Gaffes

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By Mike Sargent | December 9, 2009 | 3:41 PM EST

“Morning Joe” was a little tense this morning.

Fresh off Donny Deutsch’s defense of Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) slavery analogy, Mike Barnicle asked GOP Chairman Michael Steele about what proposals the GOP favored for health-care reform. Along the way, however, he used an unfortunate choice of words:

MIKE BARNICLE: [...] What are you people for?

MICHAEL STEELE: You people? [starts laughing] Who are 'you people?'

D'oh! WaPo Mistakenly Suggested Public Enemy Rap Group Were 9/11 Truthers

By Ken Shepherd | December 5, 2009 | 10:00 AM EST

Oops!"A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number."That's the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR200912... target="_blank">text of a correction</a> the Post published yesterday to amend an error made in Akeya Dickson's article, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/25/AR200911... target="_blank">"A note of hope from voices of experience: Public enemy reaches out to homeless youth in D.C."</a>Here's how the corrected portion now reads:<blockquote>Public Enemy has earned notoriety with more than 20 years of politically charged music about fighting the power, challenging racism and declaring that 911 was a joke. </blockquote>"911 Is a Joke" was a hit rap single in 1990 and the third track on Public Enemy's 1990 album, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_a_Black_Planet" target="_blank">"Fear of a Black Planet." </a> The song was critical of slow response times from the 9-1-1 emergency dispatch service.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_a_Black_Planet" target="_blank"> </a>

Headline: 'Michelle Obama Wore Clothes to Light the Christmas Tree'

By Noel Sheppard | December 4, 2009 | 2:12 PM EST

<img src="/static/2009/12/Headline%20%27Michelle%20Obama%20Wore%20Clothes%20to%20Light%20the%20Christmas%20Tree%27.jpg" width="240" align="right" />Just when you thought Obama-loving was on the decline, along comes an absolutely astonishing bit of sycophancy that totally boggles the mind.The following is an actual headline <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/12/michelle_obama_wore_clothes_to.ht... at New York magazine's The Cut blog moments ago: <blockquote><h2 class="entry-title">Michelle Obama Wore Clothes to Light the Christmas Tree</h2></blockquote>Now, the implication is that this is out of the ordinary. Do first ladies normally light the White House Christmas tree in the nude?Thankfully, the article elaborated (h/t Rusty Weiss, screen capture from The Cut below the fold):

Gaffe Video: FNC's Rivera Confuses Most-wanted Terrorist with Commander-in-Chief

By Ken Shepherd | October 30, 2009 | 12:39 PM EDT

No bias, just a Joe Biden moment. FNC's Geraldo Rivera inadvertently called Barack Obama "President Osama bin Laden" on the October 30 "Fox & Friends" program. The video's embedded below the page break. Enjoy (h/t NB commenter Blonde):

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough: Joe Biden is the 'Greatest Vice President of Our Time'

By Mike Sargent | October 29, 2009 | 12:18 PM EDT

Update [Ken Shepherd, managing editor]: Scarborough responds via Twitter, insisting he was joking [see more at bottom of post]. Video embedded to the right.

Joe Biden is the "greatest Vice President of our time."

No, dear reader, I have not lost my marbles. I'm merely citing MSNBC's token quasi-conservative Joe Scarborough, who said on this morning's edition of "Morning Joe":

We understand that Joe Biden's numbers are going down, which I think is just stupid because all he has done is – I mean, he's become, in a couple of short months, the greatest vice president of our time.

Not content to allow his credibility to go down in flames alone, Joe took the rest of the Brew Crew with him:

The NY Times Finds New Way to Insult Ronald Reagan: As a Big Spender

By Clay Waters | June 16, 2009 | 5:05 PM EDT

In John Harwood's Sunday Week in Review piece, "Rethinking The Reagan Mystique," he claimed Republicans are rejecting Ronald Reagan as a political inspiration and urging their party to look forward. He probably overstates the case. However, Harwood does come up with a novel insult of Reagan: The man the media labeled a heartless budget-cutter was actually a runaway spender in disguise!

For a liberal Democrat, President Obama has offered generous praise for the most celebrated of his recent Republican predecessors.Mr. Obama has credited Ronald Reagan with having "changed the trajectory of America" in ways Bill Clinton didn't. "President Reagan helped as much as any president to restore a sense of optimism in our country, a spirit that transcended politics," Mr. Obama said earlier this month while signing the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act in the presence of Nancy Reagan.It's not surprising that Mr. Obama has embraced Mr. Reagan's achievement since it seems akin to his own aspirations and might also ingratiate him with conservatives. What is surprising is the increasingly ambiguous position Mr. Reagan holds on the right.

Whoopi Goldberg's Mother of a Gaffe: A Man Invented Mother's Day?

By Ken Shepherd | May 8, 2009 | 4:39 PM EDT

<div style="float: right"><object width="240" height="194"><param name="movie" value="http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=yd6UZueu6U&c1=0x1F43BB&... name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=yd6UZueu6U&c1=0x1F43BB&... allowfullscreen="true" width="240" height="194"></embed></object></div>Mother's Day was <a href="http://www.mothersdaycelebration.com/story-of-anna-jarvis.html" target="_blank">invented by Anna Jarvis</a>, a West Virginian who, from 1907 to 1914 devoted considerable energy to establishing state and national holidays marking Mother's Day. Jarvis's inspiration, of course, was her deep devotion to her late mother. But don't tell Whoopi Goldberg that. [audio for <a href="http://media.eyeblast.org/newsbusters/static/2009/05/2009-05-08-ABC-View... target="_blank">download here</a>]"I feel like Mother's Day is a man's holiday. You know, because it was put together, a woman didn't put together Mother's Day. A woman put together several other holidays but Mother's Day was not one of them," the moderator of ABC's "The View" insisted on the May 8 program.The faulty assertion came during a chat with Alyse Myers, author of "Who Do You Think You Are?", which chronicles her strained relationship with her mother.

Meredith's Mind In the Gutter? Vieira Wonders What's Under Lady Liberty's Skirt

By Mike Sargent | May 8, 2009 | 1:59 PM EDT

For your TGIF viewing fun, NBC “Today” show co-host Meredith Vieira has lost control of her verbal filters again.

CBS Reporter Notes Robert Gibbs Faux Pas: Started Briefing When Obama Speaking

By Ken Shepherd | April 27, 2009 | 3:18 PM EDT

No bias here, just some fun at White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs's expense.

"White House Press Secretary began his daily briefing, even though Pres. Obama was speaking at the U.Conn event. Considered a no-no," CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller noted via his Twitter account just shortly after 2:30 p.m. EDT.

Education journalist Dakarai I. Aarons asked Knoller:

Time's Sullivan Uses Berlusconi Gaffe to Bash Bush, Over Hurricane Katrina

By Ken Shepherd | April 8, 2009 | 6:04 PM EDT

George W. Bush has said nothing negative about his media-worshiped successor in the Oval Office. Yet that doesn't stop the liberal mainstream media for mocking the former president out of the blue -- while ignoring Obama gaffes -- for events that happened on his watch years ago.The latest example, Time's Amy Sullivan, on the magazine's Swampland blog today entitled, "Quote of the Day":

MSNBC Dives To Cover For Obama With New 'Special Olympics' Theory

By Mike Sargent | March 20, 2009 | 1:07 PM EDT

This morning, MSNBC’s Alex Witt was in full damage control mode, working whatever apologist explanations she could find into her reluctant coverage of last night's teleprompter-free “Tonight Show” appearance by the president. [audio available here]

Obama was doing quite well at staying on message, when he made the following comment in reaction to Jay Leno's question about his infamous lack of bowling ability:

JAY LENO: I imagine the bowling alley has been burned and closed down.

President BARACK OBAMA: No, I've been practicing.

LENO: Really?

OBAMA: I bowled a 129. I had –

LENO: Oh, no, that's very good. Yeah. That's very good, Mr. President.

OBAMA: This is sort of like Special Olympics or something.

MRC's Bozell Discusses Obama Special Olympics Gaffe

By NB Staff | March 20, 2009 | 11:16 AM EDT

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell had already been scheduled to appear on today's "Fox & Friends" to discuss last night's MRC Gala and Media DisHonors Awards, but President Barack Obama's laid a golden egg with his joke about the Special Olympics last night on NBC's "The Tonight Show." So the latest Obama gaffe and the media's interest in it was the first topic co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade asked the NewsBusters publisher about (audio available here) this morning:

KILMEADE: Brent, that comment. How big a deal?
BOZELL: Well, in the eyes of the regular press, no big deal at all. They're just simply going to overlook it. If past is prologue, they refuse to do any serious kind of journalism work on Obama, candidate or president. But, this is the kind of thing that is beginning to percolate out there. What is becoming evident is when you turn the teleprompter off, this man is capable of making all manner of mistakes, and the more he stays in the public eye, doing this type of thing without a teleprompter, the more mistakes he's going to make.

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