Appearing exclusively on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd repeatedly pressed Speaker Paul Ryan to denounce conservative radio talk show hosts Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin over their criticism of the recently-passed omnibus bill and Todd demanded to know how he’ll work with President Obama to “lay the groundwork” to end political polarization. Todd asked, of the talk show hosts, whether their “rhetoric is inappropriate” or “[o]ut of line?”
Paul Ryan
NYT's New Respect for GOP's Ryan for 'Deftness in Pacifying Rebellious Conservatives'...and for Big Spending Hike
By Clay Waters | December 19, 2015 | 8:02 PM EST The lead story in Saturday's New York Times heaped praise upon the passage of a package of spending increases: “Avoiding Rancor, Congress Passes A Fiscal Package -- $1.8 Trillion Measure – Spending Rise and New Tax Breaks Suggest End of Austerity." This big-spending budget earned Ryan some strange new respect, with reporter David Herszenhorn praising his “deftness in pacifying rebellious conservatives.” A copy editor gave Ryan a pat on the back in a text box: “A successful effort by Republicans to show that they can govern effectively.”
By Kyle Drennen | December 3, 2015 | 5:21 PM EST
In a contentious exchange with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday’s CBS This Morning, co-hosts Charlie Rose and Gayle King repeatedly pressed the Republican leader to take up gun control legislation in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting. Rose began: “But why don't you...call the President and say, ‘I'm going to come down Pennsylvania Avenue, let's you and I start off and do something about this right now’?”
By Matthew Balan | December 3, 2015 | 1:03 PM EST
Three CNN programs on Wednesday night and Thursday morning promoted the anti-prayer front page of the New York Daily News: "God Isn't Fixing This." Unsurprisingly, pro-gun control anchor Carol Costello quoted from the liberal newspaper's headline and sub-headline on Thursday's CNN Newsroom: "It's gotten a lot of buzz this morning...It reads, 'God Isn't Fixing This,' and slams [Ted] Cruz and other 2016 contenders as — quote, 'cowards who continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.'"
By Matthew Balan | November 20, 2015 | 1:01 PM EST
Friday's CBS This Morning hyped that "thousands on the government's terrorist watch list...bought firearms in the last decade...and all of the sales were legal." Nancy Cordes played up that a bill to "close that loophole" that has been introduced for eight straight years has "gone nowhere" due to opposition from the NRA and congressional Republicans. Cordes later hinted that House Speaker Paul Ryan and his GOP caucus had a double standard on national security, for opposing closing the "loophole," but supporting a bill to "beef up screening of Syrian refugees."
By Kyle Drennen | November 13, 2015 | 10:05 AM EST
In an interview with House Speaker Paul Ryan for 60 Minutes, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley scolded the congressman for criticizing President Obama’s unconstitutional executive action on illegal immigration: “On your first day as speaker you said you were going to wipe the slate clean. And then in your very first news conference you said the President has, quote, ‘Proven himself untrustworthy on immigration.’ That’s not wiping the slate clean, that’s blowing chalk dust in the President's face.”
By Clay Waters | November 3, 2015 | 1:19 PM EST
New York Times congressional reporter Carl Hulse delivered a balanced column Tuesday recounting why reformist, Tea Party-minded conservatives have aligned against more traditional Chamber of Commerce Republicans. But it was marred by Hulse's contemptuous tone ("the anti-chamber crowd") and labeling habits, with Hulse making not one, not two, but six references to "hard-right" conservatives in a 1,050-word story, with two "hard-line" labels for good measure. Yet the Times' uses of the term "hard-left" in U.S. political stories are vanishingly rare.
By Brad Wilmouth | November 3, 2015 | 1:04 AM EST
After pressing Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan on the issue of whether the federal government should require employers to provide paid family leave in a pre-recorded interview aired on Sunday's State of the Union, CNN correspondent Dana Bash made two appearances on Monday in which she used this portion of the interview to again bring up the issue.
Appearing on both CNN New Day and again on CNN Newsroom with Carol Costello, Bash described the U.S. as "way far behind" other countries. She also recounted that "most civilized nations" mandate such a guarantee to their workers.
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 1, 2015 | 10:04 AM EST
On Sunday’s State of the Union, fill-in host Dana Bash sat down with newly-elected Speaker of the House Paul Ryan about his goals for the new job but did her best to play up the supposed dysfunction among House GOPers. The CNN host played up the liberal line that members of the House Freedom Caucus are a major problem for Republican leadership and asked Ryan “How are you going to control the 40 or so members of that so-called Freedom Caucus in a way that John Boehner couldn't?”
By Clay Waters | October 31, 2015 | 10:21 PM EDT
The election of a new Speaker of the House had the New York Times firing up its reliably crooked labeling machine. On Thursday, reporter and repeat offender David Herszenhorn lamented that "Many Republicans, including members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus who had hounded Mr. Boehner from the speakership, accused him and other party leaders of betraying them with a late-hour deal that was negotiated in secret." Veteran congressional reporter Carl Hulse interviewed former Speaker John Boehner and took his side against his allegedly irresponsible opponents: "Mr. Boehner...eventually became the power structure, only to be forced out by hard-line conservatives he deems 'knuckleheads' for their inability to recognize that compromise is sometimes necessary in politically divided government."
By Rich Noyes | October 28, 2015 | 10:05 AM EDT
Over the past four weeks, as the broadcast networks have covered the House leadership contest, reporters have gone out of their way to relentlessly paint House Republicans, especially the Freedom Caucus, as ideologues who are outside the American political mainstream.
From September 25 to October 23, MRC analysts reviewed all 82 ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news stories about John Boehner’s resignation as House Speaker and the race to succeed him. The coverage included a whopping 106 ideological labels of Republicans, including 35 casting conservatives as extreme: “far right,” “hardline,” “very conservative” or “ultra-conservative.”
By Curtis Houck | October 27, 2015 | 9:07 PM EDT
On Tuesday, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC censored from their evening newscasts any mention of the House of Representative beginning the procedures to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on the heels of Republican Congressman and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s expected ascension to Speaker of the House.