It turns out the politician who called colleague Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) "chubby" and admonished her not to lose too much weight is none other than the late Sen. Daniel Inouye. So naturally when covering the story, MSNBC.com's Michele Richinick made sure to soften the blow against the late Hawaiian Democrat by tagging him as a longtime "advocate of women."
Michele Richinick
By Laura Flint | July 31, 2014 | 10:45 AM EDT
On July 30, Michele Richinick, a writer for msnbc.com, hyped a Texas protest against Rick Perry’s decision to deploy the National Guard to send a message to the waves of illegal immigrant children flooding over the border. With the title “Texans rally against Rick Perry’s deployment request” and the lede that “Texas Gov. Rick Perry is facing wrath from residents in his home state,” the MSNBC contributor seemed to forget that only 20 members of the Texas Organization Project (TOP) bothered to show up.
It remains unclear why MSNBC thought a 20-person protest in which “protesters held 12 large, blank checks to symbolize the millions of dollars the state will spend on Perry’s plan” was newsworthy. The only direct quote in the article from the TOP was Dallas Country communications director statement that Perry’s decision was “unnecessary.” Strong words.
By Ken Shepherd | February 17, 2014 | 5:40 PM EST
"Dunn verdict renews call for gun reform" blares the teaser headline for the number one item in the lightbox at MSNBC.com.
The corresponding story by Michele Richinick was front-loaded with calls from liberal activists to exploit the outcome of a murder trial to promote an effort to repeal Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which was not even invoked as a defense in the recently-concluded trial of Michael Dunn (emphasis mine):
By Ken Shepherd | January 7, 2014 | 12:28 PM EST
The MSNBC gang's selective outrage about drug use and the liberalization of drug laws is abundantly clear in two stories on the network's website today.
"Americans change their minds on pot," blares the headline for item #4 in the top-stories lightbox. "Moral outrage is down and support for legalized marijuana is up," noted the caption teasing Jane C. Timm's story. The very next item in the lightbox, however, tut-tutted a disgraced Florida Republican. "Coke congressman to return to Capitol Hill," the headline alerted readers. "Rep. Trey Radel to return to Congress Tuesday after taking a leave of absence last year to attend rehab for his cocaine use," noted the teaser caption to Michele Richinick's January 7 story. [see screen capture below]
By Ken Shepherd | November 12, 2013 | 5:09 PM EST
Thus far, at best, ObamaCare has achieved just 10 percent of the Obama administration's 500,000 new-users goal for the first month of the rollout of the health care overhaul. Significantly more people have signed up for taxpayer-funded Medicaid, but that doesn't do a lick of good for the private health insurance pools offered on the federal exchanges.
Not even MSNBC.com can ignore such a story, although the Lean Forward network reserved the right to spin it as best they can. "Health care enrollment falls short of expectations," noted the bland headline for Michele Richinick's November 12 story. "A report out Tuesday shows the enrollment numbers from the first month of Obamacare fell short by thousands of registrants," noted a caption on the network's website. Sounds like the journalistic understatement of the year.
By Ken Shepherd | May 7, 2013 | 5:52 PM EDT
How apropos that in the week before Mother's Day, the Lean Forward network is announcing hires for its website who have ties to Mother Jones, the far-left magazine that blessed the journalistic world with David Corn, himself a fixture at MSNBC as a frequent contributor.
"MSNBC.com is staffing up ahead of a major relaunch later this year," TVNewser's Alex Weprin reported last night. "The relaunched site will focus on the world of politics and the personalities that populate MSNBC’s programming. There will also, however, be plenty of political news and information."