2016 Presidential

On the eve of the Democratic convention, CNBC’s Joe Kernen wanted to know why the media have failed to challenge Hillary Clinton on the issue of her personal wealth and the controversy surrounding the Clinton Foundation. Kernen, a Squawk Box co-anchor, pointed out that the media have been suspiciously silent on the subject of Clinton’s finances. During a discussion regarding a recent book about…

As much as Hollywood hates Donald Trump, it’s amazing how many of them actually watched the nominee’s highly anticipated RNC speech last night. What’s less amazing were the typical cries of doom and gloom on their Twitter feeds in the wake of Trump’s remarks.

The depiction of Donald Trump’s speech by liberal reporters and commentator continued into the next morning with CBS’s Charlie Rose greeting viewers with this stark opening: “Welcome to CBS This Morning. Donald Trump accepts the Republican presidential nomination, saying there can be no prosperity without law and order. His speech focused more on threats than hope.” 

No sympathy for the right-wing devil: After months of hostile coverage of Donald Trump, the New York Times saved its most personal hostility toward the only candidate on the Republican side that truly challenged Trump’s rise: Sen. Ted Cruz. The front of Friday’s New York Times featured a “political memo” by Jennifer Steinhauer and Matt Flegenheimer, “Cruz’s Gamble On Redefining Race for 2020 –…

Speculating over Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate on Friday, NBC’s Today fretted that the leading contender – Virginia Senator Tim Kaine – might be too moderate for the left-wing base of the Democratic Party. In a report on the topic, correspondent Kristen Welker noted: “A former governor who also has national security experience, Kaine has emerged as the frontrunner. Some…

On Thursday evening, the curtains closed after the final act of the Republican National Convention. On Friday, the Morning Joe crew spent significant time dissecting the highly anticipated speech by GOP nominee Donald Trump, who channeled the modern day fears of Americans. Willie Geist hyperbolized the speech as one where Trump painted “a picture of an almost dystopian, Mad Max America.”…

The final night of the Republican National Convention that crowned Donald Trump as the party’s nominee was greeted in dark tones on the front of Friday’s paper. Reporters Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin found a “vehement” and “incendiary” candidate, while Michael Barbaro found himself flabbergasted by Trump’s failure to show  “humility, generosity and depth," and Adam Nagourney lamented "one of…

New York Times reporter Farhad Manjoo and his editors apparently are so insulated in their politically correct bubble that they fail to recognize embarrassing text anyone outside of that bubble with two eyes and and ounce of sense can clearly see. In a Wednesday piece (Thursday print edition, Page B1) designed to portray Republican National Convention speaker, Donald Trump supporter and PayPal…

At this week’s GOP Convention, Planned Parenthood volunteers and Votes Director Erica Sackin mingled with politicians, press, participants and protestors, distributing – you guessed it – condoms. Each contraceptive read “Protect yourself from Donald Trump,” with assorted subheads like “If Trump had his way, abortion would no longer be safe or legal in America” and “You would have to pay hundreds…

There are occasions when HBO star Bill Maher is unintentionally funny, like when he claims to stand for decency in our politics. Maher has been one of America’s leading champions of nasty insults and rhetorical indecency, not to mention sexual indecency. Even last night, as he stood for civility, it came right after he insisted the Republican convention crowd was a mob of mentally challenged…

On Thursday night’s The Daily Show, broadcast live from the RNC in Cleveland, host Trevor Noah brought on another journalist as his special guest to discuss the Republican convention. Wednesday it was CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and Thursday it was former MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner and current Senior Editor of left-wing publication The Atlantic. During the brief interview, Wagner ironically…

On Friday's New Day, CNN panel members were dismissive both of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump promising to protect homosexuals from terrorists, and of concerns about violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants. CNN political analyst David Gregory fretted that the GOP platform is the "harshest on gays and lesbians in the history of the party," and both he and fellow CNN political analyst…

The headline at Dan Zak's Arts & Entertainment column at the Washington Post early Thursday evening: "We were promised a riot. In Cleveland, we got a block party instead." (There were occasional exceptions.) Though his article's tone was generally positive, he did complain that "Cleveland is basically a police state this week." Gosh, I didn't know police states had so much freedom of speech…

Reacting to Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night, on Friday morning, the hosts and correspondents of NBC’s Today scolded the GOP nominee for his “dark” tone of “doom and gloom.” Opening the broadcast, co-host Matt Lauer proclaimed: “Donald Trump closes out the Republican National Convention in a speech that was both fiery...and dark.”