In a fawning puff piece on Texas gubernatorial candidate Wemdy Davis on NBC's January 15 Today, correspondent Maria Shriver celebrated the liberal abortion heroine as an "overnight sensation" whose "personal story" has "resonated across this country." The only problem with the gushing profile that followed was that key facts and details of Davis's life were either left out or just untrue.
In an article for The Dallas Morning News, senior political writer Wayne Slater, hardly a conservative, pointed out several glaring inaccuracies in the account put forward by Davis in Shiver's report.
Wendy Davis
By Kyle Drennen | January 21, 2014 | 9:32 AM EST
Wendy Davis Pretends Abbott Is Behind Story of Her Inaccurate Bio; AP Omits Dallas Reporter's Emphatic Denial
By Tom Blumer | January 20, 2014 | 10:41 PM EST Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, who is considered a hero of the pro-abortion crowd yet declared herself "pro-life" in November as her people attempted to bully the local media into twisting stories her way, is blaming her opponent for a Sunday Dallas Morning News story which pointed to significant discrepancies between her campaign biography and the truth.
It's pretty bad when I have to say that the Politico's Katie Glueck did a far better job with this story than Will Weissert at the Associated Press, but that's the case. Glueck at least challenged Davis's contention of an Abbott connection – getting a mushy, meaningless answer – and carried the unconditional denial of any contact from the Abbott campaign by DMN reporter Wayne Slater. Weissert delivered neither. Both missed something important Steve Ertelt at Life News noticed in a series of pathetic Davis tweets.
By Ken Shepherd | January 20, 2014 | 6:00 PM EST
When a politician -- male or female, liberal or conservative -- writes a memoir*, anything therein is fair game for the news media and his or her opponents, particularly when claims made therein are false or misleading. But to the gang at MSNBC, Republican criticism of the network's anointed golden girl Wendy Davis is beyond the pale.
"Right attacks Wendy Davis," screams the top msnbc.com headline this afternoon. Clicking that teaser headline takes the reader to Zachary Roth's "Right pounces on news that Wendy Davis embellished life story." Roth went on to practically script a melodrama where Davis is the damsel in distress tied to the railroad tracks by those dastardly, vile Texas Republicans (emphasis mine):
By Kyle Drennen | January 15, 2014 | 11:25 AM EST
In a glowing profile of Texas state senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis that amounted to a campaign commercial on Wednesday's NBC Today, correspondent Maria Shriver proclaimed: "Wendy Davis became a familiar name last year when she stood in her pink tennis shoes for eleven hours to defeat a Texas abortion bill. Even though the bill eventually passed, Davis became a star. And her story, her personal story, resonated across this country." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Following footage of cheering Davis supports, Shriver lobbed this ridiculous softball to the Texas abortion heroine: "Everybody says Wendy Davis is an overnight sensation. Does it irritate you that people call you an overnight sensation?" Davis replied: "I'm not an overnight sensation. I'm a Texan. And I'm a Texas success story. I am the epitome of hard work and optimism."
By Tim Graham | January 6, 2014 | 10:01 PM EST
Former Time reporter Nina Burleigh – the infamous feminist journalist who once announced "I'd be happy to give [Bill Clinton oral sex] just to thank him for keeping abortion legal" -- has a new article at The New York Observer on “The Year In Sexism.”
Even the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell in May was used audaciously as a feminist moment to correct those who “demonize abortion generally.” She insisted while late-term abortions were violent and gruesome, so is childbirth:
By Tim Graham | December 29, 2013 | 10:28 PM EST
It’s only natural that both liberal state Sen. Wendy Davis and conservative U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz would be nominees for “Texan of the Year” at the Dallas Morning News. (In the end, they chose the rescuers at the West, Texas fertilizer-plant explosion, which killed 12 first responders.) But the two editorials on Davis (on December 26) and Cruz (on December 27) show how liberal editorialists can struggle with being honest with the facts.
Both went to Harvard Law School – Davis graduating in 1993, Cruz in 1995. Both gained prominence this year with failed legislative maneuvers. Both draw great excitement from their party’s base voters. Let’s see how the Dallas pundits played with the facts:
National Press Ignores Wendy Davis's Claim to Be 'Pro-Life,' 'Amateurish' Campaign, Attempt to Bully Local Media
By Tom Blumer | November 9, 2013 | 10:58 AM EST Recently declared Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis had a really, really bad opening round of campaign appearances. Naturally, the national press, which swooned over the Fort Worth Democrat's ultimately failed filibuster against a common-sense pro-life law in the Lone Star State's legislature, pretended not to notice.
They had local help. On Wednesday, At The Monitor in McAllen, Texas, in an item mirrored at the Brownsville Herald, "reporter" Ty Johnson opened with six paragraphs of fanboy fawning about Davis's Tuesday campaign appearance in Brownville, and then buried Davis's galling attempt to portray herself as "pro-life" in Paragraph 23. Also, stay tuned until the final segment of this post for how a Davis press aide tried to bully a local paper into retracting a headline.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 31, 2013 | 12:17 PM EDT
Ever since Texas State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) engaged in an 13-hour filibuster to protest new abortion safety measures, the folks at MSNBC have taken it upon themselves to act as her unofficial campaign for governor. Apart from the numerous on-air segments pushing Ms. Davis’ candidacy, the new MSNBC.com website has followed suit in a new puff piece entitled “How Wendy Davis can win.”
Author Zachary Roth penned a 23-paragraph article which serves more as a memo for Democratic strategists than an actual informative piece of journalism. Peppered with quotes from Democratic strategists, the MSNBC national reporter argues that Davis has a chance to instead put together a cross-racial coalition that brings together minorities and liberal or moderate whites—especially women.”
By Mark Finkelstein | October 31, 2013 | 8:05 AM EDT
When a network's ad—putatively for its own website—extensively features a candidate for office in a high-profile race, at what point does the ad constitute a contribution in kind to that politician's campaign?
The question arises in light of MSNBC's ad for its new website that aired on today's Morning Joe. In the space of 30 seconds, the ad twice featured shots of Wendy Davis, the Dem candidate for Texas governor whose filibuster of a Texas law imposing restrictions on abortion made her an overnight liberal darling. For good measure, the ad also displayed jubiliant crowd reaction to Davis's filibuster. View the video after the jump.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 29, 2013 | 1:07 PM EDT
The liberal claim that Republicans are engaging in a perpetual “war on women” seems to have taken a new turn on MSNBC. No longer does the term “war on women” apply only to access to abortion but now encompasses voting rights as well.
Appearing on MSNBC on October 29, liberal MSNBC host Thomas Roberts claimed that Republicans are trying to restrict a woman’s access to the ballot box. This comes one week after fill-in host Michael Eric Dyson made a similar complaint on The Ed Show. [See video after jump.]
By Ken Shepherd | October 23, 2013 | 11:15 AM EDT
Wrapping up the Tuesday, October 22 edition of The Ed Show, fill-in host Michael Eric Dyson chose to "Punch Out" of the program by giving a platform for his guest, Ohio Democrat Nina Turner, to argue that the photo ID voting law in Texas is some devious, sexist plot to thwart the 2014 gubernatorial candidacy of State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth).
At no point did Dyson seriously question Ohio Democrat Nina Turner's absurd accusations. Indeed, the Georgetown professor wholeheartedly endorsed them, proposing that conservative Republicans like Gov. Rick Perry only want "white men of means" to cast a ballot [WATCH the video embedded below the page break; LISTEN to MP3 audio excerpt here].:
By Matthew Balan | October 8, 2013 | 3:56 PM EDT
On Friday's Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, Dan Rather poured cold water on Wendy Davis' chances of winning the Texas gubernatorial race, but maintained a glimmer of hope: "I'm not predicting she'll win. If you have to bet the trailer money, you bet she loses. But overnight's a long time in politics – a week is forever – and we're talking about an election that doesn't happen [until] a year from now. So, let her rip."
Rather and Rachel Maddow also hyped the supposed extent of Davis' likely Republican opponent, Greg Abbott. After the MSNBC host labeled Abbott a "hardcore conservative," the former CBS anchor replied that the Texas Republican is "so far to the right...that he makes Rick Perry look like a liberal and Ted Cruz look like a moderate." [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]