Now with Alex Wagner

Barro on Health Insurance: People Can't Be Trusted, We Need Gruber
By Mark Finkelstein | November 19, 2014 | 5:41 PM EST

Some liberals like to pass Josh Barro off as a conservative, but not long ago the New York Times correspondent debunked that notion himself, tweeting that he was most easily understood as a "moderate." But after his appearance on MSNBC today, another term might more aptly apply: elitist liberal.  

Speaking with Alex Wagner, Barro crammed a carload of condescension into thirty seconds. Barro claimed that health insurance is "weirdly complicated," and thus that Americans can't be permitted to choose it as they would other products.  No, we can't let people use their "own judgment."  The free market "doesn't work very well" with health insurance. Individuals can't be "trusted" with it, and thus government must be involved and we need people like . . . Jonathan Gruber.

MSNBC Equates 'Hardline' Catholic Cardinal's Demotion With Sex Abuser's Penalty
By Matthew Balan | November 11, 2014 | 5:37 PM EST

Alex Wagner was noticeably gleeful on her MSNBC program on Monday about Pope Francis reassigning Cardinal Raymond Burke from a prominent role at the Vatican to patron of the Knights of Malta. Wagner hyped this move as "a strong message to arch-conservatives in the Catholic Church – reform or be removed." The left-wing host later underlined that the pontiff "demoted hardline U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke" and this was supposedly a "clear message to his [Francis's] conservative critics."

Alex Wagner OK With Racial Fear Tactics—If That's What It Takes for Dems to Win
By Mark Finkelstein | October 30, 2014 | 5:26 PM EDT

Could this be the most cynical statement of the campaign season?  The woman whose recent wedding President Obama attended is okay with stoking the racial fears of black Americans—if that's what it takes to drive them to the polls and secure Dem victories. Alex Wagner devoted a segment of her MSNBC show today to the naked appeals to the racial fears of black Americans that Democrats are making in campaign ads.  Wagner discussed Dem ads that seek to stoke black fear toward Republicans by invoking Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

You might think Wagner would have condemned these ugly tactics, explicitly aimed at driving Americans apart based on their race.  Think again. To the contrary, Wagner concluded the segment by saying that it shouldn't have to be the kind of threats contained in these ads that get people to vote, "but if it does, so much stronger the party is for it."

MSNBC's Alex Wagner: 'Distressing' Canadian Rampage Seen as 'Terrorist Act'
By Mark Finkelstein | October 23, 2014 | 6:10 PM EDT

On her MSNBC show today, Alex Wagner found it "surprising" and "distressing" that some were seeing the attack on the Canadian Parliament by a Muslim convert as a "terrorist act."  Wagner was joined by CAIR's Nihad Awad who said that anyone claiming "that there is an islamic component" in the attack shows either "ignorance or hostility" toward Islam.

Another guest claimed the attack was "much more like ordinary crime."  Right.  No Islamic extremism here.  Zehaf-Bibeau was probably just planning to get the Members of Parliament to empty their pockets.

NBC's Luke Russert : NFL Teams Slow to Sign Michael Sam After Release ‘Because He's Gay'
By Curtis Houck | September 4, 2014 | 8:30 AM EDT

Filling in for Alex Wagner on her MSNBC show Wednesday, Luke Russert had a segment on NFL player and defensive end Michael Sam, who was signed earlier in the day to the Dallas Cowboys after being released by the St. Louis Rams on Saturday. Russert opined that the reason there was a delay before Sam was signed by another team was not because of any media “distractions" or that he was not a good enough player, but it was “probably because he’s gay.”

In the first portion of the over five-minute-long segment, Russert cited reports from anonymous NFL general managers to two sports media outlets that teams wanted to sign Sam, but “fear[ed] the media attention” and “the circus coming to town” in additional media. [See video below]

Al Sharpton: No ‘Circumstances’ Would Require Officer Wilson To Fire Six Times
By Connor Williams | August 21, 2014 | 6:31 PM EDT

Channeling Jesse Jackson’s comments earlier this week on Newsmax TV, MSNBC’s Al Sharpton argued that no circumstance justified Michael Brown being shot multiple times, using the logic that he was unarmed. This despite reports that Brown had charged and beat Officer Darren Wilson prior to the fatal shooting.

During a predictably soft interview with host Alex Wagner on the August 20 edition of Now, Sharpton insisted that “there was no life extenuating circumstances that anyone can figure out that required six bullets.” The PoliticsNation host decided to play the role of judge and jury, claiming that no one was even questioning his rush to judgment:

Now Substitute Host Ezra Klein Fails to Disclose Ties to Vox and Vox Reporter Appearing as Guest
By Curtis Houck | August 1, 2014 | 7:10 PM EDT

Serving on Friday as the substitute host for Now with Alex Wagner, Vox founder and Editor-In-Chief Ezra Klein had a science reporter from Vox.com on to discuss the current outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa and the arrival of two Americans who were working there to an Atlanta-area hospital. The segment was very informative, but it left out one key detail: Klein failed to disclose his own ties to Vox and the obvious conflict of interest that presents. Not only that, but Klein never even mentioned once his full-time job during the entire show.

At the conclusion of the previous segment, Klein provided this look ahead to the segment after the break by saying that: "Coming up, new reports that Ebola is coming to the U.S., so what will it mean to treat American patients with Ebola in the states? I will talk with Vox science reporter Susannah Locke next." [MP3 audio here; Video below]

MSNBC's Race-Obsessed Journalists Strike Again
By Laura Flint | August 1, 2014 | 9:55 AM EDT

Although Alex Wagner has donned new glasses for her news show Now, the liberal journalist seems unable to look beyond MSNBC’s favorite response to any Republican: bringing up race. On the July 31 edition, Wagner played a clip of Ari Melber’s July 30 interview with Senators Rand Paul and Cory Booker on their new drug law reform initiative the REDEEM Act – the Record Expungement Designed to ENhance Employment Act –  and then asked the co-host of The Cycle why Paul and Booker were so “reticent to take up” the issue of “racial disparities inherent in our criminal justice system” and “plumb further depths of it.”

Even though the Senators were pushing a bipartisan bill on the traditionally liberal cause of criminal justice reform, Melber and Wagner were unable to resist weaseling race into the discussion, seemingly unhappy that both politicians were unwilling to play the race game. [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]

Katrina Vanden Heuvel Bashes Ukrainian President; Says ‘Demonization of Putin’ By U.S. ‘is Not a Policy’
By Curtis Houck | July 18, 2014 | 7:00 PM EDT

On Friday’s Now With Alex Wagner, the editor of the far-left magazine The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel, declared to viewers that they keep in mind that the President of Ukraine has waged war “against his own people in southeastern Ukraine” and even though Russian President Vladimir Putin “is an authoritarian leader,” demonizing him “is not a policy” that the United States should continue.

Vanden Heuvel’s ridiculous comments came during a discussion with Wagner and Politico Magazine editor Susan Glasser about Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine Thursday, apparently by Russian-backed separatists in the region. [MP3 audio here; Video below]

MSNBC’s Wagner Smears: GOP Thinks Black Votes In Mississippi ‘Aren’t Legitimate’
By Connor Williams | July 9, 2014 | 10:59 AM EDT

Leave it to MSNBC to twist the rhetoric of the Tea Party following Thad Cochran’s upset of Chris McDaniel in the June 24 Mississippi runoff. On Tuesday's Now, host Alex Wagner and David Corn of Mother Jones both strongly suggested that racism is the reason why the Tea Party objected to thousands of Democrats pushing Cochran to victory.

Wagner sneered, “This is particularly pointed for the Republican Party, not just because it's Republican versus Republican but the votes they are questioning are predominantly black votes.” She then took things up a notch, claiming that the Tea Party views black voters as illegitimate: [MP3 audio here; video below]

MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Wonders ‘Are North Carolina’s Voter ID Laws The New Jim Crow?’
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 7, 2014 | 6:07 PM EDT

It seems as though MSNBC is back on its anti-voter ID drumbeat as a legal challenge to North Carolina’s new voting laws goes before a judge this week. 

On Monday, July 7, MSNBC host Alex Wagner expressed her outrage over the new law on her Now w/ Alex Wagner program. The MSNBC host played up how some liberal opponents consider North Carolina’s voter id laws to be “the new Jim Crow.” [See video below.]

MSNBC's Alex Wagner: Protesting Illegal Immigrants Makes A 'Shameful Moment To Be An American'
By Tim Graham | July 5, 2014 | 10:44 PM EDT

The blog Soopermexican reported that on Wednesday, MSNBC host Alex Wagner “found it to be a shameful moment to be an American” when protesters in California demanded that illegal immigrants go back to their home country. It was rude to “people who are seeking a new day here in America.”

Her guest was Janet Murguia of the National Council of LaRaza, who attacked the "extremist" protesters and became unintentionally hilarious when she insisted that “we have to honor a process” to help the illegal aliens. Since when have they ever “honored a process” and tried immigrating legally? (Video below):