Scott Whitlock
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It was 31 years ago this week that the Michael Dukakis for President campaign made a disastrous campaign apperance. It was so bad that it ended up in an ad for his opponent, George H.W. Bush. But, of course, that didn’t stop some in the media for rushing to the defense of the Democrat, crying foul on behalf of the liberal. Some things never change.
Thursday night and Friday morning saw the emerging of a new spin from the liberal media. The 2020 Democratic presidential field now has “moderates” and “centrists.” This only makes sense if journalists fully explain just how far left the party has lurched. Instead, they simply referred to people like Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg as the center.
Well known liberal celebrity Sean Penn appeared on a live, post-debate episode of Jimmy Kimmel to lecture Americans on their choice for 2020. The actor condescended, “If people truly want to vote against their own interests, [Trump will] be the president of the United States again.”
It’s actually possible to ask 2020 Democratic candidates questions that conservatives want answered. Thursday’s debate was proof that it can be done. To be clear, there were plenty of liberal questions, including wondering how forcible gun confiscation “will work.” Yet, ABC did manage some queries of interest to conservatives, including demanding answers on eliminating private health insurance, not speaking out on socialist dictators and calling Trump voters racist.
ABC Democratic debate co-moderator David Muir on Thursday offered seven questions on guns and skirted around the main one: Will your plans violate the Second Amendment rights of Americans? For the most part, Muir simply wondered how forcible gun confiscation “will work.”
As the Media Research Center has repeatedly proven, journalists and networks are not friendly to gun rights or the idea that the Second Amendment applies to everyone. So, it was a surprise to see CBS This Morning on Wednesday profile the nation’s largest African American pro-gun group. Co-host Anthony Mason introduced, “The country's largest and best known gun rights association, the NRA, is losing board members. But another lesser known gun organization is thriving.”
In an effort to avoid discussing terrorist culpability for 9/11, the New York Times on Wednesday embarrassed itself with a tweet and article commemorating September 11, 2001. Speaking of inanimate objects, the Times Twitter page declared, “Eighteen years have passed since airplanes took aim at the World Trade Center and brought them down.”
CBS This Morning co-hosts on Tuesday promoted the “panic” agenda of a teenage “climate warrior.” The journalists endorsed the Swedish girl’s call to “push” world leaders up “against the wall,” an awkward call given Europe’s history of political violence. For the third time since August, CBS touted Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old who conducted a school strike over global warming and then took a “zero emissions” yacht to the United States.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris gleefully laughed on Friday when a voter mocked Donald Trump with what is considered a slur against handicapped people. Yet, NBC has still not covered the incident. ABC and CBS have offered scant coverage and The View hosts defended the intentions of the Democratic senator. On Friday, a man at a Harris rally asked about Trump: “What are you going to do in the next one year diminish the mentally retarded action of this guy?” The 2020 Democrat responded with a big smile and cheered, “Well said. Well said.”
Today show hosts are big fans of the very liberal Sonia Sotomayor. On September 4, 2018, the NBC show gushed over the Supreme Court Justice. On September 4, 2019... the NBC show gushed over the Supreme Court Justice. Last year, co-host Savannah Guthrie scored an exclusive interview with Sotomayor Not specifically mentioning Donald Trump, she hinted, “Do you feel like our legal system, our constitutional system, separation of power, checks and balances, are those things under pressure today like they haven’t been in the past?”
ABC’s Nightline is a famously superficial “news” program. It mostly focuses on not-so deep topics like celebrities and “bootleg butt injections.” Taking a break from the frivolous, host Juju Chang on Wednesday devoted an entire segment to Democratic propaganda. Ady Barkan is suffering from ALS or (Lou Gehrig's disease). He is a young father with one child and another on the way. Barkan’s story is incredibly sad. But, the Democratic Party and ABC are using his condition as an easy way to slime any Republican who doesn’t support Medicare for all. Chang interviewed him and asked this question: “Through the darkness and your despair, what lit your fire again?”
Stephen Colbert’s Late Show has become a required stopping point for 2020 Democrats. Making it clear that he has no interest in bipartisan jokes, Colbert is basically stumping for all the contenders. On Thursday’s show, the host tried to pretend that Mayor Pete Buttigieg isn’t extremely liberal.
A day after a CBS host endorsed a 2020 Democrat’s plan to give $1000 a month to every American, This Morning’s Anthony Mason on Thursday asked Andrew Yang if maybe a guaranteed job would be a better idea. During day two of the CBS Yang profile, Mason cheered, “But he's put some ideas on the table that most politicians have not wanted to talk about.”
Responding to Donald Trump’s weird claim that Alabama was threatened by Hurricane Dorian, CBS, NBC and MSNBC on Thursday all jumped on the possibility of jail time for the President, perhaps hoping that a Sharpie pen could accomplish what Robert Mueller did not. The two networks and cable channel delighted in reading criminal code statute, hyping a possible imprisonment for Trump.
CBS This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil on Wednesday just came out and endorsed 2020 Democrat Andrew Yang’s plan to just simply give away cash money, should he be elected president. Dokoupil called the scheme a “good policy” as co-host Anthony Mason gushed that “it’s pretty attractive.” Where the money would come from and how much it would cost wasn’t discussed.
ABC, CBS and MSNBC on Wednesday all gloated at the chaos unfolding in Britain as Prime Minister Boris Johnson fights to bring Brexit to Britain three years after the country voted for it. ABC offered scare mongering warnings, saying that “critics” say “liar” Johnson will bring down the British economy with a no-deal Brexit. MSNBC’s Morning Joe predictably cheered rebel Conservatives who have voted to delay (yet again) Brexit, saying they are more honorable than American Republicans who back Donald Trump.
CBS on Tuesday sympathized with Britain’s Prince Harry after he was exposed for hypocritically taking private planes as he lectures the rest of the world about climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions. NBC also parroted his talking points on justifying such contradictions. CBS This Morning co-host Vladimir Duthiers began by mildly explaining, that Harry is facing “a little bit of criticism recently for traveling on private planes while at the same time voicing concerns about the environment.”
The journalists at CBS This Morning on Monday ignored the harsh words former Defense Secretary James Mattis has for Barack Obama and for Joe Biden in his new book. Instead, the hosts used their Labor Day “first live interview” to try and get Mattis to criticize Donald Trump. Despite knowing that Mattis won’t talk about a sitting president, Mason quizzed, “What do you think the President got wrong about Syria?”
It’s was ten years ago last week that journalist Melissa Lafsky speculated that Mary Jo Kopechne, the woman Ted Kennedy left to drown, would be fine with the Democrat’s reprehensible behavior. On August 27, 2009, Lafsky, who at one time worked for the New York Times’s Freakonomics blog, wrote: "[One wonders what] Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded. Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it."
It hasn’t been a good week for NBC. First, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell had to retract a bombshell claim that Donald Trump’s taxes showed loans co-signed by Russian oligarchs. Now, MSNBC has backed down on an assertion that “children born to U.S. service members outside of the U.S. will no longer be automatically considered citizens. Parents will have to apply for citizenship for their children in those situations.”