MSNBC Panel Pines for Ongoing Christie-Paul Feud: '2016 Republican Clo

July 31st, 2013 4:49 PM
Earlier this afternoon, my NewsBusters colleague Kyle Drennen highlighted the Today show’s effort to hype the recent feud between Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Unsurprisingly, the folks at MSNBC were even more eager to blow the dispute out of proportion – and to predict a nasty fight between Republicans in 2016. Now host Alex Wagner kicked off a gleeful Wednesday…

MSNBC's Reid, Bashir Compare Republicans to Drunks, Chain Smokers

July 31st, 2013 9:34 AM
MSNBC contributor Joy Reid continued her daily assault on Republicans Tuesday on Martin Bashir, comparing Republicans to chain smokers and blasting the GOP for its resistance to President Obama’s economic agenda. Reid argued that offering Republicans tax cuts is “like offering a chain smoker a cigarette,” pushing the same anti-GOP rhetoric she’s known for on the Lean Forward network. [Video…

As Poor GDP Report Awaits, AP's Rugaber Starts Early With 'Prosperity

July 31st, 2013 12:42 AM
During the Obama administration's 4-1/2 year track record of economic underachievement, establishment press business reporters have usually waited until the bad news actually comes out before working on convincing readers that future news will be better. Not this time, at least at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press. Christopher "Gone are the fears that the economy could fall…

New York Times Gets Obama Interview, Fails to Ask Anything About IRS

July 30th, 2013 8:23 AM
Over the weekend, The New York Times promoted its July 24 interview with President Obama – after being shut out for almost three years – but reporters Jackie Calmes and Michael “Macaca” Shear couldn’t find time for a single question about the IRS scandal, Benghazi, or other Obama scandals. They found time to ask a softball about whether Obama would help observe the 50th anniversary of Martin…

Illinois Comptroller Can't Pay Legislators Due To Pension Crisis, When

July 29th, 2013 9:08 PM
As members of America’s news media fail to recognize that Detroit went bankrupt due to decades of Democratic Party rule, they’ll probably execute the same protocol when they cover Illinois’ pension fiasco, which happens to be the worst in the country. In fact, it’s so bad that the Illinois Comptroller has told legislators that they won’t be paid until this matter is resolved. Democratic…

What 'Pivot'? OFA's 'Action August' Has No Events Tied to Economy

July 29th, 2013 8:43 PM
Organizing For Action claims that its mission is to "support President Obama in achieving enactment of the national agenda Americans voted for on Election Day 2012." Presumably, on a day-to-day and month-to-month basis, that means it's able to divine the President's priorities and follow them (you see, OFA is "independent," so there can't pooooossibly be any communication between its officials…

Bitter Thrush at Politico: GOP Cemented 'A Ten-Year Grip on the House

July 28th, 2013 11:37 AM
Has Glenn Thrush at the Politico thrown up the white flag on Democrats regaining control of the House until 2022, the first election cycle after the next wave of congressional and statehouse redistricting? If so, he clearly underestimates Republicans' ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but I digress. It would appear that Thrush has thrust himself into the throes of despair,…

Steele Rips Matthews: ‘Don’t Sit in This Little Bubble and Act Lik

July 25th, 2013 6:32 PM
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews apparently forgot that at the beginning of the year, a variety of tax increases hit virtually every wage earning American. Fortunately for the limited number of Hardball viewers Thursday, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele was on the set to offer the truth telling his clueless host, “Everybody’s taxes went up at the beginning of the year, so…

MSNBC Panel: Republicans are Like 'Terrorists,' 'Threatening to Bomb t

July 25th, 2013 5:28 PM
Former Governor Ed Rendell (D-Pa.) drifted a bit too far off MSNBC’s pro-Obama message on Thursday’s Now with Alex Wagner, receiving a strong left-wing rebuke after suggesting that President Obama should be willing to compromise with Republicans on upcoming budgetary battles. MSNBC contributor Joy Reid likened Republicans to terrorists, claiming that the president’s situation is like “when…

Omission Watch: Networks Skip Clip of Obama Boasting Reporters Say He

July 25th, 2013 1:56 PM
One snippet of Obama’s speech in Galesburg, Illinois is getting left out of the TV news packages for perhaps obvious reasons. Obama announced yesterday that reporters are with him in thinking his socialist plans are “good ideas” and “sound great,” but Republicans will never back them. This might also make it sound like there’s zero overlap between “reporters” and “Republicans.” This clip was…

'Déjà Pivot': MSNBC Host Calls Out Obama On His Repetitive Pivots On

July 25th, 2013 9:05 AM
Yesterday, President Obama gave another warmed-over version of the same economic policy speech that’s been given for the past five years at Knox College in Illinois.  He saved the automobile industry.  He’s overseeing an economic recovery.  Republicans are intransigent. And he’s the best person to ever breathe oxygen on this planet. Yada, yada, yada.  Now with polls showing a record number of…

MSNBC: Sequester Hurting You Even If You’re Too Dumb to Realize

July 23rd, 2013 4:38 PM
MSNBC has apparently realized that Americans are not concerned about the sequester, so the Lean Forward network has made another attempt to convince us how terrible it really is. In an article published Monday on msnbc.com, writer Timothy Noah sent readers a grim message that was summed up in the article’s title: “The Sequester Isn’t Hurting You? Think Again.” Noah struck a strikingly…

Boehner Smacks Down Schieffer's Claim Congress Created Sequester

July 21st, 2013 3:07 PM
CBS's Bob Schieffer got a much-needed lesson in recent history Sunday. During a Face the Nation discussion with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.), after the host wrongly claimed sequester was "the creation of Congress," Boehner interrupted him saying, "That's wrong. Who insisted on the sequester? The President of the United States" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry: Detroit Bankruptcy the Result of Small G

July 21st, 2013 10:46 AM
Melissa Harris-Perry, one of the panel guests on MSNBC's "Now" program on Friday,  managed to tie Detroit's bankruptcy to small government, i.e., "when government is small enough to drown in your bathtub," and to analogize it to "exactly the kind of thing that many Republicans would impose on us." Really. The relevant transcript from RealClearPolitics, followed by comments from Erika Johnsen…