Jonathan Karl interviewed RNC chairman Reince Priebus last week for the ABC News online series Politics Confidential, and the veteran reporter tried his very best to create a juicy headline for his video and accompanying article. It took a little stretching and some selective editing, but Karl managed to do it.
The headline for the entry, posted to ABC News’ Power Players blog, reads “Priebus: GOP Hurt by Dumb Comments; Needs to Work Harder to be Competitive in 2016.” The second paragraph of the article contained this Priebus quote regarding recent comments made by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Gov. Phil Bryant (R-Miss.): “I don’t think any party has a monopoly on dumb things that are said, so I’m not going to sit here and defend those comments.” But here’s the interesting thing: that quote did not appear in the video accompanying the article. All of the other quotes in the article also showed up in the video. If Priebus spoke that line, why did Karl not show him saying it? [Read the article and watch the video here.]
Reince Priebus
Chris Matthews on Thursday made it crystal clear that he sees his role at MSNBC is to present only one side of any issue.
Clearly oblivious to how he was letting the cat out of the bag for all to see, the Hardball host trashed his own network's Morning Joe for being "open to all people's points of view" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
On Thursday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow mocked Republican party chairman Reince Priebus for listing as a lesson from 2012 "controlling the debate process, getting involved in moderators and networks and all of these other issues so that we don`t have chaos."
Maddow found it odd that the GOP chair would (very sensibly) say "we just can`t have MSNBC, you know, hosting a debate at the Reagan Library only to have their network comment -- you know, make the commentary afterwards for three hours about the debate of the Republican Party. I mean, it’s ridiculous."
On Tuesday, Piers Morgan lashed out at "intransigent" Republicans and lectured RNC chair Reince Priebus that now is the time to compromise and increase taxes "to the benefit of the American national interest."
"But you Republicans led by Grover Norquist are absolutely intransigent about allowing any raise in taxation, and yet the American public want you to do it," Morgan lectured Priebus. Later on in his show, he smacked "implacable" GOP opposition to tax increases.
After a lengthy spar with CNN's Soledad O'Brien over an alleged Mitt Romney flip-flop, RNC chief Reince Priebus called her out for her double standard on Thursday's Starting Point.
"Soledad, I wish you would be as passionate about taking Barack Obama to task for every one of his promises and for every one of his changes that he didn't follow through on over the last four years, as opposed to this," Priebus lectured her.
Conservative blog readers are aware of the Chris Matthews/Reince Priebus contretemps on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, where Matthews shouted down Priebus with accusations of GOPers playing the “race card” (among other things).
An abbreviated video clip is below (the full segment was so awful that you could sense the other guests cringing). Someone has to do it, so I’ll start:
Chris Matthews's unhinged, fuming performance on Monday's Morning Joe is a good reason why members of the GOP avoid MSNBC. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus aggressively battled the liberal cable anchor after the host unloaded on Mitt Romney for playing the "race card." [Must see video below the jump. MP3 audio here.]
Asserting that just mentioning welfare is racist, Matthews spewed, "When you start talking about work requirements, you know what game you're playing and everybody knows what game you're playing. It's a race card. " Priebus fired back at the Hardball host, dismissing, "We've gotten to a place in politics that any moment of levity is totally frowned upon by guys like you just so that you can push your brand."
For years I have heard abortion enthusiasts contort themselves in knots to avoid saying "baby" when talking about abortion.
Leave it to MSNBC's plucky Rachel Maddow to go where few liberals dare -- acknowledging, albeit indirectly, that abortion involves killing human life at its most vulnerable. (video after page break)
In an interview with Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie slammed Paul Ryan's proposed budget: "And the Ryan budget makes some very hard decisions and has some huge spending cuts....But how can you justify in the Ryan budget defense spending that stays flat and then giving a massive tax cut, which predominantly benefits the wealthy?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
In reality, Ryan's budget does not include "huge spending cuts," but simply slows the rate of growth of government spending. That was a "nuance" that NBC political director Chuck Todd made sure to point out on Monday as he attempted to diffuse Republican attacks on the President for taking Medicare funds to pay for ObamaCare.
At the same time that NPR was offended enough to go “truth squadding” on Romney’s advertisements attacking Obama's weakness on welfare, NPR’s Don Gonyea reported on Harry Reid’s unsubstantiated charges of Romney tax evasion by leaving the clear impression that Reid is effectively punching away at a Romney “vulnerability” and sees nothing to lose. He certainly can’t seem to lose with NPR.
On Wednesday's All Things Considered, NPR anchor Melissa Block introduced the story as “Don Gonyea reports on the increasingly ugly fight,” but that was applied to both Reid and the Republicans. But their online headline was “In Brawl Over Romney's Tax Returns, Harry Reid Gets Marquee Billing.” Like a boxer, get it?
Tuesday was just another day for “The Five,” the boisterous discussion panel program on the Fox News Channel, until liberal pundit Bob Beckel sank to a new low by referring to the Republican National Chairman's name -- Reince Preibus -- with a vulgar word for a particular part of a woman's body.
The incident occurred when “Five” co-host Eric Bolling referred to an upcoming e-book entitled “Obama’s Last Stand” that's being produced by the Politico.com website and indicates President Obama intensely dislikes former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
On Sunday's World News, ABC's senior Washington editor, Rick Klein, found it to be a "wildly unsubstantiated" and "irresponsible" claim for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to accuse Mitt Romney of not paying taxes for 10 years. He also asserted that Republicans are "taking the bait" by responding, suggesting that there is a "big risk" for the GOP in doing so.