2016 Presidential

In an election that’s presented numerous moments where people from the across the political spectrum found themselves on the same side, Tuesday’s CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall featured another strange dichotomy as liberal historian Douglas Brinkley oozed praise for Donald Trump over his handling of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski facing criminal charges. 

Well this is rich. Harbinger of truth Dan Rather, the disgraced former CBS Evening News anchor was on MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Tuesday actually agreeing with President Obama’s critique of the media. Asked to comment on Obama’s statements, Rather blamed the major networks for not doing enough hard-hitting, investigative reporting that he said “we particularly need in this…

The National Enquirer’s brand in journalism is synonymous with factually unsupported drivel of the lowest kind. It is a sacred truth that no responsible journalist should produce the kind of garbage found in this tabloid.    But somehow it’s perfectly appropriate for the same responsible journalists to report the sleaze, over and over, emphasizing, of course, that the source is that awful…

One day after the networks failed to acknowledge to big developments on Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News similarly punted Tuesday evening on a federal judge’s ruling that granted the group Judicial Watch discovery powers in the lawsuit concerning the response of Hillary Clinton’s State Department to the deadly 2012 Benghazi terror attack. The top…

Imagine that a senior Hillary aide--not to mention Hillary herself--were indicted over the email scandal. In a million years, could you imagine John Heilemann asking what such person would have to do to prove his or her innocence? Neither could I. But on today's With All Due Respect, Heilemann asked a Florida criminal defense attorney [not Lewandowski's lawyer]: "What is the legal standard? What…

Following former Cruz adviser Amanda Carpenter’s emotional interview Tuesday afternoon denying smears being perpetuated about her being involved with her former boss, The Lead host Jake Tapper grew visibly frustrated as Trump senior adviser and Mike Huckabee’s daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeatedly denied any role the campaign had to the point that Tapper unsuccessfully asked if she’s “…

One could offer credit to the PBS NewsHour for mostly avoiding the unsubstantiated National Enquirer story claiming Ted Cruz had five secret mistresses. The closest the NewsHour came to it came on Friday was anchor Judy Woodruff saying "Cruz accused Trump of being behind tabloid accusations of extramarital affairs. It was the latest in the escalating war of words over women this week between the…

En los últimos días tanto Univisión como Telemundo dieron prioridad a acusaciones sin fundamento publicadas en National Enquirer de que el senador Ted Cruz le habría sido infiel a su esposa. Su rival Azteca América, por el contrario, cubrió muy escuetamente este nuevo golpe bajo en la campaña presidencial.

Singer, actress and liberal activist Barbara Streisand is trying to play the “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar” gender card on behalf of her pal and Democratic presidential front-runner, Hillary Clinton. Streisand recently penned an op-ed in The Huffington Post last week, “The Sexism in Politics,” and how Clinton faces “outright sexism” in the presidential race.  Very original.  We haven’t heard that…

Conservatives and liberals often agree that the media have played an outsized role in making Donald Trump the Republican presidential frontrunner but differ about how they’ve done it. (Here’s a view from the right.) Lefty Esquire blogger Pierce argues that the list of offenders in this regard is long; in fact, it includes every journalist who’s failed to point out over the last few decades that…

All three network morning shows on Tuesday hyped Barack Obama’s “lengthy indictment” of 2016's “ugly” primaries. The President, who has lashed out at Ted Cruz in the past, gave a speech on Monday where he lectured, “The number one question I am getting as I travel around the world is what is happening in America?” CBS This Morning’s Major Garrett trumpeted, “President Obama delivered a lengthy…

On Monday's Last Word, MSNBC's Tony Dokoupil inadvertently revealed that his network restrains itself from pressing Donald Trump too hard. Dokoupil reported on conservative radio host Charlie Sykes's "incredibly blistering" interview of Trump earlier in the day, and underlined that the personality "knew it was going to be a one and done. He does not have to go back to Donald Trump ever again.…

In the first full weeknight since The National Enquirer tabloid published its unsubstantiated piece alleging that GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz has been engaging in extramarital affairs, late-night comedy hosts Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel spent portions of their Monday monologues promoting the smear as legitimate and wondering how any woman could be interested in Cruz.

Promoting her endorsement of socialist Bernie Sanders on the Monday edition of MSNBC’s All In, liberal actress Susan Sarandon proclaimed that she’s backing Sanders because she “really want[s] to be on the right side of history” and not with Hillary Clinton or anyone who’s “tak[en] any money from fracking or Monsanto or, you know Super PACs or Wall Street or big farm.”