James Baker

Republicans Show 'Unquestioned...Lockstep' Support for Israel, Claims Hostile NY Times
By Clay Waters | March 28, 2015 | 7:29 PM EDT

Did you know that Republicans are in "unquestioned" "lockstep" support for Israel? That's how some New York Times headline writers saw it in an analysis by reporter Peter Baker, "For Republican Candidates, Support for Israel Is an Inviolable Litmus Test."

The initial online headline portrayed the GOP as mindless slavish drones for Israel: "Republicans, in Shift, Demand Lockstep Support for Israel." The extremely unflattering language crept into the story's text box: "Anything but unquestioned backing of the Jewish state can mean trouble."

Ed Schultz Hyperventilates That Voter ID Laws ... 'Attack Women!'
By Jack Coleman | September 13, 2012 | 11:45 AM EDT

Stay tuned as Ed Schultz describes how the massive asteroid hurtling toward earth and threatening to end all life on the planet puts women and minorities at the greatest risk ...

Sure he's a loose cannon, but Ed Schultz is a predictable one at that. (Audio after page break)

Morgan Freeman: There Is a ‘Great Attempt’ to ‘Disenfranchise’ Women, Hispanic and Black Voters
By Noel Sheppard | June 21, 2012 | 10:27 AM EDT

As NewsBusters previously reported, Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman said Tuesday, "We’re going to be in a lot of trouble if we don't reelect [Barack Obama] because people on the other side of the fence scare me."

In the second part of his Tavis Smiley Show interview aired Wednesday on PBS Freeman said, "Women, Hispanics, blacks, there is a large attempt, a great attempt, at disenfranchisement" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

James Baker to David Gregory: Financial Deregulation Happened on Clinton's Watch Not Reagan's
By Noel Sheppard | February 6, 2011 | 5:47 PM EST

Former Reagan Chief of Staff James Baker on Sunday took issue with having the 40th President blamed for financial deregulation.

When "Meet the Press" host David Gregory brought this up at the end of his program, Baker replied, "[The deregulation of the financial industry didn't occur on Ronald Reagan's watch, it occurred for the most part, I think, on Bill Clinton's watch" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Brokaw Ignores Obama's FDR-Like Refusal to Work With Bush Economic Team
By Noel Sheppard | November 23, 2008 | 3:21 PM EST

Though given a perfect opportunity to do so, Tom Brokaw on Sunday chose not to discuss the similarities between Franklin D. Roosevelt's refusal to work with President Herbert Hoover on solving the Depression before he was inaugurated in March 1933 and president-elect Barack Obama doing the same thing today with George W. Bush.

For those not familiar with the historical reference, the financial crisis at the time of the 1932 elections was so bad that banks were failing on almost a daily basis. As a result, Hoover felt the country couldn't wait until March when inaugurations used to take place to hear what Roosevelt's plan was to solve these problems, and wanted FDR and his economic team to come to the White House in order to work some things out together.

Sadly, Roosevelt refused, and although he claimed it was so that his hands wouldn't be tied once he officially became president, some historians feel FDR's delay was designed to allow the crisis to deepen so that it would become easier for him to get his policy proposals passed.

On Sunday's "Meet the Press," the fact that President Bush wants to work with Obama and his team concerning the financial crisis surfaced in discussion with former Reagan treasury secretary James Baker and former Clinton commerce secretary Bill Daley. Unfortunately, Brokaw chose not to address this seemingly-important historical comparison and precedent (video embedded below the fold, relevant section begins at 6:15, file photo):

AP Writer Falsely Casts Voter ID Laws As a 'Mainly' Partisan Issue
By Tom Blumer | December 31, 2007 | 6:19 PM EST

The Associated Press's Mark Sherman, as noted by Jim Taranto at Best of the Web, "reports on a pending Supreme Court case in a way that seems to give both sides their due, but in substance does not."

Here are the first three paragraphs of Sherman's report (bolds are mine):

The dispute over Indiana's voter ID law that is headed to the Supreme Court in January is as much a partisan political drama as a legal tussle.

On one side are mainly Republican backers of the law, including the Bush administration, who say state-produced photo identification is a prudent measure intended to cut down on vote fraud. Yet there have been no Indiana prosecutions of in-person voter fraud — the kind the law is supposed to prevent.

On the other side are mainly Democratic opponents who call voter ID a modern-day poll tax that will disproportionately affect poor, minority and elderly voters — who tend to back Democrats. Yet, a federal judge found that opponents of the law were unable to produce evidence of a single, individual Indiana resident who had been barred from voting because of the law.

Media Still Have Bad Case of (Black) Mondays 20 Years Later
By Jeff Poor | October 19, 2007 | 6:11 PM EDT

The similarities are eerie. On Oct. 19, 1987, the day of the Black Monday stock market crash there was trouble from the Iranians, a two-term Republican president nearing the end of his term and a network TV news media voicing warnings the American economy might be doomed. Except this day in 1987, the stock market dropped 508 points.