On tonight's Tell Me Something I Don't Know"" segment wherein Hardball host Chris Matthews challenged his roundtable panelists to break some news, panelist Michelle Bernard succeeded when she informed the MSNBC anchor that Obama administration policy forbade visa-application screeners from looking at social media accounts for applicants like Tashfeen Malik, the female jihadi in the San Bernardino terrorist attack.
Michelle Bernard
By Ken Shepherd | October 27, 2015 | 8:48 PM EDT
On the October 27 Hardball, anchor Chris Matthews and MSNBC contributor Michelle Bernard took turns denouncing GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as an anti-Semite. Their sole piece of evidence for the claim: Huckabee lamenting that Hillary Clinton regularly corresponded via email to longtime confidant Sidney Blumenthal, but she didn't communicate with Amb. Chris Stevens prior to the Benghazi attack.
By Ken Shepherd | May 26, 2015 | 9:25 PM EDT
Irish voters' approval of same-sex marriage via ballot referendum on Friday proved the perfect excuse for Hardball host Chris Matthews to bash Republican presidential contenders for their steadfast support for traditional marriage and criticism of judicial activism in redefining the institution.
For what it's worth, Matthews and his panelists all but smeared Ireland as, well, backwards for having held on to socially conservative policy positions while much of the rest of Europe was far more socially liberal.
By Ken Shepherd | May 4, 2015 | 8:47 PM EDT
According to MSNBC pundit Michelle Bernard -- best known at NewsBusters perhaps because of her insistence that there is a "war on black boys" in America -- savaged newly-announced GOP presidential aspirant Dr. Ben Carson tonight by alleging his success is all owed to "affirmative action." She also suggested that he's a disgrace to his enslaved ancestors and to the black community in Baltimore, where he's lived throughout his career as an acclaimed neurosurgeon.
By Ken Shepherd | December 17, 2014 | 9:13 PM EST
During a discussion on Wednesday's Hardball about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's reticence to speak out on pressing political issues and her tendency to eschew spontaneity in favor of carefully crafted, calculated statements, panelist Michelle Bernard did raise the point that Clinton has tended to evolve over time to be what she thinks her audience wants her to be. As an example, she raised the audio recording that came to light earlier this year wherein she chuckled as she recalled her successful defense of an alleged child rapist.
Yet when Bernard brought up that allegation, fellow panelist and leftist writer David Corn of Mother Jones magazine objected strenuously, trying to keep Bernard from recounting the details of the incident.
By Ken Shepherd | November 24, 2014 | 8:35 PM EST
Appearing on the November 24 edition of Hardball, MSNBC contributor Michelle Bernard called for the federal Justice Department to "get involved" in prosecuting Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson regardless of the outcome of the St. Louis County grand jury investigation. Bernard insisted that Brown was the latest "casualty" of a nationwide "war on black boys."
By Ken Shepherd | October 23, 2014 | 9:52 PM EDT
On his Oct. 23 Hardball program, MSNBC's Chris Matthews excoriated New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie for highlighting in a recent speech the importance of swing-state Republican governors getting reelected this November in order to pave a smoother road for the eventual Republican nominee in the 2016 presidential campaign. Matthews took the worst-possible interpretation of Christie's remarks -- that he endorses partisan voter suppression -- rather than the more logical and charitable interpretation -- every presidential candidate wants as many swing states as possible to have governors of his party running the show.
Chris Matthews Ignores Dem Senator's Attack on Desegregation; Spends Most of 'Hardball' Blasting GOP As Racist
By Ken Shepherd | October 21, 2014 | 9:28 PM EDT The October 21 edition of MSNBC's Hardball conveniently failed to pick up on a damning scoop published Tuesday by the Washington Free Beacon regarding Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor (Arkansas) and a college thesis he wrote in the mid-1980s slamming the federal government's role in desegregating the South. Instead, Matthews and his liberal guests spent the lion's share of the program blasting the GOP as racist for pursuing voter ID laws, with guest panelist Michelle Bernard going so far as to charge they were an effort at keeping blacks a "permanent underclass" in America.
By Ken Shepherd | October 9, 2014 | 9:39 PM EDT
Self-proclaimed "victims' rights advocate" and MSNBC contributor Michelle Bernard wasted no time on Thursday's edition of Hardball defending former White House volunteer Jonathan Dach -- now employed at the State Department in the Office on Global Women's Issues -- from charges that he patronized a prostitute while on official business as an Obama advance man in Cartagena, Colombia.
By Rich Noyes | August 25, 2014 | 9:41 AM EDT
Now online: the August 25 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC’s bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This week, journalists pronounce the blatantly partisan indictment of Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry a “blemish” that could “mar his legacy,” even as an MSNBC regular blasts it “the stupidest thing I’ve seen in my entire career.”
Also: an MSNBC contributor declares the shooting of Michael Brown evidence of America’s “war on black boys” that could metastasize into “genocide;” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell declares Al Sharpton’s foray into Ferguson is really a “peace mission;” and Rolling Stone prints this hilarity: “Barack Obama never had reporters eating out of his hand the way that right-wingers love to allege.” Highlights are posted after the jump; the entire issue is posted online, with 21 quotes (six with video) at www.MRC.org.
By Ken Shepherd | August 18, 2014 | 8:52 PM EDT
Move over, War on Women, there's a new war in town. On the August 18 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, contributor Michelle Bernard warned there is a "war on black men" in the United States, as evidence both by the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and persistent criticism of President Barack Obama from Republicans.
What's more, Bernard insisted, there would be a "genocide" of young black men unless the problem were seriously addressed to her satisfaction. Suffice it to say, Hardball host Chris Matthews at no point called out Ms. Bernard for her heated rhetoric. [see relevant transcript below the page break; MP3 audio here; video update forthcoming]
By Ken Shepherd | July 8, 2014 | 8:50 PM EDT
As my colleague Clay Waters noted, the New York Times finally caught up with the Washington Free Beacon's month-old scoop about an audiotape recording of Hillary Clinton chuckling as she recalled her successful 1975 defense of a man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl. Perhaps because there was no longer any plausible deniability about the existence of the story, MSNBC's Chris Matthews tonight devoted a segment to the controversy, bringing on Bernard Center founder Michelle Bernard and Salon's Joan Walsh to discuss the matter. While all three agreed that the controversy would in no way sink Mrs. Clinton's 2016 prospects, Walsh was particularly vociferous in her defense of Clinton, while Matthews and Bernard were critical of the former first lady. At one point, a testy Walsh charged Bernard with twisting the facts of the story.
"Look, Chris, it's not a fun tape to listen to, I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it," Walsh began, but this was simply a case of Mrs. Clinton doing her job. The accused rapist was simply fortunate to have in Mrs. Clinton a "good" defense attorney. But, "[i]s it laughable that you got a rapist off for raping a 12-year-old? Why is she laughing?" Matthews demanded of Walsh, who countered (emphasis mine):