Campaigns & Elections

Charlie Rose, in an interview aired on Tuesday’s CBS This Morning, let Hillary Clinton rant against Donald Trump as he set-up Clinton with questions like “Do you believe Donald Trump is dangerous?” and “Donald Trump with his finger on a nuclear bomb would be a threat to civilization?” The co-anchor didn’t challenge Clinton’s slams on Trump but merely repeated her attacks on him back to her, so…

The morning after the first night of the 2016 Republican National Convention, all six broadcast and cable network morning news shows pounced on the fact that Melania Trump's much-touted speech shared similar phrasing with Michelle Obama's 2008 speech to that year's Democratic convention. The flap over Mrs. Trump's speech swamped all other convention topics, especially on cable.

On Good Morning America Tuesday morning, ABC characterized the Clinton camp’s repeated attacks against the presumptive Republican nominee as simply a “bold move.” Anchor Robin Roberts noted, “Hillary Clinton’s bold move addressing the NAACP” as Republicans “hold their convention right down the road” was typically “a time when opposing candidates usually tone their attacks.” Instead of spinning…

To offer an overview of how the national media are twisting the convention coverage, we're awarding a Quote of the Day to the journalist or pundit who offers the most outrageous quote or best summary of the night's media theme. Former NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw provided the first Quote of the Day for calling out Donald Trump and his supporters for not being unifying people....as if liberals unify…

As presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump arrived in Cleveland Monday afternoon, he was greeted by NBC Today co-host Matt Lauer hectoring him about the “tone” of the GOP convention, which had barely started: “There’s been so much violence in the country in the last couple of weeks. People are on edge, they’re tense. You add to that the passion that comes with political debate and there are…

MSNBC’s AM Joy host Joy Reid bemoaned in Tuesday’s early hours at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech was unfortunately “the first of the night that didn’t have this subtext...that brown people are dangerous” to the point that Reid felt uncomfortable being around the RNC that she found to be so “not inclusive.”  

An awkward and pained Brian Williams on Monday night was forced to discuss the ethical lapse of someone other than himself. MSNBC journalists and panelists eagerly pounced on the fact that lines from Melania Trump’s Republican convention speech appear to be lifted from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention address. However, Williams, who came under fire for grossly exaggerating…

In the first of unfortunately two shows for the week, TBS’s Full Frontal host Samantha Bee compared the substance of the 2016 Republican National Convention (RNC) platform to views held by the Westboro Baptist Church and took predictable shots smearing Indiana Republican Governor Mike Pence as anti-woman and backward thinking.

HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher was a guest on Netflix’s talk show Chelsea and, together with Chelsea Handler, he hit all of the following liberal talking points: Portraying police as power-hungry, racist cowards? Check. Promoting riots? Check. Calling Republican opposition to socialist liberals racist? Check. Demonizing hunting? Check. Toss in a few fat jokes and that’s the pretty much the whole…

During live coverage of the Republican National Convention, Monday, the three networks chided the “dark” and “divisive” tone of the GOP’s opening night. CBS’s Bob Schieffer offered a closing commentary in which he suggested that Trump in 2016 could end up like the landslide losses of 1964 and 1972. Regarding a single Code Pink protester, ABC’s Terry Moran blamed, “It was the kind of unsettled…

During CNN’s coverage of the Republican National Convention on America’s Choice 2016 on Monday, panelist Van Jones went off the rails and declared the whole event an unabashed “hate-fest.” “What I will say is this. Up until now, up until this moment, I was not saying borderline hate-fest. This is hate-fest,” Jones declared after his fellow panelists called him out for going beyond the pale with…

Kicking off their respective coverage of the 2016 GOP Convention, Univision and Telemundo dealt with Republicans very differently. Univision’s Al Punto, led by Jorge Ramos, continued its usual anti-Trump tirade, while Telemundo actually a more balanced approach.

After spending the previous hour on Monday smearing Pat Smith’s speech about her son’s murder in Benghazi as having “ruined” the night, an MSNBC panelist questioned why Republicans turn to “fiery, committed” African-Americans at Republican National Conventions (RNC) “to make [their] case” and another compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the Boston Tea Party. 

A smug Chuck Todd on Monday dismissed Benghazi at the Republican Convention as nothing more than “cheap unity” for the “lowest common denominator” crowd. Chris Matthews railed that the GOP speakers were presenting “third world rhetoric.” Todd insulted, “Benghazi... does serve Trump in another way positively, politically, which is  a way to unify this crowd quickly. It's a way to get cheap unity…