On Thursday, Senate Republicans voted against cloture on a constitutional amendment which would gut the First Amendment's free speech protections. Naturally MSNBC.com portrayed it as the GOP blocking "reform" of campaign finance.
MSNBC.com
By Ken Shepherd | September 4, 2014 | 4:55 PM EDT
The day before he pounded the pavement in Durham, North Carolina, to cover fast-food employees protesting for a $15/hour "living wage" and the right to unionize, MSNBC.com writer and All In w/Chris Hayes reporter Ned Resnikoff posted a tweet wishing for the services of an unpaid intern.
"Seeking an unpaid intern to generate #content. Will be paid in college credit and Hot Takes," Resnikoff tweeted at 3:01 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday. While he gave no Web link for interested parties, the lefty Lean Forward does indeed employ interns who are compensated in academic credit, but judging by the official website, no actual monetary compensation. In July 2013, a few former Saturday Night Live and msnbc.com interns sued NBC Universal. Here's an excerpt of how The Hollywood Reporter covered the news at the time:
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 17, 2014 | 11:31 PM EDT
You know something stinks when even the folks at MSNBC are rejecting what looks like a politically motivated lawsuit against Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry. On Friday, August 15, Governor Perry was indicted by a Texas grand jury for vetoing funding for the state’s public integrity unit, unless the lead prosecutor resigned following her drunk driving arrest.
The indictment has received condemnation from public officials on both sides of the political spectrum, but now the ultra-liberal MSNBC has joined the ranks of those who see the partisan nature of the indictment. On August 17, Ari Melber, host of the MSNBC program The Cycle, penned an MSNBC.com article in which he admitted that there is a “weak case against Rick Perry.”
By Ken Shepherd | August 14, 2014 | 5:00 PM EDT
Examining how the Missouri town of "Ferguson’s lack of diversity goes way beyond its cops," MSNBC.com's Zachary Roth examined numerous factors that had led to the city's elected officials being predominantly comprised of white folks while the city itself is roughly two-thirds African-American.
Roth explained that turnout in city elections are dreadfully low, often in the teens but dipping as low as 8.9 percent just two years ago. But of course this being the perpetually race-obsessed Lean Forward network, Roth found something sinister in the time and manner of the city's elections:
By Ken Shepherd | August 6, 2014 | 6:25 PM EDT
It's not scientific by any means, and there is the possibility that an influx of non-regular MSNBC.com readers have contributed to this result, but all the same, a new reader-reaction poll on MSNBC.com has a surprisingly overwhelming pro-gun rights response.
In a poll at the bottom of Michele Richinick's story, "A children’s book to teach kids about gun rights," MSNBC.com asks "Do you think people should be allowed to carry guns in public?" Eighty-eight percent of respondents selected the answer, "Yes! The Second Amendment guarantees it." and an additional 4 percent staked out a middle-ground position, "Only for self defense." Only 8 percent answered "No, it's too dangerous." [see screen capture below page break]
By Connor Williams | July 31, 2014 | 11:20 AM EDT
In a piece discussing the University of Notre Dame’s policy on contraception, Irin Carmon of MSNBC.com revealed her unashamed support of government-mandated birth control and abortifacient drugs. And if the headline “This is the Next Hobby Lobby” wasn’t clear enough, the article barely mentioned opposition to Notre Dame’s decision to fight the contraception mandate. Aside from a few brief paragraphs on the Sycamore Trust, a conservative pro-life alumni group, the piece was extremely sympathetic to the pro-choice cause and dismissive of those who oppose the contraception mandate.
The article cited one student who lamented that “you couldn’t find a box of condoms anywhere” on campus. Carmon, using one student as an example, claimed that the university has stigmatized contraception entirely: “Even students who use birth control pills for non-contraceptive purposes say they have been stigmatized.”
By Laura Flint | July 31, 2014 | 10:45 AM EDT
On July 30, Michele Richinick, a writer for msnbc.com, hyped a Texas protest against Rick Perry’s decision to deploy the National Guard to send a message to the waves of illegal immigrant children flooding over the border. With the title “Texans rally against Rick Perry’s deployment request” and the lede that “Texas Gov. Rick Perry is facing wrath from residents in his home state,” the MSNBC contributor seemed to forget that only 20 members of the Texas Organization Project (TOP) bothered to show up.
It remains unclear why MSNBC thought a 20-person protest in which “protesters held 12 large, blank checks to symbolize the millions of dollars the state will spend on Perry’s plan” was newsworthy. The only direct quote in the article from the TOP was Dallas Country communications director statement that Perry’s decision was “unnecessary.” Strong words.
By Ken Shepherd | July 29, 2014 | 6:30 PM EDT
MSNBC's chief abortion rights absolutist Irin Carmon is giddy over a move today by a "conservative" federal circuit court panel to scotch an abortion-clinic regulation in Mississippi which requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.
"Big victory for state's last abortion clinic" trumpeted a teaser headline on msnbc.com (see screen capture below page break). Clicking the link brings readers to Carmon's 11-paragraph story, "Mississippi’s last abortion clinic to stay open — for now." While Carmon -- a 2013 New York Abortion Access Fund "Champion for Choice" honoree -- found room for the enthusiastic response of a pro-choice activist, she failed to include any pro-life activists' responses. Here's an excerpt (emphasis mine):
By Jackie Seal | July 18, 2014 | 5:06 PM EDT
“Americans want our next president to be a woman, hey babe here’s lookin’ at you Senator Elizabeth Warren,” were the words sung in a new video put out by the Ready for Warren website following the Massachusetts Democrat's keynote address at the liberal Netroots Convention in Detroit on Friday afternoon.
A former Obama staffer launched a “Ready for Warren” website and took to the liberal activist conference Netroots this week passing out hats, signs, and stickers touting “Elizabeth Warren for President.” Warren delivered the keynote speech at the event this afternoon and the Ready for Warren folks released a “folk music video” urging the Senator to run.
By Ken Shepherd | July 11, 2014 | 4:55 PM EDT
The folks at msnbc.com are absolutely confounded that a new Texas voter ID law does NOT permit the usage of out-of-state driver's licenses to establish one's identity for voting.
"Even an out-of-state driver's license is not an acceptable form of ID under the law," whines a caption for an item on the network's Facebook page, promoting an article by Zachary Roth about a federal lawsuit challenging the Lone Star State's law. I found this on my Facebook page earlier this afternoon. As you can see in the screen capture below the page break, the network actually paid money to promote this particular post as sponsored content.
By Laura Flint | July 10, 2014 | 4:45 PM EDT
MSNBC is not limited to televised displays of liberal bias. On the economics page of MSNBC.com, reporter Ned Resnikoff published an article earlier today entitled “Gap between minimum wage and tipped wage hits record high.” The All In with Chris Hayes contributor cited a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) claiming that tipped workers make a “significantly lower than the overall median wage” and “experience poverty at much higher rates than the overall workforce.”
Of course, Resnikoff forgot to mention that the EPI “receives much of its funding from organized labor.” That fact was added later in a “clarification” note under the original article.
By Tom Blumer | July 10, 2014 | 12:44 AM EDT
At the Politico Wednesday afternoon, Jonathan Topaz covered Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar's sharp criticism of President Barack Obama's failure to visit the nation's southern border, or for that matter any of the detention centers set up for "Unaccompanied Alien Children" (the Department of Homeland Security's term).
The Politico is where many stories the rest of the establishment press would rather not cover go to die; they then appear to say, "Well, the Politico covered it, so we don't have to." During the Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 presidencies, the press went with saturation coverage of Republicans who criticized a president from their party. The degree of coverage in Cuellar's situation is quite the opposite, even though, as we shall see, the White House has contacted him in an attempt to convince him to shut up.