After the Wednesday editions of CBS This Morning and NBC’s Today attempted to excuse the Washington Post cartoon depicting Ted Cruz’s daughters as moneys, various hosts and guests throughout the day on CNN and MSNBC followed suit by chiding the “weird” and “controversial” Cruz for sending out fundraising e-mails related to the smear and “not reacting kindly” to cartoonist Ann Telnaes’s latest work.
Kate Bolduan
By Brad Wilmouth | December 21, 2015 | 3:08 PM EST
Appearing as a guest on CNN's Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield to report on South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham's departure from the GOP presidential race, CNN's Kate Bolduan oddly claimed that the low-polling candidate's debate performances were "really widely, you know, seen as winners," inspiring agreement from host Banfield.
By Matthew Balan | October 6, 2015 | 6:15 PM EDT
CNN wasn't interested in balance on Tuesday, as three straight programs brought on pro-euthanasia activists to tout California's new "End of Life Option Act," which was signed into law on Monday. All three also left out opponents of the legislation. CNN Newsroom featured a man whose wife was the subject of a HBO documentary titled How to Die in Oregon. On At This Hour, Kate Bolduan hyped the "groundbreaking move," and interviewed a "right to die advocate" with terminal cancer. Legal View turned to the widower of pro-euthanasia activist Brittany Maynard, who took her life in November 2014.
By Connor Williams | June 4, 2015 | 5:22 PM EDT
After an interview of Pam Geller on New Day on Thursday, CNN’s At This Hour followed up with a testy interview of Geller’s colleague Robert Spencer, who ripped the media for their unwillingness to confront radical Islam: "They are trying to say you have to do what we say, you have to not do what we want, and do what we want, and if you do not, we will kill you. And the mainstream media, including CNN, is going along."
By Matthew Balan | May 5, 2015 | 3:50 PM EDT
On Tuesday's At This Hour, CNN's John Berman wondered if American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which organized the Muhammad cartoon conference that was attacked by two Islamists on Sunday, was only provoking more terrorist violence by planning to hold similar events in the future. Berman asked AFDI vice president Robert Spencer, "By holding more events, then, I suppose you could continue to say, are you looking for more violence to keep on making this point?"
By Matthew Balan | May 4, 2015 | 5:31 PM EDT
On Monday's New Day, CNN's Alisyn Camerota played up how the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the group targeted by two suspected Islamists in Texas a "hate group." Camerota underlined that "other people say" that Pamela Geller's American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) is "even a hate group, and that they're vehemently anti-Islam....They talk about Islam, and they talk about it with, sort of, real repugnance, quite frankly."
By Matthew Balan | April 1, 2015 | 3:30 PM EDT
Liberal CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin attacked Governor Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday's At This Hour, after the Arkansas Republican asked the state legislature to bring a proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act closer to the original 1993 federal law: "This was political double-talk....The idea that you can compromise and find some language that allows people to not do business with gay people; and also, protect them...from discrimination, it's just impossible. There are no compromises available here."
By Matthew Balan | February 11, 2015 | 3:46 PM EST
On Wednesday's CNN Newsroom, Mark Feldstein channeled Michael Moore's take on the Brian Williams scandal. The former CNN journalist acknowledged that Williams likely wouldn't recover the "traditional credibility that he had as a news anchor," but later fell into the same Bush bashing as Moore: "Is it as bad a scandal as telling lies about the Iraq War to get us into it, as the Bush administration did? No. But in journalistic circles, telling a lie is the cardinal sin."
By Matthew Balan | September 11, 2014 | 7:07 PM EDT
On Thursday's New Day, CNN's Kate Bolduan hounded Senator John McCain to back President Obama's new strategy to combat the Islamist terrorist group ISIS and help him gain congressional support: "We talk about how you are a critic of the administration. But now that there is a strategy, Senator – now that there is going to be action...how are you going to help the administration succeed now in implementing this?"
By Curtis Houck | August 15, 2014 | 9:47 AM EDT
It has been over three weeks since The New York Times published a front-page investigation unmasking the actions of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) shuttering an anti-corruption commission. In reaction, the U.S. Attorney has now begun investigating Cuomo’s administration for possible “witness tampering and obstruction of justice,” according to The New York Post.
Despite these serious allegations, CNN has all but ignored the story. The cable news outlet completely ignored the Cuomo scandal until it aired a single tease and report on August 7 during The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.
By Connor Williams | August 11, 2014 | 12:10 PM EDT
Are the folks at CNN abandoning President Obama’s foreign policy? Well, yes, but only to throw praise upon former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ahead of a likely 2016 presidential run. On the August 11 edition of New Day, a panel discussed President Obama’s airstrikes in northern Iraq and Mrs. Clinton’s comments about his often disjointed foreign policy.
Reacting to Hillary telling The Atlantic that “don’t do stupid stuff” does not represent coherent foreign policy, host Kate Bolduan seemed to support Clinton, doubting it was enough. CNN contributor and Daily Beast editor John Avlon agreed with the New Day host, saying it was “not an organizing principle,” and praised Clinton for differentiating herself from the President on issues of foreign policy. He argued, in fact, that Hillary was the kind of Democrat neo-conservatives could support: [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | August 4, 2014 | 12:40 PM EDT
In a surprising segment, CNN’s New Day discussed the role of the media in the Israel-Hamas conflict and whether they are providing proper context regarding the two sides. In an interview with co-host Kate Bolduan, guest Lee Habeeb, columnist for National Review, slammed the media for its biased coverage of the issue. In fact, in a recent piece for NRO, Habeeb went so far as to claim that the media have acted as "co-conspirators" to Hamas.
When Bolduan asked where Habeeb believed the media was lacking, he argued that “the point of the spear is the media and dead children and dead women...and I don’t believe the media is covering it.” Toward the end of the segment, Bolduan cited Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, who claimed that the U.S. has now adopted the Israeli narrative. The New Day co-host wondered how it could go both ways. Habeeb blasted the media again: [MP3 audio here; video below]