E. J. Dionne

Your Tax $ at Work: NPR and David Brooks Help Hillary Take Benghazi 'Victory Lap'
By Tim Graham | October 25, 2015 | 8:16 AM EDT

A "week in politics" like Hillary's latest Benghazi hearing really proves the usefulness of "conservative" public-broadcasting pundit David Brooks. What better way to prove Hillary completely trounced her opponents on the public stage than your completely cooperative "conservative" expert declare the whole thing a rout for Hillary? Brooks denounced a conservative anti-Clinton "psychosis" on both his Friday appearances on the PBS NewsHour and NPR's All Things Considered.

In theory, a public-broadcasting system that provides fairness and balance -- insert cynical laughter here about theories vs. statist reality -- the conservative pundit on these shows would display more deference to the conservative notion that the Obama administration has utterly failed in Libya, and the idea of Hillary taking a "victory lap" on Libya is preposterously partisan.

MSNBC Panels Have Massive Meltdowns Over Pope Francis Meeting Kim Davis
By Curtis Houck | October 1, 2015 | 7:14 AM EDT

It was quite the scene on Wednesday night as the viewers of MSNBC’s All In and The Last Word saw extensive meltdowns by two different panels over the revelation that Pope Francis took time during his visit to the United States to secretly meet with Kentucky clerk Kim Davis with panelists decrying how “deeply disappointed” they were at the “bizarre” meeting.

MSNBC Guests Compare Iran Deal to Opening of China, Lament the ‘Political Climate’ Caused by GOP
By Curtis Houck | September 11, 2015 | 8:08 PM EDT

During a segment on MSNBC’s The Last Word late Thursday, all three liberal panelists spouted off on the ability of the Soviet Union to follow treaties (in context of the Iran deal), comparing the Iran nuclear agreement to Richard Nixon’s China visit, and lamenting the “partisan...political climate” Republicans have caused the deal to be implemented under. 

MSNBC’s O’Donnell Hails Obama Presser: ‘More Confidence...Than Any President’
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 16, 2015 | 11:18 AM EDT

On Wednesday night, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell began his show by cheering President Obama’s news conference performance and declared he “demonstrated more confidence at the podium than any president in the history of televised presidential press conferences, more even than Kennedy.” 

Cable News Channels Cover Hillary's Fable About Her Grandparents; Big Three Yawn
By Matthew Balan | April 17, 2015 | 5:28 PM EDT

As of Friday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning and evening newscasts had yet to cover Hillary Clinton's false claim that all four of her grandparents emigrated to the United States. In reality, only one – Hugh Rodham, Sr. – was born abroad in England. By contrast, all three main cable news channels – CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC – covered Mrs. Clinton's tall tale about her family between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening.

Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne: Bush Running Is ‘Delicious,’ He Can Be GOP ‘Change Agent’
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 17, 2014 | 10:51 AM EST

On Tuesday, former Republican Governor of Florida Jeb Bush announced that he is considering running for president in 2016 and that night liberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne predictably had a field day with the announcement. Appearing on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday night, Dionne proclaimed “the irony here is, it`s almost a delicious irony, is that Jeb Bush, if he runs, maybe a change agent in the Republican Party.”  

NPR Talk Show Host, Guest Mock Gingrich, Giuliani In Hour on Catholic Family Synod
By Tim Graham | October 15, 2014 | 8:22 AM EDT

NPR talk show host Diane Rehm devoted an hour Monday to the synod on the family in the Catholic Church. Her three guests were all progressives. Rehm and fellow public-radio host Sister Maureen Fiedler (a radical leftist) both turned to mocking Republican politicians with multiple marriages, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani.

They did not bring up the case of former congressman Joseph Kennedy, since the Kennedys are NPR's kind of Catholics.

Pope Sonia? E.J. Dionne Wants a 'Mome, Not a Pope'
By Tim Graham | February 20, 2013 | 7:35 AM EST

James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal had fun with liberal journalists calling for a female pope in his Best of the Web Today column on Tuesday. Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne wrote a piece for the Sunday paper insisting: "It is time to elect a nun as the next pontiff."

Dionne acknowledged that "this hope of mine is the longest of long shots," but Taranto added "if he were Catholic he would know that a female holy father isn't just a long shot, it's a contradiction in terms. Dionne wants a mome, not a pope."

MSNBC Touts WaPo Columnist 'Taking Apart' GOP Budget Argument by Claiming U.S. 'Not Broke'
By Kyle Drennen | March 16, 2011 | 6:13 PM EDT

On Wednesday's Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, fill-in host Norah O'Donnell spoke with  liberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne about his claim that the United States is "not broke," but simply needs to "raise revenue" through higher taxes. She teased the segment by wondering: "Is Washington really as broke as lawmakers make it seem?"

O'Donnell described Dionne's latest column as "provocative" and asked, "How can you say there is no crisis?" Dionne argued: "...we are in this strait partly because of an economic downturn, when things get better, when the economy gets better, revenue comes in. We're also in this trouble because we cut taxes and started two wars at the same time back at the beginning of the last decade."

Americans Reject Role of Politics in Shooting, CBS's Couric Still Frets Over Rhetoric
By Kyle Drennen | January 12, 2011 | 1:37 PM EST

Introducing a segment on Tuesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric acknowledged the latest CBS News poll showing that 57% of Americans do not believe heated political rhetoric had anything to do with the Tucson shooting. Even so, she added: "Just the same, nearly half say the discourse has become less civil than it was ten years ago."

The poll numbers that appeared on screen showed that 49% of respondents thought political discourse was less civil than a decade ago, while 33% saw the civility level about the same, and 15 % thought the current political climate was more civil. In other words, Americans are evenly divided over the question, with 48% seeing no decline in civility over the last ten years.

E.J. Dionne: 'If Insuring 32 Million More Americans Isn't Enormous Social Reform Nothing Counts as Change'
By Noel Sheppard | December 30, 2010 | 11:31 AM EST

No matter how long I analyze liberal media thinking, it never ceases to amaze me.

Consider if you will the following paragraph from E.J. Dionne's column in Thursday's Washington Post:

Scarborough: Don't Read EJ Dionne, You Know He Supports Obama
By Noel Sheppard | December 24, 2008 | 12:36 PM EST

Conservatives still licking their wounds over the results of the November elections finally have something to cheer about: you don't have to read Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne's articles anymore because you know he's supporting Barack Obama.

So deliciously said MSNBC's Joe Scarborough to Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart on Tuesday's "Morning Joe" with the latter actually not disagreeing. 

The context of the discussion was another Post writer's Tuesday column in which Richard Cohen came down strongly on Obama's decision to have Rick Warren give the invocation during the upcoming Inauguration.

This led to the following fabulous exchange between Scarborough and Capehart (video embedded below the fold, h/t Ms Underestimated, file photo):