John Boehner

NY Times Correction Completely Undercuts Premise of Item on U.S.-Netanyahu Spat
By Tom Blumer | January 31, 2015 | 9:23 PM EST

Over at American Thinker, Thomas Lifson caught a damning admission the New York Times made in a correction to a Thursday piece by Carl Hulse and Jeremy W. Peters. The correction blew apart their write-up's entire premise, namely that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to make amends with congressional Democrats and having to explain why "the White House had been circumvented before he was invited to speak before Congress."

Trouble is, the White House hadn't been circumvented at all, as the correction clearly indicated (bold is mine):

Lamenting Boehner's Netanyahu Invite, MSNBC's Chris Matthews Slams 'Likud-Republican Party'
By Ken Shepherd | January 29, 2015 | 8:43 PM EST

For a guy who is forever hearing "dog whistles" and racially-tinged "code words" in conservative political rhetoric, Hardball host Chris Matthews seems blissfully unaware of the arguably anti-Semitic prattle he spewed tonight in his criticism of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the U.S. Congress on March 3.

 

Campbell Brown Jabs Boehner and McConnell for ‘Whining’ About Obama in 60 Minutes Interview
By Curtis Houck | January 28, 2015 | 6:10 PM EST

Filling in for John Heilemann on the Monday edition of Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect, Campbell Brown took a shot at House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for “whining about President Obama” in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Following a clip from the interview, Brown first credited Boehner for “holding a very diverse, you know, House together,” but she then quickly reversed course and made this swipe at Boehner and McConnell: “[I]n terms of being messengers for the party right now, it sounds a lot like whining.”

Networks Ignore Obama’s Decision to Back Down from Plan to Tax 529 College Savings Accounts
By Curtis Houck | January 27, 2015 | 9:19 PM EST

In a reversal of a key proposal from his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama moved on Tuesday to drop the plan to tax 529 college-savings accounts after outcry from members of both parties and a direct appeal on Air Force One from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

When it came to the networks covering this backtracking by the President on this deeply unpopular idea that even ultra liberals like Pelosi and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) opposed, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC made no mention of it during their Tuesday evening newscasts.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews Whines of Boehner's 'Sabotage' with Netanyahu Invite
By Ken Shepherd | January 22, 2015 | 9:31 PM EST

In a segment on his January 22 Hardball program, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews made perfectly clear his disdain for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for House Speaker John Boehner for inviting him to address a joint session of Congress on March 3.

NBC’s Chris Jansing Gushes Over ‘an Energized, Combative President’; Scolds Boehner for Inviting Netanyahu
By Curtis Houck | January 22, 2015 | 7:28 AM EST

NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing did her best to provide some White House spin during Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, hailing President Obama as “an energized, combative President” whose policies made for a “carefully choreographed, populist message with the details generally panned by Republicans.”

Also within her report, Jansing found time to chide House Speaker John Boehner for “an unprecedented breach in protocol” in inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without White House consultation.

Mark Levin Slams National Journal Over Coverage of Boehner's Netanyahu Invite
By Ken Shepherd | January 22, 2015 | 12:05 AM EST

"[N]ow that [House Speaker John] Boehner has invited [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to speak before Congress... the White House is telling its media surrogates to attack," conservative radio host Mark Levin noted on his January 21 radio program. "Forget about Boehner, attack Israel and Netanyahu, they have violated diplomatic protocol!"

Speaker Boehner's State of Union Guest Is an Ex-Political Prisoner From Cuba; Will Media Ignore?
By Ken Shepherd | January 20, 2015 | 6:25 PM EST

The State of the Union address this year falls one day after the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. So it's quite fitting that Speaker John Boehner have as his honored guest a black human-rights activist.

But alas, said human-rights activist is also a Cuban dissident, a former political prisoner of the Castro regime and a critic of President Obama's push to normalize relations with Cuba without any concomitant political and economic reforms on the island to empower the impoverished, oppressed people there.

Fox's Kurtz: Boston Globe's Boehner Blunder Offers 'a Window' Into an Ugly 'Media Mindset'
By Tom Blumer | January 18, 2015 | 12:23 AM EST

Howard Kurtz, the Fox News analyst and the host of its "Media Buzz" program, made a few pertinent observations in a column about Victor Paul Alvarez's astonishingly crass attempt at humor at Boston.com earlier this week. That said, Kurtz should have criticized the web site and its parent, the Boston Globe, for its completely unsatisfactory explanation for the one "correction" it made to Alvarez's piece.

Alvarez somehow thought it was a great idea to make light of a potential assassin's plan to kill House Speaker John Boehner by poisoning a drink, using that news as a jumping-off point to get into the GOP leader's alleged drinking habits. As Jack Coleman at NewsBusters noted on Friday, Boston.com fired Alvarez shortly after his horrid piece appeared. Video and excerpts from Kurtz's column follow the jump.

Networks Fret Conservatives Posed ‘a Thorny Obstacle’ to Boehner; Will Force Him to be ‘More Confrontational’
By Curtis Houck | January 6, 2015 | 10:29 PM EST

On Tuesday night, each of the major broadcast networks devoted time to covering the swearing in of the 114th Congress and the race for House Speaker that saw John Boehner retain his post, but not without 25 conservatives voting in dissent against the incumbent Republican.

Overall, the networks lamented how the group presented “a thorny obstacle to Boehner's leadership” and, in turn, will force him to be “more confrontational with President Obama” instead of "working with the President on some issues, including tax reform and trade."

NBC, ABC Tout Democrats' 'Anger' at Budget Bill; Omit GOP Complaints
By Matthew Balan | December 10, 2014 | 8:28 PM EST

The Wednesday editions of NBC Nightly News and ABC's World News Tonight both spotlighted many Democratic lawmakers' objections to portions of a proposed budget compromise in Congress. However, the two evening newscasts couldn't be bothered to mention that many congressional Republicans and their conservative allies also object to parts of the bill, especially on immigration and on social issues.

CBS, NBC: ‘Campaign-Style Fervor’ for ‘Combative’ President ‘Chastising’ GOP on Immigration
By Curtis Houck | November 22, 2014 | 12:29 AM EST

The evening following President Barack Obama’s announcement of his executive action on illegal immigration, major broadcast networks CBS and NBC sought to carry water for the President on Friday night as he made a trip to a Las Vegas high school to promote his move that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.

Between two reports total from the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, the President’s speech was hailed as having “campaign-style fervor” that featured “[a] combative President Obama, chastising congressional Republicans for inaction” on immigration.