By Tom Blumer | December 25, 2015 | 11:58 PM EST

In a year-end interview with National Public Radio, President Barack Obama largely blamed "a saturation of news" coming from a media which "is pursuing ratings" for growing concerns in America over the ability of ISIS and other terrorists to conduct attacks on U.S. soil, and indicated that "it's up to the media to make a determination about how they want to cover things."

It's reasonable to believe that Obama was telling the press corps, which already works furiously to prop him up, that they need to cut back on their reporting of domestic terrorist activities, arrests and court proceedings. It seems fair to say that the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, quickly took that advice to heart in its selective coverage of the saga of Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame, and that its selectivity has kept a noteworthy story very quiet.

By Brad Wilmouth | December 8, 2015 | 8:23 PM EST

Appearing as a guest on MSNBC Live with Kate Snow, NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd tried to explain away a poll showing that most Americans have a negative view of Islam by chalking it up largely to a "lack of familiarity" with the religion, and declared that "unfamiliarity breeds the fear."

By Tim Graham | November 10, 2015 | 8:30 AM EST

Ken Shepherd pointed out Monday that Chris Matthews marched a hard line on Ben Carson’s memoir and the charge stories in it aren’t true: “you better damn well know they're true. Now, maybe you know you can't substantiate them right away. But they'd better be damn true, not sort of true.”

Soopermexican at The Right Scoop found Matthews jumped all over his MSNBC colleague Steve Kornacki before Friday night’s Rachel Maddow forum with the three Democratic candidates. Perhaps before the show, Kornacki dared to wonder how GOP voters might interpret the liberal-media attack, which set off Mr. Thrill Up My Leg. “Our job is to delineate the truth, and then let people react to it. You know, ‘we report, you decide’?”  

By Kyle Drennen | November 2, 2015 | 1:01 PM EST

Appearing on the 11 a.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on Monday, Up host Steve Kornacki fretted that Bernie Sanders was attacking Hillary Clinton in his first television campaign ad: “There is also – and see if you can spot it in here – there is also a veiled shot at Hillary Clinton.”

By Kyle Drennen | October 23, 2015 | 10:37 AM EDT

On Friday’s NBC Today, hosts and correspondents hoped Hillary Clinton had brushed aside her scandals after testimony before the House Benghazi Committee on Thursday. At the top of the show, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “Marathon on the Hill....an 11-hour day on Benghazi....Has Hillary Clinton put the controversy behind her?”

By Jeffrey Meyer | June 7, 2015 | 9:13 AM EDT

On Saturday’s Up w/ Steve Kornacki, liberal Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart heaped praise on Hillary Clinton after she attacked the Republican Party over voting rights. Capehart proclaimed Clinton’s speech “politically it’s a brilliant move. For her base it’s a brilliant move. And also, just as an American, it’s a brilliant move.”

By Connor Williams | May 26, 2015 | 4:45 PM EDT

Contrary to when Ted Cruz announced he was seeking the presidency, the extremist label has hardly been applied to self-avowed Democratic-Socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as he prepared to launch his 2016 campaign with an event in Vermont. While the mainstream press frequently labeled Cruz radical, dangerous, and slimy, no such words were used to describe the Vermont Senator on the May 26 edition of The Rundown with Jose Diaz Balart. In fact, guests Mark Murray and Steve Kornacki both gave rather glowing reviews of Sanders.

By Ken Shepherd | March 17, 2015 | 9:06 PM EDT

"[T]he thing that drives me nuts" about Hillary Clinton's response to the e-mail controversy, MSNBC's Steve Kornacki noted on Tuesday's Hardball, is that she won't admit that the public would be better off had she used a State Department e-mail account from day one of her tenure at Foggy Bottom. Instead, the Hardball guest host lamented, Clinton's out there insisting it was simply a "matter of convenience" for her to use her personal e-mail account.

By Ken Shepherd | February 18, 2015 | 8:21 PM EST

Railing against Speaker Boehner's decision to invite Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress on his concerns about Iran, Hardball host Chris Matthews sneered that the Ohio Republican essentially attempted to "sneak" the Israeli Prime Minister into the country with the president completely unawares, and that all to curry favor with "crazy right-wing" evangelical Christians.

But of course the facts conflict with Matthews's simplistic narrative.

By Ken Shepherd | November 20, 2014 | 7:40 PM EST

Wildly spinning a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing just 38 percent support President Obama's planned executive amnesty while 48 percent oppose it, Huffington Post's Howard Fineman offered that it's possible "some" of those opposed are against it from Obama's left, thinking it doesn't go far enough.

By Jeffrey Meyer | October 12, 2014 | 10:59 AM EDT

Last week, Wendy Davis, the Democratic Party candidate for governor of Texas, aired a controversial ad attacking her opponent, Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, depicting him as an empty wheelchair who had turned his back on disabled people in Texas. Despite MSNBC doing everything it could to promote Ms. Davis, her latest attack ad appeared indefensible for the “Lean Forward” network. On Sunday morning, an entire panel on Up w/ Steve Kornacki condemned the Davis ad, with liberal columnist Michael Tomasky declaring “this makes liberals squirm in their chairs.” 

By Jeffrey Meyer | September 7, 2014 | 4:15 PM EDT

It seems as though MSNBC is still trying to find a weekend use for Karen Finney after canceling her show. Finney, former DNC communications director and board member of NARAL, appeared on Up w/ Steve Kornacki on Saturday, September 7, to comment on news that Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis had an abortion 18 years ago. 

 

The former MSNBC host insisted that Davis’ abortion story could be a political weapon for the candidate who is struggling to keep up with her Republican opponent. Finney proclaimed that “from a political standpoint, it is something that I think will resonate with moderate women.”