Jonathan Martin

Beck Accuses Politico of Lying Over Disagreement with Palin, Demands Apology
By Jeff Poor | October 21, 2010 | 5:55 PM EDT

Has anyone noticed a leftward tilt by Politico lately? More and more, the respected inside-the-beltway publication seems to be more aggressive in its tack with conservatives.

Here’s one such example: In the Oct. 21 issue of Politico, an article written by Jonathan Martin attacks former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for her political activities and her dealings with other conservative leaders. One of Martin’s examples of Palin “wreaking havoc on the campaign trail” involved a disagreement with Fox News host Glenn Beck:

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Mark Levin Demands Retraction By Politico Concerning Palin Hit Piece
By Noel Sheppard | October 21, 2010 | 11:11 AM EDT

Conservative talk show host Mark Levin on Thursday demanded a retraction by Politico concerning statements made in Jonathan Martin's hit piece of the former Alaska Governor entitled "Hurricane Sarah."

In a Facebook posting, Levin said Martin's claim that Palin "backed out of planned interviews with conservative talk-show hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin the morning she was scheduled to talk to them" is "a flat out lie":

NBC's Chuck Todd on Hardball Ponders: Is Ken Buck, 'Sharron Angle in Drag?'
By Geoffrey Dickens | August 11, 2010 | 6:29 PM EDT

NBC's chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd, substitute hosting for Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, managed to question the political viability of two Republican candidates in one sentence as he asked his guest panelist, Jonathan Martin of the Politico, "Is Ken Buck, you know, Sharron Angle in drag?" [audio available here]

Going over the results of yesterday's primary races with Martin and Newsweek's Howard Fineman, Todd claimed "Democrats were doing a touchdown dance" after Buck won the Republican primary contest for the Senate seat in Colorado and also relayed some rather colorful descriptions of Buck, as seen in the following exchange, aired on the August 11 edition of Hardball:

Hardball Panelist Whines: Townhallers Only Getting News From Limbaugh, Drudge and Fox News
By Geoffrey Dickens | August 9, 2010 | 6:50 PM EDT

NBC's Chuck Todd, substitute hosting for Chris Matthews on Monday's Hardball, invited on Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum and the Politico's Jonathan Martin to navel gaze about what ailed the political structure as Todd questioned "Is Washington broke and beyond repair?" Pivoting off a Purdum article, that in part, blamed lobbyists, Martin offered his own explanation as he brought up the typical mainstream media boogeymen of the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. 

After Todd noted that it's not just the "lobbying community" causing distress in D.C., that the "media is playing a role here" and "it's not clear which came first, the polarized Washington or the polarized way that people get information," Martin buttressed Todd's point by offering his personal account of a Florida townhall meeting where he claimed voters there were only "listening to Rush Limbaugh," "reading Drudge" and "watching Fox News."

Newsweek Hysterically Accuses Media of Helping Tea Party in Indiana
By Candance Moore | May 5, 2010 | 10:33 PM EDT

On Wednesday, Newsweek's Andrew Romano celebrated news out of Indiana that "establishment" Republican Dan Coats fended off two conservative opponents in the Senate primary.

Romano's obvious delight came through loud and clear starting with the headline, "The Tea Party is Now Irrelevant in Indiana." You see, one loss in a Senate primary was enough to declare the movement DOA - and Romano was anxious for the rest of the media to play along.

The real headline in Indiana was that 52 percent of Republicans went in favor of Tea Party challengers, but two of them in the mix was enough to split the vote, and Coats squeaked by at 39 percent.

A few media sources, including Politico, reported that Coats limped out of the primary "bruised" by anti-incumbency. Romano, however, insisted that 39 percent was a clear victory. Why the stark difference in coverage? According to Romano, some in the media were glorifying Tea Parties to apparently advance some selfish narrative.

Try not to cough from the smell of irony as you watch a Newsweek writer complain about dishonest narratives being perpetrated by the media:

Media Pounces on Bizarre Study Claiming Only 67,000 in Tea Party
By Alex Fitzsimmons | April 23, 2010 | 5:58 PM EDT

Is the Tea Party movement nothing but a mirage? That’s the impression left by an odd confluence of recent reports.

First, the Christian Science Monitor’s Patchwork Nation blog reported that the entire Tea Party movement consists of just 67,000 members. PBS NewsHour cross-posted the story on its The Rundown blog the same day. The next day, CNN reported the findings on its Political Ticker blog and Politico’s Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith co-authored a piece titled “The tea party’s exaggerated importance.”

“Part of the reason (for the media’s coverage) is the timeless truth in media that nothing succeeds like excess,” explained Martin and Smith. “But part of the reason is a convergence of incentives for journalists and activists on left and right alike to exaggerate both the influence and exotic traits of the tea-party movement.”
Liberal Columnist Slams Olbermann Over 'Crazy, Sick' Scott Brown Attack
By Matthew Balan | January 25, 2010 | 11:40 AM EST
Howard Kurtz, CNN Anchor; & Margery Eagan, Boston Herald Columnist | NewsBusters.orgMargery Eagan, a liberal columnist for the Boston Herald, ripped MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Sunday’s Reliable Sources on CNN over his “homophobic, racist, reactionary” label of Senator-elect Scott Brown on the night of the Massachusetts special election: “This is crazy...it’s sick.”

Eagan appeared during the lead segment of the CNN program with Jonathan Martin of Politico and conservative CNN contributor Amy Holmes. Anchor Howard Kurtz played Olbermann’s smear of Brown nine minutes into the 10 am Eastern hour, and after asking Holmes for her take, he played a sound bite of Glenn Beck’s recent dead intern crack against Brown. Though Kurtz asked Eagan for her response to the Beck sound bite, she primarily attacked the MSNBC host, lumping in the conservative talk show host in passing.
EAGAN: Listen, I think Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann have both taken leave of their senses. You know, I was a Martha Coakley fan. I thought she was a great D.A. But I know Scott Brown. He’s a great guy. You can’t help but like the guy. He strikes me as a wonderful family guy. He’s out there mowing the lawn. His wife, Gail Huff, has been a great reporter on Channel 5. Racist? A homophobe? Sexist? I mean, this is crazy. His politics are different than mine, but it’s sick.
Matthews Mocks Palin, Her Supporters and Even the Reporters Covering Her
By Geoffrey Dickens | December 7, 2009 | 7:33 PM EST

Chris Matthews mocked Sarah Palin, her supporters and even some in the press who covered her as he went on one diatribe after another on Monday's Hardball. Matthews insulted Palin and her supporters by asking the Politico's Jonathan Martin if the Palin supporters he interviewed "take her seriously," and "Were they all white people?"

Matthews then went on to chide Martin and the USA Today's Susan Page for being "softened up" by Palin who "tickles all you guys under your chin" at her Gridiron Club appearance over the weekend, as he prodded, "Don't you essentially disrespect somebody who walks in and puts a book on the table and said they wrote it, when you know somebody else did?" and reminded them that Palin attacked the press during the campaign as he taunted:

She campaigned on her antipathy to the press trashing Katie Couric for asking the easiest, hardball question in the world, "What do you read?" She blamed Katie Couric for asking the most obvious question. She then went after Charlie Gibson, one of the nicest guys in this business and trashed him for being elitist.

No Conservatives in Campbell Brown's Health Care Discussion
By Matthew Balan | September 30, 2009 | 4:46 PM EDT

(from upper left) Campbell Brown, CNN Anchor; Robert Reich, former Clinton labor secretary; Roland Martin, CNN Contributor; & Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst | NewsBusters.orgHours after the Senate Finance Committee rejected the public option as part of the proposed health care “reform” plan, CNN’s Campbell Brown couldn’t seem to find any conservatives to discuss the vote on her program on Tuesday. Her discussion segment brought three liberals to the table- former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich, Roland Martin, and senior political analyst Gloria Borger.

Brown first turned to Borger, who flatly stated that she thought the public option is dead: “I think it’s pretty dead, Campbell. I think it’s safe to say that right now it looks like it’s a goner.” The analyst continued that “the President has to settle for something less- something that may be a down payment on a public option, if the insurance companies don’t behave themselves. So, I think the President’s going to have to settle for less, and I think he’s signaling that he will settle for less.”

Matthews: Obama Not Getting Enough Love for Economic 'Comeback'
By Jeff Poor | August 26, 2009 | 8:10 AM EDT

Try to keep a straight face when you hear this: President Barack Obama isn't getting enough media love.

That's the world view of MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews - at least when it comes to the economy. According to Matthews, there has been a plethora of positive economic news - from a stock market that has shrugged off the threat of bad liberal policy, i.e. cap-and-trade or ObamaCare, to the actions of newly reappointed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of pumping liquidity into the economy.

"What do you make of this whole thing about the good economic news out there the president gets no credit for?" Matthews said on his Aug. 25 show. "I'm in the stock market. I have suffered like others before and I have seen this comeback - back up to almost 10,000 now. He gets nothing for this. The fact that consumer confidence, which was once closer to the bone, is way up. The fact that the Fed chair has done such a good job in pumping up the money supply and pumping back the economy, and averting a Great Depression - no credit."

Greta Responds to Politico: 'I Have Never Given Gov. Palin Advice'
By Noel Sheppard | March 29, 2009 | 9:50 PM EDT

Greta Van Susteren is clearly sick and tired of people accusing her of advising Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

She's also fed up with what she referred to Sunday as a "hit and run":

This is why I hate “sources” and where journalism can be grossly unfair — in the law you have to step up on the witness stand and identify yourself and take an oath to tell the truth.

According to Van Susteren, that's not what Politico did on Sunday:

Politico Exposes White House and Media's Anti-Limbaugh Strategy
By Noel Sheppard | March 4, 2009 | 12:58 PM EST

Have you wondered why there have been so many hit pieces lately about Rush Limbaugh?

Well, new revelations suggest that Democrats began a smear campaign against the conservative talk radio host last October, and now it's really caught steam.

Apparently, the Left feared its message would be muted without having George W. Bush to blame for all the world's problems, and Limbaugh made a nice substitute as the object of their disaffection to distract the public from real issues.

Given White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's connections to key media figures such as ABC's George Stephanopoulos as well as CNN's Paul Begala and James Carville, disseminating the hate was a piece of cake.

As Jonathan Martin reported Wednesday at Politico (photo compilation courtesy Edward Cropper):