Margaret Thatcher

CNN Quotes Meryl Streep, Gerry Adams as Legitimate Critics of Margaret Thatcher
By Matt Hadro | April 8, 2013 | 3:48 PM EDT

In discussing the late Margaret Thatcher's legacy, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield gave a platform to liberal Hollywood actress Meryl Streep and former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who had ties to the IRA during Thatcher's time as British prime minister.

Adams predictably savaged Thatcher for causing "great hurt" to Ireland and England. Meanwhile, because Streep portrayed Thatcher in the film "The Iron Lady," CNN sought her out as an expert on Thatcher's legacy, and Streep rapped her economic policies: "Her hard-nosed fiscal measures took a toll on the poor, and her hands-off approach to financial regulation led to great wealth for others."

MSNBC's Richard Wolffe: Margaret Thatcher's Actions Were the 'Antithesis of Freedom'
By Scott Whitlock | April 8, 2013 | 3:45 PM EDT

MSNBC continued the bashing of Margaret Thatcher on Monday. Richard Wolffe, a British journalist and editor of the network's website, smeared the late prime minister as "the antithesis of freedom" when it came to how she dealt with her domestic enemies. The liberal reporter sneered that the Conservative politician "hurt working families and working people." Now host Alex Wagner even went so far as to quote arch-socialist Ken Livingstone while attacking Thatcher.

Speaking of the woman who was instrumental in bringing about the end of the totalitarian threat of Soviet Communism, Wolffe, a former correspondent for Newsweek, excoriated, "She had an attitude to her domestic enemies that frankly was the antithesis of freedom." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] The journalist summarized Thatcher as "someone who was a pioneer for women, who actually also hurt working families and working people and that includes teachers and women across the board."

CBS on 'Plunder-Woman' Margaret Thatcher: 'Contentious'; 'Reviled and Revered'; 'Bullying Style'
By Matthew Balan | April 8, 2013 | 1:22 PM EDT

Monday's CBS This Morning played up the domestic critics of Margaret Thatcher as they covered the breaking news of her death. Mark Phillips, reporting from London, spotlighted how Thatcher was once called "Plunder-woman" by a British union leader, and how she was "contentious here, famous for breaking the back of the very strong labor movement in Britain." Phillips also noted how the former prime minister was "a figure both reviled and revered."

During a retrospective on the "Iron Lady", correspondent Elizabeth Palmer ballyhooed how Thatcher's "trademark helmet hair, cut-glass accent, and bullying style became a staple of British satire".

NBC Uses Margaret Thatcher as 'Perfect Segue' to Promote Hillary Clinton in 2016
By Kyle Drennen | April 8, 2013 | 1:02 PM EDT

Appearing on Monday's Today, Abby Huntsman, daughter of former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, offered kind words eulogizing Margaret Thatcher: "What we know about Margaret Thatcher is she's a woman with so much courage...She really sticks to her convictions, and that's rare today. I think she really paved the way for women in politics....her legacy will be remembered forever." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

News reader Natalie Morales seized on Huntsman's comments as the "perfect segue" to a panel discussion about the political aspirations of Hillary Clinton. Co-host Willie Geist declared: "Absolutely, our Take Three, talking about the woman who could be the leader of this country, about 35 years or more than after the fact in Great Britain, Chelsea Clinton speaking out this morning on speculation that her mother will once again run for president."

After Learning of Her Death, MSNBC's Bashir Trashes Thatcher: 'Divisive, Selfish' Instigated 'Race Riots'
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 8, 2013 | 11:25 AM EDT

Leave it to MSNBC to bring its perhaps most vile ultra-liberal daytime host to make the first comments following the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Speaking with host Chuck Todd and the BBC’s Katty Kay, Bashir sharply smeared the legacy of the Iron Lady, calling her tenure very divisive and one that promoted selfishness. 

The segment began with Bashir -- who has no qualms about calling living conservatives Stalinesque -- giving liberal talking points as to why he disliked the career of Thatcher:

NBC Remembers Margaret Thatcher as 'Loved and Loathed,' 'Deeply Controversial'
By Kyle Drennen | April 8, 2013 | 11:12 AM EDT

As news broke of the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Monday morning, Today co-host Matt Lauer turned to correspondent Michelle Kosinski in London, who proclaimed Thatcher was "Known as the Iron Lady and for her conservative politics, she was also quite controversial during that time for reducing the power of the trade unions." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In a full report that followed, correspondent Martin Fletcher used similar language to describe the tenure of the British leader: "She was known as an iron lady, both loved and loathed....Consensus and compromise, they said, were not in her vocabulary. She'd won a bloody war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, took on Britain's powerful labor unions. She ignored IRA hunger strikes....Determined, dynamic, and deeply controversial, Thatcher leaves an indelible mark on the world's political landscape."

ABC: 'Controversial' Thatcher, a 'Titan' Who Was 'Both Adored and Vilified'
By Scott Whitlock | April 8, 2013 | 10:56 AM EDT

ABC's Good Morning America on Monday broke into live coverage to report that the "controversial" "titan" Margaret Thatcher had died. The morning show's reporters highlighted both her conservative beliefs, for which she was "vilified," and compared her to Winston Churchill.

Guest co-host Elizabeth Vargas announced that the late Prime Minister's "belief in herself and her policies" led to her being "both adored and vilified even to this day in Great Britain. A very controversial, but very, very important figure, undoubtedly."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Later in the show, George Stephanopoulos returned to announce: "A titan has fallen."

Flashback: Media Liberals Vilified Thatcher as 'Uncaring,' 'Shrill,' 'Ruthless' and a 'Dictator'
By Rich Noyes | April 8, 2013 | 9:43 AM EDT

As the world pauses to remember the legendary British Prime Minister Margeret Thatcher, it's also worth remembering how the liberal media -- both in Britain and in the United States -- were horrified at her conservative policies. Just as they do now, liberal journalists sneeringly portray any resistance to left-wing big government as "uncaring" or lacking compassion."

Of course, in spite of the media's condemnations, Thatcher persevered and successfully pushed back against some of the worst socialist policies Britain enacted in the 1950s through the 1970s.

The Media Research Center was founded in 1987, too late to pick up the nasty media insults hurled during Thatcher's first two terms, but these quotes from our archives give a flavor to how the media regarded her in the late 1980s and 1990s, using words like "shrill," "inflexible," "unsympathetic," and running "an elective dictatorship." Examples below the jump:

In Memoriam: Margaret Thatcher
By Matthew Sheffield | April 8, 2013 | 9:25 AM EDT

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has died according to reports from several news sources. 

"It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning," former adviser Timothy Bell told the press.

Thatcher, the first and only woman to serve as prime minister, held the office for longer than anyone else in the 20th century. She was a key ally of U.S. president Ronald Reagan in his battle against the Soviet Union and a believer in the power of free markets to lift people out of poverty and to drive economic progress.

FX’s ‘The Americans’ Imagines Moment When Soviets Learned of Reagan’s Plan to Deploy SDI
By Brent Baker | February 13, 2013 | 7:57 PM EST

Last week’s second episode of The Americans (the third episode will run tonight, February 13, on FX), dramatically ended with a scene showing the horror realized by KGB operatives at the Soviet embassy in Washington, DC when they learn President Ronald Reagan intends to build “a ballistic missile shield” – aka the Strategic Defense Initiative. (video below)

The Americans is centered around husband and wife KGB sleeper agents (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as “Philip and Elizabeth Jennings”) who live with their kids as ordinary Americans in suburban Washington, DC when Ronald Reagan becomes President.

Martin Bashir Bashes Mitt Romney By Comparing Him to...Margaret Thatcher?
By Noel Sheppard | June 21, 2012 | 4:48 PM EDT

Along with Winston Churchill, one of America's most beloved British prime ministers is Margaret Thatcher.

That's why it seemed almost impossible to believe that on Thursday, MSNBC's Martin Bashir concluded his program by bashing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with an inexplicably derogatory comparison to the famed Iron Lady (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Cal Thomas Column: Lady Thatcher Was Prophetic on the Folly of the Euro
By Cal Thomas | June 12, 2012 | 3:06 PM EDT

LONDON -- One of many things left out of the film "The Iron Lady" was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's warnings on the effects a single currency would have on the economies of European nations. Thatcher's premonitions place her among the great political prophets of all time.

On the single currency, Peter Oborne, a columnist for the London Daily Telegraph, writes, "Mrs. Thatcher foresaw with painful clarity the devastation it was bound to cause. Her autobiography records how she warned John Major, her euro-friendly chancellor of the exchequer, that the single currency could not accommodate both industrial powerhouses such as Germany and smaller countries such as Greece." Thatcher predicted the currency would harm poorer countries because it would "devastate their inefficient economies."