Campaigns & Elections

Eager to get a jump-start on biased coverage of the next presidential race, on Monday's NBC Today, correspondent Andrea Mitchell salivated over a possible Hillary Clinton run: "Well, the conventions were barely over before politicians in both parties started talking about likely contenders for 2016, and overshadowing all others is the woman who wasn't even there." Mitchell sympathetically…

On Monday's CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell let Illinois Senator Dick Durbin forward the Democratic Party's talking points against Mitt Romney on ObamaCare by tossing him softball questions on the issue. Rose acknowledged that "the Obama health care reform was unpopular in the country", but wondered if Republicans would "be on dangerous ground if the debate becomes health…

Responding to co-host Savannah Guthrie observing that Mitt Romney looked like he "was moving toward the center" on Monday's NBC Today, Meet the Press host David Gregory asserted: "...he knows he's going to have to make tough choices if he becomes president. That he would indeed have to infuriate conservatives on some of these budget deals..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the…

Time columnist and MSNBC host Toure could really be quite a humorist. Take this unintentional entry: "Do Democrats use racial code? No. The Democratic party is a racially diverse coalition. There would be no value to playing this game." I doubt he means hey, liberals don't use subtle codes: they blatantly accuse Republicans of killing, like in the NAACP's James Byrd ad. This came in an…

Joe Scarborough has suggested that Clint Eastwood was drunk when he gave his RNC speech. Today's Morning Joe opened with a clip of Mitt Romney telling David Gregory that it was a thrill to have  Eastwood speak on his behalf at the RNC, and that he felt Eastwood spoke "from the heart."  Scarborough came on and said that rather than speaking from the heart, Eastwood spoke more "from the bottom…

The media have "nostalgia" for Bill Clinton and a "tedious marriage" with President Obama, according to panel members on Sunday's Reliable Sources. Is media bias any more evident when reporters admit the media had a past love affair with the current Democratic president and pine for the days of his Democratic forerunner? CNN's Howard Kurtz mused that "the extraordinary media reaction to Bill…

At the top of Monday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer eagerly touted an Obama campaign photo-op: "One pizza shop owner in Florida got a little excited when he met President Obama, gave him a bear hug and then lifted him up....By the way, he's a Republican." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] In the report that followed, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd announced…

Monday's Washington Post has a front-page Style section piece on an Obama fundraiser at a New York city gay bar called Eastern Bloc that you frequent if you like "commie decor" and think "early-80s porn playing non-stop over the bar added to the ambiance." (UPDATE: The gay mag The Advocate reports CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's "boyfriend Ben Maisani co-owns Eastern Bloc.") Post reporter…

On Sunday's CNN Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz spoke of President Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention: Bob Cusack, Obama gave a pretty good speech overall. The media acted like it was terrible. And it seems to me that perhaps we have set a standard for him that (if) he doesn't he doesn't hit the stratosphere, he has somehow failed. The media acted…

For the past week, NewsBusters has been showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala September 27. (Click here for details, including ticket information.) If you’ve missed our recounting of the worst quotes from 1988 through 1995,…

Originally syndicated September 6 | At this Democratic National Convention, I am going to be particularly interested in the crowds on the floor. Who cares about what Bill Clinton says? He does not mean it anyway. In the 1990s, he governed like a Republican after saying that "the age of Big Government is over." Incidentally, he governed pretty well. He would have made a good moderate Republican…

On Saturday's CBS This Morning, CBS assembled a panel of undecided voters and tried to take their questions about the campaign. All three of the CBS folks talking -- host Anthony Mason, political analyst John Dickerson, and CBS MoneyWatch expert Jack Otter -- agreed that the economists say that "tax increases are inevitable." Dickerson reported Mitt Romney says no to tax increases, but…

Including BoxOfficeMojo.com's weekend estimates, "2016: Obama's America," which grossed over $3.2 million during that time, has now reached Number 2 on the all-time list in the Political Documentary category, a genre which apparently didn't arise until the early 1980s. The only movie with a higher gross than "2016's" $26.1 million is the unreachable (and virtually unwatchable) "Fahrenheit 9/…

The Huffington Post is happy: "MSNBC's Joe Scarborough offered some harsh words for Mitt Romney via Twitter on Saturday night." "Romney will lose if he doesn't dramatically change his strategy," he said. "Negative ads won't substitute for conservative ideas."