NPR again defined the abuse of its taxpayer subsidy to promote the Obama administration on Thursday’s Morning Edition. Online, they began their report on Attorney General Eric Holder this way: “The nation's top law enforcement officer traveled to Ferguson, Mo., on Wednesday to wrap his arms around a community in pain.”
On air, reporter Carrie Johnson began: “From the moment he walked into a soul food restaurant in Ferguson, the attorney general found friends.” There was absolutely zero difference between the way a Holder press aide would have promoted Holder’s visit and the NPR version. It was all super-cozy:
Eric Holder
By Tim Graham | August 22, 2014 | 8:06 AM EDT
By Kyle Drennen | August 21, 2014 | 3:20 PM EDT
Between Wednesday's evening newscasts and Thursday's morning shows, NBC, CBS, and ABC all praised Attorney General Eric Holder's visit to Ferguson, Missouri. On Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Ron Allen proclaimed: "Those demanding justice for Michael Brown are relieved that Eric Holder is here because they simply don't trust the local authorities." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
On Thursday's CBS This Morning, correspondent Vladimir Duthiers similarly announced: "The visit by Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson was really an effort by the White House to try to bring back confidence to a community that's just been torn apart by the shooting of the 18-year-old Michael Brown....Now, many here are seeing Holder's presence as a step towards transparency."
By Curtis Houck | August 21, 2014 | 12:25 AM EDT
On Wednesday night, the major broadcast networks ignored the latest news from the Fast and Furious scandal as a federal judge ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) must turn over a list of documents regarding the botched gun-running scheme that was formally called Operation Fast and Furious.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in court hearing Wednesday that the DOJ will have until October 1 to produce what is known as a privilege log to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. According to an article posted on The Blaze:
NYT's Front Page Gushes on Eric Holder, 'Leaning Forward' on Race in Ferguson Case; Hits Too-Cool Obama From Left
By Clay Waters | August 20, 2014 | 10:01 PM EDT More pampering of Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder on the front page of the New York Times: Wednesday's edition featured "Shared Vision, Varying Styles," yet another defense of Holder (and criticism of Obama from the left) in a "news analysis" in the paper's off-lead slot by White House reporter Peter Baker, with Matt Apuzzo.
Strangely for a story on racial matters under Obama, the story made no mention of Obama's infamous judgment that Boston police had "acted stupidly" after a racially fraught incident in July 2009 involving the arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. Also nothing about Holder playing the race card by blaming opposition to the administration's policies on "racial animus."
By Mark Finkelstein | August 19, 2014 | 9:10 AM EDT
Like what? Seriously, Mika Brzezinski, when you claim as you did on today's Morning Joe that Barack Obama has done "great things" on race, precisely what do you have in mind? H/t NB reader Ray R.
Was it choosing to make the racist Reverend Wright his personal pastor? Appointing Eric Holder as Attorney General? Accusing the Cambridge police of acting "stupidly" in the arrest of a black man? Complaining about Americans who dislike him because they don't like the idea of a black president? Inviting Al Sharpton to the White House? Really, Mika, we want to know. View the video after the jump.
By Tim Graham | August 18, 2014 | 10:03 AM EDT
Not every reporter in Obama's Washington likes to be seen as a soft touch. Take James Risen of The New York Times, the subject of a leak probe over his CIA reporting in a 2006 book. In a positive column by his Times colleague Maureen Dowd, she touted how at a pickup basketball game, "Risen got in a fight with a lobbyist about the rules for being out of bounds."
Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent, added to the aura: “Whether it’s editors or government officials, Jim definitely won’t take no for an answer, but he will certainly give it.” So naturally he’s going to talk tough about Obama, now trying to intimidate him into revealing his sources.
By Tom Blumer | August 10, 2014 | 10:52 PM EDT
To read the Associated Press's Friday evening coverage of a federal judge's refusal to block North Carolina's election law reforms from taking effect in the upcoming general election, you'd think it was an unsuccessful effort on the part of a group of poor Davids to defeat the Tar Heel State's government Goliath.
As J. Christian Adams at PJ Media noted shortly after the decision, it was nothing of the sort. Attorney General Eric Holder's Department of Justice weighed in heavily, and is in fact listed as the plaintiff in one of the three cases Federal District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder decided. Additionally, a prominent national law firm took the case on a pro bono basis for the allegedly aggrieved groups. I'll first look at a bit of what AP's Michael Biesecker and Gary D. Robertson wrote, and follow it with Adams's reality-based rendition.
Blackout: ‘Big Three’ Ignore AG Holder’s Claim That ‘Racial Animus’ Behind Dislike of Obama’s Policies
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 15, 2014 | 9:50 PM EDT Attorney General Eric Holder spoke with ABC’s Pierre Thomas over the weekend and made highly controversial comments in which he claimed that the lack of support for President Obama’s policies was a result of “racial animus.”
Despite the highly charged nature of Holder’s statement, none of the “big three” networks have yet to pick up on the story. During the interview, Holder insisted that "there's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that's directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder said. “You know, people talking about taking their country back. … There's a certain racial component to this for some people.”
By Jack Coleman | July 15, 2014 | 9:49 PM EDT
Funny how it wasn't considered racist when liberals were demanding to "take back our country" during the Bush 43's stint in the White House.
A single presidency later, the term is unabashed dog-whistle racism, at least according to those who were so inclined to spout it in the past. As ever, it's only racist when conservatives say it. Liberals, as shown by their ardent devotion to the incumbent, cannot possibly be racist. It's simply unthinkable, if only to them. (Audio clips after the jump)
By Scott Whitlock | July 15, 2014 | 4:27 PM EDT
Fox News's Megyn Kelly on Monday slammed the softball questions offered to Attorney General Eric Holder during an interview on ABC, Sunday. The host hammered questioner Pierre Thomas for not bringing up the ever-growing IRS scandal, the administration's losses in the Spureme Court and other contentious issues. Instead, the journalist mostly failed to press Holder, allowing him to lash out at conservative racism.
On Fox, Kelly highlighted missed topics: "Where the investigation stands into the IRS’ targeting of conservatives...Why the attorney general hasn’t appointed a special counsel. Why former IRS official Lois Lerner has not been charged." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Kelly continued, "The attorney general is not asked to make the administration’s case for expanding executive authority."
By Laura Flint | July 15, 2014 | 11:55 AM EDT
Rather than spending his two weeks off developing new ways to insult conservatives, Stephen Colbert returned from vacation brandishing a tired favorite: racism. According to the Comedy Central host, “conservatives, like myself, have supported a unitary executive and the use of executive orders in the past” however, there is something “shady” about Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.
Just in case the host wasn’t making it clear enough, he played a clip of Attorney General Holder describing the “certain level of vehemence” and “racial animus” directed at him and the president. [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]
By Tom Blumer | June 3, 2014 | 1:27 AM EDT
A month ago, I noted that the establishment press has ignored an especially pernicious program undertaken by Eric Holder's Department of Justice and the Obama administration's regulatory apparatus, namely Operation Choke Point.
On Thursday, a strong 321-87 bipartisan majority of the House passed H.R. 4660, the "Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (of) 2015." Among its provisions: "Sec. 554. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to carry out Operation Choke Point." The final bill's supporters included 204 Republicans and 117 Democrats. The establishment press has ignored the vote. Excerpts from Kelly Riddell's Friday coverage at the Washington Times follows the jump (bolds are mine throughout this post):