Conservatives & Republicans

Joy Behar admits she made a "mistake," sort of. After angrily denouncing Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R) as a "bitch" who will "go to Hell" for her "Hitler youth commercial" in which she criticizes Democrat Harry Reid's position on illegal immigration, "The View" co-host sarcastically retracted part of her joyless insult. "I really shouldn't have called her a bitch because to me…

There is an axiom that is adhered to by conservative journalists that explains at least some of what for liberals is this inexplicable election. It is the Taranto Principle. Coined by the inimitable James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal, the Taranto Principle encourages the worst in liberals by reporting politics with a slavish bias. The conservatives can do nothing right. The liberals can…

On Tuesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric warned of violence against abortion doctors, based flyers being circulated by a pro-life group: "Their pictures are showing up on posters. Now doctors who perform abortions fear for their lives." The posters in question did not call for any violence whatsoever. Despite that fact, Couric later introduced the story by declaring: "Now some…

We won't try to weave too much political-cultural significance into the spat that erupted on Morning Joe today.  Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle as Joe Scarborough struggled to get in a word edgewise with Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation. Scarborough was seeking to cite statistics showing that by a ratio of about 40:20, more Americans identify as conservatives than as liberals.  That…

 On Wednesday’s Countdown show, during a 21-minute "Special Comment," MSNBC host Keith Olbermann warned American voters against electing Tea Party Republicans to power, whom he suggested are "unqualified, unstable individuals" who will take America "backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the ‘30s, or backward to hanging union organizers." He then made a play off MSNBC’s "Lean…

If you’re a left-of-center media personality and you use your national TV platform to call a candidate for the United States Senate a “bitch,” how might you be rewarded? Apparently in this day and age, you’re granted an interview with a former sitting president of your political party. Even though he wasn’t one of the most distinguished presidents of the United States, former President Jimmy…

It’s hard to tell what the end goal of HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s is with his constant barrage of elitist shots at the American public. Does he think demeaning the average citizens is the best way to win people over on whatever issue he is carping about on that given day? On the Oct. 26 broadcast of TBS’s “Lopez Tonight,” Maher took a couple of cynical and contemptible jabs at the…

On Wednesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith interviewed MoveOn.org protestor Lauran Valle, who was stepped on during a protest outside of the Kentucky senate debate on Monday: "Less than a week before election day, the races are heating up, some even turn ugly. We'll speak exclusively with a woman who was stomped on the head during a campaign melee." While CBS was eager to talk to…

“We’re so eager to promote ourselves with the smartest take on how President Obama and the Democrats got themselves in this pickle that we haven’t done a good job explaining the stakes,” Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter despaired in a piece in the latest issue of the magazine in which he didn’t even pretend to be a journalist and delivered a political activist’s screed, “Why the Midterms Matter: The…

If only Sarah Palin hadn't promoted the likes of Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell, Republicans would be on the verge of winning the Senate majority.  That was Joe Scarborough's thesis on Morning Joe today, culminating in Scarborough saying that he hopes Sarah Palin "is proud of herself" for having killed the GOP's chances. Scarborough sought to inoculate himself against criticism…

[Update, 12:15 pm Wednesday: See below on CNN's additional coverage of the assault.] CNN devoted seven news briefs on Tuesday to an assault on a MoveOn.org employee by Rand Paul supporters caught on camera outside the Kentucky Senate debate on Monday evening, but failed to mention a second assault on Rand Paul supporter by a booster of Paul's opponent, Jack Conway. Most of the briefs also…

“The Center for Public Integrity's 20th anniversary dinner at the Newseum was wrapping up Thursday night,” the Washington Post's “The Reliable Source” column reported in Tuesday's newspaper, “when things took a lively if unexpected turn: Former NBC correspondent Richard Valeriani, now a blogger living in Connecticut, took the stage uninvited and railed against the GOP.” The Post got ahold of…

Just days after MSNBC President Phil Griffin claimed his cable network does not use air-time to support Democratic candidates and liberal causes, evening host Lawrence O'Donnell yielded over two minutes of his eponymous program to feature MoveOn.org's latest anti-Republican advertisement in its entirety. O'Donnell introduced the partisan attack ad as a get-out-the-vote push: "Sometimes you…

Appearing on Tuesday's CBS Early Show, Arizona Senator John McCain spoke of his admiration for Sarah Palin and criticized continued media efforts to go after his former running mate: "I continue to hold her in the highest regard and continue to be entertained by the attacks of the liberal media against her. It's very entertaining to watch." McCain made the comment as part of his response to…