Krystal Ball

Dopey 'Martin Bashir' Panelists: 'Can't Blame' Obama for Gas Prices; Obama's Not Had 'Scandal' Yet
By Ken Shepherd | April 23, 2012 | 5:30 PM EDT

You "can't blame" President Barack Obama for high gas prices. "Desperate" Republicans are hoping for the scandal-free Obama to have a scandal. When a conservative woman denounces absurd gender politics it's simply "a ventriloquist act" for "patriarchal ideas."

Those were the gems which stumbled out of the mouths, respectively, of conservative columnist S.E. Cupp, Democratic strategist Krystal Ball, and Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson, all panelists on today's edition of the Martin Bashir program on MSNBC. The topic at hand was how Republicans were pressing the Obama administration over the Secret Service prostitution scandal.

Once Again NBC Selectively Edits Audio Tape for Political Means
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 2, 2012 | 5:06 PM EDT

Given that the NBC network is currently conducting an internal review of its selective editing of a 911 call from the Trayvon Martin case, it would be reasonable to assume that other networks in the NBCUniversal family would take heed. But then, that would take all the fun out of working for a network like MSNBC.

On his April 2 program Martin Bashir played a clip from a Mitt Romney campaign event which made it seem as though Romney was dodging a question about his faith.  The distorted clip was then used as a jumping-off point for Bashir and liberal contributor Krystal Ball to lament a perceived double standard on reporting on the religious faiths of the president and the former Massacusetts governor.  [Click here for video.] 

Shorter MSNBC: Voter I.D. Laws Are Racist, Even Though They Seem Perfectly Logical
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 9, 2012 | 12:43 PM EST

Once again, MSNBC has continued to prop up Rev. Al Sharpton’s racist conspiracies that state legislatures led by the GOP are deliberately suppressing minority voters through new voter ID laws.

On Friday’s episode of Jansing & Co., radio host and MSNBC substitute host Michael Smerconish led a left-wing attack on the GOP.  The panelists including Pennsylvania AFL-CIO chief Richard Bloomingdale asserted that a person's signature is sufficient identification to vote in the United States. Indeed, both Smerconish and Bloomingdale insisted they have voted that way for years in Pennsylvania with no problems.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

WaPo Offers Puffy Profile on Leggy MSNBC Contributor Krystal Ball
By Ken Shepherd | September 12, 2011 | 1:30 PM EDT

The Washington Post would have you know that Fox News hasn't cornered the market on political analysts who are easy on the eyes.

In his Metro section front-pager today-- "Leaping from scandal to punditry: Racy photos pushed Va. candidate Krystal Ball into commentary"* -- reporter Ben Pershing offered Post readers a puffy profile on the 29-year-old one-time Democratic candidate for Virginia's 1st District House seat.

Ball's long-shot campaign seized national media attention, Pershing reminded readers, after some risque photos from a costume party came to light.

ABC Touts Dem as 'Feminist Icon' After the Release of Racy Photos, Downplayed 'Whore' Attack on Whitman
By Scott Whitlock | October 25, 2010 | 12:53 PM EDT

The surfacing of racy photos of a Democratic congressional candidate have made the politician "something of a feminist icon," according to Good Morning America. Reporter Jeremy Hubbard and host Bianna Golodryga on Sunday offered sympathetic reports on Krystal Ball, a House candidate in Virginia.

An ABC graphic speculated, "Sexist Smear Campaign?: No Regrets for Racy Photos." Golodryga pitched softball questions about the six year old photographs of Ball and her then husband posing with sex toys at a party. Addressing the uproar after the photos appeared on websites, Golodryga comforted, "You call this whole scandal a sexist double standard. Why?"

Allowing Ball to play the victim, the host wondered, "And when these came out you said that you thought of Hillary Clinton. Why?" Yet, when audio of a Democratic staffer referring to Republican Meg Whitman as a whore appeared, GMA mostly ignored it. News anchor Juju Chang covered it in a news brief on October 8 as "some salty language in the race for California governor."