Campaigns & Elections

There could be only one good reason to have Dem Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on Morning Joe: to grill him on his ugly anti-Mormon swipe at Mitt Romney.   Schweitzer recently said that Romney would have trouble attracting women voters because "his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico." So naturally I waited for Mika Brzezinksi, Mark Halperin, Cokie Roberts--anyone!--to raise the…

Throughout the Wednesday broadcast, NBC's Today repeatedly found time to promote President Obama as funny, hip, and connecting with young voters. Touting the President's appearance on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, co-host Matt Lauer gushed that Obama, "gave our colleague Brian Williams a run for his money when he helped Jimmy Slow Jam the News." Highlighting Obama's tour of college…

On Wednesday, two out of the Big Three broadcast networks yawned at Mitt Romney's wins in five primaries the previous evening and minimized covering this story on the morning newscasts. ABC's Good Morning America didn't air one report on Romney's victories, and NBC's Today offered just two news briefs. By contrast, NBC devoted a full report and a news brief to a woman spilling frozen yogurt on…

MSNBC's Chris Jansing on Wednesday didn't exactly press Jimmy Carter as she interviewed the ex-President, wondering if Mitt Romney has "gone too far" with conservatism "to be trusted." Carter appeared to disagree with his former presidential speechwriter, Chris Matthews, who smeared the former Massachusetts governor as a KKK "Grand Wizard" on Monday. Carter asserted he'd be "comfortable"…

In his "The Fix" blog yesterday, Washington Post political reporter Chris Cillizza uncritically furthered a faulty Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) that argues that President Obama has actually received more negative news coverage this political season than the Republican presidential primary contenders. This morning, Post print edition editors excerpted Cillizza's item on page A4…

According to the hosts of Fox and Friends, a NewsBusters blog is "guaranteed to make liberal heads explode.” On the April 25th program, the FNC anchors praised a NB piece by Noel Sheppard on the Dalai Lama saying he "loved" President George W. Bush. The comment occurred during an interview with Piers Morgan.  The Fox & Friends hosts marveled at just how much liberals would hate this…

NewsBusters reported Monday that MSNBC's Chris Matthews got into a heated exchange with former Republican Party chairman Michael Steele when he called the GOP the "Grand Wizard crowd" and Mitt Romney a "flat-earther." Fox News's Bill O'Reilly started his program Tuesday by saying the Hardball host's comments were "simply madness" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The Media Research Center's Dan Gainor tipped me to a remarkable development this afternoon. Someone at the Atlantic, probably with the help of commenters there, took notice of the noise being made by Doug Ross, yours truly (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), and probably others, and took some action on a disgracefully written 1,800-word article about the upcoming trial of John Edwards by Hampton…

Washington Post political writer Chris Cillizza definitively declared on Tuesday's Hardball that for the 2012 race, Barack Obama is "cool" and Mitt Romney is "not cool." Host Chris Matthews, trying to prove his hipness, wondered aloud, "Can you dig it?" Fellow Post writer Nia-Malika Henderson then attempted to explain what the "kids" these days are saying. After a clip of Obama on the Jimmy…

Mitt Romney's presidential run could turn out to be a test case to resolve the long-running debate inside the Republican Party as to whether the GOP presidential nominee should run as a conservative or more of a centrist. How often have we heard both Democratic and Republican political "experts" reciting the conventional wisdom that during primary contests, candidates of both parties must…

For many, the term "sheriff" conjures up images of the Old West. A few may consider a sheriff to have some form of outdated and obsolete political office. But for me and countless other patriots across our nation, a sheriff is the epitome of good and necessary county law enforcement. As documented on the Durham County, N.C., website, the position of sheriff originated in England more than 1,…

CNN even noted it was an "election year" before giving Obama's Education Secretary a chance to share his "proudest" accomplishment from his time in office, no doubt bolstering the administration's re-election message. Host Brooke Baldwin declined to ask any tough questions of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan during a lame Tuesday afternoon interview. Baldwin topped it all off with a soft…

Hosting the chair of the DNC on Tuesday's Starting Point, CNN's Soledad O'Brien could have grilled her about any number of relevant issues like gas prices, the GSA scandal, or President Obama trailing Mitt Romney in polls on the economy. Instead she simply teed her up with softball questions and left the tough questions to conservative panel member Will Cain. The method was not unlike O'…

In a news brief on Monday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams managed to twist a positive development for Mitt Romney, the endorsement of Rudy Giuliani, into a negative: "Giuliani, who had been out spreading the word for Newt Gingrich up until right now. And so for months he'd been saying bad things about Romney like this on Morning Joe." In the sound bite that followed from the…