Tina Brown

ABC Panel Lauds Jon Stewart as 'the Only Trusted Branch of Government,' Hits Racist Conservatives
By Scott Whitlock | October 27, 2010 | 12:32 PM EDT

A panel full of liberals on Wednesday's Good Morning America attacked the "angry, white" Tea Partiers and lauded the historical importance of Jon Stewart. Daily Beast editor Tina Brown gushed over the liberal comedian as " the only trusted branch of government." [MP3 audio here. Click on blog for video.]

Previewing the comic's rally on Washington this Saturday, the former Vanity Fair editor hyperbolically enthused, "You know, I mean, in the end, Stewart and Colbert, really are like the Huntley and Brinkley of today in the sense that people really, really trust them."

GMA host George Stephanopoulos also featured D.L. Hughley. The actor dismissed Glenn Beck and the Tea Party movement: "There were a bunch of angry, white people, saying they wanted their freedom back. If that doesn't call for some kind of answer. Like it's the white Harriet Tubman somewhere." The Morning Mix panel, a regular feature on GMA, featured no conservative voices.

Daily Beast: Wal-Mart’s Morals Victimize Kanye
By Erin R. Brown | October 20, 2010 | 4:06 PM EDT

Shoplifting. Nudity. Explicit Lyrics. Nazi Symbolism. None are tolerated by Wal-Mart, and after Kanye West’s new explicitly sexual album cover for “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”was considered indecent by the store, Tina Brown’s website, “The Daily Beast,” threw a hissy fit on his behalf.

“In all honesty ... I really don't be thinking about Wal-Mart when I make my music or album covers #Kanyeshrug!” This tweet, from Grammy-winning recording artist Kanye West was met with open arms from the editors at The Daily Beast who lined up with West and reassured him that he wasn’t the only “victim” of Wal-Mart.

Tina Brown: Glenn Beck Is 'The White Malcolm X...It's White Racial Politics'
By Noel Sheppard | September 19, 2010 | 2:18 PM EDT

Tina Brown, the founder and editor of the online publication the "Daily Beast," said Sunday that conservative talk show host Glenn Beck "has become sort of the white Malcolm X."

Chatting with Howard Kurtz on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Brown said of Beck, "I think that he's a fascinating demagogue, actually."

She continued, "It's white racial politics, in a sense, because he's really saying -- a lot of his message is, you know, that Obama is a racist." 

And continued, "[Beck] talks about God, but when you drill down to what he's actually saying, he calls [Obama] a Nazi and socialist who's taking over the country. I mean, his language is extremely inflammatory" (video follows with transcript and commentary): 

Scarborough: 'Certain Networks' Would Maul 'Boss Hogg' Barbour In Run Against Obama
By Mark Finkelstein | August 19, 2010 | 8:10 AM EDT
Gee, I wonder which network Joe had in mind . . .

Joe Scarborough likes Haley Barbour.  But he doesn't like the "optics" of the southern governor running for president against Barack Obama.  Scarborough's worried that "certain networks" would "maul" the man Scarborough referred to as "Boss Hogg." [H/t reader Ray R.]

Interestingly, both the Politico's Jim VandeHei and Tina Brown of the Daily Beast were able to see more of an upside for Haley.  VandeHei described him as best among Republicans at articulating conservative principles, while Brown saw the hands-on governor's potential as the "un-Barack."

ABC, CBS Extol Chelsea's Wedding as a Happy Reminder of the 'Rosy' Clinton '90s
By Scott Whitlock | August 2, 2010 | 4:37 PM EDT

ABC and CBS's morning shows on Monday hyped Chelsea Clinton's wedding as happy reminder of the '90s. Daily Beast editor Tina Brown appeared on Good Morning America and enthused, "Well, I really felt that this wedding came in for the real rosy glow, Clinton, sort of back-lit feeling, because people are really very depressed right now." [MP3 audio here.]

Co-host Robin Roberts prompted the former editor of the New Yorker, "You said that we needed, that America needed this wedding." The nostalgic Brown reminisced that the "Clinton-era was all about surpluses and prosperity and pre-9/11."

Speaking of the decade, she oddly asserted, "And, suddenly, we think, 'How safe we were in those days and we didn't even realize it.'"

Mika: With More Women In Charge, Wall St. Meltdown 'Simply Would Not Have Happened'
By Mark Finkelstein | July 28, 2010 | 7:16 AM EDT
If only women ruled the world . . .

Striking a blow for her sex, Mika Brzezinski today claimed that the Wall Street meltdown "simply would not have happened" if more women had been in charge.

The Morning Joe co-host was reacting to news that the Dems managed to slip into the recently enacted financial regulation bill a provision--authored by Rep. Maxine Waters--that would create "at least 20 new Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion" with the power to kill government contracts with financial firms not meeting new "diversity standards."

Tina Brown seconded her sister's sentiment, blaming the financial industry's woes on "all this phallic obsession."

What's good for Wall Street is presumably good for Washington, too.  Mika Brzezinski--founder of Feminists For Palin, perhaps?

For Criticizing Obama, Barnicle 'Castrated' By Mika
By Mark Finkelstein | June 16, 2010 | 9:11 AM EDT
Guess Mike could always get a gig with the Vienna Boys Choir . . .

If MSNBC libs like Olbermann and Matthews were surprisingly critical of Pres. Obama's speech last night, PBO can apparently count on one defender at the network: Mika Brzezinski.  

So fiercely did Brzezinski go after Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe today for his criticism of the speech, that the panel agreed poor Mike had been "emasculated."  Joe Scarborough took it a graphic step further, saying Mika had "castrated" the former Boston Globe columnist.

Bozell Column: Smearing Republican Women
By Brent Bozell | June 15, 2010 | 10:12 PM EDT

In 1992, the feminists in the media rejoiced at what they called “The Year of the Woman,” when ten Democratic women (and one Republican) were running for the Senate in the aftermath of Anita Hill’s unproven sexual-harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas. Just two years before, seven Republican women (and two Democrats) ran. But the media yawned.

In 1992, the evening newscasts aired 29 stories exclusively devoted to women Senate candidates. In 1990, there was one...on election night. In 1992, the morning shows interviewed women Senate candidates on 26 occasions. In 1990, there were zero interviews.

This was all about the party affiliation. When the liberals Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein both won primary elections from the U.S. Senate in California in 1992, Time reporter Margaret Carlson almost levitated in ecstasy. “There was a rush, an exultation, that surpassed any political moment I have ever known -- better even than Geraldine Ferraro's vice-presidential candidacy."  

Editor Tina Brown Slams Female GOP Primary Winners: These 'Wingnuts' Are a 'Blow to Feminism'
By Scott Whitlock | June 10, 2010 | 11:24 AM EDT

Former New Yorker editor Tina Brown appeared on Thursday's Good Morning America to deride the mostly Republican women who won primaries on Tuesday as "wingnuts" and to sneer that they represent a "blow to feminism."

GMA's "Morning Mix" segment featured Brown and journalist Catherine Crier, part of a panel that usually includes reporters agreeing with each other over liberal talking points. After Stephanopoulos recited the numerous women who won nominations on June 8, the current Daily Beast editor dismissed, "...The only trouble with this one is, it almost feels as if all these women winning are kind of a blow to feminism." [Audio available here.]

She then added, "Women, too, can be wing nuts, is the point." Crier offered the developing liberal line that Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorini's business experience could now be a liability: "I think it's quite interesting that the whole CEO movement out there in California. Because, here we are with all the Wall Street consternation and, yet, they're touting their credentials as major CEOs as qualifications."

Tina Brown Condescends: Sarah Palin 'Pretends' to Care About Politics, Sees Tea Partiers as Customers
By Scott Whitlock | April 27, 2010 | 12:32 PM EDT

Former New Yorker editor Tina Brown appeared on Tuesday's Morning Joe to condescendingly critique Sarah Palin for running "to be Simon Cowell" and as someone who sees tea partiers simply as her customers. Discussing an article on Palin, Brown insisted that when the Republican attends tea party rallies, she's "not really talking to them as members of true believers in a political movement. She's talking to them as consumers."

Brown appeared along with New Yorker writer Gabriel Sherman to discuss his new story spinning Palin's post gubernatorial financial activities. The sub-headline of his article sums up the tone: "Sarah Palin is already president of right-wing America—and it’s a position with a very big salary."

The liberal magazine editor continued to pontificate about her insights into the ex-vice presidential nominee: "It's not really about politics for her. It's really about celebrity. It's pretending to be politics. That's how I read Sarah Palin."

Editor Tina Brown Admits: Obama 'Got the Best Press Known to Man,' WaPo’s Howard Kurtz Agrees
By Scott Whitlock | February 5, 2010 | 12:02 PM EST

Two prominent journalists appeared on Friday's Good Morning America and casually admitted that Barack Obama has received glowing coverage from the press. Former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown announced, "No, [Obama] got the best press known to man. Let's face it."

Howard Kurtz, host of Reliable Sources on CNN and a Washington Post columnist, corrected, "In the history of civilization." The liberal Brown quickly agreed, "In the history of civilization, incredible." Kurtz and Brown appeared with Meghan McCain to discuss the latest political developments with GMA host George Stephanopoulos.

McCain, a moderate Republican, offered her own denouncement of liberal bias.  Discussing the John Edwards sex scandal and how journalists ignored it during the 2008 campaign, she complained, "Where was the press when this was going on? Who was reporting on this? And when you find out later on that many people in the press did know about the affair going on, it could have changed the course of the election."

Tina Brown: Limbaugh 'Like the Bad Fairy at Sleeping Beauty's Christening'
By Matthew Balan | December 31, 2009 | 11:54 AM EST

The Daily Beast’s Tina Brown targeted Rush Limbaugh for ruining 2009, particularly after Obama’s inauguration, on Thursday’s Today show on NBC, blaming him for the “big discord and toxic atmosphere in politics,” and likened him to the “the bad fairy at Sleeping Beauty’s christening” for uttering his famous words about the President, “I hope he fails” [audio clip available here].

Brown slammed the talk show host just hours after he was hospitalized for chest pains. The British-born journalist appeared with commentator Nancy Giles and comedian Andy Borowitz nine minutes into the 8 am Eastern hour for a panel discussion on the past year. Substitute anchor Erin Burnett turned to Brown first and asked, “What do you think was the most important moment of 2009?”

Brown unsurprisingly chose the Obama inauguration, and after gushing over the moment, set her sights on Limbaugh: