Andrea Mitchell: Immigration Reform Would Be 'Jewel in the Crown' of O

On her 1 p.m. ET hour MSNBC show on Thursday, host Andrea Mitchell saw immigration reform as a way to save Barack Obama's floundering presidency: "This would be, you know, the jewel in the crown for this administration, they've had so few legacy things that have not been complicated. Health care is obviously complicated by the downsides. Immigration would be the real key to this second term." […

CBS: Effort to Solve California Drought Just a Political Ploy by GOP

On Thursday's CBS This Morning, co-host Charlie Rose described how most of California was suffering from "extreme or exceptional drought" but fretted that "the crisis is turning into a political football." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] In the report that followed, correspondent Bill Whitaker explained: "House Republicans passed a bill to divert water to California's…

Kristol Predicts Scarborough Will Seek 2016 Nomination as 'Huntsman' R

Was Bill Kristol kidding—just throwing a sop to the not-inconsiderable ego of his host—or could he have been serious?  On today's Morning Joe, unveiling his line-up of the nine Republicans he sees running for president in 2016, Kristol included none other than Joe Scarborough himself. But in an unkind cut to someone prospectively facing the famously conservative GOP primary electorate,…

NYT Public Editor Scolds Paper For Not Disclosing Change to Christie S

On Saturday (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted how the New York Times had made a critical change to a story about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's possible knowledge of lane closures in the area of the George Washington Bridge. The initial story was that a Port Authority official "has evidence" in the matter. A short time later, that claim was watered down to a far more speculative "…

NBC's Todd Whines: 'Unfair' for GOP to Say ObamaCare Will Cost Jobs

Following White House talking points to the letter on Wednesday's The Daily Rundown on MSNBC, host Chuck Todd bemoaned how "Republicans immediately seized on" the Congressional Budget Office report on ObamaCare costing the economy over 2 million jobs "and spun it the way they want to spin it." He fretted that Democrats would have a tough time defending ObamaCare "in the world of sound bites and…

Daily Beast's Cottle: Ted Cruz 'Playing to the Passions and Paranoia

Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, the Daily Beast's Michelle Cottle -- formerly of the New Republic -- accused Texas Senator Ted Cruz of "playing to the passions and paranoia" of the Republican base during a discussion of Cruz's criticism of the Obama administration's record of adhering to the law. After host Al Sharpton played a clip of Senator Cruz's comments on…

MSNBC's Alex Wagner Beseeches Obama to Forward LGBT Agenda in 'Year of

Alex Wagner made it clear that she was in Senator Harry Reid's Amen corner on the Tuesday edition of her MSNBC program, promoting the Nevada Democrat's green light to President Obama to use his controversial "year of action" end run around Congress to advance the agenda of leftist LGBT activists. Wagner expressed her hope that "with the White House promising a 'year of action'...we can only…

Chris Matthews Sneers: Concern Over Executive Orders Is 'Second Term B

  Chris Matthews is at it again. The liberal MSNBC anchor on Friday found a new way to deride conservative concern over Barack Obama's use of executive orders to get around Congress. Matthews dismissed it as unthinking and tribal, sneering, "I think it's a second term birtherism. 'He was illegitimately elected. Now he is behaving illegitimately.'" [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Using…

It’s Not Just a Tweet: MSNBC’s Despicable Record of Smearing Repub

On Thursday, MSNBC President Phil Griffin apologized for a Twitter post suggesting conservatives (“the rightwing”) are racists who would “hate” a cute new Cheerios ad because it featured a biracial family: “The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for…

NYT Caught Altering Christie Story: Port Authority Official No Longer

Longtime readers here may recall that yours truly and others have written about liberties New York Times reporter Kate Zernike has taken with the truth, especially in her reporting on the Tea Party movement. Her penchant for inventing baseless stories about alleged racism in the movement once caused the late Andrew Breitbart to label her "a despicable human being." Breitbart might well have…

The Daily Show Spent 10 Times More January Coverage Mocking Conservati

In the month of January, Comedy Central's Daily Show devoted over ten times more coverage to mocking Republicans or conservatives than to mocking Democrats or liberals. The Daily Show aired 11 full segments that targeted conservatives or Republicans. Only one segment mocked President Obama – from the left – over his speech on the NSA spying program. Four segments mocked both conservatives/…

Blow's New Euphemism for Abortion: 'A Full Range of Reproductive Optio

The reluctance of abortion-rights advocates to call the procedure by its name, and their preference for euphemism, is legend. To the euphemistic lexicon of "pro-choice," "women's health," "reproductive freedom," etc. ad nauseum, Charles Blow has made the latest contribution.  His New York Times column of today speaks of Republican candidates opposing "a full range of reproductive options for…

Networks Hype 'Bombshell:' Christie 'Thrown Under Bus'; Spotlight Call

The Big Three networks' evening newscasts on Friday jumped on the latest development in the traffic scandal surrounding Chris Christie. NBC and CBS both led with the accusation from the former Christie appointee, who claims that the New Jersey governor knew more about the lane closures than he previously asserted. CBS's Scott Pelley trumpeted how "Chris Christie just got thrown under the bus in…

NPR Exalts Waxman, Gives Him Platform to Bash Tea Party; Lets Liberal

NPR's resident ObamaCare booster, Julie Rovner, lionized outgoing liberal Congressman Henry Waxman on Friday's Morning Edition. Rovner trumpeted how "during his 40 years in the House, he focused on passing legislation – lots of legislation – the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Orphan Drug Act, nutrition labels, food safety, and the Affordable Care Act. Waxman played a major role in all…