On the August 10 edition of Morning Joe, host Mika Brzezinski criticized opponents of the Iran deal and defended President Obama’s harsh rhetoric. She claimed that supporting the deal was a “no-brainer” because, in her mind, there are no alternatives. The Morning Joe personality lauded the president for “being sharp” in trying to gain support for the deal.
Foreign Policy
By Connor Williams | August 6, 2015 | 10:35 AM EDT
Following the president’s comments comparing Republicans in Congress to the terror-sponsoring hardliners in Iran, Charles Krauthammer eviscerated Obama's entire conception of the Middle East nation. Appearing on The Kelly File last night, the Fox personality hit the president for being “delusional...pretending that those who chant death to America are some kind of KKK fringe in Iran.”
By Connor Williams | July 20, 2015 | 3:39 PM EDT
Sunday on Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter brought Jay Carney and John King to the program to discuss CBS reporter Major Garrett’s controversial question to President Obama about Iran. Garrett asked the president whether he could be content with the Iran deal knowing that there were four hostages still in Iran.
Carney hit Garrett, calling him “pompous” and deeming his question “offensive.” The long time White House press secretary for the Obama administration said “he understood why the president took offense.” noting it was a “poorly chosen word” on Garrett’s part.
By Connor Williams | August 23, 2014 | 5:00 PM EDT
Is the beheading of an American journalist – along with the genocide of Christians and other religious minorities – enough to label the Islamist terror group ISIS as the consummation of evil? According to CNN.com, the answer is really quite complicated.
In fact, James Dawes, director of the program in Human Rights at Macalester College, argued in a piece for CNN’s online arm that “there are few things more dangerous now than allowing ourselves to think” that ISIS does “evil things for evil ends,”as NRO’s Jonah Goldberg phrased it in a tweet earlier this week. Dawes’s assertion is that Americans need to “do the hard work of understanding the context that made them, so that we can create a context that unmakes them.” He added that“understanding” will “help us see the world through their eyes.” [See Goldberg's tweet and excerpts from the piece after the jump.]
MSNBC's O’Donnell: ‘Don’t Do Stupid Stuff’ Is the ‘Single Best Organizing Principle’ America Could Have
By Connor Williams | August 13, 2014 | 11:30 AM EDT
At MSNBC, many are rallying behind Barack Obama’s foreign policy, despite his seemingly aimless goals. On the August 12 edition of The Last Word, host Lawrence O'Donnell mentioned Hillary Clinton's comments about the President's foreign policy, in which she claimed that ‘don't do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle. O’Donnell couldn’t help but defend Mr. Obama, even if it meant attacking the likely 2016 presidential nominee for the Democrats.
After citing a quote from a Clinton spokesman designed at easing the tension between the former Secretary of State and the President, O’Donnell claimed: “Don't do stupid stuff, if it was the organizing principle of American international relations, would be the single best organizing principle we have ever had. We would finally stop doing stupid stuff.” [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | August 12, 2014 | 4:00 PM EDT
While it has been reported that the United States will provide the Kurdish army – commonly known as the Peshmerga – with small arms and ammunition, there have been repeated calls to more substantially arm the paramilitary force. On the August 12 edition of CNN Newsroom, host Carol Costello discussed the subject with Haras Rafiq, an outreach officer for the Quilliam Foundation, a think tank that challenges Islamic extremism.
Costello was skeptical that doing anything to assist the Kurds against ISIS in northern Iraq would help the cause. Rafiq argued that “heavy artillery” and “heavy ammunition,” along with possible training of Kurdish forces, would be necessary to repel ISIS. Costello doubted that these options would be effective: [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | August 5, 2014 | 4:15 PM EDT
CNN’s New Day morning show followed up on yesterday’s surprising discussion regarding Israel and the media with another segment on the August 5 edition of the program. It featured co-host Chris Cuomo interviewing pro-Palestinian pundit Rula Jebreal on the topic, and the on-screen headline read “Is Media Coverage Pro-Israel?”
As the old saying goes, any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered with the word “no,” but Jebreal clearly thought otherwise. [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | July 31, 2014 | 4:40 PM EDT
As the Israel-Hamas conflict rages on, it appears that the Israelis have lost Joe Scarborough as a trusted ally. On the July 31 edition of Morning Joe, the former Florida Congressman ripped Israel for their “indiscriminate” attacks upon Gaza, and feared that this would only cause the conflict to worsen in the future.
Following Ayman Mohyeldin’s pro-Hamas reporting on the issue, Scarborough reacted to the news that an Israeli rocket reportedly hit a UN school in Gaza: [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | July 23, 2014 | 5:05 PM EDT
Following an antagonistic interview with Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev, MSNBC’s Joy Reid brought pro-Palestinian guest on to her July 23 Reid Report program for his reaction. Reid lobbed a few softballs and let Yousef Munayyer – executive director of the Jerusalem Fund and Palestine Center – direct cheap shot after cheap shot at Israel, irrespective of the facts.
But what really takes the cake is how Munayyer used his platform to deny that Hamas uses innocent Gaza civilians as human shields. Reid, for her part, failed to push back against that ridiculous assertion. [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | July 21, 2014 | 11:44 AM EDT
While NBC’s coverage of the latest Israel-Palestine conflict has been distinctly anti-Israel, NBC News foreign correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin is perhaps the worst offender. Despite the reality that Hamas has repeatedly rejected Israeli attempts at a cease fire, Mohyeldin touted Palestinian talking points with surprising consistency.
This time, in a report during the July 21 edition of Morning Joe, Mohyeldin cited “Palestinian medical sources” who described the recent Israeli surgical strikes “as nothing short of a massacre.” [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Connor Williams | July 16, 2014 | 1:15 PM EDT
CNN: the home for hate-filled rants against conservatives. On the July 16 edition of New Day, a panel reacted to Jake Tapper’s testy interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney. Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Paul Begala became unhinged, resorting to personal attacks on Cheney in response to his explanations of the Iraq war.
Asked by host Kate Bolduan as to why Cheney is speaking out right now – as if the chaos in Iraq didn’t make that self-evident – Begala snapped: “Well, either he's a secret plant from my party, reminding people of an administration that they hated. When he left office Dick Cheney's favorable was 13 percent. There are forms of venereal disease that are higher in the polls than 13%.” [MP3 audio here; video below]
Chris Matthews: Foreign Policy Hawks Want Military Action in Every Country 'Which Fails to March to Our Orders'
By Connor Williams | June 20, 2014 | 1:12 PM EDT
In a screed against an interventionist foreign policy, Hardball’s Chris Matthews virtually insisted that there is a sinister plot among those initial supporters of the Iraq war to dictate the political life of nations throughout the Middle East. For Matthews, simply being wrong on the Iraq war–to the extent that anyone can make a claim like that with any certainty at the present time–is not enough.
In his initial comments on the June 19 edition of Hardball, Matthews railed at any news outlet that would dare give a platform to George W. Bush administration alumni to share their thoughts on how President Obama should proceed with aiding the Iraqi government [MP3 audio here; video below]: