex-Catholic, who ranted: "the bottom line is, the Catholic Church for the last couple of decades, has preached hatred, bigotry, discrimination against gay people. But they don't take ownership of their own homosexual problems that exist and have existed for decades. And they need to stop blaming everybody else." An on-screen headline read: "Killing the Messenger; Cardinal Slams NY Times for Vatican Coverage."

Meanwhile, on Thursday's CBS Early Show, correspondent Mark Phillips declared: "The Church, though, has been more direct in its response to the stories being printed and broadcast of child abuse in its institutions. It's attacked the messenger." Phillips later concluded that "The Church is faced with making an argument that is very difficult, that it has changed from the bad old days, at the same time as evidence keeps coming out, showing just how bald those old days were."
MSNBC's Ratigan Cites Left-Wing Blog to Bash Drudge Report
By Kyle Drennen | March 31, 2010 | 6:00 PM EDT
Dylan Ratigan, MSNBC Near the end of Wednesday's Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan led his 'Busted' segment by claiming that The Drudge Report did "not let facts get in the way of a good headline" on Tuesday, by featuring one which read: "CIA: Iran Moving Closer to Nuclear Weapon." Ratigan remarked: "That'll get the ratings up."

Despite the fact that most of the world has long operated under the assumption that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, including the Obama administration, Ratigan singled out Matt Drudge's website for scorn, arguing: "Sounds pretty scary, right? Until you find out what the CIA report actually said. The agency's intelligence actually shows that Iran is quote, 'keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons,' but that they quote 'do not know' whether Tehran will ultimately head down that road." The headline on screen read: "Misinformed; Wordplay On Iran's Nuke Plans."

Ratigan eventually revealed where he received his liberal taking points: "the truth, why would you let that get in the way of ratings? As our friend Glenn Greenwald from Salon.com points out on his blog, false reporting on Iran could be ultimately be far more dangerous than the perceived threat itself. Let's try to stick to the facts."
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Rants Over Drilling: Is President Obama 'Nothing More Than a Democrat in Name Only?'
By Scott Whitlock | March 31, 2010 | 5:36 PM EDT

According to MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan, Barack Obama is nothing more than a shill for the Republican Party. The liberal anchor on Wednesday railed against the President's plan to allow limited offshore oil drilling: "This is a fraud...Is a pattern emerging? Is President Obama nothing more than a Democrat in name only? Dare we say it? A DINO?" [Audio available here.]

According to Ratigan, Obama, the same man who created a massive new entitlement with his health care bill, who ushered in the stimulus bill, is actually an operative for the GOP. He complained, "Look at the subsidization of the banking industry that goes on to this day or reports of the impending deal with the Republicans to forego civilian trials for Gitmo terror suspects in favor of military trials. Wasn't Gitmo supposed to be closed by now, anyway?"

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Touts Left-wing Group to Convict Sean Hannity Over Freedom Concerts
By Scott Whitlock | March 30, 2010 | 11:24 AM EDT

MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan on Monday eagerly attempted to convict Sean Hannity for the supposed misuse of funds by a pro-troop organization he supports, a claim already investigated and debunked. The anchor highlighted complaints against the Freedom Alliance group by the George Soros-backed Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), but never identified their liberal tilt.

Ratigan promoted CREW's assertions that the Freedom Concerts, which the Fox News host promotes, aren't giving all the money they take in to scholarships for the families of fallen soldiers. He sneered, "Hey, what the heck? You come up with a good cause. Give ten or 15 percent away and keep the rest for yourself. What do I know?" Not much, apparently. The MSNBC anchor made almost no effort to offer Hannity's side of the story or that of the Freedom Alliance.

David Frum's website analyzed this controversy and found the charges to be bogus. But, Ratigan wasn't interested in this. Instead, he mocked, "Who knows what happens to the rest of [the money]? But, not going to the kids, apparently."

Mika Brzezinski's Revelation: Too Much Focus on 'One or Two' Crazies in ObamaCare Aftermath
By Jeff Poor | March 26, 2010 | 2:50 PM EDT

If you've tuned on the news, specifically MSNBC, you don't have to watch for very long to see the network views focusing on fringe elements of the right as a newsworthy endeavor.

However, as MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski suggested, discretion should be exercised with the amount of attention given to these radical components of the opposition to President Barack Obama's health care reform endeavors.

"Yeah, call it out but also I think we have to be careful along the way," Brzezinski said on the March 26 broadcast. "I think this happened during the campaign. I think this happened during the final hours of the health care debate where certain fringe, really minute members of it were highlighted."

MSNBC's Ratigan Attacks 'Stars on Ice' On Basis of Anonymous Source Cited by GLAAD; Fails to Give Show's Side of Story
By Ken Shepherd | March 12, 2010 | 5:23 PM EST

"Sponsors of those [sic] Stars on Ice figure skating tour apparently think that Olympian Johnny Weir is too flamboyant for their show.  Weir reportedly prohibited from participating because he is not, quote, 'family friendly,'" MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan complained shortly before 5 p.m. on his MSNBC program today, citing a report by a blog published by GLAAD [the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation].

Ratigan griped that despite Weir's athletic credentials and well-known support of his family -- he's financing his brother's college education and supporting his father, who is unable to work due to a disability -- that the sponsors of the show, including Smucker's, "apparently... don't view supporting your family as family-friendly."

Ratigan then noted an online petition circulating to include Weir in the tour, but failed to include any reply from Stars on Ice, although just a few minutes before Ratigan went on the air, at least one news source had noted that Stars on Ice denied GLAAD's allegation.

Gay/lesbian publication MetroWeekly.com's Chris Geidner published the following to the Web at 4:38 p.m. EST, about 13 minutes before Ratigan went on air to further GLAAD's complaint on air (emphases mine):

MSNBC's Ratigan Happy GOP 'Renounced' Liz Cheney, Unlike 'Nazi and Racist' Tea Partiers
By Kyle Drennen | March 9, 2010 | 10:35 AM EST
On Monday's The Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan dragged out his standard attack against the tea party movement as he also bashed Liz Cheney for criticizing Justice Department attorneys: "Liz Cheney goes so far off the right-wing deep end, that now even some right-wingers are saying she has gone too far. If only the tea party would do the same with its Nazis and racist members."

In the segment that followed, Ratigan attacked Cheney for an ad put out by her organization KeepAmericaSafe.com, referring to Justice Department lawyers who once defended accused terrorists as the "Al Qaeda Seven." While he condemned Cheney for going "off the right-wing deep end," one of his guests in the segment was Jane Hamsher, founder of the left-wing radical blog FireDogLake.com, which on Monday featured a post on Cheney entitled: "A Blowjob for Liz 'BabyDick' Cheney."

In reaction to the KeepAmericaSafe.com ad, Hamsher declared: "I mean, what she's doing is genuinely McCarthy-esque and un-American." She went so far as to call for Congress to "censure" Cheney. Those proclamations were prompted by Ratigan asking: "Jane, would...are you encouraged by the emergence of other Republican leaders to at least renounce Liz Cheney, which is more than you can say for the tea party when it comes to some of their Nazi and racist members, which they refuse to renounce?"
The Phony Rage of Ratigan
By Greg Gutfeld | March 4, 2010 | 9:50 AM EST

Now, there’s always a scene in zombie movies, when one non-zombie character will turn to another, and say, “If I ever turn into that, I want you to kill me.” Then they make love, and reload.

Well, I want you, dear viewer, to make the same promise to me. Except instead of killing me if I become a zombie, I want you to kill me if I ever turn into Dylan Ratigan.

I am not joking. If you see symptoms of me frothing, twitching, or ranting until my eyeballs pop out and roll across the floor – I want you to hack me to pieces with a hatchet. Try to make it quick.

Ratigan Goes Nuts: Accuses Tea Party Organizer of Including People who Want to 'Kill Blacks and Jews'
By Jeff Poor | March 2, 2010 | 5:49 PM EST

You almost need a flak jacket to go on an MSNBC show these days - at least judging by the rapid fire attacks displayed on the March 2 "The Dylan Ratigan Show."

Either host Dylan Ratigan was trying to play to MSNBC's  rabid liberal audience or he really has it in for the Tea Party movement based on some exaggerated notion it is nothing but hate and fear mongers. In an interview with Mark Williams, a conservative talk radio host and sometimes spokesman for the Tea Party Express, Ratigan asked Williams what he was doing to separate his legitimate effort from radical fringe elements in American political culture.

"Mark, how do you draw the bright line between the very admirable and understandable principles that are advocated by so many in the Tea Party as it pertains to a Constitutional definition of a democracy, separation of things like banking and investing, church and - I mean, you go to all these things, and those who would choose a more radicalized view or racist view and hide, if you will, inside of the Tea Party umbrella?" Ratigan said.