Appointments

The media campaign to replace the conservative late Justice Antonin Scalia with an Obama appointee has begun.   It won’t be pretty. Republicans will be accused in the media -- actually they are already being accused -- of being “obstructionists” and worse in blocking the appointment of Judge Merrick Garland.  But how did it get this way with the media, Democrats and Supreme Court nominations in…

On the regular "Shields and Brooks" on Friday's PBS NewsHour, it was another case of a liberal analyst and a faux-conservative agreeing with each other as allegedly right-leaning New York Times columnist David Brooks gushed over U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, calling him "an excellent choice," a "model of judicial restraint," and "a man of both amazing integrity and capacity to be…

In the 48 hours following President Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, CBS correspondent Jan Crawford had a tough time deciding whether he was a “moderate” pick to appease Republicans or a “solid liberal vote” to satisfy left-wing activists. In the end, she concluded he was both.  

Does anyone remember how The Onion "humorously" satirized then-Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's refusal to consider the federal court nomination of Miguel Estrada in 2003? Oh come on, it was the one where there was an accompanying cartoon showing Daschle holding Estrada's "Severed Head Aloft in Front of the Capitol Building"? That was just a laugh riot, wasn't it? Of course, no…

In an interview with Elizabeth Warren, CBS This Morning co-host Norah O’Donnell on Thursday pestered the Democratic senator about her lack of an endorsement for Hillary Clinton. “Senator, let me turn to the presidential race in 2016. All of your female Democratic senators have endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. You have not yet made an endorsement. Will you do it before the convention?” Gayle King…

Referring to GOP senators vowing to not hold hearings for President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, MSNBC's Chris Matthews suggested racism may be to blame. "Do you think this is another one of those boots in the face of the president on the racial front?" the Hardball host asked African-American White House correspondent April Ryan on the March 16 edition of the…

On Thursday’s CBS This Morning, co-hosts Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell interrogated Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake on his opposition to President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee and predicted political damage for the GOP: “Are you disappointed in the optics of this?...Some of your other colleagues are saying, ‘Look, we’re not even going to meet with you.’ We hear about the Judge’s…

In the first 24 hours after Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, the big three networks spun the judge as a “moderate” or “centrist” as opposed to a “liberal.” ABC and NBC reporters never called him a liberal, while CBS correspondents used the word just twice (opting for “moderate liberal” twice more). The networks identified Garland as middle-of-the-road nine times. 

In an interview with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on Thursday, Today co-host Savannah Guthrie surprisingly held President Obama accountable for opposing Republican Supreme Court nominees in the past while calling on the GOP to approve his now.

On Thursday, the broadcast networks wasted no time advancing President Obama’s political strategy to force Republicans to confirm his Supreme Court nominee. The NBC, ABC, and CBS morning newscasts were eager to tout “pressure” being brought to bear on GOP senators to make them “pay a price” for opposing Merrick Garland for the high court.

On today's With All Due Respect, NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg broke some news, saying she thought President Obama "got a message from Republicans via backchannels that they would probably move this [Supreme Court] nomination after the presidential election." Let's game-plan this out. If it means that Senate Republicans would move to confirm President Obama's pick of Merrick…

Merrick Garland, President Obama's pick to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia, is "a very careful jurist," not an ideologue in the least, MSNBC's chief legal reporter Ari Melber insisted in a brief segment during the 4 p.m. Eastern hour on Wednesday.

The liberal news media are spinning President Barack Obama’s supreme court pick Merrick Garland as “moderate,” but Mother Jones indicated that the DC circuit court judge actually leans left on “green” issues. Soros-funded left-wing magazine Mother Jones asked on March 16, “Will Merrick Garland Save Obama’s Climate Legacy?”

On Wednesday, CNN quickly ran to label President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, as a "moderate" and a "consensus candidate." Jake Tapper contended that "this seems like a fairly-establishment, moderate pick." Pamela Brown first responded by underlining that there's "no doubt about it;" but moments later, she revealed that Judge Garland "may carry on Obama's legacy when it comes…