2016 Presidential

After noting that tonight's GOP was thoroughly substantive and devoid of cheap shots and insult comedy, MSNBC's Chris Matthews whined to guest Robert Costa of the Washington Post that Ted Cruz's voice was "very hard to listen to" and that the Texas Republican "whines all the time."

On Thursday night, CNN and its four moderators made no attempt to ask Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his three opponents about the purported incident Tuesday night involving Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields that left Fields bruised on one of her arms. 

As Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott appeared as a guest on Thursday's Erin Burnett Outfront to discuss the upcoming GOP presidential debate, host Burnett actually asked him of those who attack Donald Trump by comparing him to Adolf Hitler: "Do they have a point?"

Wrapping up a segment regarding the arrest of an elderly white North Carolina man for sucker-punching a Trump rally protester, MSNBC's Chris Matthews held back from saying the motive must be racism but concluded that "anything you want to assume about it is fair at this point."

Two days after Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski allegedly forcefully grabbed the arm of Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC finally noticed this disturbing incident just as a Trump protester was sucker punched at a rally on Wednesday night. All told, the three network evening newscasts combined for two minutes and 18 seconds reporting on how…

Multiple political “fact checkers” have weighed in on Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, especially when Hillary Clinton claimed Bernie Sanders “stood with the Minutemen vigilantes in their ridiculous, absurd efforts to quote, ‘hunt down immigrants.’” What is Mrs. Clinton quoting? Did the Minutemen ever shoot an illegal alien dead? “Hunt down immigrants” surely evokes the notion or murder. AP’…

CNN’s dedicated Hillary Clinton fan, Van Jones, on Wednesday praised the Democrat’s performance at the debate as “dazzling” and a “tour de force.” During post-debate coverage, he cheered, “ Hillary Clinton just, at times, displaying just a dazzling mastery of policy nuance.” 

After helping drive the Donald Trump clown car for nine months, Joe Scarborough was furious that the GOP primary ended up in the ditch Thursday morning. “They perform so poorly on-- This year on a fifth-grade level and constantly send one clown after another clown after another clown up on the national stage and tarnishes the Republican brand in the way that they have for years now.”  Meanwhile,…

On Thursday, while covering the latest Democratic debate, NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America avoided any mention of Hillary Clinton being grilled by Univision anchor Jorge Ramos about accusations that she lied to the families of the Benghazi victims. Instead, both morning shows focused on the “biggest debate” of the night being over the color of Bernie Sanders’ suit.

Former NBC host David Gregory ran to Hillary Clinton's defense on Thursday's New Day over her refusal to answer Jorge Ramos's question about a possible indictment related to her e-mail scandal. When CNN's Chris Cuomo wondered if it was a fair question, Gregory replied, "I think it was a little too heavy. I think there's no reason to suspect that she's even a target in a criminal probe....I…

ABC and NBC’s morning shows Thursday completely ignored Bernie Sanders being confronted about his radical viewpoints during Wednesday night’s Democratic Debate hosted by Univision. In 1985, he praised Cuba’s communist regime and justified those remarks during the debate. Only CBS This Morning played the clip with Sanders’ response and this mild criticism ("A view many Cuban exiles here don't…

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's New Day on CNN to promote his latest film, The Brothers Grimsby, comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen recalled that audiences who have seen the movie have cheered at what he called the "fairytale ending" of Donald Trump contracting HIV. A bit later, as he discussed whether he and his writers have lines they do not cross in their comedy, he concluded that, "at…

Joe Scarborough usually sets the tone on Morning Joe. But today, Mika Brzezinski took the lead, booting Florida Governor Rick Scott from the show for his refusal to comment substantively on Donald Trump's statement yesterday that "Islam hates us." As Scott repeated various bland statements about Florida, Mika could be heard muttering "wrap it" and "no, no." After a final try at getting Scott to…

Not a ton to dive into here. But any time you find a network primetime show that, though predictably biased, also picks at both sides and is actually funny, then credit is due.