After comedian Bill Maher referred to Sarah Palin as a derogatory term for a vagina a little over week a ago, NewsBusters asked, "Can the dreaded C-word be far behind?"
According to the Dallas Voice, this happened on Sunday while Maher was "performing" at the Winspear Opera House (photo courtesy Reuters):
As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, the National Organization for Women finally responded to Bill Maher calling Sarah Palin a highly derogatory term for a woman's vagina, but did so without mentioning Maher's name, the program he said it on, or the television network he represents.
Later that day, while discussing with Fox News's Greta Van Susteren the double standard surrounding the difference between how liberal and conservative women are treated by members of the media, the former Alaska governor said, "By the way, I need NOW's defense like a fish needs a bicycle" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
It's certainly not surprising that the New York Times would publish a hit piece on Glenn Beck, but coming hours after CNN's Howard Kurtz spent almost ten minutes bashing the Fox News commentator makes me smell a rat.
Add to this the increased pressure Beck has come up against from MSNBC personalities since Keith Olbermann surprisingly left America's most liberal television news network in January, and one has to wonder what Times author David Carr had in mind with his Monday piece "The Fading Power of Beck’s Alarms":
Twice this week on the Ed Show, MSNBC host Ed Schultz has paid attention to FNC’s Shepard Smith for not approaching the Wisconsin labor union controversy from the right, and also added in FNC’s Greta Van Susteren on Thursday. On Wednesday, the MSNBC host began his regular "Takedown" segment:
Tonight, in the "Takedown" segment, how about Shepard Smith? I’ll tell you what, he's bucking the Fox News Republican agenda by actually telling the truth about what's happening in Wisconsin. But first, Bill O'Reilly made a big admission on his show last night while reading viewer mail about George Soros and fairness and Fox News.
After responding to a clip of Bill O’Reilly enumerating some of FNC’s hosts and calling them "fair," Schultz went after Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade for misreporting a poll on the public’s attitude toward the Wisconsin situation. After gloating over Kilmeade getting the poll results wrong, Schultz eventually admitted to MSNBC viewers that Kilmeade had, in fact, already corrected the mistake.
Despite heavy promotion for MSNBC's Monday presentation of "President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon," Chris Matthews' love letter to the 42nd president didn't get the ratings the network was likely hoping for.
In fact, the special was bested by Fox News's "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren:
Ed Schultz is not completely happy with his new 10 pm Eastern time slot. On his radio show Friday, he said to his Ed-heads: "Where is Ed Friday night? Well they’ve always run the prison junk on Friday night. You, you wouldn’t -- I’m telling you straight, that beats Fox News. Okay, that Lockup and that Jerry Behind Bars, or I don’t know, all that stuff. There is amazing amazing intrigue with prisons."
As usual, when Ed talks about ratings and Fox, he's not exactly right. The Friday night numbers from TV Newser shows that MSNBC's Lockup beat FNC's On the Record among viewers 25 to 54, by 329,000 to 239,000. But among overall viewers, Fox crushed MSNBC: Greta van Susteren drew 1.34 million, while Lockup only had 586,000 viewers.
Whether it's the departure of Keith Olbermann or the weakness of the new prime time lineup, the ratings at MSNBC are collapsing.
Take a look at how this so-called news network fared Thursday:
Chris Matthews on Thursday attacked Sarah Palin for making what appeared to be a hip double entendre concerning President Obama's oft-used State of the Union slogan "Winning the Future."
Even less surprising, the "Hardball" host also went after Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) slavery remarks - for the third night in a row (video follows with transcript and commentary):
It's been less than 24 hours since Keith Olbermann's abrupt departure from MSNBC, and folks are all atwitter with predictions about where he'll end up.
TV critic Tim Goodman's suggestion that the former "Countdown" host should go to Fox News is destined to anger people on both sides of the aisle:
Politico published another Sarah Palin hit piece on Sunday evening, and much like the last one, authors Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei couldn't find one disparaging source to actually go on the record with his or her negative opinions.
Grabbing the article hot off the presses, Fox News's Greta Van Susteren and her guest Palin trashed "all these brave" faceless people as well as the so-called journalists willing to write hit pieces without any named sources (video follows with transcript and commentary, h/t Mediaite):
Greta Van Susteren on Friday absolutely skewered Gloria Allred, the attorney representing California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's former housekeeper.In a fiery nine minute discussion on Fox's "On the Record," the host accused her guest of being "unthinkable" and "rotten" by bringing this issue to light, especially right before an election.
"You're getting your client deported by putting a big neon sign, 'Hey, I'm here illegally, I signed documents falsely, and I've done that under penalty of perjury,'" scolded Van Susteren.
"On the eve of an election, to raise something like this, which has the possibility of smearing unfairly, calling someone a liar and subverting the electoral process...I think all three things are rotten" (video follows with comments and highlights along with full transcript at end of post, h/t Ed Morrissey):
For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells Greta Van Sustern Americans are afraid of the radicalism of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
Thoughts?