On Wednesday night, liberal networks MSNBC and Telemundo teamed up to present a town hall on illegal immigration that featured President Barack Obama before a friendly auditorium of supporters and taking questions that ranged from softballs to ones from the far left that implored him to further expand his amnesty. The event was moderated by Jose Diaz-Balart, who serves as the anchor of both MSNBC’s The Rundown and Telemundo’s Noticiero Telemundo. From the start, it was clear that he was also on stage to play the role of advocate.
Illegal Immigration
By Curtis Houck | February 23, 2015 | 11:32 PM EST
NBC Nightly News offered up a segment on the continued debate in Congress over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that is set to expire on February 27 in what was the only network coverage of the topic on the three Monday night newscasts. Anchor Lester Holt and senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing left out the underlying issue of the entire debate, which is whether or not to fund President Obama’s executive amnesty for illegal immigrants.
By Curtis Houck | January 20, 2015 | 8:29 PM EST
While previewing President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, NBC Nightly News had on Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, who told viewers that the President will set out to “do a little victory lap about the state of the economy” and opined how Obama “got the post-election honeymoon, not the Republicans” thanks to his moves on illegal immigration and Cuba.
Following the move of fellow networks ABC and CBS, Todd touted the positive numbers for Obama in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll after having largely ignored the negative ones in the lead up to the 2014 midterm elections.
By Curtis Houck | December 16, 2014 | 9:21 PM EST
A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled on Tuesday that portions of President Barack Obama’s presidential action on immigration were unconstitutional as “Congress's lawmaking power is not subject to presidential supervision or control” and that “congressional inaction does not endow legislative power with the executive.”
However, if you tuned into any of the Tuesday evening newscasts on the major broadcast networks, you would not have found any mention of the ruling.
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.
By Curtis Houck | November 21, 2014 | 12:44 PM EST
In a segment on his PBS show Thursday night, Charlie Rose and his guests discussed President Obama’s executive order on illegal immigration and described the responses from those in the Republican Party as “a bit extreme” and “ludicrous” while also harping on the conundrum that Republican leadership now supposedly faces in dealing with conservatives now that the executive amnesty is announced.
Joined by Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post and Michael Shear of The New York Times, the three discussed the President’s executive action in a segment that was taped prior to his speech during the program’s first 15 minutes.
Newt Gingrich Blasts Obama’s Speech: ‘This Was a Gruber Speech’; ‘Simply Not Telling the Country the Truth’
By Curtis Houck | November 21, 2014 | 12:52 AM EST Following President Barack Obama’s speech announcing his executive order on illegal immigration, CNN political commentator and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich unloaded on the President, likening his speech to statements made by ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber and that those in the “elite” class “really underestimate” the disdain Americans have for unfortified borders.
Responding on CNN in the minutes after it ended, Gingrich opined that it was wrong for the President to go against the incoming Congress as it had “repudiated his policies in the election” a few weeks ago. Gingrich then slammed what viewers just heard as “a Gruber speech” where the President was “simply not telling the country the truth.”
By Curtis Houck | November 20, 2014 | 10:38 PM EST
Ahead of President Obama’s speech on immigration on Thursday night, the major broadcast networks all did their parts to push the arguments in favor of his executive amnesty ranging from a whole segment devoted to a family that would benefit from the President’s executive order to promoting one pro-amnesty group.
On the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, over two minutes was spent on segment promoting a family of children born in the U.S. with an illegal immigrant mother, who currently is in an Arizona detention center, but now could be allowed to be freed and apply to become a U.S. resident under the President’s executive amnesty.
By Curtis Houck | November 19, 2014 | 10:38 PM EST
On Wednesday night, CBS and NBC promoted the White House talking point that previous presidential actions on immigration gives President Barack Obama the proper legal authority to enact executive amnesty the evening before a primetime address to the nation on the topic.
At no point during the coverage on either network did their reporters mention that this justification is being used despite the President’s previous assertions that he did not have the proper legal means to carry out any sort of mass-reaching executive order on illegal immigration.
CBS’s Bojorquez to Volunteer Police Officer in South Texas Helping to Stop Illegal Immigration: ‘You’re Taking a Big Risk’
By Curtis Houck | August 6, 2014 | 11:15 PM EDT On Wednesday night’s CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, CBS News correspondent Manuel Borjorquez reported along the U.S. and Mexico border in Texas where one county’s police force includes help from officers in neighboring counties as volunteers to assist in stopping smugglers of illegal immigrants. When it came to interviewing one of the volunteers in Brooks County, Texas, Borjorquez raised a number of concerns of why anyone would do so without compensation.
Borjorquez spoke with Reserve Deputy Gustavo Cabos, who told him that he and his fellow police officers are “all brothers” and that “[w]e're all out there to help each other out.” As Cabos was saying that, Borjorquez interjected to tell him: “But you're not getting paid for this. You don't even have health insurance in case you get hurt. You're taking a big risk.” [MP3 audio here; Video below]
Diaz-Balart Badgers Guest: ‘How Many Terrorist Attacks in the U.S. Have Been Carried Out' by Illegal Immigrants?
By Curtis Houck | August 5, 2014 | 5:35 PM EDT On his MSNBC show Tuesday morning, Jose Diaz-Balart invited on conservative commentator and film maker Dennis Michael Lynch to discuss a series of documentaries he has made that are critical of U.S. immigration policy and illegal immigration. From the start of the segment, it was clear that Diaz-Balart would be at odds with Lynch’s viewpoints and only grew to the point where he hounded Lynch on whether illegal immigrants have committed terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
After airing an excerpt from one of the documentaries highlighting concerns about illegal immigrants causing a competition for jobs with American citizens, Diaz-Balart told Lynch that “there are a lot of studies from both the left and right that show that undocumented immigrants don’t take American jobs” and asked him why he thought this was not the case. [MP3 audio here; Video below]
By Jack Coleman | July 23, 2014 | 9:01 PM EDT
Not sure which is sadder -- that Rachel Maddow actually believes this, or that she knows it's not true and says it anyway.
A sure sign that Maddow is on thin ice is when she makes a dubious claim without attribution. She did this on her MSNBC show Monday night while trotting out a deceptive euphemism to hide what she was actually saying. (Video after the jump)